As a six year old child in 1976, I lived an ideal life. We lived a couple miles from Lake Michigan in Grand Haven.
Our few country nieghbors were very colorful. The old guy with very few fingers and the alchoholic who lived all over the world and some boys.
My sister was playing with those boys as usual. I was a girlie girl, so I played with the dogs.
It was a beautiful fall afternoon. The dogs and I were by the side of the dirt road in front of our house. I noticed a person crossing at the ridge of the road about 25 yards away, that leads to some swamp land ( I never was allowed to go down that pathway. mom said it was riddled with rattlesnakes.)
When the dogs saw "the person", they started growling and acting like they just saw the devil himself.
I focused on the dogs and went to grab their collars, because I thought it was a hunter and might shoot them.
When I looked at "the person" I noticed he was REALLY tall and he had a long haired fur coat on. That's odd? It was a warm day. I tried to get a better look at "the person", when it turned its large frame to face me.
It wasn't like any person I've ever seen! IT WAS A MONSTER! I ran back to my house.
When I thought about my sister and the boys. What if that monster got them?!
I had to go to the next door neighbors which was to my left and through a semi-wooded area.
They were all there, playing when I breathlessly ran to them.
"There's a MONSTER in the woods!"
They laughed at me, of course.
My sister came to me and saw that I was really scared. She told them that she thought I was telling the truth.
The boys acted very brave and went to the trail head to follow the MONSTER. I was just crying on my sister's shoulder. We walked to the end of the driveway at a safe distance.
Then the boys disappeared into the wooded trail head, where I told them the MONSTER crossed the road.
We waited.
Then the boys started screaming! They were being thrown out of the woods. I thought the MONSTER was going to kill them!
After a few hysterical minutes the boys ran back to us laughing. They didn't see any "Monster". They picked on me as I walked home with my sister.
I know what I saw was not human and I knew nothing of Big Foot, until I was older.
The thing I saw had to be a Big Foot or some other strange creature.
I'll never forget what I saw that day.
