American life is firmly delineated — into work and leisure, formal and informal, stratified by age and class. Someone said that as they become older and richer, their set of options shrink and their duties become greater and greater and more fixed. But Halloween, like a carnival, breaks all those expectations.

From early childhood, you know that you can be anyone. You imagine yourself in all kinds of jobs, futures, looks. You can go into space!

While the most flamboyant don their costumers and stroll down the cozy streets of San Francisco, others eat outside, in the parklets born out of European verandas. They watch, and talk, and everyone is transported to a place where you could, and still can, be anyone you want.