On Halloween night, Main Street in Big Sandy filled with trick-or-treating kids. Locals lined either side of the road handing out candy and other treats in front of decorated cars, displays, and even a short school bus haunted house. The community Halloween tradition has been providing a safe space for locals to celebrate the holiday together for more than 10 years.
Trunk-or-treat has something to offer for Halloween celebrators on every side of the evening’s festivities. Parents of young kids love the concentration of trick-or-treat stops close together. Petra Yirsa was out with her sister-in-law and their two young kids. She commented, “I love it for the little kids. It’s jus just the right amount; it’s really easy and convenient. It’s so nice to see people who live out of town and not having to walk them all over the neighborhood and try to get little kids to go to the door and smile.” She explained that her older kids were out with their dads. “The dads took the older ones, and they're going on their own. We're taking the younger ones doing this.”
Travis Baumann, who was out with his family, pulling a tuckered out toddler dressed as Slimer from the Ghost Busters in a wagon made up to look like Ecto-1, commented on the positives of the evening: “For us with a three year-old, it makes it a lot easier to just hit this, and then take them home. And the camaraderie, I think, is great, because you get to see and interact with other parents, you never get adults trick-or-treating otherwise.”
Carla Courtnage was handing out candy and sodas from a table with a group of other adults. She explained, “We have five other couples that come down and put candy together and pop and everything, so they get five treats at one time. And we've been doing it about four years now. This is a wonderful idea.” She compared the evening’s event to the past when they gave out candy at their front door. “Compared to when you would wait for kids to come by, this is so much more fun. I think the parents enjoy it. You see how they visit with each other and everything. It's just wonderful.”
Shon Tester, who was handing out candy with Carla and crew, explained “Overall, it's getting bigger each year, and we got to keep in mind, as a community, we have to all participate for something to become successful. And there's a lot of people this year. We flew through almost all our candy already reloaded about five times. I bet we had 10 big bags of candy, but we're pretty generous.”
Many of the locals handing out candy remarked that they love the event because they see so many more kids come by compared to past Halloween evenings when they would wait for kids to come by their houses. Travis explained, “I miss sitting at home and handing out candy to kids that come to my house. I miss that part of it.” He went on to explain that they didn’t see nearly as many kids on a normal evening of handing out candy from home because his house is off in a corner of town and saw far less traffic as a result.
One of the big attractions for the evening was the Fun Bus Haunted House, a short school bus converted into a haunted house on Main Street. Nicole Alderdice explained that the bus was put on by the Sunshine Snippers 4H Club. “We have this fun bus that we bought for the kids to take them around trick or treating, and it's just come into where they want. The 4-H club started decorating it for kind of a spooky excitement during trick-or-treat.” The bus has been a part of Halloween for around 10 years. Originally used to transport kids around town for candy collecting and now as a haunted house for last three years. “Even with the trunk or treat, there's still lots of kids, that go trick or treating. They hang out here for a little while, and then they go hit all the houses.”
Area businesses handed out candy to kids as well. The Elevating Grains Bakery was open and handing out candy, along with the bars and other businesses. The Grocery Store continued their tradition of handing out full-sized candy bars from their stock. Holden O’Dell sat with Jaxon Jones, dressed as Batman and the Joker in front of the Grocery Store. He explained that the store shifted to handing candy out front a few years ago. “I stopped that three years ago, because it was just too hard to oversee everything. So now it's easier to just sit out here, and we get to be in the area with all the people.” Regarding the trunk-or-treat, he explained that it is “a nice way to bring everyone together, make sure that people get out for treating and all that.” He also explained that their most popular candy, far and away, was Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, followed by Hershey’s bars.
The event began at 5 with a flush of kids coming through the array of cars. Traffic slowed as the evening progressed, mainly because young kids had finished their candy collection for the evening and headed off to the warmth of their homes. The older kids went to collect candy door to door in the neighborhood after visiting the Trunk-Or-Treat. Many of the cars headed home before the 7 PM cut-off time, having run out of candy or simply decided to call it a night after the traffic slowed to a trickle.
