Trick-or-treating: How old is too old?

Halloween is fast approaching, blowing in on the cool autumn winds. With Halloween comes the excitement of costumes, parties, and candy gallore. But teens may be in a tricky situation regarding their treats. There's no defined cut-off age limit for trick-or-treating, but wherever it is, the general consensus is that teens, especially 15 and older, are above that line. When tromping around neighborhoods lugging pillowcases to be filled, more and more often they end up trudging back home, sacks woefully light, the victims of age-descriminating candy givers. They may be a little old, but candy tastes just as good at higher ages, so often resourcefull students will find ways to grab the treats anyways. The easiest way is of course to play babysitter. A younger child acts as a free-pass for candy, as people are much kinder towards the caring older sibling than they are towards a greedy teenager. When no small sibling is available, often it falls upon the smallest member of the group to take up the duty. Choose a childish, conealing costume, like a ghost, and any vertically challenged person can help bring in the candy. Of course, teens always find other ways to humiliate themselves to get what they want. Originality goes a long way towards convinving candy-misers to open their bowls. Improvised skits, songs, stories; all will be attempted this year in the quest for candy. But of course the best hastily slapped together plans still fail. When that happens, there's always the bacjup plan. Head over to wal-mart, buy your own bags of candy, and settle down somewhere with some scary movies.