Pirate theme sparked good times and sales
By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Modern-day pirates, or at least those dressed like pirates, roamed the streets of Houlton while others in buccaneer costumes and head scarves manned cash registers ringing up sales in keeping with this year’s theme for the Midnight Madness sales event — Pirates of the Caribbean. 
Pioneer Times photo/Elna Seabrooks
INCOGNITO? — This pirate scoured the streets of Houlton for Midnight Madness last Friday with his trusty buccaneer friend and when asked from whence they hailed, the only response was in typical pirate-speak: “Aargh.” At least they were smiling.
Last Friday’s festive shopping marathon turned out the bargain hunters as discounts grew with the hourly ticks on the clock edging toward midnight. Some stores weren’t taking any chances and stepped it up a notch with markdowns on merchandise early in the day before the evening kickoff. Up on North Street, Furniture & Floors North welcomed early shoppers as did other businesses.
Around 6 p.m. on the top step of the Elk’s Club, two young musicians, Wyatt Jenkins, 16, and Zach Waite, 15, rocked for three hours until 9 p.m. on their acoustic guitars as passers-by gathered at the bottom of the building’s steep cement stairs, occasionally dropping tips in a guitar case. Just a block away, Monument Park was filled with families enjoying McGill’s Community Band for their 7 p.m. concert in Monument Park. One highlight of the outstanding performance was a duet by Connor Grant and his father Fred Grant. They sang the George and Ira Gershwin 1937 classic, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” which was widely applauded by a smiling and appreciative audience.
Over at the Temple Theater, Owner Mike Hurley was in the full pirate spirit and regalia with a buccaneer assistant. Instead of a Spanish piñata, he suspended a treasure chest of pirate booty for children to break open. He even gave the chest a few hard whacks to help it yield to strikes of younger treasure seekers. But, it was so secure, Hurley had to rip it open to reveal the toys, trinkets, coins, candy and gift certificates eagerly scooped up by children around the theater.
As dusk brought on the beginning of darkness, excitement seemed to accelerate and more people poured into the streets and the stores. The Houlton Agricultural Fair that had set up Thursday morning is always a big draw for the holiday weekend. This year was no different. It pulled in plenty of visitors despite soggy skies that sent down more mist than fury for most of the long weekend.
Up and down the streets smiles were everywhere. And, nowhere more so than at Uncle Willy’s Candy Shoppe where there were wall-to-wall customers looking for bargains and probably the old-fashioned candy of years gone by. Owner Karen Keber dressed for the theme of the day in a white lacey top with a long black dress tied with red ribbons and her three children, also in buccaneer attire managed to keep up with anxious shoppers crowding into the store frantically searching out sweet treats.
At 9:30 p.m., the parking lot at Marden’s was full of cars and markdowns were growing bigger. By 10, up the road at Goodrich’s Jewelry, folks in the know and in the market for upscale gifts or jewelry were starting to line up for sales assistance. Travis Milton and fiancée Lisa Harvey found matching wedding bands for their upcoming nuptials.
In addition to local residents, there were visitors from different parts of the country and at least one man from Europe. Bernd Haake said he had come in from Munich, Germany for the holiday weekend and was having a nice time when he stopped to buy a can of Coca-Cola at the Unitarian Church’s table on Main Street. Haake said it would be a collectible item back in his homeland. As the evening wound down over at Wiggy’s Trading Post a late sale netted a Tin Man sculpture around 11 p.m. for a lucky woman whose thoughtful sister found just the right gift she knew would fit the bill.
Smiles all over town lit up the night as neighbors and visitors got caught up in the spirit of Midnight Madness. Who knows what next year will bring.
