Halloween tradition. (kind of a long post, sorry about that)


 

~Mark~

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When we first moved into our neighborhood about 12 years ago now, it worked out that Trick or Treat was on a weekday with goofy hours like 4 to 7 pm. Both my wife and I were off work that day, and my boy was at that age where it just wasn't cool to be into Trick or Treat anymore. Well a few days before that the wife and I were talking about how hard it was to rush home to get everything ready for the big event, and most of the time that included not having dinner until late in the evening. We decided to get a bunch of hotdogs, buns, ketchup, mustard, and those little paper hotdog holders to pound out about 50 dogs.

Well let me say it was more than a hit. We had a little table set up with all the condiments so it was basically dress your own dog. I would grill them, and put them in an aluminum pan with water and keep them warm. When someone wanted one I'd grab it with the tongs wearing cooking gloves, and put it in the bun, drop that into the paper thing, and hand it over. (Mostly to the parents) while the wife was giving out the candy. It worked very well, and unfortunately I ran out of dogs way to early that year.

The next year I doubled the dogs and we handed out just about all of them. I think I ate a few for lunch the next day. But once again it was a big hit.
The following year about a week before Halloween I had a boy riding his bike stop while I was working in the yard and asked if I was doing dogs again this year. When I told him yes his face lit up and he said, "My pop was hoping you were." and he rode away.
Sadly a lot of the kids have now grown up and moved on, and I'm back down to about 50 dogs again with a few leftovers, but it's still great to see all those happy faces (both kids and adults) when I ask them if they want a dog.
The best are the new people who want one, but aren't sure if I'm one of those crazies, and another parent telling them go ahead.
Or the kids that are a bit old to trick or treat that just walk over and ask if it's still OK to have one. They are the one's that have the best stories about years back when they were little.

It's a tradition that we'll do as long as we can.

So if you want to do something off the wall this Halloween, fire up those grills and pass out some dogs. It really doesn't cost that much, and you will for sure make a lot of people happy.
 
Pretty cool Mark. Here it's hit and miss on Halloween, we don't have a lot of kids living here mostly seniors. But once in awhile folks will bring their kids from other neighborhoods so one year it's maybe 20 trick or treaters the next year it's 200, no real way to plan for it.
 
Your hot dogs sounds like fun. Around this area the kids are told if things don't come in a sealed package they may not be safe.
 
That's an awesome tradition. I could see the parents appreciating it. Unfortunately like Bob said, if it's not in a sealed package many people might shy away from it. Still I think I might try that one year and see what happens.
 
That's awesome, Mark. Thanks for sharing this. Imagine years later and conversations like "do you remember the house that gave candy and served hot dogs?"
 
Down here it is usually pretty hot on Halloween, so DH started giving out cold bottled water with the candy. Yes, word spread pretty fast. lol
 
At first the parents were unsure about some old fat guy giving out hotdogs, but it didn't take much coxing to get a few parents coming up for dogs. Once others saw that they would jump on the bandwagon and try one too. Next thing you'll get is a small group of people eating hotdogs and talking to each other watching their kids do the next couple of houses. That's what neighborhoods should be like, and I'm very happy to be a small part of it.

Give it a try, you might find out that those people that would otherwise be afraid to even talk to a stranger will stop and have a dog. It might just take a little coaxing and a smile, but it works. It doesn't cost that much, but the reward is worth it five fold.
 

 

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