Monday, February 13, 2006

Local Monsters

(Should I be concerned that my computer has crashed every time I have done research for this post? And that the last time it crashed do hard that the "Recover Post" feature would not work?)

Every part of the world has its own legends and lore, myths and monsters. Northeastern Pennsylvania is no different. John Peruka has sought to publicize the "Secret of Olyphant", which you should probably hear about in his own words. Just last week I learned of the "Suscon Screamer" a fierce half-wolf / half-pig that haunts the area of Suscon Bridge, not far from the Grimes Industrial Park and the Pittston FedEx office. There is a spot in Scranton where, I am told, if you flash your headlights three times the devil-worshippers will come out to get you. (I don't know if these are the same illiterate devil worshippers and/or slaves to fashion who spray-painted "WORSHIP SATIN" at the Nay Aug Zoo back in 1985.) And, of course, there's the B'Gunk, a swamp monster who haunts the wilds of Glen Lyon. (The only way to get away from him, I am told, is to shout his name three times while running for your life: "B'Gunk! B'Gunk! B'GUNK!")

There are stories like this everywhere, and there are plenty of them here in NEPA. But what we don't have is a single coherent repository for all of the stories of ghosts and monsters, devil-worshippers and UFO's, local characters and local connections to the pyramids of Egypt. It's time somebody took care of that. I'm sure there's somebody out there who would be willing to write this stuff down. Why not write it up as a blog? Blogger.com offers the space for free, and it takes five minutes to get started. And I'll be sure to link you from NEPA Blogs!

So, what are you waiting for? Get started, and send me a link!

5 comments:

marcoshark said...

while not exactly NEPA...

http://www.weird-florida.com/SkunkApe.html

anne said...

I just got a great book for Christmas - "Weird Pennsylvania" - whcich has a lot of great tidbits about the state. It would be great to see one dedicated to our area. I'm certain NEPA could fill a book.

By the way, "worship satin" is priceless.

Anonymous said...

Anne, I thouht the same thing. :)

D.B. Echo said...

I got "Weird U.S." for Christmas 2004, and bought "Weird Pennsylvania" as soon as it came out - and then bought a few copies for friends so we could plan trips together. But I was disappointed that they missed "The Secret of Olyphant" - that's been in the papers numerous times, so it's not exactly unknown. There wasn't much coverage on these parts - the Molly Maguire handprint is indexed under "Carbon County", not "Jim Thorpe", the Mount Airy Lodge entry is not very accurate, and the bit about Harry Chapin never singing "20,000 Pounds of Bananas" in Scranton is just plain wrong - I doubt he would have ever been allowed to leave a show in Scranton WITHOUT performing that song!

PRAISE SATIN! Velour is pretty nice, too.

Anonymous said...

and so is silk...LOL!!!