Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Legends & Tall Tales: The Crossett Light

I grew up in Ashley County, Arkansas. All of my life I have heard the legend of 'The Light' in Crossett. I have to confess to being one of the few who never even tried to see 'The Light' as a teenager. In kindly terms, I was a scaredy cat!

My husband, being much braver than I, has made more than one trip down this desolate dirt road in hopes of finding it...as have my children. As a matter of fact, at least two of the children make an annual trek in search of 'The Light' either during their summer stay with my sister or our Thanksgiving visit. Will and Bri have their own hilarious tale of an encounter of a different kind they had while visiting last summer. Let's just say that Will's account of losing his flip flops and racing my brother-in-law to the vehicle makes for great dinner conversation with friends to this day. Much laughter is always the result!

The legend that I have heard time and again is that in the early 1900's a railroad signal man fell asleep on the tracks (whether or not due to the overindulgence of alcohol, no one can fully agree) and failed to awake as the train drew near, resulting in the loss of his head. 'The Light' is this signal man's ghost supposedly looking for his missing head.

Without comment as to my personal beliefs regarding this strange phenomenon...I wanted to share with you a video that was sent to me via email from someone else's blog. (I am not acquainted with the blogger, but he cracked me up with his account of encountering 'The Light'.) Click on Jeremy's name here and it will take you to his You Tube video.

Hope you enjoy it...and let me know if you grew up with any such legends in your neck of the woods.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I grew up next door to you but I did go out several times to see "the light". I only saw it twice. You don't see it everytime you go, the conditions have to be just right. I think Paige has even been once but didn't see it. I will have to take the girls the next time I'm up there at night.
Rita