"Tales of McCawley Road" by John Reid

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" by John Reid (part 1)


Little Paul sits at the kitchen table. He is only nine years old. His father, whose name is Louis but everyone calls "Dutch" is away on the road all week and he sees him only on weekends. His two older brothers, Donnie who is 15 years older than him and Pat who is ten years older than him have both grown up and moved away leaving him and his mother Katie alone all week long.

One of his favorite things to do is to get his mother to tell him ghost stories about the house that they lived in on a street called McCawley Road. They moved away from there when he was only four years old into their current house in the suburbs on Blue Lick Road.

His mother was a natural story teller and seemed to re-live each story as she recounted it to him. He'd heard them all a million times but he never tired of hearing her tell them. It was better than TV to him.

So on this stormy night in their home on the outskirts of Louisville, Ky., lightning strikes nearby and all of the power goes out. Katie lights a candle and sits it on the kitchen table. Unable to watch TV, play his radio or record player Paul decides to get his mother started in telling him her stories. She is sitting at the kitchen table with him waiting for the power to come back on so she can see well enough to wash her dishes. He looks up at her and says...

"Would you tell me some stories about McCawley Road?" He asks. "For Heaven's sake Paul you've heard them a million times. Aren't you sick of hearing about that place?" she inquires. "Nope. There is still a lot of things I want to know? Like how did you ever find that place and why did you move there?" he asks.

"Well at the time me and Dutch hadn't been married too long. We were living in a duplex down on Chestnut Street. Me and Dutch lived in two rooms and Mildred and Johnny lived in the other two..." she explains.
"Isn't Uncle Johnny the one who moved to California?" Paul asks.
"That's right, on account of his asthma." she tells him.
"What year was that?" Paul asks.
"Well let's see. Donnie was only one year old so that must have been 1941. It was February and one day Daddy came over and he was all excited about this house he had found. Daddy worked for this old real estate man who would buy run down houses and hire Daddy to fix them up for him and then Mammy and Daddy would live in it until he sold it. Then in between homes they would stay with one of their kids for a time.
At that time Mammy and Daddy were living in your Aunt Lizzie-Pearl's basement, so Daddy caught the bus in town to tell us about this house. He said it would need a lot of work but he was sure he could fix it up.
I told him we would all go take a look at it when Dutch got home. He was stationed at Ft. Knox then but he had already gotten his orders to go overseas soon. Being stationed at Ft. Knox he was close enough to Louisville to drive home on weekends.
Well the weekend came and me and Dutch caught the bus to Lizzie-Pearl's and we asked her husband Joe to drive us to see it and we all ended up going. We went in Joe's old pick up truck. He and Lizzie were in the front seat, Mammy and Daddy road in the back seat and me and Dutch rode in the back of the truck. I left Donnie at home with Johnny and Mildred because it was winter time and I was afraid he'd get pneumonia.
So we turned off on Preston Street, it was only a two lane road in those days. We turned onto McCawley Road. It didn't even have gravel then, it was an old dirt horse and buggy trail. Well we road and road and it was a bumpy ride as the road was full of holes and I kept thinking, "Well gosh darn, how much further?"
Finally we got to the house and I took one look at it and I was ready to leave! The boards on the house had never seen a coat of paint and they were black from the weather. Every window downstairs was broken out. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing and only an old well on the back porch for water!
We went inside and the floorboards were all horribly warped because you might as well say there wasn't any roof! The rain just came right on in and had for years. Spider webs and cobwebs were hanging everywhere. I remember I had Mammy by the dress tail and I said, "You ain't going from one room to another without me!" The more we looked the more disgusted I got! So I finally spoke up and said, "Daddy I know you said it was run down, but my God! This ain't a house, it's a shell!"
He said, "I know it, but I'm sure you can buy it for nothing and I know I can fix it up nice. You know how good I am with my hands. What do you think Dutch?" Dutch said, "How much do you think he will be asking for it and the 5 acres it sits on?" Daddy said, "He wants $4,200.00" Dutch said, "Well...the 5 acres it sits on is worth the money, but I can probably talk him down due to the condition of the house." Then Lizzie's husband Joe laughed and said, "If I know you, you'll have him paying you to take it." Dutch said to Daddy, "Listen I'm going overseas soon. If you can fix it up I'd like you and her mother to live here with her as long as you like." Daddy said, "Well by God, why do you think I'm showing it to you for?" Dutch like to have died a laughing.
So then the old real estate man showed up and Dutch talked him down to $3,300 for the house and the five acres. You might as well say we just bought the land because the dang house wasn't worth a penny.
That was in February, but it took a month to close the deal, so we moved there in March. March 29th, 1941.
On moving day we rented an old cattle bed truck to move our furniture which we had in storage. Wouldn't you know it decided to pour down rain. You know how dangerous it is to take a car back there when it's sunny let alone the pouring rain, so about half the way back the truck got stuck in the mud and we had to carry our furniture the rest of the way.
The first dang thing I did was to tear some boards off of the old barn and nail them over the open windows of the basement because it was flooded and I was afraid Donnie would fall in there and drown.
Me and Daddy worked on that place a little every day. Dutch went on overseas and then your Uncle Robert joined the Army too, so that just left me and Donnie and Mammy and Daddy."

(Paul) How long did it take you to fix it up?

(Katie) For two years we could only live in three rooms. It had eleven rooms and a basement, but we could only use the living room, dining room and the bedroom that was connected to the dining room. We took the glass out of the frames on the upstairs frames and put it in the downstairs windows and then we nailed cardboard over the upstairs windows.


Daddy put a patch job on the roof so we wouldn't drown. We used the fireplace for heat and cooked on Mammy's old wood burning stove. Kerosene lamps were the only light we had. I gave Mammy and Daddy the bedroom and me and Donnie slept on a feather bed on the living room floor. The fireplace kept us warm and Mammy and Daddy had a kerosene heater in their bedroom. To wash our clothes I heated the water on Mammy's wood burning stove and used an old wash tub and a scrub board and hung them out on the clothes line to dry and that was how we lived until Dutch came home two years later and re-morgaged it and re-modeled it."

(more to come)

[John Reid]

Tales of McCawley Road (Part 2)

(Paul) So how did you learn about the history of the house? When it was built and so on?

(Katie) Well one day there was a knock on the door and there stood a woman. She was in her 40's and she said, "How do you do? My name is Esther Wilkins. I'm your neighbor from down the road. I brought you some housewarming gifts." I said, "Well isn't that nice of you! Come on in!" So I invited her in to meet Mammy and Daddy.


We were all sitting around the kitchen table and I offered her some coffee. That was when she told us that our house was the house that she grew up in. She said her daddy had built it. That it was 45 years old and that she was born in it. She said her mother had died in childbirth and she was raised by her father.


She ended up telling us her life story. We heard that she eloped with the boy who lived down the road named Jacob Wilkins and her father disowned her because of it. Then we heard how her father was a moonshiner in the 20's.


Daddy spoke up and told her that he'd made his share of whiskey back then himself. She said her father got caught by the law making it and he had to sell the house and property to pay off his lawyers. She said the house stood empty for 15 years. Then she told us her father was dead now. He died two years ago.


Daddy said he'd lived in this area all of his life and wondered if maybe he knew her father? Right about then I handed Daddy his cup of coffee and just before he took a sip of it he asked, "What was your father's name?"


She said, "Floyd Hobbs" and Daddy spit his coffee half way across the table and got so choked that Mammy had to beat him in the back to unchoke him.


Well I saw Esther get a funny look on her face and she excused herself and said she had to leave, so I showed her to the door and after she left I turned to Daddy and said, "What on earth was that all about?"


He said, "Oh my God! If I'd had known this was Floyd Hobb's old house I'd never have set a foot on it!" I said, "Why?"

He said, "Child that man was a witch! The whole county was scared of him!"

So I said, "Oh Daddy that's just plain silly. There's no such thing as witches."

He said, "Is that right? Well sit down and I'll tell you a story. This happened to me and Emma a long time before you were born. We hadn't been married but a year. Emma was pregnant with Birdie at the time. We were living in a log cabin that I had built. It was winter time and I started noticing that every morning when I would go to the barn I'd find the horses all sweaty and lathered up like someone had been riding them all night. Their tails would be knotted up too.


So of course I thought maybe somebody was stealing them and riding them at night and bringing them back before morning. I couldn't figure out how they were doing it without me seeing or hearing them? Well before I could set a trap for them I got sick. I started having nightmares all night long and in the morning I was paralyzed. I couldn't move a muscle. I had to yell for Emma to come pick me up. Then I was fine. I could move again. That started happening every morning. I kept getting weaker everyday. I thought I had some disease and was dying. We couldn't afford no doctor, so I just kept hoping I would get well.


Well after a month of this, one night there was a knock on our door. Emma opened it and there stood an old Indian. Real old. He asked if he could spend the night. Emma was afraid of him but you know I don't believe in turning anyone away from my door.


I told him we don't have any bed, you'll have to sleep on the floor. He said that would be fine. He lay by the fireplace on his back with his hands behind his head. Emma said she never slept a wink all night. When she wasn't up doctoring me she was keeping an eye on him.


The next morning he got up and we invited him to have breakfast with us. Then he said to me, "I could tell you what is wrong with you and I could tell you what to do about it." He didn't call it bewitched, he gave it an Indian name but I knew what he meant?


He told me that demons were riding my horses at night. He told me to urinate in a bottle and hang it in the fireplace. So I did. He prayed a long time in his native tongue. When he finished he said, "If the bottle boils dry the party that's cursed you will die, but if the bottle breaks, it will break the spell, but it won't kill them." Then he left.

Three days later the bottle broke and after that there wasn't a thing wrong with my back and my horses weren't sweaty anymore. Well I kind of forgot about it until one day I was out in the woods hunting. The nearest house was about a mile away. That was where Old man Hobbs lived back then. He was standing in his doorway when he spotted me and he said, "Well Richard, you almost got me."


I didn't know right away what he meant, but later on I remembered that about a month before I got sick I was out hunting and I stumbled across him and two other men standing around their still. They had the drop on me, but I told them I wasn't the Sheriff and I had made moonshine myself from time to time. I bought a jug off of them and that seemed to pacify them. But after I thought about what he said I knew that he was the one who put the curse on me!"


Then Mammy spoke up. She said, a couple of years ago when he died, the undertaker was a friend of ours and he asked me to go with him to help lay him out because none of his help would go with him. They were too afraid. So I went to the funeral home and honest to God his whole body was twisted up like a pretzel. The undertaker had to break every bone in his body to straighten him out enough to get him in the coffin. I'll never forget to look on his face. He looked like he'd seen the Devil himself."
I listened to their story but I just thought it was a lot of superstition you know. Daddy and me worked on that place every day. We tore down the old barn, the hen house and the meat house and cleared away the mess. Most of the lumber was still good. The ends were rotten of course. We sawed off the ends and stacked the boards and that was the wood we used to replace the warped floor boards in the house. It took us two years to completely straighten out the floor."
(more to come)

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 3)

(Paul) What was the first really strange thing that happened back there?

