Amy Whitworth interview with Archie Chapman, Bill Whitworth, John Whitworth, Nell Whitworth, Albert Bailey, Rachel Elizabeth, and Lula Anderson (part one)

The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com.
This is the first of a two-part recording. Archie Chapman starts this part by telling Scottish jokes about a rowdy church crowd, a village nitwit, a preacher getting a parking ticket, and a stingy farmer. Then at 6:33, Bill Whitworth tells a humorous story about a boy asking a girl to dance. At 8:33, John Whitworth recites a joke from school about a pet parrot, and at 9:25, Nell Whitworth describes how to play William, William McCraney Crow, a rhyming game she learned from her mother.
William Archie Chapman (1896-1977) was born in Lithonia, Georgia, to William H. Chapman (1869-1945) and Rachel Wilson Chapman (1874-1969); he had four siblings: Vera Rachel Chapman Cheney (1899-1974), Louise Chapman McCurdy (1903-1989), Vachel Virgil Chapman Sr. (1909-1995), and Agnes Cornelia Chapman McCrary (1911-2007). He married Mae Treadwell Chapman (1907-1993). Lula Lamar Anderson (1902-1999) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Irving Proctor (1868-1946) and Nell Lamar Proctor (1873-1918). Her family moved to Covington, Georgia, where she married James Carter Anderson Sr. (1900-1957). They had three children: Nell Robertine (1927-2013), Ann Louise (1923-2014), and James Carter Jr. (1920-2011). Lula Anderson worked as the manager of a drug store in Lithonia, Georgia. In 1950, Nell Robertine Anderson married William Bill Ray Whitworth (1926-?), who was born in Marietta, Georgia, and later lived in Jackson, Mississippi; Nashville, Tennessee; and Lithonia. In 1944, he enlisted in the United States Army and in 1951, he received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Nell and Bill Whitworth had two children: Amy Whitworth (approximately 1952- ) and John Anderson Whitworth (1959- ), who attended Lithonia High School. In 1949 Ann Louise Anderson married Albert Wright Bailey Sr. (1925-1985). Bailey was born in Augusta, Georgia, to Paul Baxter (1896-1937) and Edith Wright Bailey (1896-1991); he had one brother, Henry Wright (1925-2010). Albert Bailey served in the United States Navy during World War II. Afterward, he graduated from Emory University and the Medical College of Georgia, worked as a pathologist in Sumter, South Carolina, and later as a professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Anderson and Bailey had three children: Edith Proctor Laetsch, Frances Nell Bailey (1950- ), and Albert Wright Bailey Jr. Bailey Sr. spent his later years in Woodbury, Georgia, where he belonged to the Woodbury United Methodist Church. Rachel Elizabeth (approximately 1925-?) was born in Lithonia, Georgia. Additional biographical information has not been determined.
I Ghost Stories as told by Beb Denton Recorded by Maey Swa7 fflll' John Burrisen Spring 19?3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Personal history or informant Discussion er his repretoire Transcription er stories I. Headleas Revanat II. Mary Come F0rth III. Bre1il1 M0untain Lights IV, Macon Light . :vi. Jump orr Molllltain VI, Franlcie Silvers VII. Washed out TW:a VIII The Whipper IX. Calling Up OhGSts I. Hunting Experiences n. Thlllllping Well III, I,Ights in Old House XIII Mental Hospital XIV. Pet Rooster Metifs His Aunt Joalllle Denton His Grandmothei Den'be:a 3 6 11 17 18 19 20 ,u 23 24 2$ 2:( 2J 29 30 32 33 37 You can 111eet all kinds of people at ice skating rinks, That's where I met Bob Denton. A quiet person with a country accent, he really surprised me with s0111e gOQd ghost stories one night that we were out drinking. They eYen spooked 1119 in the bar. I immediately arranged for a taping sessionl Bob is presently 1'iding in Tuokllr, Oeorg.l.a and has been in the A't.lanto. area for about three years now. He was born in Burt county, North Carolina, near the town or Morganton. He hali a twin siaur Betty---Betty' and Bobbyl This is the smallest family on either side. The Dentons date back to England. He didn't know when they came over. He said his Great,Great, great grandfather,or some number of greats, '11ad a family of' twenty-two kids and they just spread out all ever the eastern coast. The North Carolina area has quite a few. On the Denton side all the families are big, having seven or eight tida each. At Grandfather Dentons funeral it took twelve pews for the illllllediate family only. There u over a hundred grand children! Now that's what they call a clan, His mother's side are the Mllrry 1s. Accordin gto a cousin that lives in the Atlanta area, they ailve Scot, English, German and Dutch in the family line. Twins are frequent on both sides. These i;e ople settled on fal"lllS in the hills of North Carolina, Burt county. That's where Bob grew up. Bob has heart trouble and as a young boy(so he says) was not allowed to run around alot with the other kids. He was raised with his cousins in the strict mountain way-.. either you behave or get a beating, His mother taught him. He feels he had poor grallllllar training as a result. He was thinking aok and remembers still using uyouensand mtin.su when he first l came to Atlanta. When I comnented on the number of. and ahs and ya knows he said,"! don't know English so I have to use and ah's and Ya knows and stulf like that. He does utensive reading on just about every subject. As a boy he went hunting alot with the men. His father had given him his own dog. A black beagle with a white tipped tail that was a lead dog to his dad's pack. He said alot of times that if his dog had been running for a long tille, he Id carry him on his horse for awhile till he was rested and then put him back in the hunt. They used horses in the hunt sometimes. In this society the 9man was his doge. h,.,,.., The people judged the man by the quality and'well the dogs behaved. It was necessary for his dogs as well as his children to behave. If either didn't,. got a beating. Bob remembers that his grandfather actually shot a dog because he didn1t come when he called. Each man bad his own horn and the dogs were trained to stop right where they were and col'Jle when he blew the horn. If a dog was too lazy to hunt he was sometimes giYen.it to the children to play with. One time the comnunit:, was out after one fox that wu getting their chickens. The h'llllt went onefor two or three days. The men were running their dogs in shifts. In a case like this the dogs had to come on call, They'd call their dogs .in and another set whuld take off where they left off. They found out later that the fox had been doubling back and putting theit on the tr1ils of other foxes When the children are too young to carr:, guns on the bunt the:, are given the job of carrying the game. They were subject to a good beating if th.ey didnt. lf4II whole falllily at one time or another were invltlved in the tradition of 110onshinin1 As a teenager he used to run the whiskey over the st.ate line tor them. He says they:te all gotten caught at least once. 4 Bob now only makes his own home made wine--legallY He remembers as a kid tliey had corn shuckl.ngs. They'd shuck cera all day Saturday and then Saturday night had a big dance and a meal that was out of this world. A. lot of the times the kids would just sleep that night in the com shucks. 