The Horror!
Anna’s inspired, Martha Stewart-inspired posting about Halloween kicked me into finally mentioning it myself, more than a week after I originally intended to.
As I’m sure anyone not from the US already knows, Halloween is HUGE in the USA. As Anna did, I started seeing the big bags of seasonal sweets and the plastic pumpkins from which to distribute them in shops weeks ago, so the warning signs were there. I wasn’t, however, prepared for the stand of Halloween greeting cards in the card shop, nor the fact that even quite sensible-seeming shops and restaurants appear to have purchased fake cobwebs, rubber spiders and cardboard skeletons in huge job lots.
And I certainly wasn’t prepared for the protracted conversations between adult, apparently rational (and in theory heterosexual) human beings about their Halloween costumes, their intricacy, extravagance and general fabulousness. Seems like everyone is going to a party.
Someone at work started suggesting what we should do on this, our first Halloween in the US, but realised he may not be selling it quite right when he started telling the story of the year all the people got shot… That was 2006 by the way, just two short years ago, in The Castro. Last year the authorities policed the event much more rigorously, and this year the plan is similar, with additional measures, like the closing of some transit stations, designed to reduce the number of people coming into the city for the party and control things even more tightly.
But you know, to be honest, for the spectacle and the event of it, I’d really quite like to get a costume and go out to see what all the fuss is about, even knowing that it’s going to be chaos whether people get shot or not, and the chances of finding food and drink are remote in the extreme.
But I suspect something we’ll call reason will prevail and we’ll stay in to brave the Trick or Treaters. Note to self - buy themed sweets and a plastic pumpkin container. Though here’s the panic - how does it work? Do we distribute sweets or offer the pumpkin to grasping hands and risk running out in the first ten minutes? Would handing them out risk making us targets for offended Tricksters? Do we hideously overstock to avoid that eventuality and risk being left with a mountain of over-sugared crap?
We succumbed last week and bought a real pumpkin, which The Mrs will be in charge of preparing. It’s sitting on our porch at the moment, a slightly distorted mirror image of the neighbours’, which has been out there a couple of weeks now at least. They’re not carved yet, but they add to the sense of seasonality in the neighbourhood.
And those of you reading this in the UK, stop and pause on what I just said for a moment:
There are two pumpkins sitting by our porch steps in full view and reach of every passer by. They’ve been there unmolested for between one and two weeks. No one has nicked them, kicked them in, thrown them through our windows or in any other way committed minor acts of vandalism on or with them.
This country is WEIRD.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Go to Castro Halloween. It is an experience to remember.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
You’re both supposed to buy pumpkins, then carve them together! You know, for fun!
It’s reasonable to distribute the candy yourself. It’s not a great idea to let the little ruffians have free reign over the candy bowl. The volume will vary depending on your neighborhood. Some areas get a steady stream; the places I’ve lived have been lucky to get any trick or treaters.
October 30th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Turns out there *is* no Castro Halloween this year. There’s a big sign in the BART station saying “so don’t even bother”.