October 27, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Revisiting the ghosts of Halloweens past

by Sue Dremann

While ghosts, goblins, black cats with spiky fur and spiders festoon homes throughout Palo Alto this week, one neighborhood will be archiving wandering trick-or-treating spirits.

In Professorville, at the corner of Addison Avenue and Bryant Street, residents Richard Brand and Carol Malcolm have created a tradition out of documenting their neighborhood's Halloween.

Every year, when trick-or-treaters come to their door, the couple photographs costumed neighborhood kids. Then, each year when they return, families get more than a piece of candy -- they revisit the ghosts of Halloweens past.

"People call our place 'the picture house,'" Malcolm said. "Every year, people come back. We set the pictures on the porch and find parents wandering around looking at all the boards, looking at pictures of their kids in last year's costumes."

The photos on display go back 18 years. Whole families make the annual pilgrimage to the porch on Addison, many who now have college-age kids.

It's fun to watch the kids grow up, and the kids love seeing themselves in past Halloween costumes, Malcolm said.

"It's not just one of those houses that puts a bowl of candy out. It's good to know there's hospitality here," said Palo Alto High junior Matt Medina, who had his picture taken back in his trick-or-treating days, three years ago. "It was cool to go back and look all the way back (over time). The pictures had dates on them."

Monica Yeung Arima and her son Aaron always make a point of stopping at Brand's and Malcolm's house.

"They even gave us pictures. They put duplicates on the side in a basket and let people pick them up," she said. Every year, Aaron and his friends hold a small Halloween party at their home. Then the kids visit the picture house.

Brand and Malcolm inherited the tradition from Stanford engineering students, who had rented the home. When the couple purchased the house in 1991, they found a stack of photo boards of costumed trick-or-treaters in the front hall. The students had been photographing each Halloween since 1986, she said.

The couple was enchanted with the idea of making Halloween a memorable event. The couple is fond of visiting places like Italy, a country steeped in pageantry, with many festivals and processions. Halloween provides Americans with a bit of ritual, Malcolm said.

Every year Brand garnishes the yellow Craftsman-style home with Halloween spiders and pumpkins, luminaria, a talking vampire head and spooky music. But lighting is his forte, Malcolm said. He puts spotlights in the trees, bathing the house and large trees in an eerie blue.

"The porch is dark until someone steps on it, then flood lights on a motion detector light up all of the pictures on the porch," Malcolm said.

Brand takes at least 40 pictures each year -- at minimum, there are more than 500 photos in their collection.

Archiving this aspect of their neighborhood's history fits the traditions in Professorville, where most of Palo Alto's oldest homes are situated, she said.

"The entire neighborhood seems to be a living history. When we moved in, a brief history of the home and a chronology of who had previously lived there was left for us."

"The world is so crazy. It's wonderful they're doing this," said Jenny Dearborn, who has brought her three children, Jack, Clotine and Cooke Tarlton to the big yellow house for the last six years. Brand's and Malcolm's enthusiasm inspire her to create a Halloween Lane, similar to Christmas Tree Lane on Fulton Street.

"It's such a treat to go back there year after year. It's important for children that their neighbors honor their childhood development. It's very validating and empowering for the kids. Halloween is an important holiday for them," she said.

It's also the one place where all of the kids cross.

"You get to see all of the kids in the neighborhood," Dearborn said.

Things are different now from when Malcolm grew up.

"I remember as a kid being so delighted seeing everyone out in the neighborhood," she said. Today, people live more isolated lives. The pictures have a way of bringing people together.

Malcolm and Brand are thrilled at giving something back to the community, where neighbors they don't see all year come to their doorstep to reintroduce themselves. "It's very participatory, and interactive. It gives people a touchstone."

The tradition has also created some "amazing neighborhood folklore," according to Dearborn, such as the myth that Malcolm and Brand were carrying on the tradition because it was stipulated in the sale of the house.

Told of that legend, Malcolm just laughed.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be reached at sdremann@paweekly.com.

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