In my 4th entry in this ongoing series, the one dealing with Bernon Heights, my old elementary school (among other topics), I briefly made mention to a hill located on the grounds of said elementary school that was the source of much lurid speculation when I was a student there. I also mentioned that I would elaborate on this in a future entry. Here, then, is the promised elaboration.
So, to briefly set things up, I'll repeat a bit about what I wrote about the grounds of my elementary school. In front of (and also wrapping around) the school there was a sprawling paved area/parking lot that served as the main recess area/playground, and beyond this was a large field with a small baseball diamond. There was also a big rock near the border that divided the field from the parking lot (a rock that my friends and I enjoyed playing on), and this rock was located near the base of a very long series of tree-covered hills that bordered one entire side of the field, almost like a natural wall, and leading up to a forest-y conservation area: this is what we referred to as "The Hill," and it was most easily ascended at the point nearest the big rock. Not that I ever climbed it myself, because going up there was off-limits to us students (though of course, one always spotted older students sneaking up there).
During my years as a student at Bernon Heights, this hill, and especially what was imagined to be at the top of it, was the source of many sinister rumors. The older kids used to tell us that at the top of the hill there was a statue of a monstrous dog, and beyond this statue was a clearing where one could see a small shack, and that this shack was the home of a psychotic axe-killer and his large, demonic pet dog, a dog that could swallow children whole. Naturally, my friends and I fell for this cock and bull story hook, line and sinker (but then again, I’d never been up to the top of the hill myself, so who knew?). One of my younger brothers’ friends did an illustration once of what he thought this psychopath looked like: a crude sketch of a shirtless and musclebound freak holding an axe whose blade was dripping blood.
In March of 2020, during the COVID lockdown, I would frequently go on long walks around my old neighborhood, when the weather was mild and I felt in the mood for exercise. One day, on March 26th of 2020, I took a nostalgic detour from my usual route and began walking around the Bernon Heights school area. Naturally I went to the field to see my old friend, the big rock. When I was a kid the top of the rock just reached around my eye level... so it felt very weird to be looking DOWN at it, 30 years later, and seeing how it was nowhere near as large as I remembered it being: or maybe I had just grown. I then looked up at the hill, and began remembering all the scary stories I had been told about it when I was a kid. Standing at the base of the hill that day, I suddenly felt compelled to climb to the top and see for myself what was up there, something I'd never done in my entire life. It wasn't a particularly difficult climb (even for someone as un-athletic as me), being maybe 20-30 feet high or so, and not super-steep. At the top I found myself in a clearing, large rock-strewn field, surrounded by trees... a quiet and peaceful environment, with no human habitations in sight (and certainly no statues of demonic dogs). Yet all the same I realized that the place had the potential for darkness, and there was something almost TWIN PEAKS-y about it: one could easily imagine something horrible happening out there in the dark heart of the woods... I guess what I'm trying to say is that while the reality of the place was nowhere near as sinister as my childhood projections of it were, it had an undeniable aura that got my imagination working (I don't know if any satyrs or fauns live in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, but if they DID, I could imagine encountering one in such a spot). After carefully climbing back down the hill I headed back home and on the way back home I passed by a mailman and the mailman smiled at me and said, "Beautiful day out, isn't it?" and I agreed with him as I went on my merry way.
I also had a camera on hand with me that day so I took some pictures of the clearing at the top of the hill, which I'll now share below:
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