1'bey were oomfortlble tut somets youd get one up your bl!-~. one thing that caught my attention was the differentiatioa that h made between the city- folks ef Morganton and the really honest "6 God hillbillies 1 Here in Atlanta we would probably considereijim a hillbilly There seems to have been quite a social class li.Ie drawn in the collllllUllity. Bob now lives in a duplex in Tucker, drives a Monte Carlo, plays tennis, ice skates, and according to him replaced his North Carolina hill accent with a south Georgia rural one. He works for Foote and Davies,Inc. He OWBS a four string, traditionally made dulcimer but is learning how to play it out of Jean li&l:Me s book Be ia eern.ng in the National Guard reserves. BGb's Aunt Joanne Denton is an unending source of g)lost arxi supernatural legends, memo rats, and personal stilries. She reads palms, In fact she teld Bob thct I was a bad omenl She told Bob thll1t. she practices some ntchcraft to keep the spirits quiet in her house. At one time she was even a stripper because they made her. She told Bob that s0111e of the voices that her husband heard (mentioned on tape) were her trying to scare him. Grandmother Jina Denton deesnt believe in ghests but does belJeve in the supernatural. For example the story 1Mary COllle Forth It, she considers a true story, not a gh&st story. -Whetsked to tell a ghost story she launched ineo a beautiful version of the fear test motif, Later on in the interview she told a Irishman story and a version of the Traveler's Dre11111 (Roberts,lCl,p,194). The tape in this spoil-was distottid tee much to transcribe these. Sl:e also recounted SQIIB ef her own experiences wiilh the supernatural. Cut of this tradition, moving fromtthe old European legend to the supernatural legends and mElllorats of his aunt, coupled with long nights around the fire on hunting trips swapping ya:ras, has Ellle~ged Bob Denton s vast store of stories Bob's st;nie, although influenced by all this, is uni.quely his own. ~ I asked him for a taping session. The following week he .illle-B home and " tape recorded interviews with bis Aunt Joanne Denton and his Grandmother Jina Denton. He asked them to twll s&me of the sarre legends that he later told me, There are clilf:l:ni te differences in the inteirp1!pta tions of local events. 6 The story of 11.Mary Come Forth11 varies alllOng all of them. Bob puts the event taking place in ASheville with his cousin tb:I victim. His aunt puts ii in Hendersonville with no definite victim named, The hani print was 11on the car or arm or somethin 11 His grandmother just says that it1s true and not a ghost story at all. All these "fersions center around the same motifs varying only in their background material.: The 11111tif Ghostly finger leave marks on man I s hand I appears hen 7 in a slightly medified form. bedause there is no mention of a ghostly finger (E 542 ,l), We also have the idea of ghosts 'I/# sUlllllloned by the oalliag ef their naries (E 366,3) and a person who dies a violent death unable to rest in their grave (E 411,lO)J FrOlll his aunts versien we further pick up the idea of the ghost being laid when its house is desEb'ed (E 451.S), His uncle at one point turned the discussion toward the well known Frankie Silvers legead. She WIIB the first wo~ to be hung in North Carolina fer killing her husbani and child. Bob adds an interesting turn to his by the bones being found with a diviniltg rod (m.otil' D 1316.6). His aunt attributed the finding of the bones to ESP and the turning of a piece of natal by an old mountain man, There seem to be many versiollS of staries recounting this crime judging by Bob's cGDment "Well, they get all kinda stories bout Fl',Qlkie Silvers", These stories that overlap within the family's repertoire have evolved as highly embroidered accounts when told by Bob. The prime example of this art of embroidery is his first story oencerning the headless revenant, He swears it 1s a true personal experience. He took si:x: pages and twenty minutes of tape to tell a legand that centers around the mefif ot the ghost returning to avenge death, 1:i ~omebody the treasure 0f to seek th! treasure himself', He combines this with the idea of the luminous ghosts (E 421,3) and the ghost like lights (E 530.1). '-cl j 3 We have the murdered person unable to rest (E ~) and pos:siblY these are not just lookiag for his body but actually hover over the hiding place of this murdered person's bedy \E 231.3). This personal exp,rilience has been' greatly enhanced and detini tely told wi thinga traditional framework,. But is it really a true experience .io is it just a good ghost story-? $GIile of his stories include local legends such as that of J'lllllp Off Mountain, This is the traditional lover s leap story that every area 8 has, It can be seen in si.Jlilar form in Robert's South From Hell-fer-Sartin1 85, p.171. The legend ef tbe washed out town has credibility added t0 it by having a well trusted group such as the Green Berets see the shadow The story is supported by the motifs of the ghost as a shadow ( E 421.5) and the gall.we ghost (E 274)1 .My guess is that it is, a migrateq legend that has been lecalized te that eld mining town. Some of the steries, although not as unbelievable as same ef the ethers are discounted as i)lost stories by having sGme reasonable explanation. For example the thumping well"'is nothing more than a thUlllping artesian well, The local legend doesn't hold up. The Brown Mountain lights are just swamp gas according to the seientists from New York. The Macon Light I feel is a fragment possibly of the story told in Dersen 105 of the Oh4!>St train centering abound motif E S3S ,4 the Phantom railread train. It has an obvious parallel with the rstum of a killed railroad man te the alllle place on the track just as the train returned to where it had been wEecked. In his retelling of the st<ill'y about calling up ghosts, he left out some of the 111ore enhancing details, Earlier he bad added that when the card fell in the graveyard, it fell five feet from tile ear. This 1$ exactly where they found it when they reached the restaurant, He alee said that you could go down and nlk aroim:i with the ghosts once you got used to the idea, and they would like pass thr111ugh you and all the typical gh011t ,.. ~"'f""t! J,u.,;.'~ =~ ,p,ol"', "1,/Jw Mfl!M' ~ 9 like things. There is not a speeific motif that I cruld rind concerning sU111111oni11g ghosts by a card trick of building a church but there was a summo111ing by writing 0111 a card (D 2074.2.4), It would possibly fit under tm more ge111eral 'ghost sUlllll!oned by other means (E 386). The idea of not picking up the card is hinted at by tre hurry with which they leave.(C 525). The other two etories dealing with the lights in the old house and the sounds in the mental hospital seem to just be local legends llf the traditional haunted house story. They both are located outside of Morganton an:! are probably just old buildings tba t s0111e imaginative person told a story about. They seem to center arrund the idea of a g!:iost haunts beuse (E J81), or building (E 280); of thenonmalevolent variety.