Friday, November 01, 2013

Not Seeing the 40th Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

Hope everybody had a Happy Halloween!


Mine was sort of abortive. NYC has this very famous crazy Halloween parade down in the famous crazy West Village every year, people go all out on costumes and there are some great ones, some funny, some beautiful, many very dirty but hysterical, and then there are giant puppets, marching bands, and all sorts of stuff. I don't go to this very often even though I don't work far from the route; usually I get enough of a Halloween kick just seeing the costumes on the subways, in the streets, and at the office. New York people really get into their Halloween. This year I was feeling a bit of a yen to go for some reason, so I brought my camera and had a book to read while I waited for the parade to start. I went but then I gave up. 

I did give it the good old college try, I'm not crazy about mob scenes, which a lot of the NYC parades tend to be (you couldn't pay me enough to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade), and when I got there the crowd was already four deep along the barricades in the streets, four deep on the sidewalk, and with the gap between the two rapidly filling in. Still, everyone was being very calm and civil about the sardinefest, so I inserted myself and waited for probably half an hour. At that point a really obnoxious little pack of junior high school girls pulled in behind me and the atmosphere instantly went from tedious to trying - after fifteen minutes of gritting my teeth and biting my tongue I decided it just wasn't worth the aggravation and headed home. 


I also tried and failed to see one of those famous Banksy art thingies we've had going on in the city. Awesome night. 

Woman in SoHo tends to her pet giant bioluminescent cnidarian.

Massive crowds await the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. And await, and await, and await. I'm assuming that by now they have seen their parade, but on the other hand, they may still be a-waiting. 

Vendor of illuminated toys and trifles, Union Square

Back home at Newkirk Plaza.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!


4 comments:

Moonstruck said...

I watched the parade on TV while we were giving out candy to the kids at the fire house. Thought I would see you in a kayack float. wind is blowing stink this AM. Boat is done for the season. Thinkinf about buying a kayack.

Moonstruck

bonnie said...

I've never actually been in it although a couple of friends who read about my bailing out on the parade before it even started suggested that it's easier to walk in the parade than watch it - all you have to do is come up with a costume.

Of course I am very out of practice with costumes but maybe I'll try to come up with something next year.

Pandabonium said...

Your tomat-o-lanter must tie a mean "clove" hitch....

bonnie said...

hee hee. Well, it may have, except that I ate it before it had a chance to show me!

Loved your Halloween parade in Japan, btw!