Door-to-door tricks

Gentle trick-or-treaters, to steal a phrase from Miss Manners, please be respectful this Halloween. Sure, you’re tromping door-to-door, begging for candy under the not-so-thinly veiled threat of inflicting mayhem. Sure, you might even be wearing a bloody mask and carrying a scythe. But this is no time to lose all sense of decorum and civility.

Yes, that means you, you too-late doorbell ringer, you garden trampler, you candy hogger.

Those Halloween-related crimes, among others, drive Ed Simpson absolutely batty.

Kids continue to ring the bell for treats, even after the porch light of his Spokane Valley home has been turned off, Simpson says. “Invaders” from other neighborhoods come to his house to collect candy.

“Last year you couldn’t walk down the street because of all the ‘invaders’ cars coming in and out of the neighborhood, including some with Idaho plates,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Plus, the interlopers “crowd out the neighborhood kids from having fun,” he says.

Traveling to another neighborhood to trick-or-treat is only OK if you know somebody who lives in that area, says Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette maven Emily Post.

Post, 25, who lives in Vermont, says she grew up in the country and used to travel to her aunt’s home in the city to trick-or-treat.

“We knew the neighborhood because we knew her,” she says. “We weren’t like strangers.”

What about shopping “up” for treats, going to a ritzier zip code in hopes of better candy?

“That’s not OK,” Post says.

And what about those kids who’ve maybe done one Halloween too many?

Bill Wilson of northwest Spokane won’t have anything to do with them.

“Seventeen, 18-year-olds. High-school seniors, dropouts, come up there knocking on the door,” Wilson says. “No costumes, no nothing. Just their street clothes … If I can look at them and see they need a shave …”

For those kids, Wilson, a 61-year-old former Marine, won’t pony up any candy.

“I just say, ‘I’m sorry but I’m out of older kids’ candy. Try somewhere else,’ ” he says.

Post acknowledges that giving up trick-or-treating can be tough for kids. It’s all right for them to prolong the tradition if the teens accompany younger kids door-to-door.

“To the kids, I would advise after 14 or 15 I would stop trick-or-treating,” says Post, who recently wrote an etiquette book for teens and young adults. “And if you are going out, really put effort into it and be courteous and be polite.”

Pam Indahl of Spokane is sympathetic to those older kids.

“I remember hanging on a year or two after I was really too old for it,” Indahl says via e-mail. “Transitioning to being the one passing out candy seemed like a rite of passage I didn’t want to go through too early.”

But what really irks Indahl are the kids who can’t be bothered to make chit-chat with the candy-giver, “like they have to get to 120 homes in a hurry,” and also those who seem disappointed by the type or quantity of candy being handed out.

Looks of scorn and disgust — even if somebody hands you one measly Skittle — are to be avoided, Post says.

“They are doing this nice thing of giving you free candy for walking up to their doors,” she says.

Indahl also wishes trick-or-treaters would take the hint when she turns her lights off.

“Having the doorbell ring when I’m trying to study or work is annoying,” she says. “Look for signs that you won’t get candy here, and respect them.”

Post recommends not knocking on a door past 9 p.m., or before 4:30 on Halloween.

And when you amble up to ring the bell, be careful not to cut through someone’s garden or well-manicured hedge, she cautions.

“They need to be respectful of property,” Post says. “Use the path and walk up the driveway.”

Also, give some care to the decorations you put around your home. You don’t want to give preschoolers nightmares, Post says.

“You wouldn’t take the movie ‘Saw’ and use a projector and project that on your front lawn,” she says. “You really shouldn’t do things that are really terrifying for little kids … You want to keep it PG scary.”

Similarly, trick-or-treaters should keep in mind good taste when choosing a costume. Ghoulish make-up is OK, within limits, she says. Bustiers? Not so much.

“Keep those costumes for your Halloween party,” Post says.

Other people, though, have an entirely different beef with Halloween.

“What drives me batty about trick-or-treaters is there aren’t enough of them!” Judy Scarborough of Spokane says via e-mail. “I just love seeing the little darlings in their costumes, and giving out treats; it was such a fun and memorable part of my childhood.”

And Christine Carlile of Spokane says she can’t think of a single negative thing about Halloween:

“Nothing,” Carlile writes. “Not big kids or little kids or people without costumes. Halloween is some of the best good, clean fun going. Running around like the wind with the leaves swirling about and crunching under your feet, laughing and showing off your costume. … For me, it’s like a little parade coming to my house. I love it.”