(Katie) Well like I said we moved there in March and this happened in May. Spring arrived and I decided it was time to plant flowers around the house. It was odd but once the snow melted you could see that for about three feet all around the house, nothing grew, not even weeds. I started out trying to spade up the ground but it seemed like it was hard as a brick. The soil was a different color around the house too. It was greenish black when the sun shined on it. Still I was determined to plant flowers there. I kept getting buckets of water from the well and soaking the ground, trying to soften it up.

So after I planted my bulbs I went in the house to wash clothes. I then came back out to hang the clothes on the clothes line and nearly dropped them in the dirt I was so shocked at what I was looking at! Over in the flowerbed the ground was bubbling up some strange looking stuff. I took a closer look and you could see pools of this strange looking stuff bubbling up out of the ground. It was reddish brown. I knelt down and wiped some of it up with my hand. It smelled like rust or something.

Well I was so mad I went in the house and said to Daddy, "Come out here and look at this! I think some dirty son of a gun has poured something into my flower bed! After all I went through to spade it up too! The ground was a hard as a brick when I started!"

So Daddy knelt down to take a look at it. He rubbed some of it between his fingers and smelled it. That was when I saw him get kind of pale looking. He didn't say anything to me, he just shook his head and went back into the house. Mammy could tell something was bothering him, but I was too mad to notice.

I kept carrying on about it for about a week. I kept thinking about it and raising cane about somebody pouring something in my flowerbed. So finally he spoke up and said, "Well child, I'll tell you. I don't want to scare you, but that's blood all the way around this house."

I said, "What do you mean? What kind of blood?"

He said, "I don't know. I guess it's where the Indians had some of their battles. It's the only thing I can tell you."

I'd of heap rather he said it was a hog farm or something. It was about 3 to 5 feet wide and went all the way around the house. When the sun would shine on it, it would be a greenish brown color, but when it rained it would bubble up a reddish brown color. You could wipe it up with your hand. I tried everything to get rid of it! I'd dig and dig and turn the dirt over, but still it would come through. I finally ended up planting some bushes around the house so I wouldn't have to look at it.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 4)

(Paul) I still don't understand how you lived with no electricity or plumbing? What did you use for a refrigerator?

(Katie) We had an icebox. We put it on the back porch and you know how cold it is nine months of the year. During the winter Daddy would chop blocks of ice out of the creek and keep them in the basement."

(Paul) How did you keep them from melting in the summer?"


(Katie)Oh you pack them in sawdust. That's an old trick. You know people used to live just fine before they invented electricity and indoor plumbing Paul. Daddy and Mammy lived most of their lives without it and I grew up without it myself, so it wasn't all that strange to us to live without it there, but sometimes it did make things easier.

Remember I told you the basement was flooded when we moved in. One of the first things Daddy did when we moved in was to go into town and rent a gas powered generator and then he talked some friends of his who also fixed up homes for a living to drive back there and use the electric pump to pump the water out of the basement. Once we got the basement dried out Daddy was able to use it as an ice house to store our ice.

We had to chop wood every day for the fireplace and stove. Daddy would do a lot of ice fishing to help us feed us and he brought the ice home for our ice box. Also each day I had to pump water from the well on the back porch to wash our dishes in the dishpan. I also needed to pump water to wash our clothes and ourselves and we heated it on the wood burning stove.

Plus I had three meals to cook and Donnie to look after, he was going on two. Once he learned to walk and then run he was a handful all by himself."


(Paul)What was the next strange thing that happened back there?"


(Katie)A couple of strange things started happening at the same time, but fixing up the house kept me so busy and tired I really didn't pay much attention to the little things. Daddy fixed the roof and after that we could use the kitchen. We moved Mammy's wood burning stove in there.

Well we had this 3 sided cupboard in the corner of the kitchen and it had 4 doors, two at the top and two at the bottom. Just when you weren't expecting it all of the dishes inside would just jingle. Mammy and Daddy slept in the bedroom by the kitchen. Mammy kept telling me it was mice. I never saw any mice but I set some traps anyway.

It was around June that the laughing sound started. By that time we had most of the downstairs livable, so Mammy and Daddy moved into the bedroom by the kitchen and me and Donnie in the one next to the dining room. One night about 3am I woke up hearing the most horrible sound. It sounded like an old woman laughing.

He he he he hah hah hah hah. I mean it made chills go up and down your spine. I was laying there thinking "What the heck is that?" and then I heard it again.

So I got up and I met Daddy coming out of his room. He was hearing it too. We both went out on the back porch and the sound was coming from a tree. Do you remember that great big tree that stood between the house and the old barn? Well it was coming from that tree.

Mammy told us to come back to bed. She said it was a rain crow. I said, "Well let's load the shotgun and blow that tree to pieces and kill that son of a gun!" It just got on my nerves you know! She knew it wasn't any crow because no bird ever made a sound like that! She just didn't want me outside at that hour cussing and throwing rocks up in that tree.

It always stopped when the sun came up, so we just got used to getting up at that hour and putting on the coffee because it started that dang laughing sound every night at that time and kept it up until dawn.

Well while we were sitting there every morning we would hear those dishes jiggling in the cupboard. I'd check the traps but I never saw any sign of any mice.

Then one morning that first summer Daddy had gone fishing and Donnie was asleep. I was washing the dishes and Mammy was sitting in her rocking chair looking down the hallway. She was in the kitchen but she could see all the way into the dining room.

It was a real quiet day. Mammy was reading all of a sudden we heard a loud crash come from the dining room. I said, "What on earth was that?"

Mammy said, "You won't believe this, but that big marble ashtray you bought just leaped up in the air and hit the floor!" So I went in the dining room and there it was laying on the floor broken in two! I had just bought it! It sat on the end table in the dining room.

That was the moment that I changed my mind about Daddy's stories and began to believe he was right about that old place being haunted. I tossed the ashtray in the garbage can and tried not to think about it. Like I said, we were so busy trying to get the house in shape that I just ignored a lot of the little things. All summer long we just put up with the laughing sound and the rattling dishes.

(more to come)

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 5)

(Paul)What happened next back there?

(Katie) By 1942 we had the house in pretty good shape. At least we had all the floorboards straightened out. Donnie turned two years old. One night Daddy was out with Tommy Jones, the real estate man he worked for and me, Mammy and Donnie were by ourselves again.


Then your Uncle Jimbo showed up at our house drunk as usual, so I let him in and made him get in the washing tub and I heated up the water for him on the stove. I let him sleep in my room and I slept in the dining room on one of the old cots we had.

I had bought Donnie a little pair of boots. Everything he saw Daddy do he'd have to copy. Every time Daddy got drunk he'd have to dance, so Donnie was dancing like Daddy in the dining room. Mammy had gone to bed and I said, "Come on Donnie get in the bed." Well he sat down on the steps that led upstairs and crossed his legs like Daddy always did. Daddy used to think that was so funny.

Anyway, he looked toward the living room and he never was a kid to be easily scared. I wish to heck he had of been, I could have kept up with him easier. Well all of a sudden he jumped in my bed and started screaming. "The man's going to get you! The man! The man!" and he had me around the neck so tight it was almost choking me! He carried on like that until he finally went to sleep.


Mammy heard the commotion and came to see what was going on? Finally about 2 in the morning he finally dozed off. Mammy said, "Now in the morning don't mention this to him and see if he remembers it."

Daddy got home around that time and he and Mammy went on to bed. At 3am that damned laughing sound started but I was so tired I just put the pillow over my head and went back to sleep. At dawn Jimbo got up and Daddy too so I got up and made them breakfast.

Jimbo said, "I ain't hardly slept a wink since 3am. Did you all hear that sound?" I said, "Yeah, but we're kind of used to it. You want some coffee? The cups are in the cupboard." So when he got up from the table to go to the cupboard all of the dishes started rattling again. Jimbo said, "What the heck caused that?" Both me and Mammy said "Mice" at the same time. He said, "They must be wearing combat boots then!"

He opened the door to the cupboard and got his cup. A little later I heard Donnie waking up. Mammy went in and put his clothes on him and the first thing he did was look toward those glass doors, you remember the ones that separated the living room from the dining room, and he said, "The man's gone home". So he did remember it.

(Paul)Didn't Donnie see the old man again?

(Katie)Yes that was about 2 weeks later. Me and Mammy were in the kitchen. Donnie wasn't supposed to go upstairs by himself but he sneaked up anyway and he was on his way back down when he fell. I was sitting where I could see him when he hit at the bottom of the steps because there was a doorway that led to the kitchen on one side of the stairway and to the dining room on the other.

(Paul)I don't remember that.

(Katie)Well by the time you were born we closed up that door to the kitchen because we put our refrigerator there.

(Paul)Oh I see.

(Katie)Well naturally Donnie was screaming and crying because he landed on his knee. We took him to see Dr. Bates and he said that he'd pinched a nerve in his knee, so he could hardly walk for two weeks. It took him that long to get calm enough to tell us why he fell. That's when he told us about the old man that he saw and showed is where he was standing and everything.

(Paul)I wonder if he remembers it today?

(Katie)I'm sure he does.

(Paul)I'm going to call him and ask.


So Paul walks to the telephone and dials his older brother's number. Donnie answers, "Hello?"

"Donnie it's me. Mom was just telling me some ghost stories about McCawley Road and she was telling me the one about when you fell down the steps and she said you saw an old man, do you remember that?"

(Donnie) They say I wasn't over two years old but I remember that like it was yesterday. We all lived downstairs and we had the upstairs vacant. We owned a little brown and white dog named Skippy. She was upstairs eating and I slipped upstairs to see her.

Well I got a funny feeling when I started down the stairs. I remember I was holding onto the wall watching how to go down them and then I saw somebody standing about half way down. I looked up and I saw a real tall old man. He was dressed all in black and had one of those stove pipe hats on. I remember he had the most horrible look on his face. It scared me so bad it cut my voice off. I couldn't scream. Then I remember I was trying to hold onto the wall so I could get by him and that's when I fell.


(Paul) Ok thanks. I've heard that story from mom a few times but I wanted to hear your side of it. Who do you think it was?"

(Donnie)I think it was the ghost of the man who built that place...Um...Floyd Hobbs. Not only do I think so but Grandpa thought so too when he heard me describe him."

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 6)

(Paul) So what happened next?

(Katie)In 1943 your Uncle Robert came home early from the Army. He had a heart attack and the doctors said he had a hole in his heart and gave him an honorable discharge. I don't know who was the happiest to see him, me, Mammy or Daddy?

I knew he would be such a help to us with all of the work that needed to be done around there. Since we didn't have any heat upstairs I made him a bed on the sofa in the dining room and left my bedroom door opens so we could share the heat from my kerosene heater.

