Tales of the Heebie-Jeebies.

I wasn't much of a student as a kid, but I was a real library geek. Growing up, I lived pretty close to the Plainview-Old Bethpage Library, possibly the best public library on Long Island at that time. When I was eight or so, I strayed from the kiddie wing into the main, “adult” area, and the first section I dug into, appropriately enough, was the 001 shelves, containing books on supernatural and paranormal phenomena.

Any volume about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, ghosts or UFO’s was destined for a two-week visit (or longer, oops) to my home, and certainly would be toted to St. Pius to show friends. I even did science fair projects based on these spurious subjects, and accordingly never saw so much as a runner-up prize. (That always went to those stupid potato clocks.) I wish I still had my clay model of Nessie's neck and humps drifting through a cardboard loch, past a painstakingly-recreated Urquhart Castle. My, what an odd boy.

The single most influential book of my formative years, hands down, was The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel. Ostensibly a book about a strange flying creature that appeared in Point Pleasant, West Virginia for a thirteen-month-long stretch of sightings, Keel wove his "winged weirdie" tale with dark elements of curiously interrelating phenomena, including UFO’s, telepathy, Men in Black and, naturally, extreme paranoia. Nearly choked with anecdotes, almost every page held some nugget that, even if only somewhat accurate, was stunning to me, an eye-opening account of the world around me not being what it seems. Of course, at such a young age, I did not pick up on much of Keel’s tongue-in-cheek wit, though that only gave me more to savor whenever I revisited the book (as I have, many, many times over the years). I sometimes wonder what my worldview would be today if I had not encountered the book. Certainly I was not even close to understanding the world as it appeared, much less its tenebrous undertones. Keel himself has said that children should not be introduced to this genre.

That said, I have become (as you may have surmised from my grumpy sidebar profile) quite the skeptic as I’ve grown older. Although I maintain an interest, I take everything I hear in this vein with a 50 lb. sack of kosher salt. I can’t even listen to Art Bell while I’m driving, for fear that my strenuous eye-rolling will land me in a ditch. I have, however, had my share of peculiar experiences, and some of them are even related to The Mothman Prophecies. In the book, there are many cases of people being interfered with by unknown entities (the enigmatic MiB, for instance). People who were acquaintances of Keel’s were called by someone claiming to be him and told to lay off the UFO stuff. Some eyewitnesses reported that they were warned even before telling anyone of what they'd seen. Homes were ransacked with valuables ignored, but notes or objects pertaining to paranormal investigation taken or destroyed. Phone lines were tapped, and odd calls received with voices reciting strings of numbers or speaking gibberish. In one instance, Keel even discovered that his impersonator had set up a phone number one digit off from his own, was giving it out and taking messages meant for him.

Strangely, a similar, milder sort of tomfoolery has happened to me, and to others I know who have read the book. For one thing, the book has disappeared from several Long Island libraries when I’ve tried to locate it. Sure, maybe some like-minded person swiped it, but my brother told me a story about our neighbor taking the book out of the POB library, keeping it overdue, and then having it stolen by some strange characters while hanging out with friends in some woods. (I won’t tell the story because I probably have the details wrong, but as I recall the story was pretty darn weird.)

Once I found the book at the Hicksville library and took it out. This was back in the day when there were cards in the backs of books showing when it had been checked out. I looked at the card and saw that the book had been checked out six months apart--every April and October, within a week or so--for over a decade. My check-out fell right into the pattern.

One time, I picked up the book specifically to read the chapter about eerie phone calls, and as I began to read, the phone rang. I answered to find no one responding. I went back to the book and the phone rang again, and again no answer. I decided to set the book aside. About an hour later I resumed reading, and immediately upon cracking the book my silent friend rang once more. I stopped reading for the night.

Our pal The Feebs recommended the book to a friend, who was recovering after breaking his back in a diving accident. One night during the time he was reading it, his father called to him from another room, saying he had a phone call from a friend he hadn’t spoken with in a while. When he answered the phone, an unfamiliar voice asked bluntly:

“Have you touched base?”
“What?”
“Have you broken premise?”
“Who is this?”
“5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” Click.

