Under the Gretchen Moon : Schodack N.Y.

When I was in elementary school in the Castleton NY 12033 area there was an unfortunate women that lived near our elementary school with her family. Her name was Gretchen.......I will not reveal her last name. She was psychotic and delusional. Her claim to the town's fame was the local looney as many referred to her. Usually during the full moon , she would dress up in what would have been fashionable clothes in the 30's often with a beret and walk for miles all over the town of Schodack. Other times of the month she would act quite within normal bounds for an elderly woman in her 70's. I once had a conversation with her during one of her quiet times. She asked me about school and the recent weather ect. Normal. But those times when she became active became the stuff of legend in our small town. She would talk loudly to people that were not there , walk sometimes 10 to 15 miles from her home , often with an angry scowl on her face. I remember many times passing her in the night in our parents car as she walked by the side of the road. Needless to say she held an all most legendary position to the kids of the town. She was our Boogey man so to speak. Trust me you avoided her at those times. Legendary stories were told of her , how she became as she was. A nurse in WW1 that had a shell burst near her medical tent......left by a doctor/ lover leaving her to always search for him. Who knows? On occasion she would walk by a home of someone she had known during childhood and call out their name. Sometimes call them to come out and play. All this was tolerated by the citizens of Schodack. Her family in whatever dysfunctional manner they lived seemed to accept her for what she was and let her be her untreated self. One of my dark memories of her was on a late May night when I was a kid of around 10 or 11. I could not sleep as often happens in my adulthood. So I was looking out the window out at the sky & the moon. It was about 2:00 am in the morning. Off in the distance down the street I saw her shadow like figure walk under a dim street light. Silent and grim she walked the night....sending a chill down my spine. I suppose it had to eventually happen....she was struck by a car along route 9. She was not killed but suffered multiple fractures of leg and hip. She lived another 2yrs but never walked again. As the yrs went by her memory faded.....she died and was buried in her family plot I believe without a headstone. But the funny thing is ....she left a deep impression on my generation. I talked with a handful of people from that era in the town. All remember her and all have a story. A story more from their darker recesses. She left an odd mixture of fear & curiosity behind.