I Live Near a Desecrated Cemetery

 Hello my Spooky Loving Friends,

We are in the week of Halloween and we know what that means... It's the perfect time for a Slightly Spooky Story. Currently as I'm beginning the writing of this post the weather is so atmospheric because it's a dreary rainy late October day perfect setting for writing this story...

In the Appalachian Mountains you'll find burial spaces abound. From church graveyards to small family plots, heck I discover a cemetery on a hill overlooking my first elementary school playground. How in the five year I played on that playground my spooky loving butt didn't notice I'll never know. Even the single plot can be found hidden here in the backwoods.

Now within about a mile of my house are four burial areas. There's the church graveyard, where my corpse will be planted when I depart, then on the road to get to my holler there's a road you turn off where somewhere on that property is a forgotten family cemetery that my Dad discovered while hunting. Finally you come to my holler where nestled in the surrounding  shelter of the mountains is two little family plots on my neighbor's property. The first is the newest, my neighbor the Patriarch of the family who purchased the property loved his land so much he decided he wanted to rest in it, so he made a section of his property into a family cemetery. His son has also expressed interest of being buried there. The Patriarch passed a few years ago, peoples it was like something out of old timey Appalachia. His wake was at his house, they set his body up in the living room, and then had a graveside funeral. Now as I mention there's two family plots on the property. Down the hill overlooking my bus stop was another little family cemetery that had family members of our friends who still live nearby. This plot is the focus of our story, of how greed led to desecration and possibly a haunting...

 

I Live Near A Desecrated Cemetery

As a child I loved a good ghost story, of course cause I was an imaginative child that usually came back to bite me in the butt. Now growing up my Dad told me about how our family friends had three family members buried in that spot at the lower part of my neighbor's property, which at this time was hardly used to my recollection. My mother has told me those three are just the ones they know of, so there possibly more could have been interned there. She also said there used to be a rose bush there to mark one of the graves. I always thought this was a cool thing in my holler. 

It wasn't till I was an adult I learned the darker part of this tale. The family whose relatives were interned there had owned a good chunk of land in my community, but had sold of bits and pieces including the property where  the graves were. I guess they figured whoever bought the place would respect the final resting place of the dead. How wrong they were. Before the current owners of the property the land fell into the hands of a realtor. Now this realtor was rumored to have shady practices when it came to selling properties. It was said they had a racket going on with their sibling in the Register of Deeds, if there was any records connected to a property that maybe would make it difficult to sale, the sibling was said to make those records go away, and after the sale they'd show back up mysteriously. My grandmother had spoken to many people who'd have weird file disappearances with this realtor. My family had an incident involving one of his properties and a right away. My Mom had obtain a copy of the survey from the registry of deeds showing our right of way, but when an issue arose about it and they had to go to court, they told my mom they couldn't accept her copy, so she had to get a newer one from the register of deeds, and they couldn't find anything in their records even though it clearly had been on record before. My Mother believes the realtor was trying to force my parents to not use the road my family had been using since my great great grandfather's day to get to our properties. Yeah now I don't know if any record vanishing happened in the case of this property, but it still gives you an idea that this person possibly didn't have a lot of ethics to speak of.

It was in the early 80's not long before I was born, this person, who apparently knew good and well there was a cemetery on the property decided they were going to bulldoze the place.  Now we do know the family had kept a record of where their loved ones were buried, but as for official records no one's sure if any existed at all. Whether there were records or not the realtor proceeded with the bulldozing. It was during the bulldozing my Dad, Uncle, or both of them went up to the guy running the bulldozer and asked him if he knew he was bulldozing a cemetery? The man's face turned white. He said "No and if I had of I wouldn't have done it." So in one act of greed three or possibly more resting places were horribly desecrated. 

Eventually people came seeking to buy the property, one woman wanted to buy that lower half of the property and my parents told her about the cemetery.  Needless to say she backed out. Eventually, our current neighbors bought it, I don't know if they ever knew the creepy history of their property, but yeah they were now the proud owners. I do remember walking up from the bus stop with the Patriarch's grandchildren, and telling them about it, but I don't know if it made it to Granddad's ears.

Well, after hearing the darker version of this as I got older, I'm like "How do we not have a Poltergeist situation?!" These words would come back to haunt, as would my childhood wish to live near a haunted house.

