Halloween During COVID-19

By Robert Bernstein

It seemed doubtful that Halloween would happen at all this year. People were certainly putting out plenty of lively decorations. And the stores were stocked with loads of candy.

Here you can see my wife Merlie peeking out our front door after creatively decorating our porch:

We had candy and waited, but no children came by our visible location with many children in the neighborhood.

After waiting until about 8:30PM we headed down to State Street and were pleased that Halloween was indeed happening! People were having a good time and mostly taking care to be COVID safe.

Here are my videos and photos.

We were immediately greeted by this werewolf and his companion

Some of the best costumes were on people who were dining out on the street:

Most of the action was in the block between Cota and Haley. Here a band played and people danced in the street.

Nearby a guy played violin bathed in colorful illumination and people dropped money in his basket.
At the end of that block at Haley Street we spotted this couple elaborately costumed almost hidden in the potted foliage!
As we made our way back up State Street we saw more costumed diners smiling and posing for us.
Antique Alley had a ghoulishly delightful window display. The owner came out to greet us as he was closing up. He explained that the character who looks like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family used to speak and be interactive. Here Merlie posed with the display.
For me, the highlights of the evening were the groups putting on little shows at random in the street! What do the following have in common: A dinosaur, Mr Potato Head, a pink unicorn and two sharks? Me either! 

Then we encountered an entire “Shiver of Sharks”! (That is what a group of sharks is called! Look it up!)

 

Here, another random assortment of characters paused to pose for us

And just as we were heading out we encountered our friends Jacqueline and Michael who were just arriving. Their house mate kindly took this photo of the four of us.

Avatar

Written by sbrobert

What do you think?

Comments

0 Comments deleted by Administrator

Leave a Review or Comment

3 Comments

  1. I would like to see some photos of what Isla Vista looked like this Halloween. The UCSB Daily Nexus either did not send out a photographer this year, as is their custom, or opted not to publish what they saw.

  2. Enjoy seeing people having fun.
    But what about the children? No neighborhood photos of empty streets?
    That’s the real story, not IV. Report on the entire community and the thousands of children that normally don costumes and go through Lincolnwood, Aragon Circle, Westside, Eastside and the Mesa. And Ghost Village road.
    Seriously, Santa Clause is going to be told to not come because of Covid too?
    Right, he’s old and diabetic, but his elves could spread cheer or is that not allowed either?
    And what are we going to do for the next corona virus, they appear every year. Yeah, yeah not every virus is as serious, but how do you know it’s serious?
    Right the government & government scientists
    The same people that said kids should be back in school and authorized schools to be open. But wait, SBUSD is not open defying the government, science and data.
    Oh and SBPHD said 15 min of unprotected exposure is safe.
    But wait, now three family units can hang out in close proximity for 2 hours!
    Woohoo!
    So if I know the people I can spend 2 hours with them, but if it’s a stranger on the street 15 minutes?
    Where’sthe science and reasoning for that from SBPHD? I’d like to see that data, is it published anywhere or is it fictitious?
    Maybe they’ll make an exception based on “science” for Xmas. Maybe they’ll let Santa take a Covid test before he travels?
    I’m hanging on every word from the “experts”.

Former Supervisor Mike Stoker Heads to Election Front Line in PA

Dignity Health to Provide No Cost Drive Through Flu Shots Saturday