Halloween–Sacramento vs Galt

My family had lived in Galt (California) from 1992 until May of 2005, so this was my first Halloween back in Sacramento since 1991. It was a bit of a change, mostly for the better.

We weren’t sure how many kids to expect, but our neighbors informed us that usually about 3 bags of candy would do the trick. We live in an older suburban neighborhood, with no street lights or sidewalks. The houses are relatively far apart and set back from the steet about twice as far as modern suburbs. I’m sure these factors dampen the trick-or-treat spirit quite a bit, but it’s also a fairly affluent area: the candy-greed factor seems to have balanced out the inconvenience of relatively long walks between doorbells, since we got a lot more kids than I would have expected given the layout of the street.

Contrast this with the two Galt subdivisions we lived in: well-lighted streets, sidewalks (narrow, but present), houses closer together and much closer to the street. Add in the fact of a much higher proportion of homes with children in Galt compared to our neighborhood in Sacramento, and you’ll realize that we were accustomed to being innundated with trick-or-treaters on Halloween. It was always a pleasure seeing the little kids in costume, but later in the evening when the high school kids started showing up in their lame or non-existent costumes we would turn them away claiming that we had run out of candy. Oh, how I wish we had thought of handing out potted meat when we lived in Galt!

We didn’t get very many high school kids ringing our doorbell in Sacramento this year, and those who did were at least in costume. Perhaps next year I’ll offer to hand out “candy” at Becky’s house if she’s still living in Galt. I’ve got a whole year to watch for a sale on potted meat!
😉