{"id":3876,"date":"2018-10-07T20:17:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T00:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dubmentality.com\/?p=3876"},"modified":"2018-10-07T20:17:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T00:17:06","slug":"retro-review-urban-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/?p=3876","title":{"rendered":"Retro Review – Urban Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is officially October! There are two months that stand out to me more than all of the others. Those are October and December. The reasons are pretty obvious I suppose, but October is all about the horror movies and haunted houses and urban legends that keep you creepy. October also starts the beginning of an awesome three month stretch of holidays, decorating, eating great food, watching nonstop football, brewing chili, and stoking fires. Based on the temperature today, we still have a ways to go before stoking any fires. But we do have stores full of spooky decorations and channel lineups full of horror movies so hopefully the chill in the air is close by.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am going to run with the spooky theme for my \u201cRetro Review\u201d feature<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>during October and w<\/span>e are going to start with some U<\/span>rban<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>L<\/span>egends.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I recently read an article by<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Gabbi<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Shaw titled, <\/span>\u201cThe Creepiest Urban Legend from Every State.\u201d<\/a> I was very curious about Georgia because I have heard all sorts of creepy stories over the years around my area. There is a supposed haunted military bunker nearby that is no longer in use or really even accessible to the public. But I hear stories about people who sneak around it and claim to get an uncomfortable feeling or sense of dread. That could be because they<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a<\/span>re trespassing on private property but who knows. I was actually surprised by the representative for Georgia in the article but it isn\u2019t something I hadn\u2019t heard about before. We\u2019ll get to that in a few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Alabama, there is a location called \u201c<\/span>Hell’s Gate Bridge\u201d that was the alleged site of a car accident in which a young couple drowned. The legend is that if you drive your car to the middle of the bridge and turn off your headlights, the couple will briefly appear in your car, leaving your seats wet. Unfortunately, it is now closed to cars so I guess I\u2019ll never get to try that out. Kentucky has the \u201cGoat Man of Pope Lick\u201d, which is a monster that lives under the bridge at Pope Lick Creek in Louisville. There have been fatalities at the Pope Lick Bridge where people who were \u201clooking for the Goat Man\u201d fell from the bridge. Some people believe that it is the Goat Man who leads them to their death while others believe that they were just accidents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nebraska has one of the most haunted buildings in America, Centennial Hall. It is a two story building that was used as a school for primary and secondary students and was built in 1898. The urban legend is that a student attending the school was poisoned by a clarinet reed and suffered a heart attack while playing the instrument. People have reported hearing the sound of music playing, walking through cold spots in the building, and seeing things like rocking chairs moving without anyone sitting in them. There are rumored to be multiple ghosts at this building, which was turned into a museum in 1978.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>There is something about abandoned school buildings and hospitals that always give me the creeps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most \u201cHalloween\u201d of them all is the story of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Cropsey<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>from New York. There is a documentary of this on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>NetFlix<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>that I have seen before and it is pretty solid. There is also another documentary called \u201cLegends\u201d that travels along the same<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>lines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Cropsey<\/span>, according to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>legend, was an escaped<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>mental patient<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>that <\/span>kidnapped kids and took them to an abandoned insane asylum. What started out as a scary story told by campfire light at summer camp<\/span> would later turn into a real life nightmare that will chill you to the bone. <\/span>The story of Andr\u00e9 Rand, “The Real Life Boogeyman”, is mega creepy. If you are into scary documentaries, horror movies,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>etc<\/span>, I would recommend both of the documentaries above.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of big cities, remember the 1980 film \u201cAlligator\u201d? This was the story of an alligator that was purchased by a little girl as a pet and later flushed down the toilet by the girl\u2019s father, who wasn\u2019t a big fan of the reptile. The gator ended up in the city sewer system and had been feeding on animals that had b<\/span>een dumped in the sewer that<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>just so happened to have been used for experiments involving a growth hormone. Perfect, right? The gator grew to be over 36 feet long and fed on anything and anyone that g<\/span>o<\/span>t in its path. It is a classic 80\u2019s horror flick. I don\u2019t know if it was a s<\/span>pin-off or the creation of the U<\/span>rban<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>L<\/span>egend of overgrown monster animals in the sewers of big cities but those<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>still get tossed<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>around as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>In fact, there has been quite a growth of large snakes in the Everglades, allegedly due to pet dumping.<\/span><\/p>\n

