Getting ready for Halloween in small town America...

Halloween has become the second largest annual holiday, as far as sales of decorations and stuff to

celebrate the day, right after Christmas. It’s a fun holiday without a lot of patriotic, emotional or religious trappings. One could be tempted to say it’s a holiday for the kids; but, that would ignore all of the Halloween parties that adults seem to like to dress up in costume and attend. For me Halloween has somehow come to symbolize the passing of another year. I guess it’s feeling that we might be enjoying the last gasp of whatever decent weather we’ve had and that it’s then time to head into winter.

In the Huron Valley there are also some fun events in advance of Halloween night. On Saturday, October 26, the downtown merchants of Milford host the 7th annual BOO BASH! This wonderful event finds the streets of Milford filled with pint-sized superheroes, goblins and zombies as the children parade in costume by the front doors of the downtown stores. Merchants fill their goody bags with candy. The event runs from 5 until 6 PM in Downtown Milford.

After the BOO BASH in Milford you might want to load up the kids and take them over to the Carl’s Family YMCA for Halloween at the Y. Kids are encouraged to come in costume. There will be activities and refreshments from 6 until 8 PM.

Or you may wish to load the family up and head to historic Fisk Farm in White Like (off M-59 in

front of Walmart) for Fright Night at Fisk Farm. The North Oakland County Storytellers presents these chilling tales that are sure to bring goose bumps to your neck. Scary stories begin at 7 PM with even more frightening tales starting at 8:30 PM and lasting until 9:30 PM. Of course if you are the type who likes to do it all, you could hit all three of these events that evening. You would probably have one tired little goblin in tow by the time you finished.

Then on October 31st there is the annual  Fun on the Farm: Halloween Party at the Kensington Metropark Farm Center at 10 am – This program is especially for the little ones. It’s time for toddlers to trick or treat all around the farm. For more information of this event and all of the things going on in the Milford area for Halloween go to my web site www.movetomilford.com.

Milford is one of those little towns that are laid out perfectly for trick or treating. Milford’s trick or treating normally runs from about 6:00 PM (5:30 for the really little ones) until 8 PM; with the last hour primarily for the older children and local teens that still go out. We normally get between 100 and 150 children at our house on Halloween night. On warmer nights in the past,  many of the neighbors actually sit out front and pass out the candy. So stop by if you’re out with the kids trick or treating on Halloween and say hi! I’ll be on the front steps passing out candy.