Halloween gets an early start in New Albany

In Downtown New Albany

Halloween got an early start in New Albany yesterday evening. While Halloween (a contraction of “All Hallows Eve”) isn’t really until Monday, October 31st, more than a thousand children and adults kicked it off early.

NAFD’s Brady Shettles demonstrates his artistic traffic control moves.

The Thursday evening party stretched from New Albany City Hall all the way south along the Tanglefoot Trail to the Winston County Library. “Trick or Treat Trail” is sponsored by New Albany Main Street and its Community Partners.

Dorothy & Toto have special admirers.

Children and a good many adults dressed up in a variety of costumes and enjoyed “Trick or Treating” downtown and along the trail.

The New Albany Fire Department (NAFD) joined the festivities. Almost every parking space in and near downtown was occupied, some more than once as people came and went. Motor vehicle traffic at Bankhead Street and Railroad Avenue was heavy, so NAFD Fireman Brady Shettles pitched in and directed traffic at the intersection.

The Trick or Treat trail was Mad Hatter Whiteside’s cup of tea.

Fire Chief Mark Whiteside wore a stylish “Mad Hatter” costume, complete with wig and appropriate theatrical make-up. Children enjoyed having their photograph taken with the Chief.

At the Union County Heritage Museum

A few blocks north of downtown, and interpretative art installation, “Articulating Yoknapatawpha: an Exhibit of Kinetic Art,2” opened at the Union County Heritage Museum. Architect Spence Kellum’s exhibit of mobiles drew several dozen art lovers for the reception and costume party. Visitors were encouraged to attend the opening dressed as a favorite literary character.

“Blood Money” by Spence Kellum represents William Faulkner’s manual typewriter and is designed for display in the Faulkner Garden.

The museum’s Stephen Bennett got into both the literary and the Halloween spirit for the Kellum exhibit opening. Bennett wore a ghost costume, which referenced the “ghosts” in William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily.

There were, of course, no actual ghosts in Faulkner’s story, but many consider it a “Gothic horror story.” Bennett’s “ghost” certainly added a bit of haunting humor to the occasion.

Stephen Bennett as a Faulkner story “ghost” in A Rose for Emily.

The museum had further celebrated Kellum’s exhibit with a day of free classes on the making of mobiles.

A trip to the Union County Heritage Museum in the next two days will reward visitors with two excellent exhibits. Bill Steber’s ‘Spirit in the Soil: Objects and Evocations of the Mississippi Blues’ will also be hanging through November.

More about the Bill Steber Exhibit.