How many remember the old round tin building on north Somerton Ave, just west of the south street leading into Burro Town (immediately north of the Woons home)? In fact, Don Woon and Dennis Hotel might be the only ones that remember it today as they could see it from their houses way back when. Anyway, my dad told me years ago it was there when his family came to Somerton and had been part of a cotton gin, which sounds reasonable as it was made of the tin sheeting common with gins. The funny thing though is this was round or octagonal in shape which didnt look like the gins I had seen outside of town. Anyhow, the guys who were the same age as my older sisters had told us it was haunted or at a minimum, the Wolfman lived in it, cool! The irrigation ditch that ran along Burro Town and then cut west by the place was also long rumored to be haunted by a long dead girl who could supposedly be seen walking and crying along the ditch bank at night, so it was a place of GREAT interest to us boys! One summer day, Roy Burgess and I rode on my bike to the place and were looking around at it. There were openings (sort of like windows) up high under the eaves of the building, but we couldnt reach them. Suddenly behind us a man appeared and he had a beard, which was not seen much in those days and both Roy and I were convinced he was the WOLFMAN! We were frozen in place when he said he wanted us to go inside the building and told us he would boost up into the opening above. Well this seemed way too weird, but we were scared so we had him boost us up inside and we dropped down into the building. It was sort of like an octagon, the center was empty except for tons of pigeon feathers and poop, but there were rooms in each direction with long wooden boxes stacked in each one…..COFFINS, YIKES! Right then we heard the guy coming in from whatever door there was, he must have had a key, but Roy and I looked at each other certain we were doomed! Without another word, we ran across the way into another room, jumped up on the boxes (coffins!), hurled ourselves outside the opening, jumped on my bike and headed south on Somerton Ave at top speed! We stopped by what was Jacobys shed on the west side of the street where they stored supplies in, pushed the bike up the hill and hid back behind the stacked sacks for what seemed forever. Eventually we saw the bearded man driving south on Somerton Ave and once he was out of sight, we headed for the safety of the American Legion! Okay, as we regrouped on the merry-go-round, Dave Frauenfelder walked over, we told him of our ordeal and he was consumed with the story, so much so he had us go over and tell his older brother Kevin all about it. So, Kevin being a methodical questioner worked us through the many feathers and piles of poop, then had us calmly think more about the boxes (coffins) and didnt they resemble pigeon coops? In fact Kevin was of the understanding that the building was used to house pigeons, but didnt know who tended them, but it did sound like it was the Wolfman, err, the bearded man that we had encountered. Well, that seemed reasonable enough, but Roy and I were still leery of the place until it was torn down. I did go over one day after it was gone and the land was cleared. I found an old Ben-Hur Mustard jar that I still have today on my back porch in a display of old bottles. I had never heard of Ben-Hur mustard, so it was interesting. Whenever it catches my eye, Im immediately drawn back to Roy Burgess and I as fearless young Somerton adventurers! ! :)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 19:32:03 +0000
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