Day One 1/1/13- Ghosts and Goblins

Day 1 1/1/13- Ghosts and Goblins 
New Thing: Watching for the Ghost of Mad Anthony Wayne & Monsters Inc.

Inspiration: New Year's Eve, St. David's, Family
Time: About 30 mins. for the ghost hunt and under 2 hrs. for the movie                                    
Bottom Line: Spooky Start to the New Year

Got my ol' ghost huntin' lantern to go a-huntin'.

Reflection: Happy New Year! This year at St. David's we had an amazing "Six Feet Under" tour of the ancient cemetery by our Sexton Michael. Michael told us some great history of St. David's and some of the notable people who are buried there as well as alot of the history of the area. He also told us some really spooky ghost stories that were supper creepy. Here is a video of Michael telling us about the receiving vault:

One of the most famous people who rests in the graveyard is General Anthony "Mad" Wayne whose name now graces the town we live in. He was a a true patriot who was a Statesman and a General in the Revolution. However, there is now a very "bone chilling" (pun totally intended as you will see) legend involving his remains (taken from this blog):

Wayne's Grave at St. David's

 The colorful career of Revolutionary and Indian War General “Mad” Anthony Wayne came to end at Fort Presque Isle on December 15, 1796 at the age of 51. He was buried underneath the Erie Blockhouse per his request at the foot of the flagpole. There his body lay for the next dozen years, until his daughter Margaretta asked her brother Isaac to bring their father's remains home to the family cemetery in Radnor. He jumped into a buggy and headed to Erie. When they opened the coffin, they found Wayne's body had barely decomposed. They couldn't take the body home in Wayne's sulky, a light, two-wheeled wagon (although another version said the locals protested the move and held out for two burial sites), so Dr. Wallace and four assistants boiled the meat from the bones of the good general in a big black kettle, much like traditional cannibal chefs. Isaac headed east with his dad's bones, neatly packed in a trunk, for burial at St. David's Cemetery in Chester County. The flesh, clothes, water and instruments used to filet Wayne were reburied at Presque Isle. It's said that Isaac, on the steep and bumpy ride home along what is now Route 322, lost a few bones along the way. Every New Years Day on his birthday, Mad Anthony Wayne arises from his Erie grave and travels the road to St. David's in search of his missing bones.

To my mind, the creepiest part of this story that Michael told us was that Isaac was told by Dr. Wallace that he would be required by law to help him filet and boil the corpse of his own father BEFORE they started. I mean, at what point in that description of what would be required for this job would you not say, "I have to do what?! Oh, never mind. I am totally not up for that. Keep him as is, thanks."

So, for New Years, I went out in the "dead" of night to hunt for the ghost of Mad Wayne. It. Was. Creepy. The grave yard and road were so quiet that you could only hear the branches blowing in the wind and the chain fences around some of the plots. No ghosts though. 

We also took D. to see Monsters, Inc. on the big screen! D. was scared all the way trough the movie until the end. She does not like movies where little girls are in danger for even a second. But it was fun to see it again. It had been years since I had watched it. 

Already loving being back!