Have you been to a creepy town lately? What happened?

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Answers

my father's hometown which is in ohio. it's a itty bitty town that still to this day hardly has any minorities in it. you'll have some black families here and there but my mom and i were like the circus coming into town for the natives.

they would literally come up to us and try and touch us to see if, i guess, we felt the same as them. and everyone who saw us referred to us as those china girls even though we aren't chinese.

that was a creepy place for me when i was younger. people following me around trying to touch me or just get a good looky-see at me.

when i got older and we'd visit my grandparents in that town i'd have fun with it. i'd lie to the kids and tell them i knew how to speak korean and told them how to say their name or words in korean that i just made up, etc.

the town is still slightly creepy to me but overall i got over it.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Vidor, Texas

Even if you're not from Texas, you may have heard of it. It's all-white. Montel did a show there once. A black man moved in and he was summarily run off. I grew up ten miles from there in a town called Orange (probably a good half of the population is minority). I remember once when I was little driving down I-10 through Vidor, and there were crosses burning on each side of the freeway. I forgot to mention it's quite the Klan hub.

I once ran out of gas there, and I'll never make that mistake again. Ick...

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

I just got home from the U.P. visiting a town that shall remain nameless. The fast food chains stop at the Wisconsin border which is freaky enough but I made the mistake of stopping at a general store and asked where the closest McDonalds was. The guy gave me the hairy eyeball, said "WE don't have them HERE!", and threw my bottle of water at me. The town's people remind me of the "Night of the Living Dead" because if you say "Hi" they just look at you as you walk by with that icky pale dead stare. Well, I guess that's what you get when your town's greatest attraction is the "(town) Mystery Light"...come and see the dead coachman swing his lantern down the path to warn others of the dangers of the railroad tracks! O.K., yeah, it did scare me and I ran screaming like a little wussy baby to the car but it didn't scare me as much as the people did.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Well, it's not a town, but once I was in Alabama on Hwy 69 and I couldn't get off of it. Every time I would turn off, a few miles later there would be a sign that read "Highway 69". My friend, Tabitha, and I had just visited Tuscaloosa and were on our way home. We thought we were in the twilight zone.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

The company I work for moved over the weekend from downtown to North West Austin on 360. Today was my first day at the new location. At lunch time I went to the Arboretum.

{background} Several years ago I excaped Plano, Texas after finding myself stranded there for 7 months. My escape attempt was desparate and successful and landed me in Austin. {/background}

Now Plano is creepy enough, but not as creepy as living in Austin for years and then finding yourself at the Arboretum at lunch time looking at Plano, Texas.

Creepy is being surrounded by the teenage future sorority girls of America in shiny new volvos. What happened to the future slackers of America in retired volvos? I'm thinking the greatful are dead.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Jeff - are you sure it was HWY 69? I am from AL, went to the U of A in Tuscaloosa and don't know that highway (and please, no 69 jokes. I am familiar with *THAT* "highway 69"...sheesh).

Dude, you were in the X-Files. (Thanks everso for not making any Deliverance-tinged remarks to my fair homeland.)

Waco IS freaking scary, Pamie. You would do well to avoid it at all costs. I recently went down to Austin with my friend Jesse and we stopped for lunch on the way back to Dallas at what was supposedly a Waco landmark. I can't remember the name of the place - something like "Greene's" (somebody help me here). The waitstaff had three teeth among them and everyone seemed to be giving us the stink-eye like we were "all cityfied" for using forks and knives.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

RE: The Nature of Creepy

Although not all creepy towns are Southern, nearly all Southern towns are creepy. Why? I think it's 'cause they're so danged...quiet. Not just quiet in the sense of there being no subways rattling along, or busses, or freeways, or drive-bys, but there's also a distinct lack of conversation. Even in larger towns like Jackson, Mississippi, Southerners use words like rations on a lifeboat. Everybody thinks the South's all like *Steel Magnolias* and chatty and gossipy and shit. I'm here to tell you it isn't.