At 3am that dang laughing sound started. I just went on and got up as usual. Robert was sitting up on the sofa when I came out of the bedroom and he said, "What in heck is that sound?" I said, "Something you'll have to get used to." Daddy got up too so I made them both breakfast. At 5am him and Daddy went fishing.

Robert was such a help to us. Daddy was getting kind of old to chop wood everyday so Robert took over that chore. He went out everyday looking for work and ended up getting hired at International Harvester. He worked the 3pm-11pm shift so he didn't get home until after midnight usually.

Now this next thing I'm going to tell you I didn't find out about for a long time until Robert finally told me about it. He said one night when he got home everybody was in bed as usual and he laid down on the sofa. The only light was the light of the full moon shining through the living room windows, which he could see through those glass doors in the dining room.

He said he was still wide awake, he hadn't been sleeping yet. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. At first he thought he was seeing things because he saw what looked like white fog begin to seep out from under the sofa. He lay there watching it and ever so slowly the fog began to take shape. He said he was too scared to move or even blink! He said he saw it rise up about 4 or 5 feet tall and it took on the shape of a white ape! Then he said it would cock it's head back and forth looking at him. He said it's eyes were coal black.

He said that was all he saw of it because he jerked the covers over his head so he wouldn't see it anymore! Then after a minute he peeked out from under the cover and he said he couldn't see it anymore in the dining room.

Thinking it was gone or maybe he dreamt it, he sat up on the sofa and then he saw again, but now it was in my room. I didn't have a real bed yet. All I had was a feather bed on the floor. Robert said he saw it squatting over me. Then it raised up and looked in the mirror on my dresser.

Before he knew what to do it got harder and harder to see it and then it disappeared altogether, but then he heard me making choking sounds in my sleep. Like I was having trouble breathing, so he came over and yanked me up and when he did I was ok again.

I said, "What happened?" He said, "Well...I guess you were having a nightmare." He didn't want to tell me what it was because he didn't want anybody to think he was crazy. "I said, "Yeah...I couldn't breathe. I felt like something heavy was sitting on my chest. Donnie slept through the whole thing. Robert didn't say anything the next day. He waited long time before he told me.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 7)

(Paul) What happened next?" What his mother is unaware of is that Paul is secretly recording her tales on the portable tape recorder they bought him last Christmas. As he is sitting at the kitchen table and he has the tape recorder and the microphone on his lap under the table recording every word. He knows that if he told her she was being recorded she would be so nervous she would not relax and tell him the stories the way she always did, reliving the emotions of the moment.

So unaware of what he is doing Katie replies...

(Katie) It was also a big help to us that Robert owned a car. I could get him to drive us to the store so we didn't have to walk or take the bus so much.

One morning Robert took Daddy into town for some reason. It was about 9 in the morning and the dishes started rattling in the cupboard again, even louder than usual so I said to Mammy, "And I'm getting dang sick of that happening too! We never have seen any mice and not a single trap has gone off!

Mammy just changed the subject. She knew it wasn't mice making the dishes rattle but that place was the only decent home she'd ever had and I guess if she admitted it was haunted she was afraid I would up and move out."

Paul) When did those choking sounds start?"

(Katie) Well one night about ten o'clock at night there was a knock on our back door. I looked out the kitchen window and I said, "Oh no! It's Jumbo again and he's drunk as usual." Daddy said, "Be nice. He's your brother too you know." I said, "Don't remind me." Well I opened the door and Jimbo stumbled in. He tried to hug me and I pushed him away. He slurred, "Katie...my favorite sister" I said, "Oh get off! What in heck are you doing here?" He said, "I...I came to see you." I said, "Drunk as a skunk and you're still the biggest liar I know!" He said, "I...think I'm going to be sick." I opened the kitchen door and shoved him out on the porch. I said, "We gosh dang it get out there and do it!" I was so mad I was cussing under my breath. "I said, "Why the heck did he have to show up?"

(Mammy)Now Katie you can't turn him away." I said, "Oh alright Mammy for your sake I'll put up with the old fool, but I don't know where he's going to sleep? The upstairs is as cold as the outside and we only have the three heaters."

By this time Robert had taken one of the rooms upstairs as his bedroom and he had his own kerosene heater. Daddy said, "He'll be alright. He sleeps outside half the time anyway, so I'm sure he'll be alright upstairs if we pile enough blankets on top of him."

So I cleaned the old fool up again and we helped him upstairs. There was an old feather bed on the floor in one of the rooms that was there when we moved in, so we put him on that and we piled a bunch of blankets on top of him. The others went on to bed but I was still too upset, I sat up waiting for Robert to get home. Around midnight he got home and he saw me sitting at the kitchen table so he said, "What are you doing up?" I said, "Jimbo showed up drunk as usual." He said, "Oh well, he never stays anywhere very long. I wouldn't worry about it." I said, "We put him upstairs." He said, "Well I'm heading on up to bed." I put out my cigarette and said, "Alright, I guess I better turn in too."

I fell right to sleep, but at 3am I woke up hearing the most horrible sound! I mean it sounded just like somebody had a rope around someone's neck and was choking them to death!"

Well I jumped out of bed and I ran into Mammy and Daddy's room and I woke Daddy I said, "Daddy I hear an awful sound." Then it hit me that Robert had a bad heart. I said, "Oh Daddy! I hope Robert's not having a heart attack!" He jumped out of bed and we both headed upstairs. He wasn't going fast enough to suit me so I went under his arm and beat him up the steps! When we opened Robert's door he was sitting up on his elbow. He was hearing it too see? He said, "What's the matter?" I said, "Are you alright?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Do you hear that choking sound?" He said, "Yeah. I was wondering if it was one of you all?" So then we remembered Jimbo, so we all 3 looked in on him and he was sound asleep, but we could still hear the choking sounds.

We checked all eleven rooms and the basement and we couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from? You could hear it in every room. We went outside and searched, but the further you got from the house the less you could hear it. Then all at once it stopped just as suddenly as it started. I was the last one to stop searching for it, but finally I gave up and came on back into the house. When I went back into my bedroom there was Robert in bed with Donnie! He was too scared to go back upstairs! So I went in Daddy's room almost beside myself with laughter! I said, "Robert's in bed with Donnie! He's too scared to sleep alone!" Daddy got to laughing and he said to Mammy, "Well Emma don't you think we ought to wake Jimbo up and let him get in the middle with me and you!"

We all got a big laugh out of that one. We went on to sleep and we didn't hear that choking sound anymore.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 8)

(Katie)The next morning I was making breakfast for everyone when Jimbo woke up. He had no idea where he was at until he came downstairs and saw us sitting at the kitchen table. He said, "Good morning. That coffee sure smells wonderful." So I gave him a cup and I said, "Jimbo I thought you were staying with Bessie in E-Town?" He said, "I was, but we had an argument and she run me off." So I said, "Well you're welcome to stay here as long as you're sober. If you'd give up drinking you could live here with us." Robert said, "I could probably get you on at International Harvester."

Jimbo said, "I've tried to quit drinking but I just can't. Don't worry about me little brother, I'll get by. Life is too short to work yourself to death.

Robert said, "Well you can help me an Daddy chop some more wood after breakfast." Jimbo said, "Sure, I'll be glad to."

After breakfast when the men went out to chop some firewood, me and Mammy went out to the well to get buckets of water to wash the dishes and clothes. Then the 3 of them went to the old creek out back to do some fishing.

Mammy said, "I don't know what's going to come of that boy?" I said, "Boy? He's in his 60's!" I said, "Quit worrying about him. He's been drinking like that since I was a little girl and it hasn't killed him yet! He'll probably see us all in the ground. I'm sure Bessie will take him back. She always does."

I started washing the dishes and Mammy went to dress Donnie who just woke up. While I was standing there the dang dishes in the cupboard started rattling again. By now we'd gotten so used to it we just ignored it, but not this time! Because all of a sudden all four doors flew open and all of the dishes inside flew out and crashed to the floor!

Mammy shouted from the bedroom, "Katie are you alright?" I yelled back, "I'm fine Mammy." I went down in the basement and got a hammer and came back up and demolished the cupboard!

By the time I got finished there wasn't anything left but a corner! I swept up the wood and broken dishes and saved what wasn't broken. I put the rest in the garbage can.

Daddy came back in and went to get a coffee cup and said, "Where the heck is the cupboard?" I said, "It's gone. The coffee cups are in the cabinet now."

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 9)

(Paul) What happened next?

(Katie) Well it wasn't long after that that Robert met and started dating Betty. One day he said to me, "Katie have you got any plans for that big pile of lumber out behind the old barn where you tore down the meat house and hen house?"

I said, "Not really. We have the floor straightened out now. Why did you want to use some of it?"
Robert said, "Well if it's ok you and Dutch I'd like to build a house over in the field.
I said, "Sure. You can have it all if you need it."
About a month later I went over to see it and he had it about half finished. I said, "My goodness this is going to be nice." I said, "Could you do me a favor? I need a ride in town. I have some blankets on lay-a-way and I need to make a payment." He said, "Sure. I'll take you. It looks like it's going to rain anyway?"

So he drove me into Louisville and when he parked I looked across the street and saw a sign that said, "Fortune's told-One dollar." I said, "Look Robert, let's have our fortunes told." He said, "No thanks. I don't really believe in that stuff. I'll just stay here with Donnie if you want to go." I said, "The last payment on the blankets is four dollars and all I have is a five. Do you have any change? If the fortune teller sees this five she'll try to swindle me out of it." He said, "I'm sorry I don't have a penny."

So I said, "Well I won't let her see it. I'll stick it up here in my shirt pocket and I won't pay her until she's finished."

I walked up to the door and started to knock on it but I heard her said, "Come on in Mrs. Michelson. Well I like to have dropped over! I never saw this woman before in my life!"

She had long black hair and a black cat sitting up on her shoulder. That was enough for me, the cat! I guess she could tell I was afraid of it by the look on my face. She put it down and said, "Are you willing to give me the whole five dollars in your pocket?"

Well that made me about half mad and I said, "Oh heck no! Your sign says one dollar!" She said, "Those blankets can wait." I said, "Well they ain't a gonna!" I said, "Are you going to read my fortune or not?"

She looked at my palms and said, "I don't think I can read your fortune. You're as strong as I am, but I do see that something is going to happen to your younger brother. Something to do with his feet very soon and there's something else...There's something in your house. I don't know what it is, but it's evil and it's very old. Something the previous owner brought in. It's the cause of the all the strange things that happen there."

I said, "Can you help me get rid of it?" She said, "I can try, but it's dangerous. I'll have to charge you 100 dollars." I said, "Well sorry but I don't have that kind of money. I'll just have to settle for the palm reading."

She said, "Your abilities are too strong. I can't see it, but my mother can tell your fortune. She in the next room." I looked through the door and there sat the scariest looking old woman I've ever seen in my life!" So I said, "No thanks." I paid her the dollar and she said, "Oh before you go your little boy is crying up a storm for you."

