What a horrible night I had! It was so damn hot in this room and the bed has gotten harder I think just to spite me! And although I had the window open as far as it would go, it was like an oven in here! And the bed, well, it has officially turned into a torture device. I am very disappointed in the Hawthorne Hotel. And the walls are so thin! These people checked in and they have talked and talked and talked! One woman talks in this low monotone and it just goes on and on and on! It’s just this constant drone. It’s like having a bee buzzing by your ear without stopping for 3 fucking hours! I’m losing my mind! The crazy thing is that when I walk out the door of my room, someone asks me if I’ve seen the ghost. This has happened several times. Yesterday a large group of people were outside my door and were asking me about the ghost. And there was a tour outside my window last night …. talking about the ghost. Well, no ghost in their right mind would hang out in this room! But, yes, there’s a ghost at the Hawthorne Hotel. I know it because I experienced it last year! And if you’ve read my blog like good little creepies, you already know about it! But, back …. when I wake up (as if I really slept), it’s frickin’ Halloween and I am in Salem, Massachusetts, the Halloween capital of the world!!!!!
So Halloween, what shall I do with this day? First things first, I take a long hot bath and shower. Must be clean and pretty for this wonderful day! Oh dear, the weather dude is saying it’s super cold and windy. You would not know it by this stupid room. It’s still hot in here and the heat is not on. I know …. but the AC won’t work either! (Love it when I answer myself…) Wonder who is manning the controls down there? Some jerk vlad … hee!
What to wear? Don’t want to get too tricked out until tonight so I’ll wear a bit toned down witchy-look but I will wear my cloak (cape?). Hmmm, my tunic is almost a dress on me. I really have lost weight. Unemployment will do that to you!
And out I go with my camera on Halloween day! Feee-uck! It’s cold outside! And the wind! Gale force! My cape is blowing every which way. People are being blown this way and that! It’s really hard taking pictures. I pull my hood up on my cape and that helps with the cold wind but I can’t see anything now. So I stop occasionally and take pictures of the crowd and Halloween costumes. Shit, I’m not wearing heavy enough clothes. I’ve come to the realization that fashion doesn’t give a shit about weather! And what happens in Salem, kiddies? Salem weather happens when you least expect it! Yay! Gawd, I’m a dork. So, after many pictures, I decide to go to one of my favorite pizza places – the Upper Crust. Gotta get out of this cold. I’m dying heya. The people talk so funny here and I catch myself talking that way. Accent? Just think John Fitzgeral Kennedy whose ghost, I might add, is alive and well here in Massachusetts. And you know what else? Do not stare at cops here in Salem. If you get their attention, they want to know just what (the fuck) are you looking at, and they sound like they’re straight out of New York. I think they do that to make them sound more bad ass than they probably are. Still and all, I wouldn’t mess with them. They do sound scary bad.
Yum, the pizza is as good as it was last year. I sit right by the window and watch the crowds walk by, most in costume. You don’t see this in Houston! (I’ve included more pictures below.) These people are having so much fun. They are so happy! These are people from all over the world and we all gathered right here in Salem. I just plain love this shit! The smells remind me of the festivals I went to when I was a child. Remember the Halloween carnivals we had in elementary school? All the food booths, roasting, hmmm, I don’t remember what they were roasting … but they were! Running hither and yon in our Halloween costumes with a spooky chill in the air. Coloring black cats and pumpkins on paper that smelled really funny. And candy, candy, candy! That’s how it is here in Salem except the adults are having just as much fun as the kids. Everyone dresses up! There’s a carnival over there with it’s witchy-adorned ferris wheel. The midway, popcorn, sausage and yes, they’re perfectly happy taking all your money while you try to beat their almost impossible games. All those memories come back alive here in Salem. The really cool part (although I think some of you would disagree) is that you cannot drink alcohol outside in Salem. The cops are very hard on that! You can’t drink or even look drunk outside in Salem. Zero tolerance. It’s nice though, I hate drunk people … especially drunk people in my family! Drunks always ruin everything!
So back, eating my pizza and I ordered way too much but it’s good. Remember the difficulties I had last year the day after Halloween? Well, strangely enough, a little while ago I had a nasty cramp way down low in my belly …. just like last year! Now wait just a damn minute! I did not eat at the Halloween Ball last night. The memory of what happened to me last year on Salem Harbor is way too fresh! I do not want to walk the streets of Salem again like that, walking stiff-legged with my ass held tightly shut! Nope! Okay, let’s think. Since I didn’t eat anything at the Ball, it has to be the alcohol …. very cheap bourbon at super ridiculous prices. I only had two drinks but they were bad. No wonder I don’t drink!!!
Well, I buck up, pull myself together and brave the cold and wind and walk around Salem on Halloween. The bronze witch is there freezing her witchy tits off …. or is it teats? Witch teats? I think I’ve seen that in a story somewhere. Oh hell, I don’t know, she’s fucking cold! People are being blown right by me. Funny, sort of like the Wizard of Oz tornado. I’ve been blown up one street and down another for quite sometime now and I’m so damn cold. I try to go over to see where the fireworks are going to be but the wind is blowing so hard, I can’t even peek around the corner and step on that block. Welp, no fireworks tonight I surmise. There’s supposed to be a band playing there as well. The weather in Salem is a force to be reckoned with, let me tell you! It never does it half-way! It is full on, let’s get it on, kick some ass!