Check out this link to a blogger's posting of a Fortean Times story by Rick Moran, who followed up on Keel's book with his own trip to Point Pleasant. It's an interesting read, largely a debunking of elements of the tale, but the last segment (when he returns to New York to discover that he and his family had become the target of some mysterious, possibly malicious mischief) is downright scary. Incidentally, the severely bastardized movie version of Keel's book with Richard Gere was okay, but far from the definitive, page-by-page version dreamed of by me and, I suspect, other nerds of my ilk.

(Oh, and I once gave an obligatory speech before my sixth grade class about the job I hoped to hold one day--"paranormal investigator." Although expected and deserved, the dispassionate stares of my peers were especially piercing that day.)

Keeping in the same territory, there was a story from some book about the paranormal that haunted me as a youth. The story told of a Minnesota woman who noticed an image of a hand that appeared on her television while it was not turned on (and not even plugged in, so the story went). This occurred on Christmas Eve in 1968, and since she and her family were opening presents, a camera was at the ready, and she was able to snap a shot of the image as it faded away. Reportedly, the hand had appeared the previous Christmas as well. This picture fascinated me. Was it real? What could it mean?

I recalled the story a few years ago, and set about trying to locate the picture. I thought it might have been included in a book by Frank Edwards, though he specialized in UFO's. One day I was browsing through the occult section of the fantastic Cameron’s Used Books (sadly, now a ghost itself) in downtown Portland when I remembered my quest. The first thing I pulled from the shelf was an issue of Occult from October 1975. It was unusual to see a magazine on their bookshelves, as they normally resided in the enormous section of old magazines on the other side of the shop. I flipped through the pages and stopped right here:

What the hell are the odds of that?! Also weird is that the article (by Brad Steiger, a familiar-if-not-necessarily-reputable name in this field) ignores the situation of the photo and instead concentrates almost entirely on analyzing the lines on the palm of the enigmatic hand, arriving at precisely squat. Although the circumstance and authenticity of this picture may be impossible to study at this date, I confess it still gives me a chill. (Check out a closer view here.)

Now I'd like to tell you a story from a trip to Newport a few years ago. My wife Donna and I had a fantastic oceanfront balcony from which we enjoyed a stormy Pacific view. That night we sat and listened to music, drank, played cards, and now and then we’d stand at the rail to look out over the black waves and white crests, relishing the breeze. At some point we both noticed a line of six stars, odd in that that sky was utterly black, undetectably meeting the inky sea, and no other stars were visible. As we watched, it almost seemed as though these stars were moving slightly, but we figured the booze may have had something to do with that.

After peering up at the tiny dots of white light for a minute or so, suddenly the light farthest to the left dipped dramatically, with the other lights following it, as if on a string. The first light then rapidly u-turned straight up into the sky, still leading the others, and they rose and rose until they all disappeared. Donna and I looked at each other with our mouths agape. It was one of those moments that just about knocks one sober in an instant. We spoke excitedly about what we had seen and continued to stare out into the night, hoping to see it again.

After a while, Donna crashed and I watched TV, but I could barely concentrate on the screen. I kept going back to the balcony and peering out into the blackness, wondering. At about three a.m., I saw another line of lights, again with barely perceptible movement. I stared and stared… and finally realized they were seabirds, lit against the absolute blackness by a large klieg light on top of the resort. We hadn’t noticed that giant light above and behind us because there was nothing out there to reflect it--except of course, the occasional line of birds. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed, but at least then I could sleep. If I had gone to bed earlier, I would today have a UFO story which no one could really refute. I'm glad I kept looking.

Now that I've told a story demonstrating how deceptive one's own perceptions can be, here’s another story, which I wrote up and titled for an old site of mine. It is true, in the sense that what I have written is my experience, without embellishment. Exactly what the hell was going on, however...

The Honeymooners

I once lived in upstate NY, decades ago, in a little dark hole of a nightmare called Cortland. It was said to have one of the highest incest rates in the country, although that rumor was probably started by the students of the SUNY school there. I had seen some truly peculiar specimens there, tho: the burly guy with the bleached blond mullet who hung out around the laundromat wearing mascara and a halter top; the guy known as "Gordon" cuz his face was covered in fleshy knobs like a gourd (possibly the result of neurofibromatosis or whatever--you know, Elephant Man's disease); the sad cases of people so profoundly retarded they could barely cross the street by themselves, and yet there they were, out and about without a trace of supervision. Even the ordinary citizens were often ugly and surly and generally unpleasant. The place would have been full of "townies" even if there was no college there. There'd just be no students to appreciate them.

