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Speaker 1: My family on my mother's side have unique abilities. My grandfather,

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as told to me by my grandmother, was for lack

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of a better term, a witch doctor. People would come

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to him because he could cure different types of illnesses.

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He said my mother would be next in line, but

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he died before he was able to teach her. She

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was still able to predict births and feel the moods

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of people around her. My abilities are the opposite. For me,

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it's death and ghosts. I've had many strange things happened

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to me, and there was one incident that bothers me

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to this day. It changed my life. There's a church

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near the Southern Park Mall in Boardman, Ohio, where my

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brother's friend was a caretaker. It's a church and school combined,

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so it's a large building with two large chapels, a classroom, offices,

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and community rooms. A good sized group of us were

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meeting there to play some game or another. One night.

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We showed up early, so my brother's friend asked me

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to walk around with him to shut off the lights

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and lock the doors and generally just check the building.

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It was I that he asked me to do this,

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because I was always seen as George's little brother, not

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their friend Christopher. These were all my brother's friends, and

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I was happy to do it, though, because I saw

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it as me being accepted into their group. All was

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okay until we reached the room where the priest gets ready.

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The worst feeling hit me. The pressure seemed to increase

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and there was a disgusting feeling coming from the room.

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I stopped and I said I can't go in there.

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My brother's friends said, don't worry about it. You won't

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be breaking any religious rules by going in. Well, that

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wasn't quite what I meant, but I couldn't explain why

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I felt that way, so I went in. It was

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even worse inside. We walked through and went out the

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other side. Instantly everything felt normal again. We locked some

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doors and turned off a couple of lights before coming

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back to the room. The second we approached it, I

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got an awful feeling again and I begged not to

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go in there. I even asked to go outside and

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wait by another door, but he said no. It was

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late February, with the temperatures and the teens and half

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a foot of snow on the ground. At six feet

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I only weighed one hundred and twenty five pounds, so

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no thermal on me, and I was only wearing a

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T shirt. But I didn't want to go in that

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room so much that I would have willingly stood outside

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to avoid it. I had no choice though. My brother's

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friend was a former lineman for the football team. He

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wasn't small, and we went in and the room felt

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even worse this time, Just like the first time, As

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soon as we left the room, the feeling went away.

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Next we went to the basement, where there were some

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more classrooms, the cafeteria and kitchen, and some storage areas.

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Then we went back upstairs and entered the old chapel

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from the rear side. We had to go across the

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back to set a couple of doors just inside the chapel.

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I stopped, I can't go in there. I told him

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there's a ghost and it doesn't like me, and then

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I pointed it out to him. He could see the

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black shadow near the front by the organ. He uttered

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an expletive and we headed for the doors across from us,

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and it started following us. The faster we moved, the

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faster it moved. There was just the one shadow, not

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too so it wasn't our own shadows we were seeing.

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We made it through the doors, moving at a pretty

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fast pace. It was fifty feet to the corner where

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the stairs to this third floor apartment were, and I

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started feeling hot as we walked to it. It was

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like something hit me, but it wasn't physical. For a

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few seconds, I was completely disoriented and I lost all

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thoughts where I was or even who I was. And

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I was just coming back to myself when the second

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one hit. This was worse than the first one. Now

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I had to grab the wall to keep from collapsing. Well,

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it passed, and my head was beginning to clear when

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a third one hit, and this one put me on

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the ground. My brother's friend pulled me to my feet

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and away from that spot. Now I got my head

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on straight, and I told him to go stand in

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the spot where I was attacked. Well, he was a

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big boy, like I said, alignment on the football team.

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He bounced off the wall like he was nothing. That

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stirred him into motion, and he grabbed me and we

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ran up the stairs, and I don't remember touching a

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single step in two flights. When we got to where

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my brother was, he asked me how I knew of

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the ghost, so I told him about my ability. About

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a week ago. He said, I was getting in bed

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with my wife. I just lifted my leg to climb

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in when a face appeared in front of me. That

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scared the crap out of me. He paused him minute,

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and then he added it was just a face. There

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was no head, no body, just a face. The next day,

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he and his wife moved out of the church and

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end with her parents. This happened back in nineteen ninety five,

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A couple of years ago. I went back there to

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talk to someone about it, and no one there was

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able to tell me anything. I wrote down my name

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and number, along with a note stating that I'd like

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to talk to someone about what happened to me there,

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but no one ever called me. It was still there.

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I felt it that day that I went back. I

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want to go there again. There are more details about

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the church I'd like to clarify, but there are more

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stories of things that had happened to people there. But

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whatever is there, it's very strong. Okay, that's a ghost

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living inside a church. I don't know something about. These

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paranormal events are just captivating. They're very believable. Some of

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these are very believable, and I really enjoyed reading this

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person's account. Chris, thanks for the story. I really appreciate it.

