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Rain or shine? -or- Rain date? -or- Indoor activities? What are your experiences?
How many fewer (if any at all) Trick or Treaters would you expect on a rainy Halloween?
In rural-suburb VT, we've had ~120 Trick or Treaters the last few years (in decent weather), but I have no idea what to expect in the rain. I usually go all-out with scary full-window rear-projection display, big speakers outside, etc., etc. But with the rainy forecast... I'm wondering if it might be all for naught...
It never rains in Southern California, so I can't help you on that one... However, to me, it does seem like the number of people out trick or treating and has dramatically decreased over the last few years.
I am sure that fear has something to do with that. I live in an extremely safe neighborhood, and even here there's hardly any kids to be seen walking around on Halloween...
Yeah, around here most of the kids seem to go to parties at churches and other big safe places indoors. I don't have kids but still can understand why parents don't want their kids taking candy from strangers. Now back in the 80's and 90's when I was trick or treating our parents let us go out on our own as a group a lot of the time. One year my dad drove me and a few others around in the pouring rain to trick or treat. Kids don't seem to care nearly as much about the rain as adults...at least we didn't seem to be bothered by it when I was a boy.
My 8 yo daughter has never been trick or treating, nor will she ever. I just don't trust other people like that, NOR does she need that much sugary shit...
Yeah, times have changed over the past 25+ years. I was latchkey and free range as a kid. Too dangerous for that now.
As a motorcyclist and bicyclist for many years in SoCal, seemed like whenever it did rain, it would always happen within the 4 - 6 pm commute. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by DavidRam
Yeah, nowadays it's nothing like when I was a kid in the '70s. Still, up here in small-town New England (similar to where I grew up), folks don't feel so anonymous to and fearful of/within their neighbors/neighborhoods, compared to more urban locales such as SoCal.
It seems that nowadays not so many folks are decorating and/or giving out candy. It's like the more folks opt out, more of their neighbors follow suit ...and so, fewer Trick or Treaters. :(
In the mid-late '80s, ours was one of the very few houses decorating and giving out candy in our mostly Hispanic Santa Ana neighborhood. However, our participation seemed to encourage others to follow suit, and the number of Trick or Treaters went way up during the few years we were there.
Participation on our street seems to be on the rise, now that we have raised the bar so high these last few years ...and the number of Trick or Treaters has gone up from ~80 to ~120 in the last several years.
Yeah... sugar is a helluva drug! If I had kids, it would be a tough call... I would certainly try to encourage/influence them not to want all that stuff. As for trusting other people... it's one of the very few reasons I'm glad I don't have kids.Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidRam
I don't think it's any more dangerous today than back in the '70s, when I was a free-range kid. It might well be safer today than back then ...despite what our news and government would have us believe. At any rate, both then and now, by far the greater danger lies in all the mischief that free-range kids might get into, not all the hyped-up stranger danger.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillbilly SQ
I always avoided getting into trouble with the rest of the pack. More or less did my own thing being somewhat of an outcast. My love for fishing is what kept me out of trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grinder
Yeah, around here we have "Trunk or Treat" and other such events, and still manage to have our share of Trick or Treaters. When I was a kid, by the time we were 10 or 11 we were out on our own (no arranged groups, at any rate) on Halloween, 'til long after dark.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillbilly SQ
I'm sure I would be unusually nervous if I were a parent. Probably all the more concerned nowadays than back then.
Yeah, I don't remember being bothered too much by the rain. It was all about the CANDY! CANDY! CANDY! LOL
Yeah, me too ...for the most part. For me it was mostly smoking cigarettes and pot, and drinking now and then (whenever we could get our hands on any sort of alcohol).Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillbilly SQ
Turns out smoking and fishing go hand in hand. LOL Early on, a friend and I used to smoke Lipton Tea (orange pekoe blend, LOL) in corn cob pipes, to keep mosquitoes at bay.
As a Halloween candy giver/Trick or Treater enabler, I know ^this^ makes me a hypocrite of sorts. It's one of the perqs of not having kids. LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Grinder
Yeah, I don't feel like it's any more dangerous today vs when I was a kid. The main difference is that now, every time something happens, EVERYONE knows about it and suddenly, it's like everyone believes it happens every day everywhere. When I was a kid, you only heard about local cases, which I lived in a very small town, so nothing happened. Doesn't help that the media really blows it out of proportion (not saying it's not a big deal, just that the media really twists shit). If we heard about everything that happened accross the U.S. at the time, then I may not have gone out as a kid back then either.
I guess that if anything, it "may" be safer, given all the surveillance systems and cell phones.
I'll just put out my "convicted sex offender" sign...that usually keeps the little bastards away. :pedo:
But seriously...we only have a couple of kids in my neighborhood, but the father is a music minister at the local church, so they do something there.
