But perhaps you wonder why I started this blog with this subject. I've always loved history and stories and I've always been fascinated by the unknown, things that despite all of our scientific knowledge, remain unexplained. When I was young, I thought about life after death a lot. I spent many a Saturday afternoon at the library reading books on the subject. Other kids were entranced with Superman and other super heroes of the day or werewolves and vampires, anything that was scary enough to keep them awake at night listening to the house creaking, but I remained focused on non-scary ghosts and spirits.
I found that a lot of people claim to have witnessed a ghost or seen ghostly activity first-hand, but I had never seen anything myself despite my family having lived in some downright spooky places. There seemed to be so many differing opinions and no true bottom-line scientific explanation, but if it isn't true, how have all these different people in different time periods and at different locations experienced basically the same thing? I still had not decided whether I believed or didn't believe when in my early teen years, girls and sports became the focus of my thoughts and then adult life came along and the spirit world died off while I got married, raised a family and had a career.
The years whizzed by and I'm now retired from my 9 - 5 career. I've experienced and recovered from several of my own health incidents which led to looking the Grim Reaper in the eye and, like everyone else who is lucky enough to live long enough to qualify for senior discounts, I've experienced profound sadness with the deaths of friends, family and personal heroes. My interest in life after death and things unexplained have returned. Do I now believe in ghosts? Well, a world with them in it is certainly more interesting.
For years I've saved the "ghost" and "strange" stories and tales I've found or heard. I have several file cabinet drawers full of them. Most of these stories are based on oral legend, rumor, hearsay and foggy memory. I'm sure some, if not most, contain a certain amount of embellishment which has been added over the years of telling and retelling and I make no claim for the authenticity of any of them. All I'm claiming is they were interesting to me and hopefully, will be to you.
With a little time on my hands now, a camera and a good pickup truck, I've decided to travel to the places of those stories and do what I can to re-tell and pass them down. I have no scientific insight into the spirit world,but I do know there are few absolute truths in life and our time to find them is fleeting. I think we humans need to keep seeking those truths. The fun is in the journey itself. Sometimes we find what we wanted to find; sometimes we find what we didn't even know we were looking for. It's all good.
Until we meet somewhere along the road, good fright and pleasant screams.
' Tis strange - but true; for
truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!
"Don Juan" by Lord Byron
"The best stories are never completely realistic and never entirely made-up."
Keep up the good work; I enjoy your stories. Joyce
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joyce! Glad you are enjoying the stories.
ReplyDeleteKen
I look forward to your stories and have retold some of them. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you! You just made my day.
ReplyDeleteKen
Ken, a friend of mine saw your blog about Howard Beaird's paranormal experiences while living in Tyler TX. I was surprised to see it, as I didn't know anyone other than Hans Holzer had written about it. My birth name is Amy Beaird, and I am Howard and Johnnie Beaird's daughter. I didn't live with them in Tyler, as I had moved on while they were still living in Grand Saline. When my father told me what had happened, I suggested that he contact Hans Holzer, and even though the events had ended and they had moved to the house on Elizabeth Street, Mr. Holzer did visit and did as much research as possible, primarily interviewing Daddy and my brother, Andy. When I was an adolescent, I loved science fiction, but particularly liked Mr. Holzer's writing since he wrote about actual events--or events he believed might have happened. The portion of Mr. Holzer's book about Daddy was Daddy's report to Mr. Holzer, almost verbatim. I assume you know that the Travel Channel did a story about it about a year ago. I went to Tyler and was interviewed for the show. It has been on air, but I have not managed to catch it. I'm sure I'll see it eventually. The interviewer was from Minnesota, and obviously works with Mr. Holzer's daughter to carry on his work, to some extent. I didn't see your last name anywhere, and couldn't find a way to contact you except to comment on your article. It was interesting and I thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you. For privacy reasons (to cut down on the phishing and spam messages I used to get), this is actually the best way to contact me. I read all replies and either respond to them privately (if they are legitimate and include a contact email address) without posting or approve posting or delete them. If they are spam or not appropriate, they will never be seen on my blogs.
DeleteThank you for your response. Glad you found it interesting!
Ken