Cute? Sure, they’re cute. Now imagine what it’s like when 1,500 show up in the space of 4+ hours!
Susie and I took the dawg over to our old neighborhood this morning and hung out at Brunswick Field for a bit. Whilst lighting my cigar, I happened upon a group of my ex-neighbors, standing around complaining about an advertisement in the Friday Greenwich Time real estate section. It’s an ad from one of those real estate “groups” and, in highlighting their knowledge of Greenwich, mentions that [street name omitted] is “the best for trick or treating in Greenwich”.
The real estate group is not the first to promote this idea. As I recall, some twenty years ago, a curmudgeonly old chap * who had his own little real estate column in the Greenwich Post, or Greenwich News, or something, announced to his readers that this particular street was “the place” to bring the kids to on Halloween!
As the neighbors reminded me, trick-or-treating on this, or any other street, is not some sort of Town-sponsored event or public fair. Trick-or-treating exists solely because of the kindly, voluntary cooperation of countless homeowners who willingly stay home that night and hand out sometimes hundreds of dollars worth of candy to all comers.
The general idea, you see, is that neighborhood children, living within walking distance, will visit you and show off their costumes in return for a candy bar. Does anyone mind if some of those kids come from adjacent Port Chester or Stamford? Heck no, but what seems to irk the neighbors on this (besieged) street is when lines of $120,000 SUVs descend from the backcountry and disgorge additional dozens and dozens of kids.
How many are we talking about? Friends of ours on the street attempted to take a careful count one year of how many children showed up at their front door. They gave up counting when they reached 1,500!
ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED KIDS. Is that a lot to ask of each resident of one particular street? Yes, it is.
Do we blame the kids? Nope, we blame dopey parents who don’t have enough imagination to come up with perfectly good alternative streets to visit. Greenwich is loaded with ’em, so spread out, people, spread out!
- This guy’s column actually pre-dates Chris Fountain!
Greenwich Bored And Razed 