Halloween 2009 – Part 1
Okay, about my Halloween in Salem. It was way more than I could have ever dreamed it would be! Firstly, the atmosphere was, well, Halloween! It was super windy with the smell and feel of Autumn and just a hint of a storm on the way. It reminded me of so many of my Halloweens in years past. Do you feel it? Aww, nostalgia …. moving on…. I didn’t know that Salem would fill up with over 100,000 people strolling along the streets in costumes. Picture for yourself at Mardi Gras in New Orleans but without the alcohol-fueled bad behavior. Halloween in Salem is a peaceful, happy event. Everyone talks to each other and poses for pictures. It is illegal to drink alcohol in public in Salem and everyone knows it and lives by it. It was so refreshing to see so many people gathered in one spot that were happy and loving the holiday festivities. I felt safe in Salem on Halloween. That’s more than I can say about Houston! Oh, and look at the lovely Halloween sunset in Salem behind a street performer. I wish my camera could have captured it “live” but this will do nicely I think!
About my costume! I was a witch and I bought the most beautiful purple felt witch hat. It is adorned with chiffon and autumn foliage. There is a picture of it in the blog here and you’ve probably already seen it if you are reading this. I included a gothic blouse, black skirt, striped stockings and some witchy shoes. I found it humourous that the only thing I had to buy was the hat. I can always throw a costume together with the clothes that I own. Everything I have is gothic, black, striped and pointy! I was flattered by a couple of people wanting to take pictures of me and with me. It really is a classy hat!
About the costumes in Salem! I can honestly say that as of now, there’s nothing I haven’t seen in costume wear! There were thousands and thousands of costumes and I think I tried to take a picture of every single one of them. There were so many people walking by that all I could do was point my camera into the crowd and hope to get something good. This method did not disappoint me! I got some excellent crowd and costume pictures! I’ve included a few here. I will have all my Salem photos pulled together for everyone to see.
Besides walking and experiencing Salem on Halloween, I attended a Halloween Ball at the Hawthorne Hotel. As you know from my prior posts, the Hawthorne is an historic and hopefully haunted hotel. On the night of the Ball, the hotel was transformed into the biggest haunted house you could ever wish for. Their theme this Halloween was taken from VH1’s Rock of Love so it was Rock of Horror. Pretty clever. I was a bit surprised by the security measures they took but I guess they have to these days. As I entered the door, I suddenly felt hands going all over my body. Whoa, WTF? They were even squeezing the bag that I was carrying. Probably feeling for weapons. I spoke with one guest who was dressed as “Edward Scissorhands” and let me tell you, he looked just like him. “Edward” was complaining because security made him “check” most of his costume at the door. Apparently he had what looked like scissors for hands (duh) and security did not like that one bit. So there he was only half of “Edward Scissorhands” and he was making his displeasure known. 
I felt bad for him because he really put a lot of effort into his costume. I knew exactly who he was even without the scissor hands. That made him happy that at least people knew who he was trying to portray. As I’m sure you are wondering why, the people in Salem take their Halloween costumes very seriously and besides that the Ball was really expensive! The band was excellent and they rocked the night away. And one more thing about the Ball, I don’t know how many of you have attended a Halloween Ball completely alone but it is really not a good experience. When I took a moment to look around at all the people, I felt a bit fearful at being among all these strangers. I didn’t know a soul and each face somehow looked scary to me. Oh well, it was Halloween after all and everyone gets a scare, right? Right!
Let’s see, what are some of the costumes that I saw? I saw a man dressed as a stove, I saw the Octo Mom and all her babies, I saw a nurse escorting her patient along, her patient being in a straitjacket. I saw Bret Michaels, Daisy and Hulk Hogan. I saw Thing 1 and Thing 2 (don’t ask). I saw two headless horsemen, witches in drag, one only wearing a leotard, high heels and a witch hat (leaving a little more than I cared to see visible). A very handsome Fire Chief. Oh wait, he wasn’t in costume! I saw lot’s of guys and girls dressed in Victorian flair. I even saw Mozart! Scarlet and Rhett Butler were in attendance and the famous witches from Hocus Pocus, the Sanderson Sisters were happily in Salem once again. I saw lots of ghosts, ghouls and zombies, a few brides, birds and kitty cats. I could go on and on. Some people went really gory and some went with sexy and glamourous. There were many vampires and some of them looked a little too real for my taste! I found that in Salem, if someone wants to be a vampire, they just don’t cram plastic vampire teeth in their mouth, they actually have vampire teeth installed and these are very real. They also wear vampire clothing and it’s not a costume. This is their everyday wear. It’s a little unsettling to see but at the same time, it looks really elegant and “in style” like they are trendsetters. It was lovely!
The only real downside of Halloween was leaving to go back to my hotel which I will go into in the next chapter. The other noticeable downer was that when Halloween is over, it is frickin’ over! The Salem Police come out in full force, dressed in riot gear and march right smack down the middle of the streets ordering people to go the hell home! Some of the lucky cops get to ride the most beautiful horses I’ve ever seen. They are HUGE! And when the fireworks are over, it’s fucking OVER! I guess you can’t blame them; after all they’ve had “Haunted Happenings” for a full 31 days and I can just imagine what nonsense they’ve had to deal with. But let’s not mention the millions of dollars they’ve raked in from all those visitors!
So with all that being said, let’s move on to my Halloween disaster. Huh? Oh, and I hope you enjoy the Halloween photos I’ve included below.
Hope you had a happy Halloween!
Janet
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My Salem Happenings 
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