Ben Crowe dislikes Halloween because of a childhood memory that fell on the same day most people go trick-or-treating. At the age of 7, growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Crowe missed his ride home Halloween day from soccer practice. Taking a back-woods route home, he came upon a road and was approached by a slow-moving station wagon. The driver, a man, rolled down his window to talk to Crowe briefly, then drove on. Crowe learned the day after that his classmate, a young girl, had been strangled to death in her trailer home by the same man, who was her stepfather. The memory of this event has colored Crowe’s memory of the holiday ever since. “It’s not the only reason I don’t like Halloween, but it’s definitely a factor,” he said. “The process of coming up with a costume is also anxiety-inducing. I can never pull it off.”