“Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Heart of Man? The Shadow Knows. ha hahahaha”. It is a fact that I have never personally actually seen a ghost but I have felt that they were around a number of times. Back in the 1940’s before television my cousin, Janice, and I listened to ghost stories on the radio. We had to use our imagination and draw our own mental images. Television does all that for us these days. Janice and I would be at our grandmothers spending the night which was always fun. Mammy would go to bed and allow us to stay up late on Saturday nights and listen to ghost stories on the radio. One of our favorites was “THE SHADOW “.
The show opened with “Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Man? The Shadow Knows. Hahaha haha “.
The Shadow was a ghost story usually about a a crime and Shadow was a good guy who helped solve it (as a ghost). Later in the night more hard core scary ghost stories came on the radio. Those are what we waited for.
After Mammy went to bed we would turn off all the lights and open the doors to make it more scary. We were in the country so there were no street lights or any other lights. It was dark except for the moon and stars and sometimes on cloudy nights it was just dark. We listened to the ghost stories and it felt like the ghosts were coming for us but we kept listening and encouraging each other to stay put while we shivered with fear. We listened and waited for the midnight hour because that was when ghosts were more likely to “come and get us.” We had heard all about Rawhead and Bloody Bones and how they haunted or came to steal children. We were skeptical but a bit afraid of old Rawhead and Bloody Bones. Mammy was in her room sleeping and had no idea we had opened her doors to the outside. The only thing we had to fear were the ghosts because most people didn’t lock doors back then around Pender’s Crossroads anyway.
We hovered over the radio for hours frozen in fear until we decided to make a run for it and jump into the bed and hide under the covers from those ghosts.
Those were stories from the radio but the more frightening stories came from my friend, Nettie. Nettie was one of my favorite people and a true friend. We worked on the farm together. She was a couple of years older than me. She was tall and stronger than most men. Anything I couldn’t do alone I could always count on Nettie. She also had real experiences with ghosts and shared her stories. Nettie was black and she told me that black folks could see ghosts better than white folks could. She also told me that the ghosts were around even if I couldn’t see them. Now, that was something for me to think about. She told me about sightings at her house and being awakened by “something.“ She said when she opened her eyes she saw some woman coming into her bedroom through the keyhole. She said it was a woman, a full sized woman, dressed all in black and she stayed in the room just moving all around while she and her sisters hid under the covers and peeped at the ghost woman. Nettie said she and her sisters did not move and just watched the woman float around. The ghost woman left the room the same way she came in - through the keyhole. Nettie told me that the ghost was the spirit of someone who died but never left this world because they still had something left here to do or someone they were looking for and that ghosts were all around us. She said the ghosts would sometimes play tricks on people. She said when we heard unexplained noises in the night it was a ghost. She said they were Boo Hags and could show up at my house too. Sometimes ghosts appear as nice and pretty people just to fool us. That was another scary thought.
She said her mama, my friend Lucille, who I wrote about in my book, CROSSROADS, Stories of the Rural South, sent her out one night to get a bucket of coal for their heater. She picked up pieces of coal and had the bucket almost full and when she looked back it was empty. She kept putting coal in the bucket and the Boo Hags kept taking it out. She said she was so scared she just grabbed a few pieces of coal and ran back in the house.
Nettie and her sister told me about a ghost that they see sometimes walk right through a wooden frame around their outdoor well and go down into the deep well. When they looked over the frame and in the well they couldn’t see her. All they could see was the water and a little ripple. They knew the ghost was in the well. They saw her go in. She said they watched for her to come out of the well and sometimes they took turns watching and finally gave up thinking she was permanently in the deep well. She said sometimes that ghost would come whooshing up and disappear into thin air.
There was a path behind Nettie’s house that went through a wooded area. The path where she was living lead to the road between Town Creek and Temperance Hall. There was a store owned by a Mr. Cherry near where the path and road met. She and her sisters walked to Cherry’s Store. About half way down that path was a small graveyard that looked old or forgotten. On one of these walks they saw a rumpled skinny man leaning against a tree near the graveyard. He was wearing faded and ragged bib overalls, white shirt and a misshaped slouch hat. She said to him “Good morning.“ He didn’t respond so she said it louder. The skinny man still did not respond. As they came closer the man twisted around and started spinning and just disappeared into thin air. She said they ran so fast they lost the change they had for candy. They ran to the store and were so upset they told Mr. Cherry about what happened and how the ghost man started spinning and vanished into the air. Mr. Cherry seemed to enjoy their story, laughed but he gave them some candy.
I did get a visit from the Devil when I was five years old. My parents were visiting Miss Mae and Mr. Edward Eason. There were several children visiting along with me, my brother, my cousins Janice, Keith, Sam and the Eason Children Frankie, Betty Jean, Bobby and Duck. It was a Sunday afternoon pretty soon after we ate lunch. The adults had made their way to the front porch for relaxing in the swing or rocking chairs and for the conversations that were both entertaining and lively.
All of us children made our way to the apple trees. We climbed the trees and shook the limbs. The apples were falling so they almost covered the ground underneath the tree. We were having a great time climbing the trees and eating apples. I was on one of the lower limbs when I jumped to the ground. I knew when I landed that I had stepped on something. A baby bird had fallen out of his nest when we were shaking the tree. I landed on the bird and I was already upset that I had hurt this bird. The older children started telling me how I had hurt the baby bird and that the devil would come for me tonight when I went to sleep. They described the Devil and his fire breath, red suit, ugly mean face and his pitchfork. They told me he would take me on his pitchfork, throw me in his wagon and take me to Hell for stepping on the baby bird. You know, children can be mean. I was terrified of this Devil they told me about. I was five years old.
I dreaded bedtime but I decided to just stay awake all night.
That didn’t work. At some point I must have slept because I had the most terrifying nightmare and struggled to get away from that pitchfork toting Devil. That devil chased me about all night with that pitchfork. I was upset enough about stepping on the bird and now the devil was punishing me.
Hmmmmm..Was it nightmares and all in my head or were those children right?
So many memories.
Montress Greene
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