First, Happy Birthday to my Brother Gordy! Hope you had a great day with your family, I guess really a birthday weekend! It's been really great in the last many years to get to spend so much time with my Brother's. Not that we didn't spend enough time together as kids, being trapped in a car, Dad, Scott, Gord and Myself. WEEKS on the road that close together.. Yeah....
So we've spent our years apart too. Before computers/email and such, we were rarely in touch and I only saw them when I went home to visit.
October, it's beautiful in New Brunswick, the East Coast (including Maine) is flooded with the colors of the dying leaves. Some of the colors are like wildfire, like this:
Fredericton has houses that date back to the late 1700's and graveyards from that period as well. So the area takes on somewhat a 'Dicken's' story like feel. Or that your in 'Sleepy Hollow' itself.
Tonight I'm watching 'Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow'. I think, in my opinion a fantastic realization of the classic Halloween tale.
NO, I didn't like the TV series. I'm sorry, I don't believe the 'curse of the headless horseman was prolific enough to make it in our World today. It's a great kinda Gothic tale anyhow, it's an old tale, verging on a 'myth'.. Did it really happen? The Hessian mercenary? His brutality in life and his revenge in death?
The Disney cartoons are also taken in each year too. And let's not forget the rarely known and seen Dr. Seuss "Halloween special'! With the Grinch!
I think all this hearkens back to those 'Specials' they'd have on around Halloween, tv stations playing 'Horror marathons',
I also truly believe growing up with a Loyalist cemetery in our backyard had a bit to do with things too.
Traveling around the Kingston Peninsula while Dad was down and during drives with Scott and Andrea, we went through the old highway, and there's so many memories of those roads.
On the Kingston Peninsula there's a place called 'Ghost Hollow'. it was on the way to and back from our Aunt and Uncle's cottage called 'Shamper's Bluff'.
Every time we drove through the hollow we'd have to hold our breaths or the ghosts would get us... or something... We'd travel to 'Shamper's Bluff' through many seasons of the year and the Fall of course just seemed all the more spooky, those old narrow winding roads, with the wind blowing, leaves swirling in the air.. Great memories
This is the alleged story of 'Ghost Hollow' on the Kingston Peninsula:
"There’s also on the Kingston Peninsula, where ‘Ghost Hollow’ is. Allegedly a family was all consumed by a house fire and it is said that sometimes the house appears engulfed in flames and other reports have said the children stand by the roadside, blackened by the soot from the fire."
From:
Haunted Locations in New Brunswick
None of us ever saw the "burnt kids", I don't think we ever saw anything nor even knew that tale of HOW 'Ghost Hollow' got it's name. But it scared the bejesus outa us as kids!
The church we went to each Sunday, this massive Gothic cathedral, it was said to be haunted by the wife a former Bishop Medley.
It was said she could be seen (had been seen) gliding from the steps of their former home across the street from the cathedral, in through the church's doors and could be sometimes seen in the church.
Let me tell you, knowing that story and having perpetually shown up for choir practice early as a child. I'd go into the church, if no one was there, no matter what weather, I'd stand outside or if it was really inclement, I'd stay in the entry way, which had huge wooden doors separating you from the inside, it was enough to at least feel a bit easy and have easy access to get the hell out of there if the dang ghost showed up!
As I mentioned, we had a Loyalist cemetery in our backyard, it had a spooky 'ol fence, had a creepy huge Loyalist memorial headstone and then two, what were ancient to us, headstones that may date back to around 1790 something. Little did we know that beneath us, as we played in and around that cemetery, lay some 30 men, women and children... All of them died the first Winter that they came to 'Saint Anne's Point' (What Fredericton was originally dubbed by the English).
I used to watch the cemetery at night from my bedroom window, never did I see a ghostly specter, nothing, not even any weird lights or noises... Except if some partying youths got down there....
I think that had a lot to do with my interest in horror, the occult and stuff, now NOTE I said, 'interest'. I've never been part of or dabbled in the occult... ok, maybe a couple of 'white magic spells' from a small booklet I found in my grandparents side of the house one time....
Anyhow, it's still a great time of year, snow has not flown yet, some days are just really beautiful and today was one of them for it's picture perfect capture of the season, the Fall.
Was great to hang out with Ciaron for a bit too!
SO check out some 'Halloween specials' and Classic Horror movies, There's litterally millions of horror movies out there. Go off the beaten path this year, sure sure, I know we all have our 'staple'/ favorite ones, but search out some lists of Horror movies and find some you've never seen. You can find a bunch on YouTube and some other web sources.. Netflix has fuck all for Horror movies and I saw some of the selection of other streaming services and they had shit as well.
So go find your own Horror!