One<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>specifically<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>remember as a kid involved Pop Rocks. I even brought it up the other day when some of the fizzy, crackling candy showed up at my house. There were several iterations but the most popular was the one where Mikey (The Life Cereal Kid)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>d<\/span>ied from mixing the Pop Rocks and too much Coke. What a perfect story for our parents that thought we were ingesting too much syrup and sugar with those treats.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201c<\/span>Oh, we\u2019ll tell them that the kid that eats anything d<\/span>ied from mixing those two things together.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>That urban legend actually led to Pop Rocks failing on a national level in the 1980\u2019s but they are back on the market now. Though they still make me a little skeptical when eating them. This one sounds a lot like the old gag where gum w<\/span>ould<\/span>form a big ball in your stomach if you swallow<\/span>ed<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the Urban Legend chosen for the State of Georgia in the article I linked above. Being the home of Savannah, one of the most haunted cities in America, I assumed our Urban Legend would come from there. There is the \u201cOld Candler Hospital\u201d, \u201cMoon River Brewing Company\u201d, and \u201cThe Marshall House Hotel\u201d just to name a few hotspots. Then there is the \u201cCentral State Hospital\u201d in Milledgeville, which used to be the world\u2019s largest mental institution and still represents the largest in the US. There are 25,000 p<\/span>atient\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>buried on this 2,000 acre site. Then there are numerous country dirt roads that carry spooky stories of hauntings and apparitions. But none of those made the cut.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Urban Legend chosen for Georgia was \u201cThe Ghost Town of Lake Lanier.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Lake Lanier is a 38,000 acre lake that has 692 miles of shoreline. It reaches a maximum depth of 156 feet at its deepest point. The state flooded the surrounding area in the 1950\u2019s to form the lake and moved citizens to other areas. After the state bought the areas they were going to flood, they simply backed up the water over the areas, in the exact state they were in. There are fully intact (except for water decay) cities, a racetrack and multiple cemeteries that litter the bottom of the lake. Over the years, many people who have swam in the lake have reported feeling arms and legs in the water where they are at. While I have been fishing there before, the reports alone are enough to keep me out of that water.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it relates to sports cards, I was battling my own “Urban Legends” in the early to mid 90’s. In 1990, Upper Deck launched “Find the Reggie”, which sent collectors on a seemingly impossible venture to find 1 of 2,500 autographed Reggie Jackson cards. Remember, 1990 was prime “Junk Wax Era” and they were printing millions, of not billions, of cards. Upper Deck ran with that theme over the next few years, using a big name player each time. Donruss joined in the fun in 1991 with their ever popular “Elite” cards that were numbered to 10,000. Fleer Ultra gave us a shot at Tony Gwynn in 1992 but again, it was total needle in a haystack type stuff. I call these my Urban Legends because I met people who claimed to have pulled these cards but I had never pulled one myself. So I carried a healthy amount of skepticism of their actual existence. Much like the ghost at Centennial Hall, all I had was second hand accounts.<\/p>\n

In 1995, Classics hit us with a “Guaranteed” Auto in every box! This wasn’t exactly the first time it had been done but it’s one of the first major chases I remember where I knew I was getting something, whether a dud or a star. The box had 36 packs with 10 cards per pack and actually has a pretty good autograph checklist. There are names like Willie McGinest, Tim Brown, Ty Law, Eric Allen, Steve McNair, and more. The mid 90’s was a pretty exciting time in football as some NFL Legends were closing the books on their careers and some of the 2000’s Legends were just beginning theirs. So while I won’t be able to prove or debunk an Urban Legend with this review, I do hope to snag a cool autograph for the collection.<\/p>\n

Much like Stadium Club, Classic offered a “Membership” program. This seems like a better club than the Stadium Club offer, which included a Glenn Robinson autograph, but the entry fee was pretty steep.<\/p>\n

