9 ms·

Where Did the Fear of Poisoned Halloween Candy Come From? (2013)

87 points by ctoth 9y ago

afarrell 9y ago
If anyone knows of a good general technique to persuade a person that their fear of something is overblown, I'd be interested in seeing a link. In my experience, trying to do this results in anger.
- danharaj 9y ago
  It helps in such a discussion to move beyond the surface fear to get to the root fear and then make an affirmative argument instead of a negative one. In this particular case, the truth of the matter is that you really do have to trust strangers to be kind instead of randomly malicious. Instead of making an argument that the fear is unfounded, it would be more effective to make a case affirming the fearful person's trust in their community.
- zaroth 9y ago
  I find the same attitude has now permiated American politics. You can say something as neutral as, "I'm very cautious of getting riled up by overblown narratives that lack factual evidence or are presented in an obviously inflammatory manner" and suddenly you're the anti-Christ.
  - poorrights 9y ago
    At this point, it’s easier to just assume that most people are mentally retarded.
  - throwaway413 9y ago
    Right, the second you are skeptical of their “source” you are the enemy. No room for doubt.
- jaredhansen 9y ago
  I find that generally it helps, counterintuitively, to start with what the DBT[1] literature calls "validation" - reassuring the person that their fear makes perfect sense in light of their priors. You can call this "affirming the emotional truth of what they're saying" if you want, and -- here's a part that took me years to learn -- you can do it without being dishonest. For example, dialog between Them (T) / You (Y): T: I don't think I'll let my kids trick or treat this year, what with all these sickos putting razor blades in chocolate bars, and weed in gummy bears, and did you hear about those AIDS-infected needles being left in coin return slots? There's all this danger around, it's just so awful, what a horrible place this world is, I mean what kind of person poisons children? [etc for 5 more minutes] Y: Yeah definitely, I see what you mean - there are so many really crazy and evil people in the world. I mean with these shootings, and bombings, it's like we never get a minute to just rest and not be scared of something! T: Right, exactly! Y: I'm trying to remember though, what was the halloween candy thing? I mean I thought I heard something in the 80s about that but it went away, or was a hoax or something. Did something happen last year? T: Well I can't remember but I mean the news was just saying a minute ago to look out for marijuana-laced gummy bears Y: Yeah, weed candy would be pretty bad. I tried edibles once and got pretty fucked up, I mean, it wasn't really a pleasant experience. But then, some people really seem to like it. .... wait a minute, drugs are expensive. who wastes them on random kids? ... Did the newssay they found some somewhere, or just that it was a thing that could theoretically happen? T: Y: And the other "scary candy" stuff - do you know ifthere are any stats on how often this happens? I mean I 'm sure somebody did it at some point, because people are insane, right, but considering the way idiots drive, I wouldn't be surprised if kids have a higher chance of getting picked off by a bad driver, than killer candy. Which is scary too of course, but I mean, we're already living with that, and don't keep them inside. Actually come to think of it ... I can't think of a single case I've ever heard of where an actual specific kid got hurt from poisoned candy. Maybe there are a bunch of em but it's kind of weird that we wouldn't have at least some detail - was it a boy or a girl, where in the country, how old etc? I mean it would have to be all over the news if it happened, so I wonder if this is just one of those cases where the media likes to scare the shit out of everyone all the time to get attention? T: I don't know, it still seems dangers Y: Yeah, I mean, we should all take reasonable precautions in the world and stuff, but ... tell you what, let's google for reports of poisoned candy from last year and if it's really low, then figure we probably have better odds than from bad drivers, and let the kids have their fun? T: ok [off to google you go, snopes is first-ish hit followed by other less entry-level but more-authoritative sources, and pretty soon they're coming around] === It certainly doesn't work that way every time, or even most times, but it can. And this has applications far beyond halloween candy. (Dungeons and Dragons. Immigration. Drug legalization. Rock music. Video games.) The person probably isn't insane; they probably heard a bunch of scary stuff, and got scared. Telling them "don't be scared" isn't going to help, but joining them on their side of the fence, then guiding toward a different outcome (which may not change their initial thought much but may help them change their behavior, which gives them more data on safety/etc with which to update their mental model for future use) can be pretty effective. