Demons in Detroit

I haven't been able to do my usual ghostly exploring lately. Real life has made me way to busy for the dead, but I have been able to do a lot of reading.  My latest read, Ghost of Southeast Michigan by Kristy Robinett, has been wonderful  fun.  I will tell one of my favorite stories from this book here and if you want to find the rest you'll have to check the book out yourself.

This story was called Demons in Detroit.  It is a simple tale that sounds almost too much like something from a horror movie, but the author investigated this case herself and claims it is real.  It is set in a lovely house on Cherry Hill across from Mount Kelly Cemetery.  According to the author, she met Mark and Connie at their lovely home outside of Detroit. The two had bought the house recently and loved it and didn't want to move.  However, since they moved into the house, they had felt an evil presence tormenting them.  At first, the presence revealed itself subtly.  Connie couldn't sleep.  She felt things push her or brush past her.  The couple had terrible nightmares.   But things quickly escalated,  all the knives in their drawers vanished, and Mark found them buried upside down in the backyard.  Other items would relocate.   Finally,  the couple decided to purchase some crosses to hang about the house to bless it.  The crosses always fell down.  The other pictures would stay up, but the crosses fell down.  One time when Connie was walking down the stairs,  something hot pushed her and left a burn mark on her arm.   Finally, the desperate couple called a priest to bless the house.  The priest walked through the house doing the blessing and when he left, he told the couple that something evil was in the house with them and they should leave.

The author says that the couple were finally able to free their home of the demon with the aid of a priest and a demonologist.  They still live there and have had a baby girl since then.

Stumbling Upon a Haunted Pizza

I have been meaning to go to Sam and Greg's Pizza in downtown Huntsville, Alabama for sometime.  It is notoriously haunted.  It has been investigated by paranormal investigators and proven to be haunted using all the ghost hunting gadgets such folk use.  It has been featured on the local news.  Psychics have declared it haunted. Yet, for some reason I haven't stopped by.  I even love pizza and their pizza is wonderful. 

Last week a lovely young writer named Stephanie contacted me to do an interview for a local magazine. I was delighted when she invited me to meet with her at Sam and Greg's.  I assumed she knew it was haunted and invited me there because of its haunting, but it was just a wonderful coincidence.  I had heard that all of the paranormal activity associated with this cute little restaurant takes place in the upstairs room, so we sat upstairs.  I believe the activity actually happens in the forbidden region of the restaurant just beyond the lock door, but it was still nice to sit and talk about ghosts next to such a haunted place.

 

On my way out of the restaurant, I asked one of the employees about the stories associated with the restaurant.  She says that the rumors that circulate amongst the staff state that the ghost that haunts Sam and Greg's was once a maintenance man in the old building.  His boss used to like to play practical jokes on him and he was always being laughed at.  Nobody can say for sure if it was all the jokes, or if the maintenance man was just lost in all his melancholy, but, according to the oral tradition, he killed himself in the building on the second floor.  His ghost still wanders Sam and Greg's making mischief to this day.  The staff who talked to me about this says she's not sure she believes all this, but she still finds the story fun and so did I.  

The Haunted Upstairs Area Can Be Seen From the Upstairs Dinning Area

The Upstairs Dinning Area

Haunted South Alabama

I've been a little slow in blog posting this week because I have been working on my next History Press Book, Haunted South Alabama.  The journey I take in writing a collection of ghost stories is always interesting.  I begin with an outline I submit with my book proposal package, but as I bury myself in research, I often discover ghost stories are not what I expect them to be.  For example,  all the internet sites and stories I'd heard about the haunting of Space Camp said there was some kind of explosion there that lead to a haunting.  After I went to Space Camp and did my research for Haunted North Alabama, I learned this couldn't have been further from the truth.

With Haunted South Alabama,  I thought I would be focusing on the ghost stories in old forts along the beaches and in Montgomery.    What I've discovered is that there are enough ghost stories in Selma alone to fill a book.  I didn't know much about the history of Selma, Alabama.  It was one of those rural Southern towns I could have passed by entirely without noticing, but now that I've heard its history and learned more about it, it is filled with enough ghost lore to keep me there for weeks.   I've found the ghosts of Bloody Sunday and a wonderful headless lady ghost.  I've found an old mill with dark spirits and the lady who told me these stories is willing to tell me more.  I'm thrilled.   Hopefully, I will be traveling to Selma to collect more stories and I'll be even more busy over the next month or so.   I really can't wait to keep writing, but sadly my book adventures do keep me from the blog.   Hopefully,  I'll have something else to post here soon too. 

