Book cover: "The Ghost Hunter's Road Book"

• Title: The Ghost Hunter's Road Book
• Author: John Harries. According to the blurb on the back cover: "John Harries has been a full-time writer since the war, in which he served with the R.A.F. A specialist in travel, he has visited every corner of the British Isles in search of the unusual and tourist-appeal material and currently lives in the Chiltern Hills, within audible distance of one of the most bizarre of the animal hauntings described in his new book." Interestingly, the book is copyrighted by Rupert Crew Ltd.
• Cover illustrator: None credited, which is a bummer.
• Publisher: Charles Letts & Co.
• Publication date: This is the revised edition, published in 1974. The book was first published in 1968.
• Pages: 176
• Format: Paperback
• Back cover price: 75p (accounting for inflation and converting from British to U.S. currently, that's about $13 today)
• Excerpt #1: Mystifying balls of light or flickering shapes apparently on fire are seen in many parts of Britain, and the majority of them have been excluded from this book. Those which are mentioned — as in the case of the West Witton light — have been reported in clear, cold weather or from areas free from peat, bog, or decaying material. The reason is that in my opinion lights seen during rain or on days or nights or great humidity , on in marshy districts, are of natural origin.
• Excerpt #2: Black Shuck has been haunting Norfolk for more than a thousand years. His very name proves his ancient origin because it is a dialect version of the Saxon word for Devil. He can alter his appearance, but all of them are terrifying. 
• Excerpt #3: The best-known and most ubiquitous of the Cornish supernatural beings are the pixies, a source of profit for many a souvenir shop in the tourist resorts where pixies are sold by the thousands as good luck tokens. Few native-born Cornish people would  wear the replica of the little man as a talisman. 
• Excerpt #4: Any subsequent attempt to dispose of the skull resulted in screams reverberating around the house, and heard far and wide by villages and farm workers of Bettiscombe. Something very evil indeed was presumably involved in the screaming skull affair, one of a number of such cases in different parts of the country. The usual inference is some connection with vampirism.
• Excerpt #5: Essex, moving willy-nilly into the brave new world of airports, marinas, new towns, nuclear power stations and industrial complexes, is still part of timeless East Anglia. A county slandered as flat, damp and dreary, can still retain a lot of its old-world charm — and its ancient traditions. Phantoms may retreat from the modernism of arterial roads and concrete runways — but ghosts still walk in Essex, and many of their haunts are surprisingly and appropriately unchanged by progress.
• Notes from the web: While the front cover has been a popular post on Tumblr, on message boards and in other locations, there's very little online about the book itself. Amazon reviewer Jackie Garcia wrote this in 2017: "It was a very enjoyable reading. My favorite part was the information given about T.E. Lawrence and the ghost at Clouds Hill." ... A passage from Harries' book is cited on a 2024 blog post about the Flixton Werewolf. ... And the book serves as a reference for the Wikipedia entry about the Shug Monkey.  

Poe-fect summer snapshot

This is probably the best photo I'll take in 2026. 

Cats Spice, left, and Smoky, right, are looking out the kitchen window at Poe the fledgling raven, who is sitting on the outside table to stay cool in the blazing heat and/or get my attention so I'll bring him/her some Temptations cat treats. Sitting in the sink and looking directly at me, annoyed, is Monkey, who wants me to turn the faucet on to a drip, so that he can get some water. (Photo taken on July 14.)

Poe may be moving on and has only been a seen a couple times in the past week. Perhaps he/she has found some other ravens to live with.

WKBS-TV bumper-palooza

I'm in a Facebook group in which folks share memories of the old WKBS-TV (Channel 48) out of Burlington, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. (I've mentioned this group before on Papergreat.) In recent months, users have been sharing and commenting upon a wide variety of bumpers that were used by the station, mostly in the 1970s.

I want to reshare them here for posterity, to give them a greater opportunity to be preserved. They are indeed amazing and bring back a lot of memories. Almost all of these were originally shared with the Facebook group by either Ed Yungmann or Susan Keiser. They should be lauded for their preservation efforts!

Book cover: "The Haunted Mountain" by Mollie Hunter

Sorry it's been so long between posts.¹

• Title: The Haunted Mountain
• Author: Mollie Hunter (1922-2012). Her full name was Maureen Mollie Hunter McIlwraith and she was known for her fantasy-tinged tales that are inspired by Scottish history or folklore. Her 2012 obituary in The Scotsman notes: "She produced most of her books from her home in Milton, a small village near Drumnadrochit in the Highlands, becoming totally immersed in her characters. ... Mollie spent a great deal of her time touring schools and libraries and was made particularly welcome in the United States."
• Illustrator and dust jacket designer: Trevor Ridley, who also illustrated at least one Ruth Manning-Sanders book (Stories from the English and Scottish Ballads).
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1972 (my copy is the 1974 reprint edition)
• Pages: 127
• Format: Hardcover
• Dust jacket price: £2 net
• Provenance: This book once belonged to Mary Lou White and it has an inscription from the author: "For Mary Lou, Best wishes from Mollie Hunter. 11/7/78"
• Dust jacket excerpt: "There is no doubt that the mountain called Ben MacDui in the Highlands of Scotland is haunted, as this story of MacAllister tells. MacAllister lived long ago in those parts, and he was a very stubborn man. He ignored the Skeelie Woman's² warning not to defy the strange creatures that went by name of 'the Good People' — fairy people they would have been called in English, though they were not at all as fairies are sometimes imagined to be."
• Excerpt #1: MacAllister had a good distance to travel to Peigi-Ann's home — five or six hours riding altogether, in fact — for the track to it was by way of a lairig, as they call a mountain pass, and this lairig was a long one that cut right through the Cairngorm Mountains . The Lairig Ghru — the Gloomy Pass — it is called, for it is a wild and desolate lace and even in high summer that are stretches of it that never see the sun.
• Excerpt #2: "I want more of these!" the Skeelie Woman exclaimed, holding up her fist with the little store of cairngorms clenched in it. "Bring me more of them Fergus — bring me a great double handful of them! If I cannot be part of the world of the sidhe, I want some of the treasure that belongs to it."
• Excerpt #3: The heap of grey stone that was once An Ferla Mor is easy to see among the red granite rock of Ben MacDui, and the lost jewels still lie where they fell around it. The gleaming gold of them among the rocks is easy to see, too, and anyone who chooses may climb the mountain to gather them. However, it would have to be a very brave person indeed who did this ...
• Rating on Goodreads: 4.18 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review: In 2018, Bridgett Leslie wrote: "I read this as a child, and it struck me enough that I have remembered it over the years. It was fun to re-read it as an adult. It did not frighten me the way it did when I read it as a nine-year-old, but it was still enjoyable."
• Rating on Amazon: a sterling 4.9 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review excerpt #1: In 2009, Jo J wrote: "Was disappointed with the quality of books available for my kids ages 7 and 9 and looked for books I read as a child that were fun and clean. Was pleased to find Haunted Mountain for them. It has a great mix of adventure, fantasy, mystery, and fright that is perfect for kids."
• Amazon review excerpt #2: In 2004, Laura Day wrote: "Only true bibliophiles will understand when I ask: Do you remember those books that touched you when you were young? Those that simply spurred you to read further and become a genuine book lover? The Haunted Mountain was mine. It was a book that I read and promptly lost, and couldn't for the life of me remember the author's name or the title! It was a labor of love trying to discover this book for the second time! After countless internet searches I have finally found it! Mollie Hunter is amazing! ... There are elements of magic, love, lore, and sacrifice woven expertly throughout Hunter's novel. This book is an absolute jewel!"
• Another good review: Check out Nick Campbell, who calls it "a cosy novel for the autumn months."

Footnotes

1. In a nutshell, on top of work, I've spent the past month taking care of two dozen indoor cats (four of whom had/have health issues and multiple veterinarian visits), the outdoor feral cats who are trying to weather the 110-degree heat (Mamacita, Creamsicle, Splash, Yinzer, Meowmix and Marmalade), a fledgling raven named Poe who was blown here during a dust storm and now comes for daily snacks alongside the wary cats, a gaggle of baby skunks (one of whom jumped into the pool three times, requiring three rescues) and a raccoon the size of Godzilla. In good news, former outdoor-cat Gumball has made an excellent adjustment to living inside among the other cats. 

2. "Skeelie wife" is an old Scottish term for a woman credited with great or supernatural ability to cure ailments. Their duties often involved assisting in the delivery of babies. And the skeelie wives themselves were often thought to be half-human/half-fairy.

Snapshot & memories: Down the shore

I'm estimating that this photo is from 1978 or 1979. My sister Adriane and I are at the Stone Harbor, New Jersey, beach house of our friends from Delaware County, the Mancills. We look very spiffy in our matching sweaters, which tell us that this wasn't taken in the middle of the summer. I don't know if I can say anything nice about either of our pants, though.

I have three specific down-the-shore memories that involve crabs:

1. When I was very young and at the beach, I would dig holes all afternoon and be fascinated by the sand crabs (aka mole crabs) that I uncovered. They were about the size of marbles and quite harmless; I remember they'd tickle your hands if you let them squiggle through.

2. The Mancills' house was along a large inlet and you could lower crab traps off the backyard retaining wall during high tide. We'd catch all sorts of things, not just crabs. Definitely a few flounder. And I think a starfish or two, though my memory is hazier on that. One time we caught a small "regular" crab and it escaped the trap when we brought it up and started to scamper along the ground. I got too close and its claw grabbed my finger, which caused a mini meltdown on my part. Mom loved telling that story.

3. But the major meltdown on my part came the first time we pulled up the trap and there was a horseshoe crab inside. I was not prepared. I had never heard of horseshoe crabs. I had never seen a horseshoe crab. And then suddenly this thing with no face and a spike protruding from the back was in the cage. I screamed and cried, leading to me getting teased about the incident for decades thereafter, even long after I learned what amazing and harmless creatures they truly are. 