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy -- Though DBT was developed to treat BPD (see link for more), the recommendations for learning/teaching emotional coping skills seem to generalize well to many other kinds of emotional reactions that seem disproportionate to a given stimulus.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
JasonFruit 9y ago
So the answer here is, apparently, "Dunno." I could imagine an article on this topic that would be valuable, but I don't think this is it.
twobyfour 9y ago
Pretty sure it came from movie and TV scriptwriters deciding that poisoned candy was a wonderfully scary trope for Halloween time.
moxious 9y ago
If you live in a society where credulous people will accept stories like this, it's no wonder people wouldn't know or spend time with their neighbors. I can't help but see it as one grain of sand on a bigger beach.
Theodores 9y ago
Seems that Wikipedia is a better starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoned_candy_myths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoned_candy_myths I would date my understanding of the myth to be from 1980, informed by a friend's mum, so the myth was oral tradition by then, across the pond in the UK. So a handful of years after 1974 the meme had spread. This had morphed into an 'only in America' story for those of us outside the U.S. - we believed this happened on a regular Halloween basis in America and was part of 'trick or treating' (itself more American than British). Imagine the image of 'gun mad' America harbouring such 'psychos' in the community, this was easy to do if you had never been to the U.S. The idea of a razor blade in some type of sweet did do the rounds, again in the 'made in America' context, with the myth spreading verbally. As children adults would tell you but you took reassurance that there were no crazies like that where you lived, again, only in America. Sweets given to you as a child could be of variable quality. Sweets with a clove in the middle do exist, I think at the time I would have preferred the razor blade option, cyanide would have tasted better. Sweets kept past their sell by date might not be too good either, old folks could hand you these and expect you to enjoy them. So 'trick or treat' was actually part of the deal with all sweets offered by neighbours and other people you were to meet. It was therefore imaginable for the American myth to be true.
- _Wintermute 9y ago
  > This had morphed into an 'only in America' story for those of us outside the U.S. - we believed this happened on a regular Halloween basis in America As an outsider I never got the impression that this actually happened/happens in America, more that this is some strange fear American's have.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- aptwebapps 9y ago
  Nitpick: 'trick or treat' doesn't refer to the ambiguity of the offering. It's actually a threat to play a trick on households that don't supply treats. I.e. give me a treat or I'll play a prank on you. It's not really serious, though.
8ig8 9y ago
And then there’s this headline today on my local news website... Candy laced with bath salts poses risk this Halloween http://www.wral.com/candy-laced-with-bath-salts-poses-risk-this-halloween/17066038/ http://www.wral.com/candy-laced-with-bath-salts-poses-risk-t...
- jdavis703 9y ago
  No one is spending their money to give your kids free drugs on Halloween. I saw a similar story from the local news channel about marijuana edibles being passed out. As the original article says, poisoned candy is not really a thing. I'd be more concerned about your kids being hit by a drunk (or distracted) driver on Halloween than eating something poisoned.
  - 13of40 9y ago
    Someone gave my brother a marijuana cookie one time when he was about nine, but it wasn't on Halloween. Seems like giving out edibles from your own house would be an easy way to get a mob of pitchfork-weilding parents on your lawn.
