Spooky Time Of Year

Summer got away from me. It seems just yesterday I was complaining about the first hot day of July and recently I went out and wondered if I should be thinking more about a sweatshirt than a t-shirt.
Here at the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) in Cape May, the grounds are sporting mums and hay bales and grounds maintenance is more about chasing leaves than cutting grass. That means it’s time to turn our thoughts and energies to spirits, and not the kind we offered at the Harvest Brew Fest.
Although I’ve been working on and off since Jan. 1 on the Christmas exhibit for this coming holiday season, I have to put that temporarily on the back burner and switch to Halloween. This is not an easy thing for me: I’m not a “Halloween person.” My son loves all things Halloween and did even before he had kids of his own. I don’t know where he got it from … but it’s not from me.
This year’s a little different, however, thanks to another generous donation from our friends Ernie and Betsy Heegard who, having donated to MAC the huge Dept. 56 Dickens Village that we display at Christmas, have added another aspect to MAC’s Halloween decorations with their collection of Dept. 56 Halloween buildings and accessories. We’ve been working on a way to fit this display into the Physick House’s Halloween-themed makeover, so beginning Columbus weekend, you’ll be able to see this charming exhibit on the entrance porch to the Physick House. Admission is free.
Cape May is notable for its population of spirits but it’s no surprise that they’ve hung around: Would you want to leave? And perhaps there’s no place more fitting for Halloween happenings than what has come to be known as Cape May’s original haunted house. If you’ve seen photos of the Physick Estate before MAC was launched and set out to save it almost 50 years ago, you’d agree hands down that it must be haunted. Many MAC staffers will attest to strange comings and goings that can only be attributed to something not of this world.
In addition to that neat Dept. 56 Halloween display, we’ll also have lots of chances for visitors to check out the house on our popular Phantoms of the Physick Estate Tours, with an afternoon version and slightly spookier evening version. Of course, there’s our annual Scarecrow Alley, lining the paths around the Physick House with fearsome to funny creations. You can take ‘A Walk with the Ghost Writer’, Craig McManus, or have tea with one of those notorious ladies, Lizzie Borden, Typhoid Mary or the Bride of Frankenstein. And be sure to bring the family for trick or treating Oct. 31. There’s lots more to get you in the spirit, too, so check our website at www.capemaymac.org.
I don’t know how much those staid Victorians celebrated Halloween, but I’m sure even Dr. Physick and Mrs. Ralston would get into the spirit of the season and agree with how perfectly their home on Washington Street was suited to it. Then again, perhaps they do.
Barraclough is director of publications and website at Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC).