Have you ever seen fox fire? Do you know what it is?
One night probably in the early 1950’s, my brother David had gone over to Clarice and Aaron’s house to watch television. My oldest sister Clarice and her husband Aaron were one of the first in the country to have a television set at that time. Lots of people would invite themselves to spend an evening watching the new exciting entertainment. David went over pretty often. On this night he had stayed later than he had intended. He was hurrying home by way of Carmen Creek and up the road we called the “Old Hill” through the woods to the large fields below the tobacco barn. (You would not recognize the Old Hill as a road now, but at that time, it was still used by foot traffic, connecting the outer limits of the fields, through the woods to the Carmen Creek road.)
On this night David had almost reached the top of the hill where the rail fence was. He was suddenly startled. There was an object shining on the fence right in front of him. He stopped. It was spooky. When David moved a little, the object seemed to move a little. He actually thought about turning around and going back the way he had come…back down the Old Hill, and then up Carmen Creek road, and then up the New Hill which bordered the Warfield place and down the Ridge Road home. But that way was a whole lot longer. And he was tired. Then David remembered he had Dad’s flash light with him. He shined it at the strange spot. Nothing. Again he tried the flash light. Again nothing. He decided to take a chance and proceed straight ahead. He jumped over to the other side then high-tailed it across the fields to the house, hurrying all the way.
He told Mom and Dad about what he had seen, and that was when they told him about fox fire, a mysterious but harmless mushroom-like fungus that glows in the dark. He was relieved to know he had not really been in any danger, but he said he would not forget that night.
I remember hearing Dad and other people talk about fox fire when I was little, but I never saw any. In the evenings when we would sit under the Maple trees in front of the house, I tried to imagine that I could look out toward the tobacco field and see something shining, but actually I don’t think I ever saw fox fire. Yet other people remember it. Not long ago, I asked Alline if she remembered what fox fire was and yes, she sure did. “It’s like mushroom,” she said.