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July 4, 2009

Believing in things that go bump in the night

By GORDIE LITTLE, Small Talk

It's summer and time again for monster talk.

They're out there, you know. In the woods. In the lake. Perhaps even in your bathtub.

What is there about the human condition that allows us to make amazing scientific discoveries and at the same time still have room in our belief systems for Champy, the French werewolf, Big Foot and who knows what kind of mythical creatures and specters that go bump in the night?

One of the most quoted and misquoted lines in literature appears in Act 1, scene V of Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Such things that are just outside our ken or understanding have always been fascinating to me. I collect and write ghost stories. When I interview people who tell me these tales, I don't discount them out of hand like Scrooge blaming the spirit on indigestion.

I'm not so bound by science and logic that I can't be titillated by such stories. I think most of us are at least interested on some level. I suppose we hold out a shred of hope that such things truly exist.



HOVERING OVERHEAD
When I first arrived in Plattsburgh in 1961 to begin a long radio career, I was assailed by stories of UFOs from local residents. They carried their folding chairs down by Lake Champlain on a summer evening and scanned the skies.

I was shown fuzzy photos and listened to people who had claims the likes of which I had never heard before. One person said he was driving west on Cornelia Street in Plattsburgh as a huge, cigar-shaped object seemed to suddenly appear overhead and follow his progress just above the trees.

In another case, an entire family told me they watched in amazement as a saucer-shaped object landed in their rural yard west of Plattsburgh, remained for a time, lifted off and sped away at an incredible speed.

Kaye says that before we met and married, some of her children came in from playing in a field near their Adirondack Lane home in Plattsburgh and described a strange alien craft that hovered overhead and disappeared from sight.

ELUSIVE LAKE MONSTER
In the 1970s, I interviewed dozens of local politicians, clergy persons, business people and average John Q citizens about Champy, the legendary Lake Champlain monster.

All claimed to have seen the creature and, in some cases, up close and personal. A man in his 90s from Cumberland Head showed me a yellowed newspaper clipping detailing how his family found the carcass of a strange Champy-like creature on shore. Sadly, no photograph accompanied the story.

One of those interviews was recorded, but never aired, because of a promise I made to a well-known local businessman who claimed to have had such a creature come within inches of his small boat, frightening both he and his wife. He was afraid that a public revelation would be "bad for business and would ruin my reputation."

I held in my hand the famous Mansi photograph thought to be of Champy that was published around the world. I interviewed a local college professor who has amassed an entire card file of alleged sightings of Champy throughout the ages.

In the mid-1990s, I wrote a children's story entitled, "Little Champy Goes to School." It remains unpublished, although it would be nice to see it in print during this quadricentennial year.

There have been recent videos and photographs of the elusive lake monster that have generated renewed interest, and that in and of itself is good for tourism.

Enjoy your summer, but be careful when you dangle your toes in the water off the end of the dock. In the words quoted recently from James Whitcomb Riley, "An' the Gobble-uns 'll get you Ef you Don't Watch out!"

Have a great day and please, drive carefully.

Gordie Little was for many years a well-known radio personality in the North Country and now hosts the "Our Little Corner" television program for Home Town Cable. Anyone with comments for him may send them to the newspaper or e-mail him at gordandk@aol.com.

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