Several weeks ago I think I read something, on this forum about terrorism on Halloween day. Just wondering if there was anything new. The media is very vauge.

-- jennifer (schwabauer@aol.com), October 30, 2001

Answers

Probably by a bunch of rug rats, not rug makers.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), October 30, 2001.

I have not heard anything as of late .I am taking no chances , the kids are not going out this year and we are not going to a mall.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), October 30, 2001.

The Halloween day at the mall thing was earlier debunked by the powers that be, but with this latest alert, I certainly wouldn't take any chances either. Mine are doing a little party at the church tonite; and tomorrow, we'll be home with the doors locked.

-- (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 30, 2001.

I hadn't heard anything since earlier this month when the letter about the malls and Halloween came out from soem girl's boyfriend who wa sMuslim and told her to not fly or go to the mall. I did read something last night on the MSN homepage about more threats and then this morning it was in the news on the radio.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), October 30, 2001.

Jennifer:

The Halloween/Mall scare is just an urban legend. It has been proven false some time ago.

Check it out at the Urban Legend site:

http://www.snopes2.com

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), October 30, 2001.

Saw on the internet that this Halloween will be a "full moon". First one in 46 yrs. to fall on that day. For those of us who work around people with mental problems - we all can testify to what full moons do to them. Just wonder what affects it will have on others.

-- Pat (mikulptrc@aol.com), October 30, 2001.

I am pretty convinced it was just an urban legend too, but we are going early evening to my brothers house for a small family party, and then home early....better to be safe.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), October 30, 2001.

This Halloween sky-watchers will get a special treat -- one that comes only once every 19 years: a Full Moon to light the way of ghosts and goblins everywhere. And, as it's the second Full Moon for October (the first was on October 2), it's a Blue Moon as well. (For sky-watchers in Eastern Canada and the United States the Moon will be full on the other side of midnight, still on Halloween night, but technically it will be November 1.)

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), October 30, 2001.

Tom what is a blue moon?

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), October 30, 2001.

Well, we just finished up with our Trick-or-Treaters here. It's a local tradition (at least 40 years old) to go out on what is called Beggars Night (Oct. 30th) rather than Halloween itself.

I haven't counted out the damages yet, but my first guess would be that it was a slow year; 50-60 kids, and no really little kids this year. However, I attribute it to the fact that it is coming down cold drizzle and rain out tonight and very few kids want to hike in it. The ones showing up were mostly chauffeured by parents, altho some of the older kids are out doing the whole thing on foot and on rollerblades.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), October 30, 2001.

Julie where are you located ? Sounds funny going out the night before .How did it start?

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), October 30, 2001.

Renee,

A "Blue Moon" is NOT actually blue. The Moon is "blue" only in a calendrical sense. According to the Maine almanac, a Blue Moon occurs when a season has four full Moons, rather than the usual three.The third moon is then called a blue moon. This type of Blue Moon is found only in February, May, August, and November, one month before the next equinox or solstice.

According to modern folklore though, a Blue Moon is the second full Moon in a calendar month. This type of Blue Moon can occur in any month but February, which is always shorter than the time between successive full Moons.

Thus the old saying "Once in a blue moon"

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), October 30, 2001.

I'd forgotten about the Halloween mall hoax. I was just at out local mall because I needed a watch battery and the mall is on the way home. I don't doubt I paid a couple bucks extra for it being in the mall, but the idea of chasing around elsewhere hoping I could find what I wanted didn't appeal to me. Had I remembered the hoax, I'd have waited until tomorrow. ;o)~

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), October 30, 2001.

Patty -- we got started having Beggars Night because our local school had two rooms. One room for all the children grades 1-4 and the other for all the children grades 5-8 (and two teachers for the whole sheebang).

The kids would all go out on Halloween to Trick-or-Treat, walking around our tiny town quite safely with the exception that the older children were taking treat bags away from the smaller children by bullying them. Due to the fact that the parents of those kids apparently wouldn't/couldn't control their own children, the PTA decided that the kids in the Little Room (1-4) should go out the night before, and parents should keep the older kids home until the next night. And since it wasn't really Halloween, and they had to rely on the indulgence of adults to get a treat on any other night, it became known as Beggars Night.

