We live out in the boonies and there are not many kids living out here. We go to the First Baptist Trunk and Treat but we were wondering where would be the best and safest neighborhood to take our children for Trick and Treating.

Copperfield.

Sorority Row.

No Techno, not Copperfield. The candy is bad in Copperfield.

I usually see lots of kids running around in Benchley. I'm sure they will have lots of candy.

Copperfield resident here. We get inundated with trick or treaters every year. I mean thousands. Most are polite, but some just ruin the experience. The traffic problems make the situation borderline unsafe-- cars traveling way too fast on crowded streets full of kids. Talked with a BPD officer about it a couple of years ago, but was largely ignored. Had some of our yard decorations trashed late one Halloween evening. Kids and adults WAY TOO OLD to be trick-or-treating are also a problem (not talking abut adults holdng the bag for very young children). In my opinion, if a younster is in middle school, he/she too old to be collecting treats for self door-to-door. Halloween parties? By all means.

Bottom line -- if my wife wasn't such a gung-ho Halloween person, I'd turn off the lights and go to the back of the house and let the whole thing pass us by. We're not a gated neighborhood, and I'm glad we're not, but Halloween makes me think twice about it.

My apologies to all the Copperfield residents for recommending their neighborhood.

Personally, we've avoided the door to door thing and just go to one of the many church trunk or treat things. Plenty of candy, as well as rides and games.

Trick or treat in your own hood or go to one of the many church or community events. Or stay home.

Let me be clear -- I'm not against folks from outside our neighborhood coming in for Halloween. As the OP said, he lives in the boonies, and wants his kids to have a safe, mainstream Halloween trick-or-treating experience. I get that, and Copperfield is probably one of the safer sub-divisions in town. What makes it less safe are speeding automobiles on the one night when there are exponentially more pedestrians out than any other night of the year, as well as packs of older kids (middle school and older) who should be at a party instead of going door-to-door. We enjoy seeing the little kids all dressed up, and their parents are almost always polite. I have no way of knowing which of these kids' families live in Copperfield and which don't, nor do I care to know, because it doesn't matter. What I would really like is fewer (as in none) speeding automobiles. Ditto for the older kids.

Stay in your own neighborhood or go to a church. I am not in Copperfield but I can fully empathize with the feelings. Drives me nuts when a minivan with 8 or more kids (half that are too old usually) drives up.

As a last resort, if you have family or friends that live in another neighborhood, go to their house and trick or treat WITH them. Don't drive up into a strange neighborhood with just your kids and dump them to start trick or treating with a bunch of strangers.

Damn, you folks are codgers! You really give a **** about one night, and an extra $30 in candy? You've got your reasons, but you still really are just red-asses, and I wish all of the 15 yr old ghosts on you..

Castlegate has a pretty good turn out. Copperfield is getting a bad reputation from the 14-17 yr olds on Twitter, so I would avoid that area.

We try to sit in the yard and have a few dranks, and laugh at the costume selections. I guess it's all in the way you look at life.. Dunno. Blame Obama for this, also..

I also bet we have less ghost trash bags per house than other neighborhoods. In short, my country dwelling friend, we wellcome y'all!

We've gone to Castlegate the past few years and had a great time!

We love to decorate and put on a show for the kids. We love having lots of kids, even hundreds, but Copperfield is getting bad with the older kids later in the evening. But, we will go all out again this year and when the 14-17s come, we just shut down. It has gotten out of hand, especially when older kids just put on a basketball jersey and say they are dressed up, but what can you do, right.

We may just shut down and go to Cmac's this year.

Copperfield isn't the only neighborhood that gets too many ungrateful, unruly, older kids trick or treating. That is a problem all over.

But I agree with CharlieMac, everybody go to Castlegate, that is a GREAT idea!!

This year we will give out condoms to the kids dressed as NBA'ers, to help out the community. You're welcome.

LOL, that is a great idea!

Haha Charlie! I'm going to go with aggiemom. We took some of the neighbor kids to sorority row and had fun. The girls were all really nice and there were a lot more kids then I thought there would be.

Middle school kids are too old to Trick or Treat? Wow!

+1 for Newbomb_Turk.

No, Charlie, I'm not a Halloween Scrooge. I get out and walk the neighborhood (the one I chose to live in) with my kids, and if no one can stay home we'll leave stuff outside for the other trick-or-treaters. But the barnstorming parents from other communities - and yes, they do show up in minivans filled with kids, possibly several familes' worth - are what can mess things up. A few extra kids here or there are no big deal. But these parents... they obviously are in a race to hit as many neighborhoods as they can, and as many houses within each one as they can. They race in and race out, idle along up and down the streets following their kids from house to house (often never even getting their a**es out of the vans) - and when they can't see any lighted houses for a few hundred feet, they have the kids jump back in and blast off to the next targets of opportunity. I've heard them strategizing about what blocks or neighborhoods to hit next. Meanwhile, here my kids are, hoofing it from block to block, while I try to keep them from getting run over.

