Not that long ago, kids went trick or treating on Halloween, just like we celebrated Christmas on Christmas and Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Sure, it'd be more convenient perhaps to celebrate Thanksgiving on a Saturday, but still we do it on Thursday.
Trick or treat for some reason is now always on a Saturday or Sunday, even when Halloween is on a Wednesday. Now, I get why we'd want to have kids trick or treating in daylight -- thanks to speed demon drivers and the sick minds that target children.
However, in helping to compile trick or treat times this year, I realized that some neighborhoods scheduled their trick or treat times in the evening on Friday or Saturday. And this is where the rationalization for our over-complication of Halloween trick or treating confused me. (Further potential for complication derives from the fact that many neighborhoods in Milwaukee -- including mine -- have a trick or treat time that differs from the official City of Milwaukee time. Most years that results in our doorbell ringing two days in a row ... one day with the neighborhood kids and one day with the kids driven in to the neighborhood by their parents. Mysteriously, this year no kids rang on Sunday between 1 and 4.)
If kids can trick or treat in the dark on Saturday, why can't they trick or treat in the dark on Wednesday? I took my child out during the "official" neighborhood trick or treat time and it was dark even before we left the house.
Switching the time and date for safety's sake makes perfect sense and I'd make no argument against that, although it is a sad commentary on our times, perhaps. But changing the date for no apparent purpose just seems like evidence of our inability to leave well enough alone and contemporary society's lack of respect for tradition.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
