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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween! Some Stories for this Evening's Fire

Tis then night for the unseen to be seen once more, and prowl the earth. Are you ready with your treats and tales for this evening's fun? Here are a few short and slightly spooky tales (the bones, really--you can fill in the details as you tell) to tell while you keep watch for the things that go bump in the night...or the hall...or on the stairs...


Tailypo: an old man who lives alone in a cabin in the woods with his three dogs (Uno, Ino, and Cumticocalico) thinks he'll have to go to bed hungry. Then he hears "scritch, scritch"--a critter is trying to get in his cabin through a gap between the floor and the log wall. He sees two little pointy ears, two red eyes, and big fluffy tail. He grabs his hatchet and cuts off the tail of the unusual creature. He tries to cook the tail for dinner but it tastes terrible so he throws it in the yard fofr his dogs.The creature returns again and again for its tail( "Tailypo, Tailypo, all I want is my Tailypo"), and with each appearance another dog disappears, until finally it is just the old man and the creature. “All I want is my Tailypo,” the creature says. "I don't have your ol' tailypo!" the old man cries. "You know, and I know, that you....DO! No one ever saw gthe old man or his dogs again, but on moonlit nights, listen and you might here the creature saying, “Now I’ve got my taily-po!”

Big Hairy Toe: someone digs up a big hairy toe in their garden. They take it home, cook it, and eat it. And...you guessed it...the owner of the toe follows them home, moaning, "who's got my great big hairy toe?" Through the house, up to the bedroom, locked the door,repeat the refrain “Who’s got my big hairy toe." And finally inside the bedroom…"YOU DO!"

Coming to Get Your Liver: little Johnny is scared to go to bed alone.He is in bed with the covers pulled up. Then he hears a spooky voice saying, "Johnny, I'm on the first step, coming to get your liver!" Johnny hides under covers, etc (you can stretch these tales out as far as you have the imagination to do!) until finally the voice is...right...outside...his...door... Then it's in the room and...gotcha! 

Golden Arm: a man or woman loses an arm and replaces it with a gold prosthetic limb. When the person dies, the arm is buried with them. Somebody digs up the grave and steals the golden arm. And of course, the thief is hounded by a voice that keeps repeating "who's got my golden arm?" (sound familiar?). You know the rest.
The tales are all similar, but so much fun to tell, especially if you can get the pacing right.
The photo above was taken by William Hope, a famous "ghost photographer" at the turn of the 20th century. To read a play based on this photo, check out this blog. It's a good read, and would be fun to do as reader's theater too. And for moreabout William Hope and his photos, go here and here. Arthur Conan Doyle always believed in Hope's authenticity, although others proved his photos were frauds. Such a shame--wouldn't we all love to believe such photos are real?
 
Happy haunting!
 



Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

3 comments:

  1. When I was young, the story went that there was a man whose liver had been cut out. He went sneaking around in the dark moaning, "Give me back my liver!"

    The scariest one I've ever heard ends up with a madman seated in a rocking chair, going back and forth and pulling one hair out of a body-less head with each creak back and forth. (Of course, the girlfriend of the decapitated girl had unknowingly slept with her, headless, all night...because every time she would wake up scared and check to see if her friend was still there with her...she only touched her hand and thought she was okay.) Of course, there happened to be an escaped lunatic running around in the neighborhood, so her friend had come over to keep her company while babysitting because she was scared to be alone. Does that one sound familiar? My older cousin told it to me when we visited her one summer, and it creeped me out big-time. She did a great job of pantomiming the madman in the chair rocking back and forth and pulling out a hair each time.

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Whoa. Sue, I've never heard that one, but how creepy. That's one to learn for the crowd that wants "really scary" stories!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Weeeeee!
    I ADORE the macabre!
    And I ABSOLUTELY ADORE it well told!

    Here's to the creepy story!
    ;)

    *Halloween huggies*
    Mimi

    (Lovin' your photo as well. I am a collector of old photographs but have never *scored* a creepy one! :)

    ReplyDelete

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