I said, "Oh like heck he is, he was sound asleep when I left." Robert told me that I didn't even get out of sight until Donnie woke up and cried the whole time I was gone. So I went and paid on my blankets and Robert said "So what did she tell you?" I said, "Oh just a big bunch of bull. You were right not to waste your money."

The next day Robert was out working on his house when Daddy stopped by to help him. He said, "How come you're only making it one story?"

Robert said, "Later on I intend to build a bigger house next to it and I can use this one as our hen house.

Daddy said, "Oh I see what you have in mind." They worked a couple of hours on it and then Robert took a step backward and stepped right on a nail sticking up out of a board. It went right through his boot and the bottom of his foot!

I heard Daddy yelling for help and I ran out there and we helped Robert into the house. We washed Robert's foot and wrapped it and then Daddy walked into town and got Dr. Bates. He drove Daddy back and then he examined Robert's wound. He cleaned it and put some anti-biotic ointment on it and re-wrapped it. Then he gave Robert a Tetanus shot. He told me to change the bandage twice a day and for Robert to stay off of it for a couple of days.

That night Robert's temperature went sky high. I sat up all night putting cold rags on his head trying to keep his fever down. By dawn his fever had broken, but when he tried to stand up he felt dizzy and he had lost all feeling in both feet!

I kept changing his bandage twice a day like the doctor told me to, but by the week's end both of his feet had turned bluish in color and then the skin began to peel off his feet. I kept soaking them and putting the ointment on them like he told us to.

I couldn't help but remember what the old fortune teller had told me. That something would happen soon to Robert's feet. So I told Mammy I had to go into town. I walked down McCawley Road and caught the bus into town. I went back to the old fortune teller and I knocked on her door.

She said, "Come in Mrs. Michelson."

I said, "I'm here because of Robert's feet! Something did happen to them like you said. How do I know that you didn't put some kind of spell on him to cause it to happen?"

She said, "It's not me. It's the evil thing in your home. It killed the previous owner. It choked him to death and now it's after you and your family." She said, "I can't get rid of it but if you pay be 20 dollars I can protect your brother and his feet will heal."

I said, "Alright. I guess I don't have much choice. You heal Robert and I'll pay you fifty dollars, but you don't get a penny until he's well."

She said, "Very well."

The very next morning the feeling came back in Robert's feet. Dr. Bates just scratched his head in puzzlement. He said, "I not only don't know what caused the problem in Robert's feet when he was only wounded in only one, but now I can't figure out what cured it? Still I'm glad to see them better. Call me if this ever reoccurs."

I said, "Thank you doctor. I'm sure it won't come back." Then true to my word I mailed 50 dollars to the old Fortune Teller."

[Omen]

I have been patiently waiting until this story pours over to the next 'virtual' page on this forum, before reading it. I have my tablet, some coffee, macadamia-nut cookies, and a dozen of crabs waiting for a long night of reading and relaxing.

I know, far too-well, how exciting your writing can be!!

-Omen

[Omen]

I must admit, that I have taken quick peeks every now-and-then, but I'm trying my best to hold out!

[John Reid]

I see, well I'll be sure and add some more then. It shouldn't be long now till we hit page 2.

[John Reid]

"Tale of McCawley Road" (part 10)

(Paul) What happened next?

(Katie) Well in 1944 Dutch came home from the war. He was stationed at Ft. Knox and came home every weekend. He re-mortgaged the place and we began to remodel it from top to bottom. It took months we had so much to do, but eventually we had electricity put in, in door plumbing with a new bathroom of course, a new roof put on, all the windows replaced upstairs, a new kitchen sink in with kitchen cabinets, a refrigerator and a gas stove and new furniture all over the house, a bedroom suite, dining room suite and a large radio for the living room.

Daddy and Donnie would listen to it every night together. Donnie loved "The Lone Ranger" and where the old barn stood we tore it down and started building a two car garage.

Finally it was time to paint the old place. I talked Dutch into hiring your Uncle Elmer, he was a house painter at the time. He'd been ill and needed the money, so we all helped him paint it.

So one Saturday, Elmer, his wife Mary and their daughter Tiny arrived with paint brushes, buckets of paint and ladders. I stayed inside to cook a big dinner for everybody while outside Dutch, Daddy, Robert and Elmer began to paint the house white.

It took 3 coats of paint as the first coat just soaked right into it like it was water. You can imagine a 45 year old board that had never seen a coat of paint. When they finally got finished with it everybody was pleased with it. It looked like a new house.

With all the workmen coming and going in and out of the house everyday and us picking out furniture all of the supernatural activity seemed to stop. I figured that maybe when the old fortune teller had broke the spell on Robert that maybe it broke the spell on that place and for the first time since we moved there I was happy and at peace.

Robert finished building his house over in the field and then right after that I discovered that I was going to have a baby.

Mammy and Daddy had their 50th wedding anniversary and all their kids were still alive at that time, except the oldest Birdie. At the end of it Robert stood up and announced that he and Betty had gotten married.

My goodness the tears started flowing you know.

Well every day when Robert would go to work at International Harvester Betty came over to our house. We got to be really good friends. Dutch went back overseas and I started writing him every week.

Betty would stay until Robert would get home and she would fix his dinner at our place. They didn't have electricity yet in theirs. I'd usually go to bed around 11 o'clock and Betty would wait for Robert to get home from work.

It was February and I would get an itch every time I got pregnant. It was nerves the doctors said. Well like I said, Betty would wait for Robert to get home to fix him a late dinner and she's always come to my room to get a cigarette. Well just about an hour before she came I started itching. So I got up and washed down in alcohol and crawled back under the covers. Well I forgot to turn off the light and I knew if I moved I would start itching again, so I thought, "I'll just wait until Betty comes in to get her cigarette and ask her to turn it off."

A little while later I felt somebody behind me and I thought it was Betty. I didn't turn over and my back was to the door. I said, "Betty the cigarettes are over there on the chair and would you turn off the light?"

I didn't get any answer and I thought, "She must have gotten mad because I didn't turn over." So I rolled over and there stood the most beautiful woman you've ever seen in your life! Right up against my bed looking me right down in the face!

Well my God! I alarmed the whole neighborhood I screamed so loud! It like to have scared poor old Mammy and Daddy to death. I don't know which one of them jumped out of the bed the fastest and they ran to my room and got hung in the door! They thought I was having the baby see?

I didn't want to tell them I saw a ghost so I told them I was dreaming! Well Daddy cursed all night. He'd say, "Seven in the morning I'm leaving! A man can't get no rest in this crazy house! and he didn't go back to bed the rest of the night.

I wrote Dutch about it and he I said, "I don't know who she was but she sure scared the pants off of me!" I'll never forget how she looked? She had coal black eyes, an olive complexion and the prettiest mouth I've ever seen. A long slim nose. She was wearing a bluish green dress. She had her hands crossed and was smiling looking right down at me.

Oh man! I liked to have had a heart attack! If she would have been ugly I guess I would have.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 11)

(Paul) Pat was born next right?

(Katie) That's right. He wasn't supposed to be born until May but on March 22 about 1 o'clock in the afternoon I started having labor pains. Your Aunt Florence and Sam were visiting. Sam drove into town to get Dr. Bates. Jimbo had shown up the night before drunk as usual so he was there. We had him take the kids Donnie and Delores who were both five into the living room and read comics to them. Florence said she looked in on them and there sat Jimbo reading the comics to them and he had them upside down! He couldn't read so he was making it up! But it must have been interesting cause they were listening.

So Pat was born two months premature. We had to buy special milk for him because his stomach wasn't fully developed yet. Dutch got a 10 day leave and all he knew how to cook was eggs. I got two for breakfast, two for dinner and two for supper. After ten days I said, "By God get me out of this bed! I can't take any more eggs!

(Paul) What was the next unusual thing that happened back there?

(Katie) Well like I said Jimbo had come to stay with us a couple of weeks. He slept on the sofa in the living room. One night after we were all in bed asleep and Robert came home from work, Betty had his supper waiting for him,. Then she went out on the back porch to have a cigarette. It was real quiet and then Robert heard a funny noise. It sounded like someone was having trouble breathing.

He got up and listened at Daddy and Mammy's door and then at mine. Then he heard it again and realized it was coming from the living room.

He rushed in and saw Jimbo was laying on his back on the sofa asleep but he could tell that he was having trouble breathing, so he ran over and jerked him up. He whispered, "Jimbo? Are you alright?"

Jimbo said, "Yeah..yeah. I'm ok now. Heh heh, I was just having a bad dream. It was a doozy. I dreamt some ugly looking white monkey was sitting on my chest and I couldn't breathe!"

Well Robert got a little pale when he said that. He knew that it was the same thing that he saw that night sitting on me when I couldn't breathe.

The next morning we were all having breakfast and Robert showed up. He said, "Jimbo did you tell Katie yet about that nightmare you had last night?" Jimbo laughed and said, "No I forgot about it." He said, "I had a terrible nightmare last night. I dreamt about some ugly looking thing like a white monkey was sitting on my chest and I couldn't breathe."

Well I liked to have fell over when he said that! I said, "What did you say? My God Jimbo I had the very same dream one night and Robert had to pull me up too!"

Robert spoke up and said, "I should have told you this sooner but it was so crazy I was sure I must have dreamt it, but we can't all be having the same dream. So that was when he told us about seeing that smoke or fog come out from under the sofa and form into a white ape looking thing right in front of him!"

I said, "Oh my God! I know I'm leaving here now!" Daddy spoke up and said, "Now do you believe me? I told you this place was cursed cause it belonged to Old Man Hobbs.

So I said,"I know you did. Here's something I didn't tell you. When I went to see that old fortune teller she told me that there was something evil in this house. She said whatever it was killed Old Man Hobbs and now it was after us. She said it strangled him."

He said, "I bet you that choking sound we all heard that night must have been the ghost of Floyd Hobbs re-enacting his death. We know he died in this house and the old undertaker asked Emma to help him lay him out and that he had to break every bone in his body to straighten him out. I think whatever killed him is still here and we should move out of here."

I said, "Daddy Dutch and I have sunk every penny we have into fixing this place up. we can't afford to move and I ain't letting nothing scare me off. Besides, what would I tell Dutch? He don't believe in nothing like this and he'd laugh at me if I told him this place was haunted."

Daddy said, "Well we have to do something! What if it attacks one of the kids?"

I said, "I already did something once. I paid that old fortune teller to break the spell on Robert's feet once and all of this craziness stopped for a time, but now it's started up again. Let's all make a pact not to hide anything from each other no more. Whatever happens come and tell me, but let's leave Mammy out of this. It would just worry her to know what we learned." So everybody agreed to that.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 12)

(Paul) So what happened next?

(Katie) The next morning I went down to St. Rita's church and asked to see Father Donnelly. I had to wait about 20 minutes because he was with someone else at the time. I asked him if would come and bless the house and he said he would be happy to but he was going out of town and he'd tend to it when he got back. I didn't tell him about any of the crazy stuff that had been happening back there cause I figured he'd think I was a nut or something.

