Welcome to October! And fall is definitely upon us with a vengeance. The air is crisp and damp and our high season for Ghost Walks is in full swing, despite it being a very unusual high season.
Now, it has actually been a long time since I was home for high season. Last year I did exactly one night before jetting off to parts unknown. I think the last time I crammed my brain full of stories for a full Halloween season was…well, several years ago. So stepping back out onto the windswept rainy streets and braving the inevitable chaos has been a bit of a challenge. But it is one that – in the long run – I welcome. I love this job, and I have fantastic coworkers (though the team has been whittled down to half it’s normal numbers this season), who I work with pretty seamlessly after all these years.
My first night out? I was beyond nervous. I was carrying laminated crib notes in my pocket while sloshing my way through the pouring rain. Before I started I confided to my coworker just how nervous I actually was, and her response?
Shaughnessy, you got this. You don’t know a story, skip it, tell one you know better. I trust you.
I trust you…
I forget sometimes, that I have been a professional storyteller for almost seventeen years, and I’ve worked with the same core of people for almost that whole time. We know each other. So when I got out there into that pouring rainstorm that first night, I carried that trust with me like a blanket. And…I did just fine.
Since then, the crib notes have stayed in my carrybag.
It’s been…an interesting month so far. This is a strange time to be running tours, and as All Hallows ramps closer and closer, it’s been a very loud month. Downtown still has that strange vibe and I sometimes dizzily don’t know exactly what’s happening next. We have over half a dozen tours running in a night and there are times when we are so hard on each other’s heels that we’re practically in each other’s laps. But one of the benefits of having only senior team members working this season and the same people working together every night is that we can move smoothly around those encounters. We can cross paths between stops and “say” an entire route adjustment with a hand gesture and a tip of our hats.
And that? That feels good. That feels really good.
Now…if only it would just …stop…raining on us!