Todd Atteberry: Portrait and event photography in southern Illinois and Evansville, Indiana : Photo Keywords : era

keyword pages: 1 2 3 >

< 1 of 23 >

toddatteberry > Huntington Village photo

toddatteberry > The Kissam House, Huntington Village Green, Huntington Village, New York

toddatteberry > Soldiers and Sailors Cemetery, Formerly the Old Burial Ground and Fort Golgotha, Huntington Village, New York

toddatteberry > Huntington Village Green, Huntington Village, New York

toddatteberry > Alone
Mount Misery
Melville, New York

toddatteberry > Looking into Sweet Hollow From Mount Misery
Melville, New York

toddatteberry > On Mount Misery
West Hills County Park, Melville, New York

toddatteberry > Towering
Mount Misery, Melville, New York

toddatteberry > The Old Man Carrying A Basket Full of Severed Heads
Melville, New York

So I was walking through the woods on Mount Misery with my little guy, who was having a fun time until I told him the following story ...

"You know, there's a story about these woods, that people used to see a man in rags wandering this very trail, and in his hands he carried a basket of human heads."

"Where did he get the heads daddy?"

"Well there was a series of murders, and the killer was never caught, so that could have been him. On the other hand, there have been lots of people who got lost here and never came out, so it could have been them too."

"I wanna go back to the car daddy."

"But on the other hand, it could just be a story. When I was a little boy, a friend of mine's mommy told him about the crazy man that lived in the old house down the street from where your grandma lives, and he told us about it. Remember it? The one falling down that looks haunted?"

He nodded without looking up, busy looking around into the woods, ahead of us on the trail, his head turning to look behind us.

"Well one day a bunch of us decided it wasn't true, and we dared each other to go up and knock on the door of the house. Finally I got up the nerve, walked up on the porch and looked in the window. And it looked totally empty in there, so I knocked. No answer. I knocked again and there was no answer. So the other boys with me came up and we all had fun knocking away at the door, till I looked up. Standing there looking at us was a big guy in overalls, with a crazy grin on his face, holding a shotgun."

"What did you do?"

"We ran, and ran and ran. I ran all the way home and told my mom about it. And you know what she told me? It turns out there was an old man who lived there. The grocery story just down the street used the house as a warehouse. And since they had all that stuff in there, they needed someone to watch over it. The old man who lived there wasn't crazy, but was actually retarded. So they gave him a place to live, food to eat and a little money, and he made sure no one broke in and stole anything."

"So why did that other boy's mommy tell him that story?"

"Sometimes mommies and daddies will tell their kids a story to scare them, so that they don't go someplace they shouldn't go, where they might get into trouble. Or get lost. My mommy told me the story of Black Annie, just as her mommy told her the same story for the same reason."

"So maybe there never was a man with a basket of heads? Maybe that was just a story mommies told their kids?"

"Maybe, maybe not. At any rate they never solved the murders, found the bodies or caught the man or found his basket. And some people say he's out here still."

"I wanna go back to the car daddy."

Huntington Village photo

See photo in original gallery.

Other sizes: Small • M • L |

Keywords: island art long architecture york photographer prints huntington british century colonial posters occupation era

keyword pages: 1 2 3 >

< 1 of 23 >

Todd Atteberry, 710 North Fourth Street, Carmi, Illinois 62821 (631) 935-4726

| print archives