WEST PITTSTON — For residents at the corner of the 200 and 300 blocks of Delaware Avenue in the borough, Halloween is their Super Bowl Sunday.
Carmen Ambrosino’s home sits on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Fourth Street where he sat at the edge of his sidewalk with a clothes basket full of candy waiting for throngs of trick or treaters to line up for goodies.
The evening ended near 9 p.m. when the last of the children (and adults) came through. Ambrosino had his iPhone in one hand using a counting app and the other passing out candy. The official tally of the evening: 1,002 at 8:48 p.m., crushing last year’s number of 750.
According to Ambrosino, each year the numbers have been increasing since they bought their home in 1999.
“I think it’s getting bigger and, with the two houses across the street where they’ve being going all out, we are definitely getting more,” he said. “It’s a close-knit community where everyone knows each other and it just shows the closeness of West Pittston how we give to each other. When I tell people at work, they are amazed by the number of people that come through.”
The Pugliese family has held the cornerstone of Halloween where matriarch Elaine has been crowned the Queen of Halloween since 1978 when they purchased “the Mansion,” the term locals have given to their home for decades. Pugliese, who dresses in a witch’s costume on Halloween, plans and lays out her decorations as early as two months before the holiday.
“I’ve always loved Halloween and I love the mystery of it,” she said. “Every year, I would add more to it and people liked it and would watch me put it up – it’s a neat experience.”
Pugliese echoed Ambrosino, saying this was going to be a record year.
John Phillips resides in a home across the street from the Puglieses and for the three years he’s occupied the home, he brings his “A” game on Halloween. Phillips is an event planner and has collected a large amount of Halloween decorations for parties he’s supplied.
“MCR is a design company doing everything from weddings to corporates and galas and we do different holiday season parties and it’s based around décor/design and making things an experience,” he said.
According to Phillips, his theme for this Halloween was old school, scary clown Halloween meets Disney’s Haunted Mansion. “It’s kid-friendly, but still a little bit scary but not completely over the edge,” he added.
His home was decorated with animatronic displays, stage/studio lighting, a smoke machine, huge spiders on the second floor of the house and a real casket, complete with skeletons.
Phillips declined to give a dollar amount to what went into his display, but did say if he serviced a client with a similar layout, it would be in the $7,000 to $8,000 area, complete with a team to set up and tear down of the displays.
Next door to the Phillips’ residence is the Vitale home. The Vitales have three adult children living outside the area, who all make the trek home for Halloween.
Daughter Caitlyn traveled from the Philadelphia area to be a part of the family tradition.
“It’s a huge community event. I’ve grown up watching it get bigger and bigger,” she said. “It’s a terrible event to miss, everybody out on their porches enjoying the event. Every year, we always run out of candy.”
Anna Marie Brocca, of Stroudsburg, a Wyoming Area graduate, brought along her daughter and granddaughter to the extravaganza after reading about it on Facebook. “It’s everything I read and more,” she said.
The West Pittston Fire Dept. made its last stop to the corner of Delaware Avenue and Fourth Street, bringing goodies and treats handed it out by monsters and ghouls.
