|
Most of Lewiston's little goblins switch to begging at
trunks for Halloween treats
|
By Sarah Ali
November 3, 2005 | LEWISTON -- Ghosts,
goblins, princesses and witches all come to life
one night of the year, Halloween. The night when
kids can dress up in costume and get away with
eating as much candy as their nimble finger can
fit into their mouths.
Current USU students and generations past experienced
a type of Halloween that seems to have faded away,
one that included "trick-or-treating." The part
of Halloween when all the little spooks would
walk from house to house in the neighborhoods
of local community has become a thing of the past,
and has now been replaced with a new and hip activity,
"trunk-or-treating."
The traditional phrase, "trick-or-treat", has
now lost its old meaning, and has been upgraded
with the word "trunk" to suit the current method
in which the children obtain their candy.
|
GOT GOODIES?
Trunk-or-treaters, clockwise from top right, CoriAnn,
Olivia, Jaymee and Danille, check out the candy
in Lewiston. / Photo by Sarah Ali
|
No longer are there scary porches to walk up to, no
dimmed lights casting shadows in the dark and no creepy
music playing with bloody curdling screams that chill
to the bone.
Rather than spending the evening walking the neighborhood,
the whole event has been condensed to a short and sweet
30-minute process. Parents stock their trunks with candy
(some adventurous ones even decorate the trunk), drive
to a parking lot where other trunk-or-treating families
have gathered and set their children loose to roam from
car to car.
There were many trunk or treat events organized this
Halloween throughout the valley. The city of Lewiston
sent letters to the community and posted signs in the
local stores and building to inform the residents of
the event that was scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and
last for half an hour.
"With the way the world is now, [trunk-or-treating]
is safer," said Gary Denton, a resident of Lewiston
who attended the event with his family. Denton and many
other fathers sat in the back of their vehicles with
a bowl of assorted treats while their children and wives
wandered the lot.
Bardett Bagley said, "It's safer and quicker, this
way our kids aren't out in the cold."
In the city's last Council meeting it was mentioned
that traffic danger was one of the main reasons the
city decided to host the trunk or treat three years
ago. "With trunk-or-treating you don't have to worry
about continuously putting on and taking off seat belts
in between rides," said Paul Swainston.
The Lewiston Youth Council organizes the event every
year and since the event began it has been a success,
according to the youth council advisor, Tanya Taylor.
Many of the residents of Lewiston, the second largest
city in the state in respect to area, live out and away
from the center of town. Mindy Davidson said that before
trunk-or-treating came along, she would drive to Main
Street and drop her kids of at the beginning of 800
East and wait for them at the end of the road to take
them home. "I love this new way, because it takes less
time and they're out when it's still light," Davidson
said. She added that this way she can also monitor where
the candy is coming from.
Due to the small population the city has a tightly
knit community. "Lewiston is like Mayberry," said Swainston
in reference to the city in which the Andy Griffith
Show takes place.
Bagley said the trunk-or-treat allows everyone in
the city to come in and see all the kids dressed up.
Many of the latecomers found shut trunks in the lot.
"The down fall is that you have to get a lot of candy,"
said Swainston.
Another issue that some of the kids try to make a
couple of rounds around the lot to get double the amount.
Jake Sorensen and Cameron Whitehead, mentioned that
they had seen a few kids come around more than once.
Even though more and more cities are incorporating
trunk-or-treating, there are still some who show up
at houses to do it the old way. Denton said that he
usually gets one or two of the traditional trick-or-treaters
stopping by his house. "They're older kids who don't
come to the trunk-or-treat... most of the people who
come to this are kids and families," he said.
NW
MS |
