Birmingham and Mobile

During ghost tours people always ask about my own experiences, but I generally restrict what I share to things that are directly connected to the tour itself and don't delve into personal stories. In part I don't concern myself with whether or not people leave the tour believing in ghosts, a tour should be fun for believers and nonbelievers alike. Still, I realize that belief or lack there of is really important to people, and there is nothing quite like your own personal experience. 

Over the summer a family from Birmingham took a ghost tour with me. The father had done work at an antebellum house in the city. When the crew first began their work, they had gone into the basement to look around and saw the remains of slave chains. As they walked through the space they heard rattling. It all sounds like a horror movie, and clearly the father wanted to separate this very real experience, and painful reminder of the past, from some campfire tall tale; I appreciated where he was coming from. While working on this antebellum house, they had to get used to the sound of chains in the basement. They also had to double check the house routinely. When they would leave at night they had to make sure their was no one in the house and then shut down all electricity to it. The first night they cleared the house, shut down the lights and began to walk away from the house. One of them turned and saw a light on the second floor, framing the shadow of a woman facing the street. How did that happen? One of them went into the house to tell her to leave and the other checked the electricity. A search through the house revealed it was in fact empty and the electricity was completely shut down.

On a separate occasion, visiting Mobile, the same family had visited an old house with a slave quarters. The father wanted to look at the slave quarters and as he stepped into the room a hand pressed against his solar plexus and shoved him back. He stood firm and after a moment he spoke to the spirit. He explained that slavery was over and that African Americans like himself and the spirit pushing him away, were free to go where they wanted and control their own destiny. He encourage the spirit to leave and see the world as the father saw it today.

A Dormitory Across from the Cemetery

I had two old college buddies take a quiet Garden District tour over the summer. They had gone to a small liberal arts college in Mississippi and their dormitory was across from a cemetery. While at school one of them  had tried out a Ouija board. She had even gone over to the cemetery across from their dormitory and called out to the spirits there, harassing them to show themselves. When she arrived back in their room a photo she had hanging from a thick decorative hook was laying on her bed. It seemed odd because the hook was still on the wall and it was pretty sturdy and deep, but she figured it was a fluke. She put it back and sat down at her desk. A shaking sound came from the wall. Looking over, she saw the picture slowly moving up the hook, coming off and falling onto her bed. She screamed and ran out into the hallway. Her buddy and a male friend came into the room to ask what she was fretting about. When she pointed to the picture the male friend laughed and put it back on the hook, insisting that she was imagining things. They started to go into the hall when the shaking sound began again. The three of them watched as the photo was lifted off the hook and fell to the bed.