The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving
FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER
A pleasing land of drowsy head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky.
CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.
In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town.
This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic.
Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country.
A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson.
Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
I’ll collect my treat on Nov 9th…
the searching for ballots will continue for weeks after that. New Abnormal
***Numerous*** treats, hopefully.
(How do we add post a pic?)
…
Adorable kitty! My girl cat “Pumpkin” showed up with a group of Trick or Treaters at our door about five years ago. I thought, “How cute for them to include the little calico cat (Halloween colors of white, black and orange) when they are in the neighborhood. ” Doorbell rang a few minutes later, different kids, same cat. Then she went away. The next night we were returning home from an event and saw a pair of glowing eyes in our headlights on the curb across from our driveway. I scooped her up and brought her inside and “Pumpkin” has been with us ever since! I thought she was just a kitten but after looking at her teeth the vet said she was between 2-5 y.o. I’ll lock her away safely so she won’t get out tonight!
Oops forgot to mention that I grew up in Westchester Co NY and can remember visiting Washington Irving’s home on a school trip; also, I recollect that Sleepy Hollow High School sports teams were/are? called The Horsemen. I love how the story describes the majestic Hudson River at that place and how it was called Tappan Zee. I was a kid when the Tappan Zee bridge was built there in the 1950s. That bum Andrew Cuomo had the name changed to The Mario Cuomo Bridge a few years ago. If there was to be a name on the thing it would make a lot more sense to call it the Nelson Rockefeller Bridge as his family’s estate Kykuit — now a museum park — was right there and he was a pretty good governor of the state compared to some of the recent clowns! Hochul is just a disaster;-)
Hear, hear!!!! Have visited Sleepy Hollow many times, agree just to keep the Indian name of Tappan, and Hochul IS a disaster!!!!!
Hochul? More like “Ho-Ghoul”.
It is said that a cat should find you. Having been “chosen” by many, I adhere to that axiom. Nice!!
Love the Halloween cat treat!
Ah, ah, ah. Manageries post usually give us Treepers a respite from the political/culture war.
Plenty of other threads for such posts.
My grandad grew up in a “holler”, and when my Dad was 12 y.o., his Dad took him “back home” for a visit.
As my Dad described it, the “holler” i.e. “hollow” was just a bend in the road.
However, that provided an initial landmark, the”hollow” refering to this bend in the road,..and their were homesteads for several miles around, that thought of this “hollow” as being what they identified with, like a town or village.
It was in North or South Carolina, can’t recall which.
As he described what he remembered, it was like a cross between Deliverance, and where the Clampetts lived, before they struck oil.
Most inhabitants were barefoot, they made their own soap, etc.
Reading the opening to the Sleepy Hollow, reminded me of that.
Let’s pray it won’t be a trick instead.
The cabal just added Brazil to their collection. First Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election. Sound familiar?
“We have got our hands into the administration of the law, into the conduct of elections, into the press, into liberty of the person, but principally into education and training as being the cornerstones of a free existence”
“The administrators, who we shall choose from among the public, with strict regard to their capacity for obedience, will not be persons trained in the arts of government, and will therefore easily become pawns in our game” …in the hands of men of learning and genius who will be their advisers, specialists bred and reared from early childhood to rule the affairs of the whole world”
This is not a political post. I put it here for people to enjoy a bit of Halloween fun. You have the Presidential Open for politics.
I enjoyed the post. Please delete the text. Leave the picture. thx
Thank you Menagerie !
I for one, was enjoying the read.. it took me back to very early reading assignments in NY schools..sorry the politics comments came in…
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And it is a nice reprieve and needed distraction from politics of late. Thanks!
i sat on my porch 25 miles directly south of N. Tarrytown, reading the Irving masterpiece while dishing out treats to the neighborhood tricksters….it was pure joy! Thank You!
This is not a political post? Not so fast Menagerie.
“…that he (Ichabod Crane)had changed his quarters to a distant part of the country; had kept school and studied law at the same time; had been admitted to the bar; turned politician; electioneered; written for the newspapers; and finally had been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court.”