{E 330). The personal experiences abwt the rooster were included fer their humorous qu11ties, The rooster stoey hu the makings er a @POd legand mqbe a generation from nw. It is clear by nw that although Bob does not coEBider himself a . storyteller, re nevertheless can embroider the truth pretty dan geed. He is unconsciously operating in a traditional framework of ideas that be has grown up with, TIiey are probably net as obvious to hi.Ill as to someone wtside ef the J!elief system, I beliefe in ghosts to a certain extent; but because I ve never had an e111counter with them like his I find it hard to accept all he llas told as true. I might have to side With his grandmother and believe in the supernatural rather than ghosts. I mentioned that he was operatirg unco11aciously on this lewel because he considers these stories real experiences and not storeies. I 1m sure he1d be surprised to find out hCJII really taditionally based some of them are. He also realized that something is being lost to time. He made those tapes of his relatives as much for himself as for me, He learned alot from them himself. He's been involved with the publication ot a book _similar to Foxfire ,put out by his schoel. He seems to be stradling both sides of the fence. He realizes now the, t these traditions will end with hj,s generation, That he will prebabl;y be the last Denten to run degs on the farm is possible. His parents ard relativeSJJ have meved inte Ntarn11 frem theil' ceunt1' h0111es. Many of hie cousins, himseii' included have left that area for the big city. I feel that wi tJiin the Denten clan there is a wealth of ;yet untapped resources 0f legends, belief's, omens, charms, i:ersonal eitperiences and folklife that need to be studied before time pts them. 10 I Bot Denton 5/6/73 Side A 11 It sorta starts out,like when I was a junior in high school. And ah. What happened mhere was this kid, his name was Mouse, That was his nickname. Came to school one day, And ah. He was a rjal nervous, And ah. Finally we asked him what was the matter. And he said he saw a ghost. He said hed been out on a date and he had went to this old house. There was this shadow or mist came up to the car at night. And ah. Anyway he got scared and ran. So we decided to go to check out his ghost story. And there was about fifteen of us that ran around around together and we all ,ut into a panel truck which one of the kids owned and we went up to the mountain, And ah, The house was about a quarter of a mile off the road. It was sorta up a hill through some woods. We got to the, to the old house and ah. (Interruption in taping) O.K, This story is a ghost story. Collector: A 2host stocy? Ghost story, True, And it starts out, I was a junior in high school and ah I had this friend, His narre was Mouse. And oniaday he came to school and hw was really nervous, And ah. We asked him what was the matter and he said he saw this ghost. Said he'd went parking with this girl at this a old house and the house was in the South Mountains. And he said he 1d saw this a sorta misty type form come over his car and he got scared and he left. So we decided to go check it out, And we got into one of my friend ts panel truck. And usually there was about fifteen of us that ran around together. And we went up to this--went to check out the ghost stocy, And the old house was at-out a quarter mile off a road., and it was a dirt road, And it sorta; it led up through the woods and round this sort of a bend where there's a tree hangin' over the road, An:l we got up to the house and we had the truck down hill so that we could get away if we got scared. And ah. So we opened all the doors, and everyb!lldy was settin round talkin, bout it. And it's tbout seven thirty in the afternoon and the sun still hadn't went down yet. And I guess everyLocly was sorta gettin 1 psyched up for this ghost, you know, cause ya'd heard alot of tales about it. And finally about flive or six of the kids dedided to go to the old house and check it out. See what was around it and in the meantime the trees started movin'. There was no wind. Nothingl And things got rather quiet. There was no a night hawks or anything; no crickets makin1 racket. Just quiet. Collector: Just silence, huh? And ah. But the trees just started swayin like the wind was blowinem but a there was no rustling of leaves or anything like that on the trees And ah, 1Fout this time the kids were up at the old house. They were lookin I at it and a after a few minutes, seems like - I don 1t know. Everythipg startea glowin 1 It started out sorta slow at first and then after while you could count the leaves on the trees. And like there were maybe oak trees, hickory trees, pine trees. But you could see the bark. You could see the way the bark was formed on the trees. And ah. By this time everybody was a sorta thinkin,~ twicet about, you know, why they came up. And by this time we saw a light. It was a sorkof a blue light. It was a sort of a sky blue color. Popped out of a medda which was below the old house, and it looked like it was about maybe about six inches in color (diameter). It was no, you know, definite form bot it was sorta floatin 1 And ah. It moved sorta horizonal along the ground and went sorta pehind the house where the kids were. And in the meantime the kids ltb.d checked out this old house. lld it 13 was just an old wooden house and some of the boards were out on the porch and there was no steps there but it was a pretty neat house 1cijuse the grass hadn, t grown up too bad cause it was a you know, right hfter winter. And a, Philip, he was a kinda. __ character, He rode a motorcycle, had~hec, leather jacket , the boota and all this. Collector: The whole bit. The light sorta stopped at the edge of the house and he decided he'd go check it out. So when he started walkin1 towards ya, the light sorta when off at an angle and ya started slowly movin' toward ya. And ah. So it got within f~ve or six feet of him and he got scared and started to run. "o well, when he ran everybody else cran , you know. So they all got back to the truck. And~n tre mean time there were two small lights I had popPed out of the me 1dda the same place where the other light and they were just wonderrrn' through the trees. And like when they rd go in between a tree-the light say was in front of the tree--you could see the trunk behind it. The light would just pass by it. And ah. So they were comin1 up the side of the hill and the light say was comin1 behind, you know. And these kids they all jumped in the truck, And we were what they call SCAREDt And that ain rt no lie. And ah anyway ah Phillip had brought a twenty-two with him so he a started shootin' at this lip ht and the--we let the light get about two foot from the truck, with the doors open fore we left. So we went tearing dlown the hill. We got down at the tottom of the hill and everybody got out and they were still I guess youi;j say everybody was still shakin 1 And you could look up on the hill and you could still see the trees just wwayin I and a . But where we w6te at everything was just like a normal night, you Know, crickets, any and everytfulmg, you know. And the moon had came out, And about the only reason I say you couldn 1t see tp2there was cause the trees were so thick that you couldn 1t, the moon wouldn't go through the trees, but the moon was shirnim 1 when we got to