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I used to stay with my papa in the mountains

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of Virginia every year when school let out for summer break.

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We like to sit out on the porch at night

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and enjoy the cool of the evening and talk. On

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one of those nights, our conversation turned to hunting and trapping.

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We'd been talking for a bit when Paupaul paused for

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a few minutes, during which he must have been pondering

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whether or not to tell me something that happened to

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him when he was my age. I was sixteen at

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the time. He said he wanted to go out on

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his own and hunt and trap and sell pelts, and

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times were different back then. It wasn't nothing for a

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young guy that age to go off and do his

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own thing. There was an old wooden room cabin way

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up in the mountains, far away from anyone, that his

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dad used as sort of a hunting lodge when he

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was younger, and that's where Paupaul decided to go and

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try his hand at being an independent man. He spent

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several months in that cabin, collecting a variety of pelts.

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But the winter was hard and living off the land

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wasn't as easy as he hoped. He spent all of

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one day hunting and got nothing, and that night, as

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he slept, a storm blue in, dropping two feet of

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snow on the mountain. That made things all the more difficult,

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and Papaul still had to eat, so he set out

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to hunt some game to sustain him until conditions were

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right and he could make his way off the mountain.

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He saw a deer and he took a shot. About

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the same time he pulled the trigger, something spooked it

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and it took off running. Popav said that he'd hit

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the deer in its hind leg, and he set out

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to track the blood trail through the snow, but it

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was getting late in the day darkness covered the mountain

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and he had to give up. He was disappointed, and

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he made his way back to the cabin, and he

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built the fire and made some coffee and tried to

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stem the hunger with some hard tack next to the

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warm fire. With the little food in his belly and exhausted,

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he fell asleep sometime in the night. He awoke to

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a strange, deep guttural sound, and he heard voices. Rocks

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and sticks were being thrown at the cabin. He was

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scared now, and he stoked the fire, and he lit

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a lantern, and he hunkered down in the corner with

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his gun, waiting for the worst. It didn't last long, though,

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and once things had quieted down, he drifted off to

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sleep again. A few hours later, he woke up with

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a start. He was confused and angry with himself for

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having fallen asleep in such a situation as this. His

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cabin had no windows, but he could see sunlight coming

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around the door. It was morning. Paupaul opened the door

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slowly and peeked outside. He was still a little concerned,

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and when he didn't see anything, he stepped outside to

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find footprints in the snow all around the cabin. They

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were giant human tracks, he called them. Judging by the

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size and the number of tracks, he guessed there must

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have been two or three individuals. He went around to

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the side of the cabin to grab some firewood before

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going back inside, and there laying on top of the

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wood was a hind leg of a deer. It had

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a single bullet hole right where Paupau had shot it.

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Whatever those things were that scared him half to death

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the night before had tracked the deer that he had

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shot and took their share for tracking it, and then

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they gifted Paupaul the hind leg. He was grateful for

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the meat, but as soon as he was able, Paupaul

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made his way down off the mountain, never having seen

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what kind of buggers could make those tracks or rip

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the hind leg of a deer off. I was born

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the youngest of six children in a small Connecticut town.

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We had a couple of dogs and a whole lot

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of cats that my siblings that I looked after, since

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they were all quite a bit older than me. It

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wasn't long until they'd all gone off to college or

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gotten married and moved out, and that left me to

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care for the animals alone. By the time I was twelve,

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we were down to just one dog. He was a

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Norwegian elkhoun with a strong pull. Every day I walked him,

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or maybe he walked me through the woods behind our

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house to the tobacco fields far from the road, where

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I could turn him loose and let him run. There

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was a huge track of land owned in part by

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members of my family and mostly surrounded by neighboring shrub

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and tobacco farms. At twelve, I was finally allowed to

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go alone on these daily walks. I wasn't afraid. We

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had no black bears to speak of back then, and

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the coyote seemed to stay away, and I'd never seen

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a bobcat. A few years later, while I was in

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high school, I encountered a mountain lion back there. They've

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only recently acknowledged their presence in my state, but all

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in all, I had no fear of anything, so I

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would often take off on my own with the dog

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Norwegian elkhouns, or a medium sized dog for sort of

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compact version of a husky. They're known for hunting in

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packs and bringing down moose and bear. My dog took

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advantage of my female build and lack of strength to

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pull extra hard and practically drag me through the woods. Nevertheless,

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I started taking him to the fields every afternoon. We

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walked up the wooded hill alongside my house and wound

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our way on a well worn path and continue on

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the thicket and more woods until we got to the fields.

