Happy Halloween!

I really don't like Halloween.

This was not always the case growing up (what kid doesn't like free candy?), but this changed in 1998 when I moved to Salem, MA. Most folks know Salem as the "Witch City" due to the history surrounding the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Just for the record, all that stuff actually happened in Salem Village which is now in the town of Danvers, MA. The current City of Salem, MA was originally Salem Town, which is a completely different place. But we got the name and the reputation that goes along with it.

The history surrounding the witch trials is pervasive throughout the city. There are all these cheesy witch trial museums and tourist traps. The police cars even have a silhouette of a witch on their sides. To their credit, the city has tried to maintain a balance with this and promotes the historic waterfront as well. There is actually a national park in the city at the waterfront, as Salem, in its heyday, was the largest commercial shipping port in the country. The first American missionaries to travel abroad left from that same shore. There is also the Peabody-Essex museum which is rated among the top 10 historical museums in America. Finally, among a heap of other historical places, is the famous House of Seven Gables that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about, which was right down the street from my apartment. So there is a lot of stuff besides the witch thing, but that is the one part most folks get hung up on.

It is unfortunate that Salem, because of its history, is also a major center for cult activity on the east coast. To say there are quite a few freaky folks running around there is an understatement. Now, all the ones I ever met seemed to be nice people, and they would simply say they had alternative religious beliefs. However, when talking to some folks who somehow managed to get out of these cults after being in them for some time, you realize there are some serious real-life horror stories going on there.

I really enjoyed living in Salem though.... most of the time. I lived right in downtown and I only needed my car to drive to work. Everything else I walked to. There was a commuter rail station nearby for when I wanted to go into Boston and I could simply ride my bike to the beach. There were plenty of awesome restaurants in town and I really did have some great neighbors. They were a little crazy but great nonetheless.

Eleven months out of the year, Salem is just wonderful..... until October arrives. With all the witchcraft identity the city has, it's no surprise that it's also the Halloween capitol of America. For the entire month of October, the streets become mobbed with people and it culminates in a big Halloween night bash where they close off all the streets to traffic and people pretty much just get drunk and over-the-top crazy. I think that's pretty much what I remember most about Halloween..... drunk people beating each other up, getting sick, and throwing bottles and trash everywhere. If you live there, it's not a fun place to be during that time of year.

The first Halloween I lived there, we had a party. I was excited. However, when I asked my neighbors what they were doing for Halloween, I was surprised they all had plans to be somewhere else. Some were going to Cape Cod and others were going up to New Hampshire or Maine. They all told me that I would have my one Halloween and the next year I'd be leading the charge out of town. They were correct. For the last Halloween that Daleen and I spent in Salem, I picked up a pizza on the way home early from work and we just put out all the lights and laid low in front of the TV, hoping some drunken idiot wouldn't throw an empty bottle at our car.

In fact, the whole month of October there was bad. Just throngs of people everywhere, walking around in the middle of the road with total disregard to the people who live there. My friend Judy lived right across the street from the House of Seven Gables and came home one time to find a group of older middle-aged people sitting in her yard on her patio furniture. She politely asked them to leave and was appalled to find the incident turning into a serious argument.

This year Colin has already been to a couple of Halloween things. He has a zebra costume and he looks so funny in it with the ears and tail. He definitely likes the candy. Halloween where we live now is so much more muted than where I used to live that I hardly recognize it is going on. Maybe I'm still a little shell-shocked when it comes to Halloween and someday I may warm back up to it. Only time will tell.

But Happy Halloween to you all. This year I have decided once again to go as myself.... which is scary enough....