On October 30, 2003, I heard an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air." Author/Artist Maurice Sendak was telling about the stories his father told him when he was young. One of these involved a group of boys who played a game in which they would run into the graveyard and plant a stick in the ground to show how far they had dared to venture. One of these boys unknowingly pinned his own shirt to the ground, and when he tried to run away, it held him fast and he died of fright thinking that "something" had grabbed him. Sendak believed this tale came from his father's boyhood and was related as being a true story. It sounded familiar to me; and I finally remembered why. An old Twilight Zone episode, which originally aired on October 27, 1961 called "The Grave," featured Lee Marvin in an old west variant of this story. In this case it was a knife plunged into the ground "The Grave" was written by James Warren. My qustion is this: Does anyone know any other variants of this tale? Is this a possible folklore motif?