Welcome to A View of the Town, the adventures of Dr. Willis Fletcher in a small coastal town in Maine. Offering tidbits of local color and the lay of the land, we now return to Dr. Fletcher and The Tale of the Witch's Woods.
This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by... Trees. The taller they are, the harder they fall. So be careful and watch for their falling. Trees.
And now on with A View of the Town, Episode 5...
I've been promising to tell you about the Witch's Woods just north of Misty Cove. If you follow East street all the way north, it eventually tees and you will run right into the edge of the woods. If you turn left, you will head out of town to Wasterman's farm. And turning right will take you the Atlantic and the docks. Of course, you also have the option of traveling into the woods on the dirt road. Not many choose that option, but I can tell you at Halloween, you'll always spot a cluster of kids standing there. "I dare you" one will say. "I double-dare you" is often the reply. This banter will go back and forth among the crowd, until one young lad will take the dare to venture off into the woods.
Now we're not really sure what the truth is to the Witch's Woods other than back in 1882, a woman by the name of Amaryllis Stemm wondered into the woods and never came back out. The legend goes that Stem had come in on a steamboat from somewhere down the coast. Some say Salem, others say Savannah, but regardless, the locals believed her to be a witch. She checked into Easterly's Hotel for one night where she created a ruckus of chanting and "voodoo" as Mr. Easterly had refereed to it. It was said that the townsfolk had seen blue balls of light coming from her second-floor room. Some imagined them to balls of blue fire. Others said they looked like thick bubbles floating out the window. Regardless, she spooked the whole town with her hocus pocus.
The next morning, under the suspicious eyes of the everyone, Amaryllis Stemm packed up, walked right down the center of town and into the woods. She was never seen nor heard from again. At least not in the flesh. I have tried to winnow out the rumors from the facts. One of those facts being that over the course of several years, blue balls of light could be seen floating around in those woods. Many believe that Stemm is still in there, practicing and waiting for the moment to... well... cause trouble. I guess. No one ever really said what she might do. But they do fear that she might make off with one of their children.
I can related this story, part fact, part rumor. A few years ago, one local youngster, Otis Major, took up Hubert Stinct and his gang's double-dare and ventured off into the woods on Halloween. It was dusk so they could see him and he could easily wonder back. As the boys watched poor Otis traipse along, a band of blue lights spun up out of the underbrush and started to follow him. Now the boys say that Otis fell down and never came back up again. His mother tells a different story. Otis showed up three days later as if he were in a trance. He told her about meeting a young woman who matched Stemm's description. When she asked where he had been, he simply muttered the most fantastic story and never spoke again... which by the way isn't true. Otis Major later became a writer and moved to some place in Washington State. His mother told me, but I don't remember exactly.
Join us again next time, when Dr. Fletcher tells us the story that Otis Major related about his time in the Witch's Woods.
This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by... Trees. They'll leaf every fall, but return every spring. Trees.
CSM
This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by... Trees. The taller they are, the harder they fall. So be careful and watch for their falling. Trees.
And now on with A View of the Town, Episode 5...
I've been promising to tell you about the Witch's Woods just north of Misty Cove. If you follow East street all the way north, it eventually tees and you will run right into the edge of the woods. If you turn left, you will head out of town to Wasterman's farm. And turning right will take you the Atlantic and the docks. Of course, you also have the option of traveling into the woods on the dirt road. Not many choose that option, but I can tell you at Halloween, you'll always spot a cluster of kids standing there. "I dare you" one will say. "I double-dare you" is often the reply. This banter will go back and forth among the crowd, until one young lad will take the dare to venture off into the woods.
Now we're not really sure what the truth is to the Witch's Woods other than back in 1882, a woman by the name of Amaryllis Stemm wondered into the woods and never came back out. The legend goes that Stem had come in on a steamboat from somewhere down the coast. Some say Salem, others say Savannah, but regardless, the locals believed her to be a witch. She checked into Easterly's Hotel for one night where she created a ruckus of chanting and "voodoo" as Mr. Easterly had refereed to it. It was said that the townsfolk had seen blue balls of light coming from her second-floor room. Some imagined them to balls of blue fire. Others said they looked like thick bubbles floating out the window. Regardless, she spooked the whole town with her hocus pocus.
The next morning, under the suspicious eyes of the everyone, Amaryllis Stemm packed up, walked right down the center of town and into the woods. She was never seen nor heard from again. At least not in the flesh. I have tried to winnow out the rumors from the facts. One of those facts being that over the course of several years, blue balls of light could be seen floating around in those woods. Many believe that Stemm is still in there, practicing and waiting for the moment to... well... cause trouble. I guess. No one ever really said what she might do. But they do fear that she might make off with one of their children.
I can related this story, part fact, part rumor. A few years ago, one local youngster, Otis Major, took up Hubert Stinct and his gang's double-dare and ventured off into the woods on Halloween. It was dusk so they could see him and he could easily wonder back. As the boys watched poor Otis traipse along, a band of blue lights spun up out of the underbrush and started to follow him. Now the boys say that Otis fell down and never came back up again. His mother tells a different story. Otis showed up three days later as if he were in a trance. He told her about meeting a young woman who matched Stemm's description. When she asked where he had been, he simply muttered the most fantastic story and never spoke again... which by the way isn't true. Otis Major later became a writer and moved to some place in Washington State. His mother told me, but I don't remember exactly.
Join us again next time, when Dr. Fletcher tells us the story that Otis Major related about his time in the Witch's Woods.
This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by... Trees. They'll leaf every fall, but return every spring. Trees.
CSM
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