thee bo ttom of the hill. But it was ds,rk at the top, where the old house was. So a we decided to go ball:k up. So we left the truck at the tottom of the hill and we walked up the road and we got to where the the bend in the road,where the tree was hangin' over and supposedly, Mouse said that if you get below the tree this form would not pass it, 1cause well I guess it was the man's property, And ah, So we got to where the bend in the road and we stopped and everybody set down. And you could still see these lights. Like they were just a., well like there were three lights all together but they were just wonderin 1 everywhe~~. And ah, They"whantt (wasn 1t), you know, movin' fast or anything but they were just bobbi~ in between the trees. And ah--we went-and ah. Well nobody got --was really scared I cause everybody sorta got, you know, got used to the idea that those lights were there. So after while there was just sorta of --somebody looked up and they said 11Hey look at that 11 And there was a fonn, just sorta misty form, sorta driftin' down the road, the dirt road where, you know, where we were at, And it stopped at the tree. And like we were maybe seven--eight feet from it but in the meantime we'd backed up when we saw this little form comint down the rao.d, And ah, It stppped at the tree just like it was sorta lean int against it and the top of it looked a well it sorta, had! a shape the form of a man l:ut it seemed like the a top was just cut off, Like if it a if it was just level, And ah, so Phillip still had his twenty-two and he fired some shots at it tut it didn't you know, it didntt bother it, And so we set around and the leaves you could still see the le aves, everything was just glowint, It just really, bright giliiilill so everything was luminous just like it was in nayglo" paint. And ah so ah, One of the kids decided that a he would go up and check it out, And well, this was the second trip, First trip everytoEly ran, Second trip we made up one 15 of the Mids decided to, you know, find out what it was, So he walked PP, past the tree and this form, would just when he walked up to it the form sorta drifted back and then it sorta just slowly ,you know, jyst engulfed him,you know. And the kid just stood there ya know. And then a after while the form just drifted off, you know like that and ty this time the kid he .... was just white as a sheet. So finally he made it~~came back down the road,you know. We asked him said,you know "What happened?" ,you know. And he said well, ya know, he was sta:1din 1 there and he could feel a coldness come over him. Just like a in the mornin 1s when the dew's fallin 1 or somethin like that, you know. Just real damp, And his skin was wet but he was cold. His skin was cold. And ah supposedly the story behind this was there was there was a man I think he was gamblin' and a he was a rich man and he 1d los:s some money or had won a.lot that nite. And anyway durin 1 the night while he was asleep he got robbed and the people had a tried to malre him tell where his money was at. And nob-- he wouldn't so they a cut off his head and ah. I don 1t know if he got, you know robbed or what but anyway the legend has it that the man is a tryin 1 to find the money. And that these lights are a people after they'd killed him they took him, htried his body where nobody could find it and they're people tryin' to find his body. That these little lights are people trying to find his body. And a so anyway, after awhile it go so bad, like maybe two or three hundred people would come up thar and watch this thing/ And they would just set around outside the boundaries anl watch it. And ah, so finally it got so bad like, weikl, there was a couple of kids got shot. Which you know, maybe ah they a---peo ple shoot in I at this form had, you know, accidentally hitem. And they ,rount ons>0 guy_ballly beaten 16 up or bruised. Where that a they thought, you know, he was runnin I through the trees he got so scared he started runnin I and he ,you know, hit ac few trees. And finally af.ter, well the police a blocked ;it,'off. Wouldn't let nobody go, The people that owned the land finally sold it to a company and they took and built a motel on it. Collector: Do they still see the lightsf No. Well I don't Rnow. I dont know. That s been pretty good wilile back. I haven t been keepin I up with it. And that's it; II And then the one on, a 'bout 11Mary Come Forth". I have a -- there's e a houn, and this was in alh\, I guess it would be in Asheville, And ah, supposedly there was ihis babysitter. She'd been batysittin' thatrmight and the house caught on fire, And anyway she a--she got burnt up and ~he I 17 kids that she was tabysittin' ,:ot burnt up too, And ana1Way like, suppos'edly my cousin went up to it and ah said that iyou could say like 1Mary Come Forth' and she YoFld come fcrth. And it would be like, Ya 1d see a sort of a blaze end +ten it 1 c1 turr crto ;, ]!luff 'a smoke . .And then ah, she said that they went out and said 'Mary Come Forth and they saw the fire and the puff of smoke. And when my sousin looked down she had a hand print on her arm, And ah--it was ah--I don 1t know. I saw the hand print but I cant say much ya know, if it was ,really happened. But I did see the hand print. ( The hand print stayed on her arm for about six months, It had blistered up and got real bad.) III 18 The Brown Mountain Lights. What it was is a road, runs on top of a mountain. Collector: Where can you see 1m? It's between ah Boone and ah Wilmington] North Carolina. It's in the j Pis'a National Fa,rest, and ah. They got an outlook where people could go up and seeem. And what it was, One time there was an old dirt road and if I'm not mistaken it's Indians lookin 1 for somebody or something. I cant remember right off hand. But you can go seem. It has to be sort of a overcast night and usually when it's kind a overcast the clouds sorta hanl!; clese to the mountain 1aause you re at about thirty-five hundred thousand feet,-y,ukilow~lsea level, whatever. And ah, they're not, they don 1t run or anything like that. And ah, you can walk down and like if you see one Jn a tree usually you'll see between two to six. And they come up in different spots. And what it is, it I s like two mountains where they, ya know, it 1s the valley, UH*HUH, And you walk down and a sorta fellarem around, And just ya know---Collector: It Is suppose to look like what, torches? Well it 1s a ball about--its the siFe of a --it 1s about twenty-four inches in diameter, I guess. And it looks like it I s sorta rollin 1 ; ya know, from tree to tree. Sorta like a',tUJJlbleweed,ior somethin like that ya know. But its ju~t this a glowin ball. But it doesnt shine up the ground or anything like that. when you I re down1,under it, You usually have ta carry a flashlight to see where youi'te gain 1 But ya can fallar it. f!"Meant to say Lenoir, "JV'Jy mind gets to wonder1i'/, u] And they got one, it's called the /liacon Li['.ht. It 's about a rail road, where a man had got killted. And he was tryin 1 to stop the train, And he swings this latern. And ah, I think it 1s somewhere in a Wilmington, North Carolina. And ah, you can co at night, and like you can get, go down to it and see thi3 lie ht pop up. But when, like you see it comin 1 down the track swingin' , this latern ! 