On the corner of Hylan Avenue and Marlboro Street in Hamlet, there’s a stop light, take a right off of Marlboro on Halloween night and you’ll be right in the middle of a sea of knee-high ghouls and ghosts.

“This is the corner,” Lisa West, one of the residents on the street decorating and preparing for Halloween on Saturday night.

According to West, this part of Hamlet tends to see between 500 and 600 children on Halloween.

Lisa and her husband, along with several of their neighbors, have been busy preparing for the holiday by hanging lights, plugging in inflatable vampires and positioning fans behind makeshift banshees.

“It’s become more or less a tradition,” Michael Gamber, another homeowner said.

Gamber’s front yard now plays the role of a haunted graveyard and in place of the fallen leaves on a tree in his yard, the branches hold decapitated head from its limbs.

“We’ve been adding to it as the years go by,” Gamber said.

Around the corner on Entwhiste, one family has fabricated a haunted three-piece train in their yard, complete with a coal car.

The Covington’s have been busy building the train since late last week.

With those 600 children come 600 bags and plastic pumpkins that they’d like to see filled with candy.

“We’ll spend $300 on candy every year,” Gamber said.

In front of Gamber’s home, he keeps a black wheelbarrow filled with candy on Halloween night, which he fills at least three times.

“All we had left last year was one bag of candy,” Gamber said.

So many children flood the streets that the neighborhood has considered contacting the Hamlet Police Department to request they come out and direct traffic on the corner to make sure the children stay safe.

“It keeps growing,” West said about the amount of children.

Many of the families in the nearby community have been building extravagant set pieces for several years.

Prior to this year’s ghost train theme, the Covington’s have built pirate ships and castles on the front of their home for Halloween, according to Jim and Abbie Covington.

According to Gamber, on Friday night they held a dress rehearsal to make sure, “we don’t burn down the neighborhood.”

n Staff writer Bryan Stewart can be reached at 997-3111 ext. 15 or by e-mail at bstewart@yourdailyjournal.com.