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Every day, when we got to the top of the hill,

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which was about halfway on our journey to the fields,

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I would hear a strange knocking sound and the quiet

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of the woods. I would hear a long tree cracking,

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and then it would be followed by three knocks. I

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thought it must be a woodpecker, and so I shrugged

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it off. After a while, I noticed that the tree

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knocking only started when I stepped foot on a particular

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part of the path. I never suspected that Bigfoot was

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anything more than what I had read about in books

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about the lock Ness Monster and other cryptids, and it

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never occurred to me that that was what it could be.

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But day after day, walk after walk, when we reached

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that one specific spot on the trail, I would hear

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exactly three knocks, and then I would go on my

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way without incident. Pretty soon, though, my happy, go lucky,

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hearty and hard pulling dogs stop trying to ease so

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far ahead of me. He became clingy, hugging my side

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until we got out of the area. Sometimes I could

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hear something moving around in the woods, but I always

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thought it was some deer watching me or some other critter.

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And it was definitely watching me. I could feel it

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the footsteps of whatever was making the noise were moving

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toward me as well, not away from me. And once

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I stopped, and the footsteps stopped, And when I moved,

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it moved, and when I stopped again, so did it. Still.

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I wasn't afraid. I was sure it was a deer.

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I didn't realize back then that deer don't track people,

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and my dog continued to look petrified. As I got

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older and joined our high school's cross country track team,

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I used that same route to get in some extra practice.

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00:13:54,159 --> 00:13:56,799
Sometimes I brought my flute with me, and when I

242
00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:58,960
got to the top of the hill before the descent

243
00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:02,200
into the field, I'd lean up against what we call

244
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,600
the big tree that grew there and play freestyle for

245
00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:09,759
an hour. Each time I passed by that one spot,

246
00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:14,200
I would hear three knocks. I didn't know to look

247
00:14:14,279 --> 00:14:17,000
or listen for sosquatch, so it was quite a while

248
00:14:17,039 --> 00:14:21,960
before I realized there were specifically three knocks. Eventually, the

249
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,840
pattern became hard not to notice. I started to believe

250
00:14:25,919 --> 00:14:29,679
there were forest spirits, more along the lines of ghost

251
00:14:30,279 --> 00:14:36,120
rather than bigfoot. I somehow knew intuitively that those three

252
00:14:36,159 --> 00:14:40,559
knocks were not for me. They were about me. It

253
00:14:40,639 --> 00:14:43,360
was as if they were telegraphing the arrival of the

254
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:48,080
human into the area. One winter day, I went up

255
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:51,200
the hill to take pictures of icicles on bushes for

256
00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,000
my photography class. It was my dream back then to

257
00:14:55,039 --> 00:15:00,240
become a national geographic photographer. I was enjoying pretending that

258
00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:03,080
I already was one as I flopped down in two

259
00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,519
feet of snow on my belly to get the right

260
00:15:05,559 --> 00:15:09,120
angle from my shots. And as I did so, I

261
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:13,639
noticed an odd and increasingly familiar smell that reminded me

262
00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:18,559
of really strong cat urine. Sometimes the smell was there

263
00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:22,039
and sometimes it wasn't, but when it was, it was

264
00:15:22,159 --> 00:15:26,879
always exactly where the tree knocks happened. I began to

265
00:15:26,919 --> 00:15:30,360
look around for cougar tracks. At that point, I had

266
00:15:30,399 --> 00:15:33,399
already seen the cougar that lived back there, and I

267
00:15:33,399 --> 00:15:36,559
hadn't noticed that there were big, deep tracks all around me,

268
00:15:37,039 --> 00:15:40,840
But now I was paying attention. I put each of

269
00:15:40,879 --> 00:15:43,639
my feet inside a pawprint to see how big this

270
00:15:43,759 --> 00:15:48,360
cougar was. The stride was my whole height of five feet.

271
00:15:49,399 --> 00:15:52,960
There was also a long straight mark alongside the prints,

272
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,879
which I assume must have been its tail dragging I

273
00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,600
was so excited because now I could show my mother

274
00:15:59,679 --> 00:16:01,639
and preof to her that I really did see a

275
00:16:01,679 --> 00:16:04,720
mountain lion up there. So I ran back to the

276
00:16:04,759 --> 00:16:07,440
house and I got her, and she took one look

277
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,559
at the tracks, and with a funny expression on her face,

278
00:16:10,639 --> 00:16:15,039
she said, I don't think those are cougar tracks. And

279
00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,679
then that awful smell came back, and she remarked about it.

