The other day, I was listening to the radio, and the announcer started talking about Halloween, and he posed this question: Is trunk-or-treat going to replace trick-or-treat?

It’s an interesting question, when you think about how many trunk-or-treats take place in communities around Wisconsin. However, one noticeable factor about these events is that most of them don’t take place on Halloween. They’re usually a week or two before the big night, so that leaves families the option of venturing forth Oct. 31 to go from house to house to pillage unsuspecting townspeople of their chocolate.

The difference with trunk-or-treat is that, instead of families roaming through individual neighborhoods for the candy, community centers, county fairgrounds and other large places host vehicles representing various businesses and organizations hand out candy and other things.

I should, at this point, note that this went against something I was taught in childhood. I was told that if some stranger comes up and offers you candy from their van, you don’t take it and run away, lest you become the latest tragic statistic for stranger danger. Now, it’s encouraged through trunk-or-treat. It’s a mixed message, but so are most things in this day and age.

Getting back to the question, trunk-or-treat doesn’t seem as much of a replacement for trick-or-treat as it seems like a side quest or a bonus. After all, a replacement would happen the same day of the event in order to force families to make a choice. Trunk-or-treat wouldn’t be the first thing to try and replace the neighborhood zombie invasion.

As I was transitioning into adulthood in Arizona, schools were getting into Halloween carnivals. On Oct. 31, instead of clogging up the streets with 60 or 600 of your closest friends or barely acquaintances in the hunt for the Snickers and Reese’s, educators thought it would be safer for the children to play games in the gymnasium or commons while dressed in their favorite costumes.

To be honest, I don’t see much in the way of Halloween carnivals up here in Wisconsin, certainly not the night of All Hallow’s Eve. Trick-or-treating is just as strong as ever. My sister spends much of September and October decorating her yard in preparation for the munchkins showing up. Communities here set designated trick-or-treat hours starting usually around 4 p.m. and ending an hour or so after the sun goes down.

Trick-or-treating was plenty big when I was a kid. When Chino Valley was mostly farmland, walking around from house to house required hiking boots and a strategic plan, as the homes were not as close together as they are in larger communities. Instead, we went to the city, Prescott, to the luxurious looking Mount Vernon Avenue with its Victorian-style homes and residents all to eager to sugar up the kids and hand them back to Mom.

That was always fun, as the already-whimsical night was set in a neighborhood where many of the homes were near or over a century old. You weren’t hitting trailers or the more modern homes. You were witnessing pieces of history.

Of course, as Chino Valley grew—er, I mean, exploded—in size, there were some closer-knit neighborhoods forming, so we didn’t travel as much to Mount Vernon Avenue, but it was still an awesome way to celebrate Halloween, and the neighborhood still makes it a big thing.

One Halloween, I wound up getting sick—I wasn’t sure if it was from a cold or the flu—and was in no condition to go trotting around seeking candy, which I likely wouldn’t have been able to keep down. Instead, my mother introduced a new way to celebrate by watching scary movies, including the classics of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man. It sure beat just lying in my bed, coughing and wheezing.

The radio announcer, in the end, said that trick-or-treating would never go away, and I agreed with him. Too many families take part in the ritual, and candy here in Wisconsin is a type of love language. Every parade you go to, most of the participants are chucking candy and turning the children into hyper little sugar bombs. Thankfully, Halloween’s on a Friday this year, so getting kids ready for school the next day is out of the picture.

The nice thing about other Halloween events is that you get to wear your costume more than once, or you have the option of going with more than one costume. I never envision trick-or-treating going away, as it’s the cornerstone of the holiday season, and therefore serves as a place where additional fun happens.

Happy Halloween.