Halloween in Salem…

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!