280
00:16:19,399 --> 00:16:22,159
Her eyes got big, and she said, I don't think

281
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:26,120
we need to stay here. Looking back, I think she

282
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:30,320
knew something she didn't reveal. She tried to dissuade me

283
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:34,440
from following the tracks, but I was determined. She went

284
00:16:34,519 --> 00:16:37,840
home and I went tracking, and I followed them, passed

285
00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,480
a bunch of tobacco sheds to a swamp. They led

286
00:16:41,559 --> 00:16:45,679
right up to the swamp, and then they ended. Things

287
00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:50,679
felt odd. It was unnaturally quiet. A ghostly steam rose

288
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,879
off the frozen black water. The remains of a couple

289
00:16:54,879 --> 00:16:58,000
of old cars from the nineteen fifties poked out here

290
00:16:58,039 --> 00:17:01,000
and there, as if they were reaching out for salvation

291
00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,599
against the encroaching decay of the hungry swamp. The woods

292
00:17:05,599 --> 00:17:09,079
felt as if they were encircling me, closing in and

293
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,960
reaching out their naural limbs to wrap around me and

294
00:17:12,039 --> 00:17:16,880
throw me in the cars. Call it intuition or maybe panic.

295
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,400
Whatever it was, I felt like the cougar must be

296
00:17:20,559 --> 00:17:24,000
lingering near and watching me, So I turned around and

297
00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:28,640
I ran home. There definitely was a cougar living in

298
00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,440
that area. I'd seen it with my own eyes, but

299
00:17:32,519 --> 00:17:35,640
it wasn't until years later that I realized what I

300
00:17:35,759 --> 00:17:39,799
followed that day could not have been cougar tracks. I

301
00:17:39,839 --> 00:17:42,079
hadn't paid attention to the fact that it was not

302
00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:45,200
a set of four tracks, but it was two feet

303
00:17:45,839 --> 00:17:49,000
The imprint I had taken to be the cougar's tail

304
00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:53,440
was probably made by someone dragging a stick. My earliest

305
00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:57,079
bigfoot encounters went on for six years, and I was

306
00:17:57,119 --> 00:18:01,440
oblivious to them. Only after I saw a bigfoot did

307
00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:05,079
I start to research them and finally interpret my childhood's

308
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,759
experiences correctly. I often think how lucky I was that

309
00:18:09,839 --> 00:18:14,079
I wasn't attacked. Now I've since encountered those who were aggressive.

310
00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,920
Also can't help but wonder what my silent, hidden audience

311
00:18:19,039 --> 00:18:25,359
must have thought of my flute playing. When I was

312
00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,359
a young girl, I lived in a familiar community in

313
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:32,640
a rural farming area in the Midwest. My grandfather had

314
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:37,599
one sister, Aunt Roseanne. She lived one mile south of

315
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:41,359
my grandfather's home, and our family's property went almost two

316
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,359
miles north to south and nearly one mile east to west.

317
00:18:45,799 --> 00:18:50,000
Aunt Roseanne's husband farmed this land with my grandfather, and

318
00:18:50,079 --> 00:18:52,559
we lived in another house on the same farm. So

319
00:18:52,599 --> 00:18:54,559
I got to spend loads of time with all these

320
00:18:54,599 --> 00:18:57,880
wonderful older folks who taught me more about life than

321
00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,720
anyone else could imagine. They loved telling me old stories,

322
00:19:01,759 --> 00:19:06,079
and I loved hearing them. I especially loved Aunt Roseanne's stories,

323
00:19:06,319 --> 00:19:08,519
and I asked her to repeat them over and over.

324
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:12,160
I'd love to share my favorite story with you. I

325
00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,559
wish I could tell stories like her, but I can't,

326
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,720
but I'll do my best to remember the words. When

327
00:19:18,759 --> 00:19:21,640
I was a child and through my teenage years, there

328
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,039
was a scary old woman who lived down the road

329
00:19:24,079 --> 00:19:28,240
from my aunt's house. She disliked my aunt very much

330
00:19:28,319 --> 00:19:32,839
and dabbled in dark, scary stuff. At some point, Aunt

331
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,359
Mary was sure the old woman had put a curse

332
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:39,000
on her and her family to scare them or harass them.

333
00:19:40,279 --> 00:19:43,559
Every morning, Mary and the girls would do the housework

334
00:19:43,599 --> 00:19:46,799
before going upstairs for breakfast. While the men did the

335
00:19:46,839 --> 00:19:51,160
barn chores. They would fix breakfasts and sit down together

336
00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:55,599
before the day of real work started. Soon they began

337
00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,640
to notice the beds were unmade, no matter how many

338
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:02,039
times they made them in the morning. Clothing was on

339
00:20:02,079 --> 00:20:04,599
the floor no matter how many times they hung them up.