'Caase ah I think he tried to st op the train and the train hit him. Collector: Do you ever see the train? or somethin like that. Uh-huh. Collector: Just the man, . Jou see the latern swingin I and ah. once the light gets to ya it 111 disappear and then when it gets on the other --- it sorta passes through ya. And then when it gets say five or ten feet on the other side of ya you can see it again. Just swingin', gain I on down the track. And it Is a man he got kiltled, ya know. It I s called the Jllacon track or some thin' like that. I cantt remember right off hand what it 1s called, But they got a place in Hendersonville. It's called ah Jump Off Mountain. rt I s where this brave had to go to war and this Indian maid committed suicide. And supposedly you can see her jump off at night. Like if you're at the bottom, like the campers say if they're campin 1 down thar or somethin I like that and on certain nights i:E looks like somebody jljmps from .tl3.e rock. But yadont hear anything ya just see ah somebody ,just looks like they' re jui;ij.pin I off commi ttin I suicidetsuicide. Collector: And that 1s how it got it 1s name? And thats how it happened, there's this Indian brave had to go to war and his wife committed suicide or lover. It 1 s a love affair. She committed suicide. And I guess that would be the Cherokee Indians cause they live up there. VI 21 And ah, well they got all kinds stories 1bout Frankie Silvers, which was the first women that got hung in North Carolina. And ah. This is out, it would be close to Lenoir. They got a graveyard Collector: Yeah? And well, just one grave on a hill. il/ld ah, anyway, what happened, she had killed had 'killed herrbaby, and killed her hus,and and chopped 1en up and hid, em around the house. l!nd like--like under the steps ,ya know, in the fire place and stuff like that. l!nd ah, anyway like they're still a lot of Silvers still live in North Carolina,ya know. YEAH. They're relatives. But a anyway. Ohl I remember one . There was th is Indian mound . . . Collector: Wait a minutel How 1bout .. Well do you ever see a the woman. Do es she ever come. . . No it's just. Everyt.ody1s scared to,you know, to get involved with that 1 cause all the relatives are around. Collector: Is the house still there where she killed him? No. Collector: It got torn down? But they said when sae killed him,like they found blood stains/ There was a blood trail, where they could fallar. And it was snowin' that night and she killed him. Lile he had went somewhere and he had to cross a river; which whould l.e the ,John's river. Ard anyway, the i.rail ended at the river. And ilverybody thouthL)le:'had got drowned. But she had made the tracks herself and then had killed him Where it looked like that he'd got drowned or fell in the river, fell through the ice and got drowned that a way. But a dog had fount the tones. She had killed heh;, child I think and her husband. Had chopped' em up. And a dog ha.d found under22 neath the steps, had pulled out i:a rt of the body and was chewin I on it, And tha.t Is how that fount that, And then they had one of these a people that takes these ah. What do they call these sticks, ya know, when they get--l;ook for water. Collector: Oh yeah! The forked stick. And he had fount the body in the fireplace with it. cause he had asked 1 em, they had asked him to find the body if he could. So he took his little ah--can t think of the name of the rod-and he had asked asked 1 em if tbeyd checked in the fireplace. Checked the ashes. They found a lot of the bone fragments ya know, VII And ah, there was a -- They had a tarn that had got washed out in a filiood and it was called Morter and ah-- Collector: Was this in North Carolina? Uh-huh. still1 And ah--the a--They had this man in jail which had a sworn that he was, he was put in jail and he was a real bad gangster, ya know. And 2.3 anyway, when they had hung him, his shaduh was against the jail. And like it's ah, the jail's still standi!in 1 , part of it. And like they say on soire nights you can see his shadT.l'll against the wall. Collector: Wha'1.i ;a:lltnightf At night. Eut after that see there was a fil.oihd and it wash it waslled out the mole town so notody lives there new. And it 1s it's in a gorge type place. What it was was a minin' tu:wn. They were 111inin' fot-1:l'.ke mica mines or lt 1s what it was was mica mines. llnd ah, so well they say you can see his shaduh at night. And nobody--like we went up thar several times to it but-- The people up there are not the type of people you would associate with t cause usually they were ,ya know, were re.,l honest to God hillbillies. And like il.ike I was from in o town and we they just didn1t associate with us. And the only time we went up. Like the Green Berets train there and so anyway we had alot of friends that were ah Green Berets and we went up to see 1 em. And there were . never did.,. Collector: You never did see the shadow? No tut some of the Green Berets said that they saw. And ya know, VIII They had a thing like, see my grandfather told me one about the whipper. Which was ah--like you could go huntin 1 and a . 1hey1d hear somethin I comilil:',' through the bushes. There was, sounded like somebody with a stick, ya know, going from side! to side beati.n$ the bushes. And! the dogs would take after it and ah they would run it for a while then it whould sorta turn on em. Then all the dogs would come back just scared to deatheand they'd, ya know, stay underneath Like if they were hunti.n or whatever, like they'd come back to the hunter's feet and just stay there and they wouldn't move the rest of the night, They'd ah have to take them in cause they would they would not hunt 24 any more that night, They would, the dogs would justs,ilij[y there. They wouldnt .. !Sollector: People ever find out what it was? Huh-huh. But it would , whah:it:wouild do, like even like well my grandfather like they were usin laterns then, kerosene laterne? And he said you could hold up a la.tern and you could see all these gushes movin r but }1!0U could not see anythingl It was just like somebody was beatin I the bushes. And the dogs would take after it and tren they'd run it for awhile say fifty sixty feet then it would turn around the then the dogs would just come screamin 1 back.,ya know. And they would not move the rest of tha.it. night from,ya know, their feet. And they'd have to take tl:em in. IX And a,let Is see they had a --you want me to tell the one al:out that a guy that could call up ghosts? (Discussion on the amolmt of tape that was left.) Alri?ht. one night we were ah, we decided to go ghost huntin 1 cause tf1at was the big thing. So we went to a graveyard which was ah maybe five or six hundred graves in the graveyard. And so we had this friend of ours who could supposedly call up ghosts. And he used this card trick. Like he bullt a s~ll church. And ah, he said, like he would build the church on the dash of the car and then he would go down into th, gn1veyard. 