Tricks, treats, a trap and October 31st Madness: "Jessie's" Halloween Review

The last time our author cross played as the femme fatalle of Pokémon's extremely laughable Team Rocket, there was much love for him as a lady. On a date that is traditionally the time for guys to dress as girls and vice versa, “she” (for the lack of a better word) would have to dodge raindrops, march in the annual costume parade in Newtown, get a small glamorous makeover and then from there hand out goodies for ghosts and goblins at his crib in a span of just over twelve hours!

Because of the Irish influence in many things – potato farming, beer making, celebrating holidays – we can thank them for the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day with parades, drunken debauchery, wearing green even though they might not be of Gaelic decent. We can also thank them for the modern celebration of All Hallows Eve, where people celebrate with some parades, some drunken debauchery, and wearing outfits that are more suited to an episode of Let’s Make a Deal the rest of the year. Cosplayers have joked about a slogan for this time of year as it were: “Amateur Night”.

The last time that I went out as Jessie, Team Rocket’s diva, de facto leader and sex symbol amongst the okatu from the Pokémon meta anime series with my new costume, it was at an anime convention, and the outfit was met with glowing reviews and praise from those that were there. Now another event was coming up, Halloween. Another morning into day into night as a female being played by a male, and to paraphrase Maxwell Smart “loving it.” And to add some spice to the rack as it were, throw in a bit precipitation through most of the day until a downpour ceased the activities of October 31, 2009.

Fright Time IS The Right Time?

For me, the time of 4:00 AM is a good time to wake up when you have a long day of playing ahead. Put on top of this the fact that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA to the locals in Philadelphia) was scheduled to strike at 12:01 AM, but delayed the strike threat first until 6:00 PM that evening, and then ultimately until the 2009 World Series passed through The City of Sibling Love. That, though, would be another story to be told at a later time. So after the customary shower and shave, I got dressed into my make up, tights (two pairs to keep warn, even though the temperature was scheduled to go up to a balmy for October 72°), padded bra and panties, body shaper, back brace (making me look even more effeminate), leotard and cheerleader briefs (or a “modesty brief” as they sometimes like to call it.) I even decided to shorten the skirt I wore a bit making it look like Jessie’s micro-mini as it were seen in the anime. Women, I now feel your pain as it were to don this part of the outfit. The skirt (for the lack of a better word) looked like more a giant belt. At 5:30 AM, I exited toward the bus stop and I had everything except one little thing I forgotten: those green earrings. I had hurried out the door, and forgot to put them on and left them. It was too late to turn back, and since it was drizzling, I put a white poncho made from low grade cheap plastic atop the costume to prevent it from getting wet. There were a couple people who recognized me from a similar trip I made the year before as Alice in Wonderland; after all, it had been 373 days since last year’s event, which was postponed and the judging had been moved indoors to the Newtown Theater, so this year it looked like the same.

Wet, damp, drizzly, rain threatened to spoil the party as it were. Arriving at the transfer point of the Route 84 near the Franklin Mills Mall located on what was an orphan farm, and then Liberty Bell Race Track. Simulcasting of horse racing within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had came one year too late, because the track was closed in 1985. The tales I had there would have to be put on hold for some future story. As I awaited the Route 130 to head out to Newtown, a small borough in the middle of Bucks County, there was a down time as it were. A year earlier, things were hunky dory to speak. Small businesses were doing well on Main Street, the local Chevrolet dealer was okay, and autumn was in full bloom. Well since then, Stockburger Chevrolet was forced out of business by General Motors, the lot closed but the service area still running. But just like anyplace, there was a Starbucks Coffee shop. At one time, as Dennis Miller said before he retired from comedy, “They’re actually planning to open a Starbucks inside a Starbucks!” Now our story gets to become fun.

Inside, a kind lady saw me dressed as I was and then was taken aback by her request: she wanted my autograph as Jessie! An autograph? In character? How could I not pass the chance up? She then decided to buy me a hot chocolate and sticky bun out of her Starbucks card. The cost was $5 and change. Well worth it needless to say. Everybody there got a kick of my appearance, so much so that one employee asked if he could take a picture of me with my camera phone. Again, how could I pass the chance up, it is after all, October 31st? So after giving him some brief instructions on how my camera phone works, I posed in a rather sexy (if you can call a 5-foot-9, 270-pound man dressed in a somewhat revealing outfit from the chest down) pose, legs crossed on a chair at the coffee shop. When I later saw the picture, I noticed a little “fan service” as it were. In the pose, I accidentally showed my panties in the shot.