So these parents take the one night of the year when kids are guaranteed to be out walking around after dark, and turn it into a motorized free-for-all on residential streets. For free candy no less.

I agree with the others - if you chose to live in the country, that's great, but you chose to give up some perks of neighborhood living. Like trick-or-treating, for one. So go somewhere else, please, like the churches' parties. And if you must visit a neighborhood you don't live in, at least have the fortitude to park your cars or minivans and WALK like everyone else.

[This message has been edited by DoubleTap45 (edited 10/24/2010 3:50p).]

I do agree with the concern for your kids safety, because I have the same.

So poor kids from neighborhoods with no money shouldn't go to other neighborhoods to trick or treat? And people who choose to live in the country, ummm.. just tough luck when it comes to coming to "your" neighborhood. You're right, screw em, that's what "those" kids get for being born to parents who aren't thoughtful or wealthy enough to live in a good neighborhood.

I feel like it's my privelege to give to others and I always get more out of it than they do.

After reading DoubleTaps' & C-Macs' latest posts, I wonder why the minivan people can't just buy cheap candy from Walmart & trick or treat their own 'hoods? They can afford gasoline to race all over town, right?
I hate watching little 3-5 yr olds almost get rundown by 8th graders (and older) while trying to make it up the sidewalk to the door.

CharlieMac, I wish it were as simple and nice as you describe, but unfortunately, too many of us have experienced much different situations. One "country family" bringing their kids to our neighborhood and WALKING their kid door to door (and reminding them to say thank you) is completely fine with me. A minivan with more kids than seatbelts, flying through our neighborhood, dumping a mix of young and old kids in the street so they can run to each door and gobble up as much candy as possible without ever a thank you is not OK.

If everyone in subdivisions bought a bag of smarties or peppermints and gave 1 to the "undesireables" (whatever that maybe for you - older kids, kids with no costumes, when the 15 kids that just jumped out of a minivan or back of a pickup or those kids just running from door to door collecting as much as they can) then give the good candy to the others, I guarantee it will be better next year.

I like smarties!

Is the emerald forest area bad?

Did I mention that we sit out and drink while this is going on?

I see other people's point on the matter, but I don't know if it's all bad. When I was young they had people putting razor blades and poison in candy, so the "safe" neighborhoods are important. I grew up poor and from the country going to places and was made to say "thank you" under death threat. I just know that in the same way that churches do carnivals and Fall Festivals(Halloween parties without satan's people hanging around, apparently), normal middle class folks need to show less fortunate people kindness, or the wage/class dispairity level widens.

By the way, I live in a neighborhood, and we go to birthday parties with several of our precious children, and I can promise you that the manners are pretty similar to what you describe as unthankful among alot of kids these days.

[This message has been edited by CharlieMac (edited 10/24/2010 8:59p).]

Thanks to all for the "good" advice. Especially CharlieMac. My children are 6 and 4 and we walk them from house to house and we only go down a street or two. We are more interested only in the trick or treat experience for our children. We are looking for a nice safe neighborhood and to avoid all the minivan people as much as possible.
Again thanks for all the advice.

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So poor kids from neighborhoods with no money shouldn't go to other neighborhoods to trick or treat? And people who choose to live in the country, ummm.. just tough luck when it comes to coming to "your" neighborhood. You're right, screw em, that's what "those" kids get for being born to parents who aren't thoughtful or wealthy enough to live in a good neighborhood.

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yes

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Middle school kids are too old to Trick or Treat? Wow

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By the time kids are in middle school (12+), they should be helping hand out the candy to the little ones or going to a Halloween party with their friends. I get pretty tired of kids my son's size (over 5 feet tall) coming to my door asking for candy unless they are supervising their younger siblings.

Oh, and to the college students next door: don't even think about it!

When I was a kid we would all ride our ponies from door to door, but everyone did that.

When you get robbed and shot at gunpoint, don't blame me, Turk.. They'll remember me as the nice old dude that gave em candy, and only rob me!

The people who live in Copperfield have a legitimate concern. It gets so bad that streets are completely blocked. One of the homeowner associations adjacent to Copperfield has to hire an off duty policeman so residents can get to their homes.

Copperfield also has a reputation for great garage sales.

Charlie, Im going to need that address so we know where to trick or treat at...

Let's email that info..