Yet another assumption based on my appearance...

[joraemi]

I think I would have smiled and yelled, "Bye!  Have a great day!" - and meant it.  I think kids need to experience first hand that appearances aren't always what they seem.  (apparently adults do too.....)  Even if you were a witch, isn't Witch rule #1 something like, "Do No Harm"?  So what's the big deal?

  I don't get people.

  I bet your moonstone is pretty!  I've seen a few pendants with moonstones that I wouldn't mind having - Gee - there isn't some unspoken rule about only witches wearing moonstones, is there?

[Frostblooded]

There aren't really any witch rules because they aren't all Gardnerian, but your suggestion of "have a great day" is something I need to exercise myself more often. I am usually quiet and have snark on the tip of my tongue, have to work those filters! 

[FunkyMunky]

When people ask me if I am goth or make comments about it, I say, "I'm a barbarian?! Get back ye Roman!" or something silly like that.

By the original definition, most of the population are babrbarians. (It means 'someone who can't speak [Ancient] Greek'.) 

[Calypso]

Unless Salem has changed a great deal since I was there (and it has been 8 years, so maybe) I don't know how the woman survived the day---you couldn't go 10 feet in the downtown area without encountering something witchy.

Off topic---I understand the Witch Education Center (I know that's not what it was actually called) is no longer there? It was over near the Memorial site for the people falsely accused of witchcraft in the 1690s, which I found an incredibly moving memorial.

[pootbear]

. The girl, who was about 10-12 (and should have known better) points at me and says in a very loud voice "Hey, it's a Salem Witch!" then smirk.

The mother glares at me (what did I do?!) and then proceeds to cross the street while gripping the girl's hand and peering at me over her shoulder, as though she wanted me to know I was the reason for their change of trajectory.

I was so startled that I stopped dead and watched them walk off. I must confess that a part of me wanted to shout "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog, too!"

The child I'd cut some mental slack on as she may have thought you in your outfit (which sounds nice)  was part of the Salem 'thing' but the mother... I just don't understand people like that. Had I been there and had you quoted the WWW's line from W-OZ, I'd would have been tickled and delighted enough to buy you the brew of your chosing! PB

[TychaBrahe]

How incredibly ignorant.  No self-respecting witch would wear black between Walpurgisnacht and Samhain.

[lucy_in_the_sky]

How incredibly ignorant.  No self-respecting witch would wear black between Walpurgisnacht and Samhain.

I have NEVER heard that! Could you PM me with more information?

[Kimblee]

Happens to me all the time. And sometimes it happens the opposite way. I'm not pagan, but I'm goth. I've had many goth pagans get really mad at me for "stealing" their "identity." Whaa-? I didn't know it was a uniform. I kinda thought it wasn't and that was the POINT of goth to begin with. It makes my head want to go *BOOM*!

Reminds me of the goth kids from "South Park."   

lucy_in_the_sky, I wouldn't let two rude people ruin your day.  Wear your moonstones with your head held high. 

The only wiccan I know favors witty T-shirts, jeans and comfey shoes to work out in her garden in. She looks like every other soccer mom in her area.

She gave me a moonstone ring for my birthday one year.

[wednesdaygirl]

I shook my head when I read this.  My own MOTHER made some comment like that when she and my sister spent the day in Salem after dropping me off at law school in Boston.  UNREAL.

[CG]

When people ask me if I am goth or make comments about it, I say, "I'm a barbarian?! Get back ye Roman!" or something silly like that.

By the original definition, most of the population are babrbarians. (It means 'someone who can't speak [Ancient] Greek'.) 

And a good number of us are "pagan," in the original sense of the word - one who lives outside of the cities. (The people in rural areas were the last ones to pick up Christianity, and they were called pagans - L. paganus a countryman, peasant, villager, a pagan, fr. paganus of or pertaining to the country, rustic, also, pagan, fr. pagus a district, canton, the country, perh. orig., a district with fixed boundaries)

[majorboredom]

I'd probably have started screaming, "A witch!  Burn her, BURN HER!!!"

Just kidding.  No, it's not right.  Sad that there's nothing you could really say or do to make her mother realize her marginilizing isn't keeping her kid safe from the real 'evils' of the world.

[secretrebel]

I was once in the supermarket and heard a little girl squeaking "Mummy, mummy, that lady's a witch! Mummy, Mummy, look a witch!"

I turned to look, wanting to see the witch and saw that the little girl was pointing at me. At which point her mortified mother hushed her and scooped her up but the kid was still pointing, obviously thinking her mother hadn't spotted the witch. I just grinned at mum and kid and went on with my shopping.

But in my case the mother was embarassed and the kid very young. I think what happened to the OP was much ruder. I wish she had said the line from Wizard of Oz. I think that would have been a humorous response to rudeness.

[SkyTalon]

Would it be bad of me if I had replied to my child saying that with, "Now now, she's only a witch if she weighs the same as a duck. And I'm not stupid enough to ask a woman her weight." 

[C0mputerGeek]

You guys have taught me some new things today. I had no idea that barbarian originally referred to someone who did not speak [Ancient] Greek, and that pagans were people who lived outside the city. I have never been a pagan (Pagan?) but I am definitely a barbarian.

Okay....who is the "Well-known Witch of Salem."

[Nannerdoman]

Okay....who is the "Well-known Witch of Salem."

Which witch?  (I had to say it).

There were, I believe, 19 or 20 people who were executed for witchcraft in the Salem frenzy of 1692.  Most were hanged; one was pressed to death by having increasingly heavy weights piled on his chest (a practice designed to force a confession, which this stubborn man--Giles Corey--refused to give).  I'm not sure that any is better known than any other, unless perhaps it's Rebecca Nurse.  She was an old woman of such remarkable piety that the panic increased exponentially when she was accused, because if Goodwife Nurse could be a witch--well, then anyone could!

The persons who confessed to witchcraft were spared.  Those who maintained their innocence were hanged.  It wasn't a matter of "innocent until proven guilty", but of "innocent until proven accused".

Yes, I've read a lot about the matter.