It didn't last very long however. The older kids didn't want to wait when the little kids were going out and eventually they were all going out on Beggars Night.

It has lasted all these years and most people don't even remember how it got started -- I do, because I was a child then and I remember being very concerned when I got into 5th grade that I was going to have to go out with the big kids now. A couple of times we had to run away very fast to protect our candy.

Now the kids like it because they can get driven to a nearby small town and collect candy there that night as well. I think it's great that I (still) live in a town where it's safe to send your kid off to the house of someone you vaguely know, and safe for people to open their doors at night, not knowing who it is in advance.

We had a nice bunch of kids out this year, polite and enthusiastic for the most part and only one kid out there with eggs. I'm kind of high profile in our small town (I have horses -- extra charisma points!) and I fix the house up every year to look spooky and have a reputation for giving out good treats, so I don't get egged.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), October 30, 2001.

what a beter way for these animals to go out undetected than at halloween. i am in law enforcement and would be on high alert anywhere.especially in populated places where lots of people will be gathering.with thanksgiving and christmas just around the corner, the next few months will ba a trying time for most of us.

-- cody (urbusted@alltel.net), October 31, 2001.

Don't know about the Halloween end of it....but read a news article at the Drudge Report site. Men were stopped and released (sigh) with pictures of nuclear power plants in Florida (where I live) and the Alaskan pipeline. Makes sense not to go to malls or out this year. After the huge candy buy, by the man whose visa had expired..makes me leary for sure. He was arrested on the violation but the candy was not found. This was I think in New Jersey. It was in a news paper article, again on the Drudge Report.... Maybe 2 weeks ago.

-- Lynnda (venus@zeelink.net), October 31, 2001.

We're going to our usual small city main drag (too rural here (dark, no sidewalks) for door-to- door) Trick or Treat, sponsored by the local businesses. Where we used to live, it would be the neighbors we knew, period.

We've never done the next small town thing--most out here would think it very tacky (not to mention dangerous as all get out because you don't know the people) to go trick or treating in a neighborhood where you don't live.

My sister used to have a big problem with it (non-neighborhood trick or treaters) in the city--we're talking children old enough to drive and grandmothers (with no toddler in sight) filling pillowcases with candy they got from all over the city. You would see crowded vans of people, all with bags. Amazing. They'd even hit the house twice or more sometimes, which is really sad, and curse if you were out of candy (and anyone would run out of candy if half the town were at your neighborhood and you were expecting maybe 25-50 kids, tops).

IMHO, after the age of 14 you have no business going out trick or treating with your own bag.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), October 31, 2001.

Well, it was a grey Halloween with rain by 8, but we did have some trick or treaters. I live at the end of a subdivision in a rural town, so what used to happen was that the whole town would drop off their kids at my doorstep to walk the neighborhood. (It's not a huge town, but big enough that I only let my kids go to houses in my direct neighborhood where I know the people!) I guess more people decided the same thing because I only had 3 cars pull in here dropping off kids this year (as opposed to dozens). I think all the neighborhood kids came by (three tried to double-dip and 2 came by twice but refused to double-dip....talk about polite!). I hate the fact that people with loose grips on reality can cause us all to give up something that was so much fun. I have been debating getting a polaroid camera because in the neighborhood where I grew up there was one man with a polaroid who kept a Halloween photo album of all the kids in their costumes, year after year. It was so much fun to stop there awhile and look at the pictures of all of us "when we were little"! I think I'd enjoy being Clarky! I may never get the chance.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), October 31, 2001.

Thanks everyone, hope you all had a great night. We too live out beyond the sidewalks. We were invited to a classmates house. Had a lovely dinner, went to about 25 houses came home for dessert and to enjoy each others company. Had more fun visiting, walking and looking at the full moon than begging for candy. My daughter won't eat most of it anyway, so it's kinda a waste.

Oh well, on to the next holiday, the stores should have Easter stuff out by next week. Maybe I'll get started on that early (HAHA).

-- jennifer (schwabauer@aol.com), November 01, 2001.

Ain't that the truth Jennifer! Noticed that over the past few yrs that Christmas items was getting earlier in the stores for sale. I noticed that this yr it wa sin early Sept in AR>

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001.