Part Deux
Ghosts, spooks, spirits, phantoms or wraiths have a definite appeal to the general public. Apparitions have ingratiated themselves into our pop culture. Look at the success of movies such as Ghost, Ghost Busters, The Sixth Sense, Beetlejuice and the soon to be released Ghost Town. The novel, Lovely Bones, sold over 1 million copies and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for more than a year. A movie version of the book is currently in production and is being directed by Peter Jackson. Television currently broadcasts a variety of popular spirit themed shows including Medium, Ghost Whisperer and Ghost Hunters. Even the immensely popular band The Police had a hit song entitled Ghosts in the Material World. There’s a certain mystery (obviously), intrigue, curiosity, even a joie de vivre about a soul that just can’t make the transition to their eternal resting place and in turn spends his or her afterlife days roaming familiar structures and in some cases communicating with the living.
After my article entitled I See Dead People appeared in the October 2007 edition of Alive Magazine I was repeatedly stopped by people anxious to share their “ghost experiences” with me. There were also those folks that were anxious to identify for me a local real estate destination that they believed was haunted. A good buddy, recently shared his story of a camping trip at Lake Del Valle when he and several others in his party thought they heard a whispering voice, wafting through the trees, repeating the words “Don’t Fear”. Granted, the reveler of this tale admitted that his group of outdoorsmen had been drinking a lot that evening and “Don’t Fear” does sound an awful lot like “Get Beer”, but I didn’t want to come across like I worked for the office of Paranormal Investigations in Martinez. A co-worker and his wife swore me to secrecy as they delivered a spellbinding tale of a spirit, known as Bubba, that supposedly inhabited their new home and could clearly be seen by their young children (anyone seen the movie Poltergeist recently?). Of course, we had enjoyed several glasses of red wine on that particular evening and the wife did crack up every time I sang the phrase, “When there’s something strange/in your neighborhood…Who ya gonna call?” Finally, while volunteering as an adult driver/chaperone for my daughter’s school field trip last spring to the One Room School House off Finley Road in Danville, one of the other adults pulled me aside to point out the colorful history of our destination which included a reported spook or phantom whose presence had apparently been seen/felt in the vicinity. Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, the person in question had not been drinking but thinking back there was a strong scent of Altoids on her breath.
Among the local haunt spots, when it come to reports of paranormal activity that I failed to mention in last year’s article, are the One Room School House off Finley Road in Danville, the Pleasanton Hotel in downtown Pleasanton, the Historic Green’s Store, a one time Pony Express stop on Dublin Blvd. in Dublin and the David Glass House which is visible from Interstate 680 in San Ramon. My wife and I even had our own paranormal experience while staying one weekend at a hospitality residence, situated on the grounds of the Beaulieu Vineyards (“BV”) in Napa. Late that Saturday afternoon as I attempted to nap off my wine tour buzz the door of our guest room unexplainably opened and closed several times. I admittedly thought it odd as there wasn’t a cross breeze, the door appeared to be securely shut and no one else was upstairs at the time. Throughout our weekend together, the four couples we were with commented on the odd door play and flickering of lights throughout the house. It wasn’t until we were preparing to leave on Sunday morning that a caretaker for the property told us the story of the house’s original occupants and their precocious daughter who died young (around 9 or 10 years old) and apparently chose never to leave her family home, originally built in the early 1900’s. People have reported seeing the little girl’s spirit and experiencing her sense of humor for over 100 years. Upon hearing this enchanting yarn of the supernatural it was a race to the cars for our group of scared Sh*!@%less wine snobs.
If you access the internet site www.legendsofamerican.com/GH-celebrityghosts2 you’ll find a plethora of famous ghost sightings. The list includes such deceased celebrities as magician Harry Houdini (Las Vegas), writer Mark Twain, entertainer Liberace (Las Vegas), Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson (the White House), actress Jean Harlow, outlaw Jesse Jackson, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, actor George (Superman) Reeves, mobster Bugsy Siegel (Las Vegas), director Orson Wells and musician John Lennon (The Dakota Hotel). The most famous and frequently spotted spirit appears to be that of Marilyn Monroe. Her ghost has reportedly been seen numerous times at the Roosevelt Hotel, where she frequently stayed, her Hollywood hills home, where she died of an overdose of sleeping pills, and the Westwood Memorial Cemetery, where she was laid to rest. According to psychics, Marilyn has relayed to them that her death was an accident not a suicide.
As the annual holiday of Halloween draws near, ghosts will once again become part of our culture but a lot of folks don’t know how the whole costume connection to the date of October 31st began. There are numerous reports as to the origin of Halloween but they all date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain over 2000 years ago. It wasn’t until the seventh century when Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st All Saints Day (also known as All Hollow) to honor deceased saints and martyrs. Hallow meant sanctify. The night before November1st became known as All Hallows Eve. In 1000 A.D. the church would mark November 2nd as All Souls Day to remember the dead. Eventually all three days of celebration became known as Hallowmas which transcended into Halloween. It was customary to celebrate this joyful time with bonfires, parades and costumes. A costume honoring a dead spirit or soul has always been the most popular. The whole Trick or Treating for candy thing is just a wonderful byproduct of this festive season undoubtedly concocted by the people who make M&Ms and KIT KAT bars.
As we get ready for our suburbia night of terror festivities which include costume parties, office themed dress-up contests and neighborhood Trick or Treaters. Civilized people everywhere will once again eagerly disguise themselves as a ghostly presence. Most of us remember the animated television holiday classic, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. This time honored masterpiece features wonderful acting, a catchy soundtrack and an intense plot line. While numerous Trick or Treating children (minor characters) don the white sheet as a favorite costume selection, our hero, the socially awkward Charlie Brown, not surprisingly cuts far too many holes in his sheet. He unwittingly resembles either a homeless person wrapped in discarded linen from the Salvation Army or a drunken college freshman draped in a soiled bed sheet after a fraternity toga party. As you’ll recall poor Charlie Brown never got any good treats, such as Milky Way or Snickers, instead he got a bag full of tricks from his neighbors. If that Charlie Brown ghost boy had lived on my block growing up the families that gave him rocks and coal would have felt the wrath of about two dozen raw eggs raining down on their cars, garage doors and front porches.
When it comes to ghosts, I’m still not certain that I’m a true believer. I would definitely say I’m more open to the possibility than I was last year. As long at there is the slimmest, slightest, remotest of chances that a paranormal otherworld might exist in our otherwise ordinary mortal lives I’m willing to keep an open mind. Maybe the next time I’m getting my freak on and can’t explain what feels like a dead person’s presence or energy nearby I’m going to hang on to it for awhile and question my surroundings. If I think I’ve heard an indeterminate, nebulous voice in the breeze maybe I won’t just assume it’s my imagination. I might even talk back (in a whisper of course). I’m no longer going to be so quick to ignore, shrug off or discount the frequent paranormal occurrences I can’t explain. From now on I’m going to embrace these ghosts or spirits as part of the “in crowd” because who doesn’t want to hang with the cool and popular people….even if they are dead?
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