The town is south of Syracuse, and I swear winter lasted from mid-October to around mid-May. It was unremittingly dreary during this time, as much because of the people as the weather. The houses and buildings were drab, with the only businesses of note lining Main Street. There were at least a dozen bars, but only one movie theater in walking distance. Alcoholism, for townies and students alike, was the hobby of choice, cuz when there's a perpetual foot-and-a-half of snow on the ground, there's little else you feel like doing in your spare time but drinking yourself into unconsciousness.

Anyway, I lived on a side street of Main, and my girlfriend lived on the street behind and parallel to mine. Since there was no way of crossing over in the rear, we had to walk around the block to get to each other's houses, which we regularly did at all hours. Even this short jaunt was perilous, due to the layer of ice that always crusted the shattered sidewalks. Every student had stories of injuring themself while attempting to rush to class, or after having tipped back a few, or both. The comical sight of some hapless dope trying desperately and hopelessly to upright himself from a flailing ice dance was a familiar one.

One night, for reasons lost to me now, my girlfriend and I decide to leave her house and go to mine. It was very late, even for a college town, three a.m. or so. The streets were deserted, and it was, as usual, bitterly cold. The wind was often so brutal it would leave you feeling raw, your face stinging like you've been enthusiastically slapped with a ping-pong paddle.

I walked down the stairs of her house, out the front door and down the walk. She has assured me she'll be down shortly, and taking her at her word, I waited outside in the painful cold. It was very dark, with the few streetlamps lining the somewhat isolated lane offering a bleak, yellowish light. The street always felt like it had been forgotten--no one seemed to live on it, although there were always cars parked about. I saw the occasional student during the day and that was about it. This night, however, was different.

As I stood near the walkway leading from the house to the sidewalk, I noticed two figures at the far end of the long block. At first I thought they were carrying something, just because one of the figures seemed... oversized, I guess you could say. They were moving so slowly it took me a moment to decide if they were moving at all. As they made their idle approach, I saw why the one figure appeared so large--it was wearing a full wedding dress, with veil. The accompanying figure, I could then determine, was wearing a tuxedo. They were still so far away that I could not discern any features in their faces, but they continued toward me, shuffling over the warped and slippery sidewalk. The sight of them in the sparse light was so eerie (quickly verging, in fact, on terrifying), I considered running back into the house, but then my girlfriend was behind me, asking if I was ready. I whisperingly pointed out the couple. She looked a moment, and then said simply, “Let’s go.”

We hurried in the same direction that the bizarre couple was traveling (as that was the best way to my place), excitedly chattering about how creepy they looked, were they just students playing a prank, etc. As we walked, we kept an over-the-shoulder eye on the shambling pair. They never gave the impression of talking to one another, and in fact seemed as if they were sleepwalking. We quickly turned the corner, giving them one last look as they approached her house. We took a few steps, then stopped. I said to my girlfriend, "This is ridiculous, we have to go back," meaning we needed to satisfy ourselves that there was nothing supernatural or inexplicable about it. She agreed, and so we turned and went back, mere seconds after turning that corner...

But they were gone.


I later learned that there are many areas in Cortland, especially around Main Street, that are considered haunted. I'm not saying I believe, you understand...

HALLOWEEN 2023 UPDATE!

I left the final comment on the "Honeymooners" story hanging there for effect, but I've just decided that I really need to make it clear: I do NOT believe there was anything supernatural going on. This incident occurred in a college town, for Christ's sake! I will firmly believe that a couple of dopey students went through the ridiculous trouble of making this late-night prank happen forever before I ever believe that the spirits of some dead people retained their clothes for the occasional oddly-timed, corporeal stroll.

 

That's right--I came back to edit a seventeen-year-old post just to piss on your Halloween parade! All this tomfoolery, it's too much! If you love Halloween and my attitude bothers you, go blow some more of your hard-earned money on yet another stupid costume for your Rat Terrier at PetSmart, I bet that'll make you feel better! (Hey, do you have "Hairy Potter" yet?) Then, when that dog dies, you can pay a psychic to hold a seance so the pup can tell you just how much he loved being stuffed in little outfits! (I would put the eye-roll emoji here, except it conveys more resignation than disgust. Dammit, where's my disgusted eye-roll emoji? BOO!)