It was like nothing we had ever seen before.
I still remember how large he was.
His tongue was flickering in and out of his mouth.
When my grandmother saw him, she raised her garden hoe in his direction.
Unfazed, he slowly turned away and crawled behind one of the graves disappearing into the woods.
My grandmother said later she believed he was a haint.
-Daddy recalls an event that occurred around 1955 in Eufaula, Alabama.
Daddy tells the whole story
When I was little, my grandmother would often grab us kids to go with her to the cemetery to help her and her sisters clean up our family’s graves.
Usually, this would take place early on Saturday mornings.
On those days, we’d all gather our tools and walk down the railroad track to the cemetery where most of my mother’s side of the family was buried.
We’d typically be out there working all morning.
One day, when I was about ten years old, it happened!
Me, my grandmother, and aunt were clearing away some brush when we spotted the scariest looking thing we had ever seen standing on top of an adult-sized grave.
It was grayish black, and spanned, from his nose to the tip of his tail, the entire length of the slab.
The monster, who weighed more than I did then, was facing us from about two plots away–toward a branch that ran through the middle of the cemetery.
It was like nothing we had ever seen before.
I still remember how large he was.
His tongue was flickering in and out of his mouth.
When my grandmother saw him, she raised her garden hoe in his direction.
Unfazed, he slowly turned away and crawled behind one of the graves disappearing into the woods.
My grandmother said later she believed he was a haint.
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LadyG remembers that story
I remember my Dad telling me this story over the years and I often wondered about the creature that he and his grandmother, Ma Allie, had seen that day.
Daddy said that it looked kinda like a Komodo dragon…
But not exactly.
He also said that this four-legged ghoul was probably feeding off corpses that were not “housed” in a vault.
A grave-robber of sorts.
Just so you know, vaults were not always used back in those days; especially in African-American cemeteries.
Anyway, it is important to note that Komodo dragons are not native to Alabama, or anywhere nearby, so we figured that whatever it was must have gotten loose from someone who had owned him as a pet.
At any rate, Daddy was never fully content with the fact that he could not positively identify that reptilian gargoyle of yore.
So for 64 years, the whole thing remained unsolved…
Until…
Last week, when I sent an article to my Dad about this reptile called a “Tegus” that had been spotted in South Georgia.
The article included a picture of a reptile that fit the description that Daddy gave based on his childhood memories.
After receiving and reading the article, Daddy immediately called me back and said, “That’s it! That’s EXACTLY what I saw!”
He seemed excited that the mystery had been solved.
Apparently, the Tegus has been around the South for much longer than the wildlife folks think!
But, secretly, I prefer Ma Allie’s belief that it was a haint!
LOL!
Lady G loves you!
