The virtual campfire
Oct. 25th, 2004 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumI thought, since it is the week before Halloween, we should share spooky stories. So this week I am going to post all my favorite scary stories, to the best of my abilities. And if anyone has a story they want to share, bring it on! As long as it isn't the 'bloody hook' story. Or the hitchhiker story. We've heard them, I'm sure.
Since I'm from New Jersey, and many of you aren't, I thought I'd start with the Legend of the Jersey Devil. So huddle under your blankets, turn out the light, and prepared to be scared!
Many, many years ago in the middle of the Pine Barrens located near the South Jersey shoreline there lived a family called Leeds. They were one of the first settlers in this area, and the land even today is known as Leeds Point. Mrs. Leeds had many children, and was not happy to find herself pregnant with her thirteenth. Some say she cursed the baby in the womb, so say she wished the child were a devil, and some say perhaps it was because the child was born under an unlucky number, but whatever the reason, the child Mrs. Leeds gave birth to was anything but human. Born with leathery wings, hooves instead of feet and a head shaped very much like a horse, Mrs. Leeds thirteenth child gave an unearthly shriek that chilled the bones of all who heard it, and flew up the chimney to make its home in the Jersey Pine Barrens.
Soon known as "The Jersey Devil" the creature is said to have made off with farmer's livestock, frighten hunters as they stalked their prey, and terrify campers with its chilling cry, even to this day.
In the early part of the 20th centry the Jersey Devil was seen all along the Jersey shoreending up in Knights Park right here in my own home town of Collingswood. There was newspaper articles chronicling the sightings.
So if you ever find yourself in the dense forest known as the Pine Barrens, listen for a rustling of the pine leaves, perhaps the heavy tread of a cloven foot, and the unearthly cry of New Jersey's own Devil.
Since I'm from New Jersey, and many of you aren't, I thought I'd start with the Legend of the Jersey Devil. So huddle under your blankets, turn out the light, and prepared to be scared!
Many, many years ago in the middle of the Pine Barrens located near the South Jersey shoreline there lived a family called Leeds. They were one of the first settlers in this area, and the land even today is known as Leeds Point. Mrs. Leeds had many children, and was not happy to find herself pregnant with her thirteenth. Some say she cursed the baby in the womb, so say she wished the child were a devil, and some say perhaps it was because the child was born under an unlucky number, but whatever the reason, the child Mrs. Leeds gave birth to was anything but human. Born with leathery wings, hooves instead of feet and a head shaped very much like a horse, Mrs. Leeds thirteenth child gave an unearthly shriek that chilled the bones of all who heard it, and flew up the chimney to make its home in the Jersey Pine Barrens.
Soon known as "The Jersey Devil" the creature is said to have made off with farmer's livestock, frighten hunters as they stalked their prey, and terrify campers with its chilling cry, even to this day.
In the early part of the 20th centry the Jersey Devil was seen all along the Jersey shoreending up in Knights Park right here in my own home town of Collingswood. There was newspaper articles chronicling the sightings.
So if you ever find yourself in the dense forest known as the Pine Barrens, listen for a rustling of the pine leaves, perhaps the heavy tread of a cloven foot, and the unearthly cry of New Jersey's own Devil.
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on 2004-10-25 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 11:34 am (UTC)Newfoundland - I've always wanted to visit there. It's pretty, isn't it?
no subject
on 2004-10-26 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 03:02 am (UTC)Resurrection Mary is Chicago's most famous ghost, and probably one of the most famous of the "hitchiking ghosts" (which is why I'm putting her story here). In the 1930s stories began to circulate about a young woman in a white dress who would attempt to jump on the running boards of cars as they drove by Resurrection Cemetary. Eventually the ecounters with the phantom girl moved to the O Henry Ballroom. There young men would dance with her then give her a ride home, which from the vague directions the woman gave was somewhere near Archer Road. When the car reached Resurrection Cemetary, the girl would vanish. Sometimes people would report seeing her walking in the cemetary, or that they had run her over only for her to disappear when the driver got out of the car to help.
More information on Resurrection Mary can be found here, and more sightings can be read about here.
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on 2004-10-26 11:32 am (UTC)Pretty cool, really!
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on 2004-10-26 05:11 pm (UTC)(And your story is scary. I'm glad to be far, far away from New Jersey.)
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on 2004-10-26 05:43 pm (UTC)You have to tell me a scary story, though!
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on 2004-10-26 07:05 pm (UTC)And here's another one just for you. The end isn't scary, but the beginning is.
I was eight or nine years old. I woke up in the middle of the night and opened my eyes.
I saw the silhouette of a head with long, messy hair bending over me. I closed my eyes, hoping it would go away.
It didn't. When I opened my eyes again, it was still there. It was as if someone was crouching on the cupboard behind my bed, staring at me. I wasn't able to move. I just lied there, my heart beating strongly, until my eyes got adjusted to the light.
Then I realised it was just a large, long-haired doll lying on the cupboard.
Is this cheating? That was one of the scariest moments of my life, although the mystery was solved.
no subject
on 2004-10-26 05:28 pm (UTC)My hubby and his family claim that their house is haunted. In fact they have all reported odd things happening, while no one else was around. Not terribly long ago, my father-in-law said he and my mother-in-law were sleeping and he woke up to find a white orb floating over my mother-in-law and then it suddenly vanished!
One night, while my hubby and I were staying there, I was having a nightmare and trying to scream because I saw a ghost in the bedroom doorway. Was it really a dream??
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on 2004-10-26 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2004-10-26 08:31 pm (UTC)In the days when Malta was governed by the Knights of St. John there was once a Grandmaster by the name of Emmanuel de Rohan. The Grandmasters had built for themselves a beautiful little palace overlooking the only woodland in Malta (being that it's so small) where they and theirs dwelt.
The story goes that de Rohan had a niece who was promised to a suitor who she didn't love at all. Angry, her rejected suitor locked away in her room in the palace until she agreed to marry him, which she would never do. One day, whilst locked in her room she'd had enough, so she climbed out of the window and fell to her death.
Legend has it that she began to haunt the palace wearing the blue dress that she had been in when she'd died, giving her the name of the Blue Lady. There are actually meant to be quite a few ghosts haunting the palace, which is surprising, as, I've been there and it's not really that big, but there are several accounts from different people occupying it (it's used as a presidential palace these days).
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on 2004-10-26 10:42 pm (UTC)