They told me that they had come to Santa Cruz all the way from Union City (and yes, once they moseyed on, I had to google “Union City.”) I remember several years ago, chatting up a cowboy and his cow-girlfriend, both showing lots more skin than leather. The whole point of the evening was to slowly stroll back and forth from the Clock Tower to Saturn Cafe, or some fraction thereof, showing off your cleverness and/or your cleavage.įor a while there, Santa Cruz ranked with the Castro or the Haight as a top destination for see-and-be-seen Halloween in the Bay Area. Comic-book heroes rubbed shoulders with politicians, zombies with hippies, exhibitionists with gawkers. Pacific Avenue would be choked with costumed revelers, many from out of town, bewigged and bejeweled, body-painted and cosplaying.