At home I was so busy raising two kids that I kind of forgot about it and I guess so did Father Donnelly because he never showed up.

(Paul) So what happened next.

(Katie) Well first Robert's marriage didn't work out. He and Betty got a divorce so he moved back into our house. Dutch was stationed at Ft. Knox again so we saw him every weekend. I guess the next thing I remember was when Robert had that vision.

(Paul) What year was that?

(Katie) My sister Jessie was pregnant with triplets so that was 1946. One night when Robert was driving home from International Harvester, I don't know if you remember, but on McCawley Road you turn left and then go straight for about 50 feet and then you make a sharp right turn and then go straight back to our house.

Well when he got to that second curve he slammed on the brakes because he saw a Christmas Tree appear on the hood of his car.

(Paul) Did you say a Christmas Tree?

(Katie) Yes! Lights and all! He stared at it and it looked as real as could be. He opened his car door and got out and it was gone but when he got back inside he could see it again. So he got out and felt all over the hood of the car. Nothing was there. He got back in and he could see it again.

He thought maybe it was a trick of the moonlight somehow so he started the car and drove about a half a mile with it on the hood. He stopped again. He looked down in his pocket to get a cigarette and when he looked up it was gone!

So he came on home and went to bed. The next morning we could tell that he was upset about something but he wouldn't say what? Finally I just came out and asked him. I said, "Robert is something bothering you?"

He didn't want to say but I reminded him we promised not to keep things from each other anymore, so he told us what happened?

Mammy said, "Robert you know I'm half Cherokee and your grandmother was full blooded. All my life I've have visions like that, but they are usually omens or warnings of something bad that's about to happen. Usually when you see something like that, it means someone close to you is about to die.

I said, "She's right Robert. I've had visions like that as well."

Robert said, "Well I'm glad I told it now. I thought I was going crazy."

(Paul) So did anyone die?

(Katie) Yes, Jessie died in childbirth Christmas week. Well she'd already had five kids one at a time and a pair of twins so no one dreamed she's die having a baby. Robert had his vision about 3 months before she died.

I had a dream about her right before she died. She had on a green skirt and a sweater and was sitting on the side of a chair. All I remember her saying to me was, "The only thing I hate about it is that Jean and Jeanette will be separated. They were her twins and she wouldn't even let the teacher separate them at school. They wanted to put one in one class and one on another and she refused.

So when she died Jean and Jeanette came to me and asked me to take them in, but Jean said that she wanted to live with her cousin Leonard, so that was the separation see?

(Paul) So what happened next?

(Katie) Pat grew stronger each day. The doctor didn't expect him to live being premature but he fooled them. I started to notice that the haunting activity was getting more noticeable again but with two kids to watch over I just tried to ignore it. Little things would happen like you'd put something down in one place and reach to get it and it would be gone or show up someplace strange. I can't tell you how many times that happened?

Then that door laughing sound started up again. Three o'clock in the morning. I just got up and made coffee the first night. Daddy got up. He didn't say anything but one look said it all. He knew it was starting up again and so did I, but moving was out of the question.

(Paul) What did Dad think of all of this?

(Katie) That was the maddening part. Every time he was at home, nothing happened, but all week long when he was gone it was active, so he didn't know anything about what was going on and I didn't want to sound like a nut by telling him, because I knew he didn't believe in anything like that.

So Mammy and Daddy could have more room we moved upstairs and let them have the downstairs because they were too old to climb the steps. That was in 1947. We all still ate together downstairs of course. Pat turned two years old and Donnie seven.

One morning when Pat was playing in the dining room by himself, because Donnie was out fishing with Daddy, all of a sudden he came running out of that dining room in screaming hysterics! I couldn't get him to go back in that dining room for a month! I would start in there with him he would hide his face or look away from those glass doors. All he would say was "The man, the man!"

(Paul) So both Pat and Donnie saw a man in the dining room at the age of two.

(Katie) That's right.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (Part 13)


(Katie) So like I said it was 1947, Pat turned two and Donnie was seven. Daddy and Donnie would go fishing every morning. I don't know which of them learned to fish the most?

One morning Daddy had brought home the fish they'd caught and we were cleaning them and Donnie was out by our old dump which was between the house and the creek.

All of a sudden I heard him screaming bloody murder and I looked out the kitchen window and I saw him running as fast as his legs would carry him toward the house!

I ran out on the back porch and when he got close enough I yelled "What's the matter?"
He said, "Snake....Snake!"

I said, "Is that all? You've seen lots of snakes before." He said, "No mom...a giant snake."

I thought, "Oh come on." I said, "How big was it?" He said, "Mom! It's as big around as a telephone pole!" I said, "Now Donnie snakes don't get that big around here." He said, "This one did!"

Well that worried me a little so I went and got the shotgun and said, "You wait here with your Grandpa." So I went out to the dump and looked around but I couldn't see anything so I just kind of forgot about it you know, but he was only the first one that would see it.

(Paul) What happened next?

(Katie) Well nothing new that year. Mostly the same old aggravating stuff. The blood around the house, the laughing sound, nightmares, things disappearing and reappearing in other places. I just got so used to it all I started ignoring it. I was just too busy with two kids to take care of.

(Paul) What was the first new thing that happened?

(Katie) The next thing that got my attention happened around 1948. Dutch, Donnie and Pat and me were all still living upstairs and Mammy and Daddy and Robert downstairs. Dutch was still in the army and would come home on weekends from Ft. Knox.

One night I was sitting on the side of my bed writing a letter to him. You know how you can see things out of the corner of your eye. I saw someone coming down the hallway toward my room.

I looked over to see who it was and my heart nearly stopped beating! It was a strange man! That would have been frightening enough! But I'll never forget how he looked? He was dressed like someone from the Middle East! He was tall and had a turban on his head, which was black in color and hung down over his ears. It had a silver band around it. His skin was olive colored and he had a long black beard. His robes were purplish looking, more like maroon and he had sandals on his feet.

I was too shocked to move or scream or anything! Just before he got to my room he turned and started down the steps. Well my God! I jumped up and ran to the stairwell, but he was gone! Not a trace of him! But just the same I went downstairs and searched the house anyway! I was still thinking it was somebody alive wearing a costume or something. But I began to realize that nobody could have gotten down those stairs that fast and without making a sound. The doors were all still locked. It was about 10 o'clock. I searched the basement and every room to be sure. Robert hadn't gotten home yet and Mammy and Daddy were in their room asleep, so I finally realized it must have been a ghost or something.

(Paul) Of all the things you saw back there, that has to be the strangest. What a weird thing for someone in Kentucky to see?

(Katie) Well the same week I saw the Arabian looking man I started having bad nightmares at night. Then one morning I opened my eyes and I saw these scary looking black hands weaving around my face. Not human hands, these had long thin black fingers which were covered in black fuzzy looking hair. I only saw them for a moment when I first opened my eyes.

Of course I didn't tell anybody what I was seeing? I just got up and made breakfast for everybody. Robert drove Donnie to school in the morning. I decided to call Father Donnelly again because he never did show up to bless the house, but all I would get was a busy signal and I got busy and just kept forgetting to call him back.

That night I had another nightmare. I dreamed I was fighting with something. Then when I woke up in the morning I kept seeing those scary looking black hands over my face.

I noticed I started to feel tired all of the time. I just figured it was because I wasn't getting much sleep. Now this went on for over a month and then one morning when I saw those hands again for a second, I realized that I couldn't move! I was paralyzed!

I yelled for Donnie. He came to my door and said, "Yeah mom?" I didn't want to tell him anything was the matter with me. I didn't want to scare him. So I said, "Go downstairs and ask your grandpa to come up here for a minute." So he did. Daddy got dressed and made his way up the steps. I asked him to pull me up and I was alright again. I could move again.

That was when I told him about the scary looking black hands I would see every morning. He said, "By God child! Now do you believe me when I tell you somebody is trying to bewitch us?"

I said, "Yes, I guess I do. I didn't want to believe it, but with all that's happening I can't deny something is going on?"

He said, "Back when this happened to me and that old Indian showed up I talked to him for a long time about this kind of thing. He said a witch can use anything that is alive or was alive to bewitch you with, like fur or feathers. Now since you're only paralyzed in bed like I was maybe the witch is using your feather pillow to bewitch you. I think we ought to try burning up your pillow."

I said, "Oh come on Daddy. That's just silly." He said, "You ask me what I think we should do and when I tell you, you don't want to do it!"

So after a few more days of waking up and seeing those black hands and not being able to move until Daddy came up there and pulled me up I was ready to try anything. I gave in and we took my pillow out in the field. I took a knife and made a little split in it and ran my hand in there and when I did I felt something wiggle!

Well my God! I liked to have croaked! I screamed and said, "Something wiggled in there!"

Daddy split it open and inside we found two strange looking things. It was a piece of a sheet torn into a strip and had feathers woven into it so perfectly that it made it round! There were two of them. They were shaped like the letter "Y" or a sling shot and there was a big one and a little one. Plus we saw a fan of feathers in three corners and in the fourth one was part of one.

Daddy said, "See that! I told you someone was bewitching you! If they'd have finished that 4th fan you would have died."

I didn't know what to think? So we decided to burn it. Now you know feathers should just go up in smoke. We tried to light it and it wouldn't burn. We poured kerosene on it and tried to light it and it still wouldn't burn. Daddy ended up tearing it into tiny pieces and dug a big hole and buried it and from that day on there wasn't a thing wrong with my back and I never saw those scary looking hands any more.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (Part 14)


(Paul) Anything else happen in 1948?

(Katie)The next thing I recall is when your Uncle Elmer, his wife Mary and his daughter Tiny came to visit. At dinner for dessert I served wild blueberries and Mary asked me where I got them? I told her we had blueberry bushes growing out by the creek.

She asked if they could go out and pick some to take home with them and I said "Sure" and got them some baskets.

Later Elmer and I were out on the back porch talking. We were all outside. There was me and Dutch, Mammy and Daddy and the kids were in the yard playing when all of a sudden we heard somebody screaming and hollering coming from the old creek.

Well we all started to head back there when we saw Mary and Tiny a running a fast as they could go toward us! When they got a little closer I heard them yelling "Snake! Snake!" They ran straight to their truck and jumped in it and Mary started it up. Elmer ran over and she said, "Get in it I'm leaving you here!"

So he got in and I saw Mary hit the accelerator and they drove off as fast as they could go!

Daddy said, "What the heck was that all about?" Dutch said, "I haven't the foggiest?" Then Donnie spoke up and said, "Mom I bet you they saw the giant snake back in the dump." Dutch said, "Giant snake?" So I told him what Donnie claimed to have seen but I never saw it myself, so when Daddy heard about it he got the shot gun and went back there and sat for hours hoping to kill it, but he never saw it either so he came on in.

(Paul) Anything else happen in 1948?