Crane ended up to be a bureaucrat, a bit of a humiliation, after losing out on the Dutch heiress.
Sound familiar? A pandemic—‘yellow fever’—going on at the time of the legend surfaces in Irving’s writing.
“The story’s narrator, a Dutch historian named Diedrich Knickerbocker, describes the “sequestered glen” of Sleepy Hollow as a place with “contagion in the very air… it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land.” Natives and newcomers alike were susceptible to this airborne infection, which caused them “to walk in a continual reverie.” Their somnambulance is “unconsciously imbibed by anyone who resides there for a time…however wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region[.]”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-legend-sleepy-hollow-tells-us-about-contagion-fear-and-epidemics-180953192/
The central bank mafia will not lose their grip on power nor control over our lives. Not willingly anyway.
This should be interesting because Brazil is one of the BRICS which is going to gold backed (precious metals) currency…..
Link to Poe’s works.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/481
Another list of what we were assigned to read back then .. thnx
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I can still remember in school we listened to “The Tell Tale Heart”
on record player…Yes that many years ago.. It was a very disturbing story.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6EQcq6MkEtpNsWnC9
Here’s my greatest pumpkin 🎃 I tried to paste it directly, but didn’t work. Happy Halloween!
The Great Pumpkin! It “Trumps” them all!
Hey, CarolinaGirl, your post kindled an old memory in me that out here in the Pacific Northwest we had our own Great Pumpkin — legendary Oregon State Beavers football coach Dee Andros. Dee was very round (a beachball with arms was an apt descriptor) and he would lead the Beavs onto the field wearing his orange windbreaker. Legend has it he told all his players that if any player got ahead of him whilst running onto the field he would lose his scholarship! 🙂
Love it !
Just a bit of what separates two countries with a common language…
In the US, so it goes, if a black cat crosses your path, it is considered “bad luck”.
In the United Kingdom, a black cat crossing your path is a sign of ” good luck”.
For what it is worth😉
On the other hand, maybe it simply means that “you love black cats,” and therefore have several of them . . . “all (almost) alike, all different.” 🐈⬛
😊 Had one…he and his brother were brought to our Welsh door by our neighbour farmer’s daughter, asking if they were ours. We had several already so it was a natural assumption.
The teenaged feline pair marched straight in as if they owned the place (which, in the end, they did)…one black/white, one solid black…we named them Bubble and Squeak, after that famous potato and cabbage dish. Bubble was the black one…
And yes, we loved him, as we did all of them.
Thanks, Mike, for the memory.
My current and previous pairs of cats were all black. I’ve had others over the years but my first when I was ten years old was a black Persian, so I just gravitate that way… 🐈⬛🐈⬛
Several years back with the previous cat, some kids at my door for Halloween asked whether I would give him to them.
I guess you’re supposed to be somewhat unnerved on Halloween… I watched him more closely after that!
Happy Halloween to all! Thank you, Menagerie, for this wonderful old tale. I hadn’t read it in a while.
When I was a kid, there was a big patch of woods with a brook about a block from my house.
A bunch of us kids would go down into that woods to play. If you walked far enough, there was a bridge that crossed the brook and opened up lots of new territory.
At some point, somebody cranked up the idea that this was in fact the bridge that The Headless Horseman crossed and, being kids, we all immediately went all in on “believing” that.
From then on, when we got to the bridge, we’d all freeze in terror before holding our breaths and running across as FAST as possible. Had to make sure we got safely to the other side before he showed up out of nowhere on his faster than lightening horse!
It didn’t help that the last house we saw before going down into that ravine was a spookier – than – possible, run down, creepy Victorian on the hill cross the street >>>> with an ancient ***gravestone*** in front of it.
Good Times!
Similar childhood rememberences🤣🤣👍
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Kids are a hoot! Gotta love ’em.
Or, as stated in the original (text …) Adventure game: “Stop. Pay troll.” 🤡
I doubt I scared anyone but with John Glenn gone to space and the race to the moon underway, things were a bit spacey rather than spooky in our household in the 60’s.
