Halloween Celebration Spans the Generations

By C.K. WOLFSON

Despite whatever contentious spirits might occasionally lurk about,
this weekend once again proves the Vineyard is the kind of place where
things that go bump in the night are usually giggling, and children who
dart around in the dark and cluster at their neighbors' doors are
there to receive smiles and sweets.

Halloween on the Island - where ghosts come with historic
lineage, and resident witches conjure good spirits and offer tarot
readings. One only has to know where to look in order to find painted
ponies, talking rocks, bake sales and a fortune teller named Mezmerelda.

Night spots like Lola's, the Ritz and Atlantic Connection will
hold the adult Halloween parties with live entertainment that have
become their tradition, and a full gamut of old-fashioned, family-style
activities span the Island this weekend.

House by house, neighborhoods are decked with spider webs and
strings of lights in the shapes of eyeballs, pumpkins and ghosts.
Jack-o-lanterns with lopsided grins shine from porches. Scarecrows with
personalities, many a result of the charter school's Scarecrow
Celebration last weekend, loiter against railings and front porches.

But nowhere will there be more festive displays than on William
street in Vineyard Haven, or on Vineyard avenue in Oak Bluffs, two of
the target residential destinations that draw trick-or-treaters by the
hundreds from all the towns.

For the residents, it's not simply a please-and-thank-you
evening where candy gets plopped into a bag. It is instead an
orchestrated event, one requiring decorations, planning and assistance
from family and friends. It is in those neighborhoods where Halloween
becomes that nostalgic memory of a time when a sense of innocence and
wonder predominated.

Viet and John Bacheller, who have lived on William street since
1968, decorate, wear costumes and line their walk with pumpkins. They
have become notable for their tradition of handing out fortune cookies.

"John and I just love Halloween. We look forward to it,"
Mrs. Bacheller said, explaining that she buys the cookies in bulk from
Boston's Chinatown. An informal crew of coworkers and friends
gather to help make up the almost 350 plastic bags that they tie with
orange and black yarn.

"Some kids have been coming since they were carried in their
moms' backpacks," Mrs. Bacheller said, laughing. She said
children come from Aquinnah and Chilmark, and remembers one child who
came from New York and was trick-or-treating with his nanny.

Other enthusiastic William street neighbors, Judy and Victor Pisano,
moved to the street in 1986. Mrs. Pisano remembers the first Halloween.
Not knowing what to expect, she ran out of candy soon into the evening.
In a panic, she put change into little plastic bags and placed them in a
basket next to the porch door, with a sign reading, "Please take
one." And they did, she recalled.

Karen Coffee, owner of Pyewacket's on Beach Road, who claims
to be the only licensed psychic on the Vineyard, lives in a 175-year-old
haunted house on Center street with her family. "All old houses
have energy fields because people were born there and people died
there," she explained. "It's not spooky, it's
not evil." Referring to their home as "Halloween
Central," she said she dons her witch's hat and stocks up
with approximately 30 pounds of candy - "and sometimes 30
pounds is not enough."

Different schools take different approaches to Halloween. Oak
Bluffs, Chilmark and the charter school make slight, if any,
observances.

Oak Bluffs principal Laury Binney said, "We view the holiday
as one that serves as a distraction. We're trying to be
careful." The school held a PTO sponsored party, but Mr. Binney
explained the need to be sensitive to students' different
cultural traditions. Some Brazilian students in particular, he said, are
uncomfortable with Halloween celebration.

But on Friday, outside the Oak Bluffs school doors, a happy gorilla
(Gerry deBettencourt) and her costumed cohorts, Laura Johnston and Lois
deBettencourt from the town clerk's office and Liz Fox from
Martha's Vineyard Insurance Co., will be there to greet the
children as school is dismissed.

At the Edgartown school Mrs. Jennifer Fournier's and Mrs.
Maria MacKenty's kindergarten classes, guided by parent
volunteers, have made Halloween houses using graham crackers, orange and
dark chocolate frosting, marshmallows and candy.

