The moon was out tonight keeping watch over the blackened countryside. While I adore full moons, I am also quite partial to the half lidded lunar face. When the moon looks as it does tonight, it reminds me of a giant eye in the sky. The dark side is slanted just right, so that the shadow looks like a black eyelid. It peeks in through my window as if to check and see how I am doing. Some nights it kinda creeps me out, but tonight it was nice to have a friend up as late as I was.
I took a stroll out in the darkness and listened to the silence. Normally there is a frog chorus backing up the noisy cricket choir, but tonight it is in the mid 30s and no animal melody can be heard. Silence comes in different flavors and tonight it is composed of a light breeze on the grass, the whoosh of cars way down on the highway and my own breath. It is the perfect October night to dust off my copy of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. There are many stories and authors that fit well with this wonderful month, but it absolutely can’t be October without Washington Irving and his tale of an ill fated school master.
I suppose it was fate that lead me to Mr. Irving’s door. I was first introduced to him in the middle of the Halloween decoration aisle in a Payless. Mom had drug me along on errands and left me to peruse the holiday goodies while she did something elsewhere in the store. The aisle was set up underneath a long black piece of fabric that made it seem like one was in a spooky tunnel. Bats and various other seasonal decor hung from the material and on the top right shelf was a small black TV that played a video in an eternal loop. I ignored the TV and its noises for a while and examined the spooky bits and bobs for sale. At some point, the tape started over from the beginning and I heard Bing Crosby speaking. Now I was a weird little kid (who grew up to be a weird big kid) and really REALLY liked Bing Crosby. He was my Justin Bieber. So when I heard that smooth, easy voice I stopped what I was doing and began to watch the screen. As der Bingle talked I got more and more interested in the story. It had all the components I liked; a swell narrator, something to do with a school, an imaginative main character and spooky woods. At some point, I don’t quite know when, I gave the video my undivided attention and just sat down in the middle of the aisle to watch. I think I watched it twice through. It is only 34 minutes long. Mom came back eventually and I think I made her sit through it once, but I can’t be sure. It sounds like something I would do. Then we paid for our purchases and left the store.
But the story stuck with me. I don’t know when I found out that it was actual literature. But once I did, I had to have my own copy and ever since it has been an October tradition that I read the book and then watch the movie. It can’t be October without it. Some people like to read the Night Before Christmas or the Christmas Story before Christmas, well reading the Legend of Sleepy Hollow before Halloween is my equivalent.
I am really quite fond of it truth be told. In college I even did a historical report and pop culture comparison on it. It is more than just a semi scary tale to tell the kids. It is a reflection of early New England folk lore and way of life. It is a mini history lesson on how superstition starts. From Sleep Hollow you learn about the Hessian soldiers who rode through the land during the Revolutionary War, and can delve into the real reason early settlers hollowed out foodstuffs and lit them. The tale is as rich with history as it is with entertainment.
When I first read the tale I fell in love with Mr. Irving’s writing. It is so descriptive and lovely that it makes me jealous. I want to write like that. Sometimes you can read a writers words and only get half of the world they are trying to describe. But with Irving, one is transported quite readily into the middle of the story. You can see the local taverns, hear the hoof beats and taste the bountiful spread at Van Tassels estate. Someone at Disney must have fell into the story the same way that I did, because when I watched the video it mimicked exactly the way I saw the book in my mind. The way the crickets chirped Ichabod’s name. The way the horseman laughed. The quaintness of the town.
I am a lover of words and from the first page it hooks me. Follow the Tapaan Zee down to Tarry Town. Such a lazy sounding river obviously leads to a sleepy place. Of course you would want to linger in Tarry Town, it’s a foregone conclusion. And then the Hollow itself. Not being an easterner I had no idea that the world Hollow was as common as it was. There are hollows all over. The fact that this one is sleepy, just makes me want to move there immediately. I don’t imagine life is all that stressful in a place like Sleepy Hollow. Granted, some strange things do happen there, but by and large I think life moves at a more sedate pace. Just listen to the description "There is a little valley, or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull you to repose, and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquility."
As I writer I like to find the best spots to plunk down my words, literally and figuratively. Sleepy Hollow sounds tailor made for me. "However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to imbibe the bewitching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative– to dream dreams..." Sounds perfect, sign me up. You would most likely catch me in camouflage gear hunkered down behind a rotting log at midnight with a pen, pad, flashlight, Big Carl my trusty super sized wrench and a camera, all in hopes of catching the Horseman unawares. Sleepy Hollow is a place out of time and that suits me just well. As long as they have internet connection, Starbucks and a FedEx man, we are golden.
Sometimes I think I am an old soul born into the wrong time. Each time I read the story I get a little jealous of the kids who got to attend such a wonderful little school. How interesting to be taught in a one room school house. To have the stove to heat the room and to share your lessons with other grades at the same time. I’m sure children back then didn’t think it was so very wonderful, but I do. But then again I am the weirdo who likes school and all that book learnin’ so mayhaps I am the only one who likes this idea in the first place. I would have made a lousy pioneer, but I think I would have made a great school mistress.
While the school house and countryside appeal to my sense of charm, Ichabod by far steals my heart. His funny appearance and surprising snobbery. The way that he charms the ladies so that he can get a good meal and his pathetic vanity all make me laugh. Bu it is Ichabods imagination that really makes us kindred spirits. More often than not, he lets his imagination quite run away with him. I remember two instances of my own, where I quite clearly let the very same thing happen. One was when I spent the night at a friends house. She liked to go to bed early, so I had brought a book with me to kill the time before I finally got sleepy enough to go to bed. It truly was a dark and stormy night and for some reason my book of choice had been about ghost stories. I scared myself so silly that I ended up calling my mother at some unheard of time of night so that she could come get me. Boy did I feel dumb the next day. My other instance was with a spooky movie that I had already seen in the theater. I was in my room and decided to watch the special features DVD. It was all behind the scenes work and the actors weren’t even in full make up, but for some reason it freaked me out so much that I had to turn it off and ended up sleeping with the lights on for at least two days. The funny thing was, the movie itself didn’t scare me, but somehow the extra features did. Yup, me and old Icky sure do have the same overactive imagination.
Headless horseman, old school houses, harvest bounty, waving wheat fields, fireside tales, imagination, spooky woods, mystery, and old church yards. Yes, the Tale of Sleepy Hollow is definitely one of my favorite October things.
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