'Cause only he could call ghosts up. But he said that if a card fell, for any reason, like the wind blew it off or it just fell over by its self from the motion of a car or anything to let him !mow and if--. We were suppose to leave then, ya know. So we -went several times. Like he'd call up a ghost and they'd have this little church made out of cards inside the car. And like he -would be comin 1 up through thE graveyard and you could see a misty form foller him up. And it , would only come so far and he 1d turn around and tell it, ya know, to go back. And it wpuld just sorta turn around and go tack. "'o one day we went and ah a card fell. And it fell out the door. And so we hollered at him anci told him, ya know, to come that a card had fell. So he comes, ya know, runnin 1 , not walkin, he just comes runnin up through and we all jump in the car and take off. And he was actuall_,, scared but we didn it really know -what to think about the situation. So we left and we pulled into a little drive in restaurant. "nd we as.ked him acout the car. And so wmn we opened th cb or the card was laying like maybe five feet from the car. And it--they were--it couldnt be any reason, ya knew, why. The card hadn 1t stuck to the car or anything. Collector: How did the card get there? I mean it couldn't a got stuck in the Winder or anything. And it just it jus .. it was just layin 1 there. But ah it was ah it was really weird. /3n an earlier telling he filled in the detail that when the card ~.,,t fell in the grai:r,eyard, it was on the ground about fd:ve"from the car just a.s it was found at the restauran-V 26 X Say we were out huntint one night and ah, so my grandfather was carryin r the latern and my father, But like they were walking through the woods. ""o the kids, we were just play in I arouhd, ya know, cause we didn tt, there wasn I t no game killed so we didn I t have to caryy ar1y. So they just walked off and left us, ya know. And ah, so we could see the lights ahead of us so we went tearing through the woods ya know and ah. They had dug these wells and these little holes, say it was 1bout an eight foot hole for the brown house, ya know, And ah so there was five kids, five of us. And we all fell in one of these holes, And it was unrealt Like we thought, ya know like we was goin I to hell right quick, ya know I So then we just piled up on the top of each other. llnd we atarted screamin', ya know. Trying to get out. And my grandfather came over and so ah-- he got us, out and then after gettin1 us out, he give us a beatin' for, ya know, not keeping up. But it was so unreal! It was really cool. [r'he next section of the tape recounts the family's annual Christmas hunt. The family had to raise rabbits for the hunt because wild rabbits were not plentiful enough. This particular year, they dimi1t make it back for Christmas dinner. On the way home they walk over a place "!mere a house had burned down and was covered with about eight inches of snow. Four of them walked on to it at one time and the floor caved in with them. They each kept about twenty dogs, so on these Christmas hunts there were from eighty to a hundred dogs. The younger kids that were not able to carry guns had to carry the game, The worst beating he recalls is from a Sunday hunting trip where he had on his best clothes. A rabbit was killed and he had to carry it, His mother beat him for ruining his clothes but his father would have beat him if he hadn1'"9 27 XI Bob Denton 5/6/73 Side B One about---it's called-- You coula hear a heart beat in the woods. And what'd happened, there's this old house that burned down. And ah like you could go up to it and you could get out of your car and you could ya know, say sit on the hood or ya know just stand up or anything. like that. 'I'hen after awhile you'd hear this thumpin', sound like ~ a person's heart. And ah like a what it was was, It was called an artesian well. Like the Egyptians used. YEAH. But it was really. I mean you could actually hear it. But nobody throug-ht. Well it went on for years and nobody really f!iun(:]'.iout what it was. They just thought that the old house, that the person that ha<;l, ya know, died in the house, was ya know, . Collector: Haunted! His will power was so strong that you could actuallY hear his heart beat. And it was ah ... I Ive checked that one out. eause I've heard that one. Collector: Just a thumping well huh? Yeah, just a thumpinl well. But it was pretty good, 28 XII And they had one that ah it was a outside of Lenoir, which is in North Carolina. There was an old house, and it had--that was really grown up, ya know with overgrowth. Collector: Reallspooky lookin 1 And ah, but you could go to it at night. And ah or be passing by it, Like say if you're walkin' along the road or even if ya in a car. After you pass the house you could see a light like somebody carryin ah maybe a candle or something like that, go from one room to the otherto the other. Very slowly! And what it was it was a funeral home. It usee to be a funeral home. Add ah. Now as far as the story behind that I dont know. But it used to be a old funeral home. 29 XIII And they had ah a p1ace where ah they wyould take ah people that were mentally c'isturted. And 1 ike the y 1 d chain 'em to the wall. And ah this was ah, this is not the ah fune,al home. HUH. This is another place,)lmah. And anyway it was a hospital. And ah like you could ah well I know a lot of times at night, the kids we I d all get into; break into it. See what we could, ya know, find. And you could walk into one of the room,. Like all the rooms were padded. And the walls would have chains on 1em, where that they 1 d , ya know take ana ah put these people in. So one night we were there. And ah we heard somethin 1 upstairs, And ah, it sounded like ah mapbe somebody had set a bottle omcthe table, ya know like saretimes you set a bottle on the table and it doesnt, ;va know, set flat so it rolls around. It sounded like that. So it took us ten or fifteen m:irnutes to get enough nerve to just think about goin' up the steps, ya know, to find out whi!!jt it was. So we got up; went upstairs and there was nothin 1 there. And so we sorta looked around and ah we came back down. And we got almost ta the exact place where we were at when we were lookin at these charims on the wall where they had these people, ya know, chained up to the wall? And we heard it again. And it see-- like were mld move away from it, this one spot, and it m uld stop. And th en you could sorta step back and you could hear it. Like a bottle just, ~a know trying to set level on the table. It just rolled around. Collector: Did you ever find out? Huh-huh. Never did. But we didn 1t stick around that much cause they had police patrolint it all the time. You know had security guands. YEAH. 