Urban myths - Spook Hill

[xelliebabex]

I know its still a month away but at the rate I write I have to consider it this far out: I wish i could come up with a decent plot bunny for Halloween. I've had a few ideas but they have merely been semi decent, half-way decent or plain indecent. I guess we just don't celebrate it here very much so what I have to work with is what I can glean from american tv shows.

Looks like a fun night, for all, I think i would have liked being able to go trick or treating as a child....

I'd watch a scary movie but I get frightened of the boogie man already, so they are last on the list of my must see's lol.

So this got me thinking about urban myths and a quick cruise through google, who is usually my friend, came with the same few stories over and over again that have been done to death in the movies.

In my town there is a typical nondescript street on the east side of town that the locals call spook hill. When you go there and stop your car, turning off the engine and putting it in neutral, it seems like your car will be being rolled backwards or forwards depending o which way your pointed up a hill. As a young teenager i of course went with a boyfriend one night and it really did happen, I was so freaked out. This you tube clip shows it in daylight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF6MsKDj_5w

There are many theories about why this occurs the main one being an optical illusion, that the incline really is a decline.

I am hoping that a little chatter about weird stuff will help me get creative about the Halloween theme coming up so. . . .

What I was wondering was: Is there a little known urban myth or strange factoid associated with your town? or a family you know?

 

[glynndah]

There's a family in my village who are rumored to have the power to turn people into cats.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There are all kinds of scary ideas.

Everyone's money vanishes from the bank, and there's no one to speak to, to fix the problem.

You awake one morning and its 30 year ago.

Or you awake one morning and 30 years passed.


You bump your head and suddenly can read minds.

Youre marooned on an island with a lunatic killer.


Suddenly, anything you touch dies.

You go to school and your kid is missing.

 

[Handley_Page]

There's a family in my village who are rumored to have the power to turn people into cats.

They ain't popular with the mouse population, perhaps?

And Ellie. It's the "Bogey-man", not boogieman. (an evil spirit etc..).
I wonder if an evil spirit can be rescued ?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

They ain't popular with the mouse population, perhaps?

And Ellie. It's the "Bogey-man", not boogieman. (an evil spirit etc..).
I wonder if an evil spirit can be rescued ?

Dear, both spellings are correct.

 

[xelliebabex]

They ain't popular with the mouse population, perhaps?

And Ellie. It's the "Bogey-man", not boogieman. (an evil spirit etc..).
I wonder if an evil spirit can be rescued ?

I think you will find that my spelling was correct as well

bo·gey·man also boog·ey·man or boog·y·man or boog·ie·man (bg-mn, bg-, bg-)
n.
A terrifying specter; a hobgoblin.

You need to remember that with every culture there are subtle difference in the way we use and spell the English language.

Thanks JBJ for the help and story ideas but i was just wondering ore about those weird things that happen around the world. When i watched the link to the spook hill in my town i found a link to a similar spook hill in america. That's cool

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think you will find Handley that my spelling was correct as well

bo·gey·man also boog·ey·man or boog·y·man or boog·ie·man (bg-mn, bg-, bg-)
n.
A terrifying specter; a hobgoblin.

You need to remember that with every culture there are subtle difference in the way we use and spell the English language.

Thanks JBJ for the help and story ideas but i was just wondering ore about those weird things that happen around the world. When i watched the link to the spook hill in my town i found a link to a similar spook hill in america. That's cool

The other Spook Hill is here in Schlub County. Its an optical illusion.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Handleys first in line to fart and last with the air freshener.

 

[patientlee]

Magnetic Hill in New Brusnwick, Canada too. My parents took us thre when we were young.

 

[lovecraft68]

I live in New England, I don't have time to list the myths and haunted locations, and that's just here in RI.

I guess seeing they made a movie of it, I'll mention the house "The Conjuring" was based on.

It took place in farmhouse in Harrisville and in the late eighties when the house was abandoned and back in my "occult days" me and a friend broke in and spent the night.

Didn't see or hear anything, but all we could smell was rotting meat, like something was dead and the smell "traveled" we'd catch a strong whiff as if something had just moved past.

There's a few other houses like that including one on the east side Lovecraft based the story "The Shunned House" on.

