By Deanna Brown
A sunny afternoon with no rain and crisp fall temperatures may have been a contributing factor in a record turnout for downtown trick or treating.
Hundreds of parents, grandparents and kids thronged along Beaton Street to trick or treat from businesses, while the Corsicana Parks and Recreation crew came up with plenty of creative games to help kids win 30 brand new bikes.
“We have a treasure hunt, musical chairs, a dance contest, zombie baseball with water balloons, a mummy wrap, beach ball toss and other games,” said Sharla Allen, Parks and Recreation Department director.
Some business owners wore costumes, such as a frightening lion and witch at Miles Furniture, and a pretty witch at Kristie and Glorias. Jerry and Gay Turner at The Ark passed out candy, tracts and blessings to the scores of trick or treaters.
“I have had a lot of cute costumes today,” said Jeanne Kaster of Curington Cleaners. “My favorite was a little tiny black and silver spider.”
DJ “Slicky D” Darrell O’Sullivan kept the party going with Michael Jackson tunes, lively banter and a spirit of competition.
“All right, we want teams of two, you and your buddy, and we’ll give you some water balloons,” Slicky D said. “We want you to play catch, and the last team standing with an unbusted balloon wins bikes.
“Here’s Brad Haynie,” he continued. “He looks like Shrek, but he can sure shoot some T-shirts out of this gun.”
Adults and kids alike swarmed to catch T-shirts that were shot out of the “shirt cannon.”
“This is the mummy wrap,” Slicky D said. “We’re going to give you two rolls of toilet paper, some of it used, some of it not. When the music stops, whoever is wrapped the best wins.
“OK, he gets a bike!” Slicky D said to the first mummy pair finished. “You’re all wrapped up, you probably won’t get anything. Oh well, let the mummy pick his bike first.”
The beach ball toss was a lively affair, with the one hanging on to the ball when the music stopped as the winner. The Easley twins along with another young boy all three had their hands on a beach ball at that moment. Slicky D called them all three to the stage, “Uh huh, we can’t have no three-way tie on that beach ball, we’re going to have to do rock, paper, scissors on that deal ... stop hugging that ball! I know who you are!”
The three were brought up on stage, where Slicky D played “Soulja Boy” and told them to do the dance. Not one of the three knew “the dance,” so a fourth young lad was brought up from the crowd to demonstrate. He walked away with a new bike.
Rhonda Richards-Sinclair had a tattoo booth from Creative Children’s Center, which stayed busy the entire length of the event.
“We like to be involved with the kids, and we’ve had dozens and dozens of kiddos today,” she said. “We have done over 500 tattoos today. We ran out of tattoos the last couple of years, but it’s something neat for the kids.”
Malinda Veldman and Stephen Dieterichs of the Corsicana Main Street Project passed out candy with a Main Street Project label affixed.
“What’s different this year is that we’ve had a steady crowd for the entire time, and we’ve given out 2,000 pieces of candy,” Veldman said. “No doubt, the Parks crew know how to throw a Block Party. We love downtown Trick or Treat, so many people come out, and this is one of the main times all year they walk up and down Beaton Street.
“If you follow the people down the sidewalk, you hear things like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know this business was here,’ or ‘I need to come back to this place when I don’t have the kids.’
“The business owners love it.”
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