"Hmm...My pipe went out."

Snap ! Sssh....Daddy Long Legs relights his pipe.

"What happened next?" , little Jimmy pleads .

"I grew up , married your grandma. Our first born was your mother, Gladys. I was 20 years old. It was 1935. That is when it all happened."

Ruckers Lumber Company, sign on the White diesel truck read. Its brakes squeeled bringing it to a stop in front of Mr.Greens County Store. A burely mountain of a man stepped down from his flatbed rig, snatched a dingy cowboy hat off his thick browed head to beat the dust off his shoulders , chest and tree trunk size legs.

Mr. Green watched with one eye peering through foggy specks. The stranger swung wide the screen door...and boldly entered a modest establishment . He didnt say a word. Seemed content to browse. Eventually [as everyone did] he ended up at the counter.

"What can I do for you , feller?"

the big man didnt answer. He just pointed at a large glass jar filled with licorice twists.

"Got a taste for licorice, mista?"

"How much ?" the new comer finally spoke.

"A penny for 5."

"Give me 20."

That made ole man Green happy.

He put 20 sticks of black licorice into a small paper sack.

"That'll be a quarter."

The stranger eyed the tendant with sceptic contempt.

"Oh ! 5 cents for the sack."

The customer shrugged his broad shoulders , fished out 2 bits and flipped it at Mr. Green.

"Thank ya kindly ", he had just beaten the man out of 16 cents.

As the new comer turned to leave. Mr. Greens curiousity got the best of him.

"What brings ya to Pleasantville , Sonny ?"

"I've come for yer trees" lumberjack replied as he stepped out the door.

"Come for the trees?" Mr. Green scratched his gray crown puzzeled. Little did he know what Jack Resser came for that day. It wasn't just the trees the county sold to R.L.C . He was there to take more...much more.

In the days before Spooky Tooth prowled Pleasantville. Jeremiah Jones and his new bride, Mertle Faye settled down to raise a family. They had a beautiful baby girl they named Gladys Ann. Life was good. Until the machines moved in and corporate moguls took over. Mr.Green lost his store. Ole man Grumbles followed, forced to sell his farm , and on and on everything went to Ruckers.

The owner of R.L.C. was a scoundrel named Edward Sweeny. He won the company in a poker game. Only shifty Sweeny dealt his share from the bottom of the deck. His motto: Always keep the odds in your favor. An obese, obnoxious, thief who had absolutely no scrupples whatsoever. Cutting the heart out of of Pleasantville was right up his alley. It was a dark and cruel alley at that.

It wasn't long before the tractors began to strip away the face of the land. They hauled off truck loads like so much bounty . Iron-steel and rubber gargantuans rumble across Bloodcreek Twin Bridges of Dark Hollow. It was the beginning of the end, and a legend was born. The legend of Spooky Tooth.

Stately Oaks, Willows, Evergreen Pines, Cottonwood, Pecan and Walnut trees...all groaned under the bite of axe and slice of two handed saws knifing through Dark Hollow. It wasnt a harvest . T'was a rape , a plunder of land.

Urrr....Crash ! huh-huh-huh.

"I could of sworn I heard the trees cry as we cut 'em down" a woodman would later say.

It was Spooky Tooth . The beating heart of the forest ....and we cut it out !

How right that proved to be. In the center of Dark Hollow, there was an artesian well, that formed a deep pool, from which flowed Bloodcreek . Locals called it that , because of the red clay banks , which gave the stream its crimson color. Although another interpretation is widely excepted to this very day.

Long before the area was developed. A young man and his bride to be was spoonin' at the pool. A quiet, private place hidden from prying eyes. Where lovers could fawn undisturbed.
They undressed and went in for a midnight swim where the water is clear and cool before it becomes muddled further down sream. As they reveled in the naked liberation of naughtiness, something wicked stirred deep within the pool.

A full harvest moon peered down through scraggly bare limbs of shedding oaks. It was October, the beginning of fall.

Come on in, handsome Allen Backster cooed treading water. The son of a wheat farmer. Poor but proud. He stood a gangly 6'1" every bit of 170lbs. soaking wet.
oh no mista Backster. The waters cold enough ta curl me toes, beautiful Annie Mae Wilkerson teased standing on the bare bank. Her golden locks curled about dainty shoulders framing a cameo profile. Her blue eyes sparkled brimming with the escence of youth.

"Aww....Its not that cold, Annie . Once you get in . Its great ! " Allen coaxed trying to persuade his fiancee to dive in.

"Well...Are you sure?"

"Yep ! Besides , I'll warm ya up. Come on Annie . Strip off dem duds and get wet. I got somethin for ya..and o-o-o-o your gonna like it."

Annie smiled and button by button her bodice fell away, then her petticoat , but she left her underwear on, and waded knee deep into the pool.

"Uh-uh !! Th-the waters freezin' ." She turned and sloshed back up the bank.