Skeleton & Mysterious Box tangled in toppled tree roots

[3113]

No Halloween Trick. This was a gift-wrapped "treat"of a plot bunny courtesy of Sandy. It's location and timing is so perfect I wonder if readers would believe it if we wrote it up This is an Edgar-Allen-Poe/Stephen King/Lovecraftian New England, all hallows tale of the past unearthed, literally "uprooted" from a long-ago grave site to reveal...What?

But why or why couldn't this have happened before the Halloween Story Contest? Use it for next year maybe?....from here:

The winds that toppled trees, knocked out power and carved a path of devastation through Connecticut Monday night, also led to a strange discovery on the New Haven Green.

A giant oak tree that stood in the downtown park since 1909 lost its footing in the powerful storm and tipped to the ground revealing human remains and what city officials believe to be some type of time capsule, tangled in its roots.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Oh, hello Erotic Horror! Not being of the grisly imagination sort (but definitely of the grizzly imagination sort) I leave this plot vampire bunny to those best able to appreciate it. Of course, if the bones are female the box could contain an amulet with her libidinous spirit in it just waiting to be freed. Now the entire village is in trouble. Hmmm . . .

 

[RjThoughts]

CSI: New York will probably have something on it, as well as Law and Order: SVU

 

[Handley_Page]

Oh, hello Erotic Horror! Not being of the grisly imagination sort (but definitely of the grizzly imagination sort) I leave this plot vampire bunny to those best able to appreciate it. Of course, if the bones are female the box could contain an amulet with her libidinous spirit in it just waiting to be freed. Now the entire village is in trouble. Hmmm . . .

Remember a film from years ago (Veronica Lake?) called "I married a Witch" ??
Her libidinous spirit was in the tree (as was her Father, a rotter of the worst sort).

Is it just me or did anyone else get the impression that it was a very good bit of non-reporting ? Absolutely damn all; not even " 'We'll be opening the box later this week' said a spokesman".

 

[RjThoughts]

Remember a film from years ago (Veronica Lake?) called "I married a Witch" ??
Her libidinous spirit was in the tree (as was her Father, a rotter of the worst sort).

Is it just me or did anyone else get the impression that it was a very good bit of non-reporting ? Absolutely damn all; not even " 'We'll be opening the box later this week' said a spokesman".

There will be some "Hey look at we found" stories soon.

 

[TxRad]

Oh, hello Erotic Horror! Not being of the grisly imagination sort (but definitely of the grizzly imagination sort) I leave this plot vampire bunny to those best able to appreciate it. Of course, if the bones are female the box could contain an amulet with her libidinous spirit in it just waiting to be freed. Now the entire village is in trouble. Hmmm . . .

Now, there is a plot bunny of gigantic proportions.

The youngest virgin in town (over eighteen that is) is the only person the dead one can transfer to. Would that move it out of EH and into FT?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Now, there is a plot bunny of gigantic proportions.

The youngest virgin in town (over eighteen that is) is the only person the dead one can transfer to. Would that move it out of EH and into FT?

Or the local parson's young wife? Into LW?

 

[Handley_Page]

Now, there is a plot bunny of gigantic proportions.

The youngest virgin in town (over eighteen that is) is the only person the dead one can transfer to. Would that move it out of EH and into FT?

Can such a person exist ?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

In certain parts of the American South, yes. The odds are admittedly low but it is possible.

 

[Handley_Page]

In certain parts of the American South, yes. The odds are admittedly low but it is possible.

There's places round the UK where it's similarly rare.

 

[TE999]

This news item has given me an idea for a story. I'll probably be in one of three cats: Erotic Horror, Non-Human or Lesbian Sex. Rest assured, it'll have elements of all three.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

This news item has given me an idea for a story. I'll probably be in one of three cats: Erotic Horror, Non-Human or Lesbian Sex. Rest assured, it'll have elements of all three.

