[UA] SKULLBONE, BABY!

[John Tynes]

I grew up in Memphis, but I never heard of Skullbone. Curious place.

This reminds me of a place in Memphis that I hadn't thought about in years,
a little enclave called Voodoo Village. A quick web search turned up this
summary from Memphis Magazine:

> If you grew up in Memphis then you¹ve probably heard of the mysterious "Voodoo
> Village," located in southwest Memphis at the end of a cove. Legend has it
> that if you drive down the cul-de-sac at night the voodoo-practicing occupants
> of the area block the exit of the cove with a bus, thereby trapping curious
> onlookers for rituals and other ghastly deeds.
> 
> Not true, at least the part about kidnapping and the rituals.
> 
> Our research turned up no reported instances of such crimes. Our attempt at
> questioning the residents of this area about possible voodoo practices also
> stalled, but not for a lack of trying.
> 
> Here¹s what we did, and didn¹t, find: Located just off Shelby Drive, there
> were no shrunken heads on poles or walls of nails to be found during our visit
> in late June. What is there ‹ behind a big iron gate and barbed wire ‹ are
> brightly painted signs and sculptures decorated with what look to be Arabic
> and Hebrew symbols. And while there wasn¹t the dreaded school bus anywhere in
> sight, we did feel as if we were being watched by the occupants of a van that
> pulled out of a driveway and parked on the street just as we entered the cove.
> 
> Being good journalists, we did try to talk to the occupants of the house
> behind the gate. Dutifully identifying ourselves, we were met with cold stares
> and no answers to our questions, leaving us with no doubt that we weren¹t
> welcome ‹ the only solid information that we gleaned from our foray here.

When I was in high school, I went to a seminar series about supernatural
phenomena. (One of the two organizers/speakers was in a UFO-hunting group
with my parents when I was younger.) They said they'd gone to Voodoo Village
once and didn't see anybody around. After a couple minutes a voice came on a
loudspeaker and told them to go away. They did and that was it.

All I ever heard about it as a kid was that there was this freaky place in
south Memphis called Voodoo Village, where a group of people lived who
practiced voodoo. It was supposed to be spooky, dangerous, etc. Unlike most
childhood legends, this was true--expect, presumably, for the dangerous
part.

South of Memphis an hour or so is Graceland Too. It's a guy and his son who
love Elvis, and devote their lives to him. Twenty four hours a day you can
show up at their door and one of them will answer--they sleep in shifts--to
give you a tour. They have a massive collection of Elvis memorabilia,
including a photograph of the father standing outside Elvis's hospital room
door at the time he was declared dead. But their passion is recording Elvis
references in the mass media. They have banks of televisions and VCRs ready
to record any sitcom, movie, or news program that mentions Elvis, which they
dutifully record and log in hundreds of binders. I looked through the
binders and it's often stuff like "Ghostbusters (1995) Poster of Elvis
appears in one scene."

-- 
<- John Tynes - rev at tccorp.com - http://www.JohnTynes.com/ ->
Our fate is told in the stars themselves. Our lives have
no meaning, our world has no hope. Nothing lies before us
but death and coleopterans.


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