Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Goat Man, Cat Man, Wolf Man All Fast Runners, Say Experts


"In Virginia it was the Goat Man," writes Barry B., referring to our Lizard Man "post." "I remember some relatives telling me about someone driving their truck one night and he heard something out the window and turned to see a goat headed man running next to the truck looking in at him. I believe they said he was running very fast and keeping up with the truck. This was a long time ago..." It rings a bell, Barry B.! I recall tales of a cat man (tales of a cat man! Ha ha ha! Tales/tails, get it?) in - I believe - Coden, Alabama, who ran very fast and kept up with a car. A bartender at City Grocery, who used to pass through the area on his way to the beach every summer during his youth, brought up the subject of the Alabama cat man out of nowhere one night, to my amazement - the first I had heard of it since childhood. And Theresa has often told of a werewolf sort of creature that (who?) was a local legend when she lived in New Mexico. This creature, like the others, would run next to a car and look in the window. In the story Theresa heard, the monster was expressing displeasure at not being picked up as a hitchhiker. Remember, kids, NEVER pick up a werewolf hitchhiker! Maybe someone who is not me would be interested in tracing the origins of this seemingly universal idea of monsters who run really fast looking into the windows of cars.