Downtown Aberdeen saw a rush of children and their parents bombard the staff of Downtown Aberdeen Association (DAA) and many businesses downtown on Saturday as they sought out candy, popcorn, pop and fun photographs.

Bobbi McCracken, of DAA, smiled a lot during the two-way line in front of the group stationed in front of the future site of the Aberdeen Museum of History. She was happy to see the sidewalks lined with costumed Harborites along both sides of Wishkah Street.

“When people say there’s nothing happening in Aberdeen, they should see this,” McCracken said. “It’s been crazy. We’ve gone through three cases of pop, mostly for the parents. They can’t get enough of the popcorn. It smells so good.”

Bette Worth, also of DAA, gave a similar review of Saturday’s trick-or-treat event.

“Aberdeen was buzzing with laughter and screams of excitement,” Worth said.

The buttery, salted popcorn, of which the group passed out about 500-plus bags, was courtesy of an old-time popcorn machine that McDermoth Elementary School donated, according to McCracken.

According to Wil Russoul, DAA’s director, the trick-or-treaters started showing up to their station at 11:20 a.m., even though it was supposed to start at noon. The line continued until about 2 p.m.

The group — including Worth, McCracken, Russoul and a few other DAA staff — was just one station with fun treats. And then there was Rick Moyer, who photographed 198 people.

“This was really successful today,” Moyer said. “I’m very happy with it.”

One mother, Heidi Talbert, was dressed as a deer. Her two-year-old daughter Fawna, was dressed as a blue bear. Talbert spoke highly of Spooktacular.

“It’s excellent,” Talbert said. “We’re having a very good time, a busy good time.”

Talbert was a fan of the free photograph from Moyer.

“I like the photograph,” Talbert said. “That’ll be good. We’ll have something to remember it by.”

Talbert was happy there are more events happening around Aberdeen.

“We went last week to The Loading Dock,” Talbert said. “That was a lot of fun. They’ve been having lots more events in Aberdeen. I think that’s good for all of us to have something to do. And I know the Y is doing something (Sunday.)”

The trick-or-treaters went to the many businesses that had a Waldo sign taped to their front doors. One of the business owners — Andy Bickar, owner and executive chef at Rediviva — said he was outside for about two-and-a-half hours. He said he gave out more than 1,200 pieces of candy.

“I gave double and triple (portions) to the kids with the best costumes, as well as some parents with a sweet tooth,” Bickar said. “All-in-all, around $300 worth of candy.”

Bryce Romero, owner of The Tap Room — said his bar gave out almost 1,500 pieces of candy from the edge of his outdoor seating area.

“We went through four full bags of candy, 1,500 pieces almost,” Romero said. “I would say it was as busy as it’s ever been outside. It was really busy in (the bar) too. I had Kimmy (Nebel) outside passing out candy. She was out there for the whole two hours. There was no slowdown, just a full stream of kids. I checked outside periodically.”

Lee Bacon, who owns The Side One building — the urban green moss building at the southern corner of South K and Wishkah streets — said Spooktacular was another impressive DAA event. Bacon’s building was lined with skeletons inside the upstairs windows, plus jack-o’-lanterns and gravestones inside the downstairs windows. The building’s speakers played fun Halloween music, too.

“My wife and I talked to hundreds of people and families dressed up in full celebration of the day,” Bacon said. “Everyone was having a fun day.”

Bacon is happy to see such events get more popular.

“The atmosphere of making downtown a place for families to get together and connect is growing stronger year after year. DAA is an outstanding organization and they are all about enriching our town through these types of opportunities. The real heartwarming story here is while DAA sets the ‘thoughtfully planned stage’ the people, the families, the positive community support is why a day like Spooktacular is so memorable and so appreciated by people who are committed to Aberdeen and Aberdeen’s future.”

“I think it was a great success,” Worth said. “I think the weather had a lot to do with the number of people who came out. … Downtown was buzzing with laughter and excitement from the kids who were downtown. The businesses were very supportive and they passed out candy and I think that had a lot to do with the number of people who joined in.”

McCracken and Worth were huge fans of seeing the young children as they came by.

“I love all the little guys, the babies who come all dressed up,” McCracken said.

Worth agreed. McCracken pointed out one costumed boy who stood out and brought a sparkle to her eyes.

“This one kid, he had cardboard boxes for his arms and legs,” McCracken said. “He was a robot. He was amazing. Someone had to get his candy for him because he couldn’t move his arms and legs.”

McCracken said it’s “just nice” seeing the activity downtown. Worth called it “energy.”

“This is two weekends in a row there’s been a lot of energy downtown,” McCracken said. “With the Walk of the Undead and the Rotary Pub Crawl and then Spooktacular, all three of those events probably drew different segments of the population. But there’s energy downtown.”

Worth had a blast. She’s glad to see other people having fun.

“That’s our goal, is to turn things around and to get more activities down here,” Worth said. “The more we can do the better.”

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Heidi Talbert and her two-year-old Fawna, were dressed as a deer and a bear Saturday for Downtown Aberdeen Association’s “Spooktacular.” While Fawna is seen squirming, both mom and daughter looked to be having a great time moments earlier when they posed for a free photo from Rick Moyer, of Moyer Multimedia, LLC. (Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World)