Tech Stars Open Their Doors For A Silicon Valley Halloween
Halloween in Silicon Valley is a chance to meeet a tech pop star, or at least to dress like one
Silicon Valley’s tech stars generally keep a low profile, and people generally let them, trying not to stare or intrude when they spot them around town. But on Halloween, the tech illuminati light up the night and open their doors. And parents gawk at the often over-the-top but decidedly low-tech decorations while the kids line up to get a candy bar—often a really large candy bar—and a “You’re Welcome” direct from Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, or Google’s Larry Page.
Last year, Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, carried on the family’s tradition of extreme Halloween decorating with a stunning display of dozens of hand-carved Jack-O-Lanterns on pikes of different heights; it looks like a similar display will go up today; as of Thursday, post holes were dug and carved pumpkins stockpiled.
Jobs’ neighbors, like Google co-founder Larry Page, go big on Halloween as well. So big that this year, no-parking signs have been posted and nearby streets may be closed to traffic.
Mayer’s house, meanwhile, has been sporting Halloween decorations for weeks—but the most impressive decorations are the gigantic array of carved pumpkins in the former parking lot of a nearby funeral home she recently purchased—and where she hosted her annual Halloween party on Sunday evening. Mayer is known for her impressive Halloween and Christmas parties—though this year there was some debate among neighbors about whether or not it was a proper use of a funeral home. My take: C’mon, if you owned a funeral home, wouldn’t you open it up for Halloween?
Of course, if your kid is going to trick or treat the tech stars, he or she might want to think tech for a Halloween costume. You could dress like a specific tech exec—black mock turtleneck and jeans, for example, or a hoodie and plain T-shirt with a touch of ginger in your hair. Or how about a generic tech geek?
I’ve seen a fair number of iPods and iPhones come to the door (gotta save those old appliance cartons). One of my kids once dressed as the original iPod guy—only the techiest people “got it,” the rest thought he was a mime.
There will also be kids dressed as their favorite video game characters, of course. But what could be scarier than a “dead” social network?
I’ll be tweeting out the techiest costumes as the night goes on at twitter.com/TeklaPerry. In the meantime, Happy Silicon Valley Halloween.
Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.