beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can take Salem out of the country, but! * Dateline Salem. Nancy Drew and I are at the Front Street Cafe, writing our novels. I'm out of steam. I remember visiting San Francisco around 1993 and being totally fascinated by something called Cafe Net or Java Net, a little intranet of local cafes. The monitor was flat, under your glass table, and I think you pumped quarters into it like a video game and wrote to people in other cafes. I was in hysterics and sweat was pouring down my inner arms, I was so excited. I remember writing to some guy "I am a nun." Here's Nancy Drew! ND: I wrote, but it's crap. Is it better to write crap than not at all? No, I say, but I sadly know of no way to write without going down crap highway for a long, long way. Ever been to mid-Nevada? It's like that Route 50, the loneliest highway in the U.S. No exits. BB: Then how do you get off the highway and into Vegas if there's no exits? ... Salem is freak city. Nancy Drew and the Prince live in a great apartment just down the street from Bung Hole Liquors. Since Al Bradley moved, they win for most noteworthy address. They live near the common, where people frolic in antlers and capes, and near the freakiest Dunkin Donuts in New England--it's the Cuckoo's Nest, I'm telling you. People keep their pill bottles right out there on the table, they have to take their meds that often. ND: It's true, this place is full of characters, with a capital "K." But Halloween is not that weird. This was my first year here for it and I was kind of disappointed. I thought there would be more howling or sex in the streets or both. There was a lot of milling around, Scream 3 kids, bloody angels and no-face masks. I saw no antlers. Yes, on the capes, but people wear those all the time here. They are called Wiccans and they have every right to be, like you and me. That Dunkin Donuts is the freak capital. Some guy that belongs there somehow wondered here to this more modern-day cafe. He had a unlit cigarette but you could just tell he was jonesing out. Maybe it was that unlit cigarette in his hand. There are exits on that Route 50, just not many. Small towns, one is called the "Loneliest Town on the Loneliest Road in the U.S." and in 1990 when I was there they soaked you for gas at $2.00 a gallon. Imagine what it is now! BB: I think the unlit cigarette guy is in town for the upcoming lecture at Salem State by Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor, as he's called on the flyer next to me. Another flyer announces Salem's newest hitmakers, Sweatpant Boners. "Feel the Thickness of Rock"! That about says it, folks. * If you were born before 1975 and enjoyed cigarette jingles as much as I did when I was a kid, you'll know how the rest of it goes. 10:11 p.m. - 2002-11-10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||