Another uneventful Halloween has come and gone in Naperville without any need for an ordinance restricting the hours that Trick or Treaters can appear on your doorstep, banging on your door, or ringing the doorbell in search of free handouts.
Most communities surrounding Naperville have ordinances limiting the hours from 3 PM til 8 PM for Trick or Treating. Naperville has no such ordinance, proving that allowing the good folks of Naperville the opportunity to do the right thing, they do it, without the need for another unnecessary ordinance. Good for the city officials of Naperville for either not doing it, or not thinking of doing it. Unfortunately when one community comes up with an idea of separating taxpayers from their money, other communities jump on the idea like white on rice.
I have thought how cool it would be to be the guy that gets paid to come up with ideas for extracting money from residents for government’s insatiable consumption. At that person’s annual review time, the salary increase is based on how many ways taxpayer’s were screwed into paying more for what they used to pay less for. Some of the recent great ideas were:
- Cook County’s Soda Tax
- Chicago’s bag tax
- Rainwater Tax
There is no limit to the wild creativity of pounding people with new taxes.
So hooray to the Naperville city council for letting the kids trick or treat without carrying an alarm clock. However it did occur to me that I may have inadvertently provided a reason for the council to create an ordinance for Halloween.
In the past I have handed out little hotel shampoos and conditioners (gathered when I traveled), fortune cookies (from my favorite restaurant), and little bags of coupons from local newspapers or mailers, along with a bite-size candy bar. Occasionally not wanting to promote an entitlement mindset with the older little ones, I would ask them to do a trick for the treat, but my wife thought that I was promoting bribery so I stopped that one.
For the last few years, I have been sitting in my little yellow VW Beetle in my driveway intercepting trick or treaters before they get to the front door and giving them a ‘handout’ (piece of candy) of their choice. It beats getting into a wrestling match with my two poodles every time the doorbell rings. Prior to that, Halloween night was pandemonium at the Watchdog residence. Trying to be a person of solutions, I decided to use the car in the driveway idea and it’s worked. I simply take a bowl of treats with me to the car, along with a non-spill-able cup of hot chocolate, and the car keys to occasionally warm-up the car, and watch the parade of kids roll by being surprised that they don’t have to walk all the way up to the front door and wait for a treat. It’s worked perfectly.
However, I am beginning to think that maybe it’s not such a good idea; an old guy (me) sitting in a car summoning kids over for some candy. Bingo, could I have given the council reason for an ordinance. Maybe next year I will sit in the garage, but that seems a little unsavory too. Maybe until the city comes up with an ordinance requiring me to participate in a poodle vs man wresting match to see who can get to the front door first, I will ask the city for forgiveness rather than permission, and utilize the comfort of my little yellow 2000 VW Beetle.
