Mom Left Us To The Wolves!

Snapshots In My Time, Of My Time.....Hauntings.

Summer 1972

My mother took my brother and I to Charlestowne Landing for the day. It is a state park where the settlers first came to America in 1776. There are all sorts of historical things to see and visit there. One of the exhibits they have is an Animal Forest that is made up of all native South Carolina animals. It takes about 30-50 minutes to walk thru. I recall it being in the shape of a "U". You go in one entrance, walk down, make a wide "U" and walk the rest of the way straight out, all along seeing native South Carolina animals. It is set in deep woods so you are walking in a "forest" with water and swamps around.

As you walk in one of the first exhibits you see are the wolves. That means that on the back half of the "U" on the way out, the back of the wolves pen is to you, where there is a door for the staff to feed and care if they need to go in. Well, that day we were on the way out. We had just passed the puma and the bears and were walking past the door to the wolves. My mother was slightly ahead of my brother and I. We were walking along talking to ourselves.

All of a sudden my mother took off running. We had no idea why. She was running fast. She rounded a slight curve and was out of sight. I looked at my brother and told him to run. We both began to run. We had no idea why. My mother just took off with no warning at all. She was gone. I caught up with my mother and passed her. I kept running. My brother caught up with me and passed me, after passing my mother. He ran out of the animal forest. I ran out of the animal forest. My mother came running out bringing up the rear. We all collapsed on the ground in a heap panting and trying to catch our breath.

I asked my mother why she was running and leaving us in the animal forest. She said she heard a low moan when we walked past the door to the wolves and the door was open. She thought that the wolves were going to attack so she ran to get out of there. I realized then that my mother literally left us to the wolves. If the door was open and the wolves were loose, my brother and I were on our own to get mauled to death. A few minutes later one of the rangers came out right behind us. She had been in the wolf pen. There was not a danger of them getting out. I asked her about the door being open as I did not see it open. She said it was cracked.

My mother was walking ahead of me when I asked the ranger about this. I just needed confirmation that indeed my mother had left me to the wolves with nary a thought about protecting her own children.