Kilwinning Street in Penticton.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Every year on Halloween, there’s a gravity that pulls hundreds of children into a spooky neighbourhood in Penticton.

Maybe it's bribery, maybe it's become tradition because kids just seem to know: This is the spot.

“It’s been like this for 50 years,” said Dawne Young, a grandmother who lives and grew up on Kilwinning Street. “You have to drive very slow, the K Streets are hoppin’ on Halloween.”

Kilwinning is one of the four K streets, along with King Street, Killarney Street, and Kensington Street. They all run parallel with one another on the east side of the city. The roads are pretty flat and the houses are close together, which is ideal for trick-or-treating.

Kilwinning Street in Penticton.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Young normally has enough candy for about 350 kids. That gets her though most of the night, but they normally have to turn out the lights before all the youngsters have gone in. During extra-busy years however, she remembers having to go to the store halfway through the night to get more candy.

It’s important for children to know which houses are giving out big chocolate bars on Halloween, but with so many children expected at the K streets each year, Young said the coveted full-sized candy bars are not common in the neighbourhood.

But these homeowners don’t need big chocolate bars to lure kids in. The K streets are a local phenomenon because of the energy and enthusiasm that goes into celebrating the occasion.

READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Halloween has gone to Kelowna’s weiner dogs

Young’s grandchildren are helping her set up the decorations this year. One new idea they’re trying is placing glow sticks inside toilet paper rolls which, when cut just right, will be placed in the bushes to look like spooky eyes.

Over the past 50 or so years, the peak times were in the late 1980s and 1990s, she recalls, when upwards of 500 kids could be expected every Oct. 31.

K street trick-or-treaters are always respectful and vandalism is not an issue, she said, although things get “rougher after the lights are out,” and fireworks are commonly fired off at a nearby rugby field.

The Skeleterry residence on Kilwinning Street is ready to spook hundreds of trick-or-treaters again this year.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

Armand Granger has always been enthusiastic about decorating his home for Christmas, but after seeing how much effort some of his K Street neighbours have been putting into their displays, he began applying more festive spirit into October as well.

“I thought this year 'ah, what the heck, we’ll start doing Halloween as well.'"

Parked out front of Granger’s home is a custom Ford pickup with skeletons in the driver’s and passenger seat.

As Halloween approaches, it can be difficult to decipher the living from the dead on Penticton's K Streets.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

“On Halloween there’ll be some funky music playing in there, a smoke machine – we'll have a couple of skeletons partying in the truck."

Skeletons can be also found on Kilwinning Street at the home of the Terrys, better known as the “Skeleterry’s” every October. Trick-or-treaters who visit each year notice the new features and any changes that are made, so Rachel and Neil Terry make sure their place is worth returning to every Oct. 31.

It takes about 16 hours of work each year for their home to look eerie and decrepit for Halloween. Every October, Neil constructs a creepy wooden fence along the sidewalk using old, crooked wood including one plank that has burn marks.

Kilwinning Street resident Neil Terry constructs a creepy wooden fence every year for his family's Halloween display.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

On the other side of the fence is the cemetery where their skeleton family can be found doing things that living people do, like using tools and hanging out around a fire.

To make sure their home can be appreciated by trick-or-treaters of all ages, they try to strike the right balance between scary and fun

“It’s a fine line,” Neil said. “We try to be spooky but also try not to scare the little ones.”

The Terrys have been living on Kilwinning for 25 years and they remember feeling shocked by how many kids came by on their first Halloween. Even last year, when a lower turnout was expected due to COVID, around 200 trick-or-treaters came by, Rachel said.

READ MORE: This Penticton family has Halloween in their bones

To put on an entertaining display in 2020 within the parameters of social distancing, they built a fortune telling booth and Rachel became Madame Raszo, making her predictions from behind plexiglass. The fortune telling booth will also be a part of the 2021 display, however Madame Raszo had her job replaced by a skeleton.

In recent years, many of the kids coming by the "Skeleterry's" on Halloween have been accompanied by parents who remember trick-or-treating at the same house when they were young. 

There is a significant population of skeletons living on Kilwinning Street in Penticton.

(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)

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