From nursery rhymes to fairy tales, the stories told to children almost always leave the child with a lesson in right and wrong--
and the consequences that come with mistakes. These are simple stories of control, a sort of literary conditioning that imprints a
culture's values upon its youngest members. In Georgetown, famous for its supernatural tales, those moralizing lessons often took
the form of ghost stories.
Watch Sandy Vermont tell a hagtale (3:12) Not only can a ghost story teach a child a lesson and reinforce that value through fear, but the kids of
Georgetown, like everywhere, thrive on fright. "A lot of the stories had some sort of moral, a lesson to teach or something. Yeah,
I think that they really did enjoy hearing those stories," said Genevieve Chandler. One of the most famous local stories is that
of the hags and plat-eyes. A story easily adapted to fit any lesson or moral, it has been around for generations and is still being told today.