Archive for Salem Tourist Guide 2011

November 1, 2012 – Day After Halloween

Posted in Salem with tags , , , , , , on April 16, 2017 by Janet Glenn

I’ve always hated the day after Halloween. It’s all over and I have a full 365 days to wait until next year. Hmmmm. But anyway, I’m looking at a whole day and night in Salem at this point. So what to do? Oh, I’m kidding, you know. I always know what I’m going to do in Salem … always!

Today I plan on spending my certificates for winning the Salem photo contest in 2010. I was a very solid 2nd place! And then as luck would have it, the folks in Salem decided to make my 2nd place winner a Salem postcard. There it is and it appears up at the tops of this blog. header.jpgAnd then, when I picked up the Salem 2011 Tourist Guide, they used another one of my photos there as well! You can see that at the top of this blog as well! It’s the one with the little orange house. header2.jpgAs you can imagine, I was totally shocked and surprised. I never dreamed anything like that would happen!

So I tell you that to tell you this. I’m anxious and excited to spend my certificates worth $50 and I know just where I’m going. They have a thrift shop here and it’s so interesting. Yup, I’m going there to spend my winnings. So I go, I show them my certificates with pride and they turn me down quite soundly. Nope, they don’t take them. Hmmmm. So then they tell me to go talk to the Salem Chamber of Commerce. And where might they be, pray tell? Just down Essex Street not too far from where we are now. So I gather up my pride and disappointment and walk out. I don’t know why but that actually hurt my feelings. They made me feel ridiculous and stupid and that’s not pleasant. So I go in search of the Salem Chamber of Commerce so I can see where I can spend these things.

When I arrive, I rap on the door and they let me enter. It was just like that. They were locked up tight with some sort of security bars on the door. At first they don’t know what I’m talking about so I haul out the certificates yet again and, “Oh, yeah, we know these!” They give me a pamphlet with the “acceptors” and send me on my way. I pout just a bit since they didn’t even ask about my photo but…. as soon as I step out into the world again (it was really dark in there), I look for the thrift shop on the list and yep, there they are! What a bunch of dumb asses! There is no way I would go back there and show them the list and buy something. Ain’t no fucking way! But I do see Sophia’s and I’ve always wanted to go there so I make my way. This place is so lovely but although they have such beautiful merchandise, I’m having a hard time finding something. I do want to get a pill tin and I did ($5). Hmmm, let me look around … and there, over there, there it is! I see beautiful perfume bottles with cottage roses on the front. Aww, roses and perfume. Yes, that’s me! That’s what I want! parfumI very carefully select my favorite fragrance and the lady wraps it in beautiful purple tissue paper … did I say perfect? Now I’m smelling really good as I leave the shop. I love my perfume and it makes me feel really proud of myself for winning that contest. Oh, how I love my photography!

So now I make my way back to the ancient cemetery with my big, beautiful tree. Yes, I am a tree hugger; at least with that one I am! Oh, what a happy surprise! The squirrels are there gathering their acorns and playing. Oh, how I love taking photos of animals. And today, everything seems to be going good. I can’t even take a bad picture at the moment. It all “clicks” somehow. Even the tombstones seem to be joining in the fun! Here’s some of my shots of the squirrels, the tombstones and sunset in Salem. Sunset in Salem is absolutely a magical time. I’ve never seen anything like it! So I click and I click and I click and click! If I didn’t know better, I’d say those tombstones look like they’re posing as well! Here’s a few of the shots I got on this wonderful day with the stormy sky.

Oh my goodness, it appears to be getting dark now. I get a few photos of the Salem Witch Walk’s lighting falling on the tombstones. It is so hard tearing myself away at this point. Lord, the struggles I go through in this little town!

Oh, and this one. A lovely doorway on the way back to my hotel.

I am pondering. What shall I do with my last night in Salem? I walk … and walk! I would be skinny if I lived here. I think I walk for miles while I’m here. Hmm, I don’t think, I know! I go into the Mall one last time. Nothing going on here. Most everything is closed up tight. Halloween is over, you know. It’s like in an old western on TV. All the buildings are closed and silent with the occasional tumbleweed blowing down the middle of the street. Can’t you just see it? Now all I would need is Clint Eastwood’s ghost to appear. Oh wait, he’s not dead. Oh well, anyway….

See youse later!

Janet

Leave a comment »

October 28, 2010 – Day 3

Posted in Salem with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2012 by Janet Glenn

Oh, my aching ass!! Hate the bed – love the shower!

