First Off I apologize for the lack of posts.. Writers block is fricken crippling.
I even tried to write about writer’s block. Ughhh
Anyway Last night I was sitting on my porch thinking about Halloween as I handed out the candy to the various small people and occasional teenager smoking a cigarette that came by the door.. A lot less than last year.
But it was fun none the less.
My town has a set Halloween. Every year usually the weekend before form 5-7
It’s wonderful
All the old houses lit up with delight. Everyone loves Halloween here.
It made me think of the Halloween of my past. Trick or treating roller skates
As a short grown up putting a mask on and scoring candy/food for the next week.
And of course Castro street.
Castro Street is a street in San Francisco famous for being a “Gay” street. You can imagine what it was like to attend Halloween festivities with a few thousand drag queens and of course the “Sisters of Perpetual Intelligence” were always there too. It was the biggest block party!
It was the highlight of my twenties
We used to go after doing our rocky Horror thing in Belmont and after that was over I just kept going. Same costume every year yet different versions of it. Basically my rule of Halloween is the best costumes are thrown together at the last minute. Not selected months in advance. And definitely not store bought. So I was usually a form of a cat.
Best costume I ever saw was the man dressed as the wicked witch of the west with the house on him.
One year I was dressed at my cat Mao and the cast of the touring company of “Cats” sang to me.
One year though stands out as my favorite.
It was Joe’s second Castro night.
Tammy was to meet us up there and we took the West Portal train to 14th. I had worm the cat Costume I threw together the previous week but I must have been gaining weight or washed it as it seemed tighter. It involved a vintage leopard print corset and a leopard fur coat.
We got to Castro and for the first time in my life I was actually claustrophobic. We did not find Tammy. But we found everyone else. The movie “nightmare before Christmas was to be released the next day in the theaters and had a studio in SF so a lot of the film crew came out dressed as characters from the film.
I was sitting on the edge of a pole on a street on market when the Stay Puft Marshamallow man tapped me on the shoulder. I didn’t recognize him right off but it was my dear old friend Stephen Lasky whom I had been too many a previous Castro night.
As we said good bye I was trying to figure out a way to get some room in my costume. Joe said I didn’t look so well and I proceeded to barf in a bush.
I looked up at Joe and realized right then and there I was pregnant.
And even though we left the fair and got on a train for me to barf a few more times on the trek back to the hills that this was truly the best Halloween gift ever. We grabbed some EPT tests on the way back to confirm I was in fact Pregnant with Maia. Her first Castro fair and it was in utero. We never went again as we moved to Seattle after she was born.
Someday she will get a true SF Halloween.
She is truly the best Halloween gift.