See, I hate to generalize, but it's my personal opinion that Northerners tend to say what's on their mind; Southerners, on the other hand, communicate between the lines--i.e. by what's not said. In thespian terms, imagine a Neil Simon/Tennessee Williams smackdown. I mean, if Simon had written *Suddenly Last Summer,* within five minutes of the opening credits Elizabeth Taylor would have read Katherine Hepburn the riot act and quite casually told Mercedes McCambridge and Monty Clift that Sebastian loved nothing more than knocking boots with working-class Mediterranean boys, who returned his affections by cannibalizing his linen-clad ass. Granted, I like the way Williams captures that drawn-out way of Southernspeak, but when I'm asking for directions to get the hell out of Hogville and the slackjawed gas station attendant can't stop staring at my Fubu t- shirt long enough to respond, I kinda wish I were faced with a kninfe- wielding assassin. At least I'd know where he stands.

And FYI, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Mississippian. Over the years I've grown used to the region's sublime sense of creepiness, but since it makes my yankee boyfriend really nervous, I try to notice it whenever possible. C'mon down and try it for yourself....

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Richard, how I adore you for mentioning "Suddenly Last Summer." If there's any proof that we Southerners are big freaks, that play and film are it, by God. When Elizabeth Taylor is cruising around that mental hospital in that black dress - her waist must have been about 16 inches, really - smoking and trying to seduce Montgomery Clift...what a woman. She took my breath away. Man, that's a horrible film, but I love it!

Sorry to get off topic but I do love me some TN Williams.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

This is more of a sidebar to Waco's creepiness, but Pamie, how could you drive from Austin to here and back without stopping at the Czech Stop in West?? You can get gas *and* sausage *and* kolaches, and it's not weird there at all.

Stopping in Waco...oh, the horror!

Sometimes I make up reasons to go to Austin just so I can stop in West.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

It was late. I was driving back to Austin from a gig in Dallas, a town I inherently loathe. I would never spend the night there so I just used the post-show jitters and drove home. It was almost four in the morning. I looked down at my gas gauge and saw that I din't have enough gas to make it home. I was just south of where I35 splits. Near Cline's Corner. I pulled over at a convenience store with a couple of pumps. As I pumped the gas I noticed how still everything was. I seemed to be the only one around for miles. I walked inside to pay and as I approached the counter I saw an older woman holding a baby and say to me, "That'll be ten dollars." I looked at the child in what appeared to be a very uncomfortable position. He was the size of a toddler and was dressed like one but when I looked into his face he seemed to be much older. The woman was every bit of sixty. As she gave me back the change from my twenty I just peered into this kids eyes. He was looking at me like a thug you'd meet in an back street alley. He was definitely some freak of nature. I got in my car and thought about his weathered face all the way back to Austin. I lay down but found myself unable to sleep. Months later I was flipping through the stations when I stopped on the movie Deliverance. Jon Voight is walking around and snoops into a door window. Inside he sees a woman with a baby that looked exactly like the child I saw north of Waco. Remember the Warner Brothers cartoons where the bank robbers dressed up and hid in a baby carriage? That's what this being looked like. Freaky. What is it with that area of Texas?

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

I'm not sure what it's called, but it's in upstate SC, and me and my sister call it Hicktown, USA. They had signs such as "no spitting in the drinking fountain", "no spitting on the floor", and "if the door is locked, please get a key." Plus, the cashier seemed pretty damn stoned.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

I'm not going to say where it was, but my friends just moved to a new town. She's pregnant, and when she filled out her health/pregnancy history, one of the questions was, "Are any of your husband's blood relatives related to you by blood?" I kid you not.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Eh I don't think all Southern towns are creepy. I do, however, think the whole state of Mississippi is creepy. I'm from Arkansas. I know what I'm talking about. Come on almost a third of the Miss Americas are from Mississippi. They're breeding Stepford wives down there.

Yeah it's true that Southerners speak between the lines: that's called Southern Hospitality. "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" has a good taste for that.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Well, I'll provide the Australian segment to this forum. The Rocks in Sydney, New South Wales and Port Arthur in Tasmania. You may have heard that, couple of years ago, there was a mass shooting at Port Arthur. I went there before then, and it was hella creepy (like ghosty-creepy). God knows what it's like now. I wouldn't go back if you paid me.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Lili, what did you think was creepy about the Rocks? Port Arthur I can understand, but the Rocks have never struck me as creepy. Some of the other areas around Sydney Harbour, now, that's another story

