10.21.03
fall festivities and reflections
this past weekend began the series of fall activities that i have participated in every year since meeting mark. they’re always a lot of fun — and we did something new this weekend. we went on a “haunted tour” of eastern state penitentiary in philadelphia on saturday night for “terror behind the walls”. while the whole thing was very interesting, it was a little disturbing as well. this penitentiary with high stone walls was in operation from 1829 to 1971 and housed some famous prisoners like Al Capone. for halloween, they create a series of “haunted house” walkthroughs with people in gory makeup jumping out at you, and a “mess hall” with plastic severed legs, etc. as fun and scary as it was, it makes me wonder if it’s a bit disrespectful to turn an old prison into a “house of fun” when thousands of people, both hardened criminals and the innocent, were tortured there for over one hundred years. in 1842 Charles Dickens visited this prison and another in niagara falls and said, “The System is rigid, strict and hopeless solitary confinement, and I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong….”. therefore it seems wrong to me to trivialize it. however, i will probably go back for the real tour of the site, because it’s fascinating and will be even moreso without the severed heads.
we (mark, siobhan, ami, and myself) stayed in conshohocken, pa, right outside of philadelphia on saturday night and we hung out in phildelphia for a few hours on sunday afternoon. mark was in a euphoric state because he found a muppets playset he’s been looking for for awhile (he’s now into bunsen and beaker, so this is a really big story.)
*OUTDATED PHOTO REMOVED*
later on sunday we went to the corn maze in new tripoli, pa, that we go to every year. this year it was cut into the shape of a scary clown. we didn’t get to spend as much time in the maze as we would have liked, but it still was a lot of fun. if you’re easily scared by “children of the corn” this is not a good place for you to go. 
it wasn’t quite as scary as normal because we didn’t go on a “haunted” night where they stick scary people and fog machines in the maze. but still, it’s worth doing. it’s the kind of thing that i never got to do in texas growing up that mark introduced me to. the fall activities here are so much better. next week we’re going on a haunted hayride which is also a lot of fun. you people need to come visit in the fall!
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