BUt as I said "storied" New England has too many to list.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm writing a Halloween tale about a perfesser at a liberal college who stirs up the students who then pay a visit to an old Confederate cemetery to destroy monuments. They unleash a host of ghosts who were massacred by black troops after they surrendered (Saylors Creek Virginia 6 April 1865).

Its not as sinister as it sounds for Confederate prisoners were notoriously lethal, and didn't hesitate to drown their black guards in the nearest creek or pond if the opportunity came along. So black guards started shooting prisoners.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'm roughly fleshing out an idea for Halloween based on those popular ghost shows (Ghosthunters, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Collector, etc.). Not sure where I'm going to fit sex into it and make it part of the story, rather than a gimmie since this is an erotica site. Maybe something about vengeful ghosts who were sexual predators in life or something like that.

Still stewing.

 

[xelliebabex]

I live in New England, I don't have time to list the myths and haunted locations, and that's just here in RI.

I guess seeing they made a movie of it, I'll mention the house "The Conjuring" was based on.

It took place in farmhouse in Harrisville and in the late eighties when the house was abandoned and back in my "occult days" me and a friend broke in and spent the night.

Didn't see or hear anything, but all we could smell was rotting meat, like something was dead and the smell "traveled" we'd catch a strong whiff as if something had just moved past.

There's a few other houses like that including one on the east side Lovecraft based the story "The Shunned House" on.

BUt as I said "storied" New England has too many to list.

We have quite a few "haunted places here as well thought not as many famous ones as New England seems to have. I am a big scaredy-cat so I haven't been on any of the ghost tours. The most famous is probably the old jail. They do tours and sleep over nights there. Ick! Thanks for the story it don't think i could have stayed the night there.

I'm writing a Halloween tale about a perfesser at a liberal college who stirs up the students who then pay a visit to an old Confederate cemetery to destroy monuments. They unleash a host of ghosts who were massacred by black troops after they surrendered (Saylors Creek Virginia 6 April 1865).

Its not as sinister as it sounds for Confederate prisoners were notoriously lethal, and didn't hesitate to drown their black guards in the nearest creek or pond if the opportunity came along. So black guards started shooting prisoners.

True it does sound very sinister, even when you rephrased it for me it still sounds pretty evil. Though we have never had civil war here (except that one time during WWII that lasted two days, lol) we have a fairly appalling colonial history. Thanks for sharing JBJ.

I'm roughly fleshing out an idea for Halloween based on those popular ghost shows (Ghosthunters, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Collector, etc.). Not sure where I'm going to fit sex into it and make it part of the story, rather than a gimmie since this is an erotica site. Maybe something about vengeful ghosts who were sexual predators in life or something like that.

Still stewing.

I will look forward to seeing what you come up with

 

[xelliebabex]

Magnetic Hill in New Brusnwick, Canada too. My parents took us thre when we were young.

Wow they're everywhere. Is yours an optical illusion too?

 

[patientlee]

Wow they're everywhere. Is yours an optical illusion too?

Yes it is. A fun one too!

 

[oggbashan]

Electric Brae is another road illusion in Scotland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Brae

There is a similar short stretch of minor road near Dover, Kent which confuses cyclists. They stop pedalling because they think they are going downhill, when they are actually going up.

 

[slyc_willie]

In San Antonio, there's a section of railroad tracks upon a low hill. The urban legend is that a school bus full of kids stalled on the tracks back in the fifties and was hit by a train. Everyone died. Now, if you stop your car on the tracks and leave it in neutral, the ghosts of the kids push your car off the track.

Spooky.

Supposedly.

In reality, the road where the tracks cross is surrounded by hills, giving the optical illusion that you are facing uphill. But you're not. The road is actually on a 2-degree decline. It was featured on the show "Fact of Faked" on SyFy, and they used a surveyor's level to prove what was really going on. Yet, on numerous blogs and websites devoted to haunted places in and around San Antonio, people continue to regurgitate the myth, even going so far as to claim their grandmother knew some of the kids when she was a child, or being a psychic and feeling disturbances in the area and so forth.

I went there with some friends not too long ago to test it out. true enough, standing on the road before the tracks, it looks like your facing uphill. But I did a simple test with a water balloon, and it sloshed forward like it was tilting downhill.

I'm a big believer in the supernatural. But when something is shown to be just an illusion, I let it go and move along. The fact that people are out there claiming they have "proof" of their car being pushed off the tracks (such as little fingerprints left on the trunk of the car which are always conveniently wiped or washed away) makes me shake my head.