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

James, if you're a Sydneysider (I wish I was, I'm stuck in drab old Melbourne) you should go to The Rocks, find the puppet shop, go downstairs into the basement and out into the little private courtyard area. Oooooh, that's spooky. I could quite easily believe I had gone back 100 years, the history was that tangible. Also, the area where the houses were levelled and they've reconstructed them with steel furniture to show how people used to live. I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts, but The Rocks nearly had me convinced.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

all i have to say is.. NEW HAMPSHIRE, New Hampshire NEW HAMPSHIRE.. Hicksville of the North--well and a few old-time Puritanical Massachusetts towns too--right out of Sleepy Hollow... especially in the fall. Creepy.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

I'm from Toronto, but a few years ago, some friends and I got completely lost outside of Montpelier (sp?) Vermont (Because someone had to take a leak and was too shy to go beside the highway). We were driving down this dirt track, passing all these shacks with pigs and chickens on the porches. We figured that maybe some nice local would tell us how to get back to said highway, so I, being the only female, and therefore deemed less threatening, knocked on a door. Okay, so you've seen that episode of the X-Files with the Peacocks? You know, where Mama Peacock is under the bed? Bingo. I'm not know what language the person spoke, but it was not English. When I looked around, the seemingly deserted "road" was lined with people watching the car. They came out of NOWHERE. I scooted back to the car, and we got the hell out of dodge. It turned out we were less than kilometre from the highway.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

'The history was tangible'? I'm a little confused. Is history spooky? Then I must live in the spookiest city on Earth, since Haarlem, the Netherlands, dates back to the middle ages. Personally, I'd nominate the town where I work, Lelystad. If any of you ever visit Holland, be sure to give this piece of concrete jungle a very wide berth. It's the kind of town where drivers step on the gas when they see you crossing the street.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

It wasn't the whole city that was creepy, but this KOA campground on the outskirts of Memphis, TN sure as hell was.

I love Memphis, but I would never, ever, never stay at that campground again. A bunch of friends and I decided to see Graceland on our spring break but we were poor and had to do the "budget tour," which meant camping out instead of getting a hotel room. We had done about three days in Nashville earlier in the week and everything had been totally normal (well, unless you count the Baptist Church that was bigger than my high school with the movie marquee out front announcing that Jesus is Lord!) Anyway, when we pulled into the campground at Memphis, the first thing that struck us was that people actually LIVED there. This wasn't just some pitch your tent, hook up your RV for a few night stay type place -- This was a *trailer park* with a few slots for campers in the back. The guy at the desk suggested we rent cabins instead of camping out with our tents because there was "a storm comin'."

A few of my friends scoffed at his suggestion, thinking he was just trying to rook us out of more money, but I took a cabin with two other friends and am I glad we did! Early the next morning the first tornado to hit Memphis in 25 years tore through the trailer park, overturned three trailers (trapping people inside) and destroyed all of our friends' camping equipement. Within minutes there were news crews out filming the destruction and firemen trying to free the people who were trapped in the trailers, but all anybody in the campground cared about was if the reporters had "talked to the kids from Jersey." They all kept pointing at us, while we huddled together in our pajamas and sweatpants in the mud. One woman came up to us and said, "Well, y'all almost got to see Elvis in person, didn't ya?" and started laughing until she choked.

Totally creepy.

