Get Ready For Spooktacular

I love this time of year, don’t you? In just 11 days we will be celebrating our annual Spooktacular event in the Montrose Shopping Park. If you are looking for an old-fashioned, safe, fun, family time this is where you want to be. At 5 p.m. on this one special night of the year, the merchants of Honolulu Avenue park themselves on the sidewalk in front of their stores and cheerfully hand out candy to young trick or treaters. It’s so much fun to see their little faces as their parents teach them to say “Trick or Treat” and “Thank You.” In many cases grandma and grandpa also have great joy as onlookers. As a matter of fact, the parents and grandparents seem to enjoy wearing costumes as much, or more than, the kids.

Now about the candy: the MSPA (Montrose Shopping Park Assn.) provides the candy for the merchants and it’s quite a process. A large candy order is placed by MSPA promotion co-coordinator Linda McMenamin, two burly guys (namely MSPA executive director Dale Dawson and Harvest Market Bounce Co. owner Jerry Uebel) get a truck, pick it up, and distribute it to the merchant checkpoints. It’s a real workout! The merchants pick up their candy with the agreement that they must distribute it to the kids that night. On Monday, Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. begins “trick or treat” time and it goes on until the candy runs out. We have so many kids that often our merchants will buy additional candy so they don’t run out too soon.

Here’s another Montrose tradition: every year Henry Baeza, owner of Montrose Home Bakery, hands out fresh cookies as his treat. It wouldn’t be Halloween without them.

This year Spooktacular is going to be extra special with all kinds of fun things to enhance your family night. Please join me back here next week for more details. In the meantime, check out our website www.shopmontrose.com.

P.S. Star Café has their giant pumpkins hanging from the ceiling. Make it an annual tradition to enjoy them as you order “Curried Butternut Squash Ravioli” and their specialty, “Butternut Squash Soup.”

  Mary Dawson