Vermont Halloween Attractions

Halloween is just 4 days away and my sister tells me that she is going to Salem on that day... on a bus.  I did my part, and warned her of the throngs of tourists that she can expect; but what a cool way to spend Halloween, in Witch City, eh?

Around Vermont, you can find plenty of safe and fun events for all ages and genres.  And, be smart, enjoy our beautiful state by taking one of our BIWAYS! 

If you are interested in finding out what is happening in your area, contact your friendly and local Chamber of Commerce.

HERE'S THE LIST OF WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND VERMONT:  (Click on any purple link, and it will open in a new window, should you want to learn more about any particular event)!  

QUEEN CITY GHOST WALK
Burlington, VT
802-351-1313 or info@queencityghostwalk.com

PITTSFORD HAUNTED HOUSE
426 Plains Road, Pittsford, VT 05763
(802) 236-0048 or (802) 483-2281

MONSTER BASH in Newport
Main Street, Newport, VT 
Contact Info - click this link

56th Annual Halloween Parade in Rutland

Saturday, October 31st - to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Parade Route:  Madison St. & Strongs Ave. to Wales St., left to West St., left onto Merchants Row ending at the plaza.

22nd Annual Family Halloween at Billings Farm

Woodstock, VT 05091-0489

802-457-2355 

WILSON CASTLE - Haunted Halloween Tours

2708 West Street, Proctor, VT  05736

802-773-3284

Dead North Farmland of Terror

1404 Wheelock Road, Danville, VT
802-748-1399

DEADNBERRY HAUNTED HOUSE AND CORNFIELD
1094 U.S. Rt. 7 N., Rutland, VT 05701
802-747-0700

NIGHTMARE VERMONT
Champlain Valley Exposition, 100 Pearl St., Essex Junction, VT. 

Horses For Hope Halloween Bash @ Enniskerry Farm
Funds go to the American Cancer Society
906 Middle Rd, Colchester,  VT 05446
(802) 872-9992

TRICK OR TREATING IN ST. J

at the Fairbanks Museum

1302 Main St., St. Johnsbury, VT 

THROCKMORTAN MANOR - KREEPY KARNIVAL AND HAYRIDE
Route 7, Ferrisburgh, VT. 
(802) 375-4680

Halloween Express (Train Rides for All)
More info here:  Halloween Express About

Wicked Waterbury Costume Ball

802-793-6029 or zoe@revitalizingwaterbury.org

Spookyville at the Champlain Valley Expo

tickets@nightmarevermont.org

CORN MAZE
1404 Wheelock Road, Danville, VT 05828
info@vermontcornmaze.com

MAGIC HAT NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
At the ECHO Lake Aquarium / Must be 18 yrs old +
http://www.magichat.net/nold/#nold-tickets

3-MILE CORN MAZE
277 Lavigne Road, Colchester, VT  05446
(802)655-3440

STOWE LANTERN TOURS

Visitor's Center, Main Street, Stowe, Vermont 
(802)244-1173

Lost Nation Theater Poe Spooktacular Halloween
39 Main Street-City Hall, Montpelier, VT 05602
(802) 229-0492 or info@lostnationtheater.org

Rocky Horror at Pentange Arts, Woodstock
31 The Green, Woodstock, VT  05091 (Town Hall Lobby)
 802-457-3981

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - The Witch in the Winds
Middlebury College, Robison Hall, 72 Porter Field Road, Middlebury, VT
802-864-5741

Have fun, be safe and don't look behind you....

Gramdmother Gertie

Today, my grandmother, Gertrude Marion Manning, would have been 117 years old.  She was born in August 23,1898.

Yesterday, I attended a family reunion which our family still has each year, at or around the  time of my Grandmother's birthday. She is still honored and remembered.  And now, we can say that we have honored her for generations, as her great, and great-great grandchildren emerge.

Yesterday, I had brought with me several folders that belonged to my late father, which was a collection of family genealogy, news-clippings, certificates and information.  As we all poured through the folders, I discovered a hand-written account which unmistakably bore my grandmother's writing.  It was an account of Grammy and Grampa's honeymoon, which began on May 1, 1919.  Following is Gertie's account as it appears in cursive.  I have not changed the punctuation or spelling to preserve it's authenticity. See notes, below for some extra information.