The other really creepy place is South Jersey. It's like another world. I'm not talking about the area around Camden and right outside of Philly, but the stretches of farm country between those suburbs and Atlantic City, right around the Pine Barrens. My ex- boyfriend went to Stockton State College which is right in the middle of the Pine Barrens and, I kid you not, on orientation day, they would warn the students to stay out of the Barrens because of the "Pineys." The Pineys are these inbred hillbillies who would just as soon as cut you into little pieces if you happened to stray onto their homesteads. Once, a bunch of us got lost back in the Barrens and for a while, we cracked jokes about the Pineys and how they were going to get us as we drove along looking for a way out, but then we stumbled upon this little enclave of run-down shacks with abandoned vehicles out front and mangy dogs tied up to poles and fences and we saw the people who were staring at our car from inside these houses and well, after we got the hell out of there, we never made jokes about the Pineys again.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Hanford, California. Actually, the whole San Joaquin Valley, but Hanford is worth a mention. My cousins (yes, those cousins) live there, and we have our anual 4th of July family gathering there. Hanford has the highest teen pregnancy, teen divorce, and general divorce-and-remarriage rates in CA. Half the girls have at least one baby by the the time they graduate. Definitley by the year after. The hot spot for youth to hang out was this little abandoned car wash. I know of one acquaintance of my cousins who went to college. When the local Wal-Mart opened, it was like party central... and "a trip to Wal-Mart" or "a trip to Sears" is still the highlight of anyone's day (Take Gwen's trailer trash page, and dumb it down. Way down. Then go dumber than that. And with no sense of irony. And no -- NO -- individuality. Okay. You've got yourself Hanford). The water smells like cow poo. I'm not kidding. A hot shower is unbearable because of the rotten egg stench. Whenever I'm there, I'm questioned mercilessly about when The Husband-Type Man and I are going to have babies. Things I've overheard in Hanford (from people in their early 20s, mind) include: "You mean, you like to read all those books? I don't read books... I like magazines." "Why would you keep going to school? Do you really LIKE all that stuff?" "I hate doing dishes, but I LOVE to vacuum! What about you?" "You don't have a garage? Where does The Husband-Type Man work and stuff?" "You're... really weird." "But EVERYONE has babies!" "How come you didn't change your name when you got married? You're SUPPOSED to change your name! How else will people know you're married?" Hanfordians cannot wrap their minds around: men who cook in the kitchen, not at the BBQ... women who don't think glue gun crafts are cute, fun and appealing... people who move to New York City willingly... people who dislike children... people who've never changed a diaper....

It's like White Trash Stepford Central or something.

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that every time we leave Hanford, The Husband-Type Man and I end up engaged in heated "Oh my Gawd, I NEVER want to live like that!" discussion....

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Love Canal, Buffalo (the proper name of the town escapes me at the moment).

Imagine an entire abandoned suburban development, houses with broken windows and torn shades covered in "Ozzy" and "Led Zep" graffiti and other deitrius of wayward youth. Some souls actually decided to STAY as their neighbors fled. You just KNOW people are watching you as you drive around, which is quite creepy. And this isn't even the part that was condemned by the government.

THAT part is now surrounded by a high chain-link fence bearing scary warnings about biohazards and such. It's been completely razed and the only vestiges of the development that remain are the roads and driveways, which look like cement spines.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

There have been two really creepy towns (possibly more, but two stick out).

One was this past fall. Dinwiddie VA I think was the name. My friend Mike and I were driving down to Columbus, GA for the SOA vigil, and we stopped there for gas. It's hard to say what was so creepy about it, it just seemed so small and rural and white. No young people, no nonwhites. Mike (who is black) was seriously worried we were going to get lynched.

One several years ago, Elephant Butte, New Mexico. The town seems to consist of one restaraunt. I was on a road trip with two friends of mine. I had long hair at the time, my two friends were flirting with each other. This restaraunt had three or four John Wayne clocks on the wall. All the John Waynes were looking at me. So was everyone else in the place. My car was covered in punk rock stickers. Most of these old timers had few teeth. I was really scared that someone in the back was calling the local sherrif saying "There's a long haired hippy and a couple of lesbians in here."

Creepy.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Everyone has really funny stories. I lived in West Virginia for 15 years, and I have been to MORE THAN my share of creepy towns. Straight out of Deliverance, I tells ya. There is one county (Boone County) that has a "reputation" for the stereotypical hillbillies. If you want to describe someone, all you have to say is, "They're from Boone County."....oooOOOhhh...Now I get it...I even say that in Texas now, even though my friends have never been to Boone County, they get the meaning.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Marcy, The Love Canal is in Niagara Falls, NY. When that whole story broke back in the early 80s, I lived about 12 miles away, in St. Catharines, ON, Canada. Made me feel safe about drinking our tap water, that's for sure.

Thankfully, AUWUGAHHHH! I'm fine.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Not a town, but there is an abandoned insane asylum back in the woods behind my alma mater, Smith College. I finally got up the guts to go check it out during the week before my graduation last year. The buildings are boarded up, but I've seen pictures before by people who dared to break in. My boyfriend and I didn't break in, but we peeked in some windows, and just generally roamed around the place, which is HUGE and empty and dead. We started getting really freaked out once we realized that if any crazed bad people needed a place to hide out, the asylum property would be perfect. At one point, I became almost convinced that I had seen something move inside one of the high windows. Maybe one day I'll scan the pictures we took.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

