The Night of the Panther
One of my most favorite memories of my childhood is coming to visit with Aunt Rachel during the summertime. Because we were always moving during my childhood, it was wonderful to have a “stable” place to visit.
My two sisters, my cousins Dianne and Denise, Paula and Aunt Rachel’s daughter Joan were the cousins who hung our together every summer. We always begged to spend the night at Aunt Rachel’s because her house was the coolest. Besides that Grandmomma and Granddaddy went to bed about 7:00 every evening and that was just too early!
One night, all of us girl cousins were at Aunt Rachel’s for our spend the night party.. All of us had hauled dozens of super-thick, brightly colored quilts that Aunt Rachel had into the front room of her house. During Christmastime, this was the room that the huge Christmas Tree was place in. We had a certain order that we had to have each cousin laying in on their quilts. My older sister, Carol was in the middle of the row of us girl cousins. After all, she was the oldest…We fanned out in chronological order from Carol till we got down to Pan, our youngest cousin.
Of course, because it was during the summer and there was no air conditioning (was it because the cool air didn’t come that far out into the countryside). So the windows were all open.
That’s when it happened. Joan started talking about “the panther” of Tifton. Of course, being city kids, my sisters and I were immediately intrigued with the possibility that anyone had ever seen a panther. Joan went on to tell us that this particular panther had roamed around in the country for years and years. Because there was a constant food supply for it in the country, this panther was the hugest thing ever! She said that late at night, if you listened very carefully, you would hear what sounded like a woman screaming. That scream meant that the panther was either close enough to scare someone, or that the screams happened because the panther had just taken someone and their companions were screaming!
All, right, this was such a cool story! Of course, it wasn’t true, but we loved it anyhow..
Suddenly someone cried Look! At the window! Eight pairs of eyes turned slowly toward the window. Something was indeed blinking at us from the window. Dianne then hollered that she thought she saw something move and we snatched up our quilts and made a beeline for the door—not the front door---not the side door=but the door of Aunt Rachel’s bedroom.
Now, Aunt Rachel was relaxed, but having 8 girls suddenly invade her bad was too much-even for her. She looked at us like we were crazy and sent us back…. Back into the front room…. Where we were sure that the ginormous, vicious, panther waited for us. As we tried to settle back down on the floor of that room none of us felt very safe. Especially since every time someone looked at the window and it “blinked” malevolently at us.
We then decided that Carol, being the oldest, had had an opportunity to live a really long time already-she was 12. Therefore, she should give up her place on the floor to the youngest cousin. She was reluctant, but we eventually beat her down into submission and she moved. Somehow, we made it through the night with that vicious creature lurking just outside our window.
In the morning, we went outside to investigate where the panther had been. There was no “real” signs , but we could have sworn there had been at least one We later figured out that the eyes blinking at us, were actually fire flies.
To this day, when we all get together and reminisce, someone invariably mentions our “Night with the Panther”
My two sisters, my cousins Dianne and Denise, Paula and Aunt Rachel’s daughter Joan were the cousins who hung our together every summer. We always begged to spend the night at Aunt Rachel’s because her house was the coolest. Besides that Grandmomma and Granddaddy went to bed about 7:00 every evening and that was just too early!
One night, all of us girl cousins were at Aunt Rachel’s for our spend the night party.. All of us had hauled dozens of super-thick, brightly colored quilts that Aunt Rachel had into the front room of her house. During Christmastime, this was the room that the huge Christmas Tree was place in. We had a certain order that we had to have each cousin laying in on their quilts. My older sister, Carol was in the middle of the row of us girl cousins. After all, she was the oldest…We fanned out in chronological order from Carol till we got down to Pan, our youngest cousin.
Of course, because it was during the summer and there was no air conditioning (was it because the cool air didn’t come that far out into the countryside). So the windows were all open.
That’s when it happened. Joan started talking about “the panther” of Tifton. Of course, being city kids, my sisters and I were immediately intrigued with the possibility that anyone had ever seen a panther. Joan went on to tell us that this particular panther had roamed around in the country for years and years. Because there was a constant food supply for it in the country, this panther was the hugest thing ever! She said that late at night, if you listened very carefully, you would hear what sounded like a woman screaming. That scream meant that the panther was either close enough to scare someone, or that the screams happened because the panther had just taken someone and their companions were screaming!
All, right, this was such a cool story! Of course, it wasn’t true, but we loved it anyhow..
Suddenly someone cried Look! At the window! Eight pairs of eyes turned slowly toward the window. Something was indeed blinking at us from the window. Dianne then hollered that she thought she saw something move and we snatched up our quilts and made a beeline for the door—not the front door---not the side door=but the door of Aunt Rachel’s bedroom.
Now, Aunt Rachel was relaxed, but having 8 girls suddenly invade her bad was too much-even for her. She looked at us like we were crazy and sent us back…. Back into the front room…. Where we were sure that the ginormous, vicious, panther waited for us. As we tried to settle back down on the floor of that room none of us felt very safe. Especially since every time someone looked at the window and it “blinked” malevolently at us.
We then decided that Carol, being the oldest, had had an opportunity to live a really long time already-she was 12. Therefore, she should give up her place on the floor to the youngest cousin. She was reluctant, but we eventually beat her down into submission and she moved. Somehow, we made it through the night with that vicious creature lurking just outside our window.
In the morning, we went outside to investigate where the panther had been. There was no “real” signs , but we could have sworn there had been at least one We later figured out that the eyes blinking at us, were actually fire flies.
To this day, when we all get together and reminisce, someone invariably mentions our “Night with the Panther”
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