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Seven or eight years ago East of West Townwatch
started an afternoon Halloween Parade in its territory (42nd to 46th,
Spruce to Regent). Its target was the very young, ages 2 to 6, who might not be
ready for full-fledged trick-or-treating later in the evening. It met in Clark
Park and looped around three blocks to wind up at 42nd & Osage. A
handful of supporters agreed to sneak off from work and sit on their
porches at 4 p.m. so that the kids could have someone to impress and get candy
from.
That first year we put a wobbly line of about
20 tots out on the street. Dr. Vladimir Sled had been slain on that line of
march a few months before, in the dark, and the neighborhood was seething
with a fierce urge to reclaim our streets from fear. There weren't a lot of
middle-class kids being reared around the park at that time, and many people
both here and throughout the metropolitan area said frankly that it
was unsafe and irresponsible for families to live here. At such a crisis,
we must have turned instinctively to Halloween as the festival that mediates
between playfulness and death for modern Americans.
That was then.... Last Sunday, on Halloween 2004,
300 people met at the flagpole in Clark Park! Parents and children alike had
knocked themselves out costuming (my favorite was a theatrical little girl who
lay in an open coffin pushed around on a handtruck by her dad). The UCD Yellows
cleared the way as volunteers from the Penn marching band led the throng on the
march to 4200 Osage, where volunteers shoveled out cupcakes in a massive block
party. All ages were involved, but the very young still reigned. It was quite a
folk festival.
Of course, Halloween fell favorably on a Sunday
this year and the weather was kind. Still, 150 spooks and witches and
ninjas represent an amazing explosion of new spirits in this neighborhood!
It must tell a story about (a) genuine demographic change in our environs and
(b) a bold, determined reappraisal of its public
spaces.
Symbols matter. When they turn out to be so much
fun as well, that's quite a trick. Or a treat, you might
say.
-- Tony West
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