Mel and Syd's OWLoween

A OWLoween Tale-

It had been a long night, with one incident crescendoing

onto another and it was later than usual when Sarah

finally turned off the lights and locked the door.

With her pack fully loaded with books,

she stepped briskly down the stairs to begin her walk home.

Although Sarah was a remarkably confident young girl,

her steps always quickened as she passed the boarded up,

decrepit building adjacent to the cemetery, and tonight was no different.

Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks as the sound

of a large object hitting the floor emanated resoundingly from the old house.

A bloodcurdling shriek accompanied the pronounced clank and,

as she stood frozen in place, a white form emerged from the broken panes

of the upstairs dormer window and flew right over her head.

The blood drained from her brain as her heart pounded thunder in her ears,

Sarah knew not whether she should cower or flee.

A ghost, warning her of impending doom?

Or, was there a more practical explanation?

A ghost owl.

Ghost Owl, Death Owl, or the “bird of doom.”

Owls often appear at macabre moments in the works of Shakespeare,

and in modern times their calls or sudden appearance

create suspense in horror thrillers.

Barn Owls have white faces with dark eyes,

reminiscent of a ghost face or human skull.

Jack-o-lanterns light the night

Their eerie faces shining bright

Strange Goings On in the Portchester Graveyard

Roger Letzer was visiting the cemetery near Portchester Castle in England

and he couldn't help noticing a man kneeling in front of a gravestone,

clasping his hands and sobbing.

Roger went a bit closer and could hear what the man was saying.

'Why did you have to die?' he was repeating, 'Why did you have to die?'

Feeling he ought to do something to alleviate the man's obvious distress

Roger laid his hand on the his shoulder saying gently,

'Was it someone you loved very much?'The man looked up at him and said,

'No, I never met him, he was my wife's first husband.'

A Creepy Tale from a Vienna Graveyard
Chris Cross, a tourist in Vienna, is going passed Vienna's Zentralfriedhof graveyard

on October 31st.

All of a sudden he hears some music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source.

Chris finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads:
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827.

Then he realizes that the music is the Ninth Symphony

and it is being played backward!

Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades Tim Burr, a friend, to return with him.

By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed.

This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece,

it is being played backward. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar.

When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backward.

The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in

which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th.

By the next day the word has spread and a throng has gathered around the grave.

They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backward.

Just then the graveyard's caretaker ambles up to the group.

Someone in the crowd asks him if he has an explanation for the music.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about" says the caretaker. "He's just decomposing!"

For years mummies have been given a bad wrap.

Mummy, mummy!
Vamps can sleep,

Ghosts can weep,
But mummies leap those feeble feats!

It turns up in superstition, and in ghost and Halloween stories.
Because if its appearance, hunting habits, and roosting sites,
the Barn Owl gives people a fright.

Don't turn out the lights-
I'm not afraid of snakes, or toads, or bugs, or worms, or mice,
The things that girls are scared of, I think are awful nice.
I'm pretty brave, I guess; And yet I hate to go to bed,
For, when I'm tucked up warm and snug and when my prayers are said,
Mother tells me "Happy dreams!" and takes away the light,
And leaves me lying all alone and seeing things at night.

Sometimes they're in the corner, sometimes they're by the door,
Sometimes they all just creep and crawl across the bedroom floor;
Sometimes they come when I'm asleep, sometimes when I'm awake
So softly and so silently, they make me scream and shake.
Sometimes they are as black as ink, and other times they're white
But colour makes no difference when you're seeing things at night.

Once, Mother caught me being bad, fighting in the street,
And Father sent me up to bed without a bite to eat.
I heard some noises in the dark and up my ears did prick
Those things were gathered all around and planning something sick.
I was so very scared that time, I got an awful fright
It's always when I'm bad that I start seeing things at night.

Lucky thing I'm not a girl, or I'd be scared to death.
Since I'm a boy, I duck my head and then I hold my breath.
When I hear something horrible, crawling up the stairs
I promise to be better and I always say my prayers.
I'm certain that's the only way that I can make it right
When I've been very wicked and start things at night!

And so, when other evil kids tempt and coax me into sin,
I try to squash the devil's voice that urges me within.
At night the things creep closer and they aren't very nice,
They want to eat me up without even thinking twice!
Eventually these evil things will drag me out of sight
I hope I don't keep doing wrong, and seeing things at night!

Author Unknown

THE OLD WITCH - by the Brothers Grimm
There was once a little girl who was very willful and
who never obeyed when her elders spoke to her - so how could she be happy?
One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much
of the old witch that I will go and see her.
People say she is a wonderful old woman,
and has many marvelous things in her house,
and I am very curious to see them."
"The witch is a wicked old woman, who performs many godless deeds -
and if you go near her, you are no longer a child of ours.
"The girl, however, would not turn back at her parents' command,
but went to the witch's house.
When she arrived there the old woman asked her:
"Why are you so pale?"
"Ah," she replied, trembling all over,
"I have frightened myself so with what I have just seen."
"And what did you see?" inquired the old witch.
"I saw a black man on your steps."
"That was a collier," replied she.
"Then I saw a gray man."
"That was a sportsman," said the old woman.
"After him I saw a blood-red man."
"That was a butcher," replied the old woman.
"But, oh, I was most terrified," continued the girl,
"when I peeped through your window, and saw not you,
but a creature with a fiery head."
"Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress," said the old woman.
"For you I have long waited, and now you shall give me light."
So saying the witch changed the little girl into a block of wood,
and then threw it on the fire.
When it was fully alight, she sat down on the hearth and warmed herself, saying:
"How good I feel!
The fire has not burned like this for a long time!"