More Street Performance Art

You can't tell from this initial batch of photos, most of them taken early, but many hundreds if not thousands of people turned out for the Halloween Spooktacular by the local merchants, passing the corner and accepting candy from members of the Montrose Peace Vigil portraying notable and notorious pacifists:



Gathered around a poster board identifying the characters are, from left, Anni as Sister Mary Corita, Paige as Lydia Maria Child, Roberta as Jeannette Rankin, Tony as a Code Pink husband with wife Sigrid as cofounder Jodie Evans and Jeanne as Julia Ward Howe.



These two authors and abolitionists lived in the same six decades in the 1800's but I don't know if they ever shared a space. At the Spooktacular, however, Lydia Maria Child can hear Julia Ward Howe read her Mother's Day Proclamation that begins, "Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts!"



Spanning three centuries, Julia Ward Howe listens to Jeannette Rankin quote herself from a book by Code Pink's Medea Benjamin. "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake," said Rankin, the House member from Montana who voted against both World War resolutions.



Being peaceniks, none of us kept an accounting of the amount of candy we gave out, neither in dollars nor units, but we emptied a huge department store bag in less than 90 minutes. Next year, with a more military precision, we could ration. Or not. But many little kids got Anni's lollipops with color emblems of Sister Mary Corita's "Love" U.S. postage stamp or her "Stop the Bombing" poster while the bigger ones took Roberta's candy stuck on foldouts by the American Friends Service Committee outlining the cost of war to our values.

Thanks to Sharon, Bill and Louisa for coming! Anni and I took 66 photos over the two nights, so we'll post some more here in the next few days. And welcome your thoughts.

Thank you Brian and Anni for all the beautiful pictures.

Today at Ralph's (all the stores probably) Halloween candy is 50% off. How does candy freeze and who has LOTS of freezer space for use til next year?

Anni,
Your pix are so fab & what a success on Halloween!!! I wish I could have made it. Congratutations! I would really appreciate any pix you can give - hard copies - because some day this & all war will end & I want something to remember all these times by. Peace & Love to you all ,
Nancy

Why, of course, Sigrid -- thank you for asking!



Sigrid, Tony and Jeanne during a rare lull after dark.



The crosswalk was much more packed later in the evening!



And this shot was taken near the end of our two hours -- all the candy was gone.