Sleepy Hollow, 1947 by kjer_99

Bryce • Historical • posted on Nov 01, 2007

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Description

We moved from a small town in Michigan to our family’s farm in Kansas in the summer of 1947. Things were quite primitive as there was no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing of any kind. By day, my twin brother, Steve, and I felt like two ducks in a chicken yard, but at night, we turned into chickens.—Yes, we two fourth-graders were terrified of the dark. Steve and I were not happy campers in that far away time. One particular object of our revulsion was the outhouse. It looked like a refugee from a ghost town and the sight of it appalled us even in daylight. The structure was drafty, smelly, and God only knows what creepy-crawlies lurked just beneath the slivery seat. Bad as it was in the day time, it was an absolute horror in the middle of the night. Only the most desperate need would drive us from our warm bed, down the steep stairway, out the house, across the lawn to stand peering into the dark, trying to screw up the courage to walk down the path to the outhouse. It sat in splendid isolation at the far edge of what had once been part orchard and part shelterbelt. All the trees that had survived the droughts of the Thirties looked more like the mummified remains of tree corpses. Many boney looking branches lay bare to the sky. It was a spooky place with an air of unkempt desolation about it, even in daylight. We rarely played there. By mid-October, the place looked even more skeletal as the leaves started dropping in earnest. It did not help that we had discovered a whole library of literature classics, which we spent the summer reading. One of the stories was Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” We should have never read it. The path to the outhouse passed between two gnarled trees at the edge of the lawn, past a bunch of eerie-looking plum thickets to the outhouse, which was surrounded by more twisted and unfriendly-looking trees. The crude door gaped partially open, its rusty hinges creaking as it swung in the wind; like a portal into Hell. It was enough to make one seriously consider taking a dump right there at the edge of the lawn. Our fertile imaginations had turned that short path into a very long Sleepy Hollow of our own. Finally, necessity would force us to take one slow step after another toward our doom. Sometimes, we would even imagine that we saw a glow behind the door; and we knew the headless guy was waiting. Eventually, we would arrive and take care of our business as quickly as possible. The trip back to the house was a lot faster! Happy Halloween! Jeremy CREDITS: Figure: DAZ's Luke; StephanieBT's "Alexander" skinmat; AprilYSH's Reivel Hair. Weeds: Modualz (RDNA).

Comments (11)

DAVARON

10:50AM | Thu, 01 November 2007

This is too much, and I know your not just making this up for Halloween ;-) As I grew up in Aussie, we used to have to live in Asbestos Dumps, and most were as old as they were Shitty, and "down under" everything was infested with Redback and Funnelweb Spiders (if you know what they are), just as you write about the Creepy-crawlies, we also had our privy outside just attached to the House, this was considered Modern, The Things I saw creeping around at night in those Outhouses, I dont think youll find in any Books (jeesch), Aussie is a place worth visiting, but Ill never want to live there again!! Happy Spooky 5+++ !!

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Desdanova

1:53PM | Thu, 01 November 2007

Outstanding story and great picture to set it off!

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Django

2:33PM | Thu, 01 November 2007

Creepy, reminds me of my childhood lol, i was bloody scared by the dark as well, i think i still am, guess i have more courage nowadays lol well Done Dj

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FCLittle

3:52PM | Thu, 01 November 2007

Nice picture, Jeremy...I almost feel as if I see (or my mind is fooling me into seeing) a strange shape just inside the door, or the shadow of something about to emerge...I think that makes this image really cool, because normally what we are afraid of really isn't there in the first place, rather it is a product of our imagination. That story is actually quite hilarious. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, of course, but the fact that it's an outhouse makes it pretty funny. And oh yeah, I never realized you had a twin! Anyway, great job!

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