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OUR DEMONS, OUR FOREFATHERS By Thomas DeMello and Thomas Nickerson
Every small town has at least one: a haunted house, a place where strange things occur that cannot be easily explained. Such places are often the subject of rumor and speculation, a source of urban legends and “friend-of-a-friend” stories destined to become local folklore. Every small town has at least one; but some, especially in New England, have more. From H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King to New Hampshire-based Joseph Citro, New England is no stranger to horror fiction writers who find its old-world atmosphere fertile ground for their ghostly tales. But in recent years there has been a surge of local nonfiction authors who have chosen to chronicle the history of paranormal activity in New England and to explore the official records of reported ghostly phenomena. Our Demons, Our Forefathers is one such compilation of the legends surrounding homes in the small town of Westport, Massachusetts. I must now reveal my bias: I know the authors of this book personally. In fact, I know Tom Nickerson quite well, and I heard many of the stories contained in this book directly from Tom DeMello when we were all much younger. It’s not that Tom DeMello enjoyed telling ghost stories (although to be fair, I think he did—at least a little). It’s that he was intimately familiar with the subject, as most of the events recorded in this slim volume took place on the DeMello family property. The family has reported ghostly activity and supernatural phenomena in their home since 1978, the year the house was built. The “cold room” was labeled after only a short time, because of its peculiar cold spots. At times, the entire room would be colder than the remainder of the house for reasons that were never unearthed. The children had complained of it over the years, as well as other strange occurrences that transpired within. Closing doors, footsteps and mumbling voices from within were just a few, and the children had decided unanimously that it was uninhabitable. It became a spare room, even though many of the children were sharing rooms at the time. Any one of them could have sought solitude within its walls, but all agreed that the privacy was not worth the price of admittance. The authors tell their tales through use of anecdote—sometimes humorous, sometimes chilling— and historical research. Through their narrative we become acquainted with the large DeMello family (numbering a whopping thirteen; eleven siblings from the same two parents) as well as their friends and relatives. Over the years, virtually every member of the family has had some sort of interaction with the spirit or spirits of the house. Most of those interactions are unpleasant and have left the majority of the clan a bit gun shy about discussing any of them. Obviously, they must have had a change of heart in order to assist with the writing of this book. Although the DeMello family is the focus of Our Demons, Our Forefathers, eerie and unexplained happenings are not confined to their property or their collective presence. Westport, Massachusetts boasts more than one haunted locale, and herein you will find them all. This Halloween, turn off the slasher films and open a book. The imagination is a powerful thing indeed, and those readers interested in eyewitness accounts of the paranormal may enjoy this debut book by a pair of longtime friends. The small-press first printing is available through Author House publishing, or at the Amazon.com link above.
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