SC EP:441 My Grandfather's Property

Matt writes "I am a retired combat veteran of the Marine Corps. I saw combat in both the First Gulf War and Bosnia-Herzegovina/Kosovo.As a kid, I grew up in Kentucky. I had several encounters there. Then later I had one in Tennessee and another in East Texas.

In Kentucky I lived with my grandfather. He was a Baptist minister and a man of good Scottish stock. We lived in central Kentucky in the Green River bottoms. I was used to seeing bobcats and panthers. From an early age I knew their screams and had a healthy respect for their space, especially at night. In about 1972 I was 7 years old. One summer evening my grandfather and I were walking just a few yards from our house at the edge of a 7 acre field. It sloped a bit up and ended in a tree line which had an old barn at its center. A small trail circumvented the entire field.

As we looked east and up at the field's edge, we saw something standing upright and much taller than the corn which was about 7 feet tall as it was late June. It was brown in color and looked directly at us. My grandfather turned me around and towards the house and said "You'll not be going outside tonight." I sensed a bit of fear but knew better than to ask why. That night was warm. Our house was built up about six feet to avoid the backwaters of spring. My grandfather and I slept in the same bedroom in two beds separated by a window which was open that night. It faced the field where we had seen the creature. As I drifted off to sleep I smelled a horrible smell.

I awoke and looked out the window. Standing squarely in the majority of the window was a dark figure looking in and looking side to side. I could feel the warmth of its breath and see the eyes which were somewhat yellow and red. I looked across at my grandfather who had moved to lying prone with a pistol in his right hand. The only light was provided by the moon. After a few moments I heard the creature walk away towards the front of our house and step up on the wooden porch. At this point my grandfather bolted from the bed and grabbed a double barreled shotgun and yelled to me to stay put. I heard one shot which he had to have fired through the screen door then a growl/scream that shook the house. My grandfather yelled for it to "Fek off" and fired a second shot. By then I was next to him with my own 12 gauge.

He reloaded as it jumped off the porch and ran back towards where we had seen it earlier. It yelled the rest of the night and we heard it for several days. I don't remember if it ever yelled much after that week."