Dare

Theme: We’re all using the same photo to fictionalize a backstory.

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by Laura Gene

It was Halloween on Cedar Springs, affectionately known to locals as the ‘gay’-borhood. The annual parade of characters sashayed/ rolled/ carted/ skated/ teetered down the police-barricaded three-block strip in Oaklawn every October. Attendance was mandatory for any person residing in Dallas for more than six months. The parade had become popular, like really popular. Perhaps too popular. Parents with koala-kid appendages didn’t even bother to dress up for the occasion; their participation limited to pointing and gawking and being dusted with fairy glitter from colorful, winged passersby. It was equally a showcase of ingenious creativity and a visual cornucopia of flamboyant base humor.