GRADUATION and SALEM, from COLLEGE  to WITCHES!.................

The Baccalaureate service Friday night was dignified and complimentary to all the graduates.  We had a late dinner after the service was completed, then I returned to Bedford for the night.

Early Saturday morning I left for Worcester, where the graduation ceremony was going to be held in the Hanover Theater for the Performing Arts.  A beautifully elegant building.  Grandson Kurtis won a drawing held at the college and we had a reserved box seat for 8.  Talk about being on the top of the heap. 

Our seat was perfect, they had bottles of water beside each seat, talk about being among the hoity-toity.  Just like queen for a day, or some such stupid thing.  But it was great and we had a wonderful experience.

This picture was taken inside of the theater, from the opposite side where we were sitting.  We had the top (4th) box up.

There was so much dignity connected with this college's graduation ceremony, and I had nothing to compare it with as it is the first college graduation I have ever attended.  There was a lot going on, but it moved smoothly, you really didn't feel as if you sat there forever waiting for those diplomas to be handed out. 

After the completion of  the ceremony everyone gathered outside for, of course, THE PICTURES!!!!

This one is me, grandson Kurtis, daughter-in-law Lauri, and son Andy.  quite a foursome.

Andy is the outsider.  He grew up in Pennsylvania, married a Maine girl while in the Navy, and upon retirement retired to Maine.  I was the only member of the family that was able to make the trip to Massachusetts for the graduation, so was greatly outnumbered.

The entire immediate family on Lauri's side was there for the ceremony.  Afterwards we went to a beautiful restaurant for the graduation dinner.  Ate way too much, thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The next picture is of the entire group, a passerby graciously agreed to take a group picture for us.

Once all the festivities were over I returned to Bedford.  Sunday was a free day for me, as all the Mainer's had headed home Saturday night.  I decided to drive up to Salem, the official WITCH TOWN of Massachusetts. 

The town consists of a main area of witchdom, so to speak, the Witch's dungeon, museum, house, and even witches walking the streets.  The funny thing about this whole scenario is the fact that there were only 6 supposed witches killed by the Puritans in Salem, and they were not burned at the stake but hanged.  But somehow it all grew and grew, and the funniest thing of all is that the statue of the founder of Salem happens to be in front of the building known as the Witches Dungeon.  All the gullible tourists visiting Salem get so excited about photographing the founding Witch? Wizard? whatever.  Go figure.

This picture is of the sailing ship Friendship, a reconstruction of the 171 foot three-masted sailing ship originally built in 1797.  She is the "largest certified sailing vessel" to be built in New England in more than a century. 

I would have like to gone closer, but of course it was raining, so settled for this long distance view.  I also saw the House of the Seven Gables located near the harbor.  This house is actually the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion.  One of the mysteries of the house is a secret staircase.  The house was built in 1668 and is the oldest surviving 17th century wooden mansion in New England.

It was this particular house that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his novel, THE HOUSE of the  SEVEN GABLES.  So today that is how the house in known.

This red house is Hawthorne's home and was moved from its original location to a spot next to The House of the Seven Gables, keeping both aspects of the history together.

The House of the Seven Gables, was built by a Salem sea captain in 1668 and occupied by three generations of the Turner family before being sold to Captain Samuel Ingersoll in 1782.  Ingersoll's daughter Susanna was a cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne.  It was upon Hawthorne's visit to his cousin that he was inspired to use that particular house as the setting and title of his 1851 novel.

I think I am going to have to read that particular story.



The Fort Pickering Light


While taking my tour of Salem I was two lighthouses, the Fort Pickering Light on Winter Island, built in 1871, and the Derby Wharf Light, which can be seen from The House of the Seven Gables.  I am sharing two good pictures of these lighthouses I found on line, it was foggy and raining when I took my pictures.

Derby Wharf Light

Getting late in the day, time to head to Boston and my Holiday Inn Hotel, where I was going to spend the night.  I had checked out of my hotel in Bedford that morning. 

I had to be up by 5:00 a.m. to drive to the Enterprise Rental center near the airport to drop off my rental car, then take the shuttle to the airport preparing to fly home. 

The days flew by.  Another adventure completed.  More memories.  More pictures. More stories. What more could any one person want.

Now it is back to the real world - refrigerator is still not working, grass desperately needing mowed, if it ever drys off, garden to be planted (running really late this year) if we can ever get the tiller through to loosen the soil, mulch to be ordered and spread, and Memorial Day cookout to prepare for.

Where has the spring gone.  With Memorial Day coming up, fall is just a hop, skip and jump away.  Then  the holidays, then a new year.  Is there any way to slow down this out of control merry-go-round?  If you have any ideas, please let me know and God Bless.