• Jiggle_Physics@quokk.au
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    1 day ago

    There used to be this small development near me that was very rich, but due to the rather extreme hilliness of the area they were a pain in the ass to get to unless you climbed through wooded hills. Well, my house was in a position where there was a rather short path over to their little area. We once did it last thinking they wouldn’t have any candy, but decided they might, so lets go. Turns out almost everyone there had kids, so they all handed out candy, then drove their kids the main part of the the town so they could meet their friends. This place was a gold mine, multiple full size candy bars from one house, whole packages of cookies, and other snacks, from another, pepsi big slams from yet another.

    One guy however gave out roles of quarters. 10 dollars, to kids, in 1993. That was the absolute GOAT of Halloween. We made effort to start there from that point on.

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      My BiL always offers the option of a potato over chocolate. There are a surprising number of takers. I should note he gets a couple dozen kids so he can spend time messing with them. I get several hundred thanks to the haunted house a neighbour two doors down sets up. My door is lime an assembly line.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        My mom for some reason always gave out little bags of pretzels. Most of the kids just had this sad look of disappointment, but occasionally you’d get a kid that was super-excited to get pretzels.

          • lime!@feddit.nu
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            2 days ago

            a friend of mine once went to a little middle-eastern store in our town and got a kg of whole dried limes that he started slipping into my bags, pockets, mailbox…

        • Amarlune@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          5 years ago I went to California for the first time and tried a lime out there. It was the best lime Ive ever had. Still havent recovered from that blow. I’ll cut limes in half and chomp down on one half, love em that much.

        • Carl@anarchist.nexus
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          2 days ago

          Kids will take the potato for the laughs. My brother did it one year, and quickly had kids excitedly go “ohhh you’re the potato house??” when he offered the potato. One year, he ended up going through like three giant bags of russets, and still had an almost full candy dish at the end of the night.

          He lives on the curve of a horseshoe-shaped street that is a popular destination for trick-or-treaters. The entire neighborhood goes all out with the Halloween decorations, several neighbors coordinate with themes and set up haunted houses, etc… They basically treat it like a big block party, and fully shut down the entrances at both ends of the horseshoe so kids can safely wander around and play in the street. Experiencing your first Halloween in his neighborhood is basically a rite of passage for new neighbors. And parents looking for good trick-or-treat destinations like it because there’s a public parking lot at the end of the horseshoe. So they can park at the end of the horseshoe, walk the horseshoe with their kids for an hour or two, enjoy the low-stress chaperoning with the closed street and amateur haunts, and end up right next to where they parked afterwards. It’s a whole thing.

          Since he’s at the peak of the horseshoe curve, he’s the halfway point for that specific street. Groups of trick-or-treaters pass each other on the sidewalk, and the group that got a potato will naturally be laughing about it. So by the time those new trick-or-treaters make it all the way down the street to his house, they have passed several groups that were all laughing about their potatoes. And of course by that point, they want a potato of their own.

          It basically generates a real-time micro-meme, where kids excitedly discussing their potatoes makes other kids want a potato. And since he’s at the curve, he’d have trick-or-treaters talking about the potato house all the way down to both ends of the horseshoe. And that means that they’d be generating potato meme-force for the entire second half of their trek, (regardless of which end they started at,) all the way down the street. At a certain point, it becomes self-sustaining and kids are actively seeking out the potato house like it’s some sort of urban legend.

        • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          Just plain raw potatoes out of a bag. They have a reputation for this and some groups of kids will be chanting " potato, potato, potato" before they even open the door. They were saying they may spring for full size russet baking potatoes for the enthusiasts next year.

    • protist@retrofed.com
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      1 day ago

      At the Irish-Italian parade in New Orleans, they throw potatoes, carrots, and cabbages off floats the way they throw beads and doubloons for Mardi Gras. I think I prefer the vegetables

    • TrackShovel@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      We had someone so this a few years ago and it was a smash. Kids loved it though some ended up stomping on their potatoes, because they were dumb kids with blood sugar that needed to be charted ok a logarithmic scale.

    • candyman337@piefed.ca
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      2 days ago

      One time I got a few bread rolls, and one had a bite taken out of it lmao.

      My mom was convinced they had drugged my candy 🙄

  • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Man, I printed little kaiju figurines, bought blind bags, filled them with candy and toys. And it freaking rained, got like 8 kids

    • Lyricism6055@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      As a parent I appreciate you for doing this fwiw.

      It is awesome to see people in the community being nice and selfless like this.

      Hopefully you’ll find a use for the extra stuff, or have it for next year!

      • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I grew up pretty poor. Halloween was the best holiday. I like to go a bit extra now that I can- thanks for the appreciation :D

        • Carl@anarchist.nexus
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          2 days ago

          Yeah, I also grew up poor, and now I’m the cool house that gives out full-sized candy bars. Even in this economy, and after having a bad year financially, I refuse to compromise on Halloween. I always strive to be the house that kid-me would have wanted to tell his friends about.

  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    7-year old me used to think these were Hershey Nuggets. You can’t imagine the shock I had when I saw my mom cooking with these.

    • The_Jit@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      There were chocolates called Ice Cubes that were that size of the bullion and came in shiny metal wrapper. So you were not off in your thinking if you ever ate one of those chocolates.

  • meekah@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    I saw a video of someone saying it’s a great last minute Halloween snack buy, and a fun way to prank the kids. I am inclined to agree