In 1932, when my Dad (Dick) was 2 yrs old his father died, so his German grandparents helped raise him. They lived near Bachelors Grove, in Illinois.
Dick loved to fish.
One summer day a neighbor boy thought they should go out and look for more places to fish, Off they went.
They happened on a tree lined two-track road that lead to an open meadow. It had a large pond. The excited boys got to fishin'.
They went out there a lot, that summer. they never caught any fish, but it was a wide open space to hang-out.
Then one day they decided to take a peek into the lonely, abandon white house with a nice porch, set back from the pond. So as young boys do, they went to check it out.
Dick climbed the solid wooden stairs first. He wanted to be an architect and loved to look at homes.
With his friend behind him, he walked up to one the front windows to get a closer look.
Then he felt something by his feet. He looked down. Coming up through the porch were thousands of small, black SNAKES!!!!!!!
Dick feared SNAKES; after he was bitten by a blue racer that last fall.
He turned and ran screaming to his bike. His petrified friend was right behind him.
They took off as fast as their young legs would go.
They NEVER went back to Bachelors Grove. It's a good thing they didn't, because the house they saw doesn't exist. It probably did a long time ago, nobody knows for sure.
The pond Dick used to fish, was a dump for slain gangster bodies from the 1920's.
Legend has it that the caretaker of the BG Cemetary lived in a home there. One day he murdered his entire family. When the authorities asked him "Why" he did it. He told them "the voices from the cemetary" told him to. His phantom home is seen from time to time; rarely in the same spot.
THIS STORY IS TRUE. It happened to
Richard "Dick" Nehring,in the late 1930's.