(Katie) Well the usual little things kept happening. Things you know you'd just sat down would disappear and you'd have to hunt for it and then find it someplace strange and stuff like that.

Oh and then around Christmas time, one night I was washing the dishes at the kitchen sink when I saw a shadow go past the window. Thinking we had a trespasser I hurried out the back door and looked out and just as I did I saw something in silhouette jump off the end of the back porch and I swear it looked just like a gorilla!

Well my God! I closed that door in a dang big hurry too! I ran for the closet and grabbed the shotgun and headed for the front door. Daddy, Donnie and Pat were in the living room listening to some radio show. Mammy was in bed already.

Daddy said, "What's wrong?" I said, "Stay here!" I went all the way around the house and around the garage but I couldn't find anything so I went back inside.

(Paul) Ok that brings us to 1949. What do you remember about that year?

(Katie)Your Uncle Willie came to stay with us for a little while. He had a big fight with his wife Mildred so he asked me if he could stay for a little while and I said, "Of course."

Well one morning he went out to fish by the creek and I looked out the kitchen window and here he come a running as fast as he could go! That really worried me because I don't think he was ever scared of anything?

When he got to the back door he ran in and said, "My God! Load the shotgun! There's a snake back there as big around as a water bucket!"

I said, "Oh no, it ain't no bigger around than a telephone pole." He said, You knew that son of gun was back there and you let me go?" It nearly scared everybody that saw it into having a heart attack. I got to laughing and he knew I was teasing him. I gave him the shotgun and he went back to the dump and sat out there for almost half the day hoping to kill it. I still hadn't seen it at that time, but I didn't know what to think? I know snakes don't get that big in Kentucky but now there was getting to be too many witnesses to be imagination?

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 15)

(Paul) What happened next?

(Katie) That was when I got really sick. I got to whenever I would bend over and then raise up I would go stone blind for a few moments. There was no way I could hide that from everyone. Dutch came home on Saturday and he witnessed it and had a fit.

So he went upstairs and packed my suitcase and drove me out to Ft. Knox to Ireland Army Hospital. That was when I met Dr. Neblett. It turned out I have 5 tumors and one of them was pressing against my spinal cord, which is why I would go blind when I bent over.

That was when he told me he would have to remove one overy and maybe both of them. They admitted me and operated then next morning.

The next thing I remember it was 10 days later and they stopped giving me the Morphine and when I found out I had been gone 10 days I had a fit! I said, "Well I'm leaving here right now!" Dr. Neblett said, "Well if you can walk you can go home." I said, "I'll show you I can." I slid out of that bed and my butt hit that hard floor. I said, "Well don't stand there and laugh you fool, pick me up!"

That was when I learned that they removed most of the tumors and took one ovary and half the other one. He said I wouldn't be able to have any more children.

(Paul) Ha ha

(Katie) That shows what he knows. So anyway I said, "Well I'm going home anyway!" I called Dutch and he wanted me to wait until Saturday but I wouldn't wait that long. I called your Aunt Florence and her and Sam came out to get me. They put a featherbed in the back seat because I couldn't even sit up.

In the meantime Pat who was only four years old asked Donnie who was nine what they had done to me? He told him they cut me with a knife because that was all he knew. So when Sam carried me in the house I was wearing this long housecoat that covered my feet and just as Sam started to lay me on the bed Pat said, "Oh Mom, they cut off your feet!" Well Sam just dropped me on the bed he started laughing so hard. I guess it's a good thing we were over the bed!

In about a week or two I got strong enough to stand up and walk again. Well one day these two old men came back there in their pick up truck and asked me if they could go back to our dump to collect the tin. I said, "Sure" because that wouldn't burn anyway. I was happy to get rid of it.

About 30 minutes later I heard them yelling and I looked out the kitchen window and I seen them a coming a running as fast as they could go and I had to laugh because one of them was actually hitting himself with his hat to go faster!

So I stepped out on the back porch and when they got close enough one of them said, "My God woman! There's a snake back there! You'll never believe it! But it's 20 feet long and as big around as a washing tub!

I knew that was a big bunch of crap because it couldn't be that big, so I said, "Oh heck, that's my pet."

He said, "My God! You knew that son of a gun was back there and you didn't tell us?"

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 16)

(Paul) So what happened next?

(Katie) Well I was supposed to go back to the hospital and let them finish up, but in 1950 both Mammy and Donnie got sick. It started one morning. Donnie and Pat came downstairs for breakfast and I noticed Donnie seemed quieter than usual. I said, "Donnie are you feeling alright?" He said, "No...I don't feel so good. I feel dizzy." I felt his head and he didn't feel warm.

I said, "If you don't feel any better after breakfast I want you to go lay down." He said, "Oh I'll be alright." So after breakfast he got up and started to walk out the back door and his legs buckled and he collapsed! Daddy and me carried him to the couch and then he came to.

He started to get up and I made him lay down again. I called Dr. Bates and when he arrived he drew some blood for tests.

I said, "Can you tell me what's wrong with him?"

He said, "Not yet. It could be a simple ear infection or a million other things. I recommend bed rest and if he's not better by morning bring him by my office."

I made him sleep in the downstairs bedroom and Robert moved upstairs. I didn't want him going up and down the stairs if he was feeling dizzy.

The next morning when he woke up he couldn't move either leg. He was a paralyzed from the waist down.

I had Robert carry Donnie and put him in the backseat of his Ford and drive us to Dr. Bates. Dr. Bates helped Robert put Donnie on the examination table. I watch Dr. Bates take a pin and touch it to both of Donnie's feet and he couldn't feel a thing from the waist down. Dr. Bates asked me if he had fallen and I said, "No, only when he fainted yesterday."

After 30 minutes of testing Dr. Bates admitted he was stumped and so it was time to drive Donnie out to Ft. Knox and admit him to the hospital.

I called Dutch and told him and Robert drove us out there and they admitted him and began their tests.

I was there for six hours and finally a Dr. Manning came out to talk to me. He said the x-rays showed no injury to his spinal cord. They tested him for polio, rheumatic fever, meningitis and all sorts of things but couldn't find out what was wrong with his legs?

Dutch spoke up and said, "Are you suggesting he's faking it?

Dr. Manning said, "Oh no, no. He definitely has no sensation in his legs. You can't fake something like that. We'd like to have him examined by Dr. Woodsworth."

Dutch said, "Is he a specialist?"

Dr. Manning said, "No he's the head of our psychiatric unit."

Well I went off then! I said, "Are you saying my son is crazy?"

He started trying to apologize, "No, no we just want to rule out psychosomatic illnesses."

I said, "That's it! I'm taking him home!"

Dr. Manning said, "Mrs. Michelson you mustn't do that. We still don't know what's wrong with your son."

I said, "By God that's why I'm doing it? You people with all of your education and fancy equipment can't find out what's wrong with my son and you want me to leave him in your care? Nothing doing! He's coming home with me."

Dr. Manning said, "Mr. Michelson please reason with your wife."

Dutch said, "On the contrary I agree with her. If you've failed to diagnose the child it's time to try elsewhere, not blame the child for your incompetence."

So Robert drove us all the way back to Louisville and we admitted him in St. Anthony's Hospital. They admitted Donnie and I got permission to stay in his room. The next day he had more x-rays and more tests. Finally at 6pm the doctors asked to meet with me. They had to admit that they were stumped too. They asked to do a spinal tap. I said, "If it will get some answers then do it." I spent the night again. They came to get him at 5am and then by 4pm they asked to meet with me again.

They said, "We're sorry to tell you that we are still unable to find the reason for Donnie's paralysis."

I blew up! I said, "I can't believe this? For God's sake! My son can't walk and no one can help him?" Then they suggested that I put him in a nursing home.

I said, "Forget it! We're leaving here right now. I'm taking him home." I called a taxi and they helped me load him into it and we went home. We put him in bed and I made him dinner. We just started learning to live with it. Dutch bought him a wheelchair so he could get around and Robert and Daddy would lift him in and out of the tub.

Then before the month was out Mammy had her stroke. She was paralyzed on the right side of her body. Now I had two complete invalids to care for. Again Dr. Bates suggested that I put her into a nursing home but I refused, but taking care of them both nearly killed me.

Every morning I would get up at 5am and bathe Donnie and change his sheets. I'd dress him and help him into his wheelchair. Then at 6am I'd go into Mammy's room and bathe her and change her sheets. Then dress her and with Daddy's help get her into her wheelchair.

Next I would make breakfast for the family. Donnie could feed himself but I had to feed Mammy. Then after breakfast I'd do the dishes and then wash the linens by hand and hang them on the clothes line to dry and by then it was time for lunch.

In between I'd either be helping Donnie or Mammy on and off the toilet. I'd cook supper for the family and by 7pm Mammy was ready for bed and after I got her into bed I'd go get Donnie and help him into his pajamas and into bed and this went on for nearly two years. I don't know how I did it?

Mammy told me she prayed for the Lord to take her and cure Donnie and I told her not to do that because her life was just as special as Donnie's. Every night I would collapse into bed, I was so exhausted. There might have been haunting activity in the house but I was too busy or too tired to notice.

Daddy saw I was reaching the end of my rope and he said, "It ain't fair that Emma and me had 13 children and you are the only one taking care of your mother. I'm taking Emma to live with each one of them for two weeks and that way they can all take a turn taking care of her.

I said, "Daddy, Mammy isn't in any shape to travel!"

He said, "I ain't just thinking of you. I want to get her out of this danged house."

I said, "Oh Daddy, don't start with that again!"

He said, "What about what happened to you with that pillow? Did you forget?"

I said, "No."

He said, "What about what happened to Robert's feet? Then you got sick and now Donnie can't walk nor Emma either?"

I said, "I know. I never told you this but I went and paid the old fortune teller to break the spell on Robert's feet."

He said, "Well why don't you go and see her again? Maybe she can help Donnie or Emma."

I said, "It's been on my mind to try it.

A few days later I asked Robert to sit with Donnie. Daddy had taken Mammy to Bessie's for two weeks. I caught the bus downtown. I knocked on the fortune teller's door and she said, "Come in Mrs. Michelson." I said, "I guess you know why I'm here?"

She said, "Please don't ask me. The last time I broke the spell on your brother it nearly killed me. I was sick for months. I'm afraid to try it."

I said, "One time you told me that my powers were almost as strong as yours. I'm not afraid. Teach me what to do and I'll do it myself!"

She looked at me and said, "You know, I believe you could do it." Then she taught me how to break a spell. I gave her 50 dollars and I left.

When I got home I asked Robert if he had any lead fishing sinkers. He said, "Yeah". So I said, "Bring me 3 of them and then go for a walk."

I didn't tell him what I needed them for? At 3pm he went for a walk like I asked. I took my old iron skillet and placed it on the stove. I put the 3 lead sinkers in it and I began to pray. I said, "In the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit if anyone has placed a curse on Donnie let this break it!"

