By Molly Snyder Senior Writer Published Oct 30, 2007 at 5:19 PM

I thoroughly agree with Bobby Tanzilo’s blog today about keeping trick or treat on Halloween, and after reading it, I feel inspired to voice a few Halloween gripes of my own.

Unlike Bobby, who did not have a single trick or treater between 1 and 4 p.m. on Sunday  (Milwaukee’s designated trick or treat time), my home in Riverwest was swarming with kids, teens and, yes, even a couple of adults trying to score a little bag of Sugar Babies from me.

Usually, I have the rule “no costume, no candy,” but this year, I saw a number of small children not wearing costumes and I felt a little sad for them, so I forked over the candy anyway. Teens without costumes are usually a no-go, and the couple of adults walking around without kids got a straight-up “you’ve got to be kidding me!?”

But I find those who trick or treat by car even more annoying than those who trick or treat without a costume.

On my block, there were at least four houses, including my own, decorated for the season with a person on the porch doling out candy. I saw numerous people whip out cell phones after stopping at my place, and I speculate they were calling friends to tell them there was Halloween action on my block, and that they should come over before the goods run out.

Hence, at one point, we ended up with a mini traffic jam on our normally relatively quiet street. Around 2 p.m., an SUV pulled up to let four children out of the car, none of them wore seatbelts or costumes, and they ran to my house, to another across the street, and then sped off in their car to the next happening block.

I'm usually not a purist, but seeing this really made me miss old-school trick or treating which meant trudging from house to house, on foot and at night.


Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.

Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.