Pops VFW Northwoods Tales

Pull up a chair. Pops is dealing, and the stories are on the house.

Every other Sunday after church, a handful of old friends gather around a scarred wooden table at the VFW in Hayward, Wisconsin. There's cribbage to be played, cold beer to be poured, and Eugene is working the fryer in the back. Sooner or later, somebody always turns to Pops Halvorsen and asks for a story.

Graham, Delmore, Marvin, and retired lawman Travis Riggs have heard plenty of them over the years. Molly, who keeps their glasses full, has heard fewer, and she keeps pulling up a chair anyway. In Pops Northwoods VFW Tales - Book Three, Pops serves up seven more legends from the lakes, woods, and small towns of the Northwoods. Some are funny, some will make your skin crawl, and a few have never been explained to this day.

Inside this book:

The Secret Ingredient. Why does every fish fry around Hayward taste better than anywhere else, whether it's walleye, perch, or plain old cod? Pops has a theory, and it has to do with the air drifting off the lakes on a Friday night.

The Houdini Fish. For twenty-five years, one stubborn perch in Burns Lake has taken every bait known to man and slipped free every time. Pops held it once, and he's got the photograph to prove it.

Al's Roast. In 1930, a young deli cook caters a dinner for a well-dressed stranger named Al at a guarded estate outside Couderay. She learns to keep her eyes down and her questions to herself, and years later, that silence is repaid in a way she never saw coming.

The Carter Sisters. In 1897, twin maids at Hayward's old Clark House hotel argue behind a locked door and are never seen again. All that's left in their room is a dresser holding three wigs, and one of them belongs to no one anybody can remember.

The House on 3rd. Everyone in town agreed that house was haunted. When it burned to the ground, investigators found no body, only a root cellar full of bones. The woman who lived there is still listed as missing, and nobody can say what she looked like.

Summer of '77. On graduation night, five friends party in a granite cave in Sawyer County. The next morning, only one of them wakes up, and he can't remember a thing.

The Jaws of Grindstone Lake. A girl brings home a little tropical fish from a Florida vacation. It grows, and it keeps growing. Then her father decides the lake is the best place for it.

Told in Pops's warm, easygoing voice and punctuated by the wisecracks, groans, and nervous glances of the men around the table, these tales capture what it's like to sit among friends while a master storyteller works his magic. Some stories end with a laugh and some end with a shiver. A few end with somebody asking Pops to walk them to their car.

Whether you grew up on northwoods legends or you're just passing through, there's always an empty seat at Pops's table.

Deal the cards. Pour the coffee. Pops is about to begin.