Ghostober-What's in Your Family Albums

 

Halloween is all about dressing up as ghosts and goblins, favorite movie stars, sci-fi characters, and other fun costumes. For children it’s going from door-to-door shouting “Trick or Treat,” and then loading their bags with candy from generous homeowners. But this blog isn’t about creative costumes or sweet treats. It’s about ghosts—a different kind of ghosts.

Ever thought you were alone, but the chill down your spine begged otherwise? Ever told yourself the noises in your house at night are just the walls “settling”?

 

Do I have your attention?

Here’s a question for you dear readers. Do you believe in ghosts? Once upon a time ghosts were considered scary, supernatural specters. You know something that goes bump in the night.

If you don’t believe in ghosts you’re not alone. These days, most people do not believe such spirits exist. Two hundred years ago, or perhaps longer, when a person passed away the only images left of the deceased were mostly in the memories of those who knew them. Only a few rich and famous people could afford to have their portraits painted in those days, so most people’s features and images vanished without a trace once the generations who remembered them died, too.

Okay, so whether you believe in ghosts or not, flip through an old family photo album and reckon with the images staring back at you. They are not frightening images. Most likely that old photo album is filled with pictures of people long gone, possibly greatly missed, and greatly loved.

Today, photographs capture snapshot images of people gathered at play, acting silly or completely unaware they are being captured in various stages of life; and when we flip through the photo albums we are forever reliving certain moments of life-time like some spirit in an old ghost story. You are looking at relatives that many living family members never met. Yet, images of these faces remain affixed in the album, their names often written in fading pencil on the back of the picture. And, sadly, in some instances, no names were written to identify these people, leaving them mere ghostly reminders of forever lost descendants.

When I look through old photo albums of ancestors that lived long before I was even thought of its like reaching into the past, and maybe that’s why old photos sometimes inspire a certain haunting feeling whenever we touch them. After all, these family members are strangers, beings we have only heard snippets of stories from great grandparents or aunts and uncles who maybe know nothing of these folks at all, but here is their image staring back at you from an old black and white or sepia toned photo in a tattered family album.

Beyond old photographs, we’ve advanced to motion pictures where movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Laurel and Hardy, from the early time of silent film remain alive in old motion pictures though they have been deceased for decades.

As we advance forward in time and with the push of a button the television flickers on and with the click of a remote, dead people such as Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Doris Day, Maureen O’Hara, and a host of others, move and speak across the screen. Still we can see these people repeat their actions from decades ago and possibly on into the future.

Perhaps, people no longer talk about ghosts because in many ways we are surrounded by them. Perhaps, people no long fear ghosts because we have grown accustomed to them.

In my humble opinion, ghosts are things of memory. Humanity has always had memories, dreams and nightmares. Ghostly memories have long haunted and visited people in their sleep and in their thoughts.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, belief in ghosts and unearthly spirits seem to be as old as humans, just like our uncomfortable relationship with our own mortality. Incidentally, while paranormal experiences may provoke fright or adrenaline rushes, they can also provide comfort as proof for life after death. Remember this the next time you open old family photo albums.

So, dear readers, do you believe in ghosts? Well, do you?

As always, take care, stay safe, and Happy Halloween!

Cloud Woman's Spirit is a Historical western romance with a paranormal twist.

"Her spirit cries out for revenge."

After Tessa Cloud Woman is murdered she becomes a shape-shifting ghost who seeks revenge on the men who killed her and her unborn child. Find out how her spirit helps lead her husband, Deputy US Marshall Jim Sawyer, bring her killers to justice without ever firing a shot. 

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