 

[Darkniciad]

I'm roughly fleshing out an idea for Halloween based on those popular ghost shows (Ghosthunters, Ghost Adventures, Haunted Collector, etc.). Not sure where I'm going to fit sex into it and make it part of the story, rather than a gimmie since this is an erotica site. Maybe something about vengeful ghosts who were sexual predators in life or something like that.

Still stewing.

Hit this idea a couple of years ago with an amateur group, and tied it in with an older story ( Ghost of a Chance ) for giggles.

http://www.literotica.com/s/r-i-p

 

[patientlee]

In San Antonio, there's a section of railroad tracks upon a low hill. The urban legend is that a school bus full of kids stalled on the tracks back in the fifties and was hit by a train. Everyone died. Now, if you stop your car on the tracks and leave it in neutral, the ghosts of the kids push your car off the track.

Spooky.

Supposedly.

In reality, the road where the tracks cross is surrounded by hills, giving the optical illusion that you are facing uphill. But you're not. The road is actually on a 2-degree decline. It was featured on the show "Fact of Faked" on SyFy, and they used a surveyor's level to prove what was really going on. Yet, on numerous blogs and websites devoted to haunted places in and around San Antonio, people continue to regurgitate the myth, even going so far as to claim their grandmother knew some of the kids when she was a child, or being a psychic and feeling disturbances in the area and so forth.

I went there with some friends not too long ago to test it out. true enough, standing on the road before the tracks, it looks like your facing uphill. But I did a simple test with a water balloon, and it sloshed forward like it was tilting downhill.

I'm a big believer in the supernatural. But when something is shown to be just an illusion, I let it go and move along. The fact that people are out there claiming they have "proof" of their car being pushed off the tracks (such as little fingerprints left on the trunk of the car which are always conveniently wiped or washed away) makes me shake my head.

I'd like to believe in the supernatural, but I just can't. I don't believe in God either. I'd rather believe in ghosts, if I could.

 

[xelliebabex]

In San Antonio, there's a section of railroad tracks upon a low hill. The urban legend is that a school bus full of kids stalled on the tracks back in the fifties and was hit by a train. Everyone died. Now, if you stop your car on the tracks and leave it in neutral, the ghosts of the kids push your car off the track.

Spooky.

Supposedly.

In reality, the road where the tracks cross is surrounded by hills, giving the optical illusion that you are facing uphill. But you're not. The road is actually on a 2-degree decline. It was featured on the show "Fact of Faked" on SyFy, and they used a surveyor's level to prove what was really going on. Yet, on numerous blogs and websites devoted to haunted places in and around San Antonio, people continue to regurgitate the myth, even going so far as to claim their grandmother knew some of the kids when she was a child, or being a psychic and feeling disturbances in the area and so forth.

I went there with some friends not too long ago to test it out. true enough, standing on the road before the tracks, it looks like your facing uphill. But I did a simple test with a water balloon, and it sloshed forward like it was tilting downhill.

I'm a big believer in the supernatural. But when something is shown to be just an illusion, I let it go and move along. The fact that people are out there claiming they have "proof" of their car being pushed off the tracks (such as little fingerprints left on the trunk of the car which are always conveniently wiped or washed away) makes me shake my head.

I have heard of people coating their car in power or flour trying to find evidence of hand prints. Makes me laugh now as it is an optical illusion.

As a young teen though going to that lonely stretch of road in the middle of the night and having it happen just like they said was way scary and I think I like the myth if only for the teenage thrills it gives. Like a good magicians trick we all know that its a trick but its nice to just believe now and then. Seems we all lose that child like wonder about weird stuff all too soon.

The one I saw in america had the near by school named after it, Spook Hill Elementary. Its in Lake Wales, FL. Perhaps they took their belief a little too far

 

[slyc_willie]

Hit this idea a couple of years ago with an amateur group, and tied it in with an older story ( Ghost of a Chance ) for giggles.

http://www.literotica.com/s/r-i-p

Yeah, it's not an original idea. But I don't do original ideas, just original takes.

I think I remember reading that one of yours, now that I think of it. But I'm sure I down-voted you anyway. Just kidding, you know.

I'd like to believe in the supernatural, but I just can't. I don't believe in God either. I'd rather believe in ghosts, if I could.

