"Not so Alone In the Woods"

(NOTE:  This particular incident occurred in 1974.  It happened in Rochester, New York and in the Town of Irondequoit.)

Once, when I was 19 years old, I went for a long walk on a warm summer night. I had a habit of doing stuff like this even when I probably should have stayed home. I guess I was kind of impulsive like most teenaged boys are sometimes. It was about 12:00 midnight when I snuck out of our house through my bed room window. My mother Phyllis and my three sisters Ann, Donna and Lorie where fast asleep. I enjoyed my walk down the long quiet road and I ended up at Durand Eastman Park. I knew about the Urban Legend that haunted the woods in the Park. She was called the White Lady and she died in the early 1900s someplace close to the lake. She was a widow that lived with her teenaged daughter near the woods.

One night her daughter went out on a date and did not return at the time she said she would. Her mother became very worried and instead of calling the authorities, she got a flashlight and went out looking for her daughter. She followed her instincts and it led her right to the spot in the woods near a tree where she found her daughters dead body. She became so distraught that she went into a frenzy and vowed to kill the man that did this to her daughter. Her anger and depression drove her to hate all men till she just lost all reason to live.

The lonely lady committed suicide by walking out in to the waters of Lake Ontario and drowning herself. Her angry spirit still haunts the Durand Eastman woods and will scare only the males who enter the woods late at night in an effort to make them leave the females alone. I was perfectly aware of this story but was not thinking about it that night. It was a beautiful summer night, the moon was full and it felt great to walk down the path deep into the woods to an area known as the pine trees. I felt like I was a brave and daring young man as I entered the woods.

I was enjoying myself. The woods were peaceful.  The sound of the crickets made me want to sing to myself as I walked down the moon lighted trail. I had been strolling though the calm woods for about twenty minutes when I came to the pine trees. I loved the pine trees. It was a place that I came to often to ride my bike or go jogging or just sit and play my guitar and write songs.

It was a clear, wide and very long dirt path with a row of pine trees all long along each side. The moon and stars were shining down on the path lighting it up light with a special glow that made me just stand there for a moment and enjoy the view. I turned around and looked down the path behind me; it seemed to disappear into the woods.

Then I turned back around to look down to the end of the trail in front of me again and I focused on the dark spot in the distance.

It was then that I felt my peacefulness leave me as I struggled to see what was in front of me. I should have seen the moonlight at the end of the path but there was a black shadowy form that seemed to be growing and moving towards me.  I began to feel sick in my stomach and I felt like some one was watching me. I felt that I was in danger.

I wasn't sure if it was simply my mind playing tricks on my eyes or something else but I was not going to stick around to find out. 

I turned and ran as fast as I could. I could feel the black shadowy presence chasing right behind me. I was more scared then tired during that long run back to the road. I did not dare to look behind me. I could feel it almost reaching to grab me. My legs moved like a machine as they carried me back to the entrance of the woods. I felt that I would be safe if I could make it to where the cars could see me. It was amazing that I was able to make though the dark woods and avoid all obstacles, jumping over logs and ducking under low branches. I at last made it out of the woods. It was then that I finally looked behind me to see that the dark black shadow thing then finally stopped chasing me. I slowed down once I crossed the road but I did not stop until I got all the way back to my house and climbed back in through my bedroom window. I have told this story to my wife Ann, my daughter Sara, my friends and a few other people but I never did tell my mother or sisters about it.

They never knew that I left the house.

Stan J.