A steady stream of trick-or-treaters files in and out of Peter Geiger’s house on Brentwood Avenue in Lewiston on Tuesday night for his annual “3 large candy bar giveaway.” Traffic was snarled for most of the early evening as several hundred people waited at times for their turn to be asked a question they were required to answer to get their treat. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
LEWISTON — There’s nothing “fun size” about Halloween at Peter Geiger’s house.
A long line of trick-or-treating families waited for a chance to get three king-size candy bars of their choice.
What started as wanting to give out bigger candy became nearly 1,500 people lining up for 4,500 king-size candy bars and 260 cookies.
The cookies were gone by 6 p.m., but the candy was still going strong.
“We have a distributor with more candy if we need it, but hopefully we don’t,” Geiger said.
Geiger said the widespread power outages didn’t deter him from carrying on his Halloween tradition.
“I said yesterday it’s gonna happen, even if it’s by moonlight or something, I don’t know how,” he said.
The radio station he normally shares his password through was still without power, so he said they used the power of social media this year to get the word out.
“I got power back around 1 p.m. today,” he said. “The timing worked out really well,” he said. “Yesterday I had a tree down in front of my house.”
This year’s password was “howling winds all winter long.” Fitting for the powerful wind storm Sunday and Monday that nearly stopped the celebrations.
“It was gonna work. I had all the candy bars here already,” Geiger said.
He said some years he hires police to help monitor traffic because Pond Road gets so backed up with cars and pedestrians.
Geiger said the influx started Tuesday around 3:30 p.m. and could go until 8:30 or 9 p.m.
“The line never stops,” he said.
The idea is to give everyone – with the secret password – three candy bars of their choice.
With 15 types to choose from, that seemed to be the biggest struggle for most of the children.
Between KitKats, Three Musketeers, Sour Patch Kids and Twix, it’s almost too much to pick from.
“It’s great to see the costumes, and I love seeing the families,” Geiger said.
“There’s just so many people coming through the door, some people probably even turn away,” Geiger said.
“It’s a lot of work to put it together, but very enjoyable,” he said.
Laura Bosse, Geiger’s employee of 48 years, stopped by with her great-granddaughter Olivia, who was trick-or-treating for her first Halloween. She said they came from Lisbon.
The festivities didn’t stop with the candy. A larger-than-life Jack Skellington blow-up figure stood tall in the front yard, and a similarly sized black cat stood guard at the garage.
Inside, after trick-or-treaters made their way through the candy hallway, a skeleton sat waiting to say hello in an old rocking chair.
“This is my first wife,” Geiger would say to the curious kids. “She’s had better days.”
There were family and friends helping with the candy flow and the haunted garage exit, although Geiger said this year it was smaller than normal. “I usually try to make it more interactive but we just got power back today,” he said.
Alicia Critelli works at Geiger Elementary School and has been helping with the Halloween fun for the past three years. This year, she was the password-checker.
“Halloween is probably my favorite holiday,” she said. “I don’t have any kids, so this gives me an excuse to stay engaged and enjoy the holiday.”
She said seeing the children in their costumes is really fun, and she likes the password aspect. “It makes them have to socialize a little.”
She said she likes that it’s a family thing, too. “I think the parents are just as excited as the kid,” she said.
Chris Pomerleau has been helping out since the inception of the big event. “Pete’s like my dad, he’s always been family,” he said.
“It started pretty small and just kept growing,” he said. “Last year we had 1,500 people at three candy bars a person. You do the math.”
In 2002, Geiger had about 300 people come to his door. In 2014, the number had risen to 1,975, which was a record number of people.
Pomerleau agreed that seeing the kids in their costumes, smiling and excited, was a big part of the fun.
“Peter and I always like to do these kinds of ‘giving’ things, so we started with wanting to do something bigger and better. We started with the king-size candy bars and it just grew from there,” Pomerleau said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
