Permanent Vacation For Some
What Kid Wants to Vacation in Gettysburg?
My dad was obsessed with history. He's a reenactor, he's written books, he's fairly obsessed with the French and Indian War and a lot of other things. So, of course, when summer rolled around, every single year, we went to Gettysburg. No one had the common decency to tell me that Gettysburg was haunted. It seems like that would be pretty logical. Lots of death and suffering, anger and fear, young men and women killed, even in their own homes. Of course it would be haunted, but that wasn't something I had on my mind when I was a kid.
I think my main thought on it was, "Boring. Why can't we go to the beach like normal people?" Incidentally, I've never been to the beach.
Every time we stayed in Gettysburg, I had trouble sleeping. Once I even told my parents the reason I couldn't sleep was because of the person who kept walking past the window and looking in. My dad got up and went outside, and there was no one out there, but after he returned, the figure persisted. No one could seem to see it, but me. It never really occurred to me that it might be someone who had long departed.
I also recall being at Devil's Den, climbing up on the boulders. I was walking across one of them and someone shoved me. HARD. I almost fell between two boulders. It was quite the fall and the landing was very narrow. I turned around to scream at my brother, but no one was behind me. In fact, my brother wasn't even up there with me. I just recall not sleeping well and that one incident, but I can't remember much from our several visits. I was just glad when it was over so I could finally sleep on the way home.
Had I known then what I know now, I probably would've enjoyed myself a lot more.
My dad was obsessed with history. He's a reenactor, he's written books, he's fairly obsessed with the French and Indian War and a lot of other things. So, of course, when summer rolled around, every single year, we went to Gettysburg. No one had the common decency to tell me that Gettysburg was haunted. It seems like that would be pretty logical. Lots of death and suffering, anger and fear, young men and women killed, even in their own homes. Of course it would be haunted, but that wasn't something I had on my mind when I was a kid.
I think my main thought on it was, "Boring. Why can't we go to the beach like normal people?" Incidentally, I've never been to the beach.
Every time we stayed in Gettysburg, I had trouble sleeping. Once I even told my parents the reason I couldn't sleep was because of the person who kept walking past the window and looking in. My dad got up and went outside, and there was no one out there, but after he returned, the figure persisted. No one could seem to see it, but me. It never really occurred to me that it might be someone who had long departed.
I also recall being at Devil's Den, climbing up on the boulders. I was walking across one of them and someone shoved me. HARD. I almost fell between two boulders. It was quite the fall and the landing was very narrow. I turned around to scream at my brother, but no one was behind me. In fact, my brother wasn't even up there with me. I just recall not sleeping well and that one incident, but I can't remember much from our several visits. I was just glad when it was over so I could finally sleep on the way home.
Had I known then what I know now, I probably would've enjoyed myself a lot more.
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