A visit to Lewiston's Halloween hot spots

Come Halloween evening in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, families with children can choose from a grab bag of well-organized “trunk-or-treat” events, often put on by churches or other organizations.

But when it comes to old-school trick-or-treating, there are two neighborhoods in town where most little ghouls end up haunting.

The Lutes Addition in the Lewiston Orchards and Sunset Drive (aka Candy Cane Lane) in downtown Lewiston have established themselves as Halloween havens. Residents in those neighborhoods report being visited by anywhere from 400 to 1,400 trick-or-treaters on any given Oct. 31.

It’s not clear how these areas gained their popularity. Both neighborhoods feature a network of inviting sidewalks, along with closely spaced houses that, for the most part, have paved driveways. Most residents sit in those driveways on Halloween night to more easily welcome the throng of trick-or-treaters, and their houses are often decorated, some quite elaborately.

“I tell people (about the turnout) and they can’t believe it,” said Mike Ripley, who has lived along Sunset Drive with his wife, Sharon, for 43 years. “They say, ‘We get three!’ or ‘We get five!’ It is something to see, because at times we’ve got them lined up clear out from the driveway to the sidewalk, if not to the street, as we hand out candy bags.”

In recent years, Ripley has been joined in greeting trick-or-treaters in his carport by his daughter, Carrie Ripley, while wife, Sharon, is inside preparing their traditional dinner of chili dogs. Since 2009, they’ve kept count of the number of visitors they receive each Halloween, with their all-time record of 979 coming in 2017.

Sunset Drive is just east of busy 21st Street. It juts off Ninth Avenue and snakes east before joining with 29th Avenue. During Christmastime, it’s known as Candy Cane Lane thanks to each mailbox on the street being framed with large wooden candy canes and most of the residents stringing up lights on their houses. That tradition dates back to 1959.

The Lutes Addition in the Orchards features more houses and perhaps even more trick-or-treaters, who mostly troll the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Birch Avenue, Birch Court and Birch Drive.

Cheryl and Taun Allman moved into a house on Birch Court in 1996. Since they arrived, the Halloween celebration has steadily grown, to the point that they spend more than $200 on candy and ask friends who come to join the festivities to bring more goodies.

“We’ll say, ‘You can come to our house, but you have to bring candy,’ “ Cheryl Allman said. “It was probably over $300 spent last year on candy. And we usually only make it to 8 o’clock, and then we run out of candy.”

The whole thing seems to have happened “organically” over the decades, Allman said. Many neighbors go over the top with their decorations, light a fire pit and invite friends over, and the children roaming the streets come from all over Lewiston and beyond.

“I’ve never encountered anything like this, as a child or living in other places,” Allman said. “We think it’s pretty special to be living in a neighborhood like this.”

It’s a similar story on Sunset Drive. Mary Jane Minnette, 71, who lives just off the lane on 24th Street, remembers coming to the neighborhood to trick-or-treat when she was a child, and later returned during summer when she was in junior high to skateboard on the smooth sidewalks.

Both Minnette and Ripley mentioned how an employee of the Coca-Cola bottling plant who once lived on Sunset Drive made a habit of handing out full cans of soda on Halloween. Perhaps that raised awareness of their street among candy-seeking kids.

However it happened, the word is out. Ripley remembers one year when a high school volleyball team from elsewhere in Idaho that was competing in the state tournament at Lewis-Clark State College found time to trick-or-treat the street.

“We get them by the busload – literally,” he said.

The folks in these neighborhoods enjoy watching the costume trends. Allman said there were “20 Elsas or more” when the movie “Frozen” came out, and more recently the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda have been popular. Ripley guessed that he might “see a lot of Barbies this year.”

One year when Batman was particularly popular, Taun Allman told each Caped Crusader they would get extra candy if they said, in a gravelly voice, “Because I’m Batman!”

“Some of the kids just kind of stared at him,” Cheryl Allman said. “And some of them did it, and it was pretty funny.”

Despite Halloween’s darker reputation, the residents of these neighborhoods all noted the wholesome vibe they’ve experienced.

“We’re getting high school kids, and I’m fine with that,” said Minnette, who greets trick-or-treaters with her husband, Jim, and their poodle, Tebow. “We both really noticed, if the high school kids come up to the porch, and then the little kids come up, they step back and let the little kids come first. And they’ll all say, ‘Happy Halloween’ and ‘Hope you have a great evening.’ They’re really polite. I don’t know if it’s just the ones we’ve been blessed with or whatever, but the kids are all really friendly and nice.”

Mike and Amy Grow moved to Sunset Drive about eight years ago. They have children who are of prime trick-or-treating age, Riley, 6, and Logan, 4, but even the children seem more interested in staying home to welcome the rogues’ gallery of visitors.

Mike Grow usually sits in the doorway of their house so he can pass out candy and keep one eye on the World Series, if there’s a game that night. (He’s in luck this year: Game 4 between Texas and Arizona is scheduled for Tuesday night.)

“It’s insane,” said Grow, who counted 1,400 visitors last year, “but we love it. It’s part of what drew us to the area.”

Ripley’s enthusiasm for the night hasn’t waned, even after more than four decades at Halloween central.

“I really, really enjoy it. It’s a special night for me, even though it really wears me out. It’s so positive. And in this world, we need all the positive we can get.”

Baney may be contacted at mbaney@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2262. Follow him on Twitter @MattBaney_Trib.