We walked down the solid half mile of block party, witches and warlocks, pirates and princesses, a Campbell's soup can, and (my favorite) the Easter Bunny.  Jack, the big black spider, learned quickly to march up to the porch, maneuver himself up the steps, and dig right down into the candy.  He grabbed armfuls of chocolate and suckers and popcorn, and usually put it all right back in the bowl.  In and out are a big deal these days.  I reveled in people telling me my spider was soo cute, just happy they could tell his amateurly homemade costume was a spider.  Even had we the money to buy him a costume, I probably still would have made it.  It's not Halloween without mom bug-eyed and frantically sewing.  I was a sort of ghost - a sort of ghost chasing a marching black spider as it careened down the street, squeezing a Reese's cup with vigor.

There were dozens of wonderfully dressed people, and virtually every one of them over the age of 21 was carrying a glass of wine or a beer.  Adults were dressed, too, and mostly drunk.  Tables were set out in the front yards, most with mini bars - some also had food.  A zombie mother pedalled around a rickshaw in which rode two pretty princesses, sitting on their zombie dad's lap.  A cat-eared woman, swarming with tiny little circus dogs dressed in jester necklaces and doing tricks, poured chocolate into Jack's webby sack (I spent most of Halloween day stitching on the spider webs as we watched The Shining and Jack napped.)  My spider strode down the street with determination, barely noticing the somewhat heavy spider legs that pulled down on his real arms.  He wore the arms and the knit cap all night, though very early in the evening one of its googly eyes went astray.  A one-eyed spider with a sort-of-ghost mom and a dad in a Halloween t shirt - this is the picture we made at dusk on Halloween in the heart of uptown New Orleans.

Home early, Jack tasted the delights of Hershey's chocolate while we sat on our own porch and passed out candy to a handful of trick or treating children.  He was so cute.  I was pleasantly exhausted.

We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving today.  The season rumbles on.