Halloween goes on parade in Petaluma

No Halloween? No way!

Great minds converged in Petaluma on how to preserve, in the midst of a global pandemic, what is for many kids and more than a few grown-ups the funnest, scariest, sweetest, most outrageously awesome day of the year.

The solution was Hallowluma, a hilarious and high-spirited parade of costumed revelers in spooked-up cars.

It burst forth Saturday afternoon at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds. Music blared and members of several community organizations howled their approval as families drove slowly by.

Inside the cars that rolled in two lines, kids showed off their costumes by poking out the sunroofs and windows.

All along the route were folks who lumbered about inside giant dinosaur and monster outfits.

And there were spirit stations staffed by community minded sorts with the organizations that included the Petaluma Downtown Association, Active 20/30 Club, Petaluma Mothers Club, Petaluma People Services Center, Cruisin North Car Club and Fabulous Women.

“We didn’t want another thing taken away from kids” said Melissa Becker, the president Fabulous Women. She told of alerting the community to the need for sweets to go into goodie bags for Hallowluma and within about 24 hours taking in some 8,000 pieces of donated candy.

There was no reason for the merry people in the cars to step out. At the end of the parade, masked members of Fabulous Women passed goodie bags through the car windows.

And with that, Petaluma had saved Halloween.