Dear Reader:
Isn’t there something exciting about an unexplained sighting of anything… especially when it is something ordinary being something or somewhere un-ordinary.
As I am writing this post… Monday afternoon… I am hoping the Sunday afternoon phenomenon will repeat itself… think it depends on who is winning in the skies… sun or clouds… they seem to battle it out daily. The sun won Sunday afternoon and that inadvertently produced the strange light.
“A strange light” … suddenly I was back in my classroom the first year I taught in Summerville and Halloween was approaching quickly… by then the students knew my love of stories… so when I asked the classes to write down the most famous ” true” Summerville ghost story-I read the same story title repeatedly… The Story of the Summerville Lights.
A few years ago… Channel Two did a special series on popular ghost stories in the Lowcountry. For Summerville… it was The Summerville Lights.
The main idea behind the original story was the daily ritual of a night conductor’s wife who showed up at midnight at the same spot along the railroad tracks in Summerville waving her lantern- the train would stop and then arm in arm the conductor and wife would walk home waving their lantern.
One night the train never appeared and later the news broke that the train had derailed and the night conductor killed… actually by decapitation… terrible news to break to his wife. Yet she never stopped showing up at midnight waving her lantern until her own death.
As time passed …the legend of the waving light spread and grew-it was told and repeated that if you traveled down the road late at night… the sounds of crickets and frogs -breezes and leaves would stop- if a motorist flashed their car lights… then a small ball of light resembling a lantern would start moving from side to side-if one walked towards it… it would give chase and your car would not start.
Today it is ” Lights Out” for this Summerville legend as new streets, shops and housing developments have swallowed up any remnants of the forests, woods and dirt roads that gave life to the legend many many years ago.
… and , unfortunately, the moving light that spread across my den door window covered by sheers, did not light up my den again. But was so glad I did get the title picture light shining behind my side garden Sunday afternoon… and as I followed its direction I was expecting to see a car with perhaps a side mirror where the sun’s rays were bouncing off it… instead the only thing in the right direction was … a ladder! Mystery… unsolved… the best kind.
So until tomorrow…
Today is my favorite day/Winnie the Pooh
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
The place of the flowers I have seen in Europe traveling for work for Bosch. I saw the most little areas in small villages in Southern Switzerland or as the Germans call I Der Schweitz. You would be amazed at how much we mispronounce European cities and towns. But there’s a place in Southern Switzerland called Lugano and there’s a large lake that divides Italy from Switzerland a natural border like we see here with rivers and lakes. But there are Swiss people that live right on the edge of the lake and there’s a walking path that’s right at their front doors. In Spring and Summer you see the prettiest flower’s growing around the lake edge and the people are so friendly and a good many speak English very well. Comes a point where the path ends and its sheer rock straight into the water. But you can take another trek around the lake edge and take a ferry across to more homes but stores and post office, and several Restaurants. We went to the Restaurant that gets their food from the lake. And some added from small vegetable gardens. When go inside and look out the window you see beautiful flowers, always bees everywhere and the people make honey and is a lot of the dishes. I have no idea what kind of small fish they serve are but they are the sweetest tasting fish I have ever eaten and the salads and vegetables were so fresh it was so good. I found out the fish are caught in the lake and it’s a glacial lake and the water is very cold year around. There are never swimmers in the lake. And it’s Crystal clear for a long way down and there are Trout, big Trout. But the walk back to the ferry more flowers in every nook and cranny and in boxes on walls. The area is beautiful but all those flowers, reds, blues whites yellows just bright colors and walking along that beautiful path along that beautiful crystal clear water and at a time of day reflections were across the lake, seeing mountain tops with snow on them. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Those flowers similar to those in your picture everywhere along the path. Unfortunately in Winter it all goes away. No hotels, they were back near and in. Lugano Switzerland which actually part of the town or city belongs to Italy as well. In the mornings when it was a warmer we would have breakfast outside. 1000s of people on foot and bycicle all waiting behind a large pole and at a set time like 7:00 am the Army Guards raise the bar and people run and ride Bikes as fast as bikes they can go making all kinds of noise shouting and the such. Italian workers rushing to their jobs in Switzerland. But such a beautiful place. Your picture just reminded me of the Lugano area.
I loved your descriptions Johnny… so many beautiful places in the world … makes me sad that man can create such beauty and then turn around and pollute it.
Sent from my iPhone