I love to read about Urban Legends and spooky stories especially this time of year. In our state of Maryland there are a lot of Urban Legends that I remember hearing of as a young child and was terrified! One was the Legend of the Goatman, first recorded in 1957, it was said that he was half man, half goat. Ugly creature! Top was a man with horns bottom half was that of a Goat, its said that he would use his horns he had to slice his prey. That's enough to make any young child scared.
We loved to take these stories and share them around the campfires when we would all get together during our family camping vacations. What is it that brings people together while being scared? It brings out these emotions that make us want to gather together and huddle up and just tell our biggest fears to each another.
I remember that my uncle told us when he was younger and out near a local bridge where the kids would hang out they think they seen the Goatman and he was terrified, he was about 19 years old and all the kids were sitting on the grass to the side of the bridge, not quite under it but close enough to where they could still see the water. One thing he says was that it was so dark that night and all you could really see were the lights from the cigarettes people would smoke. They had their coolers and blankets and were just being your typical teenagers when he felt like something was behind him, not sure what it was he remembers looking back and seeing nothing. He said he could not shake the feeling of something or someone being behind him, he looked again and he thought that he seen a Deer so he threw a rock and heard what he thought was a Deer run off. About 30 minutes later he said he seen what looked like a Deer again but this time in front of them down the hill by the water and that he could see it a little better because of the moons reflection and he actually stood to get a better look and when he did he said that it was a man who looked like an animal, he was so freaked out that this animal/man was actually standing and not on all fours like a Deer would be. He started to back up so that he could see better since they were sitting on a hill and the more he backed up the more he could tell that this was not a deer. He called to one of his buddies to get a look at it and by that time the animal starting to move towards them very fast, they took off and didn't even grab the beer. Now, if you knew my Uncle you would know that he does not leave beer, I don't care what is going on that man would never leave a cooler full of beer! Was this the Goatman? Who knows, I do know that he did see something and that he was terrified. To this day his story has never changed or his Wife's story. Of course when you all get together in a group and are drinking people can tell stories, make up things, and freak one another out but this was not something they were doing. This was a hangout that all the kids went to, just happened that this time they seen something that none of them ever had before and it scared them to death! True or not, this was a story that all of us have shared through the years and its based on our local Urban Legend. Pretty cool but I would of been freaked out too!!
