Carbondale Halloween

In the mid 80’s, Carbondale’s Halloween was very famous, but it was dishonorable. Halloween riots began in 1981, and many outside people came to Carbondale. Then, they drank too much beer, and made some troubles, such as breaking widows, destroying signboards, and fighting with each other. So, Carbondale City made a ban that bars and liquor shops could not sell alcohol during Halloween weekend. These yearly riots continued until 1994. However, Carbondale Police still keeps caution that drunken people might make some trouble.

I asked Rebel when he was working in Old Town Liquor. Actually, he is not an owner of the shop, but he knows about the Carbondale City law. So, I decided to interview with him. My first question is “what do you think about the City law?” He said, “We have opened this shop for the last 3 years.” After his answer, I was confused because I thought that they could not sell beer during Halloween weekend. So, I was mistaken about the City law. In fact, now liquor shops in Carbondale can open their shops during Halloween weekend. Anyway, I asked the next question, which was “how much income did you lose during the weekend?” He did not know about the exact value, but he said, “I guess probably $2,000 per day.” My third question is “what was the cause of riots?” He believes that the reason of riots is Carbondale City, because they tried to invite many people for the Carbondale. In fact, Carbondale City made an advertisement for the Halloween festival. Therefore, he said Carbondale City made the troubles by itself. Finally, the shop sells beer in this year, and he believes that nothing will happen during Halloween weekend. I think his opinion is very clear, and I hope that Carbondale will be calm this year.

By Masaki