The Bloody Hand

Lawndale, CA



This is a legend from Wm. Anderson Elementary School in Lawndale, CA.
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William Anderson Elementary School in Lawndale, CA. was originally much larger than it is today.  The play yard went beyond the asphalt area on out to the fence behind the houses on the cul de sacs along Manhattan Beach Bl.  The drainage ports were all in place, from the kindergarten area at the north end to that same fence at the south, and were (and are) connected.

This is the story of the building of the school.

The drainage ditches had all been laid, the buildings built.  The last thing was to fence off the outer play yard from the houses at the back of the school.  The workmen hurried to put the fence up.

One of the workmen slipped while fastening the chain-link fence to its post, and his wrist hit the barbs at the top.  His hand was severed from his arm, and he slumped down on the grass.  The other workmen called for the ambulance to get him, but by the time they got him to the hospital he had died from loss of blood.  His hand, forgotten in the excitement, dropped into the drainage port.

The man may have died, but his hand lived on.  Bent on revenge, it crawled through the slimy drains, hoping for a grid to have been left open so it could wreak havock at the school.  He found the grate at the kindergarten yard open one day and reached out to grab a kindergarten boy.  The other kids tried to pull him back.  Finally, the yard teacher tried but failed to break the Hand's fatal grip.  The boy was drowned in the muck at the bottom of the drain, and the teacher had to retire, her hair turned white, her mind gone, because she couldn't save the boy.

Even though it travels through the drains, the Hand always returns to the drainage port at the south fence.  Brave or foolhardy souls used to go out to this drain to see the Hand.  The school made this area off-limits for students at recess, for fear that the Hand would strike again.



This story is from the early to mid sixties, when Cher and I attended Anderson.  This part of the playground is now a park.


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