It seems to me that we had a few bogus myths when I was in high school about certain places that were supposedly haunted. A high school tall tale sprouts wings and flies very quickly--as we all know--and has plenty of bullshit stacked on top along the way.
In my mind, the urban myth that stands out the most is the so-called Hart House. It has long been demolished, but it used to stand on (amazingly) Hart Road, off the Farragut end of Northshore between Concord Rd and Ebenezer. The story goes that Mr. Hart killed his family and then hung himself (or was it shot himself) on Valentine's Day. Hmmmm. I'm sure everybody that knows about this joint has heard a slightly (or completely) different account. Well, in the age of google anyway, one would think that something as HORRIFIC as this would be detailed thoroughly and readily available on countless web pages. Nope. Now, I know it's a load of crap. I just want to know how it got started!
Granted, the first time I came upon it, yeah it was really creepy (I don't believe it was on the Parade of Homes List or anything). It was all boarded up and broken down and had clearly been abandoned for eons (at least a few years anyways). That's the one thing that was surprising: it was prime real estate near the lake and they just left a rotting old shack sit on that expensive property? Regardless, me and a couple of naive friends decided to have a closer look. We took a trip in the ole' Pontiac 6000 (Limited Edition mind you) one autumn eve to do a little ghost-busting. After parking the car up at the Weigels a 1/2 mile or so away, the Three Stooges made their way to the house of horrors. Long story short--we made it up to the property line, performed an Abbott and Costello routine walking up towards the house, manifested some freakish light or ghoulish noise (that suddenly everyone saw and heard with SUCH clarity), and ran our asses full sprint back to the car. Did we see something or hear something? Only in our young, naive impressionable minds.
Now the other place (also on Northshore--only way out in Loudon County) is the "Pumpkinhead Lady" House (I agree--it's hilarious that anything with a name that ridiculous could be scary). There was never a clear background story--at least that I'm aware of--on how this place came to be, but none the less it existed in Karns High folklore.
A few years after the Hart "incident," me and a few buddies (different ones this time--I'm the only stupid one that still went in for this kind of shit) ventured out to the place. We didn't have precise directions, just a ballpark of where it was supposed to be located. Now it was like driving through a chapter of Children of the Corn to get to the joint--I mean it was way out in B.F.E (It was probably a good 7 or 8 miles past the Choto flashing yellow light). Anyways we get to the house--the description we got was spot on so it had to be the place--and just kind of idle in the middle of the road for a bit. All of a sudden, the door flashes open, and there is someone--or something--looking at us. We are saying "Holy shit! It's the pumpkinhead lady!" and I'm fixing to throw the gear shift in drive when out of the corner of my eye I see some old man at my window with a gun! All of us scream like girls as I peel out and drive like mad to get out of the reaches of this crazed lunatic! Unlike the Hart House, this time we had all actually seen the spectre!
Of course, later we realized all that we had really seen was a homeowner get pissed off that there were three idiots sitting in a car outside their house open her door quickly to see what the hell we were doing! And as for the guy, he was just probably the old lady's son who lived close by (and since we knew others had come before us with similar results) he brought out the gun to send a message: for us to tell all of our shithead cronies NEVER to come by this way again! So yeah, we did see something on this ghost hunt. Was it supernatural? Jesus--of course not. But once again I ask how did this rumor start? Did the old lady turn her lights off on Halloween or something (maybe she left one of those bowls of candy corns and cheap gumballs on the porch) and piss somebody off enough for them to start a rumor that she was some kind of a witch?
Only in high school fairy tales my friends.....
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My friends and I use to party in the old Hart house. There was a mattress upstairs that looked like it had blood on it, or more likely, puke and ketchup! ROFL Anyway, the old man whom lived across from the Hart house came out one night yelling that he had a shot gun and we got the hell outta there and never went back. We also use to party at the old asylum not far from there. Now Pellissippi Parkway runs through there. Fun times being scared over nothing! Thanks for sharing this post. Hadn't thought about this place for 30 years.
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