Edyta Hernandez, left, Robin Beckner, middle, and Jennifer Macias of General Insurance Agency dressed as the Sanderson Sisters from the movie Hocus Pocus.

For the staff of General Insurance Agency, Halloween is a group activity. This year, three of the staff members dressed as the Sanderson Sisters from the movie “Hocus Pocus.”

At the center of the office’s Halloween spirit is Jennifer Macias. The staff agreed that Halloween is Macias’ holiday.

“I just like the scariness of it,” she said. “I was born in October, maybe it’s an October baby thing.”

Along with costumes, Macias said she enjoys scary movies.

“I’d have to say my favorite scary movie is “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” the original,” she said. “It came out when I was a kid and it was scary.”

Macias said she plans to go to a haunted house and take her son trick-or-treating.

Tyler Chavez, 12, said the better the costume, the more candy he’ll get while trick-or-treating.

“My brother and I always do kind of like tag-team costumes. Like last year I was a doctor and he was my patient with a broken leg,” Chavez said.

This year, Chavez dressed as a mad scientist, complete with half his face covered in gray paint meant to look like soot.

“It’s like I was in the lab and something exploded,” he said.

Chavez said he chose his costume because science is his favorite subject.

“My mom stayed up late pouring coffee on my shirt and burning parts of it to make it look right,” he said.

Chavez said he’s dressed up since before he could remember.

“But this is my favorite one. I have all this stuff,” he said, pulling a remote control, calculator, dropper, light and pens and pencils from his pocket.

For years, Carla Passarelli could be seen with straw stuffed in her ratty clothes and a straw hat on her head on Halloween. This year, she collected her ratty orange T-shirt and straw hat to dress up as a scarecrow, but decided to skip the straw.

“It got just everywhere,” she said.

Passarelli said that Halloween is all about fun.

“Costumes are hilarious. It’s fun,” she said. “Dressing as something other than your normal self. It makes people laugh.”

She said that she has dressed up as a scarecrow for several years.

“You don’t see many scarecrows. I want to be different,” she said

When Halloween comes around, Terry Pipkin works her costume into her lessons. Pipkin teaches math and science to seventh-graders at Marshall Middle School.

This year, Pipkin’s classes are studying the systems of the body. Pipkin’s costume is a slightly jumbled diagram with examples of several of the bodies systems somewhere on her outfit, including wires as nerves and arteries.

“I’ve dressed up for years. The kids remember this better than if I had them memorize it.” Pipkin said, as she handed her students worksheets as they came into class. “Besides when can you be someone else as an adult.”

Pipkin said she worked in elementary schools prior to moving to middle school, and she always incorporated costumes into her lessons.

One year, to start her class on a lesson about medieval times, she dressed in a medieval gown with the cone shaped hat on her head.

Denise Gallegos doesn’t feel 40. Especially not on Halloween.

This year, Gallegos dressed as an evil fairy, complete with black wings and a wand.

As a doctor’s assistant, Gallegos said dressing up cheers up the patients.

“But I do it for my kids,” she said. “It’s a fun excuse to turn into a kid again.”

Though Gallegos was excited about her dark fairy costume this year, she still remembers when she dressed up as Raggedy Anne at the age of 6.

“She was my favorite doll, I think that’s why I loved the costume so much,” she said.

Georgia Garcia hadn’t dress up for Halloween in years, she said, because her old job didn’t allow it at work.

“It’s hard to get off work and then go and get dressed up,” she said.

This year, that wasn’t a problem. As a service clerk for the Curry County Clerk’s office, Garcia not only dressed up, but also talked her co-workers into dressing up.

Dressed as a kitten, Garcia had black ears poking out of her black hair and whiskers painted on her face.

“I do it for the kids anyway. They like someone to dress up with them,” she said. “You get to make a fool of yourself once a year.”