IT IS ALIVE!

L and I spent the last decade or so living in neighborhoods that were more dense, and less family-oriented than Portage Park. We had understood Halloween to be dead. Reports from suburbia were that nobody trick-or-treated, and costumes were generally dangerous anyway, so the holiday was reduced to a basic costume and going to two or three houses of people you already knew. If that.

Portage Park seems to be behind the times. L and I went through about seven bags of candy, and probably had between 100 and 200 kids come to the door. The younger kids generally had a parent or older sibling standing on the sidewalk, while the tweens and early teens traveled in groups. It was sort of like when L and I were kids, but possibly with more kids. Apparently Halloween lives on the Northwest Side.

U was either a rooster, or he is the thing the rooster ate (see below). He really loved having all of the kids come to the door and seemed intrigued by the costumes. I think he liked Halloween.