Woke to no rain but a touch of humidity
was back in the air. Today was moving
day again...this time we’re headed to Malden which is just outside of
Boston. We were packed up and on the way
to breakfast by 9 a.m. There are places
to go and things to do.
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Ate breakfast at St. Joe’s Café, a small corner coffee shop in
Scarborough, Maine. Its motto is ‘Home
of the Bennie’ which is a reference to beignets. Oodles of breakfast sandwiches served all day
long plus a bunch of other goodies on
the menu. What to order was definitely a
difficult decision. Here’s the scoop
from their website:
The
name "St. Joes Coffee" was born from "La Festa di San
Giuseppe" or the "Feast of Saint Joseph" where it's customary to
celebrate this Patron Saint of Workers, on March 19th, by eating pastry called
zeppole. Zeppola is the Italian name for a two inch, deep fried dough
"ball" covered with powdered sugar, which is more commonly known as a
beignet in the U.S. or the "bennie" here at St. Joe's.
Home
of the Bennie - St. Joe's Coffee is not just a place to get great locally
roasted coffee but it is also a place to grab a delicious breakfast sandwich.
These aren't typical breakfast sandwiches; they've been described as little
omelets on homemade buttermilk biscuits. At last count there were 22 different
sandwiches to choose from. There is a daily selection of freshly made muffins
and scones, homemade dough nuts and Bennies. What are Bennies? Simply put, the
Bennie is fried dough tossed in powdered sugar. But it is so much more than
that, the dough is made fresh daily and the Bennies are made to order so they
are always hot and delicious. They come four to an order and are served with
your favorite dipping sauce (chocolate, blueberry or maple-cinnamon) on the
side.
I had the ‘Roasted Broccoli’
which was a cheese, tomato and broccoli omelet served on a homemade English
muffin. Might try recreating that one at
home.
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On our way to breakfast we pulled up at a traffic light just as it
turned yellow. Waited for it to cycle
through to give us the green but it didn’t happen. Must not have tripped the sensor...I was
behind Kim but pulled up even with him to add weight for the next round. Didn’t work.
The second cycle of the light started...the cars in the other lanes of
the intersection got their turn to go but not us. So we scooted a little ahead hoping the car
behind us would move up to add his weight and maybe trip the sensor but he wasn’t
catching our drift. I even suggested
turning right into the shopping mall so we could come back out and turn right
on red if need be. Kim refused.
The third
cycle started, the line of traffic behind us was building, and there was no
approaching traffic. Kim said “Let’s go” and took off. I was right behind him. As we cleared the intersection, Kim said, “If
the intersection is photo enforced we may be in a little trouble.”
It was the Butch Cassidy and
Sundance Kid moment of our trip. 😏
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Today we wandered around Salem, Massachusetts, famous for the witch
trials of 1692. Lots of old grand homes
around the area with the downtown currently appealing to the ‘witchy’ history
of the area.
We did a self-guided tour of the Salem Witch House. The name is confusing as no one accused of
being a witch lived there; it was actually the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, one
of the magistrates who presided over the trials and it's the only structure still standing with
direct ties to the Salem witch trials. It
was an interesting peek into life in the late 1600s and since I didn’t really
know much about the witch trials, it was an introduction to a frightening time
in history. Of course, being 350 years
removed from the events I have historical perspective but it left me feeling a bit
unsettled about the horrible acts committed by humans out of ignorance and in
the name of righteousness.
From history.com/topics/colonial-america/salem-witch-trials: The infamous Salem witch trials began
during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village,
Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local
women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial
Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first
convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed
Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next
several months. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public
opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later
annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to
their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of
the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.
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Interesting side note from the same site: In an effort to explain by scientific means the strange
afflictions suffered by those "bewitched" Salem residents in 1692, a
study published in Science magazine in 1976 cited the fungus ergot (found in
rye, wheat and other cereals), which toxicologists say can cause symptoms such
as delusions, vomiting and muscle spasms.
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The interesting thing about
these trials is that ‘spectral evidence’ was allowed. Spectral
evidence? Time for another Google search.
“Spectral evidence
refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral
shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream at the time the accused person’s
physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the courts during the
Salem Witch Trials. The evidence was accepted on the basis that the devil and
his minions were powerful enough to send their spirits, or specters, to pure,
religious people in order to lead them astray. In spectral
evidence, the admission of victims’ conjectures is governed only by the limits
of their fears and imaginations, whether or not objectively proven facts are
forthcoming to justify them. [State v. Dustin, 122 N.H. 544, 551 (N.H. 1982)].” (Found on the site https://salemwitchmuseum.com)
It took me a while to work through
this definition but eventually I got the gist of it. And as maddening as some
of the current rules of evidence might be, I’ll say that I’m glad that spectral
evidence is no longer allowed.
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We walked to the memorial at the site of the hangings. Roadside America gives this information about
it: Salem Witches Hanging
Site Nineteen people (14 women, five men) were hanged as witches
on Gallows Hill during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 -- and then the town did
its best to forget it ever happened. A long overdue memorial was dedicated to
the victims on July 19, 2017, the 325th anniversary of the first hangings. Part
of the reason it took 325 years to build an execution site memorial was because,
until recently, historians couldn't agree on the exact location. By 2016,
experts had finally pinpointed a rock outcropping named Proctor's Ledge as the
travesty-of-justice-dispensing part of Gallows Hill. Today it overlooks a
Walgreens.
Salem went out of its way to make its memorial
as understated as possible...there is plenty of over-the-top witch drama elsewhere in town. It sits
at the base of the sloping and neatly landscaped hill, next to the street: a
low wall with the names of the nineteen victims etched into it, set around an
oak tree, symbolizing strength and endurance. Spotlights illuminate the names
at night.
The
actual hanging spot, atop the hill, is inside the fenced back yards of a couple
of homes, whose owners may not have been expecting all this attention.
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Footnote on Giles Corey from Wikipedia: Giles Corey (c. August 1611 – September 19, 1692) was an
English-born American farmer who
was accused of witchcraft along
with his wife Martha Corey during
the Salem witch trials. After being arrested, Corey refused to enter a plea of guilty or not
guilty. He was subjected to pressing in an effort to force him to plead—the only example of such a sanction in American history—and died after three days of this torture. Being pressed to
death...it seems a truly barbaric punishment but then again hanging seems
over-the-top also.
*Bottom line from today’s visit to
Salem: It was very sobering. I can’t imagine the horror of the
day...people were pointing fingers at others simply to avoid suspicious of
themselves so nobody seemed safe, except maybe the magistrates. The cynic in me wonders if things have really
changed that much in that regard.*
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Humidity reared its ugly head again today. Hot ride on the bikes and a hot walk around
Salem.
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We had 7 o’clock reservations
at the No Name Restaurant on Boston’s Fish Pier. Had it on good authority that a trip to
Boston was complete without a visit to the No Name. It was a busy place...and we all agreed that
the food was very good. More lobster,
scallops and shrimp for me. Now about
the name...
Shortly
before the outbreak of the First World War – and a solid
year before Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees – Nick Contos
debuted a seafood stand on South Boston’s Fish Pier serving fresh catches to
fisherman undocking from a long day. Nick didn’t name the place, and
that name stuck. “If it works, leave it alone,” he said. (Found on nonamerestaurant.com)
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Thursday’s miles: 121
Total: 2,157
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