I’ve always been enamored with Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow” thanks mostly to the animated Disney version, an underrated
classic. It’s just so darn
atmospheric and New Englandly, with the fall foliage and the covered bridges
and the suspicious, narrow-minded villagers. Despite having lived in New York for several years, being a West Coaster born and raised the East Coast remains an exotic wonderland, especially in the fall
and winter. A visit to the real
town of Sleepy Hollow was long on my list of life goals and two years ago it
finally came true. Along with an
age-old curse that will haunt me to my death.
Allow me to explain. We
decided to make the trek to Sleepy Hollow two Octobers ago along with our
friends Jackie and Andrew and another couple. In October, as you can imagine, there are all sorts of
activities planned to capitalize on the small town’s legend: haunted mazes, a
giant Jack O’Lantern Blaze and so forth.
We picked our weekend, made our plans and…a freak snowstorm
hit. In October. As a result Sleepy Hollow was mostly powerless (our very own true life trope: A
Dark & Stormy, in this case Snowy, Blackout!). We went anyway despite almost everything being closed,
downed power lines and the graveyard being coated in snow.
 |
| Sleep Hollow Cemetery. Note the unseasonable snow. |
Despite our disappointment and so not wearing the right shoes for
trudging through snow we had a really good time. It was great fun to see the Old Dutch Church and cemetery and to
discover that there really is a Katrina Van Tassel buried in the graveyard. We vowed to return the next year and do
it properly, this time with electricity and tickets to the Jack O’Lantern Blaze.
Now it’s October 2012 and once again we’ve got our weekend picked out,
our tickets bought in advance, and our hopes and dreams for a spooky Sleepy
Hollow experience primed and ready to go.
And then a little something called Hurricane Sandy blew into town. Sleepy Hollow, along with Halloween,
was cancelled. This time we didn’t
even make it to the car, but rather holed up in our apartments for a week while
Mother Nature sent us a severe warning: DO NOT GO TO SLEEPY HOLLOW OR SOMETHING
TERRIBLE WILL HAPPEN!
So of course we’re going this year. Our party was divided; half of us were determined and the
other, more superstitious half wanted to give up. But like Ichabod before us we are heading down the dark road despite the warnings: the tickets are bought and the plans are
made. I’ll be counting down to our
trip on October 21st all month long with a series of posts about
Sleepy Hollow in its many various incarnations across the pop culture landscape,
along with pictures from our first ill-fated excursion.
Will we make it to Sleepy Hollow this year? Will The Curse strike again? Will we encounter the Hessian horseman of legend?! Stay tuned…
You should do a post about how awful the new Sleepy Hollow show is!
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