The Pizza Parlor Ghost

Tucked away in between a mini-golf course and a old cemetery there is  an old parking lot in the back of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  This parking lot is very unremarkable.   Kudzu climbs down the walls of the embankment above the lot and covers all the parking signs.  Steep hills climb up in ever direction into thick folliage.  The best view from this lot is of the mini-golf course.  As you wander the lot, you can see children cheering and swinging thier clubs.

You would never know that this old piece of pavement used to be a pizza parlor.  It was the first pizza parlor in Gatlinburg. One night, the owners came into the pizza parlor and found that the restaurant was completely trashed.   Food was scattered about the floor, chairs were overturned.  Furniture was thrown in corners.   The owners called the police and things seemed normal for a while.  But the unknown vandals began to return on a regular basis.   The staff would frequently come in to find the place completely trashed.  Finally, the owners decided to put a camera in at night to catch the vandals in the act.   The vandals were caught, but they weren't the vandals the owners expected.  Video evidence showed objects moving on their own and things fliying about at night.

The owners tried to hide the video.  They were afraid word of the haunting would destroy business so they destroyed the tape.  Word of the haunting spread quickly despite the tape's absence, however.   Everyone knew about pizza parlor ghosts.  This actually only increased business.  People came from all over to eat with the ghosts.  Sadly, the pizza parlor was a popular place to eat, but the staff was less than happy to work there.    Those that worked there said that this old pizza parlor was tormented by ghosts.   Objects moved on their own.  Pizza's flew off the counter.   Chairs fell over.   The lights went on and off.  Odd noises filled dark corners at night.   No one wanted to work with the ghosts so the staff fled and no one would replace them.   The pizza parlor had to be shut down because no one would work there.

When the parlor was sold, it was sold to a company that turned it into a parking lot.  During construction,  bones from the cemetery beside the pizza parlor were unearthed beneath  the foundation of the old parlor.   The skeletal remains of dozens of people were exumed and buried elsewhere, but the problem still remained.  The first settlers of the regions didn't use proper gravestones.  Sometimes the only thing that marked the graves were jars of stones, so it is possible and probable that bones still may remain beneath the parking lot and the adjacent mini-golf course.  Local legend says that if touists park in this parking lot their cars will have flat tires, dings, and engine problems.   Tourists that play in the mini-golf course can't make the last hole or do worse than they usually would.   I know I've played mini-golf at this course many times and I will testify that I sucked every single time.  Damn ghosts.  

Ghosts and Cocktails

In my opinion, the best ghost stories always come out at gatherings.  The lights are dim and everyone has had a few cocktails.  Tongues are loosened and people suddenly feel much closer.   They admit to things in these intimate settings that they would never admit to in the brighter light of day.  Secrets slip out and skeptics say things like, "I don't believe in ghosts but I had this experience once......."

I have been to a lot of gatherings like this over the last week, but only during one of them did ghosts come out.  The first story told around our glasses of  white wine was a haunted house story.   One of my lady friends talked about her father's house.  She said it had been haunted for years and everyone seemed to accept this, but she described the strange nights of dread she had spent in this old farm house  The house was built around 1920 and old ghosts sleep in the shadows there.  She described one night in which her son and she were sleeping in the bed together.  Her son was in front of her asleep and she went to sleep quickly.  When she awoke, she felt someone moving behind her.   In her dream state, she thought it was her son.  She felt him against her back, but as she became fully awake she realized her son was in front of her.  She sat up in bed in a panic and the light flicked on by itself.   Although she felt no hostility from the spirit,  she was still terrified and unnerved.

Another lady confessed that spirits often come to her.   She has had many experiences throughout her life with the supernatural and she doesn't talk about them because she thinks most people will think she is crazy or strange.  She prefers keeping them to herself.   She told two stories.  The first story was in a new house.  She says that she was alone in the house when she heard a loud repetitive banging in the attic.  The noise became louder and louder.  It was late at night and she was alone, so she became afraid it might be a burglar.  She called the police.  They searched the attic and found nothing.  The house was empty and there was no explanation for the noise.  She told another story in which she awoke and saw a spirit standing at the foot of her bed.  She asked the spirit, "What do you want?"  and it answered her, "I mean you no harm."

