Tag Archives: New Jersey

The Cojoined (And Possibly Transgender) Mermaids of Wildwood NJ

22 Jul

July 22, 2015

Sideshows, carnivals, and traveling circuses used to feature all sorts of “amazing” oddities and displays. Bearded ladies, wolf-men, snake-people, and even mermaids could be seen and gawked at for just a few cents. But nowadays, not only has the price gone up, but the public demands more and more. Nope, plain old run-of-the-mill mermaids aren’t enough to satisfy audiences today. This amazing piece of sideshow art was on display in Wildwood New Jersey.

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These are not your average mermaids, nope. These are conjoined mermaids. And ironically, they are painted behind a pair of seats it would be impossible for them to sit in.

This being the modern era, and not knowing thing one about how mermaids would reproduce- like a fish? Like a human? -the painting is very unhelpful in that regard, the possibility came up that maybe, somehow, those conjoined mermaids are also transgender. The one on the right does look a little more masculine than the other. (Unbelievably, alcohol played no part in that conversation.)

I will wisely leave that topic alone.

However, although I am sure that isn’t vintage, it is still a great example of old sideshow art.

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Picture Postcard: The Creep On The Course

20 Jul

July 20, 2015

I was on a ghost tour in Cape May NJ recently. We were riding in an old-fashioned trolley and the guide was relating the haunted history of each house. In this house is the ghost of a jilted lover, she told us, and in another house the spirits of long-dead children still roamed the halls.

It was dusk and the mood was right. There were old Victorian mansions and smaller, centuries-old homes. She regaled us with stories of phantom men who wander the streets, and stories of business rivals who still duel in the night.

As we went down one particularly old, cobblestoned street, she warned us that he place in Cape May that scared her the most, that creeped her out more than anything else, was right ahead of us.

All eyes went forward, looking for the next old home or haunted alley.

We saw this:

course creep

This weird guy on the 12th hole of a miniature golf course caused her more sleepless nights than any ghoul or apparition ever did.

Me? I think there is something evil in the eyes.

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