My hometown is David Lynch creepy: the graveyard is a pine forest, there are a bunch of weird unsolved crimes, and the main industry is defense contracting so nobody knows what the daddies do all day. Fun was going to the air force base fair and picking up brochures on protecting yourself from The Bomb. Our school yearbook was called The Missile, which some of the church ladies in town found obscene. And it's on a public transportation spur that has a mental hospital on one end (actually the patients are extremely benign Vietnam vets, it's just the idea of it) and a hippie college city on the other end. None of us are normal.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Allison, I PROMISE it was hwy 69. We were going from Mobile and got onto it around Thomasville, I think. We finally decided that some construction on the actual hwy. must've been detouring traffic onto the roads that we were taking, hence the constant signs for hwy. 69. Also, we stopped at some burger stand and there were these guys from Mobile whom we hadn't seen in years and they were like,"What's the fastest way to Tuscaloosa?" We were all,"Stay away from Hwy. 69! We barely made it out alive!"

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Ah...I see. Being from Birmingham, which is to the north, I haven't ever approached Tuscaloosa from Mobile. Next time I am in the state and traveling to Mobile, I will definitely avoid the hell of HWY 69, based on your experience.

Perhaps in your travels you encountered Eufala, Alabama where my favorite restaurant is located. "Louise and Earl's Famous Truck Stop," it is called, and it reigns supreme in the category of Freaky-Ass Places to Eat in small-town Alabama (a rather large selection can be found in this category, as you can well imagine).

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Well, I have seen two different kinds of entries here so far, and they consist of: 1) Really freaky places; and, 2) Really fucked up places.

For the fucked up one, there is this town in Oklahoma called Red Oak. The town is actually named after the oak tree where they supposedly still hang "black folk" if they are out after dark. I live in Arkansas too Melissa, and I am sure that you recall that Mountain Home, Arkansas is actually the birthplace of the KKK. Once again... fucked up.

In the just plain weird-ass places, I think you have to include Plano, TX. They actually have artificial dirt and fake trees in Plano. Artificial dirt! What the hell is that all about.

And any campground or rest stop between Fort Smith, AR and Memphis, TN is a bad idea. As a previous Pamiephile noted, you never kn9ow what you are getting into at these sites. In fact, many of the rest stops along I-40 are well known for their after-dark sexual activities. These are common targets for late night police raids. You know, to "catch as many of them queers" as they can, as a previous politician once stated (his name rhymes with Tommy Robinson). As if that isn't bad enough, if they catch you out there, they publish your name and address and phone number in the local state paper. No lie, folks. This is the Southern Hospitality you have been hearing about.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Wenatchee, Washington.

Nothing has actually happened there - aside from being stared at a few times - like REALLY REALLY STARED AT - but it's just got this insanely creepy vibe. The people are a bit ... odd. And they look at you real funny, if you know what I mean. The air just feels uncomfortable. I don't *get* it. But I always insist on driving *through* there and if I have to stop it's for gas and maybe some applets and cottlets. Otherwise, MOVE ON! I do get a kick out of taking friends from back east there though. They always get the absolute heebie jeebies.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

When my boyfriend and I drove to Seattle from Chicago after my college graduation, we passed through any number of creepy small towns.

The weirdest one was somewhere in Wyoming. We stopped and Keith saw a sign for a Chinese restaurant. I was like, "Keith, come on, you don't want to eat at a Chinese restaurant in Wyoming," but we went there anyway. The hot and sour soup came in a bowl the size of what I eat Cheerios out of. It was ridiculous.

The creepiest one, though, was this little town in Montana populated mostly by ranchers, I think. We got up and Keith wanted to experience the "local color" (when will he learn?) so we went to this short order diner. We were obviously the only people in the entire place who didn't come there every single day of our lives, and I felt REALLY out of place. Everybody kept staring at us. It doesn't help that Keith's hair is halfway down his back, or that he likes to wear it in a high ponytail.

