Allhallowtide I: Parades Gone By

 

 

 

Allhallowtide 2021

Chapter One

 

 

 booo!

 

 

 

Eleven AM seemed too early for The Pumpkin Parade on Piedmont 
but I beat it over there shortly after 1PM while the costumed revelers still milled about

The stores handed out trick or treats and an infectious ebullient mood prevailed

 

My first year of formal attendance
Yet Piedmont Avenue holds forty years of haunted adventure for me
There was a notable pumpkin patch in a lot vacant the rest of the year 
and the Avenue always ended in a vast 19th Century marvel: 

Mountain View Cemetery

Free eye candy for all

A real doll

ok

 

 

 A cad

 

 

 

 

 The luxury of halloween

 

 

 

 Ironic and self-aware

 

Costume shop

Too muchness prevailed

 

 

I ventured onto church property

to refresh my herbal enchantment

to sit and smoke a bit

 

 

  

 

As I reentered the sidewalk I walked into

an over-the-top comedy sketch

They handed me a treat pack with no candy 

instead were items like toothpaste and brush

 

 

Welcome to Toon Town 

with a toothy smile

 

 

 

 I crossed over rather hastily 

to an old shop 

which sells curios and books

 

 

 

 I was late on the draw for this wizened wizard

I suspect his boots were his costume's raison d'etre

Captured here just a hint of their fabulous pointedness

 

 

 

 

Like wow

 

 

Deadheads Never Die 

 

 

 Dan-mask as stoned as we natty

 

 

 

None too happy

 

 

 

Specters cherish Silver Dollars

 

 

The bookstore occupies the corner
of this quaint cul-de-sac

Almost rented an apartment near here 

We were turned down because we were married

and the landlord didn't want any children

 

 

A caution around every corner

 

 

 

 

At the Golden Scorpion

 

 

 

 

A basin of free candy 

proffered by a Symbolic Snake

 

 

 

The whole district seems enthralled

by the symbolic, the heraldic, the masonic

and the occult

 

 

Come one and all 
to the halloween carnival

 

 

 Now these two dames were proud to display their finery

Bet they worked on those costumes

on spinster nocturnes

 

 

 

Off they bustle

down the avenue

 

 

 

Salut, mon petit Chavallier 

 

 

Friendly holiday couple

Most people like to ave their photo taken

to have their outfits admired

 

 

Well I'm totally wired

 

 

 

 

That represents the first 25% of RAY's photo journal

for this busy, cloudy and yet festive day.

Future posts will follow on from this point

Stay tuned, si vous plait

30 October 2021