"For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"

"Emily's Bridge"

Gold Brook Bridge, locally referred to as Emily's bridge is located in Stowe, Vermont.  It is so called Emily's Bridge, and thus haunted by Emily herself.  Urban Legend indicates that she was a rejected bride who was supposed to meet her lover at this bridge to elope.  When the man did not show, Emily hung herself.

Another version states that, distraught and despondent, she took her own life, by throwing herself off the bridge.  

And yet another variant of the story is that she ran back to her home in a fit of frenzy and jumped into the horse drawn carriage.  Traveling much too fast, she was unable to turn the carriage and was thrown from the carriage to her death.

She wears a red wedding dress.  

She wears a white wedding dress...depending upon from what source you hear the tale.  

Many a year ago, I personally hung around this bridge on a full moon and waited for midnight to arrive.  Midnight arrived and passed, and I did not see or hear any sign of Emily. 

On a personal note:  Oddly, about a year ago, when trying to post this very topic, I could not publish it, and attempted to do so for days without success.  I checked the HTML version and the composition itself, but it would not publish!  So I eventually took the whole story down from my blog!  Do you think Emily was trying to send me a message?

With so many stories of Emily, one must ask, who was she?  

The story of the haunted bridge was first brought to life around 1968, when a high school student (allegedly by the name of "Susan") wrote an essay stating that she used a Ouija Board on the bridge.  Apparently, Emily materialized and thus, identified herself.  The story is elaborated by stating that the reason Emily died was due to her lover's mother.  According to my research, there had been a tale "floating about" (couldn't resist that pun) about a ghost named Emily, around the time the paper was written, though a grave site has not been confirmed.

"Many people that have visited Emily's Bridge have experienced disturbing paranormal activity. People have reported scratch marks appearing on vehicles that were parked on the bridge, and being touched or scratched by Emily's ghost. Often strange noises are heard on the bridge, noises such as footsteps, ropes tightening, and a girl screaming. Many also have reported seeing a white apparition around the area of Emily's Bridge. People that have parked their vehicle on the haunted bridge say they tend to hear banging noses from Emily hitting the vehicle on the outside, or the sound of something dragging across the top of the car. The most paranormal events tend to take place between the hours of dusk and 9pm." -wikipedia

Stowe, has the highest number of covered bridges per square mile in Vermont.  Gold Brook Bridge was built in 1844 and in 1974, it was added to the National Register for Historic Places. 

If you travel to visit Emily, please remember that there are many residents in the surrounding area and that should be respected.  

Christmas Traditions - Stockings

Generic 1960's Christmas Tree

Every family has it's own Christmas traditions and our family was no exception.  

During the 60's and 70's when I grew up, our parents would set up a TV tray for Santa, on which we left cookies and milk.  Then, they would shoo us all into bed telling us that Santa wouldn't come if we were awake.  

I think my father was more excited than we were, as he would call us all down early in the morning, to tell us 'hurry up!  Santa had come!'  I remember scrambling down the 1/2 spiral staircase and looking out the window of our front door to see if I could see Santa's footprints or some clue to tell if he had really come.  I also don't recall ever not having a lot of snow on the ground.  In my mind, I can envision the endless white town looking through the glass panes.

Our family's tradition began with an orderly moment of being given our Christmas stockings.  In each stocking, contained an orange or two, an apple, various shelled nuts and a small toy such as Jax, or playing cards, or a small toy and some hard Christmas candies.  I don't remember any of us kids ever actually eating the fruit, because after that, all hell would break loose, as Dad sat in front of the tree, doling out our gifts.  Dad would sometimes hand them to us, sometimes toss them - always laughing.  We would tear them open, complete with sound effects, "oooohhh"  and "aaaahhh" and "yay!"......I miss my Papa.

It was always fun to see from whom we received our gifts, as my parents would make up funny (silly) gift tags indicating  our presents were from various famous people, and each one would have a personal meaning, or they would only have a purpose of being funny.  We would laugh a lot. For instance, our gift tags would read something like:

To: David
From: Cheech and Chong

To: Diana
From: Paul McCartney

To: Denise
From: Flip Wilson

To: Donald
From: Larry, Moe and Curley

Thinking back, and realizing that my parents never had a lot of money, but they sure made every effort to make our Christmas a special occasion.  And they never failed.

Today, I was curious if other children had received similar Christmas stockings and wondered from where my parents had found this idea.  

I discovered this interesting explanation of the fruits and nuts in a stocking tradition, from brookhavenmarket.com: 

"In doing ... research it appears the custom actually began in the 1880s with the advent of the cross continental railway system.  By the twentieth century, Santa Claus, working with the local seasonal availability of fresh oranges around winter time, made it possible for most American children to get a fresh orange, tangerine or Clementine at the bottom of their stocking on Christmas."

"OK, so that explains part of the tradition, but just where did the idea of putting fruit in a stocking originate?  For that answer we need to go back a bit further to St. Nicholas, the precursor of jolly old Santa.  Born in a village on the shore of what is now part of Turkey, he inherited a fortune but spent his life helping the poor and the persecuted, and eventually became a bishop in the new Christian church.  

Three Impoverished Maidens or 
The Story of The Dowries

As the story goes, Bishop Nicholas learned of a poor man with three daughters who had no dowries and hence could not find suitors to marry them.  The next night Nicholas returned and tossed three bags of gold for the daughters' dowries through the chimney, which happened to land in the stockings of the three maidens which they had hung to dry in front of the fireplace.  The bags of gold turned into balls of gold which are now symbolized by oranges.  Bishop Nicholas is often portrayed in pictures wearing the red ceremonial robes and miter (or headdress) and holding the staff of a bishop, as well as holding three gold balls, gold coins, or pieces of fruit."
-brookhavenmarket.com

Weird Jewelry and Adornments

What does Gomez buy Morticia Addams for their wedding anniversary?  

Or, what does Herman buy Lily Munster for her birthday?

Where does Elvira shop?  

Tim Burton fan?  

Well, I might have just found the perfect choices for these folks... 

Come along for the ride?