The Ghosts of Halloweens Past

It was a few years back but a whole other time and like all those other times, we never quite realized them until they were long past. In this case it was Halloween in Greenwich Village. Not the Parade which even then had grown from a kids walk to a monster gathering that closed down the whole neighborhood. It would come to include marching bands, floats and corporate sponsors, all broadcast live complete with inane commentary and at prime TV time.

So every year the Parade clogged our streets for a few hours. People hung out and watched and clogged the sidewalks and most, being from the places far away, were clueless about how to leave. But unbeknown to the invading hoards, it was much later, after most of the spectators headed back to the Boroughs that the truly interesting characters appeared. And reclaimed a part of the Village. It happened around Christopher Street and it happened well after midnight. And for a dozen or so Halloween nights, I shot what there was to shoot. And it was genuinely a fun scene. Outrageous and fun. Then, somewhere along the line, it stopped being either. And I stopped shooting it.

This year I decided to dig out a few of those snapshots.