Featured

“The Greatest Treat for Children Ever Given”

The Victoria Hall Disaster 

“Soon men began to come down the steps bearing in their arms lifeless burdens, and from the crowd came a wail of grief…”

William Codling 1894

Victoria Hall a Victorian-gothic style brick building, built in 1872, located in Sunderland England. Would soon be the location of a of not only “the greatest treat for children ever given,” but also “the greatest tragedy”. 

Shortly after 5pm on Saturday June 16th, 1883. The excitement and joy that had filled Victoria Hall with the sound of laughter and applause, would soon be overshadowed, by the sound of panic, wailing, and grief. In mere seconds the lives of hundreds of families and kids would be forever changed.   

Alexander Fay – the conjurer- and his sister Annie Fay – the enchantress – had been touring “Fays Wonders” around the world. They were even the resident performers at the Tynemouth Aquarium in Northeast England. They had planned a show filled with conjuring, talking waxworks, living marionettes and ghost illusions. 

The Fays had come into town a few weeks early to prepare not only for the show but also to try to push ticket says. They had even been seen in the rain handing flyers and, in the school, offering free tickets to teachers and staff if they would help sell tickets. The price of a ticket was only 1 penny, and for children living in such an impoverish community, this was a welcomed “treat”.  Of course, the price wasn’t the only thing too good to be true, The Fays had also promised “every child in the room will stand the chance of receiving a handsome present, books, toys, etc.” What little boy or girl wouldn’t be enticed by the promise of a chance to receive a free toy? 

Flyer for the show

The day of the show as almost 2000 seats were filled by a crowd of mainly three to 14-year-old children and teens, 1000 of which would be seated in one of the two upper galleries in Victoria Hall. 

The Hall went quiet as all 2000 children watched as the Fays started the show. The show would continue without any problems, that is until the last act of the night, in an instant the stage was filled with smoke. It had quickly made its way to the front few rows of the auditorium. Some of the children began to feel sick, a few even ended up vomiting from the smoke. Alexander Fay saw this and quickly tried to bring the focus back to himself in an attempt to control the crowd. 

Picture drawn for the newspaper.

He quickly called out the numbers of the tickets that had won prizes, informing the children that one of their assistants would be making his way to the top galleries to pass out prizes. The assistant would be delayed, and the kids upstairs would begin to grow impatient at the thought that they were missing out on the toys. 

Several things would contribute to the calamity that would ensue in the following moments. The lack of parental supervision, lack of coordination, the impatient attitudes of the children, and lack of safety regulations at the time, would all add themselves to the “conjuring” of this great disaster.

In moments a horde of children would leave their seat, “en mass” and make their way to the closest stairway. What would start as a stampede, would soon become a congested traffic jam of children, crammed shoulder to shoulder, and almost hypnotically moving forward.

The children kept moving forward, fixated on the idea of “free toys,” without any other concern or thought. They were deaf to the sounds of children screaming, “STOP, KEEP BACK!” The children were just as unaware of what was really happening, as the few adults in attendance were. 

During the excitement, and rush to get to the toys, one child tripped and fell at the bottom of the stairs. In front of a door that not only opened inward, but had been bolted open, with only a 20-inch gap. Enough room to allow for one child at a time to pass throw, no doubt in an attempt to make ticket counting easier. This 20-inch gap, and the fact that no one had bothered unbolting the door after the show had started, helped to cause an almost domino effect. Other children soon started tripping over the first, and with the children behind not knowing or not paying attention, the mass kept coming. 

William codling would give an account of what happened 11 years later 1894, he was around six or seven when it happened. 

“The conjurer performed his tricks and at the close of the entertainment stepped to the front of the stage with a basket of toys and began throwing them among the people in the pit. We in the gallery howled with rage. At this the conjurer informed us that a man was already on his way up the stairs with a basket of toys for us. So, we obligingly rose en masse and went down the stairs to meet him. 

