Trick-or-treating: an activity that almost all of us have done at least once in our lives. The question remains, though, why do we say “trick-or-treat” if we only really get a treat? I have always asked myself this throughout my childhood. St. Louis is one of the only places in the U.S. that requires kids to tell a joke in order to receive a treat. There isn’t really a trick involved, just a joke. Telling a joke to someone does not “trick” the person and isn’t necessarily a way to “outwit” someone. A Kirkwood parent reacts to today’s trick-or-treaters as “kids who only get candy and leave.” She remembers going trick or treating and having to do cartwheels in order to get candy, and even pulling a few pranks going from door to door. The reason as to why I drew this piece of art the way it is was because I wanted to represent how halloween is with the people handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters, who are mostly just giving out candy to them rather than asking for them to do a trick. It doesn’t really seem like the phrase “trick-or-treat” is really an option, isn’t it?

Madelyn Rehkop