    - wavefunction 9y ago
      The professionally produced kind are all labeled on the actual food surface with some sort of impression or imprint that's unmistakable unless you're completely innocent of any knowledge of the world.
- adventurer 9y ago
  This is why people don't trust the media. They make up a story out of nothing or stretch it to to a point where it has no relation to what actually happened. This article for instance is given a title and claim that bath salts are being mixed with candies but provide nothing to back it up. The video points out the drugs are being made to look like candy, not being mixed with it. They pull in two unrelated sources to drive buzz. Police found drugs in Franklin County then the reporter went to their own Sheriff for a generic candy statement. It is about 650 miles between the two counties.
ronilan 9y ago
My kids are very aware that Halloween candy may be poisoned. Every year, after they finish trick-or-treating they will lay the buckets of candy on the table for inspection[1]. I will then taste several packs to make sure they are safe. If I do not show any side effects we conclude that the candy eaten was good. The kids wait patiently for a couple of weeks as I repeat the process and certify that all the candy they brought was indeed safe. Then I serve the kids salad. [1] https://instagram.com/p/BMQMFqAjuKr/ https://instagram.com/p/BMQMFqAjuKr/
- jdavis703 9y ago
  This actually just sounds like a really elaborate "tax" on your children's stash. If you fear the candy is actually dangerous, then perhaps you'd be better off just buying some from the store and distributing it to your kids, that ways they don't run the risk of loosing their parent.
  - agoodthrowaway 9y ago
    Clearly his post was humorous and intended to poke fun at people's paranoia of poisoned candy.
    - wavefunction 9y ago
      Actually I think OP is implying he just eats all of his kids' Halloween candy and serves them salad instead.
      - heartbreak 9y ago
        Which is exactly what my mom did, minus the salad. Now I eat all the candy instead of handing it out. Thanks mom.
- Divver 9y ago
  When I become a parent, I shall do the same thing with my kids. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
WalterBright 9y ago
It's been going on longer than the article suggests. When I went trick-or-treating in the 1960s, my parents did not allow us to eat anything that was home-made or not in a sealed package, because they were worried about deliberate poisoning. Around 1972 or 73 on Halloween, some neighborhood kid found a razor blade in an apple. Turned out he'd inserted it himself as a prank. A lot of things have much earlier roots than can be found with searches of documents.
- jeffwass 9y ago
  Back in 2nd grade my friend got a small snickers bar at school that he discovered had a hole in the wrapper and a same size/shape hole also extending further into the candy bar. I recall it being a small squarish kind of hole, you could sort of see it going into the candy bar. No idea if he did it himself or not, but he never admitted it. It could easily have been some part of a toy that poked into it. After school we went to his house and cut it to pieces with a knife in his kitchen. It was an exciting adventure, we were eager to see what might be inside. Never found anything, though I'm not sure what we were expecting to find. We didn't eat it either. But it did freak me out enough as a kid that for awhile after I would check for candy wrapper breaches.
  - amigoingtodie 9y ago
    Sounds like a pencil stabbed it.
- groovy2shoes 9y ago
  The real travesty here is that anyone would consider it acceptable to give trick-or-treaters an apple. :)
II2II 9y ago
Fears aside, I suspect that the larger tragedy is that Halloween treats are now mostly sugary candy and chocolate. I remember a time when there was much more variety. I also remember how quickly things changed after the first (likely unsubstantiated) scare in my community.
- analog31 9y ago
  The only variety that I can remember as a kid, was the house on the next street where they gave out Chick Tracts instead of candy.
  - hexane360 9y ago
    It seems a little counterintuitive to hand out anti-halloween material to trick-or-treaters. I mean, it's still observing Halloween even if it's not candy you're giving out.
    - rhizome 9y ago
      Proselytizers gonna proselytize.
