Lots of Halloween happenings can make a small town too spooky. The Chamber warned town folks to “Beware of the Witching Hour on Oct. 31” as werewolves, mummies, demons and their dogs descended upon Checotah. Talk about a haunted mess as a record-number of local boos turned the town into a scary but interesting place to trick or treat.

Checotah kindergarten teacher Mae Cox and her mother, Kathy King-Cox owner of Junes were some of the first businesses who set up downtown to make sure the hordes of creepy and clearly excited children had a fang-tastic time taking candy from strangers.

Businesses and organizations set up this year in their own trunk-or treats vehicles turning Gentry and Broadway into a Halloween Maze packed with sugar-crazed ghoulish faces in spellbinding costumes.

Shirley Mangusson from Slice of Country made sure all the little ghouls, Go-Bots, princesses and other creepy characters asked for their trick or treats. While Checotah PD was under the stoplight handing out treats galore to everything from creepy clowns to cute little moos with horns.

Those little moos didn’t scare off Checotah FFA ag teacher Zach Ilbery and his FFA students, who also brought some spooky fun to the Halloween happenings with a terrifying haunted stock trailer that only the bravest souls entered but had a bloody good time screaming.

The City of Checotah brought in the big machinery with literally the bucket full of candy for everyone as city workers dressed up as construction crew worked the batty crowds on the bursting and blockedoff Broadway street.

Off of Gentry, Peoples National Bank had their Halloween Alley open with no tricks, just treats as they proved candy is a ghoul’s best friend. So a friendly ghost, bank staff and PNB bank president Mike Stidham handed out tons of candy making sure everyone was having a Boo-tiful time this Halloween. President Abraham Lincoln aka Robert Jennings was also on hand to recite the Gettysburg Address and remind all citizens to vote even though that’s probably the scariest situation of all this season.

All Hallows’ Eve had hordes of ghosts, goblins, werewolves and other creatures of the night that were put under a spell by Eufaula Properties as the three sisters of Hocus Pocus -Winifred, Sarah and Mary-enticed lots of children and adults with treats. Even Billy silently helped the troublesome trio, though he didn’t have much to say due to being under the witches’ spell and his mouth being a little tied up.

Lion Tony Fields had his scary little crew helping him hand out candy as was El Jarocho across the street from him and several other businesses.

There were many great costumes to see from Morticia and Wednesday from the Addams Family to Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz to a Flapper girl from the roaring 20’s, along with her gangster brother.

Jim Lucas Checotah Public Library Assistant Heath Allen made a great Shaggy Rogers as he surprisingly found more of his crew, Scooby- Doo, Daphne, and Velma, amongst the local trick-or-treaters.

Lines that literally went around the block of the Methodist Church waited their turn as they went through the biggest trunk-or-treat area with local church members , like Kitty Dishman, Dr. John Rice family (Beetlejuice and Lydia), the Mann’s (Wicked Witches), the Wades’, Options and many more. Of course the Force was with Rev. Mark Watson (aka Star Wars’ ?) as he had to run around tossing more bags of candy to the volunteers to keep the blood-sucking little sugar vampires at bay.

Another hot spot was First Baptist Church with all their volunteers, doing everything from serving hot cocoa, popcorn and lots of candy. Kids of all ages had several games to choose from like toss-around, pumpkin tic tac toe, basketball hoops and more. They also had two bounce houses for kids to enjoy.

Checotah Chamber of Commerce office manager and volunteer firefighter Holly Lackey only had to put on her FAIC fire gear and turn her dog, Panda Bear, into a cute little fire truck to hand out candy. She confirmed that a frightfully great time was had by all who came to came out and enjoyed a slightly warmer than normal and busier than normal Chamber event.

“By the end of the night even with all the scary skeletons hanging around, there were no bones about it. Checotah had a howling good time as they were ‘creeping it real’ and trying not to run out of candy. Hopefully everyone from the community had a Witchin’ Happy Halloween!”