I raced up the gallery as fast as I could, scrambled with the crowd through the doorway and jolted my way down two flights of stairs. Here the crowd was so compressed that there was no more racing, but we moved forward together, shoulder to shoulder. Soon we were most uncomfortably packed but still going down. 

Suddenly I felt that I was treading upon someone lying on the stairs and I cried in horror to those behind “Keep back, keep back! There’s someone down.” It was no use, I passed slowly over and onwards with the mass and before long I passed over others without emotion.”

Another newspaper depiction of the tragedy

Eventually a few of the adults noticed that something was not right. The adults rushed to the door which was now piled about 6-feet high with the bodies of children. The adults quickly tried to move the door but could not undo the bolt and the pressure of children now pushing agaimst it made it even more challenging. Two adults ran up a second stair case which was used as an auxiliary stair case to relieve congestion, but was not open at the time. 

They started to yell to the children that toys were being distributed in another area, the children snapped out of their mass trance and started to follow the two men. The pressure lessened but it was too late. 

Mr. Fay was none the wiser to what was going on. Mr. Fays account at the inquest was this.

“The first mention I had of the accident was Hesseltine. He came to the body of the hall. 

[Question:]—How did he come ?

He did not rush ; he came slowly, and fell on his back on the stairs.  He seemed in a fainting condition… I pulled him, but he did not answer, and I then threw some water in his face.  He presently came around, and I asked him what was the matter. He said, “Oh dear, there’s some of them stuck fast, and they are dead.”  I asked how many, and he mentioned the word “dozen.” 

“Oh dear, there’s some of them stuck fast, and they are dead.”  I asked how many, and he mentioned the word “dozen.” 

Alexander Fay retelling his account of the disaster

I left him and rushed to the pit entrance. I then saw two or three men running about, and I noticed two or three little boys lying on their backs at the pit entrance, and a man with another in his arms. I picked them up.  I was very much excited, and said to a man, “Are they dead?” He said, ” Yes ; there are a good many more dead. Run for a doctor.”

[Question:]—Did you know then what had occurred ?  

No.”

Dr. Lambert, who lived close to Victoria Hall was the first to arrive.  He was immediately told that one boy was “in a fit or dying.”

Dr. Lamber would later recount to the court his account of what happened.

“ I quickly ascended the steps, and soon came to the body of the child.  I found the little fellow was quite dead, and from appearances, such as intense congestion and puffiness of the face, looking purple or blackish, turgid vessels in the neck, bloody froth from the nose, as also bloody discharge from the ears, I came to the conclusion that death had resulted from suffocation.  There was no one near the body who could give me any information whatever. 

A sudden presentiment that a mortal struggle was going on at a certain situation leading from the gallery, caused me to run up the flight of stairs, at the top of which is a landing. Turning round a corner in the gallery-stairs proper, I beheld the dark, horrible pit of destruction, with three hundred or more children in it ; and, oh ! shocking sight ! a heap, most of whom appeared to be dead, so feeble were the groans and cries (for they could not get breath to cry) of the living.  Hence no one could believe that a few yards from the spot actually more than a hundred were already dead. It may be safely asserted that within five minutes of the block taking place at least this number would be dead. 

Through the eighteen-inch space that the door was open I could see the hall-keeper making almost superhuman efforts, with others, to release the fatal door, but to no avail.”

“Many of the children on the outer edge of the frightful heap could be made out to be past human aid. They had fallen early in the frightful struggle, and those who came after had been precipitated over them in the far side of the heap.  In order to get at the latter, hands had to be joined by the rescuers so that one might reach over the nearer bodies and take hold of some little one whose feeble movement gave sign that life was not extinct… What seemed to wring the hearts of the rescuers with the utmost anguish were the cries of those who were able to cry. It was, “Give me a hand !” “And give me a hand !” “Oh ! Do take me out first !” or “Oh ! Where is my mother !””

William Codling, one of the children who had survived would continue his account.