So in my adult years our neighbors had a camper that sat on that section of the property that various I guess family members stayed in over the years. Eventually the camper was removed and the space returned to normal. I didn't think much until around 2021. My grandmother had been talking to the Matriarch of the family when she told my grandmother the reason they got rid of the RV was they couldn't keep people in it. When my Grandmother asked why the Matriarch replied, cause they kept hearing voices... When I found out I'm like called it!

To be honest I was so curious about the voices, and the ghost hunter in me wanted to hang out in the field and get EVPs. I mean it's kinda creepy and cool, except those nights you're up at 3 AM and you think about your what your friend said about why more activity happens at that time, and then the episode of Supernatural you watched that day pops in your head the one with the ghost of the psychic looking menacingly through the window, and you start picturing some old Appalachian's ghost peering through the back door window. Till you remind yourself if they've been haunted the place since their graves been bulldozed and they haven't bothered you once I think your fine. Yeah my imagination still comes to bite me in the butt.

Well that was the state of things for a minute, until one day we're going down the road and saw a house was sitting on that part of the property. Seems one of the Matriarch's grand kids, decided to move a house there, funny given we're sure they were one of the RV people...

So if you're keeping score at home I have a desecrated cemetery that now has a house on it... I affectionately call this house the "Potential Poltergeist House". I mean do you blame me?! This is got the makings of one. Every time I go down the road and see them in the yard it's like do we warn them? I mean if nothing's happening you wouldn't want to ruin that peace, but at the same time I feel like they should have a heads up given some activity has already happened. 

So yes this is the situation in my holler. Disturbed graves, disembodied voices, and now maybe a haunted house...

 

For More Spooky Tales:

So I hope you enjoyed my slightly spooky tale. If you want more scary tales from the area that will probably chill you more than this one I recommend Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina by Randy Russell and Janett Barnett. This one has a lot of good stories in it, the one about the Brown Mountain lights was a favorite. I've actually met Randy Russell and he was a pretty cool dude. I also recommend Appalachian Ghosts by Nancy Roberts, if you can find a copy. This was a favorite book among us kids at my old elementary school. Good spooky stories in there.

Well I hope you have a good Halloween and Samhain. Have some sweet treats a few scares and I'll see you next time. God bless!

*Thrifty Geek* 

The Tale of Smoky Mountain Geek Expo 2025

 Hello Friends,

Enter A World of Geeky Delights

So this past Saturday I attended my local convention the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo. It was making its triumphant come back after Tropical Storm Helene got it canceled last year. I was so happy to be back.

History:

This convention started in 2022. It was put together in part by Lee White who owns Geek Mountain in Canton, NC, go check it out it be small but it's awesome, and Lee is such an amazing and welcoming guy. I found out about it by seeing flyers for it at the 2022 Spring WNC Comic Con. I was ecstatic to have a local con, not local in a regional sense, literally local.

Characters:

 

Me: I was Dean Winchester from Supernatural. I will do a little write up about my journey to this cosplay... At some point maybe. But yeah I was armed with salt packets and my dagger, fake of course.

My Friends: Captain was Sylvie from Loki and Fangirl, who opted out of cosplay ,cause not only was this her first convention this year, she'd just had surgery a few weeks before, so she wasn't up for cosplay, so she donned her Scoobynatural shirt and a crocheted wrap she'd made for Halloween. 

 The Road to the Con:

So my friends showed up that morning. As I walk out Captain, our driver, rolls her window down and says"Hey sexy thing, going my way" or something to that effect. I don't if it was cause I was Dean or just to goof with me. I was probably blushing a bit. I go to get in the back seat and Captain warned me she hadn't got it vacuumed from where her dog Brianna had been riding in the back. I looked and there was a lot of dog hair.. I didn't want Dean walking up to the con covered in it so I went back in the house, grabbed two large towels and fashioned me a seat cover. Then we started down my piece of crap road. I'm not kidding when I say my family has cursed this road for a century since my great great Paternal Papaw use to use it to get to his home further up on the mountain. Well as we're being jostled  I was about to say the line Captain's Brother told her and a friend that we love to say at times like this "Hold on to your uterus's girls", I was fixing to say it when it hit me... neither of my friends have uterus's anymore. I told them that and we had a good laugh.

Jack, Captain's Car Skeleton, is the death of the party.

I actually ended up laughing at one point cause I saw Captain's radio display and it was the song Don't Fear the Reaper, which had been used in Supernatural. Well the day was gorgeous, and just a lot of signs it was going to be a good day:

When we get there we were shocked at the line. Now I don't know if this is normal cause we got there an hour later or cause, and this is my hope, that it's getting more popular. 

