Pandemic Week 33: Once in a Blue Moon Halloween

November 01, 2020

Candy Dispenser

It is somehow fitting that Halloween 2020 was marked by a blue moon. Not only was it a full moon and a Saturday, but it also marked the end of daylight savings time. Add the need for social distancing and it was definitely a Halloween for the books. Thanks to many great neighbors, it was also one of the most fun trick-or-treat events ever.

Neighborhood chatter started a few weeks ago about what to do for trick-or-treat. Everyone agreed that the show should go on but within public health guidelines. After some dinner conversations at the Fagella house, including potential projects for Anna's girl scout silver award, the idea surfaced to have a neighborhood contest for building a candy dispensing machine that would meet social distancing requirements. Anna, who is always one for a good challenge, put a sign-up sheet out along with some contest parameters. At first, the sign-ups were not happening, despite lots of positive feedback. Right up until the day of the event, we were afraid we may need to cancel. Miraculously, people began signing up the day of. Anna scrambled to find some judges and prizes for what turned out to be a really fun event.

There were all sorts of creative methods for dispensing candy. People used PVC pipe, ladders, and catapults. One family had a family relay. There were leaf blowers and shop vacs involved. One contestant realized that he needed to make alterations depending on what type of candy he was dispensing (whoppers did not go as far as kit kats). One of our immediate neighbors won for most creative. His display involved a full-sized horse skeleton with a pipe through it. He used a shop vac to blow the candy through and well......you can see from the photo what part of the horse it came out. Another neighborhood family had a chute from an upstairs window. Kids rang the doorbell and they dropped candy from the shoot. Anna and Joe engineered their own candy delivery system that involved Anna drawing Krusty the Clown and Joe engineering a slide that looked like a tongue with a hatch to put candy through. Stay tuned for a video that Anna is putting together with some of the highlights.

The Horse Candy Dispenser

There was lots of creativity throughout the neighborhood. Some people taped candy to wooden skewers and stuck them in their lawn. Those houses looked like something from candy land. Another neighbor strung up a clothes line and hung bags of candy on the line with clothes pins (a skeleton was standing next to the clothes line with a sign to "take one bag"). Another family had little ghosts hanging in their tree containing candy. Several neighbors moved fire pits to their driveways and sat outside to monitor trick-or-treaters. The kids had a great time going to houses to see how they would get their candy. It was quite a festive atmosphere.

A big thanks to our neighbor, Jay, who helped with the judging and to all of our neighbors that made Halloween so much fun. It was definitely a memorable holiday!