I make my way back and I’m so cold and beat up, I decide to pop into the Coven for hot, hot, hot coffee. I get my coffee with honey and cream and sit by the window and watch the festivities outside. People in costumes are still being blown by the window. Swoosh! I savor this moment. I even posted about it on Facebook from my phone. Sitting here in Salem, in the Coven, on a very cold and windy Halloween with my warm coffee in hand. It is dusk and I’m in my element. I’ve never before felt like I’m where I’m supposed to be more than I do now. If I could just freeze this moment in time. If only I could ………
Ok, I must break the spell. It is after all Halloween at dusk in Salem. I make my way back to the hotel to change into my witchy best for the evening. I really only change a few things but I add my lovely witch hat. Now I really feel at home! In Salem on Halloween, you get stared at if you don’t have a costume! As I venture out, I notice immediately that the wind has died down but it is still very cold. I head for the Pedestrian Mall and I change from taking photos to taking video. It’s one or the other! I notice that the crowds are significantly smaller than last year and there’s a lot less costumes. I think all the Halloween festivities last night, Saturday night, wore everyone out. It is so quiet even with the crowds. It’s almost boring! I walk around and there are people actually stopping me to take my picture. One person said I was an “awesome witch.” Another was bragging how he would be sending my picture back home to Brazil. He said I was beautiful. At some point, I just stop and stand there on the Pedestrian Mall and some of the people think I’m one of the “street performers.” They are commenting and having their pictures taken with me to send home. Wow, all’s I need is a tip jar like the Bronze Witch and I could be making some money! **Makes a mental note of this!**
So I spend the next couple of hours walking and taking in the festivities all around me. There’s bands playing, break dancers (ha) and lots of souvenir and food booths. There’s monster face painting and Dracula fang installations. I make my way over to the Witch Memorial and the Salem witches have left a lovely floral wreath in memory of those falsely accused and executed in 1692. The memory will never die and it should not! I’ve heard some stories of the executions and they were gruesome, awful. The one man, Giles Corey, being pressed to death and the others hung by the neck until they were dead. Do you really know what happens to someone when they are hung? Dreadful and evil! All this happened here and it was so unfair to those people! Can you imagine being pressed to death? Having rocks placed on you over a three day period until finally you are crushed from the weight? From what I understand, the guy kept asking for more weight, more weight, more rocks! All he had to do was admit he was a witch and they would have stopped. Giles Corey would not admit it and they would not stop. Now it’s awful, morbid history. The punishment put upon this man and the unfortunate women by “religious people” in the name of God! So I pay my respects at the Witch Memorial …. and another couple of pictures are taken of me smiling with total strangers for memory’s sake. That’s cool.
I walk around some more. It is frickin’ cold out here and all I have is this stupid cape! It’s not warm at all! I’m hungry but everything I see is so packed with people. I watch another band that’s close to the hotel. They are playing Beatles music so, of course, I linger. The singer is cute and he has an English accent … and long blonde hair. No Beatle there, ha! I watch awhile, then I head to the hotel. I NEED some warmth. I’ve seen a lot of people tonight who are walking around half naked because of their costumes, and there ain’t no way they’ll put a coat on and cover up their “look.” I think they have lost their minds! I’m freezing my arse off! This witch has to give it up and go inside.
I get in the lobby and oh my God, does that feel good! It feels like someone wrapped a warm blanket around me. Oh, I love you Hawthorne Hotel! Up to my room. Oh, I hate you, stupid bed! But now the strangest thing happens. I get into my warm nighties. The room is now cold. I look out the window and I think I hear a boom. What the hell was that? I hear it again. Well, would you look at that! It’s the fireworks show! I have a perfect view right here from my window! So I pull up a chair and watch, all roasty-toasty, right here in my window. I can see all the people in costumes walking in the streets by the Salem Common and the Salem Witch Museum. I can see the end of Salem’s Haunted Happenings 2010 and most interesting of all, I can see the police getting everyone off the streets because Halloween is over. Yup, they were being rough with everyone they dealt with and I had a bird’s eye view. They made a couple of arrests right there beneath my window. They were running everyone out of the Common. No one in, everyone out! The concession stands turn off those blasted generators. Aww, quiet at last! And there’s those beautiful huge police horses! I would come back to Salem just to see them! The police are riding them through the Common to get everyone out. Aww, to have a job like that! I’ve never seen horses so big nor so beautiful! I watch and watch and watch out my window. It’s hard to tear myself away. I’m trying to hold onto Halloween as long as I can. And it’s over. Over for another year. Damn, damn, double damn! I still have a couple of days here in Salem though!
Happy Halloween!
Janet
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!
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!
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)
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.
I was also able to get a few pictures of the Witch Memorial and the “The Burying Point” cemetery which I’ve included below. The Cemetery Tour was so up my alley and the things I learned were awesome. Our Tour Guide loves Salem and is a true historian of Salem’s troubled past. I will have much more on the cemetery and the Salem Witch Trials so be looking for it in this Blog. And too, I don’t know if y’all remember me telling you but the movie “Hocus Pocus” is one of my very favorites and it was filmed in Salem. I found many of the locations and there’s “Allison’s House.” Cool? Yup!
My Salem Happenings 