Back in the day I remember getting together with another family, friends of my parents, and the fathers would load up a couple of "roadies" and take 6+ kids around the neighborhood in the family station wagon. The tailgate would be down and we'd all pile in and out at each new section.
Now my children are at an age where we had the discussion about where to go trick-or-treating and the differences in the neighborhoods. Living in the same area, the methodology is based part tradition but mostly creating new traditions. It is also based in creating a tradition that yields the most fun and candy! So began the carpool discussions about "where and why". For example, an area that has wealth, i.e. large houses on larger than normal lots (>/= acre) seems like a good idea because they would have lots of really good candy no? Well, the ROI doesn't play out because there is too much walking needed between opportunities. Pair that with the lack of young families in the area and the number of houses actually participating in the passing out of candy.
So with a little thought we decided to look for a target-rich environment that is:
"The confluence of high Housing Density with high percentage of Disposable Income"
In years past we found this "Target Rich Environment (TRE)" near some friend's house in Allied Arts. An older part of West Menlo where some friends through a HUGE Halloween party . They have since moved (to a darker street with a long driveway), so this year it came in the form of Vintage Oaks or as I dubbed it just after they started selling homes in this development, "Leave it to Beaver - on Steroids" It is a beautiful community in Menlo Park that is only about 7 or 8 years old. It has 100 or so 3,000 - 4,000 s.f. houses of about 3-4 different designs. From being there on Halloween, I got the sense that the properties were sold with an option on a new Range Rover 4.6 every 5 years and are all parked in the driveway because behind the garage door facade is a playroom or home gym.
It seems that we weren't alone in this deduction of "TRE". The streets were quite full of Halloween revelers of all ages, shapes and sizes. It seems safe by Halloween standards and a good time had by all.
In the spirit of nostalgia, we also traipsed around town to visit some traditions that are important to our family.. the neighbor who's husband loved Halloween and made special goody bags for the girls, the lady on my old street who puts out 71 luminarias (sp?) to light the path to her door and a certain special neighbor who I used to T-o-T as a kid from the tailgate of that ol' station wagon...
It is fun to be a part of "carpool class" where the roles of teacher, philosopher and student are shared equally between each of us on any given day.
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