Mini-Manventure: Salem On My Mind

I was planning on weaving an epic tale through this post filled to the brim with my wacky adventures accompanied with photographs. But the camera never charged so there are no pictures. Instead, I will give you sample of a Salem, Massachusetts Halloween.


ze Grif and I were ejected from the Halloween party of Salem by police (curfew), so we wandered the wooded areas of our host city while trying to find the Winter Island campgrounds. We discussed how earlier in the evening a tour guide was explaining how that same area was popular for its public executions, and the two of us, lost, enjoyed how authentically creeped out we were getting. I get the feeling nowadays that people don't enjoy a good scare on this appropriate holiday, opting out of watching horror films and focusing more on the parties and the costumes (which are getting less horrifying and more disturbing).

Eventually we found our way to the campsite, which we didn't visit during the day, and it was filled with totaled cars which the groundskeepers used as blockades, creating a spooky atmosphere.

We found our lot and started to set up the tent, and as we did this group of people around a fire pit watched us, and I overheard from their conversation "Why are those guys here? It's so late and they wander in now? I'm scared." They were drunk, so I ignored them until the tent was constructed and I was inside ready to pass out.

Five minutes later, ze Grif had started to fall asleep and I was trying to do the same but the tent's shifting fabric kept grating my nerves. Then I heard the fire pit people again. "I'm seriously freaked out. We should do something. Think we should call the cops?"

"No." A new man's voice stated calmly, "I got a knife, we can handle ourselves."

I laid there for a minute, staring at the ceiling of the tent. Then, I sat up and started to shift ze Grif to wake him. When he did, I explained how these people were talking about calling the police and stabbing us. We put our shoes on quietly and then exited the tent slowly, aware that the people from the fire were staring at us again.

I yelled, from the tent, if they had a problem with the two of us. They looked at each other, and then a  woman in their group shouted to us "Oh my god, we aren't talking about you. Come here. We'll explain everything."

Maybe we shouldn't of approached them, but we had our friends sleeping in their cars down the road, so we walked up to them brazenly and introduced ourselves. (Wouldn't it be great if ze Grif introduced himself as ze Grif? It would make a wonderful first impression.) They welcomed us with a dying fire and one beer to share, and explained how two men were walking through the campgrounds, and that they had made up an imaginary  lot number, and they were afraid they would come back.

I told them that we would watch from our side of the lot for any suspicious characters, and then thanked them for not stabbing us in our sleep.