gretchen's story

okay...

once the contest was announced, we started getting spooky stories like crazy---but there's still room--and time--for you to send in your submission! don't delay! get that story in! whether it's a true tale of a scary something that really happened to you or a spooky story that a friend of a friend once told you or something totally fabricated from your tiny little mind...send it in! we want to be scared!
also, there's a cool prize...


i try as hard as i can to keep this blog as apolitical as possible, but one of the first entries i got was this brief little tale from sean kleefeld...


OK, the scariest story I can think of is short and quite topical...

John McCain wins this year's Presidential election, but dies of a heart attack on January 10.

Sean Kleefeld
http://kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com


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our next comes from gretchen in savannah.



Okay, so I have to send you my story, not because anyone will find it scary necessarily, but because it is true.

When I was four, my mother was pregnant with my little sister, and my maternal grandfather was fighting a losing battle with lung cancer. I loved my Papa Joe like nobody's business. I was the first grandchild, and he loved me, too, of course. I used to wear his CAT (Caterpillar, as in the tractor) "trucker" hat and play with my Tinker Toys and feed him Planter's cheese balls and crack pecans for him while he laid on the couch at my grandparents' house. My parents and I went to visit in June, 1979, before he went to the hospital for surgery, and he promised me that he would see me soon.

I remember the phone call from the hospital distinctly. My dad took me to my grandmother's room so that I could sit on the bed while my mother told me that my grandfather had passed away during surgery. I remember being very angry, and I wailed and wailed that he hadn't even said goodbye.

My next memory is of the funeral - sitting in the rickety folding chairs under the tent, my mother sad and so uncomfortable with her big baby belly, and then the 21 gun salute. I had a rose from one of the wreaths, and I was fascinated with the little plastic pod of water that it was in. I collected the rifle shells from the ground afterward.

Then we were at my grandparents' house, with my great-aunts (one of whom recorded the funeral on a cassette recorder, which is another story altogether) and the rest of the family, and again I was making a stink to my mother about not getting to say goodbye. We were in the rear bedroom of the house, and my mother said that I suddenly stopped, as though someone called my name, and walked down the hall to the living room. I faced the front door, which opened on its own, and stood motionless, rapt, for several seconds until someone went to close the door. My mother said that my face had drained, and i continued looking up (my grandfather was 6'4") until I finally snapped out of it. I never said another word about saying goodbye to Papa Joe. I remember being in the bedroom with my mother beforehand and walking down the hall. I remember being in the living room afterword, feeling strangely, but I have no direct recollection of the door opening or what happened in those few seconds before someone closed it. My mother was convinced that my grandfather had come to tell me goodbye.

And that is my spooky story.

Thanks for listening,
Gretchen




thanks, gretchen!

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"five for friday!"
halloween/addams family edition

1. john astin, who played gomez addams, was married to which duplicitous tv sitcom actress?

patty duke

2. who played lurch?

ted cassidy

3. what were the names of the children?

pugsley and wednesday

4. what was the little girls' doll's name and what unusual feature did she boast?

marie antoinette/she had no head

5. who played cousin itt? (correction; cousin "itt" is spelled with two 't's)

felix silla

gotta go!
smell ya later!
todd