Hey in the spirit of Halloween I thought maybe a few of you would like to share your childhoods most frightening or most exciting memory.

I will get things started.  I grew up in the small town of Bluefield, West Virginia.  When I was around 8 years old our church was planning a halloween ghost walk for the youth of our church.  It was to start in our church parking lot at dark, and was to be led by one of the older teens that volunteered to help.

As it happens with most country churches there was a cemetery very close by.  The teenager leading the walk was around 18 so he was considered a grown up to most of us children.  What we did not know was that he and his friends had planned a little surprise for us.  As darkness fell we started into the entrance of the cemetery, and our guide was laying it on thick.  We were all carrying candles so that it was difficult to see very far in front except for the light from the flashlight carried by the leader.

He was giving us a tour and making up stories along the way as to how a few of the current residents had met their horrible deaths.  His plan all along was to have his helpers hidden behind some of the larger monuments and jump out at the specified time.  As we approached the first scheduled "BOO" we noticed that our leader was at a loss.  Nothing happened at the first or the second monuments.  We could tell that he was starting to get a little nervous, but we thought he himself was getting into the mood.

His scary ghost walk was turning into a non event.....nothing was really that scary except for being in a cemetery in the dark.  Then he decided to head back after the third tombstone was passed with no frightening event.  He was starting to head back to the parking lot when he froze.  To his left he discovered a fresh pile of what looked like dirt and covered with artificial carpet and leaves.  He couldn't let this unexpected finding pass without trying to solve his ghost walk disappointment.  Immediately he started making up a story about the fresh grave and who was to be placed in it, when a shadowy figure stumbled out from behind pile of dirt and a dirty hand stretched out from under the carpet trying to grab his foot.  Needless to say our leader followed by 10 or 12 extremely frightened 8 to 10 year olds raced through the entrance to the parking lot.

As we raced through the gate car lights came on from about 6 cars and all of our parents were standing there waiting for us.  After a few minute of getting everyone calmed down the story came out.  The adults had already stepped in and without letting the teenager leading the group know had planned the entire thing.  What made it so real was that the leader was so convincing, and the reason for that was that he was caught unaware.  From that day until he left for college he couldn't look any of us kids straight in the eye without us trying not to laugh.

Ok there is mine now it is your turn.