STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Sarah Burke was looking forward to Halloween treats. But she got tricked.
“I came down with chickenpox on Halloween when I was in the first grade. I remember it was really, really itchy, and Halloween has been my least favorite holiday ever since,” said Burke.
Burke grew up in Hailey when trick or treat consisted of going door to door—“and then Hailey consisted of three blocks. Everyone gave out raisins,” she said.
Despite her own early memories, Burke was out on Main Street Hailey Tuesday afternoon handing out candy as hundreds of youngsters and their parents—all dressed in costume—swarmed businesses looking for treats during Hailey's annual Halloween Hoopla.
One woman parked her truck on Main Street to watch the characters parade by: Mary Poppins, the Pope and a nun, a hot dog and taco, an angel and a sumo wrestler, even a Statue of Liberty and human school bus.
Edward James, who dressed as a trapper, recalled how his aunt in Blackfoot always had tons of candy corn.
"Maybe that's why I hate candy corn. She also gave out pomegranates and caramel apples, which were okay."
Cheri Stewart, a teller at US Bank, adorned herself with spider decals, a trick she learned in a Martha Stewart magazine.
"They cover up my wrinkles," she said. "They were poky this morning. Now I don't notice them."
Stewart grew up in Boise where Halloween meant filling an entire pillowcase on Harrison Boulevard alone.
"Caramel apples, popcorn balls. And Sixlets--those were my favorite back then. Now, if I eat them, they taste like fake chocolate," said Stewart, who turned a sheet into a ghost costume and a black patch into a pirate's wardrobe as a young'un.
Heather Parton, Kala Wicks and four others at Mountain West Bank dressed as dominoes, even connecting the dots before the trick or treaters arrived. They, too, remembered the days when you needed pillowcases for jumbo-sized candy bars and all the other loot.
"They got pretty darn heavy," said Parton, who grew up in Jerome.
"More than five pounds," chimed in Wicks, who grew up in Baker City.
"I remember going to the dentist's house where he handed out roll of nickels. We also got homemade Rice Krispies balls, apples, Life Savers--you don't see those anymore," rejoined Parton.
Aimee Durand, who was chaperoning youngsters from Sun Valley Ballet, recalled how her father took her around to all the neighbors in the small town outside of Boston where she grew up.
"They invited you into their homes for homemade donuts. It was fun to hang out with the neighbors," she said.
Fernando Hurtado walked around as a Lego block and his sister Octavio as a popcorn box. Farmer Brown Sarah Stavros trotted around with her 3-month old pea pod Addison.
"When I grew up, Bellevue had a Halloween fair where we bobbed for apples and things like that," she recalled. "They don't do that, anymore."
In the Liberty Theatre where children lined up on stage for a costume contest by the scads, David Janeski kept things going with a lively banter.
"What do you call a tree that's scared?" he asked. "A petrified tree."
A couple dog skeletons and a ghost greeted trick or treaters at Flight Archery. Inside, archers could take target practice on zombies as they tried to "destroy the undead."
Christine Wilson beamed as she fetched candy from a big bowl at Smokey Bone BBQ.
"We didn't get to do this in the daytime back home in Iowa," she said. "We had to wait until dark. I love this because I can see the costumes. And I love passing out candy. I would pass out candy anytime, if I could."