Other snapshots and memories          

• Adorable little me on Mulberry Street
• Kitchen at Willow Street house in Montoursville
• Me and Pop-Pop in the kitchen
• Commodore 64 corner
• (Missing) snapshot & memories: Thanksgiving
• Me & Cyrano
• Me in a Star Trek shirt
• All kids do these days is play video games
• Posing with a Saturn V in 1982
• The Phillies are hot, and so was I
• Relocated fire engine in Montoursville
• Family outfits of 1972
• Our little bookstore
• Well-dressed for first day of nursery school
• At the Penn State computer lab

Monetizing liberty (1911 postcard)

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness — sure.

But the most truly American thing of all is the pursuit of making a buck.

This looks like a nice postcard that's patriotically highlighting the Liberty Bell, one of the foremost symbols of the United States' struggle for independence. Upon closer examination, the text of the front of the card states: 

"Proclaimed liberty throughout the world. The ENTERPRISE Meat and Food Chopper proclaimed to housewives liberty from the old fashing chopping bowl."

It's an advertisement, y'all. The postcard was published by Souvenir Post Card Company and printed in New York. This one was postmarked on October 24, 1911 — 115 years ago, a few years before World War I — and mailed to Mr. William Bixler of Lickdale, Pennsylvania with a one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. Maybe William was considering buying an Enterprise Meat and Food Chopper for his wife as a Christmas present. You know, to give his wife the gift of some "liberty."

The text on the back states:

"There will be a greater profit from pork products this Fall than from hogs on the hoof. Equip now with an ENTERPRISE Sausage Stuffer and Lard Press. Longest service — more profitable all the time. Air cannot enter the casing. 

"Enterprise Meat and Food Chopper. Retains all the juices, because it does not mangle the material, but cuts like shears. Come in and let us show them to you.

"George Krause Hdwe. Co.

Lebanon, Pa."

Having outlived their use to capitalism, Enterprise's choppers and grinders and stuffers are now just offered on the resale market as antiques. Well, I guess that's capitalism, too. Folks trying to make a buck off pieces of the past. Maybe the Liberty Bell will end up in an auction some day, too. (Don't mind me, I'm just grumpy as I write this.)

Arizona's bicentennial meteor crater

While we're slouching toward the next month's semiquincentennial — 45.5% of respondents to an LNP | LancasterOnline poll said they were "indifferent" to America's 250th birthday as it undergoes what is arguably a slow civil war — the celebrations of the United States' bicentennial were much more robust in 1976. 

For example, Arizona's famous Meteor Crater had its own bicentennial-branded postcard 50 years ago. 

Published by Petley Studios¹ of Phoenix, printed by Dexter Press and with a photograph courtesy of American Airlines, the back of the postcard has a somewhat amusing caption:

"The world's best-preserved impact-collision crater pocks the earth about six miles south of U.S. No. 66 between Flagstaff and Winslow, Arizona. Energies released to form this crater (sixty stories deep and 4,150 feet in diameter) were greater than our nuclear blasts. Diamonds were formed instantly, limestone was popped like popcorn, and iron meteorite was vaporized."

Footnote

1. Anne L'Ecuyer's blog The Posted Past ("We trade loneliness for connection, one postcard at a time") has an excellent, detailed post about the history of Petley Studios. It begins: "Bob Petley launched Petley Studios in 1945 with twelve comic postcards. Then, he spent the next four decades photographing the mid-century Southwest from behind a windshield."

Related posts

• Hoping to see UFOs for 1976 bicentennial Independence Day
• Some Phillies Fever from the Bicentennial summer of 1976

Another George Manning-Sanders novel surfaces

I suspect I may be the only one keeping track of such things, but another novel by George Manning-Sanders (1880 or 1881 to 1953, when he died at age 72) for which there's no online record has popped up. (I had both his birth year and death wrong in previous Papergreat posts, by the way.)

I discovered Little Comfort via a listing on eBay. According to the photos and item description, it was published in 1932 by Grayson & Grayson of London. It must be exceedingly rare.

It joins 1930's The Third Day (also published as The Burnt Man) and 1929's Drum and Monkey as confirmed novels by George Manning-Sanders. These may very well be his only three published books, as he was more known as an artist.

The gorgeous dust jacket illustration of Little Comfort seems to promise a tale of life in a rural English town, but who knows? It's a little hard to tell given the level of resolution, but there is what appear to be the initials GM toward the lower right of the cover illustration. So perhaps it's by George himself?

Here's an excerpt from my copy of Drum and Monkey that I randomly turned to:

"Bickford Honey, aged seventeen years, the product of care and the source of contention, strolled in the evening of a summer day toward the home of Mr. Mason. In his trousers pocket there were a few pence, his hat set jauntily on the back of his head, he felt that life was good."

Related posts

• The jaw-dropping dust jackets of George Manning-Sanders' novels
• Jaw-dropping dust jackets of George Manning-Sanders' novels, Part 2
• George Manning-Sanders' short obituary from 1953
• Happy 130th birthday, Ruth Manning-Sanders