Halloween week at the corner

[Roberta]

We had a respectable quorum tonight, Brian will report the census when he gets online later no doubt. Our numbers have been so healthy since the contras, as Cynthia calls them, showed up, but 8-10 used to be our high count most weeks.

Several people stopped to talk, or just hollered from their cars, wondering why we were there when it wasn't Friday. A very friendly atmosphere (also like the good old days) and lots of honks.

Tomorrow at the corner will be fun -- costumes, candy -- I'm looking forward to it. Drop by-- esp. if you like kids in large numbers!

[Brian]

Lots of people eat frozen yogurt, it turns out, when the flag is flying.

There were fewer vehicles on the street and pedestrians on the sidewalk compared to Fridays, but one woman stopped to ask what we were doing and stayed for awhile, another offered her thanks and chatted and three girls were surprised to see us on a Thursday.

All of the honks, waves and shouts were for us this time with very few negative sentiments. Our roster tonight:

Roberta
Nancy
Bill
Anni
Annie
Mike (with great new signs)
Louisa
and me.

I promised Louisa that I would post her prediction, based on her campaign work in western Pennsylvania last April, for the record: McCain will win the state. And she said she would show up next week on the corner to discuss what happens.

Anni will pass out candy to the local rugrats while I'm doing my laundry tomorrow, so we'll see you then -- and hopefully here on the message board in between.

By the way, Roberta showed us a box of her Tootsie Roll Pops tucked through square mini-leaflets with a peace symbol and our group name advertising the Friday vigils. Beautiful! We'd love to hear how the evening goes.

[Bill]

We had a lot of fun tonight, I dressed as Colbert, suit and sans contacts. We ran out of candy at about 6:30, so we left a bit early. The "patriots" were across the street as usual, but the flag was flying, odd. We had, I think, 6 people tonight, but there were lots of people at the spooktackulare.

[Roberta]

Yes, it was a fun scene on Halloween. The contras looked quite out of place, and nice that the flag was there. I think we did right to go the costume/candy route. We had Mike (monk), Nancy (conceptual artist-- you had to see it), Amy (World Peace, another visual), me (Princess Leah, the Stop Warrior), Jeanne (Peace "Rising", a baker), Bill (S. Colbert), Paige (Peace Builder, ala If I Had a Hammer). I think that is everybody. Lesson for next time -- more candy!

Here's the scene at Broadway and Brand at our sister vigil: la.indymedia.org/news/2008/11/221619.php