Expect the unexpected

A crowd gathered around Irene Arellano’s coffin. They saw her peaceful and still, a single red carnation tucked in the hair above her right ear. Suddenly, Irene smiled and the 17-year-old’s eyes popped open. The crowd, not exactly shocked, laughed along with her.

Halloween’s near and people are ready for most anything. So the procession of vintage hearses on Sunday, which would alarm most at any other time of the year, became the cause for celebration at the Orange County Marketplace in Costa Mesa.

People love to see the hearses because it’s something they wish they could have, but never risk buying said Ronnie Grubbs, owner of the coffin Irene was in and the 1959 Cadillac Superior hearse that carried it.

“Neighbors used to leave notes like, ‘Don’t park that thing by my house,’ ” Grubbs said. “But by October everyone is your best friend.”

Irene’s one of the envious. The Anaheim teenager is looking to buy her first hearse and she knows exactly what she’s looking for, something vintage and with style, she said.

She’s got her next hearse ride already scheduled. She’s hired Grubbs to drive her to prom in his hearse.

She and her sister, Cristina Arellano, have visited Grubbs’ display for the last three years at the marketplace, and this year it paid off since no other soul was allowed the privilege of lying in the coffin.

Just two days shy of Halloween, those attending the seventh annual “Trick or Treat” festival did not hesitate to dress in their very best costumes, whether it was an adult behind the wheel of a hearse or it was a kid looking for candy.

Jessica Reed attends the festival every year, completing two tasks with one visit. The Huntington Beach resident shops while her daughter Aizlynn Reed gets one more opportunity to don her Cinderella outfit before Halloween.

“We get a lot of use out of the costume, so I don’t feel so guilty spending as much as I do on it,” Reed said.

Three-year-old Aizlynn loves the candy, but even more she loves the chance to dress up as a storybook princess.

“Everyone thinks you’re the real Cinderella,” Aizlynn said.

As part of the tradition, Aizlynn walks up and down the rows of hearses every year and picks her favorite, then the two make their way to the stage behind one of the food courts to visit Mike Valladao and his giant gourds.

Farmer Mike, as he prefers to be called during the busy six weeks in and around the month of October, has been invited to the festival for the last seven years just so people can watch him carve pumpkins.

But these are no ordinary store-bought pumpkins.

“These are Atlantic giants,” Valladao said, referring to the two he brought from in San Jose, weighing in at 500 pounds each. Valladao begins growing his gargantuan gourds in May.

At 7:30 a.m. he started in on the first of two pumpkins to be carved Sunday. His tool of choice is a pocket knife with a 3-inch blade. A couple of chisels wait to be used in special situations, but for about 90% of the time, Valladao uses his handy multi-purpose blade.

Using a photograph of Davy Jones from the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” Valladao spent the next five hours carefully carving a relief of the film’s villain.

Those who gathered around peppered him with questions on the size, weight and growing of Valladao’s pumpkins. Many just stopped to remark on the carving itself.

By 4 p.m. the carving of the gourds was done and the hearses had all pulled away for another year.