October in New England area!

[Snoopy/Red Baron]

We just booked our vacation to return to Salem for October time and are planning on driving around the New England area looking at foliage and anything else autumn / Halloween related. Any recommendations?

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, I envy you that trip! My daughter took an October break in New England three years ago and visited Salem. Her friend's mom advised them not to go near Halloween, but earlier in the month, because Salem gets too crazy near Halloween. She compared it to New Orleans on Mardi Gras.

[Pumpkin_Head]

That is my all time dream 'haunted road trip.' An October visit to Salem Mass, and a cruise around New England to all the supposedly haunted and creepy places to take photos. That is going to take some planning and saving, however. No way my aged wheels will ever make it.

Mike

[Andybev01]

I stumbled across this today and although it's not exactly Salem-centric it does look like a fun guide for people who travel frequently.

https://cemeterytravel.com/welcome-to-cemetery-travel/

[Murfreesboro]

What an interesting focus for travel!

[Pumpkin_Head]

Grave yards have a lot of stories to tell, even if they aren't purported to be haunted. Inscriptions on tomb stones can tell you about the history of the time frame the buried person lived and died, and how he or she died. For instance, I visited THE Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone Arizona, once and they were all inscribed with how one person was taken from his jail cell and lynched. Another killed by mistake, and so on. There are also prison cemeteries with the numbers of the inmates who are buried there, and the inscription which reads as follows: "They paid their debt to society. May God forgive their debt to Him." So even if you're not into it for the Halloween or spooky aspect, it can certainly give you a glimpse of what life was like.

Mike

[Andybev01]

My favorite part about being a cemetery administrator was doing research in the files that go back generations.

It's fascinating.

[Pumpkin_Head]

That's the thing. People who lived in an entirely different world from ours are buried in those graves. For instance, I was at the Moon Point Cemetery the other night. There was one grave of a woman who was born in 1863, and died in 1941. Her life began when the American Civil War was raging. She lived through the very beginning of modern society, such as the telephone, phonographs, electric light, cars, etc. She was a young woman when telephones where coming into their own and the Spanish American War broke out. She was still relatively young when our military men marched off to fight World War One. Lived through the Prohibition / Al Capone era of the "Roaring 20s," suffered through the Great Depression of the 30s, and finally passed away in 1941, the year the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and got us into World War 2. This woman's life began and ended in the United States most historical conflicts.

And there are many graves that tell a story. As for the details of those stories, I couldn't tell you, but one can imagine what stories they could tell.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

That's fascinating to consider. It really teases your imagination.

[Andybev01]

Not to be terribly morbid but there are a handful of files amongst the tens of thousands that are at the cemetery , that are yet to be closed, if you get my drift.

Folks who purchased their final expense contracts and established family trusts to pay for it all, often considered the coming generations.

Not infrequently some of their progeny have already benefited from that planning while the founders of those trusts linger on.

There's a great American novel to be gleaned from all of that data.

[Pumpkin_Head]

That does sound interesting, Andybev. I also imagine that New England would be a treasure trove of such stories, too. Like I said, all I need is some cash and a new car, and I'm off to a 'haunted road trip' to New England. First stop: Salem Mass.

Mike