LifePundit

Playing with Matches

This morning's news is that one of the fires in California was started by a boy playing with matches. That's all I know, which is just as well. A tragedy for the families who lost their homes, the firefighters who risked their lives fighting the fire and for the boy, who gets to carry this burden the rest of his life.

Matches and guns are hard for children to resist. And because they are dangerous, we parents want to forbid them. Hide them. Lock them away. (And I'm not saying that guns shouldn't be put under lock and
key. But one day, we might forget and leave the key out, or leave the cabinet unlocked, so we still might want to think about how we approach dangerous objects.) The more they're forbidden, the more tantalizing they become.

I'll never forget watching the boys in Lily's preschool class play "shoot 'em up" even though the school had no weapon-like toys. Each boy had a plastic cow or other animal that they could use as a pistol, with a little imagination. The head was the barrel, the body the grip, the legs a trigger.

Things forbidden (like chocolate when you're on a diet) can consume your mind. My father understood this, and I think he had a really good approach to dealing with guns and matches and children. We could play with matches and guns all we wanted, anytime we wanted. All we had to do was come get him.

Because if there was ever a grown boy who loved to play with matches (and guns), it's my father. He'll sit there and light matches with you all day long. He'll take you out to a safe place to shoot a gun. You can satiate your desire for fire and gunfire. You just have to let the big kid in on the fun.

The consequences of not inviting him, however, were very grave. I don't know what it would have been but I know that I didn't want to find out. Plus, I had unlimited access to matches and guns. Soon, I lost interest.

We've taken the same approach with Lily. My father, who still loves to play with matches, taught her how to light them when she was three. She promptly burned herself (with both of us watching!) and quickly understood the nature of fire.

Your family may do it a different and better way, and I respect that.

The Maco Light: What the Experts Say

A continuation of yesterday's post about The Maco Light, my Halloween ghost story for you. (Don't know what I'll do next year since this is the only ghost light I've seen.)

I'm not the only one to have seen the Maco Light. President Grover Cleveland is said to have seen it. Wikipedia says:

The light distracted (train) engineers to the point that the railroad adapted a new signaling system that was used only at the Maco station. President Grover Cleveland is said to have inquired about the reason for Maco's unique red-and-green signal lights when the presidential train stopped at Maco during a rail tour of the coastal Carolinas.

The Moonlit Road web site says:

The 1950s and 1960s brought even more intense interest in the story. Life magazine featured a doctored picture of the track with a mysterious green lantern swinging in ghostly hands. In 1960, the National Guard was stationed at Maco to try and capture the light, but failed. Research teams from the Smithsonian Institute, a group of electronic engineers and university parapsychologists all tried to examine and explain the light, but were also unsuccessful.

The Prairie Ghosts web site says:

No one has been able to figure out what causes the light, as just about     every explanation has been discussed and tossed aside, from automobile headlights (seen     before cars existed) to swamp gas. During one investigation, all traffic was routed away     from Maco and no cars were allowed to approach the area.... and yet the unearthly light     still appeared.

On one occasion, a machine gun attachment from Fort Bragg encamped at     Maco to solve the mystery, or at least shoot it down, but they did neither.

I was hoping to find more information about the Smithsonian and Life Magazine's investigations, but it must have been too long ago to be on the Internet. There are more recent investigations that talk about how the lights might be caused by seismic activity, but the Maco Light is in a low seismic area.

What is it? Nobody knows. That's what makes it fun.

Here are some photos of what the landscape looks like now that the tracks have been removed.

Scaredy Cat Pumpkin

Every Halloween Paul and Lily carve the pumpkin together. This year Lily designed a scared cat that would make Martha Stewart envious. Paul and Lily carved it together. We were all shocked and delighted at how well it turned out. It's hard to photograph because the design curves around the pumpkin so it's difficult to catch all sides. Click on the photos to enlarge. And, to read a scary Halloween ghost story, check out today's post on the Maco Light, with another installment coming tomorrow.

The Maco Ghost Light: Eyewitness Account

The Maco Light is real. Whether or not there is a ghost behind it is another matter. But I've seen the light twice, and I'll never forget it.

The story behind the light is basically this: In 1867 an Atlantic Coast Line railroad car got separated from the rest of the train one night on its trip home to Wilmington, N.C. The conductor, Joe Baldwin, knew that another train would be coming along the same tracks soon, so he stood at the back of the disconnected car swinging his lantern to warn the next train. Unfortunately, the next train wasn't able to stop in time and Joe was killed in the collision. His head was never found in the wreckage and his body was buried without it.

That's when people started seeing strange lights along the train tracks in Maco, N.C. "It's Joe," they said, "looking for his head." The light bobbed like a swinging lantern as it "walked" down the tracks looking indeed as if someone were carrying it in search of something -- A Head!

Maco is not that far from Holden Beach, N.C., my holy ground. One of my favorite things to do as a child when we were at Holden Beach was to listen to ghost stories to anyone foolish enough to tell them to me. When you are absolutely safe in your childhood and your family, there's nothing more fun that getting really scared. The Smyrls (my cousins and beach house owners) indulged me and told me all the ghost stories they could think of. Then one night they told me about the Maco Light. It was about 50 miles away from Holden Beach, and if the night was dark enough, you could see it. It was real.

Please, please, please, will somebody take me? I begged and begged and thought they never would. It's hard to get a house full of adults motivated to drive 50 miles to sit on some train tracks and wait for a light that may or may not show up, depending on the darkness of the night. My parents were not at all enthused as they didn't believe in ghosts and didn't think I should either. But of course I did. I was a kid. And even if I didn't really believe, I believed in believing.

If there's a real ghost, you have to take me. I was quite the nag. One night, to my astonishment, they did.