So after a few minute wait, we got inside in a timely manner, and got stamped. We were officially at the Expo. Sadly the air conditioning was on the fritz this year so we were toasty I was just grateful I was in my 11th Doctor costume.

 

The Con:

 After signing the posters they get guests to sign. My friends got stopped by the 501st Legion who asked Captain what planet was she from. She informed him she wasn't good at improve and said Asgard. 

 

 

The Expo had some new merch and this year they had pins! I was so excited. See I always get pins at cons and occasionally ren faires I attend. I blame my biker Uncle. I saw his riding vest that had all these pins on the back from all the biker rallies he'd been to, and I wanted to start something like that for my events. So I started getting pins at all my cons. Now I've gotten pins before at this con, but what made it special,is that this pin is specifically for this con. I've rarely had where cons actually sell pins for their events, and those that did I couldn't afford them, but yays this one I could. I told the woman at the booth all this and she said she'd tell the guy over it they were a good idea. 

  

 

Merchandise: 

I drooled over so many things this year. This year a table had so many Wonder Woman things. Some vintage. It wasn't the only one either. I got some great pieces for the collection, which we'll cover in the haul section.

 

 

There was a lot of Godzilla this year. It made me so happy. There was a woman helping her son run a booth whose shirt proclaimed she was a Godzilla Mom. I told her of our VHS Godzilla collection as a kid.

 

The booth's owner said he was the best intern

Moisturize Me!

 

There were some surprises at the booths this year like these Lady Cassandra from Doctor Who...pot holders?  I wanna say these were by Twisted Sisters... If it  isn't and you know who it is let me know. I saw the most beautiful glass work by Stoplight Stained Glass. I'm telling you if I'd won the lottery or that inheritance from a kind unknown rich relative had come in, I would have purchased his Leonardo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stained glass piece. 

 

 

Of course the year's trend  Labubu made a minor appearance. I saw little Lego Labubus amongst the sea of Lego figures. There was even 3d printed Labubu faces at one of the booths

 

Loved seeing my Morgan's Comics peeps. Hope to start visiting them regularly before long. If your in the West Asheville area look them up their awesome folks with great merch.

 

Costumes: 

 

  

 

 

I saw a Beetlejuice cartoon item at  a booth. Person beside me was like they'd have to get this cause of their tattoos. As I was taking this of them I was thinking this Hazbin Hotel Alastair costume looked familiar. I quickly realized why. They informed me they'd been the one I'd done the Dean vs Alastair photo with at the Spring WNC Comic Con in May. Turns out we live in the same town! I also saw a TV Demon from the show there... I hope they played nice...

 

 

Of course there had to be someone dressed as characters from K-Pop Demon Hunters. I mean even if you haven't seen it, you've heard the songs, their music is so popular it's made it to Jaques the Whipper's banned song request list.

 

The purple haired one, I'm not able to watch the show no clue who she is, and I talked about the mashup fan art people have been doing of K-Pop Demon Hunters and Supernatural. *Ah man! I should have done a fun mash up with them as Dean! ><*

The Dude of The Big Lebowski graced us with his laid back presence. Dudeists rejoice! Not kidding it's a thing.

 

Our con extended to a second building this year that housed gaming tables, VR gaming, and the Cosplay Contest. I encountered beautifully made costumes, I'm not sure who he was but it looked great.

End of the Con:

As we were taking our leave we ran into my holler adjacent neighbor, who I mentioned in my Helene post.
It was his first time there, he'd come with a collector friend. We talked about a neighbor of ours who'd been ill, and the potential poltergeist house on said neighbor's Mom's land. You'll hear about this in next week's post. 

Beautiful views from the grounds the con was held on.

Famished we went to the nearby Waynesville institute Ammon's Drive Inn and Dairy Bar, I've been coming hear since I was a kid, I think it opened the year I was born. 

I got a Double Cheese Burger with Mustard and Ketchup cause of course Dean's gotta have a burger, and Tater Tots

   

The Haul:

So let's get into the con haul... Up first is Pins, key chains, and shirt department.

 

 

The pewter Wonder Woman pin and shield were each only a dollar at this one booth. I wished I knew the name of the store. It was a great thrifty geek find. They explained these were over stocks they were trying to move. I had a lovely conversation about Supernatural with the booth owners. One guy and I talked wanting to go to the Charlotte Convention, how at the canceled con last were we gonna have a actor from the show as a guest, and told them about The Horror Band Wagon's hilarious reaction to the "Skin" episode of Supernatural. Seriously watch it, their reaction to the transformation scene will have you in stitches... The woman is in season 2 of her first watch through.  The shirt was my big spender item, Five whole Dollars. It was made by Gifternaut. 

