OK, so this may be a fine place to start, where were we? Somewhere in Massachusetts. pre-Ralph's Diner. We had time to kill. Had had a "day off"" of driving to make our way to Worcester, MA from DC the day before. Had stopped the night before somewhere between Bridgeport and New Haven, CT because we knew it was near water, and this had become the "seafood tour". So we ended up finding the closest beach that morning, and turns out that there is this land bridge to this little island...Charles Island? There were beautiful wild turkeys there too. And then this guy...John. You may notice that he is carrying a tape measure and a video camera. He's from these parts. Has been coming here since the sixties, and says that this is the most normal this island has ever been...qualifying it by saying that you used to not be able to find any life there, but now you can dig and find worms...Used to not even be able to hear any birds there, etc, etc... He then proceeded to tell us long, roundabout tales about how the island was haunted but he keeps going back there to find buried treasure that he thinks is still there is left by pre-colonial Spanish folk. John spent the next twenty minutes on our 100' ft walk back to our space shuttle/minivan blowing our minds with strange tales of apparitions and sightings that he had endured. Things like black eyeballs looking at him from an arm's length above him while he tried to sleep. He thought it was spirits trying to keep him away from the treasure. Or a lady with a guitar that had strings on it thick as your pinky finger. Turns out she was Sarah Pritchard, an owner of a hotel that stood there in the 1800's. Yep. A ghost. He was also quite the ladies man, cordially addressing each woman that crossed our path along the way. And then proceeding to expound on the benefits of shellfish on the libido. Ooooo.K. So finally, after unsuccesfully trying to get him to recommend the best clam chowder nearby, he sees that we are musicians and asks if we are famous. Nathan politely tells him that we are U2. He says he thinks he has heard of us. Realizes then that we probably are famous...and then gets upset with himself that he didnt get footage of us and our autographs. As we rolled away, I remember wondering if we would become his next ghost story.
this is going to sound SO weird, and i'm going to seem like such a creeper, but i met this guy today. my friend and i were walking back from the island (with no shoes on, brilliant idea), and he told us the EXACT same things he told you. he asked us where we were from before he told us about that sarah chick, so we thought when we said we were from the Waterbury area that he said she was from there on purpose. come to find out in my googling, her family really did own the place. i came across your blog and just laughed to myself...i'm glad there's more people out there who have experienced john's.....adventures!
# posted by Anonymous : Monday, June 1, 2009 2:17:00 PM PDT
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