Visited the other Salem (my cousins live in Salem, OR on the other coast and we visited the other Portland, OR where Benny lives too) in Massachusettes where the Salem Witch trials took place by the Puritans in 1692. The town gets 100,000 visitors on Halloween weekend every year so the town was still decorated for Halloween with witches and pumpkins everywhere with witchy things in most businesses which seemed overused and disrespectful with what actually happened there. We weren't here to see the ghosts like all the ghost hunters we were there for the history. We had a enthusiastic and wicked smart tour guide who owns Hocus Pocus tours. We went with one other family who were frozen out half way through the tour so we got a personal night time tour of the city walking to important buildings and monuments like the memorial to the 19 victims of the Witch Trials. It was designed by a woman from Winslow on Bainbridge where my parents went to school. She won a contest for the best design out of 200 entries because it's situated next to a Puritan graveyard (the people who both judged, killed and stood by while they were killed) and there is a bench around the wall of ignorance for each victim with their name and how they died so you can reflect on each person and pay your respect to them all around a grove of Black locust trees that rarely have foliage which is the "stark" reminder of the dangers of gossip, hysteria and intolerance. It was really sad that so many innocent people died from such idiotic behavior - like the ideas that people who floated when you bound them and threw them in a lake were witches or so were people with red hair. Guess my cousins Colman and Jimmy are witches. Wanna go swimming in the lake to be sure guys?
I also thought that it was not fair how rich people could buy their way into better positions or even grave sites with the churches. Gossip was really harmful then and spreading them now may not get people killed but it sure can cause a lot of hurt feelings. Best to not be the person spreading news you aren't sure of 100%. One man was pressed to death over the course of two days by the townspeople as they put a board on his chest and kept piling rocks until it crushed him. The rest were hanged.
One thing we thought strange was the Bewitched statue that was whimsical was located right on the path they led the victims on to hang. Seemed inappropriate place but the movie studio was promoting Nicole Kidman's movie and wanted it there years back. With enough money it seems people can get whatever they want. I wish the movie had given money to the town to make the museum less expensive, we often have to split up when we can't all go. a lot of museums are $20-25/person! They are worth it for sure but tough when you are on a tight budget like us. We spent 9 nights in a row boondocking to off set cost of things we wanted to do like the tours.
Salem, Mass was a great city to walk around even in the cold. It was COLD! We went to the House of the Seven Gables made famous by the book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was a cool big house and very gabley with secret staircases that were very narrow and steep. The front room had a mini store in it where people of the time used it to sell their home made goods to make extra money. Speaking of the store, the gift shop was amazing, the best we'd been in so far not just because they had the best journals and books but because of the game selection and the ladies staffing it. My favorite games were Literati and LitWit. Check them out! We also continued our elephant theme (keep running into elephants everywhere we go and they are in that book we got in bar harbor the story is about) and read the story The Elephant story there about the first Elephant brought over and how they hadn't anticipated who much water he'd need so they fed him beer like the sailors which he loved. Later they let people pay an admission and bring him a bottle of beer and he would take off the top with his trunk, drink the beer and give you the bottle back.
The three ladies who worked in the gift shop were so nice! It was good to talk to people. One told us about how she worked the trolleys in Boston giving tours for 15 years and on her suggestion we took one and it was great! We learned a lot of neat things about Boston and history along the Freedom Trail (look it up!). Another one told us about the history channel having a show that is about how the states got their shapes and we were just asking that question a couple weeks ago. The last one spent a long time with us and she used to be a teacher, now retired. She played the games with me and told me about all kinds of different things. We had a really nice talk, it was like talking to my grandma. She drew us a map of how to get on the train to Boston and there we found the greatest parking/camping spot next to the train station and river. A dredging company owned a fenced lot they let people park in and he let us camp there 2 days for $8 a day. He told us to go to the Peabody Essex museum which was free for me but too expensive for my parents to go to. I went and loved the Ripple Effect exhibit: the art of water where a man played ice instruments. You can see him on YouTube Terje Isungset is his name.
I rode my first subway train and it was really easy as long as you are on time. The conductor comes around and punches your ticket just like in the Polar Express. The people are really friendly and come in all colors. I liked the old big mansion houses and unique details on doors and windows. Susan, the Hocus Pocus tourguide told us the windows on the top floor were only half as big to trick the tax collectors of the time who didn't count them as living spaces but assumed they were attic spaces. CLEVER! They even got taxed on how many closets they had. I hope the tour guides know that some of us really like the history and arnen't bored at all and appreciate what they do. If they weren't there to teach us these things eventually they might be forgotten and people should care about the past. We learn a lot from the mistakes and old ways and it's been great having the story of our country and government and our freedom come to life. One day I will vote and be a part of the decisions for America and it's good to know what was in our past and what soldiers died for. It's not silly old places and unimportant dead people, it's a part of who we are. I thought Salem was more than witches and I hope people who come here stop thinking it's all about Halloween and ghosts and realize it's full of interesting places, great people who treat those murders with great respect. The city was by-passed as a major port once the clipper ships were built because the inlet was too shallow and all the attention went to Boston but I think Salem was by far more fun and easy to walk around and you can take things in more personally and and without the mobs of people. The Engine Room food was so good as was the pumpkin bread pudding with pumpkin ice cream! Next stop Boston!
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