Aug 14, 2007
There's nothing wrong with trusting your friends, as long as you
don't entrust them with responsibilities they can't handle. A
certain king learns that lesson the hard way when he sticks his
neck out a bit too far in "The Foolish Friend", a folktale from
India.
But rather than just tell what happens from beginning to end, we
start after the big blunder and do some detective work to piece
together what happened. Yes it's "CSI Bombay", our retelling of the
story modeled after the hit TV series "CSI Las Vegas", which Zephyr
is obsessed with these days. (CSI stands for "Crime Scene
Investigation").
We're coming to you from Nickerson State Park out on Cape Cod,
where we're taking advantage of one of our favorite biking trails.
The campground has rebuilt and regrouped after the disastrous fire
that destroyed the historic headquarters building the last time we
stayed here.
We just left the historic city of Salem, where we had a return
engagement at the library. But we've enjoyed many other visits to
this colorful town as well, a town where history seems to seep out
of every crack in the pavement and clapboards.
The city is best known for something that actually happened a few
miles up the road: the infamous witch trials of 1692 actually took
place in Salem Village, or what is now Danvers. Nonetheless, it is
the city of Salem that has become associated with the ugly episode
in the public ,mind, and Salem has returned the favor by erecting a
monument to the victims, and by establishing many tourist
attractions commemorating the tragic events.
We have the fondest memories of being in town two years ago for
Halloween (a holiday for which this town pulls out all the stops);
and thanks to Zephyr's passion for "haunted house" attractions, all
three of us were hired by Witch Village to help handle the
onslaught of revelers. Zephyr scared the wits out of people
in a "haunted house". Kimberly helped hold down the fort at the
information booth. And Dennis escorted candlelight ghost walks,
exploring some of the reputedly REAL haunts of Salem.
When work was done well after midnight, we'd hop on our bicycles
and ride to our campground on Winter Island -- in the snow one
night!
It doesn't take a forensic investigation to realize that delving
into the mysteries of Salem's past can be a very memorable
experience.
Happy Listening!
Dennis (Investigator), Kimberly (Queen and Darwin), and Zephyr
(Investigator)