Among Portland’s many devotees of Halloween, Timmy Marino, 40, stands out. He has organized his neighbors along the blocks of Southeast Taylor Street between 76th and 80th Avenues to be a trick-or-treating destination.
Last year, when he was running a haunted house of sorts, 1,200 visitors passed through over three nights, according his tally. Before vaccines were available for anyone, he and his neighbors figured out the logistics of passing out candy from a social distance and delivered joy in a joyless time. This year they’ll be no haunted house, but he and his neighbors are keeping the tradition going.
Why do you love Halloween?
“It’s the one day of the year where it’s perfectly fine to scare children. It's not the pure joy of their shrieks. It's just the fun of pretend.“[As a kid, Halloween] was always my favorite. My mom would make costumes every year. I was always a monster. I was born in ‘82 and had no censorship, so I watched all the ‘80s horror movies. Freddy Krueger was my idol, which is creepy. I was him multiple times. I still have my original Freddie Krueger glove.”
How’d you start Nightmare on Taylor?
“When I moved in, I dressed up and was ready to hand out candy to the kids and just got a small handful.“And then living right next to the [now-shuttered] Taylor Court market, [which had trick-or-treaters], just bought a bunch of those orange party paper bags and got those little plastic candles and made a little trail all the way from Taylor Court.“And there I was just sitting in a costume with a big bowl of candy, and the kids came, and I gave them a nice little scare when they went to grab it. I always had the best candy because I firmly believe with every trick you get a treat, and that's how they keep coming back. There’s always Blow Pops, Pixie Sticks, Nerds, Twix, KitKats. I always throw in some old school random ones too, like Fireballs and Lemonheads.”
What inspired you to get your neighbors together to make Halloween a thing?
“[The next year] I knocked on all my neighbor's doors for the four blocks from 80th to 76th. [In the end,] all the neighbors ran outta candy. “I kind of started the name Nightmare on Taylor Street because all of a sudden the kids started calling me the ‘scary house.'”
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