Best wishes for a safe and memorable Halloween to all. I feel blessed to have lived during a time where innocence was cherished and kids could roam free on Halloween without fear or anyone hovering over them besides the witches and ghosts. I’ll leave the latter story for another time. Suffice to say I had fun haunting the kids once I outgrew the wandering part.
“Best wishes for a safe and memorable Halloween to all. I feel blessed to have lived during a time where innocence was cherished and kids could roam free on Halloween without fear or anyone hovering over them besides the witches and ghosts.”
Yes, indeed. Tho’ I have altered my view a bit on Hallo’ween, (begging, in a manner of speaking?), there were at least four of us (more later) kids who went out with our sacks to gather (mostly apples), coming back at least three times to ‘unload’… a real competition to see who acquired the most in ‘goodies’…. mostly had to ‘perform’ in some manner at each house, before the treats were plopped into our sacks. We were careful to dole these out over the subsequent weeks, to see whose gatherings lasted the longest. We were decidedly not well-off, so this ‘eve’ and Christmas were big deals for us kids.
Childhood used to be magical, innocent, and simple.
I remember the thrill of having my grandparents come visit us from their farm in the Midwest during the holidays. It was the best present ever —just to hug them, listen to their stories, and have them with us.
Seriously, it meant more to me as a child than receiving presents— and I really, really liked presents.
Miss you, Grandma!💕
Miss you, Grandpa!💕
Fun Fact – my neighboring town is called Sleepy Hollow and their street signs have the Headless Horseman. This time of year, especially, driving through the town it appears completely out of the story book. Fog and all.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which as you can see is now available as a free e-book or online (follow the “gambols” hyperlink above), as well as Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is still protected by copyright, have to be my two all-time favorite Halloween(-ish) tales. There is something about the writing of both of them – the way that they nudge you to simply drift away in the reading of it. To some other land, to some other place, to some other terrifying time.
No, wait: there is definitely a much more modern third one: The Night Circus, written in 2011 by Erin Morgenstern. If you have not yet read that one, order it right now. “The circus arrives without warning …” From that very-first line, it hooks you and keeps you all the way to a complex and delightful finish.
Ray Bradbury is one of my all time favorite science fiction authors. He wrote in a way that really put you into the story.
I just got back from 2 Halloween parades from the grandkids schools!! To be young, adventurous and to see the kids being kids!! Reminds of how our young ones are much like ourselves when we were small!! Scary stories, houses that we deemed haunted, creek walks… so glad to open up CTH, and read this old prose!!
That’s our cat Ichabod. Years ago right before Halloween, someone drove by our house and dumped him out of their car , a tiny black kitten, because they didn’t want him. We live on a busy highway, so it’s a small miracle he ended up under our porch instead of road kill. I spent at least a day on my stomach trying to coax him out and finally succeeded. We had a cat named DiDi at the time and another cat named Princess, PLUS 4 German Shepherds, so I really didn’t want another pet. Our neighbors back then were the Cranes. They had a big male cat named Cinnamon who, according to the Cranes, would never allow another male cat in the house. I suggested they could name that tiny black kitten Ichabod. Y’know, Ichabod Crane? Halloween? (Headless horseman?) But the answer was a definite NO. So we took him in and named him Ichabod. He was a very laid back and gentle soul who took no guff from DiDi, who liked to instigate things. When he was 16 he developed diabetes. Doc said I had 3 choices: 1) do nothing and he’d die a miserable death, 2) euthanize him, 3) put him on insulin. He’d last about 18 months tops on insulin, so I opted for that. He lived almost, but not quite, 4 more years.
Appears like Vets are no better than Drs, at estimating how long.
I know a # of people Drs told they would be dead in “x” months, still alive 2,5,10 or more years later.
How to know you MIGHT have a 1/2 way decent Dr.;
If he answers one if your questions with “I don’t know.”
A beautiful cat, Ichabod!!!! So nice you had so many years with him!
a maskless pilot? no way.
