Halloween Therapy

In honor of Halloween, I would like to tell you this TRUE story.

As a child, I loved hearing ghost stories and I would beg my father (who's a natural story teller) to tell scary stories all the time. Usually he obliged with the standard childhood fodder, scary but not terrifying. However, one story has stayed with me for many years and I doubt I will ever forget that terrifying night in the back country. Not even therapy will erase the trauma.

My Dad, my younger brother, Russell, and I had been fishing in the mountains of East Tennesse. It was growing late, so we piled into the pick-up truck and headed back to the house. Inspired by the dark and lonely roads, I began to beg for a ghost story. My Dad agreed, and began to tell the story of the Caddywampus.

According to Dad, the Caddywampus resembled a huge land octopus, complete with grasping beak and long tentacles to grab its prey. Of course, its favorite food was young children. The Caddywampus loved to hunt by ambushing prey on lonely back roads. It would hide near a dark curve, and when a car approached, the monster would leap into the car's path. The unfortunant driver would naturally swerve to avoid the creature, and the car would wind up lodged in a nearby ditch. Once this was accomplished, the Caddywampus could then use its long tentacles to pick the dead bodies out of the carnage at its leisure. Pretty terrifying stuff, especially to young children (I was around 7, my brother around 5 years old).

Dad was telling all of this in a most convincing fashion. My brother and I were hanging on every word, while nervously watching the road for signs of waving tentacles. I admit it, we were scared half to death. And then my loving father drove around a huge curve, slammed on his brakes, and shouted "There it is!" while swerving the car across the road.

Pandemonium.

Dad had to completely stop the car to calm us down. It took quite a while, too. As I remember it, there was a house sitting near the road and its lights came on. I believe the occupants could hear us screaming and were coming to check on our welfare. Even now, upteen years later, I can still remember the fear I felt in the truck that night. Actually, come to think of it, this story explains a lot, don't you think?

Now that my brother and I are both parents, I asked him recently if he would ever tell this story to his daughter, Ashlynn. He got rather upset and in no uncertain terms made it quite clear that Ashlynn would not hear the story from him.

That's okay. I'll just take her with me when I tell the story to my son, Gryffin.

No doubt some people would qualify it as child abuse......