A couple of cuties going to the Magnolia Library on Halloween
My View of Life on the Dock
This is always a great time. What costume should I wear?
Trick or Treat returns on Thursday, October 27th between 3:30pm and 6pm! This year, we’ll have trick or treating inside the castle and a bubble party with music, a craft, snacks and stories outside by the arches overlooking the water. Tickets available at: bit.ly/3g5ZqBv
#Halloween #trickortreat #Kidsfun #Capeann #rockportma #Gloucesterma, #Northofboston #familyfun #SalemMA #Halloween2022 #EssexMA #Corememories
Photo by Adrian Hewitt abhewitt7@gmail.com
Poster with Manchester festivities 2020 includes signing up for a house decoration contest to be judged on Halloween.
What Halloween yard, street or neighborhood decorations have caught your eye this year?
Gloucester activities 2020 downtown tomorrow 10/29/2020
Charlotte had a super fun Halloween last night with our wonderful neighborhood friends–it couldn’t have been more perfect! So many thanks to East Gloucester super Moms Mandy, Gillian, Michelle, Colleen, Nicole, and Dawn for including Charlotte, for all that you do, and especially for your fantastic kids!
I had to dismantle our ofrenda before taking photos, the wind gusts were so strong several offerings broke. I am putting it back this afternoon, after the wind dies down. Día de Muertos continues through November 2nd and will post photos tomorrow.
Esme Sarrouf’s fabulous gum ball machine costume that she made herself!!!
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https://www.instagram.com/p/B4TpXm0n3WG/
Something happened over the weekend that made me remember that I snapped these photos at Stone’s Pub right around Halloween.
Freddy and I happened to be sitting at the bar for a quick bite when one of Stone’s patrons came in dressed as, none other than, Stone’s bartender Jamie.
Nice job. He did, in fact, shave his head and dye his beard to complete the outfit along with donning the Stone’s Pub t-shirt and jeans.
In the tv show, Who Do You Think You Are? (March 5 2010), produced by Lisa Kudrow, season 1, episode 1, Sarah Jessica Parker learns that her tenth great grandmother, Esther (Dutch) Elwell, was found guilty of witchcraft in 1692. Her arrest was the last formal accusation recorded during the Salem witch trials. The grisly court was dissolved days prior to her sentencing because spectral evidence was banned. Esther lived to be 82 years old. Parker visited Danvers to meet with historians and inspect the original records, and then on to Salem to pay respects.
Did Sarah Jessica Parker come to Gloucester?
Well, not according to the final edit. The show could have filmed here.
Witches of Gloucester
Beckoned to Gloucester, Salem teenager and accuser, Betty Hubbard, officially confirmed the false suspicions in 1692. And just like that three women from Gloucester– Esther Elwell, Abigail Rowe and Rebecca Dike– were arrested for killing Gloucester resident, Mary Fitch, by witchcraft. Historians determined that nine women from Gloucester were caught up in the witchhunts, jailed, and released (by the spring of 1693). Accused were more often than not related and at odds with accusers, well off, and/or “trouble”. Collaborating institutions and collections have gathered and digitized 17th century documents. You can peruse them here: http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/17docs.html
Later history of witches in Gloucester revolve around Dogtown. In the 1896 book, In the Heart of Cape Ann, Charles Mann described Gloucester’s Dogtown as “practically the only ruined city in America.” By then Dogtown legends persisted about “witches” like Tammy Younger (died 1829), her aunt Luce George, Peg Wesson, and Judy Rhines. Percy Mackaye’s 1921 poem Dogtown Common acknowledged Mann’s book, “curious reader may learn many strange, half fogotten facts concerning the old Puritan life of that region…” Here’s the eerie opener setting a fitting scene for Halloween.
Inland among the lonely cedar dells
of old Cape Ann, near Gloucester by the sea,
Still live the dead–in homes that used to be.
All day in dreamy spells
They tattle low with toungues of tinkling cattle
bells,
Or spirit tappings of some hollow tree,
And there, all night–all night, out of the
dark–
They bark–and bark.
Apparently, when Sarah Jessica Parker starred in Hocus Pocus (1993), she did not know this family history. Some of the movie was filmed on location in Salem and Marblehead.
I grabbed a couple Halloween nail polish strips for my goddaughters from Amy Newell’s booth at the Magnolia sip n shop. One of them glows in the dark! I think they’re great for a sleepover or party treat. Applying them is half the fun and easier than doing your own nails. Fine art fingers: some of the applications inspired original combinations of colors and textures.
from Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation press release:
Sunday matinee, Silent Horror Movie with Organ Accompaniment – Sunday, October 21st, 2018, 3:30pm in the historic 1806 Gloucester Meetinghouse
MAESTRO OF THE PIPE-ORGAN RETURNS
As Halloween approaches, maestro of the pipe-organ and sonic artist Peter Krasinski returns to the Meetinghouse to accompany the scary silent movie ‘Waxworks.’ As in past years, Peter will perform on the sonorous 1893 Hutchings-Fisk organ to the delight of the audience, young and old. A short film, featuring Douglas Fairbanks, called the ‘Electric House’ will open the show.
HIGHLIGHTS
‘Waxworks’ is a 1924 German horror-fantasy film (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett) directed by Paul Leni. The plot is about a poet hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other. Its a thrilling horror movie for the whole family to enjoy.
TICKETS
General Admission $20; Students with ID $10, Under 12 Free (no one turned away for lack of funds; limited free tickets) Tickets at the door (cash, check or credit card) and online with more information at www.gloucestermeetinghouse.org
LOCATION
The Meetinghouse, home of the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, is located on the green at the corner of Middle & Church Street. Accessible side entrance is at 10 Church Street with an elevator to the Sanctuary level. Parking on the green is allowed.
Jack o’lantern traditions. There’s this – our annual amateur foray
and then this public art tableau that we stop for each year, just past 370 Main Street, Gloucester (before the Crow’s Nest heading into downtown Gloucester)
Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!
I mean seriously. If you want to have warm fuzzies about the town that you live in, move to Rockport and Trick-or-Treat along Main Street and down on Bearskin Neck.
That’s exactly what we did yesterday afternoon. From 4:00 -6:00 shop owners opened their doors to trick-or-treaters and the town was hopping. While my boys go to school out of town, they are blessed to have friends from the neighborhood, from soccer, from baseball, from sailing, from hockey, and even some from school that they’ve met while growing up in what we’ve always referred to as “God’s Country.” It was so fun watching the boys chit-chat with friends from all different corners of their lives while strolling along downtown.
Take a lovely fall afternoon (well, at least until the rain came), adorable children in Halloween costumes, gracious shop owners/employees, friendly faces, some good laughs, and one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world….and you get Halloween on the Neck. Throw in dinner at Top Dog….and it doesn’t get any better.
So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who made it possible to create such fun memories for so many children.
Here are just a few photos….including my own little Adam Levine from Maroon 5. He kills me.