Davis Upholds Halloween Traditions
Becky Davis of Pineville loves Halloween and celebrates it in a big way.
“Everyone who knows me knows Halloween is my passion,” she said. “It’s the one day of the year you can be anything you want to be.”
She lives on West Fifth Street, right in downtown Pineville, where hundreds of trick-or-treaters find her each year. She ordered 45 pounds of candy this year. She always has a good-sized group of adults at her home on Halloween night who do not have trick-ortreaters at their homes. The adults arrive to enjoy a big pot of chili and Halloween-themed goodies — and to help give out candy.
Davis has decorated her home for the holiday with cobwebs on the front porch, a motorized ghost that moans and moves back and forth on a string, a laughing tombstone in the front yard, witches on the lampposts flanking the sidewalk and Halloween lights. She has inflatable figures. On one side of the yard, she has inflatable ghosts popping out of a jack-o-lantern. On the other side, she has an inflatable Pooh Bear in a jack-o-lantern and a vampire Tigger.
“I have a lot of people who come by with their kids to take pictures with Pooh and Tigger,” she said.
A lot of her decorations came from Dollar Tree, she said.
“It’s pretty amazing the stuff you can find and just put together,” she said. “Everything I decorate with I’ve collected at yard sales and Dollar Tree. I never go out and just spend a bunch of money.
“We don’t do the real spooky, morbid (displays) because we have so many little ones that come, so I try to keep it so we don’t scare them. I think the spookiest I get is my little headstone down there.”
Inside, she has Dollar Tree tablecloths made into curtains.
“I do that at Christmas, too. You can have the cutest little curtains out of a Dollar Tree tablecloth,” she said.
“I’m just so proud of this little town at Halloween. Most everyone leaves their porch lights on and they have treats for the children.”
She said she has two grandchildren who grew up in Georgia, and they have not experienced Halloween the way it is done here.
“One of them is going to be here, and I’m just so excited that she’s going to see Halloween as it should be,” she said.
“We always did Halloween when I was a kid — homemade costumes, decorating,” she said. “I probably get my passion for Halloween
from my dad. He loved the trick-or-treaters. At that time Pineville had big costume contests. They would have the apple bobbing, usually at the school gym. Dad’s the one who started the count. Someone has to count every trick-or-treater we have. He probably started it 40 years ago. We have trick-or-treaters that are third-generation trickor-treaters to this house.”
She said a unique thing about Halloween in Pineville is that people load up children on trailers and haul them around to trick-or-treat.
“It’s all hands on deck when a trailer unloads because you’re swamped. You’ve got kids everywhere,” she said.
In addition to children, they have had a horse, a goat and a pig.
“We always have dressed up dogs,” she said.
On average, she has about 300 trick-or-treaters, but has had as many as 600, though never less than 250, she said.
“Obviously the weekend Halloweens are a lot bigger than the weekday Halloweens, but the weekday Halloweens are still pretty big,” she said.
“Pineville is a good little Halloween town,” she said. “I’m proud of this town and the way we do Halloween here.”