Ain't No Haint Gonna Run Me Home

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.  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.”

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.  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.

I have heard of strange things that happen in the night.  One thing is lights that appear and move through the sky.  Where I grew up there were such occurrences until people had security lights.  I never saw these lights up home, 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.  My cousin Floyd said a light came in the house one night while he was asleep.  Grandpaw Chapman followed one down in the woods.

That night the light jumped into the road and headed toward us.  Kansas folks said the light would do 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.  No one has ever been able to explain what was wrong with him other than his mind never developed.  He was a giant six feet, four inch, two hundred fifty pound kid.  He loved to play his Roy Rogers guitar and he loved my mom.  Momma had to get Ellis off dad one time when Uncle Ellis thought dad was hurting mom.  Dad said Uncle Ellis had unbelievable strength.  Uncle Ellis died young. He died before my first birthday.

It seems that Uncle Ellis and Uncle Clifton, who was younger, were walking home from school after the bus dropped them off.  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.  It was ideal for haints.  To make it 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.  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 a rock 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.

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).

Spring Break

Since it is Spring Break, many will be headed to exotic destinations.  A majority of High school and college students will head to the beach.  The beach is attractive, but I do not care for it.  I do meet friends each year at Gulf Shores, Alabama for Christmas.  On one occasion, I observed “Snow Birds” enjoying the beach and I was inspired to write the following poem.

FLEEING THE TEMPTER

A seagull chases a killdee* up and down, round and round.

As long as the killdee flees, the seagull cannot catch it.

So, in its illusiveness they race just inches above the crashing and roaring waves.

Children play in the sand, some tiptoe to the edge of the sea’s invitation to dive into its threshold.  In innocence, they laugh as incoming waves chase them away from the sea.

Guardians along the shore keep watch over the naïve younglings.

Seagulls stand guard and await the seas invitation to dine upon its continual supply of refuse, trash, and skeletons of creatures fallen in the sea. 

The temptation is too great for them and they feast. 

Unnoticed, people walk by the seagulls that focus on the sea’s roar calling to dine.

Some walk along the waters edge slowly seduced by the hypnotic voice of the deep.

Quickly escaping the tempter’s snare, they flee the cold chill of the rushing waves.

Briskly they saunter along the shore with no destination in mind.

Leaving their footprints upon the sands of time, troubled waves wash them quickly away.  Slowly they fade way leaving no evidence that have resisted the seas continual seduction.

The older generation sits and reflects upon the repeated temptation of the sea as it vacillates.

It reminds them of life’s continual restlessness that will continue long after they are gone. 

They reminisce of childhood sand castles that vanished long ago with the shifting sand. 

They think of romantic yesterdays as they watch two lovers embrace as the waves crash to shore.  They think of past passions as the sun is seduced and slowly enters into the sea. 

In the seduction, the sun loses its brilliant glow and blushes as it kisses the sea.

Only moments before, the sun’s flame had made the sky crystal clear, pure, and virgin blue.

It sparkled like a diamond in the cold winter air penetrating the air with a warm embrace. 

The sand that glistened as a bride dressed in white meeting her groom, now besmirched.

Suddenly, the seagull stops his pursuit of flirting killdee.

Temptation to dine overcomes the seagull as it dives into the sea for its prey.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7b KJV).

*Killdee is a small bird that runs along the beach.