Category: non-fiction
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All Souls’ Day
The day after Halloween is All Saints’ Day (in the Catholic Church calendar). The next day is All Souls’ Day. The soul. Many agree it is the mystical core of our being…our existence. This is the blank slate that gets stained and marked and written upon through our deeds in life. When our corporeal bodies…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve XVI: “Is My Childhood Home Haunted?”
Sometime in 2005, I handed the keys of my childhood home to the new owners. That action was very difficult for me. This was the only home I had ever known from birth to the time I went off to college. But, even in the years since 1965, when I hopped into a car and…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve XI: “Ouija–Game or Gateway?”
It sells for about $20.00 on Amazon. Barnes & Nobel carries a Glow-in-the-Dark version. It’s a ‘parlor game for a lot of people. But, for many more, it’s something that should never be allowed in a God-fearing home. The origins of a “talking board” type of game goes back to China…almost 1000 years ago. But…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve X: “Those Wild and Crazy Victorians”
Just when I thought I knew nearly everything about the Victorians, something falls into the lap of my experience that amazes and astonishes even my jaded mind. The great Age of Victoria (who ruled England from 1840 to 1900) gave us such interesting societal practices that continue to delight us…and frighten us. The era gave…
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On a Night Like This
‘I remember it was on a night very much like this…’ —Words spoken around 10,000 campfires by a billion storytellers for a million years. I found myself staring at the clouds drifting slowly past the quarter moon. In these early days of autumn, it should be a little cooler, but it was a mild evening.…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve VIII: “My Night as a Ghostbuster: A True Story”
One night in June of 2013, my wife and I entered a bar in Hogansburg, NY…just a few miles beyond the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. We were part of a local “ghost investigation” group based in Malone. There had been reports of strange happenings at the bar. The staff refused to go to certain rooms alone…only…
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When Life Ends: Still Rich: Still Poor
One of my pastimes is to wander cemeteries. The older the better–and more interesting. The artwork on gravestones is full of imagery and symbolism. I’ve been in classic world-famous cemeteries like Pere Lachaise, in Paris, Evergreen, in my hometown and quaint very old graveyards that sit in the quiet spaces beside churches in England. And,…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve VII: “Beyond The Campfire”
The autumn leaves are rustling in the chilly breeze–the chilly breeze that is coming from the lake–drifting through the trees with the promise or a threat of the coming winter. He threw another split piece of hardwood on the already warm fire. His wife looks at him when the pack of coyotes begin to howl.…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve VI: “A Light Hearted Look at Demonic Bloodsuckers”
There are creatures that can crawl up a wall, head down, in an upside down position (like a spider), turn themselves into bats, rats, moths, mists, and clouds of dust. They ‘live’ by sucking the blood of a live person. We call these demon-like beings vampires. They would not make very good neighbors, although, I’ve…
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Waiting For All Hallow’s Eve V: “Cardboard Tombstones and The Greatest Horror Movie Ever Made”
Since it’s creeping, day by day and night by night, toward Halloween, it’s time to consider the movies. I’m not talking “Mary Poppins” either (although dancing with penguins can be pretty scary). No, I’m talking of the Great Horror Movies of the Century. Some of the most blood-curdling scenes on film were written by gifted…
patrickjegan 