Hayward's "Finest"

Yesterday was the second Downtown Hayward Street Party over in the East Bay. Essentially, it's really just an excuse to try and drive more business into Hayward's fledgling economy. For me, it's always fun to go back and see a bunch of friends and family that still lives there, or at least has roots there. My Dad's side of the family has been in Hayward for at least five generations. And he's Mexican. So there are probably 4000 relatives of mine in Hayward, half of which seem to go to the Street Parties like clockwork. So yeah, I've got cred. Well, not really. Most of 'em don't even know my name since I'm the token "white boy", but I digress...

Now, Hayward isn't exactly known for it's beautiful people. They leave that up to Pleasanton and San Ramon. What they are known for are there slightly "off" cast of characters that roam the downtown area - I'm not talking strictly for the Street Party either. Last night a clearly intoxicated woman pull an imaginary arrow out of here imaginary quiver and shoot her imaginary bow across the street towards the blues band that was playing. Sadly, my iPhone camera takes FAR to long to load, so I missed the shot. Luckily, now that I had the camera out I was on the draw to catch some other characters who were all out in fine fashion.

This guy was more rad than weird. Unfortunately I missed his "partner" who was a couple steps ahead in a similarly awesome outfit.

Then there was this guy.


Is this what drives the ladies crazy? The only thing more awesome would be a sweet, greasy, curly pony tail trailing out of the back of that hat.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, came close to this guy though.

To give the guy a little credit, there was in fact a band playing, he wasn't just dancing to the beat of his own drummer. I mean, he was...but there was actual music while he underwent this spiritual abortion. It was in fact pretty amazing since there were a couple hundred people who were downright stupefied by the fact that this dude was going for it. I mean, I sure was. Personally, I thought bow-and-arrow-girl should have hit this dude up. I can only imagine the magic they could have created. Probably much more than Hayward could have been able to handle.

Anyway, they do these things every 3rd Thursday of the Summer months. If you didn't make it to the last two, it clearly makes sense that you should be at the next one. The people watching is on par with some of the finest in the City.