When I was growing up in South Carolina in the nineteen fifties, we never
heard stories about encounters with bigfoot or families of Bigfoot. When I had my
first encounter, I didn't know what they were or what to call them.
I think my dad must have known something about them, but he never talked
about it. We lived on a farm deep in the country, somewhere between
Honia Path and Greenwood. We kept all kinds of livestock, chickens, hogs,
and a few cows, and a couple of goats. Along with them,
we had dogs and cats, and there was no grass around the house
because the hogs and the chickens and the other animals roamed freely about eating everything
in sight, not to mention the damage that we three girls could do.
Mom and Dad didn't have any sons, but my sisters and I were just
as tough and wild as any boys could be. Dad worked our little farm
while holding down a job at the fabric mill and were shoals. They wove
and printed the fabric and then shipped it off to various other places to be
made into clothes and such. And at that time they were printing camouflage material,
and that meant the deer hunters around there always had cheap, misprinted cameo
cloth to take home to their wives so they could make them into hunting clothes.
I remember one hot Saturday afternoon in the summer. Dad was busy with
the cows and Mom asked me to run to the store for her to pick
a few items up. It was a little corner store set on an intersection
in the middle of nowhere. Normally, my older sister would go with me,
but she wasn't feeling well that day, and my younger sister was still
too little. The store was only a half mile away and there were almost
never any cars on the road, but I was old enough to know betther
than to talk to strangers. Even if there had been a car, it
was likely to be someone we knew. Now. That was back when cochs
were and nickel and snicker bars were three cents. I took my time getting
to the store. I remember a turtle that needed poking with a stick,
A few insects were begging for inspections, and I couldn't resist the wildflowers that
were in full bloom. But I eventually got there and handed my list over
to the storekeeper. It wasn't a long list, but there was enough on
it to tell me that Mama was getting ready to bake us a cake.
It was hot that day. I knew I would practically have to run back
to keep the butter from melting. Well. I liked running. For a
ten year old, I was pretty fast. Well on that day, I
was determined to break my old record. Lucky for me, I thought I
had wasted enough time getting there that the sun was beginning to sink behind the
trees to the west. The shadows were getting longer, but that meant the
trip home wouldn't be quite so hot as the walk there. I had just
about reached the long dirt drive that led to our farmhouse when I noticed an
awful dead smell that wasn't there earlier. It seemed to be coming in wiffs
on the breeze from somewhere inside the tree line. Now those woods are thick
with pines, and so thick that it was almost like night once you got
past the outer boundary. We never ventured in there. Ever. Dad used
to tell us that there might be bears in there. Well, we never
saw one, but if Dad said they were there, we believed it.
We didn't need to play in those old woods. Anyway, there was more
than enough space to play in the sunlight or under the big shade trees on
the farm. As I turned to head up the drive, that smell got
stronger, and I shifted my groceries from one arm to the other. The
rattle of that paper bag muffled an other noise that I was sure didn't come
from me. It was a crackling sound like sticks breaking somewhere beyond the trees.
And then I caught a glimpse of something moving to my right, just
inside the tree line. I assured myself that I was hearing squirrels or birds
and letting my imagination make giants out of shadows. I was making good time,
but I couldn't seem to outrun the sun. I was sure it was
dropping faster than usual that afternoon, and even though the fear was starting to
creep in, I had to slow down. It was still pretty hot and
humid, and I was getting tired. The house came into view, and
so did something else. I didn't quite understand what I was looking at.
I just knew that something tall and dark was standing at the edge of the
trees ahead of me. There was an embankment there that went up the right
side of the drive, and the tall trees came to a point at the
top of it. That was where the tall, slender, black, hairy
figure stepped out. I could see its face clearly. It was almost human,
but not quite. I had seen pictures of monkeys, but this thing
didn't have a snout or a nose that protruded like one. Its ears were
small, and it had a pronounced brow line, with deep set eyes that
looked black or very dark brown. The hair on its body was kind of
long, but more so on its arms and around its head. It didn't
really have a neck, but its arms were long and almost to its knees.
Or maybe they just looked that way because it was stooped a little.
I thought it was smiling at me, but it was such a creepy looking
grin, and it made its wide mouth almost sinister. I don't think it
was trying to scare me, but it sure was doing a good job of
it. In an effort to figure out what I was looking at, I
took a few steps closer to it. It took another step down the embankment,
and then I took another step, and it took another until it was
all the way to the bottom. That's when I stopped and I started screaming.
My kids have a high pitched scream that runs right through you. Out
there in the country. It really traveled. It was enough to bring Dad
running with his double barrel shotgun. I never thought of my dad as being
small until I compared him to the monster. It must have been twice my
dad's height. The creature went back up the embankment, and it looked like
it dissipated into the dark forest. To this day, I'm not sure if
my dad ever saw it. He had a confused look on his face,
and I never heard him shoot. Either he didn't see it or he was
afraid of shooting me by accident. He stood there and waited as I ran
to him, and then we both went inside. I don't know what I
was looking at that day, but I did. Now. I'll never know
what he wanted. Maybe he smelled what was in the bag and he was
hungry. I doubt anyone really knows what they are or how they managed to
hide so well for their size. But what I do know now is that
I do believe in Bigfoot.