Far far away in the middle of Nowhere Maine sits one of the world’s oldest summer camps for girls. Years before this spot was a girls camp, it was a farm. The farm had a family plot graveyard. The campers can walk to the graveyard and visit Harriett Sawyer if they dare. She is there to greet the bravest. Harriett’s grave has a porcelain photo mounted in place on the front of her stone. It’s the only grave marker like it in the whole graveyard. She must have been very special and her death very tragic for the family to be so grieved to have this done in her honor.
It is said that Harriett feared rabbits. It is camp tradition that any time we pass the graveyard the kids chant, “Bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, rabbit,” until they have safely passed. They say it’s the only way Harriett’s spirit will not follow them back to camp. Because of her gravestone photo and her mysterious tragic death at a young age, Harriett is the official camp ghost.
In 1971 the Blue Team wrote a song for Harriett titled, Born in 1823, and Mr. Mike recorded it during Song Meet using a cassette tape recorder. The recording went down in history because just when the girls sing the lyric, “…or hear her eerie helpless cry…” the recording has strange distortion. An almost vocal high pitched squeal. It’s only a few seconds long before the tape returns to normal. The audio anomaly freaked out everyone when they received the tape in the mail in the winter. Everyone who was present at Song Meet knew there was no scream when the girls performed the song, but only the recording of the Harriett song had that strange scream in it. She had been there – and had let us know it!
This spooky old recording is included in the new game I made called, Harriett Sawyer 1823. In addition, there are several different Halloween songs and spooky audio hauntscapes you can listen to while you play the game depending on whatever mood you’re in.
I’d like to thank the musical talents of Mark Harvey, Mitchell Vaillant, Rain Station, and the Blue and the Gray Girls for making it all happen. ~ Happy Halloween everyone!
Game play is simple. Move the skull to avoid the ghosts. If you can’t avoid the ghosts, click the Jack O’ Lantern at bottom of screen and you can hunt ghosts for 5 whole seconds. Harriett thanks you for visiting her grave. She really does. Come back when you can stay a bit longer.