So, over the weekend I went out to Squirrel Queen’s mom’s farm. A couple of weeks ago when we were there, her mother mentioned The GoosePond Swamp Monster.
I looked up slyly over my glasses with more than a hint of irritation. How had I not heard about the GoosePond Monster? I’ve know these people for decades and I had never heard this story but everyone seemed sort of resigned that it was a story they had known all their lives and they didn’t put a lot of stock in it.
Umm, I’ve been begging for a life of searching Bigfoot for years and I am just told of our own monster? I’m going to have to get a stick after these people, I swear.
So they told me the tale about a real swampy part of Obion County where weird noises and there was a myth that there might have been a Big Bad living out in the bottoms. (If you are not familiar, wetlands in northwest Tennessee are called “the bottoms” for reasons I do not know other that they are low-lying and usually go beyond muddy. I prefer the word bog mainly because that’ the word they used to use in all the horror comics I got as a kid.)
Then there was the beaver dam incident that I was mightily interested in but that’s a story for another day.
After nearly 24 hours of me pestering SQ to take me out to the farm, she finally relented after I put on my shuffle and started singing songs LOUD in an Ethel Merman voice. She is tough though, it took two hours to get her broken down but I prevailed. If you’ve ever heard Ethel singing “Panic at the Disco” I think you would have given in as well. Yeah, I’m that good (or annoying depending on your point of view.)
Goose Pond is nothing more than just a pond. The top of the water is not as green and covered in algae as some country ponds I’ve seen but it was hard to tell. With recent rains, it was almost impossible to get to it. I didn’t see any geese but there were a bunch of ducks floating lazily on the top. It was initially a little bigger than I thought and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much kudzu.
Apparently SQ’s grandmother, who passed a couple of years ago, was quoted in a story by a local historian about tales she had heard about The GoosePond Swamp Monster, but I’m going to have to go to the library to read up on what she said as there is nothing on the Internet about it. Close by is a huge Tyson chicken operation that always leaves a smell of major yuck so it’s hard to tell if we will be able to smell it. As you know, Bigfoot smells so there you go. Our training in covering mythical beings is limited but you always hear the the big guy stinks to high heaven.
Our first exploration was fact-finding. Alas, there were no facts.
Anyway, I’m on the case with a very reluctant Squirrel Queen.
The truth is out there.
