My Salem Happenings

Okay, today – meeting Tony Moran from the movie Halloween in front of Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery. Michael (Tony) is not there when I arrive so I go in the monster gallery. I LOVE IT!!!!! All my very favorite monsters are here! All the Hammer Film movie monsters! And don’t they look real …. life size …. scary …. unsettling …. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I very slowly savor Count Orlok’s gallery. I look over each monster, up and down, this way and that. This guy is good. Oh look, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Bela Friggin’ Lugosi! I’m so in my element. And the music, excellent. Oh and there’s Mother and Norman Bates as well. But the creepiest room to me is the Death Masks. These are casts taken from the actual faces of the actors. That room in there is full of their faces …. in death. Shiver! Alfred Hitchcock’s in there too. I’m loving this! And then after a few assorted various monsters, I’m out in the daylight again. In Salem again. Off I go this way and then I’ll go that way!

Tony/Michael still isn’t there so I grab some photos of the carnival. The sky today is really stormy and I’m trying to catch just the right shot and light. I wander on down and get some great shots of the Old Burying Point Cemetery again. I’m so drawn to that place for some reason. My heart squeezes when I’m in there and I have to touch my tree. It’s a beautiful ancient tree. The bark is so rough …. and warm. I could stay with it all day but I tear myself away. Does this make me a tree-hugger? Don’t care … love that tree! I do have Salem to do after all. This cemetery is so old that the original passenger that came over on the Mayflower is buried here. Jeeeesus!

So I do tear myself away and off I go. I’m hearing a lady selling ghost tours over a PA system loud. Give me a break. Lots of ghosts are going to show up for that I bet! She’s got a huge booth with flashing lights sitting way up high. Kinda kills it don’t you think? Kinda makes me want to kick her ass……..

Now I wander into the Salem Wax Museum. The wax figures are cool and the stories are interesting. All about the witch trials. I’m reading some very unsettling things like for instance, that a lot of people were thrown in jail accused of being witches, which we all know but what I did not know is that when they were being kept in jail, they were being charged for their food, clothing or anything else that they might have a need for. The sad thing was that when they were released (not everyone was convicted), if they did not have the money to pay what they owed for their keep, they were not let out! Some people died in jail simply because they could not pay their way out! They were never convicted of witchcraft but they died in jail for being poor! No wonder Salem has spent all these years trying to do right by these people! The Wax Museum was eye-opening …. and tragic and has left me feeling pissed off.

Okay, out in the air again. Off to see Michael …. and he’s there! I guess I’ve seen him without his mask before because I recognize him. I talk to him. He’s personable. I tell him about Halloween’s Unseen. I feel really strange in this moment. If you had told me back in the 1970s and 1980s that I’d be talking to Michael Myers/Tony Moran about something personal I’ve accomplished that had something to do with Halloween …. and he was liking it, well, I would have said, “You are crazy!” He lets me take his picture and charges $10 for his autograph. Shit! Oh well, everyone’s gots to get theirs! I like Tony Moran, he’s nice to me and he’s going to check out my web site! (right)

Okay, let’s see. I think I’ll go to the Salem Witch Museum. Off I go. I’m alone! For some reason I’ve been reminded of this a lot on this trip. While I’m in Salem, I just go hither and yon doing what I please, when I please but on this trip I do feel lonely. Maybe next year someone will go with me. (right)

Now, the Salem Witch Museum. In I go and I’m seated …. on the floor. Now I’m in pretty good shape, Lord, I walk miles, but I do have flaky hips. But I buck up and sit on the floor like everything is cool but I’m not liking it. Now an interesting thing occurs here on the floor. We sit on the floor and begin to twirl around. I don’t mean the floor twirls, we twirl around and around and around! The show is set up in the “Castle” in a circle. We follow these sets around the room that light up and guide us through the witch hysteria. It’s very interesting and I love the creepy music. It’s all very interesting and I don’t know why I worried about sitting on the floor. I was never still and not there long at all! Then we are released …. directly into the gift shop only to be held captive there until the second half of the show. Can you say, “Ka-ching – capitalism?” OMG Salem …. and I did not buy anything! Then off we go to the next part of the show. This one’s cool. It defines the “witch.” The mid-wife beginnings, flying around the night sky on broom sticks (give me a break) and the gentle witches of Wicca. Then there’s a huge board explaining “witch hunts” over the years which we’ve all been a part of. Hee! And out and it was good. Actually, this is the first time I’ve taken the museum tours in Salem and I’ve not been disappointed.

It’s dark now in Salem and very cold. I’m heading back to my room. As I’m going to my room, one of the guests a few doors down stops to flirt with me. I’ve seen him before. Big ol’ biker dude with long hair, spooky eye contacts and Halloween skulls braided into his beard. My kind of guy! I actually took a picture of him at last year’s Halloween Ball and I told him so. He’s intrigued, his wife’s not.

I’m now in my room on this hateful bed. I have a beautiful view with lovely fall trees outside my window. I can see the Salem Common, the Salem Witch Museum, the Roger Conant statue but there’s those damned concession stands! And what runs concession stands? From 7:00 am until midnight all I hear are damned generators! It’s constant and, of course, each little stand has it’s own generator! Between this gawd-awful bed and the constant groan of those cursed machines, I’m going to lose my mind! I’ll just go take a bath …. always a solution! If I drank, I’d drink. Shit.

Luvs,

Janet

This entry was posted on September 16, 2012 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Salem with tags 2010 Salem Trip, Count Orlok's, Halloween, Halloween Movie, Hammer Horror, Michael Myers, Old Burying Point Cemetery, Salem Wax Museum, Salem Witch Museum, Witch Trials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.