Man, I was never so glad to finish my eggs before. (I was scared to leave before finishing my food. What if they took it as some kind of personal insult to their town?)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

I was starting to feel that the south had completely edged out the western USofA for creepiness. Where im from its not just a creepy town- the whole damn state is creepy.... Can you guess the of where i speak of... thats right kids... UTAH! CREEPY CREEPY CREEPY!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

OK, I realise that this is off topic, but what's wrong with Plano TX? I'm spending the entire summer there, so please please please tell me why it's scary so that I at least know what to look out for. I'll love you forever I promise.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Stijn, what I meant by the history being tangible is that I could almost feel myself going back 100 years and I would not have been at all surprised to see people in Victorian clothing wandering around.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Back on the Port Arthur one...I live in Tasmania, and have been to Port Arthur a few times, but I wouldn't go for 'creepy' to describe it. It's more an historical feeling. A feeling that you get if you go anywhere that has such a huge history.

But if you want creepy, try going on one of their ghost tours at 11 o clock at night!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Oh, man. I second the Utah thing. I was traveling there with my family, and we rented a roadside motel room for the night. We opened the door, and this very fat, greasy and bristly guy emerges. He was maybe 23. He looked at us, said, "Uh, I'm from Utah." and ambled out the door.

In the refrigerator there was no less than 3 pounds of cheddar cheese and a bottle of mustard. Weird weird WEIRD.

That's pretty bad, but oh, Julian, California takes the cake. It's about 30 miles from San Diego. You think, Southern California, i.e. Uma Thurman sitting at the Cheesecake factory, hairless well-muscled chests at the beach, and latte sipping yuppies? WRONG! In Julian, after all the tourists leave with their apple pies and their Julian t- shirts, then you really see what the local culture is about. OK, this is where the ghost of Christmas Future takes the cities' bad girls to warn them to stay in school and stop smoking. Everyone there my age (16) is either retarded or pregnant. It's bone chilling. Shot spandex and gappy yellow smiles abound, while small hapless children with double names are tugged along by overweight blond women wearing *cringe* bright green tank tops, yelling "Tabitha Ann, you quit cher cryin' or I'll slap you agin!"

The center of local progressive culture is, of course, the Subway restaurant.

I'll never complain about living in Poway again.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Emma, I have taken one of those tours and it scarred me for life.

Actually, I have a bit of an eerie story about Port Arthur. When I went, it was for a Year 10 school camp and we were told by our tour guide that in the colonel's cottage (I think it was the colonel, anyway) people often have trouble getting their cameras to work. My best friend Fiona, try as she might, couldn't take a photo in one particular room and as soon as she left the room the camera worked fine. She tried four or five times, going from one room to the other and, always, the camera would play up as soon as she entered that specific room. Spoooooky.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

I was shooting a movie once in a little desert town here in California called Twin Palms. I saw a pregnant woman breast feeding baby jackrabbits in a rundown motel where we were shooting. ICK!!!!

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Ah, Julien... we used to play their basketball team in high school.... Our one away game there was enough for me, thank you.... Julien: Lakeside, with even less teeth.... Although I've never resigned myself to Poway, either! ;)

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Allison, honey, sweety, darling. How the hell could you not like "Suddenly Last Summer"? Granted the movie was a little different from the play (the heroine did end up getting the lobotomy), but overall it was a great flicker. I must also praise you on your defense of the South, especially Alabama, seeing as I am from Birmingham myself, although I have lived in New Orleans much longer that I lived in Birminham. And on that note I will leave you with two quotes from Brett Butler on Alabama.

"I just want credit for getting out." I love Alabame, but you can't buy liquor there on a Sunday.

"I want to write a book on the South, and call it"When Beautiful Places Happen To Bad People'" At times, I feel the same, but it is a part of me and I wouldn't trade any of it for all the free Gucci shoes in

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Allison, honey, sweety, darling. How the hell could you not like "Suddenly Last Summer"? Granted the movie was a little different from the play (the heroine did end up getting the lobotomy), but overall it was a great flicker. I must also praise you on your defense of the South, especially Alabama, seeing as I am from Birmingham myself, although I have lived in New Orleans much longer that I lived in Birminham. And on that note I will leave you with two quotes from Brett Butler on Alabama.

"I just want credit for getting out." I love Alabama, but you can't buy liquor there on a Sunday.