340
00:20:05,079 --> 00:20:08,960
And then strange things began happening in the barn. The

341
00:20:09,039 --> 00:20:12,559
animals became skittish, and it seemed impossible to keep up

342
00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:15,759
no matter how much they worked. But worst of all,

343
00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:20,279
charm marks began to appear on the doors of the outbuildings.

344
00:20:21,039 --> 00:20:24,920
My uncle suspected someone was deliberately trying to frighten them away,

345
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,519
but Mary believed it was something supernatural and it had

346
00:20:28,559 --> 00:20:30,839
something to do with the old woman down the road.

347
00:20:32,319 --> 00:20:35,799
One evening in Midsummer, my cousins had a party on

348
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,160
Saturday night. Teenagers from all over the area came to

349
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,599
have fun and play games with us. My cousins began

350
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,359
to tell us about the strange happenings. They told the

351
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,720
story of the fiery man who had been seen around

352
00:20:50,759 --> 00:20:54,119
the house, a man who was always on fire, but

353
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,599
he never died. The younger kids who were just hearing

354
00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,680
about these events. They made great bored out of it

355
00:21:00,759 --> 00:21:04,720
by laughing and making fun of the stories. One girl

356
00:21:04,799 --> 00:21:07,799
who was wilder than most of us, she laughed a

357
00:21:07,839 --> 00:21:10,279
great deal, and she even went to the back door

358
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:13,000
and opened it up, and she pretended as if she

359
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,880
was looking for the culprits. Before she closed the door,

360
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,880
she cried in her rather loud voice, fiery man, come

361
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:25,000
kiss me. She slammed the door and continued to make

362
00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:28,599
fun of the situation until the evening ended. And as

363
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,599
the first kids opened the door to leave later that night,

364
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:35,680
they saw burned handprints on the outside of the back door.

365
00:21:36,599 --> 00:21:39,519
We all saw them, and everyone left to go home

366
00:21:39,599 --> 00:21:42,720
that minute. No one ever made fun of what was

367
00:21:42,759 --> 00:21:46,000
happening in Aunt Mary's house ever again, and none of

368
00:21:46,079 --> 00:21:49,400
us were allowed to visit Aunt Mary's house until that

369
00:21:49,559 --> 00:21:57,119
dark old lady down the street finally passed away. It

370
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:00,640
was late that evening in August nineteen fifty three when

371
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,640
the phone rang. The caller was one of my mother's sisters,

372
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,640
calling to tell her that my maternal grandmother had died

373
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:13,359
unexpectedly while visiting friends in Detroit, Michigan. My father was

374
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,440
at work at the time, and I was sent to

375
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:19,880
bed while my mother and aunt talked. I remember hearing

376
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:22,839
my father come home from work and my parents quietly

377
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:28,400
discussing things. The next thing I knew, it was four AM,

378
00:22:28,799 --> 00:22:31,400
and I was being awakened and told to get dressed

379
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,960
because we were leaving for my mother's ancestral home in

380
00:22:35,079 --> 00:22:40,119
northeast Louisiana, near the little town of Oak Grove. I

381
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:43,119
was told that my grandmother's coffin was being shipped by

382
00:22:43,319 --> 00:22:46,559
train to her home on their farm near the Beef River,

383
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,359
and the funeral would be in about five days. As

384
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,839
I sleepily walked outside to get in our nineteen fifty

385
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:59,480
one studabaker, all was packed and ready to go. We

386
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,720
were living in California's Central Valley at the time, as

387
00:23:02,799 --> 00:23:06,480
my dad worked for an oil company there. All of

388
00:23:06,559 --> 00:23:09,640
us being Southerners, we yearned to go back home, but

389
00:23:09,759 --> 00:23:14,079
not under these circumstances. Blessed with good luck and no

390
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,079
car trouble, we made it to our destination after three

391
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:21,200
days and three nights of continuous driving, and as we

392
00:23:21,279 --> 00:23:24,559
drove down the gravel road outside of Oak Grove, a

393
00:23:24,599 --> 00:23:27,200
column of dust spread out behind us and we could

394
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,400
see my mother's childhood home up in the distance. It

395
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,599
was located well off the road, surrounded by their farm

396
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,559
land and further back by the dark woods. The house

397
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:41,920
was built long before the American Civil War and had

398
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:46,440
sheltered many generations, some of whom were still there even

399
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,880
though they had passed. I never felt comfortable in that