“I had not thought the affair was serious and now I looked on spellbound as body after body was brought out and laid in a row upon the pavement. One woman, I remember, came out carrying a child which she had gone in to seek while behind her came a sympathetic man bearing another. 

The woman came down the steps with agonised face and dishevelled hair and shouted fiercely to the crowd “Get back! Get back! And let them have air.” 

“Ah! my good woman,” said the man who bore her other burden, while tears rolled down his cheeks, “Ah! they will never need air more.” 

Soon men began to come down the steps bearing in their arms lifeless burdens, and from the crowd came a wail of grief…”

William Codling

“Then the pressure began to lessen,” Codling said. “A report spread that the toys were being distributed in the gallery and those behind having made a feeble rush upwards, back we tottered across that path of death. … At the first landing we were met by some men and taken out of doors into the open air…Soon men began to come down the steps bearing in their arms lifeless burdens, and from the crowd came a wail of grief…”

         183 kids died that day. Some parents lost all of their kids in the disaster, among those lost was an entire Sunday school class. Queen Victoria sent a message of condolences and contributed to the Disaster Fund. Donation from all over England came in totaling over 5,000 pounds (adjusted for inflation in dollars equals 646,337.92 dollars).

Victoria Hall would stand for another 58 years before sustaining substantial during an air raid in 1941.

Victoria Hall after an air raid in 1941

A statue of a weeping woman holding a dead child was erected after the tragedy. It was later restored and moved to Mowbray Park where it stands now as a testament to one of the most horrific disasters to happen in Britain.

The Victoria Hall Memorial in Mowbray Park

Legislation would lead to new requirements that would call for more outwards opening exits in venues. The events would be the catalyst for Robert Alexander Briggs to invent the push bar. A door that can be locked from the outside but will always open from the inside. Though legislation was passed it wasn’t globally copied, so more events would happen before it was accepted world wide. Which lead to at least 602 people dying in the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago in December 1903 because of door latch designs that were difficult for fleeing patrons to open

Ovni’s

Growing up I remember my mom and aunts would get together and discuss millions of topics most, most of which made no sense to me. If it wasn’t Pokemon, Hulk Hogan, or Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, I probably didn’t care. I was born in 1990, so my brain capacity was limited. My parents were lucky I remembered how to wipe my butt.
That being said there was one topic that they would discuss maybe once a month. A topic that would immediately change the tone of the conversation and just as quickly change the energy of the room. Yet as soon as I felt it, no GameBoy, no wrestling match, no limewire downloaded unreleased track would stop me. I would find my way into the second hand smoke filled room, sometimes the kitchen, sometimes the living room with the loud patterned couch, (a remnant of the late 80’s) on occasion it would take place on the porch.
Urban Legends. I use that term loosely to cover a spectrum of different topics. Lore, Ufo’s, Crimes, Cryptids, Folklore, Mysteries and so much more. One of my favorite things that would be discussed was Ufo’s, I guess now they call them UAP’s (Unidentified Arial Phenomenon). My mom and aunts being from Mexico called them ONVI’s which is the Spanish translation of UFO. I don’t know what it was about these stories that drew me in, but there is something about the feeling you get when you hear someone retelling a story about there encounter or an encounter they heard of, there is always a friend of a friend.
My skin would goosebump as I listened to these story, getting chills down my spine as I would imagine unknown beings piloting spacecrafts in our skies. Little green men with their oversized heads, sounding like Invader Zim, cause all sorts of trouble for the retro-futuristic people of the 1950’s. With their tractor beams and weird obsession with up ducting cows.
Okay maybe I’m describing the game destroy all humans, but that was the start of what would become my cow up-ducting obsession.
My mom would soon pick up on the fact that I loved all things unexplained. Whenever the Travel channel would have a show about ghosts or a documentary would come on about UFO’s, My mom would immediately call me into her room to watch it with her. She loved those ghost shows but she wouldn’t watch them alone.
I have amassed so many stories and researched some anything over the last few years. Every time I would discover a new ghost story, or read about a new cryptid, or even hear about a new UFO all I wanted to do was tell my mom all about it.
Sadly my mom passed away 2009, and I’ve held on to all these stories, wishing I could tell her at least one more. Then it hit me. If my mom and I loved this stuff so much, surely there are others who would love to hear and read about it too.
I sit here now excited at the idea that I can share all these stories that I have researched over the years, with like-minded people. That maybe now I can bring that same feeling I had as a little kid, listening to my mom and aunts talk about all these crazy urban legends and folklore. All the goosebumps without the secondhand smoke.