Thursday May 1st, 1919
Married at 1:30 P.M. by Rev. Geo. W. Peck Jr.  Horace Hinckley and Marjorie LaFond attended us.  Reception with 60 friends and relatives present.  Ice cream and cake were served.  We left amid a storm of confetti and rice.  Old shoes, tin pans and signs decorated the car driven by Earl Pearsons.  Arrived at Pearson's cottage at Chittenden at 3:45 P.M.  Menu.  French fried potatoes, fried eggs, cocoa, cake, bread, butter and pickles.  Lunch at 9 P.M. cocoa, cake and grape-nut.  Bed at 9:30 P.M.

Friday May 2nd. 1919
Arose at 8:30.  Breakfast at 9:30 a.m. Menu.  Grape-nut, pancakes, maple syrup, coffee.  Sat in Davises boat greater share of morning.  Percy went to Slab City at 12 N.  Came back at 2:30 P.M.  Got lost went 1 miles out of way.  Dinner Menu.  Mashed potatoes, fried toast, olives, pickles, tea and cake.  Went after water.  Lunched in P.M. on C.C.C.  Chocolates and oranges.  Supper at 7 P.M.  Menu. Tomato Soup, ala Bolonia, bread, butter, cocoa, lemon jello c̅ whipped cream, almonds and English walnuts.  Married life in Camp certainly agrees with Percy's appetite.  Lunch .  Bread and Butter, Lemon jello and oranges. Bed at 8:30 P.M. Slept fine with the exception of hearing what we thought was rats running around but proved to be rain on the roof.

Saturday.  May 3rd, 1919
Arose at 9:30 a.m.  Breakfast at 10:30 a.m.  Menu.  Grape nu, oranges, coffee, egg on toast.  Percy ate 3.  Walked out a-round woods.  Dinner at 3:30 P.M.  Walked down to Aaron Congdons and telephoned home.  Menu for dinner.  Steel Head trout, cheese sandwiches, fried potatoes, lemon jello, tea, bread and butter.  Supper at 7 P.M.  Menu.  Tomato Soup, Pears, Bread and butter, cake and cocoa.  Bed at 8:30 P.M.

Sunday May 4th 1919.
Arose at 9 a.m.  Breakfast at 10 a.m.  Menu.  Grape-nut, pan cake and syrup and coffee.  Rowed in Davises boat walked around woods.  Had dinner early as we expected Pearsons after us.  Got home at 4:30 P.M.  Stayed home all night.  Monday P.M. began keeping house at 234 South Main St. Rutland, VT.  Same day that the flying Circus visited Rutland.

Percy and Gertie

Notes:

I can only assume that Percy and Gertie were married at the Baptist Parsonage (or the Baptist Church) in Rutland, as I have located many references to Rev. Geo. W. Peck Jr., officiating in the same capacity for others in that same year.  It's location, today, (I believe) is that of the First Baptist Church on Center Street in Rutland.

I love my Grandmother's comments about new married life and her husband's appetite.

The letter c with a line over it means, "with"; It means "with". It's from the latin, "cum" (pronounced coom).

How my Grandparents met from my father's account. 

My grandmother was riding either a trolley or a train in Rutland with her parents and her sisters.  Apparently, Percy spotted my grandmother and followed them.  The story goes, he followed them home, and my grandmother's parents were cordial.  He courted Gertie for a short time, before they were married.  I guess you could say that Percy had been struck by the proverbial thunderbolt!

My grandmother's mother was Maude Marion Eddy, born December 13, 1881, and died in 1973.

Maude Manning

Her father was Fredson Ellsworth Manning, who was born on December 16, 1877.

Maude Marion was the daughter of Daniel Webster Eddy (of the famous Eddy Brothers of Chittenden, VT) and Josephine Rivers. Here is their wedding certificate:

My grandmother married Percy Herman Hinckley in 1919.  Percy was born on June 13, 1896.

Percy's mother was Jennie E. Bailey (born in Rutland, no other record mentioned), and his father was Jessie H. Hinckley born in Clarendon, in 1873.

Haunted Myrtles Plantation, Louisiana

Northwest of New Orleans, and just east of the Mississippi River lies a sleepy plantation that is a grand example of antebellum style architecture found in the deep South, known simply as the Myrtles Plantation.  

