In West Concord, stood the old 1800s town pound, a place of curious notoriety. It wasn't just a place for errant livestock; it was also the epicenter of a most peculiar Halloween tradition.
The legend went that Old Man Thistlewick, the town's most eccentric resident from centuries past, had been the town pound's keeper. He had taken his job very seriously, but his idiosyncrasies were known far and wide. His love for socks was almost as famous as his habit of speaking to the cows and goats he housed there.
Every Halloween, when the moon hung low in the misty night sky, Old Man Thistlewick's ghost would rise from the grave. Clad in tattered rags, lantern in hand, he would make his way to the old town pound. The villagers gathered around, half in fright and half in anticipation.
Thistlewick's ghost, with a raspy voice and a mischievous glint in his eye, would wander into the pound and start chatting with the spectral cows and ethereal goats, as if they were old friends. He would recount his days as the town's animal wrangler, regaling them with tales of cows and goats that had exhibited an almost supernatural talent for mischief.
In response, the ghostly livestock would low and bleat, conjuring ghostly hay bales and spectral milk pails, performing ghostly acrobatics. Thistlewick's ghost, in turn, would join the ghostly barnyard dance, swaying with his lantern and occasionally breaking into a jig.
And the townsfolk, no longer fearful but filled with mirth, would leave socks as offerings for Old Man Thistlewick's ghost. They would place colorful socks of all sizes and patterns on the gate of the town pound, knowing that Thistlewick's ghost would don them with delight. In return, the ghostly animals and their spectral keeper would put on their hauntingly comical show, dancing under the moonlight and filling the night with laughter.
On that spooky Halloween night, the town pound, once a place to contain mischievous animals, became the backdrop for a whimsical and silly tradition that brought the community together, celebrating the quirks and humor of their city's past.