The party ended and  the stories were forgotten.  We won't mention them again, but cocktail ghost stories are always my favorite, because they are the secret ones that will never be known publicly.  They are the ones that people keep to themselves to avoid being called weird.  I love ghost stories and cocktails.

The Phantom Bird

Anyone who has ever read Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven knows that there is something terrifying about a ghoulish bird.  Birds can be somewhat frightening to begin with.  They loom over us and stare out at us with glowing eyes.  The very sound of an owl late at night can bring to mind old ghost stories and whisper of childhood fears.  At the Lincoln Inn in London, such fears are justified.

Lincoln's Inn is in the center of legal London. It is not an inn as Americans define inns. It is one of four Inns of Court in London to which attorneys are called to bar.  It has a long and dark history that lends itself well to stories of ghosts and hauntings.  Lord Antony Babington was convicted of trying to assassinate Elizabeth 1st in 1586 and he and his followers were hanged, drawn and quartered at Lincoln’s Inn.  Lord William Russel's notoriously grisly execution also took place at Lincoln's Inn.

According to legend,  a group of young men were attacked at the law offices of  Lincoln's Inn in 1913.  The young men were accosted by a giant bird.  The bird cast no shadow and when the assault was over one of the young attorney's was left dead.  Charles Appleby was found covered in claw parks and drenched in blood.  A few years later another young man, John Radlett, was found hanging in the same office. The young man had locked himself in the office and huge claw marks were found on the walls and the doors of the office.    Rumors of the phantom bird spread quickly after this and the two journalists decided the story was worth investigating.  They locked themselves into the haunted room and began their investigation.
At first, nothing happened.  In fact so much nothing happened, the investigators began playing cards and wrote the story off as local legend and folklore.   It was only when the men were relaxed that the bird struck.  The windows were flung open and the room was filled with a sound of great flapping.  The doors shut and claw marks could be seen across the floor of the haunted room.  Shortly after this, the building containing this cursed room was destroyed and the bird vanished with the building, but the story is still one of the most terrifying haunted bird stories I have heard.  It would make Alfred Hitchcock shiver. 

The Haunting of Sherrod House

This story is one I am revisiting.  I posted this early on when I had very low traffic to the blog and I don't think many people read it.  I love this story so I'm giving it a second run.  A friend of mine who lives in a small town in South Alabama sent me the most wonderful pictures. In the one too the left if you look carefully you can see the face of a ghost staring out at you.   She moved into her century old home a few years ago and when she first moved into the house it was haunted by an irritating spirit. My friend sent me the story of her haunted house and since I don't think I could possibly tell the story as well as she does I have placed it in quotes and put it word for word here.


"The house was built in 1906, and is known as "the Warren House," although there is some dispute over who built the house. The Coles or the Warrens. Because of this dispute, we decided to put the name "Sherrod House" on our historical register sign. Next door is the McCleod house, built in 1903. When we moved here, 2 elderly McCleod sisters remained. Their story varied at times, but this is the best we could come up with from them.

In 1906 the Cole family (allegedly) built the house. Sadly, they died while their children were still young, perhaps in the flu epidemic of 1918. Naomi Cole, and perhaps some of her siblings, went next door and were raised by the McCleods. When she was old enough, Naomi married a man, Mr. Warren, and moved back into her family home. When her husband passed, and her children moved, she turned the house into a boarding house, and many of the people in our town have memories of living here, or visiting their grandparents here, etc. Naomi left (died?) sometime in the early 1970's. Incredibly, the house stood vacant until we bought it in 2003.

When we first bought the house, we loved it. It needed a lot of work- but we could see it's potential. My great grandmother was just moving into a nursing home, and we were blessed enough to get her old furniture. We visited the house at least once a month, while still living in Huntsville.

Almost immediately, we felt a presence, but weren't too threatened by it. We would hear things in the middle of the night. Footsteps in the hallway, that sounded like a man's boots, slow and steady. We would groggily awaken, think to ourselves, "oh, he's just checking up on things," and fall back asleep. I don't know why we were so sure that it was ok, but we were. At other times we would hear the back door open. We would go to check it, and it would still be dead bolted.

