![]() It’s so well known that there’s a famous retort to it … “To follow you I’m not content, until I know which way you went.” It’s a relatively common epitaph throughout the world, “ As I once was so you are now. Like you might find if a grieving husband carved his wife’s stone. ![]() The lettering on the witch’s stone is actually carved out, and the typography bears more of a resemblance to printed letters than carved ones. Stone inscriptions, particularly when done by amateurs usually consist of two angled strokes meeting in the middle. So rather than being a forgotten place, graveyards are still living places.Īnd the people who are buried there sometimes get a chance to be remembered, once more. And generation after generation passes it down. Sure, they learn about beer and other nefarious things, but they also learn the folklore, which contains that one germ of history. Big Hill was heavily vandalized a few years back, so it’s easy to see why they don’t like nocturnal visitors.īut that’s where kids learn. Occasionally someone will screw it up, and there’s no getting around that. People talk about kids going into graveyards like they didn’t do it themselves when they were that age. The problem with being a graveyard with that one tombstone, is it attracts traffic. The last time I went fishing – decades ago – I gave it up when I hooked myself in the cheek. I’ve hung out with guys like this all my life, and at times, I’ve been a guy like this. Coincidence? I don’t know but bizarre… definitely!!!!“ we pulled a fishing hook out of the back of our friend’s throat. Another friend stuck a finger in his throat to clear his airway and quickly removed his finger when it was stabbed by something in our friend’s mouth, and hand to God swear it on my children. As my buddy is puking in a bucket he started to choke. “I did go out there with some friends back in high school drinking, a couple friends got hammered drunk. Like this story sent to me about Big Hill … To find proof of that, all you need do is look to the present. What we hear about the past is just the tip of the iceberg of what was once there. People go to these graveyards because things happen there. The purpose of the story isn’t to impart history. ![]() Or witch’s stone, and likely a few other similar names. In Big Hill Cemetery, outside Norris City, Illinois, that tombstone is known as the Witch’s Grave. The best graveyards have that one tombstone. And standing in an open field surrounded by trees, the moon and stars overhead, in a sea of tombstones is downright magical. Going into a country graveyard at night is liberating. Some of the old fears aren’t hardened into disbelief yet. Teenagers are still close enough to being little that it’s often easier to remember how to get scared. It’s where you get drunk, get high, get laid and most of all, get scared. Teenagers congregate there, in groups and couples. When you grow up close to the countryside, you end up in country graveyards. But an even bigger mystery is why did one young lady’s tragic death and burial turn her into a witch? The macabre epitaph and who carved it is a local mystery. The witch’s grave in Big Hill Cemetery, between Broughton and Norris City, Illinois sparks folklore just by its existence. ![]() Big Hill Cemetery is roughly the size of a football field, and likely has a lot more burials than you see stones for today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |