In article >,
Margaret Suran > wrote:

> A few weeks ago, I bragged about how well I treat the kids in my
> building. Now I have to confess that things have changed.
>
> For many years now, twenty five or so, I have prepared little bags
> full of Halloween candy for the trick or treaters in our building, a
> high rise with several hundred apartment, as well as very small gifts
> for the really small babies and toddlers, for whom I would have small
> gifts.
>
> Yesterday I prepared eighty little bags with candy, with lots more in
> reserve and today I went to the building manager and asked how many
> children eighteen months and younger there are in our building. The
> answer floored me: There are fifty or more, many, many of them less
> than a year old. As a matter of fact, the man thought there may be
> quite a few more!
>
> This year, for the first time, I will not buy gifts for the tiniest.
> When I filled out the "please come for trick or treat" sheet, I didn't
> ask the babies and toddlers to come. It would be much too expensive.
> In former years, there were five or ten, perhaps a dozen. I hope
> that the parents will bring them around in spite of it, to show off to
> all the neighbors. A few will get what I bought ahead of time. ) M

Its been several years since the last time I was home on Halloween, this
year, as I usually do, I will go over to a friend's house in Philly and
take their two kids out trick or treating and I will shoot lots of
photos of the kids in their costumes, which I will probably give out to
their parents as Christmas gifts.

In the lobby of my apartment building, there's a sign up list for
tenants who will give out candy this Halloween. Only two tenants have
signed up thus far. That's typical. In my building, there are probably
only two or three families with school age kids. Most of my neighbors
are either college students or seniors.