The Loveland Frogman: and the Philosophers Water-stone

As this world we live in becomes more and more inhabited. We seem to hold on to the hope that not all of the mystery in the world is lost. (I will get my chance to wear the sorting hat! *Hufflepuff! *). 

One of the last places on earth to hold many undiscovered secrets is also the most terrifying. You wouldn’t catch me anywhere near it, “The Ocean”. I have an immense fear of drowning, and a crippling fear of being devoured by a megalodon, or Colossal Squid. And there is the fact that every article I have ever read has led me to believe that the Angler Fish is the size of a football and kinda cute in a “face only a mother could love” kinda way.  

The reality after doing my research on the Angler Fish is that this thing is the size of a small car and could swallow a toddler whole! Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but these things grow to be over 3 feet long, which is bigger than my Frenchie and that is just too big for me not to be terrified of the ocean. 

Oceanic monstrosities, and crippling fear of deep water aside. The discussion for today takes place near the water, the little Miami River, near Loveland Ohio to be exact. (Fun Fact! Loveland is three and a half hours away from Cleveland Ohio, Birthplace of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). I digress, and probably not for the last time so, bear with me. 

In May 1955, a traveling salesman was driving on an isolated stretch of road near “Loveland Ohio”. Yes, this story and all its bits and pieces will, mostly, be generic, vague, and unoriginal as f*ck. (It gets better). As the unnamed salesman drove, he noticed what seemed to be three people huddled on the side of the road. 

This is where accounts vary, as they do when telling stories of the past-o times. One account says three figures, and another says four. One account says they were on a bridge, and the next says they were under a bridge. If you’re anything like me, I didn’t pay attention to the year and thought the salesman was walking and not driving. Regardless, this is where I will write the story to my liking, so follow along. The man, a salesman of unknown wares, (some said bibles) was driving down the road, going slightly over the speed limit in a hurry to get to his destination. Up ahead of him, he took notice of a threesome of what appeared to be humans walking across the road and disappearing into the grass in the ditch. Wondering if maybe they needed help, or they had been stranded or lost, he stopped to investigate. He got out and walked toward the beings. When they finally came into view, he froze, watching in disbelief. 

The creatures were about 3-4 feet tall, bipedal frogs. Leathery skin, wrinkly heads, big eyes and frog faces! The Frogmen stood huddled together and whispering to each other. The salesman couldn’t believe what he was seeing. As he stood there watching the trio, one of the Frogman noticed the salesman. In an instant, the Frogman produced what could only be described as a wand! With a clear and almost rehearsed tone, the Frogman said, “The boy who lived, come to die!”, the frogman then waved his wand, which produced sparks! 

Okay, maybe part of that was from Harry Potter, but seriously, how can you not picture Harry Potter when you read about humanoid frog people waving wands around like a sparkler? 

So, the Frogman noticed the salesman (I should have given him a name, oh well) and instantly started waving his wand which produced sparks. When the nameless salesman saw the spark-producing wand, he ran. He got back in his car and drove the f*ck on. The salesman told his story and even gave a very crappy drawing that looks like three guys with beer bellies and spiral wrinkles (I think) on their heads. 

Salesman’s Rendering of the Frogmen.

