Local Legends!

Tonight’s survey was based on suggestions from readers Rae and Jingo. Thanks, guys!

In the comments, let’s share stories about our own LOCAL LEGENDS.

Every town has their own ghost stories, or rumors about that one madman, or places that nobody is supposed to go.

From the past or present, what are some of yours?

(Apologies in advance if you’re heard this story before. I seem to tell it an awful lot.)

On Staten Island, the “satanic panic” craze was in full effect during the ‘80s. (Ever see that Cropsey documentary? Yeah.)

For kids my age, this amounted to parents warning us to stay out of certain wooded areas, because that was where “the satanists” lived. In reality, there were very good reasons to stay out of those woods, because back when Staten Island was less crowded, it wasn’t out of the question to run into drug addicts or makeshift sex dens. None of those folks were likely to sacrifice you to dark gods, but they weren’t exactly good company for eight-year-olds, either.

But were there actually satanists? Consistently? To this day, I have no idea. I can tell you that even in the areas where me and my friends were allowed to explore, we’d find all sorts of spooky shit, from pentagrams spray-painted onto rocks to bundles of discarded clothes.

The thought of finding a bunch of black-clad devil worshippers may have given us pause, but at the same time, it motivated us to explore the woods even further than we normally would. We felt like little detectives, trying to solve cases that most likely didn’t exist.

In retrospect, my best guess is that — as strange as it sounds — it was just easier for parents to say “stay out of the woods because there are satanists” than “stay out of the woods because there are people getting high and boinking.”

Still, I gotta admit, this was all so weirdly fascinating to me as a kid. Just the idea that while normal society was doing its normal things in its normal places, the dungeon of fuckin’ doom was drinking rat blood fifty feet away.

What were some of your local legends? The scary ones, I mean!