'Cause see, part of the house was liveable or the hospital. But what they done, there was a hospital and they had like ah where the nurses and doctors, tie y .30 all stayed in one wing of the tuilding. Then in the other, say th~left wing, they had it closed off. But he casement was the best part, That 1s where they keep-kept all the people chained up. That 1s were we--Collector: Like a dungeon ... Crawled in through the basement . Collector: Like a dunge0n or something. We always crawled in through a basement winder. But ya see the police they made a round every twenty minutes. And when they'd pass, we'd to in. We always had it timed up, ya know cause we used to play there almt. But it was really kinda spooky, It really was. 31 XIV O,K, My grandfather used to have a pet roosttr. Collector: A pet rooster? A pet rooster. O .K. They had a well to go dry. Ya know when a well goes dry they have to dig a new one . Alright, one time it started, like my grandfather filled it up and planted a tree in it. Collector: In the well? In, well where the well was at, ya know. And this rooster used to set in that tree all>the time Just,. ya know, every mo min I he was there, in the daytime. I mean, ya know, well he got down to eat and all that hut, ya know other than that, he stayed in the tree, And I remeber it came just one, just a gully-washer, ya know. And ah the tree sunk. Like all this soil (laughter) had just sorta, ya know, hardened up and it just fell on into the well. And I remember that mornin, we got up and we could--you could hear the rooster crowin 1 but he sounded like he was in a , ya know, just a some barrel or somethin 1 , ya know. Just crow in 1 (laughter) And we went out there and that rooster was like, ya know, he was fur---he was so deep tmt, ya know, he couldn t fly out. So he was settin 1 in there crowll\.nt in the mcmin1 I remember that. That was pretty good. Collecto~: In the well! huh? In the well. I. 5'he lleadless Reven~ E 231, 3 E 27S E 276,2,4 E 334 Ohos t honrs over hiding placeof body of urdered person Ghcs t haunts place of accident ormisfo11tune Ghostly lights frighten treasure seekers Obas t haunts scene of f'omer misfortune, crime or tragedy E 372 Reilurn from dead to seek hidden treasure E 412 Murdered person cant rest in grave E 421,3 Luminous ghosts E 422,1,1 Headless revenant E 422.1.l.3Actions of revenant E S30,l Ghost laid when house it haunts is destoryed or challged Parallel to Roberts ,Solilth of Hell for Sartin /19,, various haunt and treasure tales in Dorson. Version not complete enough for exact c0111parison, _ Probably a memorat. II, ~ary C0111e Fortij} E 334 Ghost haunti!!lcene of former misfortune, crime or tragedJI E 380 Ghost summoned E 386 ,3 Ohos t s11111111oned by calling name E 411.10 Person who die violent death cant rest in grave E 542,1 Ghostly fingers leave mark on man's ba111i'. Supernatural legend. III, \!!rown Mountain Light~ E 330 Loactions haunted by non malevolent daad E 379 Friendly return from dead E 421,3 Llllllinous ghosts E 41, Did cant rest till certain work is finished E S30,l Ghost like lights F 401,2 LWllinous spirits N 776 Lights seen fran tree lodging place at night leads to adventures. Local legend. IV, ~aeon Lightj E ,35.4 Phantom railway train Citesest to the Ghost Train,105 Dorson, p,219. Local legend, V [;!ump Off Mountaiaj A 985 Cliff from lover s leap E 334,2,3 Ghost of tragic loaYerhaunts scene of tragedy j ~~~ f'lt~l'!'~f,:i!,J,l~Cide see at death spot or nearby 33 E 337.3 T 211.3 Lovers tragedy re-en~ted Husban/wire( lovers) kill themselves so as net to be separated r,'ee Roberts, SC!uth or Hell-for-Sartin,85, p.171. Local legend. Vi:. [Frankie Silver~ D 1318.6 Divin~g bones reveal guilt D 1318.7 Flesh reve-1.s guilt J ll46 Detection by strewing ashes S 100 Revolting Murder or lllUtilaticn Locllil- legend and/or personal l!gend VII{!aebed out~ Gallows-ghost haunts gallows swindler cant rest in grave Person otherwise killed can t rest in grave Ghost as shadow Local legend. VIII tt.he Whippe!) E 402 E 421.1 E 421.1.3 Me1110rat. Mysterious ghostlille noises Innsible ghost Ghost visible to dogs alone IX. \2_alling up Ghce ~ C 525 Picking up card fallen to ground forbidden D 2074.2.4 Spieit sWllllloned cy writing on card E 380 Ghost sumioned E 386 Ghost sulDIIIOned by other means F 404 :, Means of sunnoning spirits. Memorat. X. [ Hunting Triaj Personal experience----no motifs. XI, ~hlllllpin' Weli\ ~ J/hu/- E 330 Locations haunted by non .. malevolent. dead E 402 .. Invisible ghost makes rapping or knocking noise F 402.6.3 Delllons in well Mem.orat. 34 XII @lei Rous~ E 280 E 281 E 330 E 402 Ghost haunts buildings Ghost haunts house IPcations ha1mted b.r non malevolent dead il!host like lights Local legend, IlII fuental Hospit~ E 280 Ghost haunts luilding E 330 LocatiOIIS haunted by non-malevolent dead E 402 Mysterious ghost like noises Memorat XIV \!-he Rooste~ None Fersonal ezperience The fellowing transcriptions are fr0111 taped inteJ'Tiews Bob Denten had 'WI.th Ids aunt and grandmother. I inclued only those tales that Bob also told or memontl that reftect their belief in the supernatural. They are oot necessarily in order of telling because there was a lot of irrelevant material and the interviews were on two different tapes. Retaping was not possible. T)le tapes are a-gailable if llee:ded by contacting l?Gb Denton. .)6 /jhe Whippe~ Awat Denton 37 Ohl These people would be ah huntin in the night and wh,tca call something like ya take that stick and whip on the grourd and make a dllSt. And git the degs stirred UP Am. th,y l:JIOUld go go ai'ter it and yet it wasnt anything there. Now that used to be up tJmr at A.11111t (unintelligible) place. AJld years ago it wyeuld whip aroulld the house, ya know .lind you'd see the dust but it wasnt anythiJlg there. $'o that'd really tear up a pack of dogs. Uncle: Yeah, it whupped the dogs. Dogs woulcDlt. AU11t: And I 111,an it wouldn't be anything to see Uncle: They'd cane back with their tails between their legs. Aunt: Woultint be a thing to see. Up to the cedar, Jane used to tell me said that she when she was small that she had walked to the store one day, and she had dipped snuff' .And she said there was a man comin1 almost had almost COD to here riding a horse. And she had just turned her head to spit to sp1ak to hill and when slle looked am he wasn 1t even there He ha:i vanished. Bot: Now was that one the Road? Aunt: Yeah, Now thesee drunk people there was about six ofS11. Were goin down the road and ah wagon--I 1ve forgotten how many horses were pullin1 it, anyway there was this black coffin rolled out in front. That happened on the Lenoir raad too, ya knew. He said a black coffin n>lled out in f11.11nt of1em. It wasnt long till there was one or two efiem had dieii, 1 caw,e of that. It was probably just a waridln f of some sort. Bob: Seems like there's a lot of legends over there. Aunt: It is, its just one little section. Isnt it? Uncle: Everyone ofem. You get--~lary May could tell ya a bunch of1e9. Aunt: Now she is good. Now she really is Now she saw a grandpa Denton after hed died. Walk through the door am she was setting 38 at the table. Amel she got up to shake hatxls with him and ha had vanished. B$bt What you wamt to say is people beliave in a Aunt: There is a such a thing as a supernatural. Bobt o.K, yeah, I 1ll have to agree with that. Aunt: 'Cause too many people has have visions. I mean I have seen things myself I didN t understand. Bob: True Aunt: But, and if y11,-dont. If you never see anything how do you expect people to believe in it. You dont, if you dont have the experience, Bob: Uh-huh, only somebody th, t bu llhe same or can experience the same things. ~unt discusses her mother's hc;,use and all the strange thing1 that happened there:} Uncle: Well we used to have a dog. And he'd stay in the house. Now we 1d bein the den, in the living room when we lived in the ooUlltrif, am ah he would rare up and walk over to the door aIX1 look in the other room and growl and back nay like there's sanething