If pressed, I would have to say this is my favorite time of year.
By now we’ve shed most of the hot summer temperatures, and some years we might even catch a frost by Halloween. Even though I don’t trick-or-treat anymore, I still look forward to Halloween. My friend, Teresa White in Brandon, decorates every flat space in her house with candles, pumpkins, witches, and fall leaves. She even puts cobwebs on the light fixtures. It’s all about fun, and if you can’t have fun this time of year, what’s the use of having waded through the drudgery of the rest of it to get here?
He then told us of an experience or two he had in the building. He said he had some video of books falling off the shelves by themselves. He said it could have been ghosts or it could have been gravity.
We were at the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg a few weeks ago doing a story about the Spanish influence in the Mississippi Territory. Jordan Rushing, assistant director and curator of the museum, gave us some grand information. As photographer Zach Mason was shutting down the camera, on a whim, I asked Jordan if the Old Courthouse was haunted. It’s a question I ask sometimes when I’m in old buildings. I asked partly as a joke but was really interested in the answer. Jordan sort of haltingly started by saying, “I really don’t believe in ghosts, but…” He then told us of an experience or two he had in the building. He said he had some video of books falling off the shelves by themselves. He said it could have been ghosts or it could have been gravity.
His answer reminded me of a story I did years ago with a retired physics professor from Delta State who created a course on the paranormal that he taught at night. I don’t recall his name, and I can’t put my hands on the story. I do remember thinking that it was an odd combination — physics and ghosts. When I went to his office in Cleveland, he told me people in the community who knew about his paranormal interest would come to his door, look both ways to make sure no one saw, slip inside, close the door behind them, and start a conversation that began, “You’re not going to believe this, but…” The visitors would then describe what had happened to them. He told me that every kind of paranormal experience I had ever seen on television — ghosts, UFOs, animal mutilation — had happened within five miles of his office. My first thought was I wish I’d have done this interview somewhere else!
As an aside right here and right now — I usually have music playing in the background while I’m writing. Usually random stuff, anything from the Beatles to Beethoven. Guess what just popped up this exact moment? Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” You know it, trust me. Go on YouTube to look it up right now.
I think it’s a good time to quit writing about ghosts for a little while. Either that or I might be telling a story later that starts, “You’re not going to believe this, but…”
