That Halloween place –
10-11-2010,05:59 AM
Do you have a favourite Halloween place and what is it? It could be a particular house, graveyard, stretch of road, a wood, a viewpoint etc.
For me there are a couple. The first is a 300m long path on Wimbledon Common in South West London, there's nothing unduly special about it other than that it's completely covered overhead by trees and it blocks out all sound from the surrounding area.
I once took an early evening walk down the path one October 30th to place a couple of props for my nephews to find the following day on our ghost walk - we were searching for the ghost of the notorious highwayman John Tibbet (the area is well know for it's association with highwaymen) - it was getting dark and the place is very creepy. After hiding the props I turned to head back to the open Common and there, at the end of the path, silhouetted against the dark blue of the sky, was a man in flowing cloak atop a very big horse. My heart leapt and I had a few brown trouser moments before I realised it was one of the park rangers dressed in his waterproof trenchcoat doing his rounds, as I passed him I tried to say a cheery'hello' but could only manage a mousey squeak - not my finest hour but it was Halloween gold.
The other place is a bend in a road atop a hill in Wimbledon village. On either side of this road are large houses with big tree-lined front gardens. At a certain time of day you can drive up there and all of the gardens look dark and forbidding but with doors and windows lit beyond them, not really creepy but very atmospheric.
Actually that's one of my abiding memories of Halloween, walking the dark streets of my home town as a child and being spooked by the darkness (still half believing in the old stories), but it was always around the time when Dad's would be getting home from work and from the houses drifted the smell of food and the muffled sounds of people talking. Perfect Suburbia.
The steeples are white in the wild moonlight,
And the trees have a silver glare;
Past the chimneys high see vampires fly,
And harpies of upper air. That flutter, laugh and stare.
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