I ran around old Salem City Today waaay before business hours. Up and down brick streets, the Peabody Essex Museum, witchcraft shops, the marina and then back over to Marblehead on the Salem trail. I bought a book this morning over in Rockport where I lunched on lobster cobb salad. I got a copy of Audubon's Guide to New England and so I may be ammending the names of some of the fauna from yesterdays report. I still can't help from stopping in the many, many cemetaries around the towns. Apparently the 1700's was really popular era to die around here. And everyone who died was between the ages of 20-46. Actually, I think it's more an interesting statement on the art/craft of headstone makers in that era. There were 3 headstone craftsman in that decade and almost all the headstones in New England of this ear can be traced back to one of those three craftsmen. I love the ones with the skeletons in the center with a laurel leaf crown holding the sun in one hand and the moon in the other. Today's headstone favorite: Susannah Jayne, Amiable wife and Consort of Peter Jayne. She died 46 years of her age April 2, 1776. Universally missed. I thought about what my eptitaph might say. I'm pretty darn sure wouldn't say "amiable wife", "or universally missed". It might say: "She was one tough Mother....with a capital M." | 