My Ghost Stories
When I was growing up, three or four families in my church took turns hosting dinner parties. Not fancy dinner parties, just a bunch of people getting together for fried shrimp and oysters. After dinner, the kids played outside (this was gulf coast Alabama, so it actually was eternally summer), and the adults sat around and talked.
They were sober, God fearing small town folks, and not the sort to discuss books or movies. They probably talked about Alabama football and maybe a little church gossip (in the form of a prayer request), but I didn’t pay much attention to any of it. The only thing I remember are the ghost stories.
These weren’t campfire tales, either. None of the stories featured hook-handed maniacs or lost golden arms. The stories they told came from experiences they’d had or heard about from kin. Not all of them were about ghosts (the devil and demons were more real to us), and some just snatches of family lore, not even proper stories. I would hide in the darkness of the next room and listen to talk of a woman in a green dress that haunted a family’s living room, a man who could play voices recorded in wood, or a girl plagued by devils after reading a forbidden book.
These stories had the weight of reality to them, and they chilled me in a way that horror movies and fictional accounts of haunted houses can never manage. Even today I’ll drop everything to hear a good ghost story.
Which brings me to one of my current projects. During Halloween season (it’s a season at my house), I started a ghost story podcast. I wanted to pass along a little of what I felt when I listened to those stories. The stories are told in the voice of a character from a fictionalized version of the small town I grew up in, but I hope they feel a little bit real.
Anyway, ghost stories may not be your thing, but if you recognized a little bit of yourself in my story, then you might want to check out the Strangetastic Podcast. It’s short, no more than five minutes per episode. New episodes come out on Sunday nights, but I’ve recorded nearly thirty episodes already, so you don’t have to wait.