The Fan Service Kiosk

Well, what exactly is “fan service” you say? Allow the pillar of education called Wikipedia to explain it all to you:

“Fan service is a vaguely-defined term primarily used for anime and manga (Japanese illustrated cartoons) to refer to elements that are unnecessary to the storyline. Fan service explicitly refers to material that is designed to amuse or excite the audience with sexually-derived content. When such content fits within the storyline, it would not usually be considered fan service, but excessive content is usually considered gratuitous regardless of its justification.

“The typical, but not only, variety of fan service is racy or sexual content (usually female but sometimes male) used to titillate the viewer, such as nudity or other forms of eye candy. Shower scenes are very common in movies, and in anime of the 1980s and 1990s, while many more recent television series use trips to onset (Japanese Hot Springs) or trips to exotic tropical locales, in order to showcase the characters in bathing suits. All aim to depict characters in states of relative undress when it would otherwise be out of place with the tone of a series. In anime, two common types of fan service are the panties shot and jiggling breasts. Male homo eroticism, such as accidental kisses, is a common feature of fan service for females, and has been described as ‘easier to get away with’ in terms of censorship than fan service for males.”

Therein lies the answer to the question laid out. Yes, even Pokémon has had some kiddie fan service moments. The three female protagonists – Misty, May and Dawn – all have worn bathing suits and both Jessie and James wore them as well. And there was the now-banned episode “Beauty and the Beach”, where James donned inflatable breasts in one of the most controversial moments in the history of children’s television in America.

Forward, March!

So much for the fan service. Let us return to the story of that date in question. After Starbucks, I walked in my thigh-high boots that are tight in the toes toward the landmark called The Stocking Works. Waymarking.com has an explanation of the building, it’s history and the the current use of this historic place:

“Originally, the Newtown Hosiery Mill (a.k.a. The Stocking Works) operated out of this building at 301 South State Street. In 1884, the Excelsior Bobbin and Spool Works was founded by John B Mawson in Yardley. In 1889, it was moved to Newtown after a fire destroyed the Yardley plant. In 1904, the Bobbin and Spool works chartered the name Excelsior Bobbin and Spool Company, which expanded with new buildings and updated equipment. After the brief tenure of the stocking manufacturer, the building was used by a stained glass company, a bobbin factory, and then during World War II, by the Lavelle Aircraft Corporation.

“When World War II started, there was a tremendous demand for aircraft, and Lavelle expanded to meet the demand. To mark its success, a ceremony was held at the plant in July, 1945, where the company was awarded the Army-Navy ‘E’ for excellence in production. After the war, the company changed over to stainless steel production for jet engines, missiles and satellites. The world's first weather Satellite, TIROS 1, was manufactured here in 1960. It recorded the first TV image from space. Some of the components used in the Apollo space missions were also manufactured here. In recent years, the property has been renovated into office space."

So thanks to the borough of Newtown, Pennsylvania, we wouldn’t have The Weather Channel or even AccuWeather.com, Neil Armstrong would have never declared “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” And to complete the cycle, the building has gone from hosiery to stained glass to bobbins to airplanes to steel manufacturing to office space. Anyway, returning to our tale of travel, as I stood in the parking lot of the historic complex waiting for an okay, and I had doubted it would go off, but surprise, surprise, surprise. The judging went off without a hitch, and my judges were dressed as the pre-slutty Janet from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a Civil War soldier because he does reenactments, the ultimate in cosplaying as it were. As did the parade, with the Council Rock South High School Band – complete with their band major dressed in the infamous It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia zentai green man suit – going right to the theater. And fate would have it, politicians looking for re-election in the area handed out officially licensed Pokémon trick-or-treat bags, and I was just plain lucky to get one of the only two. After a brief performance by the band, we went into the theater for the prize presentations, and needless to say, I didn’t win. Hey, I tried.

As I went about the town post-parade, I ran into a mother and daughter who complimented me as a nice-looking lady. After thanking them, I sprung the oldest Halloween trick of them all: I told them that I was a guy. Mom was shocked, and actually wanted to pose with me for a picture. The daughter, aged 11, ran away but reluctantly came back And because she was a good sport, she took our picture together. Later, as I was awaiting the bus to head to my next destination, a lady passing by in her car gave me a wolf whistle. It was after that onto the return trip Route 130 bus to Neshaminy Mall and more fun.

