I think that KLS would be mortified, if not discomfited, by all of the sad and pessimistic comments expressed here in this thread regarding the presumptive end of the Dark Shadows Festivals. Ms. Scott has always impressed me as being an always upbeat and optimistic person.
Heck, in a recent article, KLS has expressed her great joy and delight that she is now a proud octogenarian! Yes, the realization that she has now hit the BIG 8-0 has not caused KLS to feel that it’s all passed her by and that she’s ready, if not resigned, to retiring to Florida, also known as “God’s Waiting Room.”
I remember reading the novel, Recessional,” the late, great James Michener’s last book about retirees living in a Florida retirement home and hospice, and how many of them welcomed, if not embraced, the changes and
challenges of aging in America today. No doubt, Ms. Scott would heartily endorse the novel’s upbeat and
sanguine philosophy of life!
So, I have to believe that the actress who portrayed the beloved and unfailingly spunky waitress, Maggie Evans, would never concede that we have seen the very end of the Dark Shadows Festivals! This is a woman who,
almost singlehandedly, kept this festivals going for over thirty years. And, I find it hard to believe that such a
dynamic and assertive person would be willing to throw in the towel, so to speak, regarding these much-
anticipated yearly get-togethers for all of the Dark Shadows “cousins” across this great country!
Oh, sure, we’re all facing the inevitable infirmities and the indignities of the aging process. The many young fans of DS, whom the late, great Louis Edmonds once referred to as the “Dark Shadows kiddies,” are now
sexagenarians, and, dare I say it, even septuagenarians. And, I suppose it’s a true blessing, that one’s eyesight begins to diminish with age. You can look in the bathroom mirror and still convince yourself that you still have that full, dark and lustrous head of hair you had while you were watching the forty-something Barnabas trying to romance every attractive woman in Collinsport, who was, at least, twenty years younger than him.
Yes, even with the onset of arthritis, high cholesterol, dental problems, incontinence and constipation, I like to think that we will all eventually encounter Mr. Best, with whom we will be able to negotiate a deal which will enable us to be another Dorian Gray as the now ageless Quentin Collins was able to arrange when he met with that grandiloquent Angel of Death in 1969.
So, take heart my fellow Dark Shadows fans. As KLS is probably wont to say, “Age is a state of mind.” (Just ask Ezra Braithwaite and the bodacious Bathia Mapes!)