On a rainy fall day we found ourselves in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. We’d been through the touristy town before, but had never had any luck finding parking so getting out to explore was problematic. Named after perhaps the greatest all-round athlete America has ever produced, the town bore the American Indian name of Mauch Chunk prior to the communal name change. Once the greatest eastern vacation attraction after Niagara Falls, it’s now a town that caters to a regular stream of tourists and supports the small, boutique shops that thrive in such an environment. Whenever I’m in a new place, I look for books. Perhaps an illness, it is one I have no wish to cure. Sellers Books is small but I didn’t walk out empty-handed.
A few yards later a sign at Emporium of Curious Goods caught my eye. A store of mystical, magical whimsy, it had a posted note saying the owner had been friends with Ed and Lorraine Warren. I hadn’t anticipated such a thing—we were here with friends and really just expecting to enjoy the quaint ambiance. Being October, nearly every house and shop on Broad Street was decorated for Halloween, creating that frisson that only this time of year offers. I stepped inside the shop and looked around. I asked the owner how he’d met the Warrens. He said that many years ago they’d lectured at East Stroudsburg University. Introducing himself, he’d invited them over to his place and soon they became long-time friends. They agreed to do a talk there in Jim Thorpe.
The brief conversation made me aware that as much as reading reveals, it never conveys the full story. The store advertised having all the Warrens’ books. I have all of them myself, but I had never seen all of them together in a single store before. I wished I had something magical or mystical to buy to support the owner so willing to share information, but I had little time to look around with friends waiting outside, probably wondering what I was doing in such a place to begin with. The Warrens are both deceased but their legacy lives on through the Conjuring movies. More than that, in the lives they’ve influenced. Yes, they may have been using their fame as a way of making living, but many celebrities do that. It doesn’t mean they were any less sincere in attempting to help people with their ghosts and demons. A rainy day in October reveals so much.
