All Hallow's Eve

Hallowe' has certainly changed since I was a kid.
For one thing, the kids come around in packs now. Rarely do I open the door to find one or two little goblins: it's usually a crowd of six or eight. I used to go out alone some years, and other years I'd tag along with a friend, but I was never part of a...what's the collective term for kids soliciting candy? Of course! A cavity of trick-or-treaters. And I surely don't recall seeing such huge cavities, back in the day.
While the clocks did go back an hour last weekend, it seems like Hallowe'en's gone back two or three...most of the action is over by seven p.m. Sure, when I was four or five, I did my trick-or-treating early, too. But when I was ten I wouldn't start until seven--and again, there were plenty of kids out there sharing the street with me.
What has happened to the once ubiquitous UNICEF boxes? Last year we didn't see a single child collecting, and this year I was surprised early on to find a whole group of kids with boxes...but none since.
The costumes, rather predictably, have taken a quantum leap since the days when I went out wrapped in an old sheet. I've seen all manner of cartoon characters, animals, and students from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Every single one of the latter seems to be in Gryffindor, for some odd reason...I'd ask each one what house they belonged to, and that was the unanimous answer. "Too bad", I'd say sweetly. "Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs get triple the candy."
A couple of years back, we lived on the second floor of a three-story walkup. We went out and bought some Hallowe'en candy to give out, expecting every kid in the complex. We never got a single knock on our door. Not one.
That puzzled me mightily and still does. You'd think an apartment complex would be perfect for trick-or-treaters: it's sheltered from the elements, nominally safer for children, and it's possible to collect a dump-truck full of sweets in a very short period of time without even leaving the building. Obviously I'm missing something...but what?
The other thing I see a lot of now is kids far too old to be out mooching candy. I'm sorry, but once you have to shave or you've grown bosoms, you're too old for Hallowe'en. My rules: I make 'em up. If I remember rightly, I was eleven the last year I went around (dressed as Carol Burnett, that year...) and even then I thought I'd outgrown the whole thing. Teenagers trick-or-treating make me think of octogenarians waiting for the Denture Fairy.
I can't say if this next is a change from the seventies--I was far too young to notice, or care, then--but there seem to be an awful lot of people these days denying their children the pleasures of Hallowe'en. "We don't believe in it", they announce snootily, with their noses facing God. I pity kids in these families. Is there anything under the tree at Christmas, or do they tell the children that Santa is an anagram of Satan? At Easter, is the house declared a Chocolate-Free-Zone? For Christ's sake--literally--lighten up. I looked up and down the street tonight and there wasn't a pentagram in sight.
Back when I was a kid, my Hallowe'en candy more often than not would last an entire year...except for the chocolate bars. If I'd been allowed, those would have been gone before I even got back home. I wonder if kids today feel the same way.