As I watched the lead sinkers melted and ran together. Then a woman's face appeared in the lead. It was so plain that I could see she was wearing a bandana on top of her head. Then it melted again and this time formed into a perfect cross. I poured water on it to cool it. Then I picked it up. I wanted to show it to Robert but it jumped out of my hand and I never could find it.

Well the next morning when I went to Donnie's room to give him his bed bath he said, "Mom! I can feel the warm wash cloth!" Then he bent one knee. He yelled, "I can move! I can move!" I said, "Oh thank God! Thank God!"

I called Dr. Bates and he came over and examined Donnie again. He scratched his head and said, "You're the luckiest little boy in the world."

Well about an hour after he left I saw someone coming up my back steps. I opened the back door and it was a woman with a bandana on her head and it was the same face I saw come up in the lead and she knew that I knew who she was!

She said, "I have to talk to you. I've done something terrible."

I said, "I know what you've done! Now get out of my sight! All I want to know is why? I've never even met you!"

She said, "Your neighbor down the road, Esther Wilkins has been paying me to put a curse on you and your family. I'm a fortune teller."

I said, "Why? I only met her once!" She said, "She wants you out of this house. She grew up here and she wants it back, but you just say the word and I'll put a curse on her!"

Then I remembered that the old fortune teller told me that once I melted the lead, if it broke the spell, the one who put it on Donnie would have to come to me and have me give them something or they would die. I wasn't about to give her anything so she ran over and took a big bite out of a head of cabbage I had sitting on the counter.

I said, "I said get out!" I told her and she left. From that day on there wasn't a thing wrong with Donnie's legs.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 17)

(Katie) Mammy and Daddy left Bessie's and went to stay at Lizzie's so I went over there to tell Daddy it worked and Donnie was well. He told me we needed to get out of that house and after I thought about it, I figured he was right.


Just then the power came back on and Katie got up and got busy. Paul sneaks his tape recorder back to his room.

The next evening Donnie and his wife Barbara and their little son Ricky came by. Paul saw an opportunity to get him and Katie both to talk about McCawley Road. Paul kept his small cassette tape recorder in a hallowed book and brought it to the kitchen table so that they would not know that they were being recorded.

(Paul)We were talking about McCawley Road last night. Since I have you both together I remember some story about when you heard some walking sounds?

(Donnie) Me and Pat was in the bathtub.

(Katie)We were getting ready to move into town and we had all of the furniture upstairs.

(Donnie) Mom was upstairs. I don't know what she was doing?

(Katie) I was getting your all's pajamas.

(Donnie) So we were downstairs taking a bath and we were just getting out of the tub and it sounded like somebody took hold of all of the pipes in the house and shook them behind the wall. Well me and Pat took off upstairs as fast as we could go and we met mom coming downstairs. She said, "I'm gonna whup both of your all's butts. You done broke that...

(Katie)It sounded like the back part of the toilet.

(Donnie) She said upstairs it sounded like somebody picked that up and just threw it down. I said, "No mom! No! It was upstairs!" We wanted to get upstairs cause we didn't know what it was?

(Katie) Donnie said it was upstairs and I said like heck it was! It was down here! So I went in the bathroom and the lid was still on the back of the toilet.

(Donnie) So we all went upstairs you know and as soon as we got up there it sounded like somebody was walking downstairs. So mom said, "You all stay here. I'm going down to see." Well we followed her downstairs anyway because we weren't going to stay up there by ourselves.

We were standing in that little archway by the steps while she searched the whole house. So I made it up with Pat, I said, "If anybody grabs Mom I'll run out the front door (starts laughing) and I gave Pat the long way. I told him, "You run all the way through the dining room and kitchen and out the back door." I said, "They can't get both of us." "Ok" he said. He'd do anything I told him.

Well we had these toy German luger pistols made out of cast iron, so we were standing there you know and Mom was going further and further, so me and Pat got a head start. I got by the dining room doors and he got by the hallway. We were going to run in two different directions so they couldn't get us.

About that time we heard "Clunk, clunk, clunk..."Sounded like someone walking in the hallway upstairs and around the banister. Mom said, "By God I got them now!" She said, "I'm going to get them! You all wait out on the front porch."

We went out on the front porch and we had the front door open and she went upstairs. If she screamed we were supposed to run for help. So there we were just kids, with those big iron guns and we were just scared to death. Then that big old hound dog that belonged to Mrs. Wilkins named Blue. He came up and stuck that big old nose of his right to one of us and boy we liked to have killed him! We clubbed him half to death! We beat him in the back, knocked him down and everything else, you know! We really went to work on him!

(Katie) Well heck! I came flying down those steps cause I thought something had done got them from all of the noise!

(Donnie) So we all went upstairs. Mom said, "We'll lock ourselves in the bedroom upstairs and they can't get us. If I have to I'll set you all out on the roof. So we did that and we were sitting on the side of the bed.

(Katie)I wasn't scared. I was mad and puzzled. I was sitting on the side of the bed and Donnie and Pat were standing in front of me and then something pulled my hair. I looked around and there wasn't anything there!

(Donnie) Then mom's complexion started to turn white. I said, "Mom you're white as a ghost." She said, "Yes by God and I think that's what we're looking for!"

So I had Pat by the hand and she had me by the hand and we were going down those steps lickity-split! We had to run all the way around the front door and all the way back to the garage to get in the car. So then we drove all the way down that old road. I'll bet we did seventy to stay with Aunt Florence and Sam.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (Part 18)

The next night Paul is sitting at the kitchen table and his mother is doing the dishes. He goes to his room and gets his tape recorder and comes back.

(Paul) So how did you explain moving out of the house to Dad?

(Katie) Since Mammy and Daddy were staying with one of their other kids for the winter and Robert had moved in town. I didn't want to stay in that big old house with just me and the kids and have to walk with them all the way down McCawley Road every day for them to catch the bus to school, so I told him we'd be moving in town. I locked up the house and got a room for rent on second street. The school was about a block away and we stayed there until May.

(Paul) When did Uncle Willie pass away?

(Katie) Well after Mammy and Daddy stayed at Bessie's and then Lizzie's they went to stay with Florence and then Janie's. One night I went to Janie's to see how they were doing and that was when Lizzie showed up to tell us that Willie had killed himself.

(Paul) I see. So what happened next?

(Katie) While we were living in town, it was about October or November, I said, "Robert you've got to drive me out to McCawley Road to get Donnie and Pat's winter clothes and coats. Now Willie had done killed himself when this happened. This was still 1951.

Donnie and Pat was in the backseat and me and Robert in the front. I had to ask him to drive us because my car was in the shop at that time. So when we got to the house, Robert said, "I'll go up and get them." He knew where we kept them.

Well Lord have mercy, the door didn't much more than get closed behind him till it opened and again and he was back in the car!

He said, "Let's wait until tomorrow to get them."

I said, "Oh shoot no. Since we're already here let's get them now!" I said, "I'll go get them."

So by heck, I'm telling you I came out faster than he did! Cause when I got in the archway between the basement door and the bathroom, if I'd have looked toward the bathroom I'd have seen Willie! Well I flew back out! I didn't say a word to Robert. I just said, "Let's wait until tomorrow!"

You could just feel it! It was so strong. I mean it was strong! The strongest feeling I've ever had! And coward me, I ran instead of looking. He might have told us who killed him. door shame we ran. Well like I said, I came out faster than he did! It was cold and they didn't have any coats.

I said, "They're not going to school tomorrow, they don't have any coats, but I ain't getting them now. We're going to come back here in the daylight hours.

Then about half way down McCawley Road Robert stopped the car. I looked over at him and said, "Why did you stop the car for?" I said, "Robert you're as pale as a ghost. Are you sick?

He said, "No...Why did you come back so fast?"

I said, "Why did you?

He said, "I don't want to say."

So I said, "Well if I'd have looked toward that bathroom..."

He said, "You'd have seen Willie wouldn't you?"

Well heck, I liked to have croaked! He finished it for me! We both felt the same thing. I said, "Yes! Lord have mercy! I wasn't ever going to tell it!"

He said, "No and me either."

So I said, "We'll go back tomorrow." We went the next day and I don't know which of us was the most scared. I said, "You ain't getting more than an inch away from me and I ain't looking toward that bathroom either! We went up and got Donnie and Pat's clothes and we got to talking and when we went back down we said, "Well it ain't here."

(Paul) Ok that's what I wanted to ask you about? Sometimes you say that Willie committed suicide and other times he was murdered, which was it?

(Katie)Officially it was ruled a suicide, but his death was very suspicious. Willie was the tallest member of the family. He was found sitting at the kitchen table with a shotgun pressed to his chest. He had a screwdriver in his right hand that he supposedly used to pull the trigger. That was the first odd thing because he was left handed. Also his arms reached a foot past the trigger so he wouldn't have needed a screwdriver to reach it, but no one was ever charged in his death so it was ruled a suicide.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (Part 19)

(Paul) So when did you move back home?

(Katie) In April of 1952 me and Robert went back there and found the basement full of water. The house smelled like mildew, so we had to pay to have the basement pumped dry and we opened the windows. The curtains and bed clothes were all moist so I had to dry out the whole house. It took a month to get the place livable again.

So in May of 53 we moved home. I talked Daddy into bringing Mammy home because that was what she wanted. They were staying out at Lizzie Pearl's again at the time. He didn't want to do it. It took me a whole month to talk him into it.

Finally in the middle of June they moved back in. We all just picked up where we left off. I got up early and bathed Mammy and got her into her wheelchair. Then I made breakfast for everyone and got the kids off to school. After June they were out for summer vacation.

With Donnie well it was not as hard on me as it was before and of course I was happy to do it. I took care of Mammy until November of that year when she died.

I'll never forget that day. I went to give her morning bed bath and we were talking when all of a sudden she just slumped over to one side. I thought for a minute she'd fallen asleep when I noticed she wasn't breathing. I yelled for Daddy and he came. He told me she had passed and I refused to believe it. She looked just like she was asleep, so I called Dr. Bates and he came over and confirmed it.

But you know how dead people change color, get grey looking and usually in hours rigor mortis sets in and they stiffen up. She never did any of that, so I wouldn't let them take her until I saw some sign that she was really dead and not just in some sort of coma, because her joints were as limber in death as they were in life and her color was the same.

We ordered a coffin and placed her in the living room and started calling all of the family. Three days later Daddy and the others told me it was time to bury Mammy, but I refused. She still didn't show any of the normal signs of death other than not breathing and I was afraid we'd bury her alive, so I said, "No! Not until I see some change in her."

I kept her a week and then her complexion finally turned white and I knew that she was really gone so I agreed to let her be buried.

That was at the end of 1952. Daddy wasn't happy about being in the "witch's house" as he called it. He only came back because Mammy wanted to and he would have done anything she asked him.

Then Lizzie Pearl discovered something. In the back of one of her son Joey's school books someone had written, "Six more months to live". She showed that to me and I'd have known Mammy's handwriting anywhere. She must have written that when she was staying there in June and from June to November is six months.

