Safer holiday can still be a treat
| • | Keep Halloween from being a horror for your pet |
By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer
Rosie Dowson remembers her son crawling through a maze of toilet paper boxes in the family garage when he was just a toddler.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
She came up with the idea nearly 16 years ago to keep him safe and happy on Halloween night. She was amazed at how much he enjoyed navigating the maze, over and over.
Kaimuki resident Richard Mercado and his girlfriend Carolyn Hong attach a skeleton to a floor fan to give it the illusion of movement. Mercado says he has set up his eerie Halloween display for more than a decade.
Richard Mercado, working on a vampire coffin at his Kaimuki home, says his display gives neighborhood kids "somewhere fun" to go.
Soon, the toilet paper boxes gave away to refrigerator boxes. Other kids in the neighborhood tried it out. The crawling turned into walking, then running, through mazes that spilled from the garage to the driveway and now, some 16 years later, into the street in front of nine homes in this tucked-away Mililani cul-de-sac.
The Neleau Place 'ohana, as the tight-knit families call themselves, are among hundreds of Island residents taking neighborliness to heart this Halloween by providing safe, family-friendly activities for thrill-seeking trick-or-treaters.
Even though most of their own children have outgrown the boxes, the neighbors still block off the cul-de-sac to set up the giant maze for neighborhood kids to race through.
Kaimuki resident Richard Mercado, 59, also will continue a neighborhood tradition, which he started more than 12 years ago.
Unlike the G-rated Neleau Place maze, Mercado's "Haunted Lane" — with gory vignettes of axe-wielding killers and alien invasions — is meant to scare the pants off both young and old.
"When I used to take (my kids) around the block, there was nothing ... was boring," said Mercado, the father of four and grandfather of three. "Now the neighborhood kids get someplace to go to, somewhere fun."
All month long, Mercado, owner of a pool maintenance business, uses his imagination, creativity and some trashed goods to create frightful scenes to line the dimly-lit common driveway shared by three other homes on 3465 Kaimuki Ave.
Treat or trick, take your pick. But the theme behind either approach should be for kids — and adults — to have a happy and safe Halloween.
• Parents should select costumes for their children that are bright, clearly visible to motorists and short enough to prevent tripping. • Keep candles and jack-o'lanterns away from landings and doorsteps, where costumes could brush against the flame. For illumination, consider a small flashlight instead of a candle. • Smaller children should always be with an adult. • If older children go out unsupervised, parents should go over ground rules and know what neighborhoods their children will visit. • Older children going out without an adult should stay in a group. Someone in the group should carry a cell phone or have change to use a pay phone if necessary. • Parents should instruct children to carry a flashlight to see and be seen, use sidewalks, cross only at corners, never dart out between parked cars, and cover one side of the street at a time. • Parents should throw out any treat that appears tampered with. Toss homemade or home-packaged treats unless certain of the source. Source: Honolulu Fire Department
"We wanted something to attract (our children) to stay on our street, and that's how this grew," said Dowson, a 53-year-old flight attendant. "It's just become a tradition, and I think, just a service to the community."
Trick-or-treating safety tips:
The blockwide Mililani event includes children's games and a "touchy-feely" booth with boxes billed as containing ghoul guts and Cyclops' eyes for the non-squeamish to experience.
In Kaimuki, along the 250-foot-long lane, brave visitors encounter life-size dummies of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in bloody action, as well as skeletons, jack-o'-lanterns and an electric-chair scene.
Mercado goes all out with his "labor of love," using dry ice, blinking Christmas lights, fountain pumps with flowing red water and audio tapes of spooky sounds for added special effects.
His neighbors get involved, too, dressing up as witches or other creepy creatures and jumping out from behind trees and bushes to startle unknowing victims.
"Oh, yeah, it's good fun," said Ethel Hamada, Mercado's 60-something neighbor. "The kids, even the adults, enjoy it."
Each year, Hamada looks forward to the peals of screams and laughter from hundreds of visitors. Although she won't be among the neighbors hiding in the bushes this Halloween, she'll pitch in in her own way.
"I just have to get a lot of candies ready," Hamada said, laughing.
Meanwhile, residents of 'Ewa Beach have turned the spooky holiday into a communitywide pre-celebration. Friday and yesterday, neighborhood volunteers threw a Halloween bash at 'Ewa Beach Community Park.
Members of the 'Ewa Beach Community Association and 'Ewa Beach Lions Club have sponsored the bash for more than five years to bring the community together, said Dee White, an event volunteer and 'Ewa resident of 20 years.
It's crucial for neighborhoods to provide such family-oriented holiday alternatives, she said.
"It's safe for the kids to come in an environment where it's drug- and alcohol-free," said White, 49, whose grandchildren participate in the annual event.
Providing a safe Halloween environment also is a priority for the LahainaTown Action Committee, a nonprofit community organization that has been coordinating Halloween in Lahaina since 1990.
For the past 13 years, thousands of trick-or-treaters of all ages have attended the annual event along Front Street.
The celebration kicks off early in the day for the younger set, with activities such as a keiki parade, trick-or-treating at participating businesses, a haunted house and face-painting, said volunteer coordinator Ruth Griffith.
Griffith, 36, was born and raised in Lahaina and has her two sons, ages 8 and 5, participate in the family-friendly festivities each year.
"We just live in a different world now, so we have to be more careful about where we take our children," Griffith said.
Reach Zenaida Serrano Espanol at zespanol@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.