The activity began to become more common, to the point of where Michael and I were almost too spooked to stay in the house alone. A photo frame in the living room lifted itself from the mantle and flew across the room. One night, while MIchael and I were asleep, we heard very heavy determined foot stomping, across the length of the foot of our bed. It felt strongly like the spirit was trying to wake us up. Not knowing what else to do, Michael sat up in bed, said "Stop that! You'll wake the children!" The stomping stopped, and never happened again. But on another night, Michael woke up to someone pressing down on his chest. It took him a minute or two of struggling to sit up and breathe. It felt like something was trying to get our attention.

On one night we allowed Chloe to have a friend spend the night. All 4 older children slept in the boys room, which has a closet that connects it to Lily's room. The children woke us in the middle of the night. "The ghosts are bothering us." Not wanting to scare them, we assured them that there was "no such thing as ghosts," and sought to calm them down. We all went back to bed. Early in the morning, I woke to find the kids terrified in the room. I tried to settle them down again. I looked into the mirror above the fireplace, directly beside the closet, which was latched shut with a hook and eye closure. I told them "There is no such thing as ghosts!" The minute I said that, the hook very slowly released itself from the eye, as if by an unseen hand. Then the closet door swung open and and a burst of icy air came rushing out. I looked at the kids, there was no denying ghosts now I supposed!

Soon after this incident, we moved into the house full time. Lily was 3 years old at the time. At night, before going to bed, Lily would complain that there was a "grey lady" watching her. She always pointed to the same corner of the room, and told us that the grey lady would stand there when she was trying to sleep. Finally, in an effort to calm her, we began talking to the grey lady at bedtime. We asked her to please let Lily sleep in peace. After a week or so, this seemed to work, and that was the end of all the activity.

We feel now, that whatever was haunting the house is not here anymore. The "presence" is gone. We never felt threatened, only a little spooked, and for some reason, we always felt like the spirits (one man, one woman, is what we felt) were just checking up on things. They seemed to want to know that the house would be taken care of. They seemed attracted to the children. I feel like they have accepted us here, and have moved on. We haven't seen any activity since the fall of 2005.

What we have seen is a supposed granddaughter of Naomi. She showed up unannounced at our house while I was out of town on a business trip, and Michael spoke to her. She wanted to know if we had found anything that had belonged to her family in the house. She asked Michael if he had found a box of some sort. She kept pressing the point again and again, and asked Michael if he would be willing to sell the house to her. When he declined, she left. The McCleod sisters next door got very upset over this visit. They told Michael "whatever you find in that house is yours, and she has no business coming around here and bothering you!"

We don't know why the McCleods would be so upset over Naomi's granddaughter coming for a visit. We have been all over the house, including the attic, which is almost as big as the 1st floor, and have not found any boxes. The fireplaces seem to have stopped being used at some point, there are gas lines near most of them. We don't know if there is maybe something in a chimney. We also don't know the identity of the ghosts that were here, though it seems to make sense that it would be the original owners of the house."
Although the Sherrod's say their house is no longer haunted, the picture they sent me of a lonely ghost staring out the window still sends chills down my spine

Book Review: Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

There is nothing more magnificent than a really good book.   Maybe This Time is a really good book and it is a Gothic ghost story  and that just makes it that more delicious.   I don't usually read romances.  I find them artificial and boring, but the characters in this book were real enough to make the romance interesting and the ghosts were more than interesting enough to make up for the kissing.  Of course, the kissing lead to sex, which makes the romance much more palatable for me as well.

Maybe This Time is the story of a woman, Andy,  in her thirties who is haunted by her first marriage. She's been divorced for ten years and she wants to move on.  She's  found a man she wants to marry and all she has to do is cut the final cord that attaches her to her ex-husband.   Her ex-husband keeps sending her money and she hates it.   She summons all her courage and goes to him to demand that he stop sending her money, only to be suckered into doing a job for him.  He wants her to go down to Southern Ohio to check on his orphaned niece and nephew who live in an old mansion that was moved from England to the states over one hundred years ago.   The children have been abandoned by two nannies, one aunt, and their father.  Death hangs over their head like a noose and the children themselves are more than a little odd.

