Halloween Countdown, Day 3

[eldritchhobbit]

I have a spooky tale for you today, straight from my own backyard!

Brown Mountain, which is found in the county next to ours in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has long been the home of ghostly lights. Called the "Brown Mountain Lights," these mysterious glowing lights - most prevalent in September, October, and November - have been the source of

Comments

[travels_in_time]

Oooh! Sounds like the excellent book "Escape to Witch Mountain" by Alexander H. Key (not the reasonable-ish 70s Disney movie, not the in-name-only 1995 movie, and certainly not the awful 2009 movie starring The Rock). The lights and the music that come from the mountain are never explained--well, they are, but only in the broadest of terms--which is slightly disappointing, but works to give a sense that there is a whole area of mystery there that most of us aren't privy to.

ETA: I just went and looked on Wikipedia, and the Blue Ridge mountain area is specifically mentioned in the book, so I'm thinking it is related. I'm going to go look at all the links you've posted now, as this was one of my favorite books back in the day, so I'm going to go pretend that it's all true. :D

[eldritchhobbit]

Oh WOW - I hadn't made this connection at all, but now that you say it, I can see it! I'm sorry to say I've never read the book (though it sounds like I really need to do so), but I did see the '70s Disney movie when I was little, and I really enjoyed it. It stuck in my mind. I'm so tickled to hear that the book mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains specifically. Thank you for connecting the dots! This is such a fascinating (and cool) link!

[eldritchhobbit]

PS. I just looked up Alexander Key and the Brown Mountain Lights, and several sources argue that he intentionally made Brown Mountain the original "Witch Mountain." This is so cool! Thanks again for pointing this out to me. This makes my day!

[travels_in_time]

Now that I'm back home, I'm going to do some reading up on it! Nobody in my family had TV or went to movies when I was a kid, so the first movie I ever saw was this one, in a library, when I was six years old. I came upstairs in a complete daze and tried to tell my mom ALLLLLLL about it, and of course made no sense at all. I found the book a couple of years later, and spent the next several years hoping that some other library or school would show that film. I bought it on DVD the moment it came out. :D I definitely think the story was instrumental in the development of my deep interest in fantasy/sci-fi.

[eldritchhobbit]

Aw, I love this! That is brilliant! :D

I'll have you know that, thanks to you, I got and read the novel over the last few days. I loved it! And I can totally see how this would spark a lifelong love of SF/F.

Father O'Day rocks. I may have punched my fist into the air in triumph with this: "Do you think the Lord on high is so frail that this little planet, with it's greedy little people, is all that He can do? Bah!... Go tell the rest of your kind there are marvels in Creation far beyond their narrow dreaming." Awesome!

It was also great fun seeing local names (like Winston-Salem) show up in the text. :) Thank you again for making this connection for me and inspiring me to get to know the story better.

[travels_in_time]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, Father O'Day was lost in translation to the screen, and it's a shame, because he is awesome. Those lines that you pointed out, those definitely influenced the type of sci-fi that resonates the most with me. I'mma shut up now before I start rambling on about Zenna Henderson and Diane Duane. :D