Flashback "Fright"day - a visit to Amityville

Since today is Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to include a ghost story from my youth - or at least an homage to my fascination with some of the darker sides of life.

When I was younger I realized I really liked scary stories. I loved reading Lois Duncan books, they were spooky. I always looked for ghost story anthologies in the Jr. High School library. Then I became obsessed with one Mr. Stephen King, which continues to this day. (I adore the man as well as his books, but that is a story for another day)

I also liked "true" ghost stories. In the late '70s and early '80s there was an explosion of stories about haunted houses and haunted people, all started by The Amityville Horror. I'm sure you're familiar with the story - on November 13th, 1974 (my 7th birthday) a young man killed his entire family inside their Amityville New York home. The next family to move in stayed only a month or so, claiming it was haunted and escaping just barely with their lives. A book was published about their story, and the whole thing became a sort of phenomenon.

Needless to say I read this book several times in my youth, and was fascinated with all of the things that they claimed happened in the house.

(Amityville Horror house in its evil days - thanks Google images)

Flash forward to the mid-'90s when I am now living in New York City! One weekend in early January 1997, my friends Vicki and Di and I came into the use of our friend Hilary's Volvo. We decided to make a run out to Long Island to shop at a mega store and stock up on goods that were very expensive in our city neighborhoods. We drove out Saturday morning, and found ourselves at a big old K-Mart in Amityville. "Please!" I said when our shopping was done "let's find the Amityville Horror house!" They were willing, and we began driving around the neighborhood (it's not that big of a town). I knew from my knowledge of the story that the house was on Ocean Ave, and backed up to a waterway. In the movies and stuff it makes it seem like its right on a lake or an ocean, but its really just a small inlet of water.

We found Ocean Avenue, and rolled up to a women walking along the street. I rolled down the window and asked in my most polite fashion "excuse me, could you tell us which way to the Amityville Horror House?" She was just as polite, "just right up the street from here" she said, pointing in a direction. "Thank you!" We drove on, and then all of a sudden, there it was!

It seemed so normal and harmless on this suburban street, the evil sloping eye windows had been remodeled, and now looked completely docile. It was still decorated from the Christmas season.


We drove around to the other side of the ocean inlet to see it from the back - the boathouse was quite significant in the story.

I took a few pictures, then was satisfied. The center of so much horrid fascination from my youth was really not so scary after all. As much as I would have liked to knock on the door and have a look inside, I never would have had the audacity. The original story was now thought to be a hoax, and I had heard that the only horror for the owners living there now was pesky curiosity seekers like myself. Besides, it was getting late, and we needed to be getting back to the city soon. This guy I really liked named Peter was flying in that evening from California for a highly anticipated visit. It was time to look towards my future now.