    - poorrights 9y ago
      Is it just impossible for Hackernews to see the world how other people do or...?
    - poorrights 9y ago
      Gee, why didn’t THEY think of that?
  - InclinedPlane 9y ago
    Today they are almost exclusively pre-packaged candy of well known brands. They used to include a lot more home made products, like cookies, cupcakes, caramel apples, popcorn balls, rice krispy treats, etc.
- smokey_the_bear 9y ago
joshfraser 9y ago
Despite the constant fear mongering of "stranger danger", turns out most people don't actually want to kill you. One of the things I like about the sharing economy (Uber, Airbnb, etc) is that we're slowly being reminded that it's okay to trust our neighbors, despite the constant attempts by the media to spread fear.
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  Except when you neighbors are the ones renting out the apartment next to you on air bnb, and you have drunk noisy people bumping around next door all the time.
  - catshirt 9y ago
    and no one in the equation killed you yet. :)
  - filoleg 9y ago
    I don't see how it is different from having noisy drunk people as your permanent neighbors. Ultimately, your non-airbnb permanent neighbors are just as much of a stranger to you, with certain specific exceptions.
    - flukus 9y ago
      Your permanent neighbors tend to be noisy and drunk occasionally, people renting an airbnb are on holidays and likely to be noisy and drunk, then a week later you'll get a new batch likely to be noisy and drunk.
      - baddox 9y ago
        But does anyone oppose reasonable rules for time-of-day-based noise levels in an apartment or neighborhood? It really doesn’t matter if your permanent neighbors or transient guests are the ones making the noise, either should cause the property owner/renter to get fined/evicted.
ebcode 9y ago
I remember being a kid (8 or 9) and sitting down with my friend at his house with his parents and going through all our candy together to check for danger signs. Sure enough, there was a single-wrapped Reese's peanut-butter cup with a hole in the wrapper, and we opened it up and found a sewing needle stuck inside the peanut-butter cup. (I don't think I'm making this up, but memories being what they are, this might have been a story that was told to me. I do remember vividly the breaking of the peanut-butter cup into two pieces and the needle falling on the table, though, so I'm inclined to believe the memory.) This would have been in the late 1980s. So, in my case, the fear did not come from the media, but from a personal experience. So rather than saying, "this never happens, it's just a myth", we should be saying, "this can happen, and let's take steps to protect ourselves". Anyone remember the Tylenol Poisonings[0]? That was real, inspired copycats, and led to tamper-resistant and tamper-evident packaging. Tragic, but at least we learned from the tragedy. While it's true that not everyone is out to get you, at the same time it's foolish to think that no-one is out to get you. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
- cutcss 9y ago
  Believe it or chewing a sewing needle don't actually kills you; but sure you can be afraid of anything and still get validation of that fear; you know a lot of people die from heavy objects falling from buildings? You should protect from that too, it has happened before so clearly you should take steps to protect yourself (and it has happened a lot more than candy poisoning), perhaps always using a construction helmet would be a nice first step. And traffic accidents, so many pedestrians die from car accidents that its weird we all don't have personal airbags around our torsos and heads; at the end of the day being alive its the biggest risk factor of dying and the only sure way to not die is to be already death.
- georgeecollins 9y ago
  Your story is amazing, but it is an anecdote. The data found by researchers about the dangers of Halloween candy suggest that the risk is more or less non-existent. The point is not that people should think no one is out to get them, it is that they ignore real dangers because the media likes to talk about imaginary ones, and ignore real ones like pollution, which are not as exciting.
simonblack 9y ago
If you're going asking for a 'trick or treat', you have to expect as many 'tricks' as 'treats'. That's part of the 'fun' of it. The donors are not forced to give you 'treats' every time. If you can't accept that, don't go out asking.

