I love dark nights
when you can see billions of stars.
Things look different at night.
Ordinary objects take life and your imagination begins to run while. I remember jogging one night on an old dirt
road near my home. It was beautiful
until I felt the presence of something behind me. All of a sudden, I began to imagine this
hideous green demon with one red eye breathing down my neck. Thinking about him floating behind me, I
picked up my pace a step or two and thought about what my daddy told me one
time about darkness in a graveyard. He
said, “Don’t be afraid of the dark.
Ain’t nuthin’gonna hurt you.
People there are dead.”
Well, those were
reassuring words when there ain’t no haints around, but the goose bumps popping
out on my arms, the rising hair on my neck, and the knocking of my knees were
not too optimistic about my daddy’s words.
Granny Hopper said
the best thing to do when haints, goblins, and the devils imps are around is
shew them away in the name of Jesus. I
was more optimistic about Granny Hopper’s words than dad’s words. So, that is what I did. I said, “In the name of Jesus I command you
to leave demon.” I must say jogging does
get your heart rate up, especially if you jog with a haint. Praying for the Lord to help is comforting.
Growing up in
rural Chilton County I heard plenty of stories about
strange things that happen in the night.
One strange thing is lights that appear and move through the sky. Where I grew up there were such occurrences
until people earned enough money and went modern with security lights.
My Grandpaw
Chapman saw these mysterious lights in the western horizon of his farm. After several events he finally decided to
investigate, which was a feat in itself seeing as Grandpaw was a tad skittish.
He followed the light down into the words to the north of his property where
the light descended down a tree and into the ground. The next morning he returned to the tree and
dug up some metal, which he thought to be copper. The light never returned.
My cousin Floyd
had one of these lights wake him. He
said he thought it was someone with a flashlight. He said it hovered over him for a while. Floyd had goose bumps, rising hair and
knocking knees. He went from sleeping to
running.
I never saw these
lights, but I did see some in Oklahoma. The Chilton Baptist Builders were working in Baxter Springs, Kansas. Some of the folks wanted to know if we wanted
to see the lights that were just over the state line and since the T.V. program
That’s Incredible had been there a
few weeks prior to our coming. It is one
of those unexplainable phenomenons with lights bouncing in the sky.
I must say the
light reacted much like the ones I heard about in Alabama.
That night the light jumped into the road and headed toward us. Kansas
folks said the light would react with all sorts of oddities. Some there said the light got into their
car. Others said it would come toward
them disappear and reappear. I guess the
light was scared of Alabama
folks because it never got real close but I did see it and kept some newspaper
articles about it as souvenirs from the trip.
I have never seen
any unexplainable spooks at night other than those lights, but my Uncle Ellis
did. One afternoon while returning home
from school, he saw a haint. Uncle Ellis
was not quite right. Not being quite
right must be a Hopper trait. No one has
ever been able to explain what was wrong with him other than his mind never
developed mentally. He was a giant, a six
feet, four inches, two hundred fifty pounds of kid. He loved to play his Roy Rogers guitar and he
loved my mom and me. I was a baby.
Momma had to get
Ellis off dad one time when Uncle Ellis thought dad was hurting mom. Mom and dad would be very physical during
playful spats. Dad said Uncle Ellis had
unbelievable strength. Uncle Ellis died
young, before my first birthday.
Once Ellis was
told to stay in a truck why highway patrol officers questioned my Uncle James
and my daddy. Uncle James, who worked at
a service station, sold the headlights of the truck to a man that had blown
both of his. As Uncle James and dad
explained why they were driving at dusk without lights, another officer went to
the passenger side of the truck and told Uncle Ellis to get out. This officer was a rookie in training.
Having satisfied
the senior officer’s interrogation, the senior asked the location of his
partner. Uncle Ellis was still sitting
in the truck as told. Dad asked, “Ellis
where is the highway patrolman?”
Uncle Ellis
replied, “He’s there in tha detch.”
Down in the ditch
was the officer out cold. When they
asked Ellis what happened, he said the officer stuck a pistol in his face and shined
a flashlight in his face while telling him to get out of the pickup. I can see Barney Fife telling a professional
wrestler to get out. Ellis said he did
not say anything to the patrol officer and the officer told him to get out
again. After a third time, the officer
threatened Ellis. When threatened, Ellis
responded the only way he knew. He told
Uncle James, dad, and the senior officer that he took the flashlight from the
officer, knocked officer in the head, and threw him in the ditch.
Ellis did exactly as
told by his older brothers. He stayed in
the pickup. They all laughed and the
senior officer reprimanded the rookie.
Uncle James, Uncle Ellis, and dad finally made it home before it was too
dark.
Some time before
the flashlight incident it seems that Uncle Ellis and Uncle Clifton, who was
younger, were walking home from school after the bus dropped them off on a dirt
road. My great-uncle Kelly decided to
scare his two nephews. His scheme was to
hide in the ditch and scare them as the autumn sun was setting and shadows were
growing long, the time we call the twilight zone. It was ideal for haints. To make the ghost more realistic, Uncle Kelly
had a sheet over him.
As my two uncles
walked by him, great-uncle Kelly jumped from the ditch and yelled Booooo! Uncle Clifton lit out like a “scalded dawg.” Daddy said they measured Uncle Clifton’s
footprints and they were unbelievably far apart.
All out of breath,
Uncle Clifton told the family that a haint had Ellis. Everyone snickered knowing that it was Kelly
in a sheet. Uncle Clifton was terrified
as any little boy would be. Several
family members sitting on the front porch consented to see if the haint got
Ellis.
As they got about
half way there, they spotted Ellis. He
was walking at a normal pace enjoying the fall colors and the growing darkness
as trees blocked the setting sun. Uncle
Ellis was in his own little world.
They asked Ellis about the haint. Ellis said the haint was in the ditch. They asked what happened. Ellis said, “Hummm, I pick’d up er rok and
hit tha haint in tha head.”
“Where’s the
haint,” they asked.
Ellis said, “Up
thar en tha detch.” When the family arrived to the haunted ditch, they found
Kelly, the Out Cold Ghost. Great-uncle
Kelly learned that Uncle Ellis wasn’t afraid of haints just like the rookie
patrol officer found out Uncle Ellis was not scared of flashlights and pistols.
“And when the
disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a
spirit; and they cried out for fear. But
straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not
afraid.” (Matthew 14:26-27 KJV)
