Park in town lots for downtown neighborhood trick-or-treating

If I could make a commercial for Halloween in Culpeper, it would go something like this:

West Culpeper Street lot: 45 parking spaces
West Locust Street lot: 58 spaces
West Cameron Street lot: 24 spaces
East Spencer Street lot: 93 spaces
Triangle lot: 64 spaces
Keeping our kids safe by walking on Halloween: Priceless.
For anyone interested in taking the “fright” out of Fright Night, there are 284 parking spots available in town lots this Halloween. For everyone else stocking up on candy for trick-or-treaters, there’s Mastercard. ...
It’s that time of year again: Time to decorate the house with cobwebs and creatures, time to invest a small fortune to keep the candy kitty full, and time for me to write my annual admonishment of the Halloween night routine in Culpeper.

I’ve written in the past that “one of the curses of age is realizing how irresponsible you were in your youth. ... Never is this more obvious to me than when I see kids running from house to house, across busy streets, covered in dark costumes without ever stopping to look for traffic.”

And yet, even with that added anxiety, Halloween is still the most important night on my social calendar. It’s the one collective chance my neighbors and I have to welcome guests to our streets, to share in the celebration and comradery of parenting as we parade our pride and joy dressed as superheroes and monsters.

Our downtown neighborhoods don’t really do anything you wouldn’t see elsewhere: We simply leave our lights on, perhaps put a few decorations in the yard, and wait like DMV window workers for the lines to start forming.

But we’re not the only draw. Most of the success of Halloween in Culpeper is directly attributable to the merchants of the Davis Street area who line up early to be treated by our costumed children, and the several local churches that draw large crowds for trunk-or-treating in their parking lots.

So our names may not be the ones on the invitation, but as soon as the costumed children leave the big gathering spots and start down our streets, they become our guests and our responsibility.

A few years ago, I wondered if anything could be done to make Halloween more enjoyable and safer. One reader wrote me that the town should host trick-or-treating on Saturday night every year, regardless of when Oct. 31 actually fell on the calendar.

“First, it would alleviate the traffic concerns you cited,” Mary Raiford wrote. “And secondly, it would be easier on parents and kids alike, as we’d all actually have time to prepare costumes, decorate faces, etc., and not have to be rushed out the door as soon as the kids get home from school and the parents get home from work!”
It’s a good idea, and we’ll get to test it out this year.

One big benefit of the Saturday date is all those extra town parking spaces. For more information on this option, and lot locations, please visit http://www.visitculpeperva.com/flyers/ParkingInCulpeper.pdf
It should be a busy Halloween. My neighbors and I welcome the extra traffic, but we also appreciate when more of it is of the “foot” variety.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Clements’ column runs every Monday.