I grew up in a neighborhood that was largely surrounded by a rural area where homes were much further apart on big roads. Still didn't have any sidewalks though. Every Halloween, lots of kids would descend up on the neighborhood to trick or treat, which would normally be really nice, except their parents still insisted on driving them from house to house.
Every Halloween would turn into a traffic jam, with engines rumbling and lights on high and car door slamming and parents yelling out the windows to call their kids or stopping to talk to each other from the driver's seat like cops blocking a street. It honestly ruined it for everyone. Even as a kid I was like "damn, all these cars really ruin everything."
It felt dangerous too, because this was still a rural neighborhood that'd been built without sidewalks and had lots of trees and hills and streetlights that were relatively far apart. Had people just dropped kids off at the entrance to the neighborhood or parked in one place (there was a large manufacturer/office with a huge parking lot not far from the entrance that was empty at night) and walked around with them, it would've been so much fun instead of becoming a game of dodgecars.
2
u/adlittle Jun 10 '24
I grew up in a neighborhood that was largely surrounded by a rural area where homes were much further apart on big roads. Still didn't have any sidewalks though. Every Halloween, lots of kids would descend up on the neighborhood to trick or treat, which would normally be really nice, except their parents still insisted on driving them from house to house.
Every Halloween would turn into a traffic jam, with engines rumbling and lights on high and car door slamming and parents yelling out the windows to call their kids or stopping to talk to each other from the driver's seat like cops blocking a street. It honestly ruined it for everyone. Even as a kid I was like "damn, all these cars really ruin everything."
It felt dangerous too, because this was still a rural neighborhood that'd been built without sidewalks and had lots of trees and hills and streetlights that were relatively far apart. Had people just dropped kids off at the entrance to the neighborhood or parked in one place (there was a large manufacturer/office with a huge parking lot not far from the entrance that was empty at night) and walked around with them, it would've been so much fun instead of becoming a game of dodgecars.
Cars ruin all the fun.