87 points by ctoth 9y ago

If anyone knows of a good general technique to persuade a person that their fear of something is overblown, I'd be interested in seeing a link. In my experience, trying to do this results in anger.

danharaj 9y ago
It helps in such a discussion to move beyond the surface fear to get to the root fear and then make an affirmative argument instead of a negative one. In this particular case, the truth of the matter is that you really do have to trust strangers to be kind instead of randomly malicious. Instead of making an argument that the fear is unfounded, it would be more effective to make a case affirming the fearful person's trust in their community.
zaroth 9y ago
I find the same attitude has now permiated American politics. You can say something as neutral as, "I'm very cautious of getting riled up by overblown narratives that lack factual evidence or are presented in an obviously inflammatory manner" and suddenly you're the anti-Christ.
- poorrights 9y ago
  At this point, it’s easier to just assume that most people are mentally retarded.
- throwaway413 9y ago
  Right, the second you are skeptical of their “source” you are the enemy. No room for doubt.
jaredhansen 9y ago
I find that generally it helps, counterintuitively, to start with what the DBT[1] literature calls "validation" - reassuring the person that their fear makes perfect sense in light of their priors. You can call this "affirming the emotional truth of what they're saying" if you want, and -- here's a part that took me years to learn -- you can do it without being dishonest. For example, dialog between Them (T) / You (Y): T: I don't think I'll let my kids trick or treat this year, what with all these sickos putting razor blades in chocolate bars, and weed in gummy bears, and did you hear about those AIDS-infected needles being left in coin return slots? There's all this danger around, it's just so awful, what a horrible place this world is, I mean what kind of person poisons children? [etc for 5 more minutes] Y: Yeah definitely, I see what you mean - there are so many really crazy and evil people in the world. I mean with these shootings, and bombings, it's like we never get a minute to just rest and not be scared of something! T: Right, exactly! Y: I'm trying to remember though, what was the halloween candy thing? I mean I thought I heard something in the 80s about that but it went away, or was a hoax or something. Did something happen last year? T: Well I can't remember but I mean the news was just saying a minute ago to look out for marijuana-laced gummy bears Y: Yeah, weed candy would be pretty bad. I tried edibles once and got pretty fucked up, I mean, it wasn't really a pleasant experience. But then, some people really seem to like it. .... wait a minute, drugs are expensive. who wastes them on random kids? ... Did the newssay they found some somewhere, or just that it was a thing that could theoretically happen? T: Y: And the other "scary candy" stuff - do you know ifthere are any stats on how often this happens? I mean I 'm sure somebody did it at some point, because people are insane, right, but considering the way idiots drive, I wouldn't be surprised if kids have a higher chance of getting picked off by a bad driver, than killer candy. Which is scary too of course, but I mean, we're already living with that, and don't keep them inside. Actually come to think of it ... I can't think of a single case I've ever heard of where an actual specific kid got hurt from poisoned candy. Maybe there are a bunch of em but it's kind of weird that we wouldn't have at least some detail - was it a boy or a girl, where in the country, how old etc? I mean it would have to be all over the news if it happened, so I wonder if this is just one of those cases where the media likes to scare the shit out of everyone all the time to get attention? T: I don't know, it still seems dangers Y: Yeah, I mean, we should all take reasonable precautions in the world and stuff, but ... tell you what, let's google for reports of poisoned candy from last year and if it's really low, then figure we probably have better odds than from bad drivers, and let the kids have their fun? T: ok [off to google you go, snopes is first-ish hit followed by other less entry-level but more-authoritative sources, and pretty soon they're coming around] === It certainly doesn't work that way every time, or even most times, but it can. And this has applications far beyond halloween candy. (Dungeons and Dragons. Immigration. Drug legalization. Rock music. Video games.) The person probably isn't insane; they probably heard a bunch of scary stuff, and got scared. Telling them "don't be scared" isn't going to help, but joining them on their side of the fence, then guiding toward a different outcome (which may not change their initial thought much but may help them change their behavior, which gives them more data on safety/etc with which to update their mental model for future use) can be pretty effective. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy -- Though DBT was developed to treat BPD (see link for more), the recommendations for learning/teaching emotional coping skills seem to generalize well to many other kinds of emotional reactions that seem disproportionate to a given stimulus.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

JasonFruit 9y ago

So the answer here is, apparently, "Dunno." I could imagine an article on this topic that would be valuable, but I don't think this is it.

twobyfour 9y ago

Pretty sure it came from movie and TV scriptwriters deciding that poisoned candy was a wonderfully scary trope for Halloween time.

moxious 9y ago

If you live in a society where credulous people will accept stories like this, it's no wonder people wouldn't know or spend time with their neighbors. I can't help but see it as one grain of sand on a bigger beach.

Theodores 9y ago

Seems that Wikipedia is a better starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoned_candy_myths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoned_candy_myths I would date my understanding of the myth to be from 1980, informed by a friend's mum, so the myth was oral tradition by then, across the pond in the UK. So a handful of years after 1974 the meme had spread. This had morphed into an 'only in America' story for those of us outside the U.S. - we believed this happened on a regular Halloween basis in America and was part of 'trick or treating' (itself more American than British). Imagine the image of 'gun mad' America harbouring such 'psychos' in the community, this was easy to do if you had never been to the U.S. The idea of a razor blade in some type of sweet did do the rounds, again in the 'made in America' context, with the myth spreading verbally. As children adults would tell you but you took reassurance that there were no crazies like that where you lived, again, only in America. Sweets given to you as a child could be of variable quality. Sweets with a clove in the middle do exist, I think at the time I would have preferred the razor blade option, cyanide would have tasted better. Sweets kept past their sell by date might not be too good either, old folks could hand you these and expect you to enjoy them. So 'trick or treat' was actually part of the deal with all sweets offered by neighbours and other people you were to meet. It was therefore imaginable for the American myth to be true.

_Wintermute 9y ago
> This had morphed into an 'only in America' story for those of us outside the U.S. - we believed this happened on a regular Halloween basis in America As an outsider I never got the impression that this actually happened/happens in America, more that this is some strange fear American's have.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
aptwebapps 9y ago
Nitpick: 'trick or treat' doesn't refer to the ambiguity of the offering. It's actually a threat to play a trick on households that don't supply treats. I.e. give me a treat or I'll play a prank on you. It's not really serious, though.