Andy goes down to Southern Ohio on the condition that her ex never contacts her again after she does this for him.  He's also going to pay her enough money to financially liberate her forever.   Andy's plan is to get things back together and get the kids out of the house in less than a month.  Unfortunately,  the children are held to the house my some particularly malevolent ghosts and Andy is going to need help from her ex-husband and everyone else to deal with the evil lurking in the shadows of the old house.  She also has to confront her own demons and awaken her lost love to free the children from the ghosts.

Maybe This Time was not only a good ghost story, but a very well written novel with an engaging plot.    I would recommend it to anyone.   St. Martin's press has also offered to give one free copy of this book away to one of my readers.  So, if you would like to read this wonderful Gothic romance,  comment below and I will enter you in the contest!

Bits of Wreckage

My grandmother used to love ghost stories.  Her passion wasn't in vogue at the time, but she still loved them.  She loved haunted houses and all things old and drenched with history and mystery.  Ghost stories were perfect for her.   When I was going through some of her old things last week,  I stumbled upon her collection of old ghost stories.  She had many volumes and the stories in these old book seem to have a different texture to them than the modern incarnation of the same tales.

This is a story I found in a book that was given to my grandmother by grandfather in 1965.  The story is called Buried in crystal and it is about the haunting of California Street in San Francisco.  According to this story,  there was once a young heiress named Flora Sommerton who was wild and headstrong.   Her parents planned her marriage to a man she didn't favor.  They planned on announcing at her engagement party.   Her mother had ordered an elaborate gown that dripped with crystals for the occasion.

Flora had no intention of marrying and she ran away.  She took some money with her and all her jewelry.  She also took the crystal gown.  In her letter,  she told her parents that she would never marry and that she planned on making her living as a singer.   Unfortunately, as with many such youthful dreams, this proved to be unrealistic.  Flora's parents looked for her tirelessly for many years and every once in a while they would catch a trace of her.  They found an opera house where she worked cleaning.  They found a boarding house where she stayed.  Time passed and Flora's father died never knowing where she was.  Flora's mother grew old and died as well.

In 1926, Flora was found and the missing person case was finally closed.   A woman calling herself Mrs. Butler and working as a housekeeper died alone in her room.   The woman's body was in a most elaborate crystal gown designed by a Paris dressmaker.   The dress served as evidence of her true identity as it was a  one of kind.   According to legend,  The ghost of Flora Summerton still wanders California Street trying to find her way home.   She walks the street at night in her crystal gown forever regretting her decision to leave her home.

Ghosts and Goosebumps

I have been really enjoying a collection of Alabama Ghost Stories lately called Ghosts and Goosebumps by Jack and Olivia Solomon.  It is essentially a collection of ghost stories from Alabama told in first person, collected from letters.   I've been enjoying these stories so much, I thought I would share a few.

Enchanted Trees

There was a man who had the power to put a spell on trees.  He had several children and every time one was born, he would plant a fruit tree.  Because of this spell he put on the fruit trees, every time one of the children would die the tree planted for that child would die too.  He had one son who had gone to join the services.  A few months later, the tree planted for the son began to die so they knew their son was dead.  Sure enough, two days later they received word that he had been killed..... told by Mary Glenn Merritt

The Bewitched Hunter

Once a man was out hunting squirrels.  He had killed two when he walked up on an old woman washing clothes.  She asked him for one of the squirrels and he said no.   He said he would kill another one for her and she said he would never kill another squirrel again.   The man walked into the woods and began hunting.  He shot, but couldn't hit a single squirrel.  Days and weeks went by and he wasn't able to hit a single thing he shot at.

He got worried and told a Friend about what had happened.  His friend told him that if he carved an outline of a woman on a green tree and drive a twenty -penny spoke into he heart for nine day that on the ninth day the witch would die and the spell would be broken.  He performed this ritual and after he could shoot and hit his targets as good as he ever could.... told by J.D Fowler

Flaming Lady

Just outside the city limits of Dothan there is a place where a man used to live who had a beautiful wife.  She had been unfaithful to him, so he took her and chained her to the bridge.  The chains can still be heard rattling when you drive a car over the bridge.  After she died he burned her.  If you drive up in the driveway you can see it still burning on a post.  No one can go up to the burning head and put it out because he will shoot anyone who tries to come within range.  So, anyone can see where he has his flaming lady...told by Judy Jones.

