Romping In The Playground In My Mind

Simply breathtaking. That is the only choice of words I have to describe this day of February. My previous day's company arrived mid afternoon and the wonderful relaxing times never ceased to abound.

Annie had a couple of her friends over to play. Yes, Annie is a girl, but her closest friends are boys. She's not one of them girly girl types. She would much rather play outside, climb trees and build forts. Last night, the trio built a campfire and then implored for it to become real. A real fire to roast hot dogs and melt marshmallows, I, of course, complied.

The three laughed and ate hot dogs, drank Dr. Pepper, burned marshmallows and released into the dusk...tales of apparitions and ghostly visitors. As I watched from the kitchen window, a smile of contentment spread slowly across my face, because while she basked in the glory of being a child maturing into a teenager...I knew that way too soon, she'll trade her tennis shoes for high heels, her bubble gum for lipstick and her baseball caps for ear rings.

Be a story teller...captivate your audience, whether it be two ten year old boys or a coliseum filled with avid fans. Chance is a gift, so act on chance when given the opportunity.

The Shadow, A Ghost OR Just A Chance Shot?

My friend Jesse, whom I've blogged about before has lost a mother, father, brother and now his sister Myrna to cancer. Jesse is a cancer survivor and he is now caring for his sister Ramona who has also been diagnosed with cancer. Myrna's cancer was detected rather late which didn't give her much of a chance to beat it.

Myrna loved all things scary. I think she had like almost every scary movie known to mankind. Halloween was her most favorite holiday and she preferred doing things in the dark. Myrna died October 29th and was buried on October 31st, yep...on Halloween. The ceremony at the church was also delayed due to no electricity, yep...they had the service in the dark!

Then, Halloween night, the family drove around town, paying homage to all the local ghosts, possibly wrapping houses in fond memory of Myrna and creating their own way of saying goodbye. On the way to do some tricking, a cousin snapped her camera at the carport to make sure the flash was working. This is the photo she caught. If you look closely, you can see a black figure, that shaped of a man, leaning over a table.

Wink Texas Ghostly Tales Continue

I mentioned in a comment to Durango that something even spookier occurred that evening of the Thunder Road excursion. The young lady who bravely sprinkled baby powder also related this story:

"Between the years 1910-1926, Wink, a bustling expanding oil town, experienced a great migration of people wanting to invest and become wealthy. One of those migrates, a young man, his wife and their baby daughter, settled on the outskirts of town on HWY 115. The young family erected a moderate home and the inexperienced business man and father set about the business of growing his wealth. In the
beginning, oil shot through the air, people made money hand over fist, investments reaped plenty." This is where the story becomes a bit convoluted, but this man as well as plenty of others experienced the depression and succumbed to losing his fortune. "Fear and trepidation set in as the man drove home that evening, afraid to tell his wife that they had lost everything. He fatefully decided he couldn't face his family and have them look upon him as the failure he'd become. He arrived home that evening, paused in front of the little house, rested his hand on the tall tree from where the rope swing swayed gently in the breeze. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, rolled slowly into his eyes, blurring his vision momentarily, but the axe finally came into focus. With purpose, he gripped the axe handle, felt the smooth wood and steadily trudged towards the house. Upon entering the homestead, the man set about the grisly business of killing his wife and daughter. Overwhelming grief settled in, and he hung himself from the tree using his daughter's rope swing."

The story continued with, "if you go down that road late at night and you see three owls, the man's disturbed spirit is out seeking revenge." Revenge for what...I wasn't sure, but not only did we see an owl, but a large white cow stood passively in the middle of the road. Our headlights beamed making the cow's eyes glow red. It truly was eerie and all that occurred before the tracks and baby powder.

I returned home that evening, exhausted and still a bit excited from the night's events. Since we just moved to Wink, my little brother and I were sharing a room and a mattress on the floor. He was already asleep as I crawled into the makeshift bed. I had a nightmare and awoke, I looked over to my left and a white figure was sitting up next to me. I covered my head with the blanket and proceeded to scream. I believe my brother was also screaming which caused my parents to come flying down the hallway to our room. Once the lights were turned on, and my parents were able to calm us both, they returned to bed. I laid there next to my younger brother and admitted that I had the strangest dream...a man dressed in white, wielding an axe, entered our room and said that we were not going to get out alive. My brother's eyes widened to large saucers...he said, "I had the same dream."

I know it seems to be an unbelievable story, but my brother and I have discussed it and both of us even today, vividly remember the dream. What is even odder and unfortunate...the young lady who related the story of Thunder Road...took her own life a month before graduation in the year of 1987.

Wink Texas and Ghostly Tales

I googled Wink, Texas just to see what would come up and found this unusual link to WinK Texas Ghost Tales. I thought it might be fun and interesting to have an actual ghost story about Wink the next time the kids and I are sitting at the fire pit sharing stories. I was clearly disappointed with what I read;

"A female grasping her head by her arm can repeatedly be spotted thinking in Wildcat Stadium very late at night. Locals here who have noticed this ghost argue this ghost is the ghost of a vacationer that was murdered while traveling through Wink some decades ago."

When I moved to Wink, Texas back in 1985, I was immediately whisked away by a group of local girls who insisted upon taking me to Thunder Road. The legend of Thunder Road goes something like this:

"A bus driver and a load of kids stalled on the rail road tracks. The door became stuck on the bus and the driver and all the kids were trapped. A train came barreling down the tracks, hitting the bus and killing everyone on the bus. Legend has it that if you drive out to Thunder Road late at night and park your car on the tracks and kill the engine that the spirits of the bus driver and children will try to push the car off the tracks. To capture this phenomena you must sprinkle baby powder on the rear window and back of car."

The eerie thing is, that right when I started writing this blog...thunder began to roar.

Like I said, I being the new girl in town was whisked away to witness this event and to have the daylights scared out of me. We drove out to Thunder Road, made our way down to the tracks, killed the engine and sat there in the dark. There were four girls and we were all volunteering the other to get out and put the baby powder on the car. Finally, one of the girls got out and did the deed. We sat there for a good 5 minutes in the dark, quiet...hardly breathing, until someone suggested we had been there long enough.


We made our way back to Wink and stopped just short of the tennis courts. We conspired and decided that we were going to fake the hand prints and freak out the boys that were practicing tennis. To our surprise, hand prints were already on the car and rear window! Small child size prints and one set of large adult size prints, suggesting that of the bus driver. I don't think anyone believed us, but I knew and the other girls were certain that we had experienced a truly paranormal event.