Witch City Street Scene, Lightly Annotated
Oct. 7th, 2003 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibet(Written earlier.)
It's October, the one month of the year where people can be observed on the streets of Salem, and so, it being a pleasant day, I am observing them for a bit before turning to my reading.(*1)
I'm sitting here at a table outside Fuel, the Coffee and Juice Bar on Essex Street (*2), directly across from the Witch History Museum ("Visit Our Unique Gift Shop") (*3), in front of which a man in 17th-century clothes, complete with period soulpatch and sneakers, is having a cigarette (*4). Not far away a 40-something woman is looking at a tourist map and wearing blue jeans, a brand-new Salem sweatshirt, and a purple-satin-lined full-circle black hooded wool cloak, probably also brand-new, but I didn't want to pile on too many adjectives. Easiest way to carry it after purchase; sure. Unless she already had it and thought it was the best thing to wear with jeans and a sweatshirt.
Also in the immediate vicinity: a consignment boutique/costume store (outside of which is a display rack of cloaks -- but these are velour); a "Victorian Spirit Parlor" into which a pair of punk girls(*5) has just entered (oh: they've come right back out again; guess they didn't feel the need to drop ninety bucks on a fancy witch hat) (*6); The Trolley Depot ("A Strange Little Store in a Great Little City"); a magic parlor (famed purveyors of prosthetic teeth); and a bookstore that has been having a massive moving sale for at least two years now.
On Thursday, I see from the poster behind me, the Salem Chamber of Commerce will present the Grand Opening Parade (of the annual "Haunted Happenings," I assume) Featuring Miss USA, Susie Castillo, as Grand Marshall, with Special Guests the Saugus American Little League Baseball Team.(*7)
(This is as good a place as any to note that one of the current supermarket tabloids says that the Final Days started this weekend. But another one is more optimistic about the future, seeking a love-match for a 500-pound supermodel.)
A half block away, That Flute Guy With the Floppy Hat is playing a Jethro Tull tune -- or so I assume from past experience; my iPod is set on Neo-Medieval (but alas, my cloak is at home).
As 1692-Soul-Patch Man comes out for another smoke, an elementary-school coed soccer team briefly surrounds me, and is gone.
_____
(*1) A. Terrell, Beyond Praise and Blame: The Influence of Judicial Rhetoric in the Annals of Tacitus (Diss. Colorado 2000).
(*2) I have not been successful in discovering any links to the late café by that name in Kenmore Square.
(*3) I'm not sure what makes it unique in Salem; perhaps it's more expensive than the others.
(*4) The first of three smoke breaks he takes during the time it took for me to write this, which has more to do with his addiction than the amount of time in question. -- The soul patch turned out to be a piercing: my bad.
(*5) Well, just one punk girl, with a friend affecting that incomprehensible shawl-skirt-over-jeans look.
(*6) Last week I saw a different tourist woman in jeans and a Salem sweatshirt wearing such a hat.
(*7) "Saugus American" without the hyphen.
It's October, the one month of the year where people can be observed on the streets of Salem, and so, it being a pleasant day, I am observing them for a bit before turning to my reading.(*1)
I'm sitting here at a table outside Fuel, the Coffee and Juice Bar on Essex Street (*2), directly across from the Witch History Museum ("Visit Our Unique Gift Shop") (*3), in front of which a man in 17th-century clothes, complete with period soulpatch and sneakers, is having a cigarette (*4). Not far away a 40-something woman is looking at a tourist map and wearing blue jeans, a brand-new Salem sweatshirt, and a purple-satin-lined full-circle black hooded wool cloak, probably also brand-new, but I didn't want to pile on too many adjectives. Easiest way to carry it after purchase; sure. Unless she already had it and thought it was the best thing to wear with jeans and a sweatshirt.
Also in the immediate vicinity: a consignment boutique/costume store (outside of which is a display rack of cloaks -- but these are velour); a "Victorian Spirit Parlor" into which a pair of punk girls(*5) has just entered (oh: they've come right back out again; guess they didn't feel the need to drop ninety bucks on a fancy witch hat) (*6); The Trolley Depot ("A Strange Little Store in a Great Little City"); a magic parlor (famed purveyors of prosthetic teeth); and a bookstore that has been having a massive moving sale for at least two years now.
On Thursday, I see from the poster behind me, the Salem Chamber of Commerce will present the Grand Opening Parade (of the annual "Haunted Happenings," I assume) Featuring Miss USA, Susie Castillo, as Grand Marshall, with Special Guests the Saugus American Little League Baseball Team.(*7)
(This is as good a place as any to note that one of the current supermarket tabloids says that the Final Days started this weekend. But another one is more optimistic about the future, seeking a love-match for a 500-pound supermodel.)
A half block away, That Flute Guy With the Floppy Hat is playing a Jethro Tull tune -- or so I assume from past experience; my iPod is set on Neo-Medieval (but alas, my cloak is at home).
As 1692-Soul-Patch Man comes out for another smoke, an elementary-school coed soccer team briefly surrounds me, and is gone.
_____
(*1) A. Terrell, Beyond Praise and Blame: The Influence of Judicial Rhetoric in the Annals of Tacitus (Diss. Colorado 2000).
(*2) I have not been successful in discovering any links to the late café by that name in Kenmore Square.
(*3) I'm not sure what makes it unique in Salem; perhaps it's more expensive than the others.
(*4) The first of three smoke breaks he takes during the time it took for me to write this, which has more to do with his addiction than the amount of time in question. -- The soul patch turned out to be a piercing: my bad.
(*5) Well, just one punk girl, with a friend affecting that incomprehensible shawl-skirt-over-jeans look.
(*6) Last week I saw a different tourist woman in jeans and a Salem sweatshirt wearing such a hat.
(*7) "Saugus American" without the hyphen.
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-07 05:07 pm (UTC)ian anderson?! was he standing on only one leg?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 07:38 am (UTC)I think "sad renditions of Beatles tunes" are mandated by law for street musicians, actually.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-08 08:37 am (UTC)Come on, would this really surprise you!?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 10:25 am (UTC)