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Hey Guys. Barry Curtis here. Another interesting story for you. Let’s call this, “The Legend of the Tick Lady.”

Let me first tell you that one of the biggest challenges we faced while filming on location in Missouri were the ticks! We’d step two feet into the grass and our legs would be crawling with them. In fact, before we’d shoot in a particular location, we’d have the whole area sprayed for bugs. This brings me to an interesting story…

There was an old manor house we found deep in the Ozarks and we thought about using it as a set. However, it would have been a disaster as getting through the overgrown brush to shoot would’ve taken a week to clear, a logistical nightmare for filming and the whole area was thoroughly infested with ticks. In fact, the locals called the old lady who used to live there, the “Tick Lady.”

Evidently, one day, the tick lady went to the doctor complaining of irritation and something itching on her back. The doctor noticed that she seemed a little more gaunt than usual. He proceeded to have her lift the back of her blouse up. What he saw horrified him. Her entire back was embedded with hundreds of ticks. All of them fat and still feeding on the frail woman’s body. The doctor began to pick them off one by one in a painstaking manner. Some, so compacted in her skin, he had to surgically dig them out.

Now, I’m sure this story has been embellished throughout the years. However, the best part of the tale was that the doctor even found strange little black bumps on her back – little tick eggs, if you will. The story goes he popped them like a pimple and hundreds of little baby ticks sprayed out all over his face. I know, a little far-fetched, but a fun tale for those that love a good gross-out. Who knows, maybe one of you can make a short horror film out of it?

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