As you approach the facade of the clapboard mansion in St. Francisville, you cannot help but be impressed to see an intricate grill-work design of grape vine made of cast iron, that has been painted in a soothing pale green color, and outlines this long (120 foot) veranda.  Lovely pink myrtle trees fill the southern air with their sweet scent.  

However impressive this southern beauty may be, it has been long suggested that this mansion was originally built atop of an ancient Tunican Indian burial ground.  The Tunica were Native Americans who lived in the Mississippi Valley.  While researching this article, I learned that the Tunicans used a language now referred to as "isolate" which simply means that the tongue in which they spoke had no relationship to other languages known. Their language was their own: unique and isolated.

Bradford

This southern beauty plantation was originally dubbed "Laurel Grove" and it was built by General David Bradford (somewhere between 1794 to 1796).  Bradford lived by himself there for a few years until he was pardoned by President John Adams because of his activity during the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion.

After things died down a bit, he brought his wife and 5 children from Pennsylvania.  Bradford did not remain long on this earth after this, and died in 1808.  

Woodruff

Almost a decade later, his daughter Sara Mathilda married a law student by the name of Clark Woodruff.  This couple eventually inherited the plantation and produced 3 children by the names of Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia. 
During the unfortunate era in time, Clark obtained a lovely slave named Chloe.  

Now, Chloe was naturally interested in her surroundings and took to listening to the family's conversations, and reportedly spying through a keyhole.  She was discovered by Clark, who promptly cut off her ear to teach her a lesson about eavesdropping and spying.  It has been documented that after this terrifying incident, Chloe donned a green turban to cover her disfigurement.  

[Other versions of the story declare that Clark forced Chloe into being his mistress against her will, and that he repeatedly forced himself upon her.]

To put it mildly, Chloe was not impressed by this infraction  and devised a twisted plan to earn back the trust of Clark and the family.  Luck was on her side, as the oldest daughter's birthday was just around the corner, and Chloe was responsible for making the birthday cake.  

And so, Chloe set about mixing the cake with the basic ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla bean and just a touch of boiled orleander leaves.  The orleander would add just the right amount of poison to make the family sick and then she would aid in their rescue by returning them all to perfect health.  This would certainly earn back the lost trust of her master!

When the occasion came, the family sat around the table to celebrate the day and to devour the scrumptious cake.  After a few bites, the festivities waned ,as forks were dropped and coughing and choking ensued.  Chloe rushed to their aid by bringing each to their respective beds, but alas! it was too late.  Every one who ate the cake died, including Sara Mathilda who was carrying a baby.  (Mary Octavia survived and lived well into adulthood; and, Cornelia, who did not eat the cake, later died of yellow fever.)

Chloe was very frightened and returned to the homes of her kin and friends, where she confessed that she had poisoned the cake in an effort to make amends.  She was mortified and literally feared for her life.  She returned to the mansion and fell into a deep sleep.  

Her confession did not bode well with the other slaves, for now their own lives may be endangered.  They wanted to keep their homes and their lives so they devised their own plan to show their loyalty to their master. 

In the darkest hour of the night, some of them crept into the room where she slept and silently stole her.  Once they had her outside, she was hung by the neck in a nearby tree, and then her body was brought to the Mississippi River, weighed by rocks, and tossed in.  Her body was never to be seen again.

Today, and is known as one of "America's Most Haunted Homes".

The mansion changed hands, on several occasions through the years and along the way, many strange reports have been told.  

Subsequent owners and their family members suffered hardship and many met their fate by tragedy or disease.

Whether or not the site is build over an old burial ground, has not been fully substantiated, but one must ask - haven't you seen the movie, Poltergeist?  Apparently this is not a smart move!

During the Civil War, the Myrtle Plantation was looted and many personal belongings were annihilated. 

Some say that during this loot, three Union soldiers were killed after they gained entry and were shot to death in the gentlemen's parlor.  Today it is told that bloodstains are left on the floor of that spot, and cannot be washed away: 

"...William Drew Winter was lured out of the house by a rider, who shot him to death on the side porch. It is here where the stories take a turn for the worse. In the legend, Winter was shot and then mortally wounded, staggered back into the house, passed through the gentlemen's parlor and the ladies parlor and onto the staircase that rises from the central hallway. He then managed to climb just high enough to die in his beloved's arms on exactly the 17th step. It has since been claimed that ghostly footsteps have been heard coming into the house, walking to the stairs and then climbing to the 17th step where they, of course, come to an end."  
- prairieghosts.com

Today, some claim steps can be heard on the stairs, during the middle of the night.  People have counted the steps, as they occur and state that the footstep sounds stop on the 17th step.

