DrainSmart (Salem, MA)

Date Of Visit: April 9, 2017

Locations: Throughout Salem, MA

Highlights: DrainSmart Mural Project, sights and sounds of Salem

Think twice before you drop that seemingly harmless piece of paper on the sidewalk.  That is what the DrainSmart murals located throughout the city of Salem, MA, seem to be saying.

The DrainSmart Program was created to help create awareness of how littering causes so much pollution in our waters.  As the murals state, everything that enters the sewers drains to the ocean.

There were 12 murals planned for the city.  I photographed 5 of the best looking works.  Unfortunately, I could not locate some of the others or the others I did find had been worn away by pedestrian foot traffic and the elements.

Click here to see what they were supposed to look like.

The DrainSmart murals weren’t the only works of art or signs in the area.

Halloween isn’t the only time people dress up in Salem.  The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers held a Regency Dance Weekend in Salem, MA, while I was visiting.  The participants all wore attire that represented the time they were recreating.

Whenever I am in Salem, I am always taken by the historical significance and the architecture of the area.  This building, the Witch House, is the last standing structure with direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials.  In this house suspected witches and other people who were considered witnesses were tortured and threatened to confess to participating in witchcraft or witnessing witches.

It’s also fun just walking around and checking out the sights and sounds of Salem, particularly on such a pleasant spring day.  They are building a hotel on Essex St and I noticed on the side of this building an old sign for Pickman Place.

It’s always refreshing for me to see buildings that have stood the test of time and still stand today, even if they may have different tenants.  I may have an unhealthy attachment to historical buildings and landmarks.  They bind us together.  In a world that is ever changing and making way for new and better, it’s important to keep our history close at hand as well.  Imagine all of the different people who have walked those same streets, enjoyed the very same entertainers we have.  These streets could tell stories.

This side street where the Salem Witch Trials Memorial stands will be packed shoulder to shoulder in a mere 200 days.  On this day it was desolate.

As was the mall.  There is something about the Museum Mall in Salem that seems creepy and kind of scary when there’s not a crowd there.

There were also musicians out in the warm weather.  You might not recognize the second musician.  He usually plays his instrument with a mask at the very same location during the Halloween season.

There were also some very cute dogs out in Salem during my visit.

Mojo is a 4 year old Airedale and Pointer rescue from Tennessee.

Duke is a 9 month old Hungarian Vizsla.  I wonder if he’s related to Dennis?