A while ago, I was caught off guard – not a lot, but just enough…

Are there “Indian Summers” in England? I am not being facetious about this>>> I would really like to know!

I started reading a new Cozy mystery series, which is set in Great Britain, and I was a little surprised to find the “Indian Summer” description for a beautiful autumn day. For some reason, I had always thought this description only applies to North America’s crisp autumn days.

When I read about the beautiful “Indian summer” weather in this British Cozy, I thought about something a site reader from England had written to me. She said that she was quite bothered by non-British authors who set their mystery book series in England and then include things they (the non-English authors) think should be included – stereotypical things – which sound totally wrong to “real” Brits. Of course, since they are stereotypical things that she wrote me about, the rest of us might not know that these things happen “only in the movies.” (I wish I could remember some of the examples she used!)

So, with this in mind, is there such a thing as a British “Indian Summer” day, mate? (I know, I know!!!)

One of the things I like about living in a “young” city like San Antonio is that the streets are planned on a grid. Boston streets are not! One of our tour guides said that the reason for this is that they just paved over cattle trails and foot paths from years ago. If it was good enough for the cows, then by golly, it was good enough for cars!

Thank goodness for GPSs! (Global Positioning Systems)

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my daughter rented a “Zip Car” two different days. YOW!!! You cannot imagine how many times the GPS’s “woman” had to say “Recalculating” for us! I counted at least three times when a one-way street simply stopped and became another street (with a different name) going the opposite one-way direction. Good grief! And for two directionally-deficient gals, this caused a lot of… frustration (and laughter!)

Another difference I noticed between Boston/Cambridge roads and San Antonio’s >>> Apparently they lack white paint out there to delineate lanes. I noticed (many times!) where two lanes became one lane and then it went back to two lanes… with absolutely no notice!

My San Antonio taxes are also going for such “niceties” as protected left turn lights. But I guess that they don’t really need those protected left turn lights in the left lanes because drivers wouldn’t know if there was a left lane for the left-turn-only arrow >>> since they seem to lack the white painted lines.

I don’t know how they do it! No wonder most people rely on the public transit system! I know I would!!!

One of the day tours my daughter and I took was to Salem. On our way to Salem (from Boston) we went through Revere – the setting for Camille Minichino‘s Periodic Table mystery book series. (As some of you know, Minichino is one of my favorite Cozy Mystery book authors…)

Our bus driver/tour guide was a lifetime resident of the Boston area .. complete with the “yooz guys” dialect, “Wooster” was not the name of P. G. Wodehouse’s main character, but was the “Worcester” exit. I’m not sure if this was laid on so thickly for our benefit or if he truly spoke this way during his off hours. Either way, I loved it!

I have to say that listening to the tour guide was a real treat. He was… full of local color. I especially enjoyed all of his Revere stories (He actually grew up there.) He spoke about the public beach/amusement park/boardwalk of yesteryear… with the same loving nostalgia that Minichino’s main character Gloria Lamerino speaks about it.

Unfortunately, time has taken its toll and the big roller coaster has been demolished. But in its place, they have built buildings with sides that are true to the angles of the dips and rises of yesteryear’s roller coaster. Those buildings are fun to see when you know their history, but at the same time, they’re an oddity to behold when you don’t know about the roller coaster story…

Back to Salem…

Obviously, a large bulk of Salem’s economy is made from selling tourists all of what you would expect to buy in Salem… potions, herbs, candles, crystals, lotions, fortunes, ETC. As we ventured around the town, we noticed a lot of Wiccans, which I should have guessed would find Salem to be a great place to live (and prosper.)  I especially enjoyed hearing informational mini-lectures throughout the town… One Wiccan was especially interesting as she conducted a tour of one of the town’s cemeteries.

While October must be a huge boom for Salem, Halloween must be a real treat!