If it doesn’t rain I typically get over 200 kids at the door and I’ve counted too at least that before I stopped counting. We get people driving from all the surrounding towns to our neighborhood for Halloween for trick-or-treating. It’s quite amazing.
Its called fake news for a reason. They run with shit that isn’t real or heavily biased all the time but I think people are starting to realize how fake the news really is now. All a bunch of lies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Weigel21
I love fishing too man especially now that I have a real bass boat. Wish you were closer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillbilly SQ
I've seen pics of your awesome setup in my DIYMA Halloween decoration thread. If that's at all representative of your neighborhood, I can see why folks come from far and wide.Quote:
Originally Posted by JCsAudio
When it's raining do you get considerably fewer, like 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 ...or none?
Asking your neighbors would give you the best answer if they've dealt with a rainy Halloween in recent years. Maybe your neighborhood has a Facebook page or Nextdoor for you to ask.
Those are great ideas. Only one of the neighbors I've spoken to has been on our street long enough to know, but she's rather elderly and not at all clear about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by jrwalte
Hey thank Grinder for the nice complement. My wife actually does all the work. As far as rain I guess I’ll find out tomorrow but I suspect it will be significantly less.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grinder
And the answer is 42. ;)
...I mean 37 (Trick or Treaters, that is). There was never more than light rain between 5:00 and 9:00 last night ...so, I'm surprised that there were only about 1/3 of what we had last year.
With everything else that was going on, I unfortunately didn't get around to carving all those pumpkins we grew in our garden. :(
Managed to keep the speakers dry under a large trash bag. They were awesome! Simply used a yardstick wedged into supporting milk crate to hold the trash bag away from the drivers and port.
Here's a short video from early evening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FafakS9cDXw
Attachment 7380Attachment 7381Attachment 7382Attachment 7383
Speaker details (from a thread at that other place):
Because the window projector video I used would be of little-to-no use without sound (and soooooooo much more realistic, with powerful full-range sound), I’ll take a moment to share details of the DIY car audio-based indoor/outdoor compact party-sounds system that I recently put together for just such occasions.
Measuring 24"H x 9"W x 14.5"D, each mini tower consists of a Skar IX-8 D4 in 1 ft.^3, a 3” x 11” vent tube (39 Hz Fb, for +3 dB @ 40 Hz worth of outdoor kick), and a Polk DB651 in a separate .141 ft^3 chamber (see top picture).
I still need to come up with some sort of compact and portable mount for the RF P400X2, R500X1D, two EVGA 700 B1 power supplies, and miniDSP 2x4.
As I only had two cables long enough to reach the speakers, and since there was no need for stereo effect, I simply positioned the mini towers side-by-side (outside, on a milk crate, directly below the window effect) and wired the subs and coaxials in series, for a combined impedance of 4 ohms (to monoblock) and 8 ohms (to bridged 2-channel).
These mini towers performed very well outdoors, with plenty of power to spare; and they have greatly surpassed my expectations in terms of both SQ and output. Of course, the coaxials would be far too bright without DSP, but the vented 8” subs do quite well with little more than LP and HP/SSF.
Attachment 7384
My word is that dishwasher from the 60s? awesome :)
Our rain stopped but a 30 degree drop came in. Kids had a great time trick or treating even if freezing their butt off, though.
I don't doubt it. LOL ...it came with the house (built in the early '50s) and it still works, though we haven't used it in years.
WOW! In Atlanta?! It was an unusually warm ~60 F up here in Vermont. LOL
are you in Vermont? If so any interest in attending the GTG Nov 10 in Taunton MA?Quote:
Originally Posted by Grinder
Yup. Thank you for mentioning it. While I've never been much of a car audio guy (though I'm sure that could change, given adequate exposure and budget, etc. LOL), I would like to experience some nice aftermarket systems; and it would be fun to meet fellow members. It doesn't look like I'll be able to make it though; I'll just have to wait and see. I'll PM you for details if it looks promising.Quote:
Originally Posted by JCsAudio
What effect has the covid panic/weather/rioting had on Halloween/trick-or-treating in your area this year?
In the midst of the covid panic, I had no idea if there would be any trick-or-treaters at all this year. On the other hand, Vermont has the lowest per capita covid numbers in the nation, so... :shrug:
Clear and calm weather here this afternoon-evening, though a bit on the chilly side.
As it turned out, there were ~30 trick-or-treaters, which is about the same as there were last year in light rain, which is about 1/3 of normal. All things considered, I'm quite pleasantly surprised, actually.
While I usually hand out prepared individual baggies containing an assortment of seven or eight Mars Minis ea. (Twix, Snickers, Milky Way, 3Musketeers, M&Ms - my favorites) at the door, this year I opted to lay the baggies out on a low table beside the porch steps and let the kids help themselves.
Suspecting there might well be no trick-or-treaters at all this year, I opted out of the usual window projector and accompanying sound system. Harvested six carving pumpkins from the garden this year, and didn't quite get around to carving any of them either. :ohwell: