The first year that I took my little ones out, I found that there weren't so many strangers in our neighborhood after all. Turned out more than a few people I'd played against in rec league sports lived nearby, my vet lives right around the corner, several teachers from my kids school, etc.
Our old neighborhood from way back was a lot different. Right after college, my then GF- now wife and I shared a big old house with a bunch of friends. The neighborhood wasn't all that great, and there was an apartment complex with subsidized tenants about 5 blocks away. We got a lot of those kids trick-or-treating. Most could not afford costumes, and came by with a paper bag with eye holes and colored with crayons or maybe some whiskers drawn on with mom's eyeliner at most. We always got the big, full-size candy bars in bulk at Costco, and we'd give out a couple hundred $$s in candy. It really wasn't that expensive split between everyone in the house, and less than we'd have spent if we'd all gone out bar hopping. We'd even offer candybars to the older kids standing in the back, herding their little siblings through the neighborhood. Those kids were so happy to get a huge snickers bar. We used to wear costumes just to hand out the candy.
We never get any kids coming by where we live now, not worth the walk down our road for two houses I guess.
