Hallowe'en

Hope everyone had a great Hallowe'en!



I enjoyed my first Toronto Hallowe'en giving out candy from my own place. Almost everywhere else I've lived in the city hasn't been on the ground floor and never got any kids. In my third year of undergrad I shared a house with and and some others and we did get some trick or treaters, but that wasn't my own place. Though we did enjoy another science student's access to dry ice. Sadly, RJH was trapped at work. That meant I didn't get a chance to check out the neighbourhood. But, I sat in the front room (alone, with all the candy) and tweeted the experience.

· one miniature lion, a Renaissance highwaywoman, a cat burglar and a cow... enjoying my 1st Toronto Hallowe'en at ground level...
6:28 PM - 31 Oct 12

The first visitor, a toddler dressed as a lion, was perhaps the cutest. His parents explained it was his first Hallowe'en. I opened the door and he walked straight past me into the house, so I had to scurry to get ahead of him with the candy and crouch so he could see me. I explained that it was my first time as a home owner so it was exciting to me too. I knew the highwaywoman and cat buglars, two neighbouring sisters from a couple of doors down. I asked the elder sister if she was a pirate and she explained that no she was like a Renaissance villain. "Like, a highway man?" I asked, but she didn't know what that meant. Perhaps I should have come up with the French term as her bilingual family is half-francophone, but I confess I have no idea how to say highway man in French. (I associated with the specific, yet hard to explain costumes. At her age, I was an Egyptian princess, but not Cleopatra as everyone assumed. No, I had done research on the Old Kingdom, and had nothing to do with Ptolemaic Egypt, but after a while, I gave up and let adults assume I was Cleopatra). Her sister was a jaunty little cat burglar and their friend the jersey cow looked great.


never got any trick or treaters in the apartment
6:28 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

Spiderman (who does Spidey moves and demonstrated his skills) and a motorcycle cop complete with fabulous handmade cardboard motorcycle!
6:47 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

The young man (aged 3) from two doors down, who calls over to RJH to let him know he should be wearing a hard helmet, when he works on roofs, arrived dressed as spiderman. I gave him his candy and his mother asked if he would show me his Spidey moves. He did a few poses, including a weird sort of one-handed handstand. "Wow, that's awesome," I said. His mother agreed saying, "I have no idea what that was, but it's definitely awesome." Then the young man investigated all my skeletons and started identifying their parts, until his mother convinced him to continue on their way. A 7 year old in a helmet, wearing a cardboard motorcycle with egg-carton lights and pipe cleaner antenna was next. I was very impressed to see such a hand-crafted item.

one skeleton and one tiny fire chief, both of whom had specific tastes in candy (rockets and lollipops, respectively)
6:57 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

The tiny fire fighter thanked me for his candy and his parent tried to leave. "Can I have a rocket please?" he asked, steadfastly refusing to move on with his parent. I had way too much candy, so I asked him to indicate which candy he meant and then gave him five. Imagine preferring coloured sugar to chocolat! To each their own. The skeleton received the candy I offered, then silently looked me in the eye and reached for a lollipop and placed it in his bag.

a tiny chef with a stuffed turkey on his head. He said he wasn't the Mr. Bean Christmas special. That mean someone else wears turkey as hat?
7:07 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

a cowboy... very old school
7:12 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

I wondered if he was specifically Emiliano Zapata with his impressive mustache.

2 Freddie Kreuger's, 2 witches, a cat, tiny guy in hockey jersey, and another lion
7:26 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

The Freddies, one cat and one witch were a troupe of larger children. Then came a mid-size lion with great face paint and a small and friendly pink and purple witch with good manners. I wasn't sure what the little guy in, possibly, one of the Freddie's hats, and a hockey jersey, was supposed to be. I did ask, but I couldn't understand his response.

it's a lot of responsibility being left here with all the candy
7:45 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

a tiny witch and a girl in leopard-spot pj's complete with sleep mask
7:45 PM - 31 Oct 12

Need more trick or treaters, but I think they're deterred by the rain. We still have so much candy. Don't give up, sodden costumed kids!
8:10 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

two cold and wet warrior princesses and one bloody skeleton
8:17 PM - 31 Oct 12 ·

Two older girls were on my door step. One clearly had a crown, and I later noticed a sword. The other appeared to be bundled in a large coat. I asked the bundled one, "What are you?" The first give replied in a British accent which I had not expected, "Ha! Yes. What are we. We're supposed to be warrior princesses." The bundled one struggled to move her arms and lower a sword so I could see it at the bottom of the coat. "Oh, that's great. You look cold! Stay warm," I said as the masked skeleton complete with flowing fake blood barged in to claim his candy.

Hallowe'en around here

I had a screenprinting class yesterday evening, so I wasn't around when the kids were out. I did see a couple of the very young ones. I liked the roughly 4-year-old Elvis, in 70's style white jumpsuit and large black wig with his or her father in traditional Mexican gear. I also got a few picks of some local decorations. I'm not sure what a giant totoro has to do with Hallowe'en, but I think that's a great item to have on one's porch.The photo is terrible, but that's a full 3D papier maché totoro, roughly 7 feet tall.



These people are always very dedicated to putting on a big show. I saw a lot of adults who were at least as excited as the children: arranging props, testing sound and previewing their smoke machines. The BBQ seemed to be big this year. One can encorporate props, like disembodied feet.

Hallowe'en 2010

As I mentioned last year, this neighbourhood considers Hallowe'en the biggest event of the year, as far as I can tell. It is easier to capture the lights than the little monsters, so here are some of the best yards we walked by. I made some costumes for a couple of parties we were invited to: bats, complete with mask with the spectacular nostrils and ears, and wings made from broken umbrellas, so the spokes served as the bones in the wings. The wings were popular.



This was my favorite house again. I love that they use the architecture to full effect, with archway as gaping maw and red glowing eyes. "Isn't it fabulous?" one man asked. "No," his neighbour replied sarcastically, "it makes the rest of the street look bad." They were also amazing with their use of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Not only was there the genius pumpkin-snowman, and expertly carved jack-o-lanterns along the walk, but they created this pumpkin-alligator:




One of my favorite costumes was the young woman in white with a trasparent umbrella hung with strands of bubblewrap - the jellyfish! I noticed a fair number of old school superheroes (Batman, Spiderman, the old-fashioned Wolverine), a large number dressed as Ironman, the usual assortment of fairies and princesses, various animals (my favorites being the giraffe, unicorn, toddler-spider and infant ladybug) - but the clearly handmade costumes are always my favorites. There were a few cardboard boxes as dice, a present and a remote control. Three girls were dressed as the three little pigs. A group of five adolescents were dressed as a train (an old steam locomotive)!



This house placed their decor strategically; having the zombie barely visible to those who approched from the east was very effective.



The KISS jack-o-lantern was great. The house with the specter suspended from the 2nd floor had live creepy organ music, competing with the X-files theme playing across the street.

Happy Halloween!

I swear, it's like a competion in my 'hood with the spooky decorations, and smoke and sound tracks. It's awesome!






The tiny little unicorn and the toddler dressed as a dragon were pretty adorable, but I love the clearly homemade costumes. The theme this year was 'Things you can do with cardboard boxes.' This icluded a washing machine, dice, and a stop light which were all great costumes.

Also, neighbours insisted on giving me candy, even though I was just out to see the kids, since they don't seem to visit apartments. This is good.

The photos aren't very good, but I thought I'd share -especially this one: