Slightly Odd Fitchburg

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. I share them and you can get in on the fun by liking my page at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following me at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the funny story! DID YOU KNOW that Gladys Spooner was so mean she died twice? She was an elderly woman spending her twilight years in Cavendish, Vermont , and earned a reputation as the local shrew. She was one of those people who “tell it like it is” when no one ever asks them. It was said that a week never passed without her giving someone a piece of her mind and no one had it worse than her husband, the henpecked Harley. She passed away in 1919 and pretty much the entire population of Cavendish attended her funeral. It’s a safe bet they all showed up just to make sure she was dead, and her new widower spent the whole service quietly staring at the floor. The funeral ended and Gladys got loaded into the back of a wagon f...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following us at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the odd story! Fitch Bits: The Bennington Triangle DID YOU KNOW that Vermont has its own triangle?   It's called the Bennington Triangle and, much like the Bermuda and Bridgewater varieties, it's plagued with disappearances, mysterious lights, untraceable sounds, and unidentified creatures! It's located in the Green Mountains and was avoided by Native populations in the area.   Five people disappeared between 1945 and 1950. No traces of them have ever been found and one man was even seen getting onto a bus but never seen getting off it!   While I have you here, How about getting your very own Ouija Board , made by me! They help support the site and you'll never find a higher quality, handmade board anywhe...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at  Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg  and following us at  Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the odd story! Fitch Bits: Champ DID YOU KNOW that New England has its own lake monster? Champ is his name and being a cryptid is his game! He's said to live in the waters of Lake Champlain in Vermont. There have been more than 300 documented sightings and P.T. Barnum, himself, once offered a $20,000 reward to anyone who could bring him the creature, dead or alive. One of the earliest sightings by western eyes was in 1819 by a ship's captain. He reported that he saw a creature over 180 feet long with "eyes like peeled onions!" The story goes even further back in time, though. The Iroquois and Abenaki tribes both have ancient legends of a lake monster that lurked in the lake and ate people. The Abenaki even...

This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post. We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg and following us at Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg ! Now onto the sad story! The Hartford, Vermont Railroad Disaster DID YOU KNOW that Hartford, Vermont is home to one of the country's worst railroad disasters in history? It happened in the winter of 1887 and claimed the lives of 37 passengers. A further 50 people were injured in the accident. Just like a few days ago, Vermont was in the middle of an arctic blast that froze the White River solid,  below the Woodstock bridge in -18 degree cold. The Montreal Express, out of Boston, was over an hour behind schedule. Ordered to make up for lost time, the engineer hit the bridge at a higher than usual speed. The rear passenger car hit a break in the track and that was all it took. It went over the bridge and took two additional cars wit...