Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Witchcraft Road?

Where else but Berks County would you find such an interesting collection of names of roads and towns? Just west of Virginville in the northern part of the county, we find a Witchcraft Road which runs northwest toward Windsor Castle off of Virginville Road, through an area that locals refer to as Witches' Dance. There is also a nearby cave that is known as Dragon's Cave. There are lots of caves in this area, including the well-known Crystal Caves that are a popular tourist attraction. Certainly does make one wonder what sort of things happened in the early part of our history in that area to generate these names that have persisted in to our modern age.

Moving a bit further west as we approach the mountains to the northwest, we find the Hex Highway which probably has all sorts of stories in its past as well.

Since both sets of my grandparents lived in Berks County, I heard many stories about the area growing up. Some of my favorite stories, though, were the ghost stories my Dad's mother would tell us when we spent the night at their old farmhouse near Joanna. After dinner, we would go out to the woods and find some nice samples of "spook wood", those wonderful, fungi-covered pieces of wood that glowed softly in the dark, and then we would settle down in the old guest room and wait for Gram to come tell us a story. She would make them up as she went along, bringing in bits and pieces of the local lore in the process. She always had a vivid imagination and could come up with amazing stories to our delight as youngsters.

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