This is a very small story from the Dogpatch Vermont ghost story files.  It doesn't have any bells and whistles, but I'm fond of it because it is a classic in its inconclusion.  I think most encounters with ghosts are exactly like this.  Happy Cabbage Night.

 

Most people don&rsqu… Read full post »

Phone Calls from the Dead isn’t my title, but that of a 1979 book by D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless.  It’s one of the scariest books I’ve ever read, outlining rather dryly the specifics of a phenomenon that may been in existence since the invention of the telephone.  Th… Read full post »

Extracurricular Activities at Brigham Academy Part II

 

The first part of this story is here.  So we had left Principal Ed listening to footsteps coming down the stairs above his office, which was this space

 

 right underneath this staircase

 

 

&nbs… Read full post »

Here's another never-told tale from the Dogpatch Vermont ghost story files, which is still not the one I intended for odetteroulette, but that one was tiring me out.  And who wants to read a boring ghost story? 

This one is a little more exciting.   

 

 

Extracu… Read full post »

This is another one from the Dogpatch Vermont ghost story files.  I vowed to do a post in honor of this post,  but this isn't it, odetteroulette.  I'm still working on that one, which is longer and more involved than I remembered.  This one's a little punchier.  Consider it t… Read full post »

I don't know, polish up your citizen journalist resumes.  Because the Salon ship seems headed into murky waters. 

I'm not sure what a true web publication looks like, but I think it involves yellow teeth and contentless posts.  So this is a practice run.  

 

The name of… Read full post »

As many of you know, I am very very poor and my idea of a big day  - well, really a big Bad Day - is going to the big supermarket in town to buy dog food.  My agoraphobia is such that I would really prefer to buy the dog food… Read full post »

Spam in comments - what will they think of next?  Because you can't flag an OS member's posts if they don't post.

I am almost in awe of the dedication.   But Miller Smith has gone too far.  Look at the name of his account -  he's blaming his mom!!! 

 

For…

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Way back in the mists of time, i.e. fifteen years ago, wild parsnip was an interesting rarity along the edges of my lane - a tallish plant, blooming  like a yellow version of Queen Anne’s lace, but not pretty enough to make me want to pick it. … Read full post »

 

 

Yeah, I know.  This is kind of obnoxious.  Who am I to be giving out awards?

Well, this started in the midst of my personal midsummer Sargasso Sea, or - to scramble my metaphors -  an abyss of depression that has dragged me… Read full post »

Part I is here.

A local Stowe historian, Robert Hagerman,  may have been the first to mention the story of Emily's Bridge in print in 1972, but it was well-known enough for a local girl, Susan Twombly, to have collected several accounts from Stowe natives in 1969, for a high school…

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Emily’s Bridge, Again

“Not that damned bridge again!”  I can hear the disgruntled cry of any Vermont ghost story aficionado who might be reading this.  Alas, I’m sorry, yes.  It’s the one Vermont ghost story that has gotten wide attention, and I can&rsq… Read full post »

OS ratings are really dumb.  Don’t get me wrong – I like ratings as much as anyone.  Okay, maybe not as much as some people, but enough.  It’s nice to see the numbers edge above zero.  Comments are nice, too.  People who say they want comments, not ratings,… Read full post »

Once upon a time, in the days before Dogpatch was Dogpatch, I had civilized lawns.  A huge willow corralled a small grove of trees in the northeast corner between the back and side yards, and sugar maples shaded the front yard along the lane, but otherwise, the homestead’s immediate acre w… Read full post »

The rest of the ghost story that was the back story to the spectral sneeze.  Part I is here. 

The first morning of that memorable weekend in late-70's July, Wendy got up and reached in her dresser drawer for a pair of pants, only to find that they were soaked.  They…

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This is the ghost story collected at the time my Dictaphone recorded a ghost sneezing. I found out about it because there was another, more disturbingly haunted house in Fair Haven, whose residents knew Wendy X. and Chris Y.  This is not as interesting as the Belfry, because we can only… Read full post »

Well, my version, anyway.  Don’t get sniffy.  I need to amuse myself in the face of many pending apocalypses, unpaid vet bills, and a dead lawn mower. 

I was going to do a whole convoluted thing about dolls and Cylons and interchangeable atoms, with reference to the clever thro… Read full post »

If Dollhouse is haunted, it’s by the wraiths of sad Whedonites like me, who wanted to believe that this television program was going to be another stellar, obsession-worthy series by the Master.  It’s certainly not ha/… Read full post »

 

[Previously,  the obliteration of Ohio, and Apocalypse at the movies.]

 

 

I was just skimming the surface of apocalyptic possibilities in my first two posts.    The Apocalypse Corner could really be the Apocalypse MegaMall.   This is not a place for…

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Back in the good old days when the only thing we worried about was the spread of Communism, there was this weird bragging contest among American populations, both rural and urban, as to who would be the first to be decimated by Russian nuclear missiles.  Why we thought it was a… Read full post »

 

 The Disappointed Gardener is the gardening supplement to Dogpatch Days, explained here, and continued here, and here.

 

Theoretically, I could be planting peas right now.  I should be planting peas, as in a perfect world, northern version, it is pea-planting time.  I would… Read full post »

 

 

As a diversion from the gloom of a spring depression, which has me contemplating my futureless future and the meaninglessness of my life, I am considering a topic that has enthralled me for some years now – the incipient end of the world.  This is scheduled for… Read full post »

Back when I was still in the world, and actively collecting Vermont ghost stories, people used to ask me if I’d ever seen a ghost.  They did this more hopefully than hoity-toitily, so I always felt like I was a disappointment when I said no.  Wanting to recapture some of my… Read full post »

(The Disappointed Gardener is the gardening supplement to Dogpatch Days, explained here, and continued here.)

 

If you are planning to be poor this year, it would behoove you to grow some kale, if you have any patch of sunny ground or stoop  available.  I am going to grow more kale…

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Despite the fact that I have had dogs most of my life, there was a time when I didn't really know what ticks were, beyond the dictionary meaning.  Fleas - yes.  Most assuredly yes – I knew fleas intimately.  I have distinct, vivid memories of setting off flea bombs and… Read full post »