400
00:23:50,039 --> 00:23:53,039
old house, especially when it was just me with no

401
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,640
other kids around, and at times I felt I was

402
00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:01,079
being watched to make sure I was behaving myself. When

403
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,920
we pulled into the front drive, we were met and

404
00:24:04,039 --> 00:24:07,079
welcomed and hugged by all the family and friends who

405
00:24:07,079 --> 00:24:09,400
had been there off and on since the notice of

406
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:13,279
my grandmother's death. We were fed, and we got a

407
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:16,599
chance to clean up and rest after the marathon driving

408
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,200
trip we had just completed. We were told that my

409
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:22,920
grandmother's coffin had arrived and it would be going to

410
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,720
the local funeral home first before coming to the family home.

411
00:24:27,839 --> 00:24:30,359
After a rest and a good meal, we were told

412
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,720
that Grandma was on her way. The hearse could be

413
00:24:33,759 --> 00:24:37,559
seen coming down the dusty road a mile away. It

414
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,759
pulled into the yard, and the funeral director and my

415
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:45,359
grandmother's pastor accompanied the family men as they brought Grandma

416
00:24:45,519 --> 00:24:49,759
inside and placed her on the byre and arranged the flowers.

417
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,559
The pastor blessed all those present the house, and he

418
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:59,039
blessed Grandma. The funeral director opened the upper section of

419
00:24:59,079 --> 00:25:02,599
the coffin, over ground IMA's face and upper torso, and

420
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,720
placed a finely woven Gaulls type cloth over that part

421
00:25:06,759 --> 00:25:11,000
of the coffin. Then he announced that those who wished

422
00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:14,359
could come and see my grandmother, and most people did.

423
00:25:15,559 --> 00:25:17,920
Then he took a couple of photos for the family

424
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,200
who were not able to come, and suggested to the

425
00:25:20,279 --> 00:25:23,160
family that, due to the time elapsed during the train

426
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,400
trip from Michigan and the hot August heat, that the

427
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:32,079
coffin be sealed and not reopened. Everyone agreed. In the South,

428
00:25:32,319 --> 00:25:35,319
there has long been the tradition of sitting up with

429
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:39,559
the dead. The deceased will be placed on a buyer

430
00:25:39,799 --> 00:25:42,599
in the sitting room or living room, surrounded by wreaths

431
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,799
of flowers. Family and friends will take turns sitting with

432
00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:50,960
the deceased continually from the time the person dies until

433
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,799
they are buried. Some of those present then took up

434
00:25:54,839 --> 00:25:59,720
the vigil once the funeral director had left. The friends,

435
00:25:59,799 --> 00:26:02,599
family and pastor and neighbors who had come to the

436
00:26:02,599 --> 00:26:05,079
home to pay their respects and help with the vigil

437
00:26:05,519 --> 00:26:08,400
got to visit and tell stories and eat the wonderful

438
00:26:08,519 --> 00:26:13,200
foods they each had brought. We kids, mostly cousins I

439
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:16,240
haven't seen in months, got to go outside and play.

440
00:26:17,279 --> 00:26:20,839
The mood lightened considerably, just like Grandma would have wanted.

441
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,640
After a couple of more days, the funeral director came

442
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,599
and took Grandma to bul a cemetery not far from

443
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:31,440
where she lived and where many of her relatives rested

444
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:35,400
in those days. It was already ancient and quite grown

445
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,880
up with vegetation, and had to be accessed by going

446
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,680
through two cattle pastures and two electric fences. It was

447
00:26:43,759 --> 00:26:46,799
maintained by those who had family resting there, and I

448
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,079
remember many a day spent their cutting grass and wating.

449
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,640
After the funeral service, most returned to Grandma's home for

450
00:26:54,759 --> 00:27:00,000
one last meal and more reminiscing. Goodbyes were set all around,

451
00:27:00,319 --> 00:27:03,119
and some of those who had come from greater distances

452
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,680
lingered a few days longer. Well. This gave me a

453
00:27:06,759 --> 00:27:10,920
chance to play with my cousins a bit more. Anytime

454
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,559
we kids would play outside, we would be told to

455
00:27:13,559 --> 00:27:16,640
stay away from the woods far across the fields behind

456
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,319
the house. They told us the buggerman lives in those

457
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,640
woods and down on the river, and my mother remembers

458
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,119
being told stories of sightings of a strange man like

459
00:27:27,279 --> 00:27:30,160
being often seen in the woods and around Oak Grove,

460
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:35,880
and in particular a long beef river. Large footprints were

461
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:40,079
sometimes seen in newly plowed fields and on the river banks,

