Halloween in Hawaii

Halloween in Laie, and especially on Moana Street, is always a highlight of the year. For the whole month of October, the Polynesian Cultural Center hosts the wildly popular Haunted Lagoon. People come from all over the island and pay $25 each to wait in line for about two hours, then go on the 45-minute canoe ride. In the meantime, those of us who live in Laie get to hear the sounds of the Haunted Lagoon all month. On Halloween night, kids from all over the area descend on Moana Street. This year, we gave out candy to more than 1,000 Trick or Treaters. We bought enough candy for 780, then ran out with about an hour left. Fortunately, some friends of ours who used to live on Moana Street had a huge bag left over and came to our rescue so that we could keep handing out candy, and so that Lennie could keep playing the organ (see below). We should get the Guinness Book of World Records over here. I'll bet we get more Trick or Treaters on Moana St. than anywhere in the world.

This is our pumpkin for the year. A tree in a haunted forest.

We finally did it. Ever since we bought our digital piano with an organ setting, Lennie thought it would be cool to take the piano/organ out to the garage, where he could play scary music for the Trick or Treaters. One problem was that he didn't have very much scary music. Fortunately, Heather bought him a song book entitled, "Halloween Spooktacular", filled with "37 Gravest Hits". She also bought a shortened and edited version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, the famous Dracula song. For 2 1/2 hours, Lennie joyfully played such pieces as Bach's Toccata and Fugue, Theme from Dracula, The Fog, Funeral March by Chopin, Funeral March of a Marionette by Gounod (the Alfred Hitchcock theme song), The Mummy, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Tales from the Crypt, This is Halloween, Tubular Bells from the Exorcist, and the Twilight Zone theme music. They were all fun, but the Toccata and Fugue was definitely the signature piece.

What is this, you ask? This is Lennie and his organ behind a sheer sheet. We tried to give it a mysterious look, but the sheet probably wasn't quite sheer enough. We'll have to perfect Dracula's Lair next year.