Local kids get an early start on Halloween at Autumn Fest

By GREG JOHNSON

Frontiersman.com

WASILLA — Don’t tell Rosemary Vavrin only kids can dress up for Halloween.

The 68-year-young Vavrin was spotted getting off the hay wagon Saturday afternoon behind the Dorothy G. Page Museum in downtown Wasilla. On any other day, her crimson hooded cloak and rustic basket may have seemed out of place.

“I’m Little Red Riding Hood — once she became a senior citizen,” Vavrin joked while observing a host of local families enjoying the annual Wasilla Old Town Autumn Fest. “I wanted to go on a hay ride, so that’s what I came for, and I wanted to get in the spirit of the thing.”

But she made it clear that she didn’t dress up for Halloween, her costume was to celebrate the autumn fest.

“Well, this is an autumn fest and I’m celebrating the hay ride,” she said. “I’m a Texas country girl, so that’s what I’m celebrating.”

Vavrin may have been celebrating autumn, but it was clear the dozens of superheroes, princesses, cowboys, witches and even a dinosaur and ninja turtle were full-on celebrating Halloween. Along with hot chocolate, kids games and arts and crafts activities, the kids spent most of their time going from place to place through the history old townsite trick-or-treating.

“We’re just having a lot of fun,” said Bethany Buckingham, curator of the museum. Along with the city, local businesses stepped up to host trick-or-treating and do activities for the kids. One of the main draws were the 27 colorful pumpkins children ages 4 through 17 had decorated the week before. They were judged Saturday.

“We’re trying to bring the old town autumn fest back the way we used to celebrate in the old days,” Buckingham said. “Trick-or-treating, activities for the kids, hay rides — we have a new hay wagon this year. And this is our pumpkin contest.”

Kids decorated the pumpkins with “foam stickers and pipe cleaners and everything else you can think of,” she said. “We don’t carve, we just decorate.”

She points out her favorite, a large orange gourd that has pipe-cleaner headphones, a pink tongue sticking out and a shock of rainbow-colored pipe cleaners for hair.

“That’s some wild hair there, that’s all I’m saying about that,” she said.

Inside the old schoolhouse, museum aide Kira Singleton helps kids decorate their trick-or-treat bags. It’s a job that allows her to see most of the costumes as the kids arrive.

“I think it’s neat seeing all the costumes and seeing other people get excited,” she said. “We had one of the museum volunteers come in this morning as the coolest witch — she’s so cool!”

This year there were some creative costumes, like a kid riding a green dinosaur and a ninja turtle (Singleton’s favorite), and a host of stand-by superheroes, like Batman.

That was the alter ego for 4-year-old David Spinelly.

“I’m actually David,” he explains. “Yeah, you thought I was the real Batman, huh?”

His 8-year-old sister Harley Rollins was a spunky kitty cat, while mom Christine Blanusa went all-out with her zombie beauty queen look, the Ghoul School Prom Queen.

“The wig is just OK, but everything else is good,” Rollins says about the zombie costume.

Predictably, when asked what they like best about Halloween, the kids answer in unison, “the candy.” For mom, though, her favorite part comes later.

“It’s robbing the candy out of their bags,” she said.

Coming through the gate at the old townsite, Darrell Christy had a superhero on each hand: right was Spider-Man (a.k.a. his 7-year-old son Jerus Armstrong) and left was Supergirl (Armstrong’s 6-year-old cousin, Angelynn).

Put to the question of who’s stronger — Spider-Man or Supergirl — the kids both said they’re equally powerful. While a diplomatic answer, most kids are quick to stick up for their favorite heroes, Christy said.

“That’s some never-ending math there,” he said.

Asked what brought him out on a chilly October afternoon, Christy answered with more trick than treat.

“Ah, man, because my wife made me,” he joked. “You know, happy wife, happy life.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

Think you know everything about Halloween? Thanks to the folks at Mashable.com, here are some fun facts about the holiday perhaps you didn’t know.

• More candy is sold on Oct. 28 than any other day of the year.

• Legend has it that seeing a spider on Halloween mean a loved one is watching over you.

• You can be fined $1,000 in Hollywood, Calif., for using silly string on Halloween.

• Americans spend $330 million a year on costumes for their pets.

• The best-selling pet costume is a pumpkin.

• The most popular Halloween candy is Snickers.

• The first jack-o-lanters were made from turnips.

• The most played song on the radio on Halloween? Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

• In 2012, pumpkin artist Ray Villafane and his team carved a 1,872-pound pumpkin.

• 6 million American adults will dress as witches for Halloween.

Source: http://mashable.com/2013/10/23/halloween-facts/