One look at the list of QB’s was a quick reminder that the league was pretty solid in 1995. Joe Montana had moved on to Kansas City and Warren Moon to Minnesota but QB Eagles, Dan Marino, John Elway, and Troy Aikman were still manning the helm for their original teams.<\/p>\n

Running Back was pretty deep in ’95 as well! The Bus, Emmitt Smith, and Barry Sanders were the class of the league. The University of Georgia had 2 awesome backs in the league, Herschel and Hampton, giving credence to their RBU moniker. The Falcons had Heyward and Metcalf at one time but Metcalf was still in Cleveland at this point.<\/p>\n

For real, the league was stacked in 1995. Jerry Rice, Andr\u00e9 Rison, Sterling Sharpe, Michael Irvin, Tim Brown, and Andr\u00e9 Reed?!? Mark Ingram’s dad, also Mark, was a receiver in NY and current UGA Standout DB JR Reed’s dad, Jake, played for the Vikings.<\/p>\n

Tight Ends were used a little differently in the 90’s, being built more like blockers. But Ben Coates and Brent Jones were two that could rack up the receptions.<\/p>\n

If you thought that the league was all offense, you’d be wrong. The defensive line was mean and nasty with these studs. Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Charles Haley, and Michael Strahan are some of the greatest of all time!<\/p>\n

Linebacker was a little thin by today’s standards but there were still some solid players. One of the best was Willie McGinest. I was really hoping for his autograph in this box.<\/p>\n

Safety’s in 1995 we’re still in the headhunter era. Eric Turner, Rod Woodson, Ronnie Lott, and Darren Woodson would strike you hard! Deion, Eric Allen and Aeneas Williams were ball hawks!<\/p>\n

The rookie class was pretty dang solid in ’95 as well. I remember when Kordell Stewart was “Slash”, Kerry Collins was hyped, and Joey Galloway was a burner. Warren Sapp became a Hall of Famer while Ty Law and Steve McNair became fan favorites. The most hyped player in the draft was Ki-Jana Carter but he never panned out.<\/p>\n

Each pack contained a “Silver” parallel that was made of a little thicker card stock. These were the big hits. I didn’t pull a base Marshall Faulk but I certainly was pleased with the Silver.<\/p>\n

Numbered cards in 1995 were a lot different than they are right now. 4,000 was a lot but felt like a low numbered card.<\/p>\n

I remember these “Game Breakers” as cutting edge technology that was always loaded in binders and top loaders. This Ki-Jana would have been huge back in the day!<\/p>\n

Truly low numbered cards, even in 1995, were these “Printers Proof” cards numbered to 400. These weren’t huge pulls but I loved the red Falcons jerseys in 1995, so this Terance Mathis will fit nicely in the PC.<\/p>\n

Speaking of PC, this Rodney Hampton was a shorter print version of the Printers Proof and was numbered to 175!<\/p>\n

The autograph was not Willie McGinest but it is a running back and it’s numbered 45\/1450. Terry Kirby was a running back in the league for 10 years with the Dolphins, 49er’s, Browns, and Raiders. He rushed for 2,875 yards, had 3,222 receiving yards and 43 total scores over his career so pretty solid. He is now the coach of the Weston Warriors and owner of the Ultimate Sports Institute in Florida.<\/p>\n

1995 Classic Football is a pretty solid set during a stellar run for the league. Classic provided short prints (by 90’s standards), a huge superstar checklist, and even an autograph in each box. The checklist and the inserts available lead to a score of “5”. But the design and price tag, which is a little higher than most ’95 boxes, hover in the “3” or “4” range. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a huge fan of full bleed designs but this one isn’t the worst I’ve seen either. I’d rip this box again without hesitation and if it’s something that fits in your budget, I’d recommend you do the same. This was a really solid rip and worth a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter.<\/p>\n

J-Dub<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It is officially October! There are two months that stand out to me more than all of the others. Those are October and December. The reasons are pretty obvious I suppose, but October is all about the horror movies and haunted houses and urban legends that keep you creepy. October also starts the beginning of … Continue reading “Retro Review – Urban Legends”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hobbies","category-memories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubmentality.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/img_8295-1.png?fit=2048%2C1142&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7912A-10w","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3876"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3916,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876\/revisions\/3916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}