Halloween is On – Take 2

Even if a Nor’easter blows through town on Wednesday night, be safe, follow what your parents say, use common sense — and trick or treat like mad.

That was the serious message whimsically delivered by Prince Charming, Popeye, and the One-Eyed Pirate — aka three mayors, West Haven’s John Picard, East Haven’s Joe Maturo, and New Haven’s Mayor John DeStefano.

They delivered the message of Halloween safety both in costume and in earnest to 30 or so Dalmatians with floppy cardboard ears, some pumpkins, several skeletons, and a ninja in training, otherwise known as Jackie McNeil’s and Kaitlyn Hale’s kindergarten and first-grade classes at the John C. Daniels Magnet School of International Communication on Congress Avenue in the Hill.

They delivered the message because the three mayors — like many of their counterparts in the region—asked parents to keep their kids home on the official Halloween night last week due to safety hazards from Superstorm Sandy. They asked parents to postpone trick-or-treating until this Wednesday night.

That’s why they visited the kids at Daniels: to follow through on the request and make sure kids still get to celebrate.

As the kids gathered on a rug in the school’s second-floor sunny book nook, the Pirate and Popeye greeted them with high-fives and All Saints Day banter.

“Do you guys bark?” Maturo asked the kids.

“We’re not real dogs,” someone responded from the rug.

A person of cynical persuasion might conclude that the mayors were into the costuming more than the kids.

The Pirate had some sartorial advice for Popeye and, wanted or not, adjusted his natty bow tie. Popeye said that his favorite part of his costume was the corncob pipe. He was not setting a bad example about smoking, he emphasized, because the pipe was unlit.

Mayor DeStefano, er, the Pirate, rued the fact that he was the only pirate on the planet who did not sport a sword. He expressed his plaint to the kids, but he was greeted by more silence than empathy. ​“They wouldn’t let me have one,”

Not a problem. DeStefano refused to take direct responsibility for the pirate garb. It was chosen by committee, he said, dodging reporters’ pressing questions.

“We think it’s reimbursable from FEMA because it’s storm-related damage,” he said.

You got the feeling Popeye and the Pirate were improvising because West Haven’s John Picard had not arrived yet.

The kids didn’t seem a bit anxious. In fact they threw Popeye and the Pirate a challenge. When Popeye asked the kids how many had trick-or-treated on the actual day, Wednesday, despite the ravages of the storm and the dangers of downed wires, 80 percent of the skeletons, dogs, ninjas, ladybugs, and even a Katy Perry impersonator raised their hands.

“How many are going again?” the Pirate asked.

This time, everyone raised hands.

“Raise your hands if you lost electricity,” the Pirate asked. A good many hands went up. He said that was sad but much of that is now fixed.

Now up the steps bounded West Haven’s John Picard. It was quite an entrance in a Prince Charming costume with silver tunic and a bright and ravishing red sash.

“A little tight?” inquired the Pirate, but he made room for the third of the Halloween Amigos on the rug with the kids, and they got down to the serious business: This year is the only one with two trick-or-treat nights. Go, enjoy it, the Pirate said.

On the 31st, the real Halloween these mayors, along with those of Milford and Branford had ​“cancelled” the holiday due to the dangers of downed wires in the post-Sandy darkness.

This time Picard said, ​“Be safe, have a good Halloween, and hope the weather will cooperate.”