Halloween

Halloween is a big day in our neighborhood. Small Town, USA has 2 or 3 neighborhoods where all the kids from rural areas, and kids from the projects, come, and ours is one of them.

In recognition of the day, I decided to put on a little makeup.
Took an hour.

Reactions were mixed. Some little ones cried.

A few said, "I like your face," but they said it in a very quiet voice, as if they were not quite sure if they did, or not. It was fun to put it on and fun to wear. A few friends did not recognize me -- until I spoke.





Our neighborhood has a Halloween parade at 5pm on Halloween Day, every year. We've been doing it forever. We get a permit from the city and a policeman comes to lead the parade. We gather in the median on our street (there are 4 other avenues in the neighborhood; it's always held on our street, which is the main one.) For a half-hour, we hold the costume contest, and people straggle in. Finally, at 5:30, the policeman leads the parade of kids. They troop behind the police car down one side of the median, one block only, and around the median and back up to where they started. The whole thing takes about 4 nanoseconds. The kids love it. The winners of the costume contest get to walk in front, right behind the police car. The policeman turns on his blue lights, but not the siren. (It makes the babies cry.)
This year, kids came from the local college and painted faces and took Polaroid shots of the kids. They collected canned goods throughout the neighborhood for the local Shelter. I hope they come back for future parades. They added a lot.

I guess DH took this shot. I was talking to somebody's child. My friend TC, is to the left and her husband, a relocated Newfie, can be seen just behind my head. Our next-door-neighbor is to the right, holding her little girl, who is also named Maggie. The house in the background is where the college kids set up their facepainting in the driveway.

Here are some more neighbors gathering. You can see Captain Hook and Peter pan in the foreground. They won in their age group this year. Judges were identified by their funny tall pink hats. You can see one to the left.

This is the 3 to 5 year old category. The judges had asked them to raise their hands. Some of them were a little overwhelmed, and could not understand the request, or comply with it. The princess in the middle seems to be one of those. To the right you can see the tip of a float. We have a float competition, too, and kids (and dads) decorate their wagons, scooters, bikes and strollers, to go with the theme of the costume. Our NDN's made Cinderella's coach from their wagon. The green & gold float you see here was a tiki roof for a Hawaiian girl. The girl won her category so the parents did not enter the float into the float contest. They did not want to take 2 prizes. Thoughtful!

More of same.

Little One carved this pumpkin herself -- freehand. We had a few pumpkin-carving parties to attend on Friday night. I washed and gutted the pumpkin before going. She did the face at the first party and the "hair" at the second party. She had decided she wanted to do an "anime" pumpkin. She can draw anime designs for hours on the weekends -- has a folder full of them. Last night as people came for Trick or Treat, many commented on what a good pumpkin it is. Some took pics. We thought she did pretty well, too.

Won't be too long til she is too grown-up for the festivities. Of course, maybe she'll just choose not to outgrow it -- as I have. Particularly in our n'hood, it's the coolest holiday.