	October 1997

Ever Think About This?

Ghost Story or History?

Peter Moore

We have all read ghost stories at one time or another. Some such as myself love to read ghost stories that have been told from generation to generation. While others preferred stories written by Stephen King or John Carpenter.

Then there are those who love to see movies about ghosts that Hollywood always cranks out every year.

When the Pilgrims first came to this country in 1620 they faced a lot of hardship and danger in a place where anything can happen and usually does. When Christmas came many of the Pilgrims got homesick for friends and family they left behind in England which was a good deal (3,000 miles or more) away.

To entertain themselves they told ghost stories, this was before man started using his sense of reasoning. They thought there were such things as ghosts, witches and others evil beings. Unfortunately a good many men, women and children often die from the very harsh, severe winter weather in Massachusetts and others parts of New England.

Believing that the ghosts of departed love ones will come back, people wrote the names of the dead on a grave markers to insure themselves that the spirits of the dead can't come back from the grave.

This is 1997 and this is the age of computers, even including shuttles that travel deep into space to repair satellites or bring one back to earth. Even so, we still subconsciously fear the dead coming back!

Case in point: my favorite ghost movie was the 1978 "The Fog". A ship sank and the town stole the gold that the men had on their ship. So what happened? Some 120 years later the men came back for revenge and retrieved their gold that the town stole in the first place.

And that popular movie about a decade ago "Poltergeist"; did you know that it's German for "Noisy Ghost"? You can't see the ghost, but when objects start moving by themselves that's when you have a Poltergeist. As in the movies the ghosts became active when a developer wanted to build a community over a graveyard that he never bothered to tell anyone about. (Not a good idea.)

All that Hollywood's doing is sure making a lot of money while scaring everybody half to death. I saw it, but never heard any sound, because I took out my hearing aid to see it. It's the noise and sound that scared people more than the picture itself.

Personally, I don't care for those kind of ghost stories because it isn't real, like the kind that been passed on through generations. Could say it's an oral history.

My favorite historical ghost story was and always will be the story of "Ocean Born Mary". Her parents were on their way to America in 1720, but a Pirate ship came out of nowhere and the raiding party boarded the ship. As the passengers and crew were lined up ready to be shot, a cry from a baby was heard from below deck. Captain Pedro heard the voice and ran down below to see the baby. Upon seeing her Pedro asked that the girl be named after his mother and he'll spared the passengers and crews. The child was named Mary and lived to be in her 90's, outliving her four sons. One, I think, died in the War of 1812.

In 1938 a man in a wheelchair was tipped out of his chair during a violent storm in Henniker, New Hampshire. An old tree was hit by lightening and was about to fall on the man. Suddenly he felt himself being dragged to the porch just as the tree fell. Mary was there to save that old man who took care of her house all those years he occupied it.

So, ghost stories can be adventurous, romantic, frightening and even funny. But one thing more: it does bear a small connection with history and, as the saying goes, "All legends have some basis of truth."

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