Delighted with their results, the youngsters look forward to the
evening ahead. Robert McLaughlin, 5, will be trick-or-treating with his
mom and sisters, Paige and Christina, and looking for "some good
house where there are lights and pumpkins."

And if you see Kacey Wallace, 5, making the rounds in her Red Sox
baseball costume, know that she prefers gum to candy. "It's
just a fun idea," she said about the evening. "I don't
believe in witches or ghosts." The others agreed with her:
it's not a scary night.

Hosted by Chilmark School fourth and fifth graders, the UNICEF Fair,
without costumes, will once again be held at the Chilmark Community
Center on Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. It features a bake sale and
games like pumpkin putt-putt, gravestone bowling and face painting
(25-cents a turn). The fair's organizer, Jackie Guzalak makes it a
point to incorporate various aspects of UNICEF in her classroom
curriculum.

For one of Fred Fisher's hayrides through the old West Tisbury
cemetery where goblins lay in wait - West Tisbury parents and
children are invited to the annual Parks and Recreation Department
Halloween party, Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ag Hall.
Everybody's favorite, Mezmeralda the Fortune Teller (Lisa Amols),
will be there dazzling the children with what she knows about them. The
committee - Peggy Stone, Bruce Keep, Mary Lou Perry, Bob Day, Rick
Reinhardsen and Lisa Amols - has perfected the long-established
event which seems to grow larger every year.

"It's become a tradition," Ms. Stone said,
"an anticipated event. We like to have something for the kids,
have the community get in touch with each other, and not go too far from
home."

And then there are the ponies. Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Pond
View Farm, it's your chance to see a horse decked out as a zebra,
or brightly colored with water-based paints, or wearing a wig. The
public is invited to the annual event that began as a fundraiser to pay
medical bills for the injured pony, Flash, who will be cavorting around
in festive attire. There will be refreshments, games, a haunted house in
the hayloft and a costume parade for children and their ponies.

For the first year, Menemsha Inn has initiated what innkeeper Kathy
Bega hopes will become an annual Halloween party on Friday from 4 to 8
p.m. The inn's eight-person staff, even Ms. Bega's two King
Charles spaniels, will be dressed in costume. Complete with a fog
machine to set the mood, the health club has been converted to a haunted
house and the reception area into the game room. The inn, whose guests
include about 20 children, will hold trick-or-treating through the halls
and among the cottages.

The Island makes it easy to get in the spirit of the occasion.
Shirley's Hardware on State Road, and Rose Bud Balloons on Circuit
avenue, for example, offer a full range of wigs, make- up, accessories
and masks in addition to hundreds of costumes. (Shirley's sold out
of Elvis wigs early.) Superheroes are still the popular choice.

Mary McManama at Shirley's told of the customer who bought a
lamp shade and pull chains for earrings in order to costume herself as a
table lamp. Another woman came in to buy things that would help her
dress as various cliches: wearing her heart on her sleeve, etc. Then
there was the boy who bought two plastic, medieval axes so he could
dress up as President Bush's axis of evil.

Don't be surprised if, as you walk up to a house, you hear a
rock shouting, "Beware," or meet the Treater Greater, a
doll-like figure that asks if you like its costume. Rose Buds Balloons
owner Susan Phillips explains that both are popular new talking motion
sensors, programmed with Halloween greetings.

To insure that the evening's only howls and groans are those
sounded in fun, town police departments are making their presence felt.
In Oak Bluffs there will be marked cruisers in high volume areas
watching that motorists drive carefully, and two officers will be riding
their bikes in the Vineyard avenue and School House Village
neighborhoods.

The department has also provided the school with candy bags listing
safety tips. Parents are reminded that should they set aside any candy
that appears in any way suspicious, call the police - they will
pick it up - or bring it in to the station. Do not, they implore,
discard it.

As extra precaution, Sgt. Timothy Williamson of the Oak Bluffs
police department invites residents to pick up glow sticks at the
station. Officers will be also be handing them out to insure that
youngsters scurrying along the streets are very visible.