I decided to head into Macy*s there and ask for a makeover at the Lancome counter. Needless to say, the people were surprised to see a guy who stands is dressed in a micro miniskirt, baring a midriff as it were and in thigh-high boots and wearing a burgundy (or a dark purple?) wig come in and ask to have a makeover as an bossy, evil diva. Thank you, my dear friend for doing so. For the next couple hours, I went out and did trick-or-treating inside the mall. A 48-year old guy dressed in comedic crossplay drag doing trick-or-treating. And since my skirt was falling down a bit, I headed to American Eagle to get a re-pinning of my micro miniskirt to the proper length.

There’s No Place Like Home...and Getting There’s Half the Fun

Well after about an hour of this fun, it was time to head home. On the way to my house, after getting off SEPTA Routes 14 and 70, I decided to walk from the terminus at the intersection of Cottman and Torresdale Avenues, it was walking down Torresdale Avenue to meet a few friends in my outfit. They were really taken aback on how I looked to say the least. To say they were shocked was an understatement, as for two of the last three Halloweens, I was dressed for the whole day in my costume. In 2007, I was Alice in Wonderland, in a blue dress, pinafore apron and Mary Jane shoes. I went to Center City Philadelphia (we never call it “downtown”), got made up at the Sephora there and had a lot of fun. I looked like I had stepped out of Disneyland after having opened a “Drink Me” bottle and grown tall enough not to fit through that door.

In 2008, the whole thing was called off because of a small parade honoring the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. So I only wore the costume for trick-or-treaters who had gotten juice bottles with a label attached with “DRINK ME” upon them. From what I know, Center City was too crowded and it would have taken forever to get home with overcrowded trains.. I was disappointed because this was going to be my first championship parade I missed (and it was a quarter century since the last big event of this kind happening) because of the lack of tickets available at Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field – you had to either be a season ticket holder or enter a drawing to get the ducats, plus the fact some moronic scalpers decided to sell them on eBay for $500 or so – and that in turn riled my anger that I’d like to see any future parades move from south to north, say at Eakins Oval in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And irony of ironies, the team was playing the [CENSORED] New York Yankees in the World Series this year. That however, was not going to be historic for our fair city as those Damn Yankees win their 27th World Championship.

Well, when I finally came home, the neighbors playfully wolf whistled at me, and the whacked out (in a good way) neighbors from around the corner who have a haunted porch every year were getting ready for their scare affair as it were. Even the girl from three doors away liked my costume. The trick-or-treating commenced early due to the postseason baseball events, and we gave out a lesser amount of goodies (in this case, small bags of pretzels) before the rains came at 7:10 PM in the evening to end the legalized begging because of that and weather issues. So all in all, fun, weather, and sleep during a World Series game was enough for me. After all, isn’t All Hallows Eve supposed to be like that?

I Survived New York Anime Fest

Cross playing as one of the most infamous - and inept - villains in the history of Japanese anime, the writer tells all on a trip from Philadelphia to The Big Apple wearing a semi-micro miniskirt, thigh-high boots that were too narrow at the toes and surprising the character’s original voice actress with what for her would become a jaw-dropping entrance.

Prior to the advent of the fandom of Japanese culture, the internet and celebrations of animation from the Far East known as amine, there were times when males dressed as females (and vice versa) only in certain situations. Plays by William Shakespeare, Jamie Farr as Corporal Klinger on M*A*S*H, Halloween, I could go on, but let us stop there.

I myself have done the dressing as a girl part as a gag once or twice before I discovered the fun of costume playing, or “cosplay” for short, and it’s cousin, cross playing, where as one member of a sex dresses as a member of the opposite sex. For one group it’s for shock value, for another it’s for “shiggles” as Bob Saget would tell you on 1 vs. 100 when he hosted, and for the few like the infamous “Man-Faye” or “Sailor Bubba” it just happens to be there. And for some of the many of what is known as the American Okatu, cross playing as the opposite sex can be fun, and even fantastic. Most every female-to-male cross players do it for the fact that it is because of their character’s youthful male looks, commonly known in Japan as bishounen. A handful of men who are more effeminate could get away with dressing in a role meant for women, though. Cosplay, though, is not a not a new thing, or for that matter, Japanese based.