Ghostly Giveaway Winner

Happy 4th of July!  Everyone in my neighborhood is lighting fireworks to rival Disney World and I'm celebrating by giving away books to Andrea Allison from Ghost Stories which is located at http://paranormalstories.blogspot.com/   .A few weeks ago I  posted a giveaway.  I announced I would be giving away a collection of Lovecraft short stories and a hardback copy of The Thirteen Tale.   Several people entered to win the ghostly summer reads and I used the most scientific methods available to me to randomly determine the winner.  This, of course, means that I used the famous iny miny miney moe technique that I mastered in grade school.   Have a happy holiday!  Don't set your hand on fire,  I already have and it wasn't as much fun as it sounds.

Guest Blogger Louise Baker's Favorite Ghost Stories!

As a writer myself,  I know that managing a writing career is challenging and I am always amazed by those that can accomplish this task.  That is why I'm always happy to welcome writers here.  Tonight's guest blogger is Louise Baker.  Louise loves ghost stories and wanted to share a few of her favorites tonight.  When not trying to scare herself silly, Louise Baker writes about getting an online education. She most recently reviewed the best online schools at http://www.zencollegelife.com/the-top-10-best-online-schools/.   Louise has also had articles picked up by sites like MSN, Publisher's Weekly, About.com and the Consumerist.  Welcome Louise!


Ghost stories capture our minds and imaginations. We share them around campfires and on dark nights to give our friends - and maybe even ourselves - some thrills and chills. There are a number of ghost stories that circulate, though and here are five great ones to remember the next time you need to share a spooky tale.


Bloody Mary
The tale of Bloody Mary is one that has stood the test of time and the test of many a slumber party. The story of Bloody Mary starts with Mary, a witch who lured young girls to their deaths. She used their blood to keep herself young and beautiful and when the villagers discovered what she was doing their burned her at the stake. As Mary burned she spoke a curse that would cause her evil spirit to continue causing harm. Her curse stated that if anyone spoke her name - Bloody Mary - three times in front of a darkened mirror, her spirit would appear to seek revenge. She would tear to pieces the one who summoned her, stealing their soul and trapping it within the mirror to burn forever as she burned.

The Hook
The tale of an escaped asylum resident who had a hook instead of an arm has been retold countless times over. The story holds that a young couple park in a secluded area to make out when the girl is spooked by the radio warning of the deranged hook man. Something shakes the car and she begs her boyfriend to take her home. In disgust he starts the car and they leave. Upon arriving at her home, she exits the car only to discover that a blood hook hangs from the passenger side door handle.


Windigo
The story of the Windigo is an Ojibwa story from long ago. The Windigo is a creatures that will eat the flesh of any man, woman or child it finds. In some instances, the Windigo will instead possess the body of a person, causing them to become a cannibalistic Windigo themselves. Most Windigo stories occur in the dead of winter, when people are searching for food and in danger of starving. The Windigo is usually described as large and white, with black eyes. The Windigo makes a strange hissing sound that mixes with the howl of winter winds.

Ghost Hand Prints
The story of the ghost hand prints centers around a set of railroad tracks on which a busload of school children had died years earlier. A young couple are driving over the tracks when their car stalls. They are horrified to see that a train is bearing down upon them and they can't get the car started. Without warning, their car rolls off of the tracks to safety, just before the train passes. Shaken, the man gets out of the car and discovers dozens of child-sized hand prints on the rear bumper.

Ghost Soldier
The story of a ghost soldier has seen action in every conflict or war over the past several years. The story is that a young soldier is on tour during a time of war. One night his mother awakens to find him standing next to her bed. He tells her he loves her and is alright. She realizes that in fact, this is her son's spirit come to say goodbye. The next day she receives word that he was killed in action but she carries his last message in her heart as she grieves for his death

The Ghosts of Childhood

My son is in a summer camp this week at a place called Sci Quest.  Sci Quest is a hands on science museum that gives children a chance to interact with the exhibits.  He and a few of his friends are in a mystery camp, which they love.  Aside from the scheduled activities,  children are also given a chance wander on their own through the museum and explore.  Yesterday my son took me to all his favorite places in the museum.   His top spot,  is a corner in the basement of the giant play house there.  According to my son and all his friends,  this corner is very haunted.  

