Tuesday, August 29, 2017

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.

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