It’s been decades since I was that gullible kid but I remain susceptible to spooky tales, and I’m known to fall for a jump scare. I’ve been in the Knoebel’s Haunted House more times than I can count and something still gets me every time, even when I tell myself it’s coming. My husband loves the dark ride and wanted to share it with our son, taking him on it at the tender age of 5 only hear him tearfully exclaim “I could have died in there!” when it was over. One of my toughest parenting moments was not dissolving into laughter while my traumatized son sought comfort. He’s a teen- ager now and as far as we can tell, the only result of this experience was to make him a skeptic. But I highly recommend that you create memories with your own impressionable children during Hallo-Fun weekends at Knoebels. The vast majority of the park is decked out for the spooky season and there are plenty of family friendly attractions; the Haunted House trip is optional.
But while I can now see the humor in the tale of Screwy Louie, there are some spine-tingling tales based in truth around these mountains and valleys. The two Hooded Graves near Catawissa are an excellent example of this. “Hooded” graves are a rare phenomenon of cages being placed over gravesites. They are more common in England where they are called “mortsafes” and these are the only two I’ve heard about in the States. But why on earth would anyone cage a corpse? The legend as I originally heard it was these two women who both passed in 1852 were consid- ered witches and so dangerous they would rise from the afterlife and continue their dark deeds unless their physical bodies were imprisoned. That’s not that unbelievable that folks may have thought that way, even 100 years or so after the Salem Witch Trials. In reality, the real reason the cages are there is much less supernatural, but no less macabre.
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