Nazareth Halloween Parade (2009)

The Halloween parade was today and was great. It started to rain just before we got to see the 3rd division. We had to get the baby home so we missed the end. Here are photos I took from my perch on the YMCA steps:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Old Car at Jacobsburg

Here is a fairly well-known Jacobsburg oddity that we haven't been able to find a lot of back story on. Not too far from the creek, in the Eastern most part of the park, there is a very old decaying automobile in the middle of the woods. I first discovered this in the early '90's when I first started coming to the park and haven't seen it since. So I decided to take a trip over there to snap some photos.

I surprised myself by finding the car so quickly after all these years. It's not difficult to find. In fact, on a sunny day you can see it from the main trail (Blue blazed; Henry's Woods Trail; just past the bridge) because the sun reflects off of the chrome bumper. It has decomposed quite a bit since I remember and has become covered in etchings from various visitors over the years. I didn't notice any that were older than the late '90's but it may be that the older ones have rusted over.

I wanted to try and get some clues as to the kind of vehicle it is, how long its been there, and how it got there. There was a marking on the engine block that said "Firing Order 18736542." From the little I know about cars I knew that this only told me it is an 8 cylinder (it had eight digits) and told me noting about the model or age. On the front bumper, there was a hand painted code that read "N4046.614W07517.189." At first I thought this may be something like the magic numbers in the TV show LOST. But after I stared at it long enough I realized that these might be coordinates. After a quick Google search I confirmed that Jacobsburg park is located at N4046 and that these are the waypoints for the vehicle and that geocachers may be using this as a stash point. Based on what I had gathered I found nothing to suggest the model or year of the car. Best guess is 1950's or early 1960's model.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As far as how it got there, it clearly made its way down the embankment from the main trail area and smashed into a tree. The front bumper is bent around the tree. I saw no clear path from the main trail to the resting spot; it was littered with old growth trees. Also, the forest floor was pretty deep around the wheels. This suggests that the car has been there quite a long time. I might guess 30 or 40 years...maybe 50.

It's a pretty interesting juxtaposition of nature and machine to see a car in the middle of the woods. So if you have the means go check it out. Surely, there is someone reading this that has more information about this automobile and what its story is. So drop us a line at weirdnazareth@hotmail.com

Scarecrows at Center Square

Autumn is in the air. And that means that it is time for some of the local Girl Scouts to make one final attempt to rid Nazareth circle of those annoying crows before Winter. This year's group of scarecrows are particularly creative...Scuba Sue, Hippy Chick, and even a public-service-message regarding the H1N1 virus. They're all really good.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

As I was taking some of the pictures I noticed a group of girls and their group leader engrossed in a discussion about the bet place in the circle to put their scarecrow. Everyone had an opinion: it should face a stop sign, it should be near the mail boxes, it should face the church... It was interesting to see the amount of thought that the girls put into not only the design of the scarecrow, but the placement of the scarecrow within the circle.


Hey, don't forget to snap a photo of your Jack-o-lantern and e-mail it to us for our Contest!

Spooky Trees of Nazareth: The Horror!

October has arrived and with it the scarecows, pumpkins and skeletal decorations that bring the fun of the Halloween season into our fair town. Not only the children but many adults enjoy going around to have a look at what their clever or funny neighbors have come up with this time.

Lately, however, we at Weird Nazareth have noticed some outdoor alterations whose nature seems uncertain. Beautifully growing trees around town have been hacked into grotesque and mutilated trunks with stunted branches allowed to protrude here and there, bereft of leaves that might soon have glowed with autumn color.

We can only assume that their owners or pruners are creating a new kind of Halloween art--the Horror Tree, in imitation of the dead and rotting trees we often see in horror films or Halloween art, often with ravens or vultures perched on what remains of their branches!




















Or perhaps it's some kind of art fad, in which people express their existential angst through the form of the trees on their properties, giving voice to their horror at life's vicissitudes, deforming the trees as they feel their lives have been deformed beyond their control, as if Edvard Munch had pruned trees instead of painting The Scream.

Whatever the cause, we hope everyone will take time to observe these creations, for people have sacrificed their magnificent trees, rebelling against all rules of good pruning, in order to present you with these stunted and twisted roosts for the darker birds of the town.
[vultures in these photos added for effect]