STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Company of Fools turned into the Company of Ghouls as the theater company trotted hundreds of youngsters and their parents across the stage in the Kiwanis Club’s annual Halloween costume contest.
A Hailey dentist donned the Tooth Fairy’s tutu. A motorcyclist streaked along Hailey’s Main Street, a skeleton riding shotgun.
Shorty’s Diner trotted out a reminder to check your smoke alarms on Sunday with Jacob Greenberg posing as a CAT driver; Jeremy Greenberg, a burning Firewise building; Jill Swanger a smoke alarm; Jeanne Greenberg, a fire hydrant, and 4-year-old Otis Greenberg, a tiny fireman.
And even dogs got decked out alongside their owners as vending machines and other creative costumes took the streets.
Halloween Hoopla went on despite hand-numbing temperatures in the 20s.
Hailey merchants gave out thousands of Almond Joys, Kit Kats, 100 Grands and Butterfingers, joining fellow Americans in buying 300,000 tons of candy—enough to fill six Titanics, according to Vox.
According to WalletHub, Americans spend $8.8 billion on Halloween--$3.2 billion of that for costumes and $2.6 billion for candy.
And—cover your kids’ eyes, parents!—72 percent of parents admit to stealing candy from their kids.
But hold onto your witch’s hat: Americans spend even more money on Easter candy—those cream-filled Easter Eggs, Easter bunnies and the opportunity to fight over who bites off the ears don’t come cheap! Or, should that be cheep!?