Saturday night was the Day of the Dead parade. I was curious to see it since I hadn't made it to the Castro for Halloween. I needed some local color and several of the residents said they were into it. Except when the time came they decided they would rather go to a movie in Sausalito. I guess a movie is just as much a cultural experience as a parade, but I had no interest in movies so I went in on my own. I thought it would be apparent where the parade was when I got to the mission. I easily found parking and was walking around but there didn't seem to be a crowd with a thrust in any direction. I asked several Latino people on the street where the parade was and each of them said "what parade?" I said, "the Day of the Dead Parade." Each one said that they didn't know of any parade.     Finally a woman at a market told me she thought she saw something going on at Mission Delores Park. I got to the Church and saw a group of people at one end of the park with candles lit. I headed toward the candles and as I got closer to the group I could smell large clouds of marijuana wafting through the air. There was a group of about twenty people some holding candles in cups standing in a crowd but not really focused as a group. A man was speaking in Spanish loudly he seemed to be taking his turn as the leader. A woman next to me handed me a joint and said "he was a good man with a big heart, but he had a problem with alcohol and drugs." I agreed while taking a long drag off the potent happy stuff. As I passed the spleef on to the guy next to me I said, "does the parade end here?" He shrugged and said in a Spanish accent, "Parade?" I know that on the Day of the Dead you are supposed to present the soul of the dead with the things they enjoyed most in life so I waited until another joint made its way to me and celebrated this soul one more time.