1928 - Alderson High School - 1968

 

Another Tale for Halloween
Herman King 2008

 


Remember THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE?

Shirley Jackson's novel THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE was published in 1959.It became a classic of the supernatural genre. The movie was simply called THE HAUNTING. The first film version was in black and white, and starred two great actresses: Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. The updated version in colour had great special effects but as the story unfurled on screen it became too cartoonish, like the roadrunner chasing the coyote. The first version was understated, subtle and chilling.

When my family first moved to Wolf Creek we lived in a residence called the Hill House (named for a previous inhabitant). The Hill House was located at the mouth of Spruce Hollow. It was a decent enough place to live and we never experienced any strange going ons until one evening sitting around the table, talking about nothing in particular while digesting our supper. Suddenly there was a very loud sound that appeared to come from the fruit cellar, a sound of glass breaking and jars crashing onto the floor. There goes all the canned fruit and vegetables that mom had stored for the winter. We made our way down into the cellar, fully expecting to find a mess. We thought some animal had somehow got into the cellar and ruined mom's labor. Imagine our surprise when we found nothing disturbed. No jars were knocked onto the floor, there was no broken glass. Zilch, Nada. nothing. Years later, my brothers and I would still be wondering how to explain the event? We almost wished we had found chaos upon entering the cellar. Instead we found eerie, inexplicable mystery. In a way this Hill house was more mysterious than the famous one. It has me wondering to this day.