With Halloween in a few days, a lot of folks out there will be getting together for a little harmless fun (a.k.a. scaring the crap out of your friends). Most of the time, this includes haunted houses and watching Halloween. But occasionally, for those who want to push the envelope (or the planchette), out comes the Ouija board.
Not me. Growing up, I was never allowed to have a spirit board. Although the most common variety was available from Parker Brothers on Wal-Mart shelves, the game was banned from my house.
According to family lore, my mother and aunts used to dabble in divination. (This was a usual pastime in the Ozarks, even amongst Baptists.) One of the things they did was to hold séances in which they would cause a table to levitate. Eventually, they even had a Parker Brothers William Fuld Ouija Board. That changed when my aunt broke the cardinal rule and made the spirits mad. Immediately, at least according to my mom, the board spelled out the words: KILL YOU.
When that happened, my grandma decided that it was time to burn the board. So, she stuffed it into a burn barrel with the kitchen trash and lit it on fire. Then, so the story goes, the burning pile of trash exploded.