462
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,640
and we kids loved to follow my grandfather's tractor when

463
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,119
he plowed, because he would frequently turn up arrowheads or

464
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:51,720
pottery shards and other neat things. Even then, we were

465
00:27:51,799 --> 00:27:54,920
admonished to stay near the tractor and not go near

466
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,960
those woods. During the summer, when the corner would grow

467
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,359
tall and up near the house, we were told to

468
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,839
stay out of the cornfield. There had been folks who

469
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,599
said that the man would go into the corn fields

470
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:11,079
for the fresh sweet corn, and occasionally vegetable gardens would

471
00:28:11,079 --> 00:28:14,839
be entered, and farm animals sometimes would come up missing.

472
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,079
One story I was told by my grandfather was when

473
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,039
he got home from World War One in about nineteen nineteen,

474
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,160
he and my grandmother were living in the house after

475
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,559
they got married. One night, my grandmother was sitting at

476
00:28:30,559 --> 00:28:33,079
her dresser, combing her hair, with her back to the

477
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:36,680
bedroom window. People who lived well out in the country

478
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:40,039
at that time didn't usually put curtains on their windows

479
00:28:40,079 --> 00:28:43,240
because their nearest neighbor might be a mile away or more.

480
00:28:44,119 --> 00:28:46,519
As my grandmother looked in the mirror, she saw a

481
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,759
face in the window behind watching her. She said it

482
00:28:50,799 --> 00:28:53,440
was large and dark, but since they were still using

483
00:28:53,559 --> 00:28:58,680
kerosene lamps, it was not well lit. Grandpa had brought

484
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,960
home an old German pistol as a war trophy, which

485
00:29:02,039 --> 00:29:05,799
Grandma kept in her dresser drawer. She is said to

486
00:29:05,839 --> 00:29:08,240
have calmly pulled the pistol out of the drawer and

487
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:13,440
turned and fired several shots through the window. Grandpa came

488
00:29:13,519 --> 00:29:16,960
running in and she told them what happened. He and

489
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,680
a couple of the family men grabbed their shotguns and

490
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:24,319
started looking around outside. There was no blood, but there

491
00:29:24,319 --> 00:29:27,599
were large footprints in the soft damp dirt near the

492
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,720
water pump that they used for their water, and faintly

493
00:29:30,839 --> 00:29:34,079
muddy handprints high on both sides of the window where

494
00:29:34,079 --> 00:29:38,480
it had leaned against the house. Another time, there was

495
00:29:38,519 --> 00:29:41,359
an incident during the night of something hitting the side

496
00:29:41,359 --> 00:29:44,079
of the house hard enough to jar a hanging number

497
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,960
two washtub off a nail that held it. My father

498
00:29:48,119 --> 00:29:51,720
was there that night and told me about it. Also,

499
00:29:52,119 --> 00:29:55,440
several times they were awakened by the sound of someone

500
00:29:55,759 --> 00:29:58,839
or something pumping the water pump handle up and down,

501
00:30:00,079 --> 00:30:02,000
or a hand pump. To work, it has to be

502
00:30:02,079 --> 00:30:04,640
primed by pouring water down the top of the pump

503
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,599
while you pump the handle, and the water being pumped

504
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,039
acts as a lubricant that somewhat quietens the noise of

505
00:30:11,079 --> 00:30:15,160
the metal pump. Pumping a dry pump makes it quite

506
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:18,000
a racket and is only done by someone that doesn't

507
00:30:18,039 --> 00:30:21,839
know how it works. My mother also told me some

508
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:26,519
more unusual things regarding that old house. She said, on

509
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,960
some days, when they would sit on the front porch

510
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,960
at noon or in the late afternoon, there would be

511
00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:34,640
the sound of heavy footsteps that would come up the

512
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,359
steps and continue across the porch and end at the

513
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,200
bench that used to hold a water basin and soap

514
00:30:41,279 --> 00:30:43,640
for men to wash up for meals after coming in

515
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:48,279
from the fields. These footsteps were always around noon or

516
00:30:48,359 --> 00:30:52,240
dinner time. People made a habit of never sitting on

517
00:30:52,279 --> 00:30:56,319
those steps during that time. Also, there were times when

518
00:30:56,319 --> 00:30:58,759
they could sit on that porch in the late afternoon

519
00:30:58,799 --> 00:31:01,720
and they would hear the sound of log wagons, wooden

520
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:06,119
wheels and planks creaking, and trace chains rattling as they

521
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,960
passed along the side of their house, the unseen loggers

522
00:31:10,039 --> 00:31:13,440
driving down a logging road long since grown up and

523
00:31:13,559 --> 00:31:18,039
nearly invisible for over fifty years. And then there was

524
00:31:18,079 --> 00:31:20,640
the time my grandmother asked my mom to go into

525
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:23,920
the house and get some laundry soap, which she needed

526
00:31:24,079 --> 00:31:28,440
as she boiled the clothes outside in a large iron pot.

