On October 31st, as the sun set on the city of San Francisco, an eclectic community of ghosts, goblins, witches and princesses came out in force to celebrate Halloween. The San Francisco Chronicle called the annual Castro party "peaceful" relative to years past. It was a complete culture shock for our nineteen year-old Swedish au pair, Sabina Dahlstrom, who begged to differ with The Chronicle. Her two-hour experience included two tripped out real-live devils fighting in the streets, to a man dressed up like Adolph Hitler, to a tamer Adam & Eve, as well as Adam & Steve, to grown men dressed as stunning princesses. Sabina says she will never be the same.
Just hours earlier and blocks away children paraded along Cow Hollow's Union Street and door-to-door, castle-to-castle on Broadway, wearing pretty princess and tough guy San Francisco Giants costumes.
At a local school parade earlier in the day, the costumes that got the biggest applause were two boys wearing girls' school uniforms. "Only in San Francisco!" said Randy Dilena, who went to the same all boys school as a kid.
On Monday evening, Mars was shining bright in the sky as large, creepy crawly spiders looked like they were descending from the top of Gordon Getty's castle.
Mr. Getty personally opened the door to offer us a selection from his huge basket of candy.
Gordon & Ann Getty's Scary Spider-Invested Castle
"Broadway Street is one of the most fun neighborhoods to trick-or-treat in," my ten year-old, who was dressed this year as a "pretty-bad" witch, proclaimed.
As she put a large Nestles Butterfinger bar into her bag, she added:
Mr. Getty hands out King-sized candy bars. He is so friendly.
All of the neighbors on this block are incredibly nice and generous.
Moments earlier, we were with a group of at least twenty friends in Sea Cliff where we visited Robin and Marsha Williams' beautiful mansion. Talk about generous.
A Strong Political Message on a Pumpkin
Robin was no where in sight. Unless we just didn't see him. For all we know he might have been dressed in drag practicing for his return as Mrs. Doubtfire. I hear that in years past, he's been known to get in costume and pretend to be a trick-or-treater in front of his own house.
While we did not see Robin, Marsha came out of her castle gate for a moment to take pictures of the hundred huddled around her front gate. As she took photos of us, we captured a picture or two of the Williams' Peace Pumpkin, their "Indict Rove" Jack-O-Lantern, and Robin and Marsha's sixteen year-old budding movie star daughter, Zelda handing out colorful plastic necklaces as treats. Each glow-in-the-dark band must have cost a pretty penny.
Howard Park with Zelda Williams behind him
Each year, the Williams give thousands of treats to San Francisco kids.
After living in San Francisco for seventeen years and trick-or-treating for ten, this was a first for us to venture over to this part of Sea Cliff.
Perhaps Robin was on location filming one of the many upcoming movies he has signed on to star in.
Let's see; there's August Rush, The Krazees and Man of The Year, which is about the host of a late-night political talk show (Williams) who decides to run for President of the United States. (Perhaps, in this case, Robin could act out indicting Rove.)
Oh, and the sequel to Mrs. Doubtfire (co-produced by Marsha and directed by another San Francisco local, Chris Columbus) called Mrs. Doubtfire 2 is expected to start production soon.
Bonnie Hunt has written the screenplay. And Robin and Marsha are both slated to produce the sequel.
However, no word yet on who is expected to direct Euphegenia Doubtfire.
Those interested in being cast in the film can do so by calling Thorne Motion Pictures at 480.429.9208. No kidding.
I found the job posting on Craig's List.
The sights of San Francisco this year included a Scare Crow in Sea Cliff carrying an umbrella. Fortunately, October 31st 2005 in the Bay Area turned out to be one of the balmiest Halloweens in years.
One of our favorite and scariest houses was on 29th Avenue where an entire family gets in on the act. While one person lowers a giant spider hanging from a tree onto your shoulder, two people seated on their front steps are there to greet the kids with candy. If a child dares, he or she will quickly realize that the man laying in the coffin is actually both real and not dead at all.
One of the four year-olds in our group went right up to the corpse and gave him a hug.
However, our ten year-old chose to pass up one more piece of candy in order to avoid Dracula from jumping up and scaring her.
And this is a kid who, until last night, has been virtually scared of nothing.
While our younger set dressed up as a clown, Harry Potter and a "pretty-bad" witch, I got inspired to outfit Tim as Zorro this year. Of course, as I perused BuyCostumes.com for myself, after outfitting my family, I couldn't help but be influenced to "match" my partner and buy the Zorra costume.
Less than a week after making my purchase, our clown nose and gloves, Harry Potter's attire, the witches dress, hat and broom, Tim's Zorro outfit, and a terrific "Punisher" suit for our trainer, arrived in a very large box. However, three days before All Hallows Eve, wouldn't you know it that mom got the short end of the stick.
Of course, I held out hope all the way until 5pm on Monday night that UPS or FedEx would arrive with my daughter's black wig and my Zorra outfit.
But it was not meant to be.
Fifteen minutes before heading out the door, after getting everyone else ready to go, I whipped together a makeshift Zorra costume.
If my brother, who calls me "Jennifire", had gotten a look at me he would have probably said, "Well done."
For me, I felt like I looked more like I was heading to the Stanford Cal Big Game - clearly prepared to route for The Cardinal.
On a positive note, the outfit was in my closet. It didn't cost me a penny. And it kept me warm all evening as we strolled down the streets of San Francisco.
However, the fireball star last night was clearly T. Charles. Dressed as Zorro in his signature all-black, Tim was inundated with accolades.
Kids stopped him in our path to say hello.
A parent whispered in my ear, "Zorro is my son's favorite character."
Adults gave him the Big "Z" slash as they walked by.
One person yelled, "Move over Antonio Banderas." Of course that made Tim's day.
Needless to say, I'll be calling New Berlin, Wisconsin to get my money back for the Zorra costume that never came. If so, we'll be doing business with BuyCostumes.com again around this time next year... Perhaps even earlier.
So, where are Tim and I headed for date night tonight?
To The Mask of Zorro sequel, "The Legend of Zorro", of course!
Inspire & Be Inspired.
Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "all for the family" living!
~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC
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