Back in 1948 we were living in this house near Garfield, Georgia. It looked a lot different then, with porches all the way around it. We had electricity here. So we had a radio to listen to.

I listened to Big John and Sparky on Saturday morning, then Saturday night we all listened to Gunsmoke, then the Grand Old Opry.

Sunday nights, my brother and I listened to The Creaking Door and Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. I was only four years old that year, but one particular Sherlock Holmes story that we listened to has been seared in my mind all my life.

To understand why I would remember this particular story, you'll need to understand the relationship between my older brother and myself, during that period. My brother is five years older than me, so he was nine at the time. 

My brother took a great deal of delight in scaring the hell out of me, every chance he got. He did all sorts of things, like hiding after dark, and jumping out to frighten me. One especially scary thing he did involved our fireplaces. Our bedroom in this house had a fireplace. This fireplace was joined to the fireplace in the other bedroom, and both fireplaces shared the same chimney.

So, anything that you said in one bedroom, was instantly heard from the fireplace in the adjoining room. He would find me playing in our bedroom, then sneak into the adjoining room, and make horrible ghostly sounds that terrified me. He enjoyed all these things immensely. Looking back now, it is all pretty funny.

Through the miracle of the Internet, I have found the original broadcast of The Speckled Band. It was broadcast on December 19, 1948. That was a Sunday night. Isn't that amazing, to be able to sit here now and visualize the night in question, and know exactly what day it was, some 63 years ago. I love this Internet. Not only to visualize it, but listen to the actual broadcast.

I must say that listening to it now is not nearly as scary as listening to it when I was four. When the creepy music came on, I always just lay in bed, and stared at the ceiling. The ceiling in our room was made of white bead and board. I can still see it now, as if it were yesterday.

On this night, I was listening to the radio show, and when it gave the title, I thought it said The Speckled Man. Listening to the radio, is sort of like reading a book. Your mind visualizes what you are hearing. So I started to visualize an ugly speckled man. I had a perfect image of what the man looked like in my mind. 

I asked my brother what a speckled man was, he decided to really take advantage of the situation. He said it was a mean, ugly man, covered in big brown freckles, with worms growing out of his face.  Every time the creepy music would come back on, he would add a few more frightening details about the speckled man. Like he was in the house with us. Like he was hiding in our closet, and on and on. Finally he had me so frightened that I hid under the covers.

I was listening to the radio program, but wasn't really paying attention to what was being said. I was mostly listening to the music, and sound effects.

All my life I had that image of the ugly speckled man, and the ceiling of that old house as part of my memories of growing up. It wasn't until much later, when I ran across the story The Speckled Band in the school library, that I finally found out what that program had really been about.

Anyhow, here it is through the miracle of the Internet. The original broadcast that I, as a frightened four year old heard on our old console radio, in that old house 63 years ago.

The embedded player didn't work, so below is the link to the orininal broadcast.