The boys told me about the ghost with straight faces.  They believed what they were telling me.  While they were playing,  they heard a ghost laughing.  It even told them to move a block.  My little one says that he even saw the ghost.  They believe the ghost is the ghost of a boy who was lost in the museum and never found.   I love their story for so many reasons.  I love it because this is what childhood is.  It is a time of myth and magic where fantasy and reality blend into something wonderful.  It is a place where stories are real and little legends spread from child to child until they are almost real.

I also love it because I believe this is the way some of my favorite stories must have started.  The more deeply I have researched the origins of many local ghosts stories,  the more I have learned that many have no basis in any recorded history or fact.  They start with one person who hears a whisper in the shadows and tells the story.  I think often some of these stories may have been started by a youth or someone with the imagination of a child. The stories spread and grow until they  become real.   These ghosts of childhood linger and catch like fire until sometime in the future I might read somewhere on Shadowland's Haunted Index that Sci Quest is haunted by the ghost of a lost child.  I know that many ghost stories do have real histories, but I still love the ones that start in quiet places between people with great imaginations. 

The Faceless Gray Man Who Comes With the Storm

Natural Disasters seem to be epidemic lately.   The volcano in Iceland is one in a chain of disasters that have spread acround the globe.  Every day there is another story of a disaster.  News of  the newest catastrophic disaster has become a regular occurence.   Tonight's ghost would be a gift in times like these and it is a shame that every community couldn't have one, like a kind of more prepared and more helpful FEMA.

The faceless gray man of Pawley's Island is said to warn residents of impending natural disasters.   Pawley's Island is off the coast of South Carolina, so he is usually warning of hurricanes and tropical storms.  The faceless apparition is only sighted when dangerous storms are coming and  has appeared before the hurricanes of 1822, 1893, 1916, 1954, and 1955.  He has saved innumerable lives.   Locals believe that if you see him,  your house will be spared. 

Locals aren't sure who the ghost is, but the legends are numerous.  Some think he is the ghost of Percival Pawley, the first man to settle on the Island.  Other's think he is the ghost of young man, scorned in love, who died running out into a terrible storm after his lover broke his heart.  Whoever he is, he is terrifying to behold.  He is faceless and gray but the sight of him means that you are safe and no harm will come to you.  

I wonder if there is anyway to capture this ghost in a bottle.  He certaintly would be useful.

How to Find Wonderful Ghost Stories

As I have gotten to know other bloggers out there and read their blogs,  I have realized that I do not know the most on the world of the paranormal.  There are many others out there that know more about theories of the paranormal and paranormal research and the world of paranormal study.  Ghost Hunting Theories and Haunt Jaunts are both excellent sites for thought provoking debates over the parnormal world.  I don't have their strengths in these areas, but I have discovered my own strength is in finding new and interesting ghost stories.   Here are some tips for finding undiscovered ghost stories and finding new information about classic ghost stories. 

1.  Sign up for a paranormal meeting on meetup.com.  You'll meet new people and if you sit and listen everyone has some kind of ghost story.  Many of the people at these meetings are there because they've had an encounter of a ghostly nature they would like to share.

2.  Go to haunted location and ask questions.   If you go to a haunted location and ask nicely in a quiet area, most people love to share their ghost stories.  You may even get more than you bargained for.  Many of my favorite stories have come from people who heard me asking questions and have pulled me aside to tell me a story they've never told anyone.  These stories can be the best stories.  While investigating the ghosts of Space Camp,  three employees told me unrelated stories that were little treasures.

3.  Be friendly and open.  People love to talk and, if you are willing to listen, there are always new stories waiting to be discovered.

4. Travel.   The further you go, the more stories you'll find. 

5. Read.   Amazon.com is filled with books on ghost stories.  Many of these books are self published and they are interesting and worth reading.

6.  Browse the internet.  The internet is filled with good stories, great bloggers, and interesting paranormal sites.

7.  Go on ghost walks and talk to the people who run the ghost walks.   One of the best interviews I had was with Jacque Reeves who runs the local Huntsville ghost walk.  She was happy to tell me many ghost stories.