8ig8 9y ago

And then there’s this headline today on my local news website... Candy laced with bath salts poses risk this Halloween http://www.wral.com/candy-laced-with-bath-salts-poses-risk-this-halloween/17066038/ http://www.wral.com/candy-laced-with-bath-salts-poses-risk-t...

jdavis703 9y ago
No one is spending their money to give your kids free drugs on Halloween. I saw a similar story from the local news channel about marijuana edibles being passed out. As the original article says, poisoned candy is not really a thing. I'd be more concerned about your kids being hit by a drunk (or distracted) driver on Halloween than eating something poisoned.
- 13of40 9y ago
  Someone gave my brother a marijuana cookie one time when he was about nine, but it wasn't on Halloween. Seems like giving out edibles from your own house would be an easy way to get a mob of pitchfork-weilding parents on your lawn.
  - wavefunction 9y ago
    The professionally produced kind are all labeled on the actual food surface with some sort of impression or imprint that's unmistakable unless you're completely innocent of any knowledge of the world.
adventurer 9y ago
This is why people don't trust the media. They make up a story out of nothing or stretch it to to a point where it has no relation to what actually happened. This article for instance is given a title and claim that bath salts are being mixed with candies but provide nothing to back it up. The video points out the drugs are being made to look like candy, not being mixed with it. They pull in two unrelated sources to drive buzz. Police found drugs in Franklin County then the reporter went to their own Sheriff for a generic candy statement. It is about 650 miles between the two counties.

ronilan 9y ago

My kids are very aware that Halloween candy may be poisoned. Every year, after they finish trick-or-treating they will lay the buckets of candy on the table for inspection[1]. I will then taste several packs to make sure they are safe. If I do not show any side effects we conclude that the candy eaten was good. The kids wait patiently for a couple of weeks as I repeat the process and certify that all the candy they brought was indeed safe. Then I serve the kids salad. [1] https://instagram.com/p/BMQMFqAjuKr/ https://instagram.com/p/BMQMFqAjuKr/

jdavis703 9y ago
This actually just sounds like a really elaborate "tax" on your children's stash. If you fear the candy is actually dangerous, then perhaps you'd be better off just buying some from the store and distributing it to your kids, that ways they don't run the risk of loosing their parent.
- agoodthrowaway 9y ago
  Clearly his post was humorous and intended to poke fun at people's paranoia of poisoned candy.
  - wavefunction 9y ago
    Actually I think OP is implying he just eats all of his kids' Halloween candy and serves them salad instead.
    - heartbreak 9y ago
      Which is exactly what my mom did, minus the salad. Now I eat all the candy instead of handing it out. Thanks mom.
Divver 9y ago
When I become a parent, I shall do the same thing with my kids. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

WalterBright 9y ago

It's been going on longer than the article suggests. When I went trick-or-treating in the 1960s, my parents did not allow us to eat anything that was home-made or not in a sealed package, because they were worried about deliberate poisoning. Around 1972 or 73 on Halloween, some neighborhood kid found a razor blade in an apple. Turned out he'd inserted it himself as a prank. A lot of things have much earlier roots than can be found with searches of documents.

jeffwass 9y ago
Back in 2nd grade my friend got a small snickers bar at school that he discovered had a hole in the wrapper and a same size/shape hole also extending further into the candy bar. I recall it being a small squarish kind of hole, you could sort of see it going into the candy bar. No idea if he did it himself or not, but he never admitted it. It could easily have been some part of a toy that poked into it. After school we went to his house and cut it to pieces with a knife in his kitchen. It was an exciting adventure, we were eager to see what might be inside. Never found anything, though I'm not sure what we were expecting to find. We didn't eat it either. But it did freak me out enough as a kid that for awhile after I would check for candy wrapper breaches.
- amigoingtodie 9y ago
  Sounds like a pencil stabbed it.
groovy2shoes 9y ago
The real travesty here is that anyone would consider it acceptable to give trick-or-treaters an apple. :)

II2II 9y ago

Fears aside, I suspect that the larger tragedy is that Halloween treats are now mostly sugary candy and chocolate. I remember a time when there was much more variety. I also remember how quickly things changed after the first (likely unsubstantiated) scare in my community.

