Bone and Sickle
Bone and Sickle
Al Ridenour
The White, Old Maid: a Story for Halloween
42 minutes Posted Oct 31, 2026 at 12:50 am.
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Show notes

Curl up by a glowing Jack-o-Lantern and enjoy Mrs. Karswell’s reading of another eerie tale by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Originally titled “The Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet,” this 1835 tale, “The White, Old Maid,” describes a mysterious figure in spectral white, who haunts the streets of a New England town.  Her presence stirs whispers of long-buried secrets and unspoken sorrows. As years pass and generations come and go, her strange vigil continues, casting a shadow over the living and the dead.  This is our second Hawthorne reading; for Halloween 2024, we heard Hawthorne’s better known story, “Young Goodman Brown,” which you might enjoy revisiting.

Also, in the opening of our show Mr. Ridenour and Mrs. Karswell enjoy a sort of impromptu Halloween record party.