A conversation with a co-worker today brought back a memory of an experience I had when I was a kid. Well I thought I would share it with you today.
Picture it! Early 80's! Alexandria Police Youth Camp! Kilmarnock, Virginia! A young lad named Antonio had one of the worst experiences of his childhood.
The camp had the usual camp stuff like archery, campfires, songs, etc. But this camp also had something else. It had a "ghost".
They scared us with some legend about "Old Lady Hackney" who was supposedly a women who's husband went off to war on a Thursday and never returned. In death, she vowed to take revenge by haunting the campsite every Thursday night.
So on Thursday night they gathered all the campers in the mess hall where, with the lights off and a flashlight shining up her chin, the lead counselor told the story of "Mrs. Hackney". Occasionally someone (a counselor) would bang on the wall outside of the mess hall to scare us.
Afterward, we had to walk single file back to our cabins (she likes to get campers that are out of line) and wait out the night. Oh, and pay no attention to the steam (dry ice) coming out of the pool as you pass it. That was her also.
Now here's the best part. Once we were back in our cabin with our counselor, we all huddled together because we were so scared. Then, all of a sudden, the door burst open and someone covered in a white sheet rushed in and grabbed the counselor by the neck, choking him. Then they released the counselor and ran back out. Once our counselor recovered (great acting), he reached under his bed, grabbed a rifle, gave some line about "catching her this time", and then ran off.
I can laugh about it now, but I was so scared that I wet my bed that night and vowed that I would never return to that camp. And I never did. BTW, I checked online and found that the camp is still around. I don't know whether they still scare the campers though.
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