US Midwest. Rumor has it that way up the old road out of town, somewhere in the woods, was a satanic cult that held seances and other mystical rituals by firelight. Scared the w*****s out of us kids, and our parents wouldn't let us ride our bikes anywhere on that road. Decades later I was working on a commissioned history project for the town and talked to the old man who owned the oldest homestead in the county--way back in the woods along that road. While photographing the creek that ran through the stone foundation basement of the home, which the settlers used for water generations ago, I noted the burned out tea candles everywhere. Guy lit up and said yeah, back in his younger days he and his wife used to host elaborate costume parties at the property, often by candlelight for the fun of it. He'd heard the rumors of the satanic cult and thought it was hilarious, so he and his friends ran with it and held parties in monks robes and had bonfires and lived it up. He still laughs about it, and now, so can I!