That noted pillar of knowledge known as Wikipedia states that “Western cosplay’s origins are based primarily on science fiction and historical fantasy as opposed to animation.” Those on us upon this side of the Pacific Rim tend to recreate characters from live-action series from such movie, television and other media franchises as Star Trek, Star Wars, that British phenomenon known as Doctor Who and the Harry Potter books and movies. On the other hand, Wikipedia says that cosplay as an amine or manga (Japanese graphic novel comic book) character didn’t take foot until 1978, and has become a business of its own. And with anime cons every week somewhere in the world, there are cosplayers everywhere dressing up.

Not So Humble Beginnings

Growing up and living with your mother for 48 years as I have, she would say “No” to any hare-brained ideas on costuming even at an older age. However, in August 2005, she suffered a severe stroke and because she had to have more constant care and to relieve whatever stress that would come in that time, she reluctantly agreed to allow me to do Jessie almost five years after I began cosplaying her equally inept partner in crime, James from the bumbling, comedic relief known as Team Rocket of the Japanese-coming-to-America anime series Pokémon, based on the űber popular Nintendo video game franchise and trading card game. In 2000, as I was getting into the TCG (which was run by Wizards of the Coast at that point in time), my eight-year-old nephew, John Craven Jr., dared me to dress up as a member of Team Rocket. So with little money and some scraps, I threw together a turtleneck shirt bought at a Salvation Army thrift store, some white pants, a black undershirt and gloves along with homemade boot tops and a blue wig, sewed a big red “R” on my chest and dressed up as James for the weekend event. Thankfully, Halloween was later that week, so it served as a two-for-one costume. In that costume's lifetime, I went through three shirts, three pairs of pants, three wigs and two pairs of gloves. So for Jessie, the question was “Ineptitude, is thy name frailty?”

The skirt was a scooter skirt I bought before asking permission the year before from Lane Bryant, the first wig was a short red bob from a local costume store, where I also bought a pair of long black gloves, buying flesh colored tights from Baum’s Dance wear, a flesh colored top that was given to me from a friend of a Mummers string band, modified another white turtleneck with that gigantic scarlet “R” on the front and I found a pair of bright green earrings on eBay. And then there were the boots. Long, black thigh-high boots like those Jessie wears. Searching all over for a bargain or two, I went back to eBay and bought one pair of ladies’ size 11 boots for sixty bucks. They turned out to be too narrow in the toes, but like the painful trooper that I am, I lived through it. This costume made its’ debut in July at a Pokémon Journey Across America Tenth Anniversary tour event, also in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The short red wig was later replaced by a more natural dark purple wig with silver streaks. And then came the fateful day in April of 2007 in New York City at 10 Rockefeller Center, where NBC’s Today Show and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann broadcast from, the latter after they fumigate Kathie Lee Gifford and Hota Kotb’s stench from the upstairs part of the studio.

The website Kotaku.com was on location for the event, and proceeded to ask if they could take a picture of my dressed as I was. Little did I know what I was going to get into the next day, which by modern references, would make Little Big Horn be a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party by comparison of the internet standards. I was given so much heavy criticism of the outfit by the World Wide Web community that it like a napalm pig roast in Vietnam circa 1966, and the photo would spread to other boards and sites worldwide mocking on how not to crossplay as it were. For what it is worth at that time, the slings and arrows of internet mockery made me stronger, and even make fun of myself in the process, yet I felt it was time to do what had to be done. Get better at what you’re doing, and get yourself an Extreme Makeover: Cosplay/Crossplay Edition plan.

Internet Research, Searches and Purchasing

As Larry the Cable Guy, Dan Whitney’s Nebraska redneck alter ego would say, it was time to “Git ’R Done.” The first thing that I did was search every internet search engine known and not known to the world for research and help, with the first thing being to find a good costume supplier who can provide you with a quality product at a reasonable price. One site had the costumes for $250 each. I decided to get both Jessie and James at a lower price than that, over half of just one costume at a place called cosplaytree.com in China. James will premiere some other time.

I happen to be exactly five feet nine and a half inches tall and weigh 270 pounds...and that is usually on a good day. I have the physique of an offensive lineman on a football team with what some call a Dunlap body shape - my belly “dun lap” over my stomach - thus looking nothing like a self-made diva, save for the blue eyes that I have. So not looking like a lady, getting a new custom made costume had decided to get into some research how to look like a lady while still being a man. Since I started doing cosplay and crossplay, I have found resources by searching for secrets to the topic of cross dressing, cross playing and makeup for males who want to look like ladies without becoming a drag queen...one scary thing you do not want to become, mind you that there’s not anything wrong with that.

