The Conical Glass: You're never too old for peer pressure

Thursday, June 28, 2007

You're never too old for peer pressure

Yesterday, I decided that I would go along on whatever group excursion was planned, to prove I'm not an old stick-in-the-mud. Several folks wanted to go to a weekly flea market in Falmouth, about a half-hour east of here. There was also a historic district, so even though the idea of the market didn't sound too great to me, I figured I could go look at old buildings. So we pile into our van and tell the driver, Ruben, to take us to the flea market.

He immediately shook his head. "That's not for people like you," he warned. "Very dangerous."

That was enough for me. I was about to hop out of the van, because it sounded like a couple people wanted to go anyway, but Ruben managed to convince them that it would be very, very bad. Great -- the one thing I had agreed to do turned out to be fraught with danger!

Instead, we decided to go to Rose Hall Great House, which is a large estate about 10 minutes east of us. A historic home -- that's the kind of thing I go for! The house's claim to fame is that one of its former mistresses, Annie Palmer, was allegedly a voodoo priestess who killed all three of her husbands and countless slaves before being murdered herself. As we visited each room, our young tour guide earnestly told us about the misdeeds Annie had committed there. In terms of historic value, the house is not particularly significant -- it fell into ruins in the 1930s and was rebuilt and restored in the late '60s by its current owners (one of whom is a partner in Ritz-Carlton, which now operates a swanky golf course called White Witch on the premises). But it was kind of silly fun nevertheless. There's a pub in the basement that sells a rum punch called "witch's brew" that you can buy and sip on as you take the tour. The last stop is Annie's grave. Did she exist at all? Apparently there's no real proof of that, but I'm sure the legend attracts a lot more visitors than it would if it were just another old plantation home.

posted by 125records @ 9:41 AM

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