"I want to write a book on the South, and call it"When Beautiful Places Happen To Bad People'" At times, I feel the same, but it is a part of me and I wouldn't trade any of it for all the free Gucci shoes in

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

A couple of years back , the GF and I went on a driving trip. Her mother had given us a book called "Scenic drives in the US". We drove as many of these short and beautiful highways as we could string together from Browning Montana, to the Olympic peninsula, which BTW is intredibly beautiful. Anyway I was thirsty so we stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in the state of Montana. Outside, a large babyfaced man of about(I shit you not) 500 pounds was leaning on the fender of an old truck. As I walked by he stood up straight, the truck raised up visably at the relief of his weight. Inside I swear a part of the "Deliverence" cast was discussing one young fellows purchase of a second hand hunting bow. I grabed a couple of bottles of coke and listened to them try and figure out how to change the bowstring. Just as I put a five dollar bill on the counter to pay for the cokes the man behind the counter, who's smile was like that of a jack'o'lantern, says "well that little thing aint gonna git you no moose like this will". He then pulls a huge cannon of a rifle out from under the counter and slams it down on top. AS I side note , I hunt and know a little something about guns , so a huge hole in the end of a barrel tells me this is a small cannon. I realise then that I have not seen another car for over an hour, I am a native man with a long ponytail wearing shorts, sandals and a t-shirt in a small Gas station store with about five hillbilllies in bib overalls who look like their parents were brother and sister. I left without my change and drove away looking frequently in my rearview mirror. It was another half hour befor we saw another car on the road and we decided that this was one of those places that you read about in true crime novels.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

I am SO annoyed that Waco is in this list of truly creepy places. Waco is a *fine* town, y'all, don't let Pamie scare you away. My dad lived there for several years. They make good Buffalo wings. They got the Dr. Pepper museum there. And that David Koresh thing didn't even happen anywhere near the city limits.

I don't know why all those people were staring, Pamie, but your description reminded me of "Children of the Corn" or something.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Actually, Waco is quite weird. The people may actually be lovely, but they aren't the people hanging out near I-35.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Jason's right about the Koresh thing not being in Waco. It was in "Elk." That said, all my experiences in Waco have been a little heebie-jeebie-inducing. I seem to get on the loop around Waco and never know where to get off. The freeways do weird things, and the signs aren't logical. I'm forever getting lost there. And there aren't many trees. But Baylor does have an absolutely beautiful campus, if it's any consolation.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Gina:

I had to clarify the difference in being "weird" and being truly "screwed up" when I referred to Plano, TX. Plano is not creepy weird, it is just an oddball town. The fake dirt I tell Ya! But, the place is like a Chicago sized suburb. Little Surbanites running all over their little Suburb town, wearing their little suburban clothes and driving their... yup, you guessed it, Suburbans.

The whole place is just kinda.... argggghhhh! The people there are very nice though. I can't complain about that at all.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Someone cited "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". Word. I grew up in Savannah, GA. You can't do anything that will shock me. I may be repulsed or surprised, but deep down, there's a little part of me that accepts it as normal. I roll with it. All because I was raised in Weirdville, U.S.A.--I've seen or heard about stuff that is considered really bizarre since I was wee, and we all take it as interesting dinner conversation. What can I say?

We still think we're in England, for one.

EVERYONE drinks. Some, while driving. The trees along both main throughfares have scars at fender height.

Many of my baby pictures are B&W. I wore gloves and a hat to church until I was in 4th grade. This wouldn't be too bizarre except that I was not raised during the 50's but the late 60's and early 70's. The rest of the country acknowledged that hats and gloves were old- fashioned.

:) But creepy? Not really, though we do have a rep for being one of the most haunted cities in the USA. More ghosts than people, we reckon. ;)

M

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

My boyfriend and I were driving across the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota once in the early 70's, against everyone's advice. These were very tense days on the reservation. We only stopped once, at a small wayside that had two outhouses. When we got out of the car, we could see for miles in every direction. There was no one in sight; it was open country -- no houses, no towns, no telephone lines. But when we emerged from the outhouses, a lone male figure was standing on a nearby ridge, just watching us.

We couldn't imagine where he'd come from, or how he knew we were there. He stood on that ridge watching us as we got back into our car and drove away. We felt like intruders, and the whole experience was very eerie.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Dina - I actually live very near Plano and spend lots of time there. I'm not sure why it was called creepy. It's primarily middle to upper two income families with expensive SUVs and lots of disposible income. It made the news a couple of years ago because a bunch of bored rich kids started overdosing on heroin ("Coming up on News 8, Governor [and future president] Bush demands full investigation of why rich, white children die after taking drugs."). Otherwise, its all shopping malls, restaraunts and corporate campuses. Oh - and the local sport is terrorizing non-agressive drivers. Be sure you know how to use your horn and middle finger while you are there.

