Pickens County Spook-tacular is back

PICKENS — You may not know Ray Wilson, but chances are he knows you — or at least where you live. Well that sounded creepy, didn’t it? But for the purposes of this story, “creepy” is the name of the game.

You see, Wilson is the local mailman and his route is downtown Pickens. And do you know what holiday Wilson loves?

You guessed it: Halloween.

Two years ago, Wilson and his wife Stephanie bought a house on Cedar Rock Street and wanting to get in good with the neighbors, decided to do that they do best — deck the halls, spooky style.

“The former owners were well known for making cotton candy on the front porch and giving it out to trick-or-treaters,” said Wilson. “I wanted to do that, I wanted to do something to bring back real trick-or-treating. Nowadays everything’s planned, ‘Trunk-or-treating’ and stuff. The days of kids running through the neighborhoods going door to door are gone — but they don’t have to be.”

In his quest to make Cedar Rock Street more “Halloween friendly,” Wilson said he’s got about 60% of the houses on board, making it a trick-or-treating destination for kids all over Pickens.

The yard is decorated with giant skeletons, spooky scenes, spiders, cobwebs and an array of pumpkins and hay bales — all of which will be broken down Nov. 1.

“A lot of the stuff we will store and use again next year but we recycle a lot too,” said Wilson. “The hay bales were used for erosion control and the pumpkins became hog feed.”

Despite his enthusiasm, in the wake of COVID-19, Wilson acknowledged some things most likely won’t be making a return. Homemade caramel apples, popcorn balls, brownies — people now prefer to have their treats pre-packaged, he said.

“Although, my mother did make cupcakes last year and I said ‘Mom! You can’t do that anymore!’ But everyone loved them, so maybe some stuff will make a comeback after all.”

Comebacks or not, Wilson says as far as the cotton candy goes, kids will have to settle for the prepackaged kind, but not to worry, he and Stephanie have plenty to go around.

The second annual Pickens County Spook-tacular, at 719 E. Cedar Rock Street, kicks off Oct. 28, from 5-9 p.m. Wear your best costume, grab the kids and come on down to join the Wilsons for a good old fashioned Halloween.