Halloween again gave up its secret Saturday in Chula Vista. Even during a pandemic, the holiday isn’t just for kids.
Although Chris and Marty Morrow of Jefferson Avenue hosted neighborhood munchkins — shepherded in ones or twos to hanging goodie bags from a Candy Monster Tree — the real treat was 73-year-old Comic-Con veteran Christopher Canole.
Resplendent in his golden, steam-punk Dude Vader get-up, Canole wore a dark pouch.
The La Jolla man had a surprise inside — a life-size replica of The Child from Disney’s “The Mandalorian,” better known as Baby Yoda.
The 16-inch cutie, marketed by Sideshow Collectibles for $375 retail, isn’t available widely. In fact, the sales site says: “Est. Arrival: Jan 2021 – Mar 2021.”
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Few children realized the celebrity at hand, however.
“The Mandalorian has to wear a mask all the time,” Canole said. “And I, like the Mandalorian, will not go out unless I’m wearing my mask.”
Did he have a mask under his mask?
“I can’t tell you that — because I’d have to take off my mask,” he jousted.
Canole is a charity-going superstar with the San Diego Star Wars Society. (He recently did a Toys for Tots event at Camp Pendleton.)
So who was the first guest to duke it out with Dude Vader?
Visiting from a few blocks away was 77-year-old Terumi Hinsey, who retired at age 71 after 27 years in recreation services with the Naval Hospital Medical Center in Balboa Park.
Halloween was a special day for her — the birthday of her daughter in Seattle.
Hinsey’s late husband was a Navy dentist, whom she met in Japan. They settled in America in 1966 a year after being married at a U.S. Air Force base in Japan.
“I have fun things to do,” Hinsey said of retirement life.
Including being a foil for Dude Vader. He spotted her cane and challenged her to a lightsaber duel.
The kids with the previously distributed “golden tickets”? They pretty much made a beeline for bags of candy hanging from the Morrows’ front-yard magnolia tree. They called it a Candy Monster Tree. But no worries. It was safe.
Children squirted hand sanitizer as they entered the yard.
