Growing up, Halloween was one of my favorite nights of the year. The anticipation started long before the sun went down. You'd get your costume ready, grab the biggest bag you could find, and meet up with your friends with one goal in mind: get as much candy as possible.
We'd go from house to house, street to street. Some houses had the best decorations. Others were known for handing out the good candy. And there was always that one house that gave out full-size candy bars.
You'd eventually make it home, dump everything onto the floor, and admire the mountain of candy you'd collected.
Those were the nights you wished would never end.
Somewhere along the way, Halloween changed.
As I got older, I started noticing something.
The streets didn't seem quite as full. Some neighborhoods that once had kids running from house to house became noticeably quieter. More families started attending organized trunk-or-treat events instead of spending the evening walking their neighborhoods.
I've sometimes called it the end of the Sandlot era.
If you've ever seen The Sandlot, you probably know what I mean. That feeling of being a kid, getting together with your friends, heading outside, and experiencing the world without every moment being planned for you.
Halloween was one of the last nights of the year that truly felt like that.
And I began wondering how much of it we were losing.
"How many trick-or-treaters did you get?"
It's a question people ask every November 1st.
Some people will tell you they had hundreds of kids. Others say they barely had anyone knock on their door.
And every year, we have the same conversations.
"Nobody trick-or-treats around here anymore."
"We used to get so many more kids."
"Everyone goes to that neighborhood now."
But I started wondering: what if we could actually see how Halloween was changing?
What if we could look back five, ten, or even twenty years from now and see how many trick-or-treaters came through our neighborhoods?
What if those numbers could tell a story?
Not just about candy, but about the neighborhoods we grew up in, the traditions we remember, and the memories future generations are making.
One little idea.
In August 2025, that curiosity led me to start building something.
I had never released an iPhone app before, but I wanted to see if I could turn this idea into something real.
I called it TreatCounter.
The idea was simple: every time trick-or-treaters came to your door, you could count them with a tap.
Nothing complicated. Just a little way to capture something that, until now, most of us had only kept track of in our heads.
But the more I worked on it, the more I realized those little numbers could become something much bigger.
Imagine thousands of porches, each keeping track of their Halloween night. Imagine looking back years later and seeing which neighborhoods were bustling with kids, which ones were changing, and where new Halloween traditions were taking shape.
For the first time, we could begin creating a history of Halloween, one front porch at a time.
Keeping the porch light on.
I don't know if Halloween will ever look exactly like it did when I was growing up.
And maybe that's okay. Traditions change. Neighborhoods change. Kids grow up.
But I still believe there's something special about a neighborhood full of porch lights, kids walking with their friends, costumes everywhere, and families making memories together.
If TreatCounter can help capture even a little bit of that, and maybe someday help more families experience it, then building this app will have been worth it.
Because someday, the kids running up to our porches tonight will be the adults remembering what Halloween used to feel like.
And wouldn't it be something if we could help them remember?
Every porch has a story. Every treat counts.
See you on the porch,
Kevin
Got a Halloween story, an idea, or a bug? I read every message: [email protected]. Made in Riverside, California.