And that children is the first sighting of the Loveland Frogmen. Could it be a coincidence that they witnessed these frog people a year after the release of the 1954 movie Creature from the Black Lagoon? Although the Creature from the Black Lagoon didn’t have a wand and never quoted a movie that wasn’t released yet, so who knows? 

The next time that the Loveland Frogmen would be seen would be in the summer of ’72, except it was 1 A.M. on March 3rd (winter). Officer Ray Shockey was driving near the Ohio River, near the Totes boot factory, on Riverside Road. When he caught sight of something on the road in his headlights. He described it similarly to what the traveling, possibly bible, salesman had seen. Amphibious, bipedal, three- to four-foot-tall frog-like-creature. For a moment, Shockey froze in shock, and the frog creature took this opportunity to run and bolt over the guardrail. Shockey claims the creature left marks on the guardrail where it had jumped over. 

Sexy Artist depiction of the Frogman jumping the guardrail

No one seemed to believe Shockey’s story about his encounter with the Frogman. (Probably because you know *Glug, glug*. Nah, I’m kidding, but he embezzled money from the police station, still kidding. Gawd, this encounter isn’t exactly as great as the first one, I mean come on the first one had WANDS!) So the Frogman got away and Shockey could not plant any drugs or weapons on him, and blame it on the intercity gangs. (Okay look, I warned you I would digress in this story.)

The Loveland Frogman is an awesome cryptid, (but its downfall is the crappy sighting stories.) Long, cool, exaggerated 70s action movie story short, Shockey saw the Loveland Frog creature on Riverside Road and it jumped the guardrail before he could do anything cool. I mean, at least the Flatwoods Monster has a fireball crashing outta the sky, and a robot! I apologize, my dear readers, but the wand will not make an appearance again. 

Two weeks later, during the summer-winter of ’72 on March 14th at around 1 A.M. It’s like déjà vu. Officer Mark Matthews, while driving the same stretch of road as Officer Shockey, would have his own encounter with the Frogman. Officer Matthews would stop on the bridge to remove what he thought was road kill from the road. When he neared, the said road kill (I prefer to call it pavement patties but to each his own), Matthews would quickly find out that this was no road kill. What Officer Matthews saw was a bipedal, 4-foot-tall Frogman. When the Frogman jumped to its feet, Matthew drew his revolver and shot at the creature. The Frogman ran, never taking his eyes off the trigger-happy officer. Instead of jumping the guardrail, the creature slid under it. 

But, not in a cool way that a 70s action hero would slide under a closing bay door, while his suit never comes untucked or gets ruined, despite all the blood, broken glass, and gunshot. Also, isn’t the ’70s when every bad guy was Russian or some sh*t? On that topic, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? And why were there two agents with the same last name that were unrelated to each other? Rant over, back to Frogman!

And once again, this is where the story gets wishy-washy. One account says Matthews killed the creature and put it in the trunk of his car, (did you know British people call the trunk, “the boot”, crumpets amirite?). The other one says that the creature got away. Either way, what are the chances that it would be seen and corroborated within the same month? (And if Matthews killed the creature, why were no photos taken of the Frogman? What happened to its body? Who really won the cola wars?) We may never know.

It would be 44 years before the next sighting of the Loveland Frogman. I wonder how long Frogman live? Either way, a mobile phone game would be the catalyst for this sighting. And what game would that be? I thought you would never ask!

Pokémon Go! The mobile game led to people finally going outside and exploring, which led to the discovery of countless dead bodies! (On some real sh*t, look it up, it happened). Pokémon Go would also be the reason that a nerd named Sam Jacobs and his “girlfriend” would have a sighting of the Loveland Frogman. In mid-August 2016, two months after the release of Pokémon Go and the rise in sales of portable phone batteries. Jacobs and his girlfriend would be out, ignoring each other, but also not. Trying to catch them all. They would come to the edge of the water, where a creature resembling a large frog would watch them. When Jacobs looked up for a moment, he would see it! The Frogman stared at him from out of the water. After attempting to use some berries and throwing a few Pokéball at it, Jacobs would realize quickly that it wasn’t a Pokémon! It was a cryptid!  

