This week, the city will be flooded with witches and wizards, pirates, insects and every type of imaginable creature.

Sunday, October 28, 2001

This week, the city will be flooded with witches and wizards, pirates, insects and every type of imaginable creature. If you haven’t decided on your Halloween costume, it’s time to get moving.

Several stores in the area stock standard Halloween costumes for kids and adults alike. At ShopKo’s Eerie Alley, kids’ favorites include Spy Kids’ action suits, policemen, Dragon Tales, Blues Clues, Between the Lions, Peter Pan’s Tinkerbell, cheerleaders, and Harry Potter Accessories. For adults, there are medieval knights, sheiks, vampires, nuns, priests, witches, ghouls and French maids.

But for a little more custom look, people are turning to rent costumes or even make their own.

Kathi Wilder of Albert Lea has been renting costumes for children and adults alike out of her garage for more than 30 years. She has well over 400.

&uot;The first one to go out was the Statue of Liberty,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s rented for all three weekends and Halloween Day.&uot;

The most popular costumes leaving Wilder’s garage seem to be patriotic and the Wizard of Oz characters. &uot;Although my Sister Act-Nunsense costumes are always popular,&uot; she said.

&uot;It’s always a fun time of year for me,&uot; Wilder said of Halloween. &uot;I enjoy talking to the people and hearing the stories when they come back.&uot;

Courtly Manor in downtown rents adult costumes only. Lynn Jesse said she hasn’t noticed any real trend this year. &uot;When the ‘Flintstones’ movie and ‘Star Wars’ came out, we had a lot of demand for those characters. But there really hasn’t been a movie people are singling out,&uot; she said.

&uot;It’s not a normal Halloween,&uot; Jesse added.

She said one customer thought the perfect costume would have been Osama bin Laden. &uot;But he said, ‘Somebody would probably shoot me,’&uot; Jesse recalled.

Even though Americans are more patriotic this year, Courtly Manor also hasn’t seen a huge demand for patriotic costumes. &uot;We have one Uncle Sam costume, and it went right away,&uot; Jesse said. &uot;I helped a customer with a last-minute costume last year, and this year he came in early and said, ‘I know what I want. I want Uncle Sam.’&uot;

Jesse said trade shows for Halloween costumes are held in April of each year, so if a big news event happens later in the year, it’s often too late for costume makers to come up with corresponding costumes.

Courtly Manor has rented Halloween costumes for the last 15 years. Jesse said the store adds a couple dozen new costumes each year, and has everything from movie star costumes to witches, wizards, monsters, religious figures, early American, Arabian, clowns, cartoon characters, animals, maids, pirates, police officers and more.

Jesse said renting costumes just makes sense. &uot;To purchase them, it often costs a lot more,&uot; she said, adding that people also don’t have to figure out what to do with them when Halloween is over when renting.

Linda Pownell, manager of Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts in Albert Lea, said that while the store stocks some ready-made costumes, it sells many more patterns for people who want to create their own looks.

She said one of the most unique costumes she’s heard about this year is a group of three who are going to be a banana split.

There will be many wizards, witches, Glinda the Good Witch, fairies and princesses running around in both adult and children’s sizes. &uot;I think we’re going to see quite a few Harry Potters too,&uot; Pownell said.

As far as patriotic costumes, Pownell said she hasn’t noticed an increase there. &uot;But a lot of our customers have been making patriotic things for their homes,&uot; she added.