Well with Mammy passed on Daddy decided that he was leaving that place. One day he told me that he'd found a house for rent, not too far away on Robb's Lane and he wished me and the kids would come with him. After thinking about it, I decided he was right. The house was about a mile from our house on McCawley Road on the other side of those woods.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 20)

One of the things Paul got with his cassette tape recorder was a special microphone with a suction cup that would fasten to the receiver of a telephone and you could record both sides of the conversation.

He remembered one time Donnie telling him about the hauntings that happened in the house on Robb's Lane so he decides to try out his microphone and calls Donnie at home. Naturally he doesn't tell him he was recording him.

(Donnie) Hello?

(Paul) Hello Donnie.

(Donnie) Yeah

(Paul) Are you busy?

(Donnie) No why?

(Paul) Mom was telling me stories about when you all moved to that house on Robb's Lane. I wanted to hear what you remembered about it?

(Donnie) That had to be 1953 because Grandma had died but Grandpa was still alive and he died in 1954.

(Paul) Mom said the house was "L" shaped.

(Donnie) Yeah it had four rooms. The back bedroom, the living room and the kitchen were all back to back and then there was this closed in back porch that Grandpa took for his bedroom.

(Paul) What happened there?

(Donnie) Well the first thing that happened was when Uncle Jimbo showed up drunk. We put him in the back bedroom to sleep. We heard him carrying on and we thought maybe he was having a heart attack or something, so mom jerked him up and he got alright. He said something had him down and wouldn't let him up.

Well they thought it was just because he was drunk see, but later on Robert came by to spend the night and the same thing happened to him.

Well the next thing that happened was something started pulling the covers off of me and mom.

(Paul) Which one did it happen to first?

(Donnie) Me I think. Pat and her was in the other room watching television and I went off to bed. While I was laying there, I hadn't dozed off yet, the covers started sliding off the bed. I thought it was Pat teasing me, you know, so I started fussing. I jumped up and was going in the living room to tell Mom and I seen Pat and her was still sitting in there!

So I never said nothing you know I just kept real quiet. Then it happened to Mom a few nights later. She thought it was me and Pat doing it. She came flying out of there raising cane and she seen we were both in there, so she grabbed the flashlight and went back into the bedroom looking around, because we didn't have a light in that room, see?

She came back in the living room and I asked her what was wrong? Cause I already had a pretty good idea. When she told me I told her what happened to me a few nights before.

(Paul) She mentioned hearing walking sounds in the kitchen.

(Donnie) Oh yeah. Well Grandpa slept in the back room, the one that was a closed off porch. It was right next to the kitchen. He kept complaining that me and Pat were keeping him awake walking in the kitchen all night. Mom said she heard it too and thought it was him.

Mom said, "The next time you hear it you sneak out of bed and don't turn on any lights and I'll do the same on this end and we'll catch them between us. So a few nights later they heard it again and they eased out of bed and they ended up meeting in the middle of the kitchen floor! There was nobody there!

(Paul) Is that when you decided to move back home?

(Donnie) Yeah, since the haunting followed us over there they didn't see any sense in paying rent there so we moved back home.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (Part 21)

That night after dinner Katie was once again doing dishes so Paul sneaked and got his tape recorder.

(Paul) So when did you move back home after you moved out of the house on Robb's Lane?

(Katie) It was pouring down rain the day we moved back home. I dropped off Daddy and the kids and I had to go back to the house on Robb's Lane to get the last of our things, clothes and stuff. Well it rained so hard we had a flash flood and I was afraid to try and make it down McCawley Road. You know it had pot holes as wide as the road and it was hard enough to drive down it when it was sunny, let alone pouring rain.

So I said to myself, "I'll just take old man Lowe's Road." I knew he didn't want anybody going back there, but I thought,"I'll just go this one time anyway."

I got about half way back there and I spied a log across the road. I said, "Well that son of a gun has laid a log across the road so nobody can get through!" I said, "I'm going to go over the top of it!" And I did, but my God! It liked to have turned the car over. I looked in the rearview mirror and that log turned out to be that dang snake! It had curled up as big as a washing tub and it's head was looking right at me! Boy! I liked to have had a heart attack! I gunned that engine and I know I bet I was doing ninety down that old road!

Well life went on despite the haunting activity. Dutch came home with a surprise one weekend, two spitz puppies, both mostly white. Donnie picked the girl with the brown markings and named her Lassie and Pat picked the boy with the black markings and named him King.

Meanwhile Robert met a young woman named Jean who lived further down on McCawley Road. She had been previously married twice and had four kids. Ronnie who was Donnie's age, Marcus who was Pat's age and then a four year old girl named Carolyn and a three year old boy named Bobby.

Robert brought her over to the house to meet me and we became fast friends and Donnie and Pat became friends with Ronnie and Marcus.

Then later in 1954 Robert announced that him and Jean were going to have a baby. We I don't know who was the happiest Robert and Jean or me and Daddy. Especially since he found out that the baby would be born in September because his birthday was September 29th.

Robert was the youngest in our family and was always Daddy's favorite. He called him "Baby-boy" and now "Baby-Boy" was going to be a father, so Grandpa couldn't wait. He walked down to their house every day to visit them.

But he never got to see the baby. On June 30th Grandpa went into town. He was crossing the street when some guy ran the red light and hit him with his car. He was knocked 20 feet and the doctors said he wouldn't live through the night, but he lived fpr 3 days in a coma.

Then on July 2nd he came out of his coma. He told me that Mammy had come to see him and she said she would be back at 4pm. Well at 4pm exactly he died.

[John Reid]

"Tales of McCawley Road" (part 22)

(Paul) So what happened next?

(Katie)Well next Donnie's dog Lassie disappeared. He went out to the garage to feed the dogs and she wasn't there. Then he spotted her across McCawley Road heading into the woods. He called to her and she turned and looked at him and then disappeared into the woods. He never saw her again.

Our older dog snoopy had disappeared earlier which is why Dutch brought home the pups, so we started bringing King in the house with us at night. At this time there was only Me, Donnie and Pat living there.

One morning I was sitting up on the sofa. It was about five in the morning, just getting daylight. Well I saw Donnie and Pat start squirming over in the bed. I looked over at them and I saw what looked like a white smoky veil floating over the top of them.

Just as I saw it King saw it too! He ran over and lunged on top of their bed. He grabbed their blanket and yanked it off of them. It was a grey wool blanket that was given to us by the county when I was a little girl. You know we had washed it a million times. There wasn't a thing on it, it was just plain solid grey.

I threw it out in the front yard. Later when I went out in the yard when daylight came and spread it out and now that darn blanket had a big red "W" and scribbly writing on it.

I said, "Uh oh! I'm burning this son of a gun up!" I was out of kerosene so I gave Donnie a glass jug and sent him to the hardware store to buy us some. Just as he got back to the house it slipped out of his hands and broke. So I said, just go back and get some more and I gave him another quart jug. He no sooner got back when the same thing happened!

That was when I realized it was no accident. So I went out to the garage and found a can I could use and I got on Donnie's bicycle and I left Donnie and Pat sitting on the porch. I said, "Yall wait here." Cause I didn't want the blanket to disappear.

I got home and I poured that kerosene on that blanket and tried to light it. You know wool should just go up in smoke, but it wouldn't burn. I lit some newspaper and put in top of it and it just smothered out. It wouldn't burn.

So then I got mad! I went in the house and grabbed the bottle of Holy water and I came out and sprinkled that blanket and it went up into a huge flame and then green foam came rolling out of that blanket all over the ground. So I burned it up.

I said, "Well since I got this started, I'm burning up everything I've ever felt funny about, so I went in the house and burnt up every feather pillow we had.

The next morning, Donnie and Pat were laying there sleeping again and I saw Mrs. Wilkin's dog Blue peeping in the bedroom window at them. I remembered that Daddy said that a witch could use and animal to send a hex on you, so I jerked open the front door and threw Holy water on it.

This happened 3 days in a row and you know they found that dog over in field dead. They said there wasn't a mark on him and they couldn't figure out what killed him?

All of this happened in one month. Dutch had been transferred to Texas at that time. Well the next day it was pouring down rain and I was mad because I wanted to finish burning things up. I said, "Well I'm not going to be outdone. I'll just build a fire in the grate and burn them up there."

I didn't have any wood so I used this old vanity stool which had been in the house since we moved in. I broke that stool up and used that to start the fire.

Well my God! It liked to have burnt us up! It got to popping a crackling and fire ran all over that living room! I had a 3 sided screen in front of the grate and I had to flatten it out and stick it right up against that fireplace to keep the fire from coming out on us! Donnie and Pat stomped out the little fires it started.

One of the things I decided to burn was my white nylon blouse. I tossed it into the fire and green foam came out of that too and it was brand new!

Well about that time it sounded like a shot gun went off in that living room! I didn't know what had happened at the time, but we found out later that the chimney had cracked from the ground all the way to the roof! A crack about six inches wide!

That blast kind of got to me you know. Then I happened to look over in the window and there sat the ugliest bird I've ever seen in my life! It was coal black and it didn't hardly have any bill. It's mouth was real wide from ear to ear and it's eyes stuck out on the side of it's head. It didn't have feathers, it had hair or black fuzz. Black hair even up and down it's legs!

It wasn't very big but I was afraid to touch it! It's wings were kind of square looking. That thing would look at me and oh God! I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

The windows were up, but I had screens on them. The screens were hooked so I took a broom handle and unhooked them and pushed it out and it flew out and went across to those woods. Then I discovered that the chimney was split from the ground all the way up. I had to pay to have it cemented together.

But before that, the next day I said, "Well since I got this started I'm going to finish it." There was a featherbed upstairs on the floor in one of the rooms. It was also there when we moved in. I had already burned up all the feather pillows and I happened to think about that featherbed upstairs.

When I started to go get it, King beat me up the stairs. His hair was standing on end and he was carrying on like he was crazy. He went straight to that door and started digging and scratching on it. Then when I opened it he went running in and jumped in the middle of that featherbed and started trying to tear it apart!

I dragged it downstairs and took it outside. Once again, feathers should just go up in flames like hair, but it wouldn't burn. We lit a tire and when it got to burning real good we put the featherbed on it and it smothered out. I poured kerosene on it and it still wouldn't burn.

I split it open and reached inside and I started pulling out all sorts of strange stuff. There was a crocheted baby cap and then yards and yards of blue ribbon. I thought, "Well I've seen enough." I went in the house and got my bottle of Holy water and when I sprinkled it on that featherbed it went up into a big flame!

As we were standing there watching it burn, we were on the side of the house, in the kitchen we had a 150 gallon electric water heater which was sealed with a chrome band. While we were outside the lid blew off that hot water tank, blew across the kitchen and all the insulation blew out of the tank.

By the time Dutch returned from Texas we just about had the whole house cleaned out burning things up!

(Katie) Well he came home briefly in 1954 before they shipped him out to Korea.