Jacobs took a few pictures and videos of the creature. “I’m not sure whether it was a frogman or just a giant frog. Either way, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Jacobs said in an interview. Jacobs worried people wouldn’t believe his story, luckily he wouldn’t say anything stupid to discredit himself. Jacobs instead said. “I swear on my grandmother’s grave that this is the truth.” 

Enhanced photo taken by Jacobs the Nerd

Now, remember Mark? Mark Matthews? Yes, the cop that shot the Loveland Frog creature. Well, Mark Matthews, now retired, would come out a few days later claiming that what they saw in ’72 was nothing more than an iguana with its tail cut off and that they had never actually seen a Frogman. That what they (Matthews and Shockey) saw was nothing more than someone’s pet who had escaped or been abandoned because it got too big. Matthews reasoned that the cold-blooded reptile was probably spotted on Riverside Road because of the Totes Boot Factory and the heat that came out of its vents nearby. The iguana was probably using the heat to survive. Matthews would go on to say that he does not believe in the Loveland Frogman or even Bigfoot! That it is all a hoax.  

iguana go reference

There you have it, dear readers. The story of the Loveland Frogmen. Whether or not they exist, the one thing to remember is that when you live in the country and you go out at night in the summer, the sound of bullfrogs is terrifying, if you don’t know what you’re hearing. It sounds like murmurs with the occasional “hey” being interjected in there, loudly. It’s unsettling. 

Going Postal

Sherrill was born November 13 1941 to father Charles Bennington Sherrill and mother Anna B Wiens in Watonga Oklahoma. Though little is know about Sherrill’s childhood, accounts of his later life vary. Some accounts say that Sherrill was a known peeping tom, and would chase children around as they yelled out “Crazy Pat!” Though whether this last report took place while he was a kid or an adult is unclear.

Patrick Henry Sherrill, a former Marine who qualified “expert” (highest rating) with a rifle straight out of boot camp in 1965. Sherrill would re-qualify in 1966 as “marksmen” (third highest rank) in rifle and “expert” in pistol. He would be honorably discharged from the Marines and would go to join the Oklahoma Air National Guard, 137th Combat Support Squadron of the 137th Tactical Airlift Wing, Based out of Will Rogers Air National Guard Base.

Sherrill was known to be a loner, socially inept, and would blame management for his his inability to keep a job. He would eventually get a job as a relief carrier for the USPS in Edmond, Oklahoma. Being a relief carrier, meant that he had no permanent route, putting him low in the ranks at the USPS.
Most stories vary as to what kind of a postal worker he was. Some stories state that Sherrill excelled at delivering mail, gaining him praise and admiration from the people on his routes. Other stories state that he was terrible at his job and that Sherrill was prone to outburst.

On the day of August 19th 1986, Sherrill went in to work and would be reprimanded by his two supervisors. Again conflicting accounts would tell two different stories. One side said Sherrill had been reprimanded for personal reason unrelated to his job performance. Yet the other side of the story, say that he was reprimanded by his supervisors for his performance on the job. As if the conflicting accounts of Sherrill getting in trouble at work weren’t bad enough there are reports that state that Sherrill had at one point reached out to a union steward to say he was being mistreated and that “he needed to get out of there”.

Conflicting theories aside, that afternoon after the incident with the supervisors. It is said that Sherrill approached one of his female coworkers and asked if she was going to be working the next day, She replied and said “of course” to which Sherrill said “you should stay home”. Apparently this female coworker was the only one that was “nice” to Sherrill.

August 20th 1986, Sherrill entered the post office at 7AM, in uniform with his blue courier bag in tow. He would immediately seek out his supervisors finding only one of them. Sherrill would pull out two 45 caliber hand guns from his courier bag and open fire killing one of the two supervisors. (Call it luck or a miracle or whatever have you, by some strange chance his second supervisor had over slept and was running an hour behind.) Sherrill would move through out the post office shooting everyone he could find. Going out of his way to insure he killed everyone he could. Looking under desks and cubicles.