At the end of the Civil War, one owner went bankrupt (but the family was able to regain their fortune).  This same owner,  William Winter - who was actually a caretaker, not an owner - was shot on the front porch and died.

His wife, Sara, died at the young age of 44.

A child died of typhoid.

Another owner's son went to round up cattle during a storm and drowned upon falling into the Mississippi River.

In one of the upstairs bedrooms, a young lass died of yellow fever. Distraught, her parents called upon a Priestess of VooDoo to work her magic because conventional medicine did not work.  But alas! the little girl died.  The enraged parents hung the witch doctor from the bedroom chandelier.  

An elder son of another owner was stabbed to death in the mansion over a gambling debt.

A tale is told that a caretaker was murdered during a robbery that allegedly occurred in 1927.  One with a sharp eye may witness him at the plantation gate, advising people to leave.

A soldier from the Civil War died at the interior entry (near the front door) after suffering from battle wounds. 

He was known to be a heavy cigar smoker, and he had stayed at the house before before he died. 

Today, the Myrtles Inn is non-smoking but those who have stayed in his room can sometimes smell the smoke of his cigar.

The ghostly mirror of Myrtle's Plantation

One of the most enduring tales is that of a mirror which has actually been in the house since it's construction.  Some say that the mirror has ensnared the souls of some of the former occupants, that died there. 

When ghostly images of hand prints began to appear, the mirror was exhaustively cleaned...but they hand prints returned.  Perhaps it is the glass in the mirror, they thought, and the glass was replaced.  With the original frame intact, a new glass was installed but eerily, the hand prints continued to return.  This was repeated once again (replacing the glass) but the hand prints continue to appear.

"Those who have seen the mirror up close describe it as “unsettling.” A faint residue of “drips” running from top to bottom mar the glass."  -eldoradofurniture.blogspot

THE AMBER ROOM

Several years ago, I read the book "The Amber Room" by Steve Berry after my father had suggested it. The book by Google Books is described as: 

"A brilliant adventure and a scintillating tale of intrigue, deception, art, and murder, The Amber Room is a classic tale of suspense--and the debut of a strong new voice in the world of the international thriller."


What I read was a novel, however, the Smithsonian explains the actual history of the room:

"While many Americans associate amber with the casing for dinosaur DNA in 1993's Jurassic Park, the stone has enthralled Europeans, and especially Russians, for centuries because of the golden, jewel-encrusted Amber Room, which was made of several tons of the gemstone. 

Peter the Great

A gift to Peter the Great in 1716 celebrating peace between Russia and Prussia, the room's fate became anything but peaceful: Nazis looted it during World War II, and in the final months of the war, the amber panels, which had been packed away in crates, disappeared. A replica was completed in 2003, but the contents of the original, dubbed "the Eighth Wonder of the World," have remained missing for decades.

PHOTOS OF THE RECONSTRUCTED ROOM

Golden Gift

Friedrich I of Prussia

Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701. It was originally installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia. Truly an international collaboration, the room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Peter the Great admired the room on a visit, and in 1716 the King of Prussia—then Frederick William I—presented it to the Peter as a gift, cementing a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.

The Amber Room was shipped to Russia in 18 large boxes and installed in the Winter House in St. Petersburg as a part of a European art collection. 

Elizabeth

In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth ordered the room to be moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, named Tsarskoye Selo, or "Czar's Village." Italian designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli redesigned the room to fit into its new, larger space using additional amber shipped from Berlin.

After other 18th-century renovations, the room covered about 180 square feet and glowed with six tons of amber and other semi-precious stones. 

Photos of reliefs and art from the restored Amber Room, as authorized by the German Government, and completed in 2003:

The [original] amber panels were backed with gold leaf, and historians estimate that, at the time, the room was worth $142 million in today's dollars. Over time, the Amber Room was used as a private meditation chamber for Czarina Elizabeth, a gathering room for Catherine the Great and a trophy space for amber connoisseur Alexander II.