So to cover some affects in body shape, at first I wanted to get a corset but that turned out to be a matter of cost (over $300) and comfort. Then, I heard about an infomercial, the bastardized version of a half-hour program and a commercial to sell you products that sometimes does not work, but makes money until some Federal watchdog blows the whistle. In this case, the whistle will not be tooted at Kymaro’s New Body Shaper, which does make the body better looking and removes the front bulge redistributing the weight evenly and correcting posture. They came with a pair of matching shorts as well, and used them both to my advantage. Also bought on the wonders of the interwebs was a long burgundy wig which looks purple when the light shines off it, to reflect the current hair color via computerized colorization, a nude colored leotard along with two pairs of beige colored women’s tights, plus a padded panty to compensate for the lack of booty I have. When my costume arrived from China in two weeks time, the gloves and boot tops were as ill fitting as you could get, so I decided to break out the old, poorly fitted boots and well fitted gloves that I used with the old costume. And a mere week before the event, I had to raise the hemline on the skirt to one matching Jessie’s own somewhat micro mini skirt.

In the old costume, I was, well, pretty good. I knew after fittings that I would be better looking, even with quick fixes like the needed stuff like a sewing kit, safety pins and other 9-1-1 style help. As a matter of fact, I actually looked like the Fat Jessie in the Pokėmon Diamond and Pearl Battle Dimension episode “A Lean, Mean Team Rocket Machine” after eating lots of food after they have been starving for the longest time. So if my costume was a forbearing sign or a spoiler alert, I like to think of that was fair warning from the Kotaku.com photograph that something like that was coming, so I like to thank the ShoGoPro folks for inspiring them to make her a bit, well, bigger in that role, and serve as the inspiration for them even if they ever read the internets.

Waking Up to Make Up, and How to Get to NYAF By Drinking Soda

Fair skinned, burgundy/purple hair, blue eyes, green earrings. A makeup artist’s nightmare for someone in reality, but this is Japanese animation, where hair color is left to the imagination of the artists. Ah, thanks to the internet, and message boards at sites devoted to the cosplaying genre like cosplay.com or crossplay.net, advice comes in bunches on everything from how you should properly style that wig to the right boot size. So thanks to a member of the aforementioned communities, she gave me the following advice:

“True red for lipstick looks a little too bright. Maybe go for brick red or scarlet blue red, which looks more subdued? Unless you do want something that screams 'I am', and I guess that's true red. You said that you're fair, so use pink or coral blush. Since you have blue eyes, use brown or peach to make them stand out.”

I wanted to go further, knowing I had to shave the face regularly and often, so again it was time to search and research and re-research the web. There, I learned that a screaming orange lipstick prevents five o’clock shadow among cross dressers and drag queens. So I went out and bought a 99¢ bright orange lipstick, Gillette's Fusion power razor with five blades and some other stuff like Max Factor Pan-Stick make up. I would not officially place my face in jeopardy even after learning other tricks like taping your face upward to tighten the skin and look more ladylike.

Going beyond, and knowing Halloween was going to be the debut of my new costume, I won a contest from the Coca-Cola people for some cash monies (in reality, an online credit card) because of my soda drinking. A code was embedded in every cap, and the code is used to earn points in a loyalty program, and one brand – Sprite – also sponsored a back-to-school contest where you could win up to $100 in online funds. Well, that August afternoon was my lucky day and I won a $50 gift card, and after getting the information, spent $40 on a ticket for the September 26th program day. I now knew that would be the day that the new, lean, mean Jessie costume would premiere. Transportation was taken care of shorty thereafter, with purchases of train tickets from SEPTA and New Jersey Transit, the cheaper (and sometimes longer) way to go if you don't travel on Amtrak.

The Big Day

September 26 came early with a 3:30 am wake up call for me. After getting up, a shower and shave, it was time to get down to business as it were, and on this day, business was good. Beforehand, I made up some business cards with my address and e-mail, a bit of a tradition among some cosplayers who want to swap e-mail messages with one another, borrowed from Japan. The makeup was on, the costume was getting ready to be worn, and it was time to become the character.

