“Discovering” Salem

I love living in the city of Salem. It has this tremendous attitude and energy that appeals to me. I can only describe it as Creative Blue Collar. The people in this working class city embrace culture as well as people who walk to a different beat and I adore that. When I first started coming to Salem in the 80s, it had a lot less to offer in the way of culture than it does now but the attitudes of the people have remained the same. The city has blossomed over the past number of years with vibrant local coffee shops, restaurants, and businesses.

These days there are several coffee shops that are worth checking out. Front Street Coffeehouse has a cool, eclectic vibe and an excellent selection of teas and coffees. Life Alive caters to the vegan crowd and their Elvis Alive smoothie is addictive. Jaho Coffee & Tea offers outdoor seating during the warmer months over by Pickering Wharf.

The restaurant scene has grown over the years, too. You can still grab pancakes the size of your head from a delightfully, surly wait staff at Red’s or, if you dare, try the Elvis Waffle – topped with banana, bacon, peanut butter cups and whipped cream – for lunch at the Ugly Mug Diner.

If you’re looking for pizza, Fran & Diane’s Kitchen* might just have one of the best takeout pies you can get your hands on and the Flying Saucer is exceptional, with a fun décor to boot.

O’Neill’s features traditional Irish music on the weekends to go with your Bangers & Mash or Fish & Chips and they serve the best Guinness in town. However, the best beer menu by far goes to the Gulu Gulu Café.

Finz has really good seafood or you can’t go wrong with the Lobster Shanty, which is open seasonally. If it’s Thai food you’re craving, Thai Place is your place for Pad Thai.

Bella Verona is a wonderful, upscale Italian treat that rivals some of the best restaurants in the North End. It is incredibly tiny so you will need to make a reservation. Cilantro has exceptional, authentic Mexican food not to be missed.

Naumkeag Ordinary* may very well be my favorite place to go for brunch or dinner in Salem. The food is always excellent and I’ve never eaten there without having a great conversation.

In a Pig’s Eye* and Victoria Station have been around for as long as I’ve been coming to Salem and still remain solid options for comfort food.

I’m not much of a shopper but Harrison’s Comics, Roost and Pamplemousse are a lot of fun. And the Record Exchange, quite simply, still kicks ass!

Salem also has a lot to offer in the ways of culture, too.

There are now a few theaters in the city and the Salem Film Festival proudly boasts it has more documentaries than any other film festival in the country! In fact, there are many festivals happening throughout the year in Salem with the biggest being Haunted Happenings, which overtakes the city for all of October. Be forewarned, though. While a lot of the locals love visitors spending their money in Salem, many of them head for the hills until November 1st.

There are countless museums in the area ranging from the kitschy New England Pirate Museum to the highly respected Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables and Peabody Essex Museum – both are absolutely worth the trip to Salem – and everything in between to explore. Also, the Friendship of Salem exhibits the city’s rich nautical history.

You can’t be in the city for more than five minutes without being reminded of the disturbing history of the Witch Trials of 1692, which saw 19 people hanged and one person pressed to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft. It isn’t called The Witch City for nothing. There is even a flying witch on the city’s police department logo and a statue in the center of the city of Samantha from Bewitched. And, of course, there are museums and memorials such as The Salem Witch Memorial, The Salem Witch Museum, Witch Dungeon Museum, Witch History Museum, Witch House, just to name a few. Some are informative while others are there to trap the tourists.

I can’t help but think the Witch Trials have played a role in Salem’s ability to be more accepting of people outside the mainstream than most places including the small town I grew up in, which wasn’t exactly a hub of culture. When I was a boy we often grabbed dinner at McDonald’s and then ate ice cream near the tiny, local airport while we watched the small, single engine planes come and go. The older I got the more it became apparent that in a town made up of mostly white, able-bodied people, I just wasn’t like everyone else. Because I stood out in this small town, everywhere I went my mom would hear about it. There wasn’t a lot of sneaking around I got away with. She always heard from people who saw me as I walked down Main Street with a basketball in my hands and many times the comments she heard were wrought with disapproval.

“Should he be doing that?” They’d often ask.

She’d explain, defensively, that I was meeting up with friends to go to the Rec Center to play basketball.

“Do you have any problems with his friends who were walking along with him?” She’d ask. My mother didn’t take any nonsense from anyone. She taught me well.

This was the 70s, however, and people in small towns often overstepped boundaries. Plus, there was still a belief that people with disabilities were better off in institutions where they could be “properly” looked after. Thankfully, my folks thought differently.

So, it wasn’t at all uncommon for people to stop and stare when I went to the grocery store in the town I grew up in. On more occasions than I care to think about I saw parents pull their kids a little closer. Maybe they hoped not to catch some dreadful disease from me? You’d have to ask them about that, I never thought of my condition as dreadful and still don’t.

What I noticed in particular while I ventured around Salem my sophomore year in college was that most of the locals didn’t seem to care that I didn’t look like everyone else. Salem was full of Wiccans, punk rockers and other assorted freaks. I didn’t stand out at all! It was a tremendous relief and I felt like I was home.

That was the year I discovered my college radio station. New friends with spiked Mohawks, and purple and pink hair surrounded me. Unlike my punk rock peers, I didn’t need to take a trip into Harvard Square or Newbury Street in Boston for Manic Panic hair dye to stand out. I already stood out!

One day I walked across campus on my way to the radio station and saw two of my fellow DJs, Lisa and Siouxsin. Lisa had this wonderful, platinum blonde Mohawk that stood at least six inches over her head so she was impossible to miss. Siouxsin wanted to be like Siouxsie Sioux from Siouxsie & the Banshees, hence the funky spelling of her name, and her hair changed color weekly. One week it was blue, the next pink or red. I didn’t know either of them that well before this day. I had seen them down at the station and they were always nice to me so when they skipped across campus arm in arm and a few onlookers stopped and gaped with horror and disgust, I was angry! I knew those looks; I got them every day. I was fine with those looks directed at me, I was used to them. There wasn’t anything I could do about that kind of response anyway but Lisa and Siouxsin didn’t deserve this judgment! I guess I didn’t either but I was used to it.

Then it dawned on me that they chose to stand out like that. It was as if a light bulb went off over my head. Again, they chose to stand out. I definitely needed to know what made them tick. I had no choice in how I looked or the responses I got from onlookers, and that was fine. But they deliberately embraced looking different. It really changed my perspective on how I looked at myself. If they embraced standing out in a crowd, I certainly could, too. My world had been shaken in the most delightful way.

I really had found my people. They were in Salem. Where freaks, weirdoes and malcontents could be freaks, weirdoes and malcontents. I’ve been in love with the city ever since.

 
* Update as of 11/17/17 – A few businesses (Fran & Diane’s Kitchen, Naumkeag Ordinary) have gone out of business and In A Pig’s Eye is now Mercy Tavern. In my humble opinion, Flatbread Company actually makes a better pizza than Fran & Diane’s AND IT HAS BOWLING!!!