analog31 9y ago
The only variety that I can remember as a kid, was the house on the next street where they gave out Chick Tracts instead of candy.
- hexane360 9y ago
  It seems a little counterintuitive to hand out anti-halloween material to trick-or-treaters. I mean, it's still observing Halloween even if it's not candy you're giving out.
  - rhizome 9y ago
    Proselytizers gonna proselytize.
  - poorrights 9y ago
    Is it just impossible for Hackernews to see the world how other people do or...?
  - poorrights 9y ago
    Gee, why didn’t THEY think of that?
- InclinedPlane 9y ago
  Today they are almost exclusively pre-packaged candy of well known brands. They used to include a lot more home made products, like cookies, cupcakes, caramel apples, popcorn balls, rice krispy treats, etc.
smokey_the_bear 9y ago

joshfraser 9y ago

Despite the constant fear mongering of "stranger danger", turns out most people don't actually want to kill you. One of the things I like about the sharing economy (Uber, Airbnb, etc) is that we're slowly being reminded that it's okay to trust our neighbors, despite the constant attempts by the media to spread fear.

NegativeLatency 9y ago
Except when you neighbors are the ones renting out the apartment next to you on air bnb, and you have drunk noisy people bumping around next door all the time.
- catshirt 9y ago
  and no one in the equation killed you yet. :)
- filoleg 9y ago
  I don't see how it is different from having noisy drunk people as your permanent neighbors. Ultimately, your non-airbnb permanent neighbors are just as much of a stranger to you, with certain specific exceptions.
  - flukus 9y ago
    Your permanent neighbors tend to be noisy and drunk occasionally, people renting an airbnb are on holidays and likely to be noisy and drunk, then a week later you'll get a new batch likely to be noisy and drunk.
    - baddox 9y ago
      But does anyone oppose reasonable rules for time-of-day-based noise levels in an apartment or neighborhood? It really doesn’t matter if your permanent neighbors or transient guests are the ones making the noise, either should cause the property owner/renter to get fined/evicted.

ebcode 9y ago

I remember being a kid (8 or 9) and sitting down with my friend at his house with his parents and going through all our candy together to check for danger signs. Sure enough, there was a single-wrapped Reese's peanut-butter cup with a hole in the wrapper, and we opened it up and found a sewing needle stuck inside the peanut-butter cup. (I don't think I'm making this up, but memories being what they are, this might have been a story that was told to me. I do remember vividly the breaking of the peanut-butter cup into two pieces and the needle falling on the table, though, so I'm inclined to believe the memory.) This would have been in the late 1980s. So, in my case, the fear did not come from the media, but from a personal experience. So rather than saying, "this never happens, it's just a myth", we should be saying, "this can happen, and let's take steps to protect ourselves". Anyone remember the Tylenol Poisonings[0]? That was real, inspired copycats, and led to tamper-resistant and tamper-evident packaging. Tragic, but at least we learned from the tragedy. While it's true that not everyone is out to get you, at the same time it's foolish to think that no-one is out to get you. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders

cutcss 9y ago
Believe it or chewing a sewing needle don't actually kills you; but sure you can be afraid of anything and still get validation of that fear; you know a lot of people die from heavy objects falling from buildings? You should protect from that too, it has happened before so clearly you should take steps to protect yourself (and it has happened a lot more than candy poisoning), perhaps always using a construction helmet would be a nice first step. And traffic accidents, so many pedestrians die from car accidents that its weird we all don't have personal airbags around our torsos and heads; at the end of the day being alive its the biggest risk factor of dying and the only sure way to not die is to be already death.
georgeecollins 9y ago
Your story is amazing, but it is an anecdote. The data found by researchers about the dangers of Halloween candy suggest that the risk is more or less non-existent. The point is not that people should think no one is out to get them, it is that they ignore real dangers because the media likes to talk about imaginary ones, and ignore real ones like pollution, which are not as exciting.

simonblack 9y ago

If you're going asking for a 'trick or treat', you have to expect as many 'tricks' as 'treats'. That's part of the 'fun' of it. The donors are not forced to give you 'treats' every time. If you can't accept that, don't go out asking.