The late 1960s was an interesting time when I was a kid growing up in Carrick the 29th ward community which is part of the City of Pittsburgh. The race riots had happened and people where still on edge when a small red brick store front across the street from St Basil's where I attended grade school on Brownsville Road all of a sudden went from a Tailor Shop to a shop called " The Hanged Man " which sold Witchcraft Supply's. Now in the 60's WICCA was a very much misunderstood nature religion and seen as devil worshiping and pagan in nature .
So locating beside a funeral home a church and school was not a good thing.
The shop had a sign in the window which looked similar to the tarot card image above and inside they sold all kind of candles and scents etc which was used in The Craft as they call it. All harmless when correctly used yet they where persecuted by many in the community who wanted them gone.
it got so bad with the shop and its customers being there from all kinds of unfounded rumors from sacrificing baby's to trying to kidnap local kids that the local Funeral Director Mr. Boron bought the building evicted the shop and tore down the building and made it a parking lot .
A few days after the shop was evicted the funeral home was severely vandalized by vandals who threw balloons full of multi colors of paint all over it which cost thousands to repair and sand blast off. The people who ran the Hanged man where considered suspects but no one was ever arrested for the crime and they where never heard from again.
Today such shops are no big deal but back then it was because of church teachings it was bad and evil and a sin. Just another case of people not being able to live in harmony with each other ,and true Wiccan's would never had done what was done to the funeral home it was more than likely kids in the niehborhood pissed off they chased the store out but they where easy scape goats to blame.The grade school I went to closed and is now a Pittsburgh Public School
No comments:
Post a Comment