When the police arrived they would use bullhorns and telephones to try to communicate with Sherrill. For 45 minutes the police attempted to make contact with Sherrill. It wouldn’t be until a little after 8AM, after the Edmond Swat team stormed the building that they would discover that Sherrill had shot himself in the head.

In the end 14 bodies were found dead, 7 Female, 7 Male. 6 others were wounded and had only survived because they had played dead. Sherrill had two 45’s and a 22 pistol in his possession, along with 200 rounds of ammo. In the end only the 45’s had been shot and only 50 rounds had been fired. Authorities would say one of the 45’s had been “fine-tuned to make it as accurate as possible.” Sherrill had obtained the two pistols and the ammo from the Oklahoma Air Nation Guard.

One interview with the Edmond District Attorney, Bob Macy who said, “…you walk back a little ways on the right in a booth there’s three bodies, and walk back a few feet further and there’s four bodies, you go back a little bit further and there’s another couple, come back up the other side and there’s isolated bodies. You go back in the backroom where they are having break, there’s donuts and coffee on the table, and a dead body laying there…”

To this date, and as of writing this, the Edmond Post Office shooting stands at number 14 of the 30 deadliest mass shootings in the us. This terrible event is credited with helping coin the term going post. The event also spurred a number of copycat shootings in post offices, over the next 10 years. Including John Merlin Taylor.

The Hope of The Unknown

We want the wonder in the world to be real and to remain. We want it because it gives us something to look forward to.

Jay

Humans have an innate nature, an urge to want more. Though the craving for more can be both good and bad, it’s still hardwired in all of us. Though often enough, we humans confuse want for need. We need more life-sustaining medical advances. We want this weekend’s winning lottery numbers this. We need better education for our future generations. We want to binge-watch The Last of Us.

The gift to seek more can be a very beneficial product of human instincts. Like when you finish a good book or come to the season finally of a show. The human mind will wonder within itself. Creating, molding, sculpting, and producing stories and thoughts about possibilities of what’s to come next.

From that need, we discover a universe of new ideas. We engage with others in a common interest. We discuss we agree, and we even fight! But the most important thing is we share a bond. We share a fondness for exhibit A and we want more of it!

Just as we discover more and more about the characters and plots that take place within a book. The world also has the same characteristics. The more of this world that we uncover, the uninhabited forest, the vast deserts, and even the limitless oceans and seas, the more we hold on to the hope of something more.

Hope. We hope that there is still some mystery in the world. That magic isn’t just for the world of Harry Potter. That maybe those of us born in the 90s didn’t get our letters because of the battle of Hogwarts. We hope that maybe fairies, dwarves, and mermaids exist. That maybe Big Foot isn’t a hoax. (The only man in a monkey suit I know of as being real is the guy that signs my checks). We need the world to have more.

We want the wonder in the world to be real and to remain. We want it because it gives us something to look forward to. A sense of purpose from our boring and mundane life. It drives the hobbyist big foot hunter (Big Feet Hunter?). It gives us a break from the routine of nine to five and gives us something to be interested in. It’s the reason we can’t wait till next week to see the next episode, or read the next book in the series, or search for every podcast, blog, news article, and YouTube video. We need more.

The fascination for the unknown also comes at a price. If they ever capture big foot/feet. The magic will be gone. For a time, bigfoot will be everywhere, and eventually, all interest will be lost. So will the wonder and joy. That doesn’t mean we should give up on the chase. It just means that we should enjoy the journey. As for Harry Potter and magic. A part of me believes we exist among magic. It may not be all robes, wand, and butter beer. But it is Hope, Wonder, and Imagination. As long as we don’t lose that, this world of ours will continue to give us all the wonder and mystery we could crave.