One of my former colleagues told me about her visit to Salem Massachusetts on Halloween and it sounded like so much fun, my husband, sister, and her friend decided we had to go. We made our reservations in August and believe it or not, every hotel in Salem was booked for the Halloween weekend. Wow, this is quite a serious event, so now I was even more excited about going. We finally found a hotel in a neighboring town, which was fine.
We spoke about our costumes for months, and on the day of the event the 4 of us got into our costumes in the hotel, and drove to Salem, a 20-minute drive. Behind the wheel was Donald, a cowboy with a hat, fake mustache and his shirt had fringes. Of course, he wore cowboy boots and had his nephew’s toy gun and holster around his waist. My sister was a clown and wore a curly haired wig that resembled Harpo Marx’s hair except it was all rainbow colors, which could be a current fashion today with all the vibrant colors I see young people with. My husband was the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, and I was a gypsy. I was excited about my costume because I wanted to put on all my necklaces and bangle bracelets all at once and the most colorful blouse and scarves I could find. It was before cancer, so my old hair was long, thick, wild, and curly and I looked wonderfully gypsy-ish with a scarf like a headband on my head. Long dangling earrings finished my look.
It was interesting to see what kind of costumes we chose. My sister is serious so a clown costume might have reflected an inner desire to lighten up. Donald was recapturing his favorite past time of playing cowboy and Indians, and my husband was excited about dressing as his favorite character in his favorite movie. He had straw coming out of his sleeves, a funny hat and throughout the night he walked with his arms and legs flopping around in a clumsy, funny way like the original character. Me? I love colors, contrasting patterns, jewelry, and red lipstick.
All dressed up, we climbed into the car, what a vision we must have been! I thought we looked pretty outrageous until we got to Salem. The whole town celebrates by having several costume balls, reenactments of the Salem Witch trials, haunted house tours, a tour of the House of Seven Gables and lots of pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns lining the streets. We had tickets to one of the costume balls at the Hawthorne Hotel and as we made our way over to the hotel, we couldn’t help but become even more excited because the streets were filled with people in costume laughing, having fun, and dying to be noticed. My jaws dropped and eyes widened as we entered the ballroom decorated with spider webs, orange and black balloons and of course more pumpkins with jack-o-lantern faces. The room was filled with witches, giants, both green and just scary. Numerous Freddie Cruger’s, the most elaborate ghosts, princesses, more gypsies, and because it was during the time of OJ Simpson’s trial, there was one man with an OJ mask and a rubber knife. I asked if we could take a picture together and he happily grabbed me around the neck and posed with his knife at my throat.
The Hawthorne Hotel was old, decorated in an ornate Victorian-like manner and after a while, I started to roam around looking at the different rooms. There was one room filled with tarot card readers, sitting at small tables lined up neatly in the middle of the room. Without a second thought, I went in with the intention of getting a reading. I looked at the tarot card readers, trying to find the right vibe and off to the side, separate from the others was a small thin woman with long stringy grey hair, her face wrinkled with time. When she saw me looking her way, our eyes locked. I stood silently, my brain empty, and as if hypnotized I walked directly to her table and sat down.
“You look like a fortune teller” she said, studying me intently.
I was at a loss of words, feeling silly all of a sudden” Oh yes, I guess I do look like one, but I’m not a real one.”
“Well, I can help you with that, because I sense that you have a desire to have special powers.”
I immediately agreed, “I’d love to be able to read people’s fortunes and to see things that no one else sees.”
“Excellent! Before we look at your cards, let me see your hands.”
I held out my hands and as she placed her hands in mine, I felt an electric current in the palm of my hands which spread throughout my whole body. If she actually read my cards, I have no memory of it because as I walked away, I was hypnotized by a bunch of white transparent figures mixed among the costumed party goers. The white transparent figures were dancing and having fun like everyone else, but no one noticed them, except me. I didn’t know what I was looking at, I wasn’t frightened, but I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They looked like everyone else, but because they were transparent, I should see right through them. They weren’t threatening, in fact they seemed to be enjoying the party.
One of them saw me looking at them in disbelief and asked me, “Can you see me?”
I nodded my head yes, I was at a loss of words.
“We look forward to this party every year, so far this has been our 100th party so it’s a special night for us.” She then called out to her other transparent friends, “Look everyone, she can see us.”
They all rushed over to talk to me.
“Did you meet the fortune teller in the other room? The one sitting at the end?”
“Yes. What did she do to me?” I asked because I was feeling indescribably odd.
“She gave you a gift that won’t last long, It will help you understand us better.”
“Understand what? I don’t understand anything.”
“Salem has a history of killing people they don’t like, people they perceive as different. You’ll see what I mean tomorrow.”
I was getting overwhelmed, and needed to find my husband, so I said goodbye and practically ran over to where he was standing. Even after I found my husband, I continued to see transparent figures dancing and having fun, but I also noticed several sad transparent people standing near the walls and corners of the ballroom. “This place is haunted!” I said to myself in disbelief. When I told my husband what I saw, he laughed and said, “That’s pretty funny. You better stop drinking.”
I didn’t bother telling my sister, if my husband didn’t believe me, she certainly wouldn’t. We danced, ate, exhausted ourselves and eventually went back to our hotel.
The next morning, we took a tour to learn about the Salem witch trials. We went into a small cabin that served as the courtroom. There were people walking around dressed as witches and when the judge found them to be guilty, they screamed and insisted they were innocent. Standing next to each of the women were a different group of transparent figures who were screaming out, “But I was a young mother. They took me away from my babies.” Another woman cried out, “I was learning how to use different plants to help heal people. We are not witches!” Another was crying while, yet another looked at the women dressed as witches saying, “This is not entertainment. This was a terrible thing that happened to us.”
As I watched the reenactment and the transparent figures, I became so distraught, I just wanted to leave. What an awful time in our nation’s history, and sadly, it is one of many.