You do or you don't. The "evidence" is there, depending on how you look at it. Pretty much all of the above depends on a degree of faith. But that's a different conversation, I'm sure.

 

[Darkniciad]

LOL I had that story handed to me on a silver platter by guys at work, anyway.

If only it had gone as well for them in real life as what my imagination turned it into

Yeah, it's not an original idea. But I don't do original ideas, just original takes.

I think I remember reading that one of yours, now that I think of it. But I'm sure I down-voted you anyway. Just kidding, you know.

 

[beachbum1958]

I know its still a month away but at the rate I write I have to consider it this far out: I wish i could come up with a decent plot bunny for Halloween. I've had a few ideas but they have merely been semi decent, half-way decent or plain indecent. I guess we just don't celebrate it here very much so what I have to work with is what I can glean from american tv shows.

Looks like a fun night, for all, I think i would have liked being able to go trick or treating as a child....

I'd watch a scary movie but I get frightened of the boogie man already, so they are last on the list of my must see's lol.

So this got me thinking about urban myths and a quick cruise through google, who is usually my friend, came with the same few stories over and over again that have been done to death in the movies.

In my town there is a typical nondescript street on the east side of town that the locals call spook hill. When you go there and stop your car, turning off the engine and putting it in neutral, it seems like your car will be being rolled backwards or forwards depending o which way your pointed up a hill. As a young teenager i of course went with a boyfriend one night and it really did happen, I was so freaked out. This you tube clip shows it in daylight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF6MsKDj_5w

There are many theories about why this occurs the main one being an optical illusion, that the incline really is a decline.

I am hoping that a little chatter about weird stuff will help me get creative about the Halloween theme coming up so. . . .

What I was wondering was: Is there a little known urban myth or strange factoid associated with your town? or a family you know?

Not far from where I live is a series of caves and shafts. During the middle-ages, a nobleman from one of the prominent families around here discovered that his young wife had given birth to another man's child while he was away with the Royal armies in France, and on his return, he threw his wife and the baby down one of the shafts in a rage at her infidelity. Now, when you go there on certain nights of the year, you are supposed to hear her and the child crying for food. The locals avoid the place like the plague, they say there are no birds anywhere near there, the woods are completely silent, but if they do have to go near there, they take bread to throw down the shaft. If you mock, or don't leave food, then she is supposd to punish you. I don't believe it, folklore is just folklore, but I do know that some American friends of mine went there deliberately to see if they could hear anything, they didn't, and generallly pooh-pooh'd the whole thing as country superstition and stories to tell gullible children; the next day, they left to go to Ireland, and when they were driving along the A49 Holyhead Road, on their way to catch the ferry (a dangerous road, anyway), their car was hit by an on-coming truck; they both survived, but she swore the car suddenly swerved to the right, into the path of the truck. I prefer to believe there was a fault with the car, but I still don't mock, and I won't go anywhere near that place, just in case...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Its not kewl to think there's something behind the majesty of a universe that's almost as large as a politician's ego. But it is very kewl to believe every lie and deceit the pol spews.

Whats truly hard to believe is some of you people.

 

[xelliebabex]

Not far from where I live is a series of caves and shafts. During the middle-ages, a nobleman from one of the prominent families around here discovered that his young wife had given birth to another man's child while he was away with the Royal armies in France, and on his return, he threw his wife and the baby down one of the shafts in a rage at her infidelity. Now, when you go there on certain nights of the year, you are supposed to hear her and the child crying for food. The locals avoid the place like the plague, they say there are no birds anywhere near there, the woods are completely silent, but if they do have to go near there, they take bread to throw down the shaft. If you mock, or don't leave food, then she is supposd to punish you. I don't believe it, folklore is just folklore, but I do know that some American friends of mine went there deliberately to see if they could hear anything, they didn't, and generallly pooh-pooh'd the whole thing as country superstition and stories to tell gullible children; the next day, they left to go to Ireland, and when they were driving along the A49 Holyhead Road, on their way to catch the ferry (a dangerous road, anyway), their car was hit by an on-coming truck; they both survived, but she swore the car suddenly swerved to the right, into the path of the truck. I prefer to believe there was a fault with the car, but I still don't mock, and I won't go anywhere near that place, just in case...

Wow that's a great story thanks!