Stuffed bra...check. Tights...check. Body shape, leotard, tights, padded panty...check. Skirt, undershirt, top...check. Earrings, wig, gloves...triple check. I wore sneakers and socks en route to and from the event on the train and put my boots in my backpack along with my other essentials, including wallet with ID, cell phone and $30 in cash. That would become $50 thanks to my finding a $20 bill en route to the train station, where a 6:10 am arrival to Trenton was due. When I got to Trenton, and was waiting for the 6:59 am to New York City, the conductor noticed me and recognized my costume and could not get the finger on who I was. She had thought that the “R” stood for Rutgers University, the only state run university without the name of said state in it, and as the old joke goes “And for good reason: why bother to tell your friends you went to college in New Jersey?”

I was quick to correct her and tell her that is was “Rocket to-Dan”, the Japanese name for Team Rocket, and she was shocked to see a guy dressed up as a female. She even recognized the character because her children watches the anime. I traveled with another cosplayer on the train heading out of Trenton and learned my first lesson: a very short skirt is somewhat discomforting, especially on a guy, especially whilst hiding the twins so to speak. For me, tucking or a gaffe (dance belt) would be impossible, so I use two girdles or a girdle and a jockstrap. The trip was fun, and some people asked where I was going dressed like that, I said “The New York Anime Festival,” and simply stated what I was doing dressed as a woman.

We finally got to Penn Station underneath Madison Square Garden, the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Famous Arena”, and went into Duane Reade, a local drugstore chain that has been around for half a century, but now fights against the mega chains like CVS, Walgreen’s and Rite-Aids of the USA, and they're holding up. I bought one more thing to make my face more effeminate: a pair of eyelashes. At Rite-Aid, they were $2.99; Duane Reade sold them for $1.99. And people thought New York was twice as expensive. Off to the Javits Center I went, walking along the way. I met a group dressed as characters from Naruto, of as cosplayers dub them “Narutards” as they were on their way to pick up something. Many of the Okatu are cheesed off about Naruto, with an annoying catch phrase (“BELIEVE IT!”), something that would have bothered them a decade ago with Pokėmon (remember “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”?) but the the acceptance of the series and video game, even with the change in voice casting when The Pokémon Company International (then called Pokémon USA) replaced 4K!DS Entertainment when the latter allowed to let their license to lapse and allow TPCi to take over which divided the anime community.

Being there, among the largest attended NYAF event ever, I had the chance to be photographed with fellow cosplayers, including Pokémon cosplayers, including a female-to-male cross playing James who was with another Jessie and a Meowth, and for the first time in the history of the New York Anime Festival, there was a cross playing Team Rocket performing the fabled “Prepare for trouble” motto. Every time I saw one of the good guys (Ash, Brock, Misty, May or Dawn), I went into instinct and call them “twerp”, and I was “arrested” by an Officer Jenny who was with a Nurse Joy who were cousins. Unlike what would happen with the anime, this Officer Jenny was nice enough to let me free after being arrested. There were tug-of-wars with gijinka and kigurumi costumed Pikachus or Flareons, just having fun with them was part of the day.

The big moment for me was at the voice acting workshop panel. First, I met Veronica Taylor, who was the original voice of Ash in the Pokémon anime, and said “Hello, Sheep”, her character on the PBS Kids computer animated series Word World. Later, I returned to the panel after a few people left, and who should be sitting there but Rachael Lillis, Jessie’s original voice actress, and I waved, then upon looking at my costume, her jaw dropped. A floor-hitting, you-gotta-be-kidding-me Wile E. Coyote getting zipped past by the Road Runner Chuck Jones once did in “Zoom and Bored” way back in the late 1950’s. She admired it so much, I got a personalized autograph from her.

Epilogue

Evening came, and it was time to say good night sweet prince and princess to NYAF, as parting is such sweet sorrow, so my return trip home was fun. A couple people got my photo, and when we returned to Trenton, a couple lasses from Washington who were in Trenton on a stopover for a trip saw me and saw the “R” and said to a security guard in between Eagles and Giants territories “We’ve got a Redskins fan!” Finally coming home, I was exhausted from all of this, and got out of my costume ready to get it cleaned, and took a shower, so the next time Jessie appears will be Halloween at the annual Newtown (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) Halloween Parade and then at my house that night handing out treats to the children around the corner from some crazy (in a good way) people scaring everyone else.