Juneau’s downtown Flats neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, and kids from across town flock to the area to trick-or-treat.
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Twelve-year-old Timothy Ackerman had a mission Saturday night, and he was going to walk around in the driving rain until it was over.
“Until we get all the houses,” he said.
He was dressed as a pirate, but no generic pirate.
“Inspired from the ‘Backrooms movie’,” he said. “Captain Clark.”
It’s a sort of “if you know, you know” costume, he said. And Ackerman was just getting started. His bag was still light.
Meanwhile, nearby houses were ready to help him achieve this goal. Flats families have been preparing for months for the hundreds of trick-or-treaters that descend on the neighborhood every Halloween.
One house was especially decked out. Jeff Campbell and his wife have been decorating for Halloween since they moved to the neighborhood about 30 years ago.
And he kept count of the trick-or-treaters.
“Two years ago, we broke 1,000,” he said. “Last year was 800-something.”
He and his wife bought more than a thousand full-sized candy bars, just in case they topped their record.
The yard was packed with decorations: ghouls, ghosts, pumpkins, skeletons and a witch that flew out on a zip line to a neighbors house. It takes Campbell about a week to set everything up.
Kids walking by said it was the best house in the neighborhood, but he said he isn’t competitive.
“Oh, it’s no competition,” Campbell said. “I just enjoy doing it, so I do it as long as I can.”
Around the corner is another big stop on the candy tour: Dr. Jared Lee’s dentist office.
This year, it was tricked out like a circus, with office staff dressed as strong men and acrobats.
“We’ve done a different theme every year, and they spend about six months getting everything ready,” Lee said. “We get things as legit as we can.”
But as for the cost, he said they don’t keep track.
“We don’t really have a budget for it,” he said. “We just tell them to make it fun.”
Aside from fun, the dentist office also carries forth its own mission: saving teeth. Inside each goody bag the office gave away was a tooth brush.
