An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight? Thank the Candy Lobby – City Room – Metro – New York Times Blog
The candy lobby has a long history with Halloween and “saving”
daylight. By 1986, a year of great Congressional debate on the matter,
candy sales had suffered a sharp falloff as trick-or-treating was
hammered by
- Hysteria around the myth of candy poisoning
- Increased concerns about child abduction brought on by photos of missing kids on milk cartons.
“The candymakers were so desperate for this that, beside lobbying
for years, they went and put pumpkins filled with candy on the seat of
every senator in America,” Mr. Downing said.
I knew there was a conspiracy somewhere! The best part of Halloween was being out in the dark. We were truly afraid of visiting certain houses and lots of people installed great displays that needed to be seen at night.
Now the kids come around demanding candy and not even bothering to dress up in costumes. I’m sick of the high-school age kids thrusting forward their opened backpacks and grunting – no “Trick or Treat”, no “Thank you”.
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Tags: Halloween, daylight, time-change, candy, lobby, government
Musings from Sumigirl 