It was hard to find the place. Maco wasn't a big place, and we had to drive around a bit to find where the train tracks crossed the rural highway. It was even harder to find in the dark. But we found it.

Here's what I saw: There were two sets of parallel tracks stretching as straight and as far as you could see in both directions. There were a few other cars there, all of us waiting to see the Maco Light. We didn't have to wait long.

The light starts at one end of the track as a small red glow, like a cigarette being lit or an ember. Then it gets brighter and turns into a larger, yellowish light as you see it moving towards you. It starts quite far off and you have a lot of time to watch it bob in rhythm to unseen steps as it moves in your direction, getting bigger and brighter all the time.

It's a clear light, bobbing and moving forward. You stand transfixed on the tracks, thinking about running. There's a light coming towards me. What's going to happen when it gets here? I hear that on really dark nights it will come on past you. An old-timer standing by said that one time it came past at the same time a train came through and the light went up above the train and was bright enough for him to read the lettering on the train cars.

Both times I went to see it it disappeared before it got too close. (Whew!) Then, I turned and saw it recede into the distance on the other side of where I was standing. It came to me, passed by without my seeing it, and continued on down the tracks.

My toes tingle just remembering it.

We went back again when I was older and were not disappointed. My father enjoyed sneaking up behind me and my friends as we waited for the light, and as it got closer, touching us and yelling "boo." You probably heard us scream.

I took Paul and some friends there later, but by then the tracks had been taken up. We didn't see the light. I hear that when they took the tracks up, the light disappeared.

Do I believe in ghosts? No. But I know a light when I see one. The light is real.

And seeing it was Big Fun!

Tomorrow: A round-up of research on the Maco Light.  Click here for a fun animation.

Carnival of Christian Writers Today -- Good Stuff to Read!

Today is the Carnival of Christian Writers, and I'm honored to be included. Click here for some inspiring and helpful words from working Christian writers.

Reasons to Like Halloween

Reasons to Like Halloween:

1. When people come to your house, they're not coming inside (no crisis cleaning needed).
2. Nobody is expecting you to cook a meal.
3. If your in-laws insist on coming over, you can give them a bowl of candy and leave them in the house while you go somewhere, anywhere. Perhaps a goblin will get your MIL.
4. If you have to a wear a costume, you can choose a baggy one and wear a mask if you don't feel like putting it all together. If you've just lost weight and look great, you can dress trashily to show it off and nobody but me will say nasty things about you. I'll talk bad about you from under my Halloween Burqua, but people in burquas are invisible so nobody will pay any attention to me.
5. You can be stupid and buy good chocolate candy, which will call your name all week long and you'll end up having to buy more if you give into temptation (plus you'll have to Trick or Treat in your Burqua), or you can buy non-chocolate candy and wonder why you're eating it when you really don't even like Sour Patch Kids candy all that much. I should've bought candy corn. I will not touch that stuff.
6. Your cobwebs will look like Martha Stewart Halloween decor.
7. Anything broken or needing repair on your porch or house will seem like part of your Halloween scenery.
8. You don't have to watch your husband wrestle the pumpkin into a stand, then realize it is too tall and scrapes the paint off of the ceiling. There's no reason to curse over a pumpkin. (Why I caved in and we have an artificial Christmas tree.)
9. You don't have to send Halloween cards, and if you did, please don't do it again.
10. You don't have to buy anyone presents.
11. The only thing you need to feel guilty over is whatever you ate.
12. Maybe a goblin really will take your MIL.

Coming Tuesday or Wednesday:  The Maco Light.  A real ghost story, and I have seen the lights. Scared me to my tingly toes.

With a Cat Like This, Who Needs Mice?

Tiger, our orange tabby (photo here),  lost his house privileges several years ago because he doesn't care what we think. He would hop on the table while we were eating, spray the furniture and generally act like he owns the place. He had the strangest obsession with loaves of bread. Whenever I would unload the groceries, he would tackle the bread and wrestle with it while I was getting other bags out of the car. I got smarter about this and always hid the bread. There's just something unappetizing about having a sandwich with holes cut out where the cat bit or clawed it. Swiss cheese, Swiss bread.

The last straw was when he developed an asthma-like condition and had to stay in a room with a humidifier. When he became an outdoor cat, his "asthma" went away and he seems very happy. He sometimes comes in for supervised inside time.

Today while I was unloading the car he hopped in and wrestled the bread while it was in the car. Guess we'll have Swiss-bread (I do cut around the cat damage or try to find slices that are untouched) at the horse show tomorrow.

Here's the wrestled bread. Bon Appetit!

Woot-off in Progress

A friend just called to tell me that there's a Woot-off in progress. Woot is a hoot, if you're unfamiliar. They sell frequently refurbished or overstocked electronics, but more than that, their product descriptions are laugh-out-loud funny. Check them out -- and keep checking them out because a Woot-off is when they unload stuff by posting items until they sell out, then posting the next thing. Never know what will be next.  Days that aren't Woot-offs just feature one item. I'm not connected to them in anyway except as a customer. Just thought I'd share the fun with my friends. www.woot.com

Can You Use Your Cell Phone to Unlock Your Car?

A group of middle-school girls recently told me that if I lock my keys in my car and I have a keyless remote at home that all I have to do is call home and have someone use the spare keyless remote to unlock my car over the cell phone.

The person at home sends the signal into my phone, which I'm holding up to the car door and Voila! I'm in.

I was so excited about this bit of news, and since it came from the most tech-savvy people I know -- preteen girls -- I was sure it was true.

Snopes says it isn't. For more, read here.

Monkeys Making Lewd Gestures

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. There are monkeys making lewd gestures at women and children in Kenya.

They've obviously been watching too much TV.