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Ghosts, ghouls gather for Halloween event
With the threat of rain showers looming overhead, a motley collection of ghastly ghouls, sinister spectres, vile villains and legendary heroes gathered last Thursday for an evening of good-spirited fun.
All of them packed into Hacker Middle School during this year's Safe Halloween Carnival -- a community event hosted by the city parks and recreation department.
Costumed characters young and old were already making their way to the middle school well before the doors were due to open to the public at 6 p.m.
Kole Weaver and his son, Kasun, were already at the school well before the doors opened that evening.
"I love doing things with my son. It makes me feel like I'm a kid again. I think I was more excited about this than he was," he said.
Weaver had another reason why he and his son were among the first in line.
"He loves candy and so do I," he said.
Nearby, Vanita McStott held her daughter, Braelyn, as they waited for the festivities to begin.
"This is what people in Mountain Home love to do, so we're doing it," McStott said.
More than 500 people took part in this year's festivities, which was a little lower than last year's attendance numbers, said parks and recreation representative Trish Hendrickson.
The department started the festival 36 years ago as a way to promote fun and safety. It helped alleviate concerns with young children going door to door for Halloween treats at night with so many cars traveling on city streets at the same time.
In addition, the indoor event ensures people can enjoy the Halloween holiday without dealing with Idaho's often-unpredictable fall weather, said parks and recreation spokesperson Crystal Anderson.
That prediction held true as a series of unexpected rain showers dampened the ground throughout the evening. However, the soggy weather didn't dampen people's Halloween spirit.
Children like Tyler Thomas got into the pirate spirit as he belted out a hearty "arr" that showed two of his missing front teeth.
Unlike traditional Halloween candy gathering methods of going door to door, the carnival used an assortment of games to hand out the sweets. As the lines swelled across the middle school cafeteria, children took their turns in hopes of taking home their share of the hundreds of pounds of assorted sweets that was donated by local businesses and parents.
Fantasy creations that walked through the door during the evening included a host of characters based on children's fairy tales, classic television shows and current action movies.
Trenton Niehay came dressed as what he called a "grave groom." His attire came complete with a skull mounted on a staff, adding to his undead appearance.
"My mom's good with makeup," he said.
The Star Wars universe came alive for others like Rebecca Rainwater, who came dressed as a Sith lord -- one of the sinister villains featured in the movie trilogy. She drew inspiration for her character by playing various Star Wars video games.
Meanwhile, Beth Dickinson and her children, James and Olivia, borrowed a page from children's nursery rhymes and brought the Three Blind Mice to life.
"Olivia saw it on the computer and said that it looked interesting," Dickinson said.
The family makes it a point to dress up based on a common theme. Two years ago, for example, they dressed up as zoo animals with mom posing as the zoo keeper.
Blake Pharis and his wife, Sagan, also decided to go with a specific theme for their costumes. Fans of the Batman movie series, Blake came dressed as the Joker with his wife showing up to the carnival as Batgirl. Meanwhile, their daughter, Bentleigh, came dressed as a new superhero they called the Bat Princess.
"It was a last-minute idea. I came up with it at one o'clock this morning," Sagan Pharis said.
It was fairly easy to put the costumes together since they already had all the pieces in hand, she said.
The biggest challenge involved the hair and makeup, which took considerably longer.
That same type of patience became a virtue of sorts for Cliff Odenwalt, who spent nearly two months building a costume for his son, Logan. Taking a page from the children's movie, "Despicable Me," he took bits and pieces of quilt bedding, plastic, hot glue, duct tape and "about anything else I could get my hands on" to turn his son into one of the minions featured in the full-length film.
Odenwalt, who admitted that he's a big fan of the movie, wanted to create a similar costume for his older son, but he was too tall to make the costume work.
"Logan just looks like a tall minion," he said.
While some children continued to fill their buckets with sugary treats, others gathered in the school's main gymnasium for a shot at winning an assortment of prizes during the yearly costume contest.
To make judging fair, parks and recreation included a total of 14 categories that allowed competitors to vie within their respective age groups with the winners walking away with a basket of treats and prizes. One of those categories allowed entire families to go toe-to-toe for a share of the winnings.