Support Your Local Urban Legend

The area I'm from in Upstate New York has a lot of what the kids call “Urban Legends”. We had the old abandoned Tuberculosis hospital which is now supposedly inhabited by devil worshipers. There's Wolf's Hallow that apparently is the place to be if you want to find a cave to perform human sacrifices in. Then there's my favorite of all upstate NY locals, Turkman.

You can find Turkman on Rector Road in Glenville NY on any given night walking up and down the street. Some people say he will be carrying a shotgun, others say a shovel and still others claim just a flashlight. There are a few different variations on why Turkman is walking up and down the street. Either his wife was killed in a hit n run and he now searches for her killers or his daughter disappeared one night and he's still on the look out for her.

I like to think that Turkman is just really pissed they closed down the local Little Caesars Pizza shop and is looking to take his revenge. Turkman loves him some crazy bread! In any case each story includes the fact that Turkman is ready to kick some ass whenever the local teenagers come to give him crap. The thing I loved about Turkman is that he is 100% real. I’ve seen him with my own two eyes. Mark and Eric probably have their own Turkman stories. Sure the story of why he wanders the street may be debatable but that doesn’t change that fact that there is some guy wandering up and down the block in Upstate NY freakin' people out.

But the fun isn't exclusive to the hallowed streets of Upstate NY my friends. Years ago when I first moved down to New Jersey my then future wife turned me onto WeirdNJ.com. The site has a ton of information about some of the strangest crap you can find on the cold streets of the Garden State. It’s even spawned a series of books that have branched out to most of the 50 states. Unfortunately they don’t really update the site any more but I still check it out from time to time. One of the closest places to my house and heart is the Devil’s Tower.

The story is that if you drive around the tower three times backwards a pack of wolves will come out and rip you a new one. Variations of the story have devil worshipers doing the ripping but you get the idea here. So one night I convinced the little lady to take me out to Devils Tower. To my disappointment the tower is located in the middle of a cul-de-sac surrounded by modestly sizes mansions. Needless to say it kind of takes away from the spookiness of it all when you’re surrounded by million dollar homes. Perhaps after I drive around backwards I'll try to figure out what the hell I was thinking going to an art school when I’m color blind. That might scare the crap out of me.

But I love me a good urban legend, especially when they are within driving distance of my house. I’ve yet to make it to Midgetville but I hope to soon. So I open this up to you the reader. What’s your local Devil’s Tower or who is your neighborhood Turkman? Comment it up people!