CENTERVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — On Halloween, Middle Tennessee has its share of grand traditions. One of them has grown into quite the event. Of course, with a big event, comes the story behind it.
There are some places that are just a little extra into Halloween. Centerville's like that, where it looks and feels like Halloween. People embrace the day a little more. For it be like this is in part due to a Mr. and Mrs. Halloween.
Watch the parade in the player above.
"You two have been married for just a little bit, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, just a little bit," smiled Bobby McFarlin. "Fifty-six years, so we've had a good time together."
Bobby and Sandy McFarlin don't seem so scary.
"We're not! We're not!" Bobby laughed. "We just enjoy Halloween. We love Halloween."
In Halloween 1991, the McFarlins began turning their home into a haunted house nothing short of legendary.
"When we'd start building the yard, the school bus would come down the street and the little kids would be just hanging out the window," Sandy remembered. "'I'm coming! I'm coming!' It was so great to see they were looking forward to it."
Helping the McFarlins with their yearly Halloween house was a tradition for people in Centerville.
"Guys and gals in masks were coming up to ya!" said Devin Pickard of Papa Kayjoe's Bar B Q. "They know you for sure and you probably know them."
"I helped for a number of years," added resident Jason Dotson. "We started collecting ice cream machine motors. Any motor we thought we could open a casket with, spin bicycle tires, send a ghost around the yard."
"The McFarlins would be my parents!" said Jennifer Baltz. "It wasn't even about the candy. It was about the entertainment factor of it."
"Those are my grandparents," said McKale Baltz. "It's weird growing up in that cause there's normal grandparents, and I have my grandparents!"
Every Halloween, the McFarlins and Centerville would put on a haunted house to remember. By the very next morning, it would all be gone, a sign outside saying 'Happy Thanksgiving.' The next year, they'd do it all over again.
"It was huge," Bobby said. "We would have 2,000 people come by."
"They'd scream their head off, end up running right through it!" McKale added.
"They would close the street," said Sandy.
"We would carve about 70 or 80 pumpkins," Bobby said.
That's how it went, starting from that first year. They got to 2001.
"This one in particular was after 9/11," Bobby said, holding up a picture of their home decorated in flags and patriotic messages. "We didn't feel the need to do a real scary thing in our yard, so we went with a more patriotic theme that year."
After all, the McFarlins did this for their community. That year, that's what they felt the community needed.
It was back to the haunted house the next few years after that.
Sandy had a bad knee. The McFarlins moved to a new house, but that one was close to a hospital, and they couldn't tie up the street. The Halloween haunted house was finished for good this time.
"We loved it," Bobby said. "We loved it the whole time we did it."
Even then, no one seemed to think Centerville's time being a Halloween town was really over.
Someone approached Bobby with an idea. Years ago, he helped to launch something new for Centerville, something that gets people showing up pretty early.
"Four and a half hours!" one man said, sitting in a folding chair in downtown Centerville.
"Parking fills up pretty fast!" added another man who'd claimed a park bench with his family.
Oh, everyone knew what they'd come for.
"To get candy!" a girl said.
True, but there's a whole lot of celeb sighting too.
"We did see Ghostbusters," the girl said, looking around. "We've seen Maleficent, and we've seen a lot of Ghostface."
What the McFarlins started with their haunted house has evolved into the annual Hickman County Halloween Parade. Bobby ran it a few years, and it's changed hands several times since then. On the night of the parade, you could see Sandy in the crowd. And Bobby? Well, you know he's gonna be in the parade.
"How do you like the parade?" he called from a passing truck.
"Happy Halloween, Bobby!" I answered.
Perhaps daughter Jennifer puts it best about her parents.
"I don't think any of us at the time realized the legacy that my parents had created," she said. "My dad and my mom love this community. It was a heart project for them. I'm very proud to be part of it."
Another Halloween done. Let's send it off just like the McFarlins would. Happy Thanksgiving.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