Well you can’t discriminate against the differently-abled…
Still laughing… priceless 🤣🤣👍
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Menagerie, My Halloween treat today is your Pumpkin Crunch Cake. I made it today 🍰
SO easy to make!
SO incredibly delicious!
thank you again for that recipe….I now know what I’ll be bringing to our Thanksgiving get together!
I love anything pumpkin. Bought 5 quarts of seasonal pumpkin ice cream Thursday. To eat occasionally as a treat. Wish they made it all year round.
If I get time I hope to post my pumpkin bread and pumpkin-oatmeal custard recipes on that thread… best laid plans!
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I made it because I needed something easy, and I had all the ingredients. I try to keep pumping during the fall and through the holidays. I like easy recipes the make on a Sunday morning before potluck!
How did I miss this recipe???? Is it easy enough to post for tonight? TY in advance, Menagerie!
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/10/30/potluck-pumpkin-and-grace/
I recommend the Johnny Deep version of Sleepy Hollow great Halloween movie
Its quite dark…literally and figuratively. And quite good. Any fan of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow should see it.
The “Tree” deserved a supporting Oscar!
IT was too strange for me.. As someone who grew up watching
“The Cartoon Legend of Sleepy Hallow and Rip Van Winkle” when
it was shown on TV. I found the Johnny Depp version just strange.
I know what you mean – the cartoon versions of some things are the best because we started with them as kids.
My very favorite Christmas Carol is the Mr. Magoo cartoon musical version. Excellent tunes by Jules Steyne.
Spooky Halloween!
Is Hillary’s shoe somewhere in this picture?
Do kids still bobb for apples around Halloween, or is that verbotten now for “health” reasons?
We had a huge basin in the basement that we’d fill with water and apples.
There’s be 20 kids down there slurping in that water.
Sadly I got to witness the end of caramel apples as treats as a young adult, along with a lot of home-made goodies too, as ‘safety and health’ and violence ramped up in the 60’s and 70’s. That was when kids stopped roaming on their own and we saw more chaperones.
We didn’t have basements so the bob pool was someone’s baby pool in a back yard. We were used to swimming in irrigation ditches so sanitation was pretty far from our minds. Amazing that, other than those of us cut down in ‘Nam, the bobbing for apples, trick or treat local group all survived.
TBH, I don’t really remember all the history of Halloween stuff like outlined in the OP. Parents didn’t cover it and I’d chalk it up to being a kid. I was more focused on having fun and bringing that big bag home bulging with snacks for school lunches for the next couple months.
My grandmother used to talk about Halloween because the next day (November 1st) was All Saints’ Day. She was always ready to celebrate that day.
One of my son’s birthday is close to Halloween and the kids would dress up in their Halloween costumes. One of the games they played was bobbing for apples. Was always a hit with the kids. I’m sure there are parents today who would freak out if their kids did it today. Sad so many traditions kids are missing out on today 🙁
Pro tip- add all your saved fast food sauces to the candy bowl and mix it up. Give the kids a trick and a treat 🤣
lol. Really Tiff, that’s just cruel. Although I have known some in the past who would eat the sauce right out of the container.
I think it’s funny. Lol. Imagine the kids sorting through candy and finding duck sauce. 🤣🤣🤣
Yuck
I used to keep a yellow onion for the smart azz in the group of older kids 😂😂
I have never been able to forget the Disney animated version. One of my all time favorites. If memory serves me it used to be aired on Wonderful World of Disney right before Halloween Eve.
And as a youngster even that animated version was P R E T T Y dang S C A R Y.
My favorite also… really brought book to life using animation…
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Narrated by Bing Crosby! The lonely wallflower lady with her bangs always blocking her eye trying to cling to Ichabod at the van Tassel dance was hilarious! 15 minutes of comedy/15 minutes of horror.
Yes they would show it and Rip Van Winkle…
Voiced by Bing Crosby; back when Disney was entertaining:
wow. I never saw this Disney film. It was a bit before my time.
But I bet this is where that kid in the group got the idea from who decided it would be fun to scare the sh*t out of everyone every time we crossed that brook!
Probably somebody’s older brother or sister that started it!
