"The Legend of Boggy Creek"
For a fifteen year old kid, the story about the hairy creature in Arkansas was pretty scary. The summer passed and I completely forgot about the movie with baseball, learning to drive, chasing girls and being cool.
Fall arrived and we scouted for deer and I got my stand ready. Everything was in place by opening day. Early that Saturday, my Dad and "Doc" Cox headed toward the river to bowhunt and I borrowed Docs' 1967 Chevy Station Wagon. I headed up the gravel road and across the Holly Springs National Forest. It was still way before day and the weather was perfect. Still and cool, and absolutely no traffic coming or going. I felt I was completely alone. I found the hidden parking spot off the road, pulled in and turned the motor off. I reached in the back seat grabbed my bow, opened the door and got out. I closed the door.
An overwhelming fear hit me, the likes I have never felt before. The image and face of the terrifying Boggy Creek Monster suddenly jumped into my mind and the realization that he was waiting just a few feet away in the woods paralyzed me.
I shined my flashlight all around, I did not see him but I sure as hell knew he was behind the nearest tree, ready to grab me up and eat me.
I could not make myself go in the woods that morning. I waited till after daylight with the motor running and the lights on, then headed back to camp.
To make matters worse, I had not gone 200 hundred yards down the road when a really big buck trotted across the road heading straight at my stand. Double stupidity.
This was the last time I let my childish fear of the unknown keep me from the woods.
3 comments:
That is the worst feeling. I've had that feeling a time or two. The worst for me is washing dishes or something with my back turned to the rest of the room and being absolutely sure that there is someone standing behind me watching me. Then, when I turn around, there's no one there.
Hate that feeling.
I had that feeling once. I'm not afraid to be by myself, I've done it all my life. Hubby has worked odd hours. I'm not afraid of break-ins, or storms, or anything. However ...
One night I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that someone was inside the house, in the hallway outside the bedroom where I was sleeping. I had to suck up that scary feeling and get my had on the gun, ... slowly get up, go look in the hallway.
Nothing! I've never had that feeling again and I have no idea what it was.
I used to work for a business that linked up to some 250 year old tunnels under downtown. My boss pointed them out and said they hadn't been explored in a hundred years. I chickened out. What a lost opprotunity.
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