By Robin GOLDSWORTHY & Mary O’KEEFE

Trick-or-treaters and those who just like to dress up return to their favorite haunts.

Halloween, on Monday this year, ended an entire weekend of ghoulish festivities. Trunk-or-treat events and Halloween parties over the weekend culminated in trick-or-treating and walk-through mazes on Halloween night. Trick-or-treaters were eager to revisit some of their favorite haunts where they found candy-givers just as eager to share sugary sweets with them.

Fun was found on Saturday night at the LASD Crescenta Valley Station trunk-or-treat event. The Halloween fun included game booths, a costume contest and the scariest classic cars on the road.

Sgt. Greg Taylor led the station in creating a safe way for families to enjoy trick-or-treating by transforming the station’s parking lot into a spooky walk-through event. When trick-or-treaters entered the parking lot on Briggs Avenue they could pick up a bucket (donated by the Crescenta Valley Water District) to collect all of their treats. Then they were off to get as many sweets as their bucket could hold. There were homemade treats at the CV Station booth and vehicles, including deputy cars, had their trunks open where kids could get candy. Many of the classic cars were part of the Early Rodders car club. Owners had their trunks, and truck beds, decorated as monsters, ghosts and other ghoulish creatures where kids could bravely reach in and get their treats.

“It was fantastic,” Taylor said of the event.

In addition to the candies and treats, the CV Station also had a “haunted crime scene” and served grilled hamburgers.

Taylor added the trunk-or-treat event was held thanks to the CV Support Group and Volunteers, and specifically thanked Paul and Lisa Dutton for their work on the haunted crime scene. He added that there were many people helping out including deputies, staff and volunteers at the station.

Taylor knew this was something the community would enjoy but didn’t expect the numbers of people that came by.

“We had [more than] 2,000 [visitors],” he said.

The feedback has been very positive and Taylor is already looking ahead to next year’s Halloween event.

At local schools on Monday students and staff donned Halloween finery showing off their creativity. Elementary schools returned to their traditional Halloween parade where students walked with classmates, showing off their costumes. At Rosemont Middle School and CV High School, staff and students were outfitted in costumes that frightened folks or garnered a laugh. Some even coordinated their costumes in recognition of a favorite show, sport or group.

At the Montrose Shopping Park, thousands of guests showed up to collect candy at the Spooktacular event. Dale Dawson, Montrose Shopping Park Association’s (MSPA) business administrator and event services coordinator, estimated that more than 10,000 people participated in Spooktacular.

For years Spooktacular has been a safe place for kids of all ages to trick-or- treat. Merchants along the 2200, 2300 and 2400 blocks of Honolulu Avenue handed out treats to all sorts of costumed trick-or-treaters.

For safety reasons, access to Honolulu Avenue was barricaded to vehicular traffic as were sections of both northbound and southbound Ocean View Boulevard. The traditional event was postponed due to the pandemic shutdowns with the last Spooktacular being held in 2019.

“Our merchants and the trick-or-treaters alike were glad to see it come back,” Dawson said.

The event takes a lot of time to plan and fund. MSPA, an organization that the merchants pay fees to, uses funds to pay for everything that makes the event fun and safe including providing extra Glendale Police Dept. officers, event staff and cleanup crews.

“As well as about $5,000 worth of Halloween candy which we distribute to the participating merchants to supplement their supply,” Dawson added. “The individual merchants also spend a [good amount] of their own money on candy as quite a bit is needed for the two-hour event.”

Kids and adults seemed to be happy to stroll the avenue and very happy with their candy haul. Many of the trick-or-treaters made their way from Honolulu Avenue to the Sparr Heights area where very generous residents never stopped dishing out candy.

“The event went very smoothly, providing a safe and fun venue for hundreds of families,” Dawson said.

There were some very creative costumes and even four-legged participants got involved with dogs wearing their scary best.

“It’s the best people watching event [of the] year,” Dawson added.

In some local neighborhoods dozens of trick-or-treaters went door-to-door to collect candy. Many were accompanied by costumed parents or found costumed residents ready to answer the call of “trick or treat!”

And for several nights Halloween lovers climbed into their cars to check out the many houses that signed up for this year’s Fun & Frights in the Foothills, the self-driving tour of houses decorated for All Hallow’s Eve. To see a list and photos of the winning addresses, visit page 14 in this week’s paper. 

Photos by Robin GOLDSWORTHY, Kevin HOANG, Mary O’KEEFE, Charly SHELTON and Brandy YI

More photos in the Nov. 10 issue!