You gonna save it for next year's contest or just throw the thing out there?

 

[TE999]

You gonna save it for next year's contest or just throw the thing out there?

I'll probably throw it out there. In another year I'll have more story ideas. Patience is not one of my virtues.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I'll probably throw it out there. In another year I'll have more story ideas. Patience is not one of my virtues.

But it was a virtue of the newly-unearthed skeleton's earthly possessor. Patience, of course, was her name, and she died waiting for her lover to return and consummate their love. It was to be three years at sea, but now she had waited far longer, 10 years longer to be precise. And then came the small pox. Many in her town had taken the preventives recently demonstrated by Dr. Jenner. But not dear Patience. "Satan's Trickery," her father called it and forbade its use among his family. And so Patience tooks sick, died, and was buried. Buried unulfilled, and her spirit has waited these 203 years to find a lover. The years have not been kind to her body, but her spirit still animates the dry bones, and those bones are looking for a carnal release from the bonds of virginity they still bear...

 

[TxRad]

I caught part of a news program today and that park was a cemetery in the 1800's. Only the headstones were removed to make it a park. There could be as many as several thousand skeletons still there. No one knows for sure.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Jeez, some cities have no respect!

 

[Handley_Page]

I caught part of a news program today and that park was a cemetery in the 1800's. Only the headstones were removed to make it a park. There could be as many as several thousand skeletons still there. No one knows for sure.

Jeez, some cities have no respect!

That's disgusting IMO.
When something is done with a Cemetery in the UK, several things must happen. The next of kin are sought (or every attempt to do so) and permission for the work requested. The headstones are carefully removed
The land is sculpted or whatever. The headstones are place (usually round the walls of the enclosure).

Your tress must grow at a phenomenal rate. A 100 year-old Oak is a mere baby.

 

[3113]

That's disgusting IMO.
When something is done with a Cemetery in the UK, several things must happen. The next of kin are sought (or every attempt to do so) and permission for the work requested. The headstones are carefully removed
The land is sculpted or whatever. The headstones are place (usually round the walls of the enclosure).

I don't know how common small graveyards are in the U.K., but I was back east recently and--much to my surprise as this is not common in California--little graveyards were everywhere. You drive down the back roads of New England and there they are, one after another. They're either relics of the wars that were fought in those states (Revolutionary, 1812, Civil War) and/or family plots. Someone owned several acres of land and one was given over to the family.

So I'm not too surprised if little care was taken to turn one into a park, especially if this happened back in 1905 (I believe the article says that's when it happened). Need a park? Well, there's that little bit of land that was yet another graveyard...if the family sold the plot along with the other acres of land, then the city could do what it like with it, right?

Your tress must grow at a phenomenal rate. A 100 year-old Oak is a mere baby.

Might be why it fell over in the storm. Roots not deep enough?

 

[Handley_Page]

Might be why it fell over in the storm. Roots not deep enough?

An oak has one tap root, but a lot of the support comes from the lateral roots usually in much shallower ground.

Complex stuff, this rooting, ya know ?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Jeez, some cities have no respect!

Dead bodies take up sunny, beautiful open space for as long as the living deem necessary. When that need is past, the land is reused. That's why these things happen.

I think that having people walking above them, trees growing amongst them, is a lovely way for the dead to be honored.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Perhaps, but a modest plinth in the middle pointing out the original location's use would be appropriate. "A man's not dead so long as someone says his name."

 

[oggbashan]

Dead bodies take up sunny, beautiful open space for as long as the living deem necessary. When that need is past, the land is reused. That's why these things happen.

I think that having people walking above them, trees growing amongst them, is a lovely way for the dead to be honored.

My in-laws had green burials in land that will be added to a local forest. They have no grave markers, just a tree planted between them. Once the cemetery is full, there will be a plaque at the entrance to the forest naming all those who have been buried, but no other sign that the area it is any different from the rest of the treed area.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Very nice. I like it.