Retired Magistrate here: In 1957 we moved from Portsmouth, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio. Don’t remember much about trick or treating in Portsmouth but trick or treating in the North End of Columbus was a real treat.
About two blocks from our house resided a doctor with a huge back yard who really knew how to treat the neighborhood kids. He had a big bonfire in his back yard and hot dogs along with sticks for roasting. Apple cider was available along with home made donuts. After we were done trick or treating, cold and tried we would end up at his house. Mothers would get together and bring each other up to date on neighborhood doings while we kids would stuff ourselves with hot dogs, donuts and cider. Usually the weather would cooperate and we would stay until eyes started drooping and then home.
Of course back then neighbors made popcorn balls, wrapped in cellophane, gave out candy apples, home made cupcakes and other goodies. Some neighbors gave out full size candy bars (we really, really liked those neighbors). Of course there were neighbors who gave out tooth brushes (ugh) and apples and things that we good for you. We gave those to Mom who put away a lot of the candy for later. Many years we were eating Halloween candy through Thanksgiving.
Confession time: I went trick or treating until I was 15 then Mom said OK, enough, you are to old. Many happy memories of a simpler, safer time. Harvest blessings to all.
One of my “original(!!) neighbors” made peanut butter cups and other delicious treats. I actually helped(?) her pour gently-melted dark chocolate and small blobs of peanut butter into cupcake molds. She told me to fill them only halfway up to the top … “first a quarter, then a half” … and to measure the peanut butter with a particular scoop (of course I have no idea which size it was) … and to use a knife to top-off what was in the scoop so that it didn’t have too much … and … and …
As they used to say in the credit-card commercials … “Priceless.™”
Full size candy bar neighbors were the BEST!!!!
We only had one, but to this day I remember where she lived. hahaha.
No kids, so I guess they could afford it.
What a charming memory!
And then there’s the “Horseless Headsman”:
This is for all of you who celebrate Halloween . . . and for all the rest of us who turn the lights out and eat all the Halloween candy ourselves!
That was a fun read. I haven’t read it in a long time. It brought back fond Halloween memories of my childhood. Thank you for posting.
Happy 🎃 Halloween
The grandkids are due to make an appearance here over the next few hours, then we’ll be handing out candy for the locals, then it’s time to head over to Violet’s for the big Halloween party!
What a great post!
Thank you, Menagerie!
Awww, thanks Menagerie, and everyone~ I too miss Halloween the way it used to be. It was my favorite night of the year as a child, getting to run the neighborhood with my friends and collect bags of treats. Our neighborhood had a “dark and scary” (to us) house with a dim porch light at the end of the street. If you dared to go up and ring the doorbell your treat was the biggest, juiciest red apple you ever saw. Yum! Don’t know where they got them but they were amazing. So many happy memories. Have a good one fellow treepers!
I’ll take “The Tell-Tale Heart” any day!
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Happy Halloween.. I remember when they used to show “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” on TV ..(not the Johhny Depp
version of Sleepy Hollow which was just really strange)!
“Are those shovels/
or are they feet?”
Ichabod Crane song sung by Bing Crosby. 1949 Disney Cartoon. Great animation masterpiece. As scary as the “Night on Bald Mountain” (Mussorgsky) sequence in Fantasia.
Happy Halloween Menagerie!
I used to watch these 3 characters regularly when I was a kid but several of their shows are still on MeTV every weekend. Some of their stunts and antics are still funny and remarkable to watch–occasionally.
“The Old Dark House” (1932) with Boris Karloff, Raymond Massey, Charles Laughton, and a 22-year old Gloria Stuart (the old “Rose” on the Titanic) is one of the first comedy-horror films. “I like gin!”
May the Lord be glorified even on this day.
All hallows eve or better known as Halloween is the most satanic night of the year. A pagan holiday celebrating the darkest spirits and their easy access to the ignorant and the unchurched. I rebuke all hallows eve and all of its satanic filth in the name above all names, JESUS
the townsends on youtube has a really good reading of this. look ’em up.
Happy All Saints Day everyone.