Click to enlarge Jerrie Whiteley

The ghosts and goblins came out in droves for Sherman Police Department's Fright Festival during the weekend.

The lawn around Sherman's Municipal Building started to sprout booths filled with candy, balloons and flavored water at around 5 p.m. and continued to multiply until the whole place looked like a cheerfully haunted village.

The candy flowed like a sweet and never-ending river as children visited various booths to collect their loot. Some of those children focused intently on the candy, one little boy was counting every piece as he put it in his bag, while others seemed preoccupied with their costumes.

Apparently some little goblin thought it would be funny to unplug the giant orange cord that delivered electricity to the Herald Democrat booth ...Twice.

Whether it was on purpose or an accident, it certainly added a little trick to our evening. But, then again, it was Halloween so a little pranking wasn't completely out of order.

We enjoyed, as always, getting to see all of the area youngsters dressed to the hilt in their Halloween best. In years past, my friends and I have had a chance to discuss the best costumes, but this year there were so many youngsters that we hardly had time to stop and consider the costumes. We were delighted to be able to hand out flavored water donated by the folks over at Sunny Delight/Fruit 2.0. Most of the parents who came to our booth seemed to love the idea of a cool drink of water on such a warm Halloween evening.

When all of the water and candy had been handed out, the city of Sherman had one more delightful treat in store and it came in a form I would have never expected. Some delightfully friendly city employees handed out garbage bags for those who had trash they needed to make vanish. When the bags were full, those same employees whisked them away.

There is no denying that that the Sherman Police Department knows how to through a Halloween party and we hope they throw it for years to come.

Happy birthday Wednesday to Lynn Burkhead and Suzanne Anderson, both of Denison; Thomas Gaffney, Jennifer Montgomery, Betty Hempkins, Betty Edwards, Britt Jones and twins, Anthony and Allen Taylor, all of Sherman; Jonnie Graham of Southmayd; Matt Ferguson of Ravenna; Joanne Harrison Heatley of Bells; Milán Eugene of Plano.

Happy anniversary Wednesday to Garry and Brenda Neal of Bells, 32 years; Brent and Shellee McLaren of Denison, 20 years.