Kuntry Ghost Story

I ain't afraid of no ghost

Pays to be Drunk when ya visit the Chunky..

HOWDY FOLKS,

 I'm going to tell ya a little story but first I need to give ya a wee bit of background..... The photo your about to scroll down and peep at is that of the Chunky River here in Mississippi... In the background you can see a 150 year old bridge that we call Stuckeys Bridge......

According to local legend, the bridge is haunted by a ghost. As the story goes, Old Man Stuckey (whom the bridge is named after) owned and operated a hotel near the bridge site in the mid 1800s (the site was apparently along a stage route prior to the Civil War). The old man, as it was discovered later, would occasionally murder his hotel guests, steal their valuables, and bury the bodies along the riverbank. Old Man Stuckey was eventually found out, caught, and was hung from the bridge itself. Some say that Stuckey is the one haunting the bridge. There have apparently been many sightings (including a few just within the past 2 years) of a ghost of an old man with a lantern walking along the riverbank near the bridge. There have also been stories of people hearing a splash in the river under the bridge when the river was otherwise deathly quiet. Being the brave and adventurous Redneck that I so claim to be. Me and old Bruce decided to put this legend to the test one warm summer night many years ago....

Now folks y'all have read my stories?.. I'll admit some of um may be a wee bit embellished at times..(WELL! They would be boring as hell otherwise). But this time what you are about to read is the truth,the whole truth,Nothing but the truth so Help me God..(YA'LL COULDN'T SEE BUT I HAD MY RIGHT HAND RAISED.)

Now ya can't really see it in the photo but there is a pretty white sand bar almost directly under that old bridge..... This is where we set up camp..... I don't really remember but I think we was either 18 or 19 years old at this time.....Now, I'm a pretty big fella(NO LADIES NOT WHAT YOUR THINKING? SOME THINGS ARE JUST BETTER LEFT A SECRET). At the time I stood about 6'2" tall and weighed around 220 pounds..(WHAT CAN I SAY WE GROW UM BIG IN THE SOUTH). Now Ole Bruce probably stood about 6' 4"tall and weighed around 250.. He is what I like to call Pure Good Ole Boy....He fits that classic Redneck image down to the TEETH!(YES PUN INTENDED)...BRUCE, IF YA HAPPEN TO READ THIS? I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU!.. TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER BRUCE...UMMMMM. FOR MINE AND MY KIDS SAKE, I SURE HOPE HE BELIEVES THAT? Now at this age we were not afraid of anything....(NOT SAYING THE MANY MANY BUDWEISERS WE HAD CONSUMED PRIOR TO OUR ARRIVAL HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUR ENHANCED BRAVERY..........NOT SAYING IT DIDN'T EITHER). But we ain't scared all the same........

It was still a couple of hours before dark so after we set up camp we just spent the rest of the time drinking and playing in the river.....

Finally nightfall arrived. This is when things kinda started to get alittle wierd....We had built us a big fire on the sand bar and was just sitting around telling stories and literally scaring one another to death... (BUT WE WEREN'T SCARED HAD TO SAY THAT.... IT'S A MAN THANG)... OK....MABE JUST A TAD!.....

We was talking about Old Man Stuckey and all them stories we had heard, when all of a sudden just outta the blue this big gust of wind came through and pretty much scattered our fire......Ya'll know how when ya just feel something strange how the little hairs on the back of your neck kinda stand at attention?WELL... TRUST ME! Mine was doing double back flips at the time.................Not only did this happen with our fire, we was hearing some mighty strange noises coming from those woods around us.....We both knew it was probably just Coyotes and owls and such so we just kinda played it off..(WE WEREN'T SCARED THOUGH.... NOPE! NOT IN THE LEAST)

HEY BRUCE!.........WAS IT SUPPOSE TO STORM OR SOMETHING TONIGHT?...Nope!....Woody. (He was our weather man on the local T V) says it was gonna be clear as a bell...(WHY DO THEY SAY THAT???BELLS AIN'T CLEAR?. UMMM, UNLESS THEY ARE MADE FROM GLASS?.. I TELL YA SOME THINGS JUST STILL BAFFLE ME TO THIS DAY).......Anyway... about this time another big blast of wind came through... This time it made half our tent fall down..(BUT WE STILL AIN'T SCARED)... We just fixed it back waiting on midnight to get here...(DON'T ASK... WE JUST FIGURED GHOST CAME OUT AT MIDNIGHT)....(DO I LOOK LIKE A FREAKING GHOST BUSTER TO YOU?).......I think we both must have dozed off for a bit..(BEER HAS THAT EFFECT ON SOME FOLKS). When I woke up and looked at the time it was a little past midnight already................................ ....

HEY BRUCE!!!~! IT'S TIME!......YA READY?..... MAYBE WE SHOULD TAKE THIS AX WITH US JUST IN CASE?........Wtf you gone do with an ax.....If we see a ghost ain't it already dead?......YA GOT A GOOD POINT!.......YOU SCARED?.......Naw.........You?......I AIN'T SCARED IF YOU AIN'T SCARED........Then lets do this.... OK.......YOU GO FIRST!

Folks ya know how when your scared outta your freaking mind you suddenly become aware of all your surroundings?.... Me neither because I WASN'T SCARED!. But I think maybe Bruce was just a little bit. Because somehow I ended up in front and whenever I stopped he would just about run me over........ We made it up to the bridge.... Now we was just going to walk from one end to the other and then call it a night.......God only knows why we was just tippy toeing across that thing.(MAYBE WE JUST DIDN'T WANT TO WAKE UP THE DEAD), But apparently Bruce made to much noise, because when we was about half way across we heard this awful screeching noise then we heard a big splash in the water down below...................

WTF WAS THAT? Beats me?..............GO LOOK!.....I ain't looking you go look.....WHY YA SCARED?.....Nope... But I still ain't gonna look......

Then we heard it again...........SPAAAAAAAAAAALSHHHHHHHH HHHH!

Me and Bruce just looked at each other.... Didn't utter a word.... We both just kinda turned at the same time and didn't stop running until we was in the truck...........I think the only words I was able to form proper at this moment in time was...GO BRUCE!... GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!Because in my mind Old Man Stuckey was one step from throwing my big a*s right off that old bridge...Ax or no ax... I wasn't hanging around to find out..............And as we was driving away I wouldn't even turn around to look......WOULDN'T YA MUCH RATHER JUST NOT KNOW IF YOU WAS FIXING TO DIE OR NOT?... Well I felt the same way right about now....... Folks we just left all our stuff there and didn't slow down until we was both safe at home with Mamma..........

We returned the following day to get our tent and things... We determined that the splashes we had heard was just big Ole clumps of mud that we had knocked into the water while walking across that bride........(OR WAS IT?)..The screeching sound was more than likely just an old hoot owl or something...(WE HOPE?)

Now just as we were putting the last of our things into the back of the truck. That mysterious wind started blowing again..........WE LEFT AND NEVER WENT BACK!

Y'ALL WEAR YA SMILES......kuntry