Clown Face in Blackpool

I really don’t like Halloween.  There’s lots of reasons for that.  What happened tonight is just one of them.

For the last few years I’ve put a poster up in the window by our front door.  It says “Sorry no trick or treat”.  The door bell is the opposite side of the door and occasionally the trick or treaters miss the poster and ring anyhow.  This year I added a post-it note under the bell with the words “Please no trick or treat”.

At one point there was a banging and kicking at the front door followed by a continual ringing of the door bell.  The noise was such that I was concerned that some one was might be in trouble so I opened the door.  I found three boys aged about 11 or 12.  “Trick or Treat” one of them mumbled.

“Can’t you read?” I asked.
“Read wot?” one replied, glancing at the door bell and where they had removed the note.
“This.” I said. Indicating the poster.
The response to that was a string of verbal abuse, using language that would make a sailor blush. 

I wonder if they thought that if they swore at me long enough it would make me change my mind? I closed the door. 

Five minutes later I heard a very loud bang on the front door and an even louder one on the garage door.  It appears that they had taken a running kick at the front door and at the garage door – which now has a dent in it.

I’m not old and frail.  But I was unsettled by such thuggish behaviour in children.  I can fully understand why those who are old or infirm get very scared at Halloween.