On this day I set out to take photos of the beautiful mansions on Chestnut Street. My purpose? To look for Coffin Doors. Yes, you heard that right – Coffin Doors! In the old days, there were no funeral homes to take care of everything when someone died. The families had all the death festivities at home. The front door or Coffin Door was really a normal door and a third. They were really a 3-part door big enough to make it easier to remove the coffin and the body out of the house for burial. Here’s a photo I took of said door-type. Sort of creepy don’t you think?

Anyway I go back to Red’s for breakfast. Looking cool again. This day … a silver glittered tunic with black capris underneath, purple and black stripped socks to my knees and ankle-high black suede boots. Today, a little different reaction from people. They are looking but it’s not really friendly. From the women, they slide their eyes up and down me and then it’s kind of a “Why didn’t I think of that?” attitude. The guys ARE talking to ME! How strange. They don’t talk to me in Houston at all. It’s all looks …. it’s the clothes. I’m always the same person. I’m always Janet!

Some of the attention I’m getting is kind of scary. I am alone after all and I’m walking all over this busy town taking pictures with an expensive camera or two. I’m being careful. I spy some house builders up ahead, one of them stopping to look at me a little to long, a little too hard. I turn around and walk the other way. I spy another guy walking towards me. I don’t like his looks. I step out into the street and put a couple of parked cars between us. If he grabs me, I’ll bite his balls off. I ain’t kidding either! Teeth = balls, that’s the ticket!

I then make my way around to the Howard Street Cemetery by the old Salem jail. I can’t get in this one and I don’t feel exactly comfortable here. I don’t know why, it’s just that something gives me the creeps here. I’ll be on my way thank you very much! But before I go, I snap some photos of the houses here and guess what?! One of these photos gets featured in the Salem Tourist Guide 2011 and that’s it there on the left! Good gawd, who would have ever thought that would happen!

I now wind my way around to the Witch House, my favorite house here in Salem. I do love the Witch House! It looks like a witch house but guess what? There’s never been a witch in it! It’s all hype. One of the judges of the witch trials owned it and lived there but there were never any witches there. Well now that sounds kind of dumb. There were no witches at the witch trials either! I’m a dumb ass. Anywho, I go inside for my first time and spend quite some time and get lots of pictures. The guy that works there likes what I’m wearing and we joke about me dropping glitter in the Witch House. At least I’m leaving something he can remember me by. I make a point to move some of the artifacts a little out of place here and there. Mark my territory I guess you’d call it. I haven’t been called a witch my whole life for nothing, right? Right! Now there’s been a witch in the Witch House …… kidding!!

Speaking of the Witch House, check this photo out that I took in the Witch House. Am I going crazy or does that look like the image of a witch’s face in the artifact? Do you see it?”

As I’m walking back to the Hawthorne, I see this guy with long hair, a black duster coat with a shovel thrown over his shoulder. My kind of guy! As I walk by him, he falls in next to me and starts walking with me all the way down the Pedestrian Mall. Turns out he’s a Salem tour guide and asks what I’m doing tonight and why don’t I come to the ghost tour. I say I just might do that as I notice that he’s got just about every other tooth missing. On second thought ………. As we are walking and talking, I mention to him where I’m from and that I have a friend who has a popular ghost tour in Galveston, Texas that does very well. I mention that there are a lot of ghosts in Galveston what with the 1900 Hurricane and all and the guy reminds me that a lot of people have died in Salem over the years as well and loses interest in me and kind of wanders off. Can you say competition? Too funny! At least our guy in Galveston has all his teeth!!!

Ahhh, still walking down the Pedestrian Mall… My meetup with the gravedigger was fun but I got the chills from a funky friendly vampire who so reminded me of the head vampire in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. I’ve actually got this guy hissing at me and trying to bite me on video which I will try to get up at some point. A photo here will do quite nicely for now.

Also too, I had a bit of a run in with Frankenstein on this very afternoon during my walk through Salem. Ho, hum, just a typical day on the Pedestrian Mall!

Look see! There goes the Bronze Witch! Oops, no, she can’t walk, she’s a statue, but there she is. I love her to death!

I had a wonderful romp with the squirrels in the Howard Street cemetery along my way. Don’t they have an interesting place to live?! They seem to be looking at me right in the eyes which makes for fabulous photos as you can see. Always, with the camera ready!

What a fun day this is. All these wonderful monsters and wild animals greeting me as I make my way back to my hotel. And now I am back to my room, I enter, glare at the bed. Gawd, I’m exhausted and these boots are killing me! Being beautiful is hard work! I’d like to go do another harbor tour but I’ve got to go rest and that’s just what I do. The streets are quiet again tonight in Salem but this will be the last time for several nights now. Watch out, Halloween weekend is almost upon us! I now go run a luxurious bubble bath and decide just what adventure will I have next!

Luvs,
Janet

Leave a comment »

%d bloggers like this: