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Hawaii’s Back yard  Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
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Couple cranks out
creativity in costumes
DON'T tell 66-year-old Ann Burkhalter that Halloween is just for kids. Each year, she and her husband, Bunt, are among the most enthusiastic revelers at Halloween in Lahaina, an uproarious bash spearheaded by the LahainaTown Action Committee. If you're on Maui, this is a party you shouldn't miss.
Halloween in LahainaToday's events: Haunted house opens at 1 p.m.; parade begins at 5 p.m. Most events run 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. tonight.Venues: Haunted house, trick-or-treating, entertainment at Wharf Cinema Center; costume contest at Pioneer Inn; other events at Banyan Tree Park and along Front Street Admission: Free for most activities Call: 808-667-9194 or 808-667-9175 Web site: www.visitlahaina.com
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She and Bunt moved to Maui from New York in 1994, settling at first in Pukalani. "We didn't bother to go to Lahaina for Halloween that year since we were told that it got crowded," Burkhalter recalls. "Crowds are not our thing so we stayed home, but reading about it in the paper the next morning, I regretted the decision."
So when the couple moved to Lahaina the following year, they invited several Upcountry friends to join them for Halloween, one of the town's biggest annual celebrations. Says Burkhalter: "We all wore 'normal' costumes, except for a friend who dressed as a dead bride with a huge knife protruding from her chest. When we walked through town, she had the most fun. Lots of honeymooning couples wanted the groom to take a picture with her."
In 1996, Burkhalter decided to enter the costume contest, which now awards $1,000 in cash, provided by Maui Tacos, to the first-place winner. Bringing the theme "Road Kill Cafe" to life, she bought white jackets from a local laundry for $5 apiece and transformed them into chef's coats.
"A friend who dressed as the restaurant's exterminator drove his muddy old truck across the back of his coat, which produced a great effect," Burkhalter says, laughing. "We also had several waiters and waitresses, and two billboard men -- Bunt and his 87-year-old father -- advertising items such as Tire Tread Toad, Squish-Ka-Bob, Finger Sandwiches with Toe Jam and Ground Gecko Goulash. We had a wonderful time and won third place!"
In the ensuing years, the Burkhalters have observed Halloween with just as much creative flair. They and whatever friends and family members they can round up have invested anywhere from three to 20-plus hours to make each costume and component of the entry.
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They scour their closets and the racks and shelves at Savers and the Salvation Army for materials, and recycle whatever they can. To make the costumes, "hot glue and duct tape are essential," Burkhalter points out.
Ranging in size from 2 to 20, the Burkhalters' group has dressed as the E.R. (Extreme Risk) Medical Group, including a proctologist, witch doctor, and surgeons with meat cleavers and chain saws; Pillars of the Community, wearing pillars made of cardboard and paint; Costume Cops, handing out citations for "decent exposure" along with 750 Groucho glasses to noncostumed attendees; and Birds of Paradise, flaunting swim fins as bird feet and plumage made of leaves and fronds.
Two years ago the Burkhalters were on the mainland until a few weeks before Halloween, so they decided on an "easy" costume. "I came up with the idea of a martini and a Manhattan," recalls Burkhalter. "Bunt built wooden braces over our shoulders to support the glasses. We were wrapped in black plastic for the stems. His head was in an olive, and mine was in a cherry, each made of old plastic pumpkins. Those 'easy' costumes actually were very difficult to make and very uncomfortable to wear! Our son Bern and our friend Kathy O'Brien were feeling left out, so we added them to our drink order. Bern was a Bloody Mary with his head hidden in a celery stalk, and Kathy was a mai tai hiding in a pineapple spear."
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Last year's Mount Rushmore entry, complete with a park ranger and park security guard, garnered first place. The mountain was constructed of bedsheets and old boat seat cushions, with the smiling faces of Burkhalter, Bunt, Bern and Kathy replacing the stoic granite portraits of Roosevelt, Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson.
"This year, we are going to be the Age of Aquariums," says Burkhalter. "We'll have a humuhumunukunukuapuaa, yellow tang, green sea turtle, sea horse, Moorish idol, Nemo and Dory from the 'Finding Nemo' movie, a sand castle, a clump of seaweed with schools of fish and a rock formation with trumpet fish inside. We'll also have Jock Strap Cousteau, a couple of friends dressed as fish store workers and the 5-month-old daughter of friends dressed as a turtle.
"We've been dedicated to Halloween for over a month this year, with each person -- except for the baby -- making their own costume."
The first Halloween in Lahaina was held in 1985, and according to Theo Morrison, executive director of the LahainaTown Action Committee, it's gotten bigger and better every year. About 80 other entries will be vying with the Burkhalters' group for top honors in this year's Maui Tacos Halloween Costume Contest.
"At all the other events that LahainaTown Action Committee organizes, people come expecting to be entertained," Morrison notes. "But at Halloween in Lahaina, they come as the entertainers! They are the show, they are the actors, they are the production. We set the stage and the audience performs. Wearing a costume is a magical transformation; people become their costume!"
Some 30,000 people are expected to attend this year's festivities, which also feature live entertainment, a haunted house, an arts festival and a children's parade. "Part of the magic is that people come to the event with the mind-set that they are going to have fun," observes Morrison. "It's infectious! So don't show up in street clothes and wonder why everyone else has a costume on. You are the party, so dress the part, act the part and be ready to have a really great time!"