The robot pin is from the official Geek Expo merch table, the D20 that rolled a one was from a D and D table that had these pins that his kids made. I was drawn to it cause it perfectly reflected my mental state the last few weeks: "How can I Live, Laugh, Love in these conditions?!" Captain said it spoke to her too.

 

Next up is my sticker haul. Stickers are great inexpensive items to get from cons if your don't have a lot to spend. I got a bunch of Supernatural stickers, no shock there, from the booth I usually grab some I believe they are called Steam and Steel Apparel. I also was apparently drawn to unicorn and skeleton stickers that day.

 

 

Lastly my candy haul! Upside to having cons near Halloween is you can get some.. to quote an orange cartoon cat "...candy, candy, candy..." 

  

 

  

 

As always the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo is such a welcoming place for us geeks/nerds in Haywood County. If you are in or around Waynesville, North Carolina next year on October 17th I ask you to come in and stay for a spell.

Live Long and Prosper,

*Thrifty Geek* 

Thrifty Geek's Library- The Answer, My Friend Review

Hello Bookish Friends,

So for the Orrilium Magical Readathon this year I had a prompt where I had to read a book with water on the cover. Luckily The Answer, My Friend And Other Short Stories by the People Who Sell Them fit the bill. I've had this book for a minute that I hadn't read. I got it a year of so ago at a thrift store and was finally glad to have an excuse to finally get it read. 

 

This book was published in 1994, it's a collection of stories from the "Winners of a National Booksellers Writing Contest". So basically people who sell books for a living trying their hand at writing stories. 

Overall this book is a mixed bag, some stories I adored, others not so much, but I enjoyed it enough to give it four stars, and keep it in my permanent collection. So I thought I'd do some thoughts of each story.

 

The Stories

 

The Answer, My Friend by Kathryn Lacey- At first I thought it was someone else painting forty somethings as just grumpy frumpy people, but then you learn what happen to her you understand why she's the way she is. I had a hard time enjoying this one even with the knowledge why she is the way she is. Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault.

 

Going West by Mick Brady - This one was a good one! It's got two aspiring actors in North Carolina who decide to set out to begin their careers in Wilmington, NC. Their start doesn't go so well, and leads to some crazy situations. I liked this story it's funny and if I'm not mistaken takes place in Western North Carolina where I live. So that was also cool. Sorry I have a soft spot for stuff set or filmed in my home state. 

 

A Way with Words by Christopher Hawthorne- A man who has passed left a letter behind to explain. Given the topic I didn't think I was going to like this one, but it was strangely beautiful. Trigger Warning: Suicide.

 

The Mary Pictures by Kathy Conner- A woman recounts a funny summer involving some hilarious religious art she made at a church camp after finding them while packing her Mom's things for the move. I found the last paragraph of this hilarious. It was a funny read.

 

War Hero by Bill Cotter- This is a tale of how a children's summer game takes a dark turn. This had such good imagery. Especially when the girl is watching a storm come in in front of a store.

 

Killing Harvey by N.C. Reynolds-  A man learns his lover is a demon hunting witch, who wants him to join in her crusade. This was one I was looking forward to and it was my favorite. The awesome thing is at some point he asks where the demons come from, and she tells him Kansas, cause there's some disturbance there. As a Supernatural fan I loved that one.

Blanco y Negro by Thomas Cooney-  A man goes to Salamanca for school where he meets an older woman and they form a friendship. He's drawn by her pain, cause he is dealing with pain himself and he needs that now instead of the joys most college people have. This one was a well written one. I really don't have much to say... What? Can't have a novel of thoughts for everything.

Bard's Call by Honore Hillman Foster- While sharing thoughts a bard's lover picks up on past trauma and she tells him of how she was kidnapped by Invaders. This was a rough one to read due to the subject matter. Trigger Warning: Sexual assault.

Wild Women Don't Get the Blues by Nancy Orlando- A woman finding adventure in being a new Mom. This one was a bit sad, but a bit sweet too. 

Come September by Donna Stuart- A Mom is on a mission to get a new vacuum, this leads to reminiscing of another time Momma set her mind to something. This was a cute final story. 

So I hope you enjoyed, check this book out if you can locate it cause there's some good gems in here. Have a good week and read a good book!

*Thrifty Geek*