Halloween night and the hopeful children of the 1960s and 1970s put out jack-o'-lanterns and turn on the porchlights, a bowl full of treats on the table.
But the expected ghouls and goblins never materialize.
Where have they gone? Is Halloween over?
No, but the door-to-door tradition, mainly reserved for the suburbs anyway, has been replaced by more organized treating, and never tricking.
Trunk-or-treating is popular now, held at churches and community centers where parents circle up and open their trunks. Kids parade from car to car.
Halloween historian Lesley Bannatyne told The Atlantic that kids in cities have always treated in apartment buildings. In rural areas, where houses are more spread out, families may drive to houses. Or in some cases, farmers take kids on hayrides to houses where they treat — and trick, by 'borrowing' jack-o'-lanterns or decorations.
As neighbors become less friendly with each other than in years past, trick-or-treaters simply bypass some suburban neighborhoods. Others, with widespread neighbor participation, are visited by kids from all over.
