By Steve Hemmingsen
This reporter has lived just east of Spinnaker Boulevard for something like 5 years now. Halloween here has always been a mystery to me. In all those years, I’ve put in a new air conditioner, a new water heater, and cleaned up after four hurricanes.
But in that time, I have never had one Luke Skywalker, not one princess, not one angel, not one devil come trick-or-treating. Granted, we’re a bunch of old geezers in this neighborhood, but some of us do lay out some candy, which I wind up eating because no Draculas or Yetis ever come a-knockin ‘.
This year, it’s mystery solved! I’m riding my e-trike on the “other side” of Spinnaker when I notice a bit of street activity a few blocks into what is apparently known as the Tringali neighborhood; that area loosely bounded by the library (Tringali Park), Wilmington, some retention ponds on the west and, of course, that uncrossable boundary, Spinnaker, where the weird old people like me live.
It was like wandering into an Alice in Wonderland scenario not adequately described by the signs promoting the event for weeks.
The place was teaming with kids and parents in costume. Golf carts and ATVs pulling trailers reminiscent of the hay rides we used to have on Halloween and homecoming in Minnesota’s little farm towns. Kids were darting everywhere. One father encouraged me to run over a couple of his darters, joking, of course. I think.
It appears to be inappropriate, if not illegal, for residents not to sit in their driveways and pass out goodies…or maybe just pass out. People tell me that this neighborhood celebration has been going…and growing…for 4 years, getting bigger each year. The entire neighborhood gets involved, some even setting up to be fun houses on the lawn.
I didn’t see many kids running around unaccompanied by parents like we used to in our towns of 800 or a thousand people. I suppose all the ills of our current society don’t allow the long leash we enjoyed. But the upside is…as our small-town newspapers used to say about everything from coffee klatches to funerals… “A good time was had by all!”
And next Halloween…Tringali Trick or Treat Five…promises to be “bigger and better.”
