Celebrating Halloween has always been one of my favorite pastimes. Whitefish’s Halloween spirit did not disappoint. It reminded me of the small town I grew up in: South Pasadena, California. Storefronts were decorated with spooky mannequins, skeletons and carved pumpkins in the windows. Business owners passed out candies to children dressed in costume early in the afternoon on Central Avenue. Later in the evening on Columbia Avenue, we met up with old friends who used to live in Southern California. They moved to Whitefish first and have since introduced my husband and I to new friends and acquaintances. Our daughter, dressed as a fairy, met up with friends on Columbia Avenue, too, to go trick-or-treating. Families with small children packed the street. Parents and children alike dressed as pirates, witches, ghosts and ghouls. Every house up and down the street had lines of children eager to receive a treat. Adults hung out in front yards huddled by fire pits to keep warm during the chilly night.
We also had a treat a few nights before the scary holiday when a flash zombie mob crashed the Bulldog Bar that we happened to visit with a couple of friends for a drink. The mob came into the bar looking freakishly scary with gobs of white makeup and what looked to be blood around their mouths. Hair was wickedly a mess and costumes looked tattered and torn. After the zombies all assembled in the bar, Michael Jackson’s Thriller blasted from speakers. The mob started their ghoulish dance, exciting the crowd to standing room only. Phones were held high to video the scene. What fun, I thought in this seemingly small town. Everyone clapped and roared as the zombies finished the thrilling dance. Some bystanders even handed out shots of liquor to the dancers on the way out as a way to say “thank you!”
Julie Schnieders 