Salem Sunday

This morning, when got to Salem, this was just about the first thing we saw.  Salem has grown to become many things over the years.  It's something of a Mecca for the Wiccan religion, a brilliant repurposing of its history.  And it's also a haven for the weird and the spooky.  I mean look-even the taxi cabs are spooky!  I love this place.

Here's my wife and I shortly after seeing the cab.  My sister ran into the market here to get delicious cranberry bread.  We've been getting cranberry bread from this place for most of our lives.  It's not as good as my mother's, but what is?

This is the main street of Salem.   It's lined by stores of all kinds.  Quite a few are stores selling Wiccan items, and there are a bunch of places that concern themselves with Salem's history.

Because it's the month of Halloween, the spooky thing has been amped up quite a bit.  Here are several people wearing very accurate Ghostbusters costumes.  I mean I guess I don't know, but I assume they aren't here all year.

Some Salem post cards.

I took a picture of this because it sums up what I love so much about Salem.  It's a home for countercultural misfits.  

One of many places offering psychic readings and magical items.

This store contained a Trumpkin.  Not quite orange enough?  Trump looks more jaundiced than anything here.

A bunch of books dedicated to Wicca and Wiccan practices.  I think my mom and I own every single one of these books!

Only one man was killed during the Salem Witch Trials.  His name was Giles Corey.  Upon being accused of witchcraft, he refused to plead guilty, and was placed under a wooden board upon which was placed a ton of stones, one after the other, over three days.  He was 81.  I mention this because it's the closest anyone got to being stoned to death during the witch trials.  Everyone else was hung, or died in prison due to awful conditions.  My point is, this is a double entendre!

We went to lunch at a restaurant that's been around since we used to go here as kids over twenty years ago.  It used to be called Lyceum, and apparently still kind of is.  We got oh so many seafoods.

This calamari was amazing.  It had some kind of pepper sauce going on.  And don't get me wrong-I love calamari so much, I'll eat it at any old place regardless of how 'basic' it might be.  But this was some exemplary calamari.

I got a plate of fried clams!  My wife and I argued over whether or not these count as clam strips, because they are clearly not strips.  I suppose there is a difference; true clam strips are much more rectangular.  But whatever, I loved them.

She got scallops.  Opting for the healthier road, she went for a baked preparation.  Later on in the day she would express regret over this decision.

My sister's boyfriend got a shrimp po'boy.

After the restaurant, we went to the best comic store in the world.  Look, my days of reading comics are pretty much over.  I'll still read them occasionally, but I have to say these days I basically just read horror novels.  But I love coming here.  This place is huge!

So many comics.

We made sure our car wasn't towed (it wasn't!), and returned to the Salem main drag.  Here we went into some more shops and found this particular item.  Apparently if you hate someone, you can buy a bottle of this, dump it out on their front steps, and ruin their lives.  I bought a whole case! 

Just kidding, I'm not vengeful like that.  I think this is a bit of a novelty gift; as I understand it, the Wiccan religion frowns upon practices that seek to bring harm to another.

We attended a reenactment of a particular Witch Trial.  Cry Innocent is the story of Bridget Bishop, a woman who was accused of witchcraft.  The play begins outside with her arrest, and then progresses into the courtroom where she is accused of what I suppose one could term 'devilry'.  One man says she came to him in the night, sat on his chest and choked him.  A woman says she scratched her child, who became greatly ill shortly thereafter.  There's an element of audience participation as well; the audience can ask questions, and ultimately vote on whether she should stand trial or not.  In our day and age, it's easy to deduce the reality of this woman's accusation.  She was a willfully unique individual in Salem back in the late 1600s, and she was outspoken.  When people began to look for scapegoats, she was an obvious one.  Anyone who had a misfortune, and so aided by their religious beliefs, were able to lay blame squarely at the feet of Bridget Bishop and those like her.  The modern perspective of course didn't exist back then, however.  In today's performance, she was set free.  In real life, Bridget Bishop was not so lucky.  

We participated in a walking tour of Salem after the performance.  This is the oldest cemetery in town.  I'm amazed by how thin the gravestones are.

This particular cemetery is the resting place of someone who actually came over on the Mayflower.

Here is our tour guide showing off the Mayflower grave.

 We also saw this guy!  He played the sax very well.  I gave him a tip.

Here is a magic wand store.  There's a sign on it's wall stating that the store is not directly affiliated with JK Rowling or Harry Potter, although they do sell some Harry Potter memorabilia.  I find myself wondering what the dynamic truly is between Wiccans and people who come to the notion of witchcraft with a pop culture perspective.  Both are represented side by side in Salem.  For Wiccans, wands are used as a method of concentrating intent and power.  I'd love to ask a Wiccan what they feel about stores like this.  I myself love the fact that Salem can now be a home to every face of witchcraft, but I'm also privileged to be a spectator with no particular horse in the race, as they say.

Main street at sunset.

The Salem wharf.  We will be returning to Salem on Wednesday, and we will be spending lots of time in this area.  More photos soon to come!

For dinner we went to a Portuguese restaurant.  I got to practice my Portuguese with the waiter in anticipation of the trip to Brazil!  I know enough Portuguese to be polite to all of my wife's relatives.

This is a tapas tower.  It was delicious.  I like it when food comes in towers!

Thanks to everyone for all your kind comments.  Tomorrow we are going to Ogunquit, and then Freeport, Maine, for epic outlet shopping.  Stay tuned!