I *will* vouch for Pamie's assesment of Waco (AKA Wack-o) however. Maybe the whole town is a warning of what loudly thumping the bible whilst drinking too much Dr. Pepper will do to you.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I think Plano was being referred to as "creepy" in that Stepford sort of way.

I don't really like Plano, or any of the 'burbs here in Dallas. Plano is too pre-fab (fake DIRT!)and clean. Too many people living in very large houses driving their tanker-like Expeditions to and from the chain restaurants.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

What about Irving? That place is freaky. Once, a friend of mine was married at a church in Ft. Worth and the reception was held in Irving. When we got to Irving, it was as if it had just been built. You could see how the grass was still in squares like when you plant it. It crossed my mind that aliens had built the town to trap us and the thought actually sat there for a minute. I thought that all of the buildings were fake fronts and they were about to be knocked down and these aliens would come out and get us. I'm not sure what's up with that place. The truth is out there.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

near waco there is a lil' town called clifton. it is where my mom grew up, the area is filled with norwiegens! we went an old friends funneral, and it was all in norweigen, in a 200(or something) year old church. i love immagrant towns in texas!

i lived in a lil' town in vermont where i was aproached daily by stangers mubbling, "you ain't from around here, who's your family?- there ain't many irish here" - hey smarty, red hair does not equal irish

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

Oh, Fargo, Minnesota is creepy in that it's oppressive. Even if you're only visiting, there's this feeling in the air that you'll never get out. And you want Norweigans?! Well, sure, oh yeah, they sure are all up in the Nordic thing. You betcha. That's extremely odd to me, little Ms. Post-modernist So-cal mod acolyte. They don't have any underepresented minorities there. Underrepresented? Ha! It's a non- issue! "Underrepresented" there means you have brown eyes!

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

Someone needs to explain the oft-repeated "fake dirt" of Plano to me. Is it plastic nodules, brown sheeting? Does it cover real dirt? Is it where real dirt should be, or somewhere totally unnatural like a mall? This concept boggles my mind.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000

The creepiest area I've ever been to is the Ky/West Virginia border, crossing over on I-64. That area looks like hell, literally. There are tons of oil refineries (Ashland, Ky, home of Ashland oil, is right near there). I'm not sure of the technical details here, but I think that natural gas is a by-product of oil collection, and the gas needs to be burned off. So there are all these huge, black, sepulchral steel structures looming out of the valleys with perpetually-burning 10-foot-high blue flames atop them. At night, the structures all have little light bulbs dotting them, so all you can see are these yellow firefly lights and the blue flames. I'm from Kentucky originally, so this isn't intended as a knock on the state or anything.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2000

as a native of the Fargo-Moorhead area, I'd like to correct Andrea's geographical faux pas... Fargo-North Dakota Moorhead-Minnesota.

and I too would like to know what's up w/ the fake dirt?

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2002

Well, all of these stories have for sure been thoroughly entertaining, and good for future reference. I would also like to ask about the "fake-dirt" in Plano, TX. I have lived in North Dallas (Richardson) for 8 years now, and worked in Plano for 4, and have not noticed any fake dirt (that i know of). Nipps, yeah, the burning spires are a part of any oil refinery, I don't know the details either, but there's a bunch of those in the suburbs around the Houston, TX area. Now for my creepy experience.....there's this small town east of Dallas called Quinlan. It's not especially eerie or anything, just strange. On the main street as you get into town there is this house that someone built that looks like a spaceship. It is straight out of a 50's alien movie. It used to be occupied, but recently i guess they moved out or somethin, and some kids broke a window and got inside and trashed the place (a shame) my ex girlfriend has video of her and I looking around in it. If you go down the street a little bit, and turn off onto a dirt road, there is this barded up house that apparently is a known "crack-house" and during the day, it's normal, but at night we were driving by it, and i just got this VERY strong sense of being watched, but there were no discernable lights or movement in the house. To top that off, there's another house just down the road from the crack-house that is haunted. It's a huge boarded up house, and if you stop in front of it at night, and roll down your windows, all is well at first, but after a minute or two, you hear music coming from the house, and a woman laughing this long, psycho sounding laugh. NO JOKE, i have experienced it personally.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2002