The true ‘Mansion on the Hill’
Gracefully hidden behind tall hedges and trees, the oldest house in my borough stood on the main drag atop the hill. It was a three story mansion in grey marble with a two story garage/servants’ quarters. On foggy nights, the twin lamps that straddled the oaken door resembled a set from a Chandler film.
This was the home of ‘the old widow’–her deceased husband owned a huge brewery in the city, and she lived quietly with the servants and her Dobermans, who were housed across the street in huge pens/large dog houses nestled in a sea of maples.
Every Halloween, she dispersed overflowing candy bags–3 or 4 candy bars, 5 or 6 little bubble gums, and M&Ms. It was quite a hike for us urchins living ‘below’. But it was worth it. You could skip 5 other houses and still come home drooling.
Eventually, she passed and the house was bought by the owner of the local Coke bottling franchise. He had a notorious older son, who was one of three animals who committed the most horrid/famous local 60’s murders. A man and his date were killed while they were parked in a secluded spot necking. They took turns on the girl first before killing them; the newspaper had a picture of their shoes sitting neatly on the floor of the car. The relevant teen in my story turned state’s evidence and got the other two committed for life in return for doing less time. We’ll pick up his story later.
The new owner of the house also had two daughters–both were stunning specimens. Believe it or not, one was named Layla. She was slightly older and attended private school. She briefly fell victim to my amigo Dan’s hidden charms. The younger was Betty–four years younger than us. Blonde, with these huge blue eyes, as petite as Layla was statuesque. This encapsulates Betty:
I would bet she was yanked out of high school eventually and went to private school.
Now, back to the son….
He got out of the can, got married and moved four towns away, buying an abandoned chapel that once served as a spiritual center for people staying at an expensive old hotel on the mountain. Here’s the place, in its prime:
In the 00’s, high school rebels without a clue would drive past at night and throw objects at the place, claiming it was haunted and the owner was weird.
Well, said owner took the abuse for many years, finally getting out his gun. When the smoke cleared, one high school boy was dead and the shooter went to spend the rest of his life as a guest of the state of Pennsylvania.