Episode 559
Is Trick or Treating Dying?
People are now paying strangers — called “Uber Treats” — to go trick-or-treating for their kids while the kids stay on the couch. I joke, but for real: you upload a pic of your kid in costume, pick basic/premium/full-size candy, track the driver as they hit houses (and skip the raisin ones), and if Reese’s are out you get “free‑range” candy corn as a substitute. I love that Halloween started centuries ago in Ireland and Scotland where kids actually had to perform a song or poem to earn candy — like an audition for sugar. America streamlined it into neighborhood pillowcase raids by the 1950s, then we moved on to trunk-or-treats and church/school events for safety and convenience. Call me nostalgic, but I miss the hustle of knowing which house handed out full-size bars — now we’ve outsourced trick-or-treating to an app.
Takeaways:
- I point out trick-or-treating is centuries old, with roots in Ireland and Scotland, not just 1978.
- Back then kids had to perform songs, poems, or little routines to actually earn their Halloween treats.
- By the 1950s it morphed into a massive neighborhood thing—pillowcases full of candy and parents on driveways.
- Nowadays people favor trunk-or-treats and organized events; safer and easier, sure, but some neighborhood charm gets lost.
- Then I impersonate a parody 'Uber Treats' service—upload a costume pic, pick basic/premium/full-size options, track your Treater, and enjoy goofy substitution policies like free-range candy corn.
Transcript
Good morning, Haystack with you.
Speaker A:And trick or treating is a.
Speaker A:Is a really old tradition, believe it or not.
Speaker A: say really old, I don't mean: Speaker A:I mean the roots of trick or treating go back centuries.
Speaker A:People in Ireland and Scotland were dressing up and going door to door long before anyone had a plastic pumpkin bucket.
Speaker A:Back then, kids would actually have to perform something.
Speaker A:They'd have to sing a song, recite a poem, do a little routine, and that's when you got your treat.
Speaker A:So basically, Halloween used to have this audition process, and then America did what America do.
Speaker A:America tried to improve the system.
Speaker A:America said, how about the kid just shows up dressed like Spider man and we give him a Snickers?
Speaker A:All right, Perfect.
Speaker A: By the: Speaker A:Kids everywhere, pillowcases full of candy, parents standing at the end of the driveway.
Speaker A:No tracking apps or none of that.
Speaker A:But now you hear more and more people saying, we barely get trick or treaters anymore.
Speaker A:I mean, kids are doing trunk or treat.
Speaker A:They're doing church events and school festivals, organized Halloween nights.
Speaker A:And is it safer?
Speaker A:Yeah, probably.
Speaker A:Is it more convenient?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:But there was something great about that old system.
Speaker A:You had to work for that candy.
Speaker A:You had a route.
Speaker A:You knew which houses gave full size bars, you knew which houses gave raisins, and you remembered those people forever.
Speaker A:But now I'm starting to think that we're only a few years away from eliminating the walking altogether.
Speaker A:Which brings us to a new service for the modern American family.
Speaker A:Why should your kid have to leave the couch this Halloween?
Speaker A:Why drag your kids around the neighborhood begging strangers for candy when you can pay a stranger to do it for them?
Speaker A:Introducing Uber Treats.
Speaker A:Just upload a picture of your kid in costume, and an Uber Treats driver will go door to door collecting candy on their behalf.
Speaker A:Choose from basic premium or full size candy bar options and track your Uber Treater as they skip the house that gives out raisins.
Speaker A:And with Uber Treat's easy substitution policy, if Reese's cups weren't available, we'll give you a handful of free range candy corn.
Speaker A:Uber Treats.
Speaker A:Your kid can experience Halloween the way nature intended through an appointment.