Catherine the Great

Alexander II

Nazi Looting

On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa, which launched three million German soldiers into the Soviet Union. The invasion led to the looting of tens of thousands of art treasures, including the illustrious Amber Room, which the Nazis believed was made by Germans and, most certainly, made for Germans.

Hitler admiring art

As the forces moved into Pushkin, officials and curators of the Catherine Palace attempted to disassemble and hide the Amber Room. When the dry amber began to crumble, the officials instead tried hiding the room behind thin wallpaper. But the ruse didn't fool the German soldiers, who tore down the Amber Room within 36 hours, packed it up in 27 crates and shipped it to Königsberg, Germany (present-day Kaliningrad). The room was re-installed in Königsberg's castle museum on the Baltic Coast.

The museum's director, Alfred Rohde, was an amber aficionado and studied the room's panel history while it was on display for the next two years. In late 1943, with the end of the war in sight, Rohde was advised to dismantle the Amber Room and crate it away. In August of the following year, allied bombing raids destroyed the city and turned the castle museum into ruins. And with that, the trail of the Amber Room was lost.

Conspiracies, Curses and Construction

It seems hard to believe that crates of several tons of amber could go missing, and many historians have tried to solve the mystery. The most basic theory is that the crates were destroyed by the bombings of 1944. Others believe that the amber is still in Kaliningrad, while some say it was loaded onto a ship and can be found somewhere at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. In 1997, a group of German art detectives got a tip that someone was trying to hawk a piece of the Amber Room. They raided the office of the seller's lawyer and found one of the room's mosaic panels in Bremen, but the seller was the son of a deceased soldier and had no idea as to the panel's origin. One of the more extreme theories is that Stalin actually had a second Amber Room and the Germans stole a fake.

Another bizarre aspect of this story is the "Amber Room Curse." Many people connected to the room have met untimely ends. Take Rohde and his wife, for example, who died of typhus while the KGB was investigating the room. Or General Gusev, a Russian intelligence officer who died in a car crash after he talked to a journalist about the Amber Room. Or, most disturbing of all, Amber Room hunter and former German soldier Georg Stein, who in 1987 was murdered in a Bavarian forest.

The history of the new Amber Room, at least, is known for sure. The reconstruction began in 1979 at Tsarskoye Selo and was completed 25 years—and $11 million—later. Dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the new room marked the 300-year anniversary of St. Petersburg in a unifying ceremony that echoed the peaceful sentiment behind the original. The room remains on display to the public at the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve outside of St. Petersburg." -smithsonian.com

Metaphysical Properties of Amber

"A powerful yet gentle healer and cleanser, Amber draws out and transmutes negative energy of all kinds on all levels. Amber aids in physical self-healing, emotional healing of depression, and environmental clearing. Amber opens and cleanses all of the Chakras.

Highly protective, Amber also aids in the manifestation of ideas to reality. The life force trapped within Amber promotes fertility, and its protective and environmental clearing properties make it a good stone to use to prepare a healing or birthing room. Use Amber with the Solar Plexus Chakra to increase confidence, mental clarity, and creative self-expression.

Physically, Amber helps with the organs of elimination, including the liver, kidneys, bladder, and stomach. Also a stone of the Throat Chakra, Amber can help with laryngitis and goiter.

In very simple terms, in order to qualify a piece of resin as true Amber, a couple of things need to have happened. First, the molecules must have formed a polymer (a compound where two or more molecules have joined together) and secondly, the specimen must be at least 100,000 years old.

Copal or Copalite is the term given to organic resins that are not old enough (i.e. younger than 100,000 years) to have fossilized and hardened sufficiently to become Amber.

Copal

Amber

Amber Resin

Amber is often imitated by plastics, colored glasses and some modern tree resins. True Ambers have a low specific gravity (amber can float on salt water) and inclusions can distinguish it from plastics and glasses.

In Africa, Copal is found in the coastal countries of East and West Africa, but especially on Madagascar. This so-called Madagascar Amber is solidified resin of the Amber Pine but is only 1,000 - 10,000 years old.


Most Amber from Columbia is less than 250 years old and in fact is not Amber at all, but the softer, younger version called Copal." - healingcrystals.com