By PHYLLIS ZORN and ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writers

Marion resident Autumn Hanson and friends have a special Halloween event planned for children and parents to enjoy while keeping social distance.

The group, decked out in costumes, will do a witches’ dance several times during the day in Hanson’s yard at 435 Forest St.

“At dusk, we will pass out bags of candy and popcorn,” Hanson said.

The lawn is decorated with Halloween skeletons. A skeleton horse pulls a skeleton man and dog riding a buggy, a skeleton sits on a chair next to a dragon skeleton, and a skeleton witch dances by a cauldron.

The display has caught the eye of passers-by who have been driving past slowly to preview the décor.

No specific times have been set for the dances during the day.

“It’s just going to be a play-by-play thing,” she said.

Shirley Bowers also has her house in the 400 block of N. Roosevelt St. decked out for Halloween.

“No one is coming to see it,” she said. “I’m doing it for myself, because I like to do it.”

Many of her homemade decorations are holdovers from her days working at Marion Senior Center.

“I just have it, so I keep using it,” she said. “I don’t take it down there as much since there’s a lady who does the decorating. It’s the same thing year after year. I just like the same things. Put them in different places, and that way it’s a little different.”

Bowers decorates her home for every holiday. It’s a source of entertainment because her living room TV isn’t working.

“I have to go way back to my bedroom to watch TV,” she said. “I don’t like to do that, so I just like to have things to look at.”