31 October 2023
LAWRENCE, Kan. — You can probably remember back to trick-or-treating as a child and that one house that always gave out the good candy.
We’re talking full-sized, perhaps even king-sized candy bars.
But one home in Lawrence might have them beat.
For the past 12 years one couple has handed out cotton candy and this year they said it’s likely they will give out more than 700 bags.
Margie Delfelder has years of experience with the recipe, sifted sugar plus pink vanilla Flossine, the ingredients to create their Halloween stockpile.
“We put our little guards down here but we need taller ones,” Margie said, showing off a table stacked high with cotton candy bags.
“We start talking about it maybe about a month before going ‘Hey, we got to go buy some sugar,'” Lary Trowbridge, Margie’s husband, said.
Lary works the machine which the couple bought about a decade ago when a cotton candy business closed. The business had previously come to their home to hand out cotton candy during the holiday, a service won during an auction.
Lary said they are continuing on with the October 31 tradition, working at a pace of one bag per minute.
“I think the other thing is the size of bags they get here,” Lary said. “Last year we did 650 bags. This year I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
That’s because on Halloween night kids will line up and the couple won’t turn anyone away.
“Margie may be in bed but I’ll still be going,” Lary said with a laugh.
“There’s a lot of sugar in the air. You get glazed,” Margie said.
“The parents will thank us a lot for doing this for the kids but my big thing is that I had memories growing up – as you do too, as everybody does – and I just want to make sure the kids have fun, they’re safe,” Lary said.
“And when I’m not around here anymore and I’m gone, that those kids will go ‘man, you know when I was growing up, I remember the cotton candy house,'” Lary said.
Lary is actually a regional scheduler for the officials calling youth sports games like football and volleyball (as well as being an official himself). But he says Halloween is the night though were the kids have all the authority.