527
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,599
When my mother opened the front door, there was her

528
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:36,400
Aunt May's rocking chair rocking back and forth. The house

529
00:31:36,519 --> 00:31:40,160
was closed up and not a breeze was blowing. Aunt

530
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,680
May was an invalid. For the last few years of

531
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,519
her life, the family would place her rocking chair just

532
00:31:46,599 --> 00:31:49,200
inside the front door so she could look outside and

533
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,759
watch the kids play, or just get a breath of

534
00:31:51,799 --> 00:31:56,200
fresh air. She spent her time rocking and reading, and

535
00:31:56,319 --> 00:31:59,559
she died in her chair a few years before this incident.

536
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,119
My mother did not go inside to get the soap,

537
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,200
but she ran to my grandmother and told her what

538
00:32:05,359 --> 00:32:08,759
she saw. She and my grandmother went to look and

539
00:32:08,799 --> 00:32:12,599
the chair was still rocking. My grandmother closed the door

540
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:15,400
and waited until my grandfather came out of the field.

541
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,839
She told him what happened, so he went and opened

542
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:23,319
the door, but the chair was still. He went inside

543
00:32:23,359 --> 00:32:26,039
and brought the soap out to my grandmother, and she

544
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,680
asked him what had happened. He told her before going

545
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,359
into the house. He said, may, I don't mean to

546
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,480
bother you, nine, but many needs a soap to wash

547
00:32:35,519 --> 00:32:38,279
the family's close, so if you don't mind, I'll just

548
00:32:38,359 --> 00:32:42,400
take it now. So he got it and he left.

549
00:32:43,079 --> 00:32:45,039
As far as I heard, there were no more chair

550
00:32:45,119 --> 00:32:50,359
rocking incidents, at least any scene by the family. Now,

551
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,400
twice a year, I still make most of that same

552
00:32:53,519 --> 00:32:57,119
trip we took in nineteen fifty three, but now it's

553
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,240
from my home in El Miraje, Arizona. I have a

554
00:33:01,279 --> 00:33:04,559
brother who farms near Oak Grove, and I visit him,

555
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,799
and another brother in Monroe who gave up farming. I

556
00:33:08,839 --> 00:33:13,119
am seventy five, and they're both older than me. US

557
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,680
eighties still exists in bits and pieces along its old route,

558
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:20,839
but now it's replaced by I ten and I twenty.

559
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,680
Today we can ride in comfort at eighty miles per

560
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,839
hour through parts of New Mexico and Texas, listening to

561
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,759
satellite radio. And we can stop in comfortable hotels and

562
00:33:31,799 --> 00:33:35,240
motels and quench our thirst, or get snacks in any

563
00:33:35,359 --> 00:33:38,799
of a thousand convenience stores or truck stops along the way.

564
00:33:39,799 --> 00:33:43,880
The house and these people are all gone now. I'm

565
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,480
the last of my mother's side of the family from

566
00:33:46,519 --> 00:33:50,799
that time. My mother was the matriarch, and she died

567
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,200
in two thousand and shortly after, so did her family reunions.

568
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,680
None of the young people know about these stories in

569
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,799
these people. The land is now commercially farmed. Much of

570
00:34:03,839 --> 00:34:07,079
the dark woods are gone, cut and cleared for timber

571
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:11,199
and to make more farmland. Bill a cemetery is still

572
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:15,719
there now, it's an island between paved roads and nearby houses.

573
00:34:16,599 --> 00:34:19,480
And Beef River is still there, as muddy and as

574
00:34:19,519 --> 00:34:22,400
slow moving as ever. And I don't know about the

575
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,679
bugger man. I assume he moved on, trying to keep

576
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:29,480
ahead of the lumber companies and the farmers. Perhaps he

577
00:34:29,639 --> 00:34:35,039
moved west to Falk, Arkansas. It's not that far away still.

578
00:34:35,639 --> 00:34:38,679
I like to think that on quiet evenings, just at

579
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:42,719
sundown in the lonely fields west of Oak Grove. If

580
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,960
I were to listen closely, I might hear the sound

581
00:34:46,039 --> 00:34:50,119
of lumber wagons long gone, still squeaking and rattling down

582
00:34:50,119 --> 00:34:54,079
a ghostly road found now only in my memories.