Both N and I are really dedicated to the goal of doing the Halloween the right way. N went to the Global Foods store and bought a mountain of expensive Russian candy. I suggested that we eat the candy ourselves and buy something cheap and unpretentious at Walmart for trick – or – treaters but he refused.
In N’s absence, I rummaged in the candy and discovered that a big portion of it consisted of candies called “Vodka.” The name was written in English.
And this is how we almost got to become known in the neighborhood as “Russian alcoholics who tried to make little kids drunk.”
Clarissa's Blog 
Check whether other candies with innocent names are liquor filled. I am not joking here. Expensive candy often includes alcohol, and I am not sure it’s OK to give to kids in America.
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I’ve been checking a little too much these days. 🙂 I’m too exhausted to care.
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// I suggested that we eat the candy ourselves and buy something cheap and unpretentious at Walmart for trick – or – treaters
I would’ve done so in Israel out of desire not to present myself as a Russian immigrant, who completely failed to adopt to Israeli society (and because many eat only kosher). This description is false for both of us in our present societies, but your neighbors don’t know that. If you want to do it ‘right’ and present yourself as somebody who fits right in the community, local candy is best. Of course, the following is based on my Israeli experience, not on American one.
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N bought more of the good Russian candy yesterday. 🙂 We are proudly standing by our identity. 🙂
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\\ We are proudly standing by our identity. 🙂
By your *Russian* identity?
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Russian – speaking. To be fair, some of the candy is Byelorussian.
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You wouldn’t believe the paranoia …
But in case you’re curious, Google these:
Chicago Tylenol scare
Ann Landers razor blades in apples
Poisoned candy myths
Don’t even bother with buying candy that isn’t heat-sealed against tampering.
Paranoid parents would never let their children have any of that stuff, despite the risk being almost completely a myth …
I wouldn’t spend money on candy that will be thrown out by paranoid parents.
Welcome to Halloween in America! 🙂
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In my old college neighborhood, adult students would trick-or-treat, and mini liquor bottles were passed out for them, while the kids got candy. Surely you can save the “vodka” ones for grown-ups, or at least, teenagers who will think you’re the absolute coolest house on the block? 🙂
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Given the not entirely….. worldly and sophisticated nature of where you live and the ever-more intrusive nature of Stasi parents (my new bid for a neologism to call my own) I could see them censoring candy that has any kind of foreign language writing on it.
It’s my understanding that it’s not uncommon now for parents to insist on inspecting the candy before it goes into their children’s bags…..
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Ok, I didn’t consider this possibility at all. All I can say is that it’s a serious handicap to have such anxiety – ridden parents.
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Are you decorating your new house for Halloween? If so, I would love to see pictures please! (So I can live vicariously since I don’t have my own house to decorate… Though I still have a few carved pumpkins for my own enjoyment.)
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This might be a bit early. But Trick or Treat. You can see from my icon that I’m really, really scary. Some of the special V O D K A candies might be appropriate.
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\\ I could see them censoring candy that has any kind of foreign language writing on it.
Haven’t thought about this before. I am not sure I wouldn’t have been this kind of parent. Not “before it goes into their children’s bags” since it would be rude, but at home. If you don’t see expiration date and/or aren’t sure what something is (and whether it’s safe), why give it to a child?
Children may also have allegies, and a parent can’t know which ingredients are used in foreign candy.
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I can only repeat that an anxious parent is a heavy burden to a child until the end of that child’s life. “Don’t live your life because I’m worried about you” is a mechanism of control. And control is aggression.
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And what is the next step here? “Don’t get up from the table until you finish your vegetables? ” Once you start down this road, how do you manage to stop?
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Checked that Halloween is today after posting the previous comment. On the bright side, I think we have been overthinking it all on the blog. (And I tend to see a glass as “half-empty” and worry too much in general.) I think most children will enjoy the candy, even if a few parents are of the more worrying kind.
Would love to hear how it went and, may be, even see pics, f.e. how scary / inviting your house looks like in the darkness. Are they mostly young children or also / mainly teens? Do they come alone or with parents? Have you played any practical jokes on them, or they on you?
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Thanks is, if I manage to get home before trick or treating ends.
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Just for fun: saw on Feministe a link to Dear Prudence answering the following:
Kids from poorer neighborhoods keep coming to trick-or-treat in mine. Do I have to give them candy?
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2014/10/dear_prudence_on_halloween_poor_kids_come_to_trick_or_treat_in_my_neighborhood.html
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I know I’m turning into a dreadful bore, but this funny post is one more bit of evidence of the advent of a new state model. Now people want to erect barriers between communities of differing wealth that will not even be penetrated during carnavalesque occasions. Not even in the Middle Ages was this done.
Sorry, scholars are boring people because we grab onto an idea and then worry it to death. I often make an effort not to exclaim “Actually, one more thing about the nation-state!” as I lie in bed with my husband.
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When I was a trick or treater the only reason we went to the richer neighborhood was that the houses were closer together (a lot of the rest of the town didn’t lend itself to door to door on foot). I should not our parents dumped us at a place and picked us up again at a pre-designated meeting point – I would never have lived down the shame of them going with us door to door (much less to the door).
But the individual houses there were mostly pretty crappy in terms of candy. The regular part of town had better individual house hauls but the time between houses lowered overall sugar yields.
The black kids inevitably had the largest amounts of candy the next day in school though they mostly limited themselves to the ‘quarter’….
When I worked briefly in a convenience store at the edge of the black neighborhood I noticed that adults would often pass the change from their purchases (if it was under 50 cents or so) to kids hanging around the counter for just that purpose. This _never_ happened in white neighborhoods.
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\\ Now people want to erect barriers between communities of differing wealth that will not even be penetrated during carnavalesque occasions.
I think you exaggerate here. I am sure there were quite a few unwritten rules even in the Middle Ages, and then too some rich people complained. What about Dickens’ times, for instance? Other times / countries? Most likely, less complain today than then.
Also, I remember you talking about the new fluid world, in which people move a lot between countries and can move between socio-economic classes. Here, we talk about erecting barriers. How will people move, if there are more physical and metaphorical walls than ever? If every small community is walled in and out?
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“I think you exaggerate here. I am sure there were quite a few unwritten rules even in the Middle Ages, and then too some rich people complained.”
– Yes, of course, but there were special occasions when social norms were subverted, sexual and class barriers were breached, etc. Those were the carnavalesque occasions of which we have a single remnant in the form of Halloween. Bakhtin wrote a lot on the carnavalesque.
“Also, I remember you talking about the new fluid world, in which people move a lot between countries and can move between socio-economic classes. Here, we talk about erecting barriers. How will people move, if there are more physical and metaphorical walls than ever? If every small community is walled in and out?”
– People do move a lot between countries, etc. But there will b a growing underclass that will be locked out and will remain on the margins of all that movement. It’s heightened mobility but only for those who manage to jump onto this train. Others will see the train swish by.
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