Hey, everyone. It’s been a while since I wrote a Mystery Monday post. A few days ago, I was reminded of a mystery that happened right in my back yard. I wrote the original post several years ago. With it being October and nearing Halloween, I decided to repost. Hope you enjoy it.
Goblins and great pumpkins. Trick-or-treats and haunted houses. Bats flying about. Witches on broomsticks. Halloween is always a good time for an old-fashioned ghost story.
My encounters with the unexplained are due more to an over-active imagination. Such as the time I thought I saw a werewolf. Or when my cousin and I convinced ourselves a ghost was after us. Once I was even on the lookout for a headless horseman in the woods near our home.
However, I had one strange occurrence several years ago that I can’t explain. Nor can anyone who was present that night.
In October 1980, my family hosted an outdoor chili supper. We invited friends and neighbors. The following year, we expanded it to include an art exhibit. It became an annual event where my brother and some of his classmates from The University of Texas would display their latest works.
A highlight of these annual events was a Saturday night bonfire. Starting in late summer, we gathered tree limbs and scrap lumber and piled them in an open field. By October, it was large enough for a nice bonfire.
One year, a few days before Halloween, we gathered in our pasture. About fifteen adults were present. We stood around the fire, enjoying the conversation. Since it was in October, I’m sure a few people had a ghost story to share.
The winds were still. The moonless night sky glistened with stars. Traffic was sparse on our country road in those days. The only sounds came from the crackling of the fire and soft-spoken conversations.
We had been outdoors for an hour or so when it happened.
A noise.
A strange noise.
An inexplicable noise lasting twenty seconds at most.
Conversations ceased. Everyone asked in unison, “WHAT WAS THAT?”
“It sounded like a dragonfly flew next to my ear,” someone said.
Another person joked it may have been a UFO, while another thought it was the trill of a nighthawk.
The closest thing I could think of was the sound of a plane’s landing gear being lowered.
No one could agree on the source A single dragonfly can’t buzz fifteen people’s ears at the same time. At any rate, dragonflies aren’t around in late October. Most discredited the nighthawk theory. We didn’t see any strange objects in the sky. (Nor any aircraft.) As for me, to hear the landing gear sound, I would have needed to be inside a plane.
After a few minutes of speculation, most of us continued our conversations. One person took the opportunity to go inside the house on the pretense of checking on his son. He didn’t return.
Life gets busy. Years passed without us hosting the annual event until my brother and his friends revised the art show several years ago. In 2013, friends gathered at our place. Several of those attending were present on that night in the early eighties.
Times change. Instead of a cookout, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant. A fire pit replaced the larger bonfire. But in the course of the weekend, we discussed the mysterious sound heard long ago.
People often tend to embellish stories such as these. Not this one. Those of us who were there still stand by our original story. We heard a strange sound. No one could identify it. We can’t pinpoint the origin. Although we can’t agree on an exact description, it’s safe to say it wasn’t our imagination.
Perhaps we’ll never know what was behind the mystery at the bonfire, but one thing is certain. It makes a good story to tell while sitting around a fire at Halloween.
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29 Responses
That is so weird, Joan. Something was there at your party, I wonder what. Definitely something to tell around the campfire and to remember for those who were there. This is a Halloween mystery.
If I think about it, I can imagine hearing the sound today. Certainly stayed with me all these years.
Gosh…it sure makes one wonder. I would have followed your friend into the house for sure, maybe ran ahead of him! And I’d never return to the same spot — except in daylight. 😉
I stayed outside for probably another hour. My mom and aunt were inside. You might know the conversation led to a few ghost stories, including Hank’s (the friend) account of mysterious happenings in a house he once owned in San Antonio. After hearing what he had to say, I would have left that place in a heartbeat!
How bizarre. Since everyone heard it, it must have been farther away, but WHAT. Construction? An explosion that echoed and echoed? Curious indeed!
We definitely heard something. Probably will never know what it was.
Sometimes a burning log can make some weird sounds…
That’s true. I don’t think any of us considered that possibility.
Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie ~ Authors.
Thanks for the reblog!
Love this story. You need to make a monster to go with the sound and write a story to go with it.
Great post, Joan.
Lots of possibilities for this one, that’s for sure!
Great Halloween tale, Joan. If I’d had a brave companion, I might even have gone exploring in the immediate vicinity, but then maybe not, too, lols. I’d hate to end up like the proverbial cat! Thanks for sharing 🙂
None of us thought to explore the area. Whatever the sound was, we only heard it once. Maybe it was safer to stay around the fire. 🙂
You may have shared this with me before. I love stories like this and they can fuel a lot of fiction. Maybe it was Smokey Bear checking out your safety protocol.
Could be.
I love this story and all the speculation that goes with it. And for it to linger in the minds of so many people to be discussed decades later, you KNOW it made a huge impact on everyone. The fact that the noise can’t be identified or explained makes it all the more interesting. Great share, Joan. You need to work this into a book 🙂
Good idea about the book. Staci said the same thing. I’m sure I have a future work that it will fit into.
What a great story, Joan. It would have been something if the noise repeated itself. (I’m sure there would have been fainting)
I would have been among those. And probably a lot more of us would have gone inside the house.
Hahaha.
Very interesting, Joan. 15 People couldn’t have misheard the noise so there must have been something. So strange.
I guess we’ll never know the answer but it’s something I’ll never forget.
What a great spooky Halloween story, Joan! As Charlie Daniels said in the line of a song, “There’s some things in this world you just can’t explain…” Thank you for sharing!
I don’t think truer words were ever said, Jan.
Creepy tale, indeed, Joan! Things that are never explained to my satisfaction drive me crazy. 😯 I’ll bet you still wish there were some way to figure out the mystery! 🙂
I’d love to know. But some mysteries are best left unsolved.
It doesn’t even matter that you know, the experience was enough. My fiancé told me about a time we he was a teenager they heard someone said an UFO landed near an old field. They all went out there and about 10 minutes later the police showed up and asked what was going on. They told them we were looking for a lost dog, because if we told them the truth they would have thought we were drinking.
In a way not knowing makes it all the more intriguing. Thanks for visiting!