Monday, October 28, 2013

Of wizards on Segways and other cool things


I’m sure plenty of towns do their own versions of Halloween, but nobody does Halloween like Salem, Massachusetts. Witches? Check. Pirates? Check. Candlelight cemetery tours, a neon-lit Ferris wheel, and reenactments of the witches’ trials, with the audience members as the jury? Check, check and check. Not to mention a couple of LED-lit wizards riding Segways and giving sermons (I’m not sure if they were trying to gain converts or if that was part of their schtick) and … well, it’d be impossible to list all the weirdness Arizona and I saw on Derby Street and thereabouts over the weekend.

Some snippets of overheard conversations:

“No, no. I want Chrissy between Jack Sparrow and the giant squirrel. That’s it. Okay, now everybody say 'eye of newt'!”

“Did that headless guy just stick a French fry through his sternum?”

“Oh, boy. That Playboy Bunny has to be cold!”

And so on. I had to grin when my mother, who lives in Salem and was guiding us through town, said to my crowd-hating but very tolerant husband, “I know this is probably your idea of the seventh circle of hell, but you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool, too.”

He admitted it. And it was definitely cool. Here’s Frankenstein grabbing my cousin, who is screaming while my mom and I laugh our patooties off (and Arizona takes the picture).



Have a happy (and safe) Halloween, and I hope you laugh your patootie off!

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