in there. Am he did that many times, didn1t he? Aunt: He did Uncle: Scared the hell out of mel Really I mean you know. Aunt: It was always in one room. It wasnt, was that the room that a the couch that somebody had said that somebody had died on it. It's that couch right in thar. Uncle: No it wodnt. cause he always be in the livin room. ~: But the dog would peep around (mUlllbles). It would always be in that sa111e room. &b: Who died on the couch? .Aunt: I dont knw. See that couch belonged to the f&111ily. (Uh-huh) So, when you am betty were Slllllll I had to sleep on the couch in tllat old haunted rooml (Lav.ahter) And really I mean and s met,hhg actual:ijt got after me. It got in 1fI ear, blowill1 at 1111!1 B11t I wasnt asleep because I'd heard heard a car ge up right before that. And it got going round in my head. And I ecreamed and I honestly it scared me. So another time I slept on that couch and I had the sui. e:xperie me but in a different way. There 1s undoubtly something to that, ., n,r, ~ore general discussion on Grendlllother Dentens home, more exp,riences-;1 Bob: How bout-- Do yeu knew a117 like say ghost stories from aroumdthe area, ya know. You know what I'm talkin about? Somethin1 like the Brwn MoUAtain Lights, Aunt: Oh the llrown Mountain Lights. Well I don t think really that ths.t stems back, I think they thought it was some folklore conceming the Indians or something, Sut ah the scientist and so forth have cane from New York and they think it 1s really swamp gas, 1:he swamp, ya know gas colllin I up lut of the swamp. Because they let some iople to in there one time and dont ya know, they smelled somethin alld gci sick. You rmember that? That a they have to really keep it the Brown .Mountain Lights as as something a historic or somethin 1 ya know. But I think it's really the swamp ga.s comin1 up. ~ut you know we used te have alot of fexfire around here. I remember when the whCDle hill was lit up. But we cbn't have that anymore. 39 Auntt Whell Jee (her brother) and I were small we were set tin I around in the barn. And it a soin.- like a white sheet had flew around tlle side of the barn. And it went back in. It was a white sheet like a ghost type thing And therE> wasnt anything in that ham. Bob: How bout. Who tolrl that story about that a was it Mary come Forth? you know, it Is about that girl that got burnt ~ a housel Aunt: Joe tolrl that, That one hapi:-elied in Hendersonville don't ya dont ya knc:,wj ADd a but they've torn that dam made a development there, Mary Come forth and said she 1d come, I believe like :fire and then turn into sllieke, Itnt that right? uncle: Solnethin to that order, Idont Joe knows quite a few,, Bob: Didnt ah didn't you say somebody got a hand print burnt 1111 their- h Aunt: Uh-huh, on the car or their arm er sellllthin1 Dont ya reme111ber you told that Uncle: Got hold of somebody or somethin1 , ~KIPJ Aunt: But, ya knew alot of times, I think things l:i.ke that happen here, I've always heard that when a pereon dies their spirit stays there, Now that I believe becasue I tell you wby. You knew when that girl got killed on that highwq,Vas it highway something down east? Ya know you remeabtrr a.llcl she was goin to a party. And so -ny people have stopped and picked her up and when they took her she wasn't even beside Sm had just vanished out of their cars, Now I believe the spirit tqs where they die. I believe that, Uncle: Yeah, 1her1s legend down in the east part of the state. iffllr,t,t 40 you're talkin bout now. And motoristsll g~me bJ on a raiey night. She got killed on a raiey night didn't she? Aunt: She was goin1 to a party and Uncle: Anyway on a raiey night strangers will come threueP am she 1ll fiagem down, And theyll drive up to the yard and her pa.rents will 1a know come out (hull-huh) sq say 7ou saw her too, And they know whats happened, I mean Aunt: 'llJey said shs wa.s appeared like a pi.le person to represent death. Uncle: I believe tblt I s true (Mablee) Aunt: That's true ther61s a song about ithat. And said she would a weep. Ar)d sq take me to so and so, ;ya know. Uncle: Tell Him ahout 1'rankie Silvers (Muilbles eteryone talking at once) Aunt: You know people dont believe in this a what you call it mental telpathy, p. AnywaJ. There wu some guJ from the mountains that could , he'd take a metal or somethin1 and turn it. Now nobody didn't even know where he was. And he didn 1t even know anything abcut the crime. Butthese guys knew hilll and asked h:i.111 concerning Frankie's husband. And he turned that little metal and so forth, And he said nl:iave you sifted the ashes?" Alld when they got back that's where they found the fraginents o.f the bones. otha-wise theyd never found a~ing, Qnp TO .OTHER T~ Aunt: Right aftelr, right after dad died that da7. Pauline had this nsion tlat night. Isnt thct right? or he was buried that da, or something. inyway Pauline said she heard a knock at the docr,r, Said she opened the door, and there stood my daddy with no head, Said his arms were out stretehed, Said "Pauline, I've come to see yw agiin, 11 She said that scared her so bad she stepped back and shut the door. Aunt: BUt a Doris said fore daddy died(dog barks) Before dad died tha\ Jay appeared in her bedroom and said he acted like he wanted to speak to hjr. And she looked at him and said "Well Jay, what do you want?" And said he still act like he was trying to speak to J:J,r, "Well if you don't want tosay anything then jus.t get on out ef the way11 , Said he vanished, So abGut that time (llllllle not understandable} called :from Balttaore. (Mumble)And said 11Is mom alright?" am they said n Yes fine. u Because I had a dream am I just wondered atout it. Of course it all just concernin1 did 1s death, BoB: Now do you ah like know any ( ) ..... Aunt: Oh when I was little. Maa never did tell you this did she? This house ,mom Is house if full of that junk, When 1 was little about four years old I allllost died, ya know. So 1110111 slept with me, and dad slept with Joe,And mom said she heard a l:t.ttle child walk into the bedroom one night and zsaid she heard his footsteps, And whm he set up on the bed she felt the bed iive, Ami said she called Chrenee several times. Said he w,uHnt answer, ~ .. . o she said the bed give back up and said the child walked back out of the room, And she said "Well, there's an angel come to get A.Im, 11 And said that's all she heard. \., jyhe tape continues with more of the same tjpe of legends, mem.ora-ts, belieflt, o- and the like. Due to lack of time I all! not able te make use of the1113 42 GRANDMOTHER DENTON Tape in parts--nat complete Bob asked his grandmoth_er about the story ""Mary Come Forth" that he told on the tape. His grandmother doesn 1t believe in ghosts but does story believe in a supernatural. She s' aid "'Now that ain I t no ghost now that was the truth"' Bob: Do you know a ghost story. I mean, ya_ know. bo you mean like--do you mean like a there's an old haunted house? Bob: Yeah, ;;;omething like tha't. Do you know wherte a haunted house is f Grandma: Huh-huh. Bob; Oh now grandma. Grandma: Well they said there was a, now this I heard this "!men I was 4.3; a younen 1 They said there Is an old haunted house. And nobody had never stayed in that house, It was empty. \JH-.fHUH. And this old man said '"l'lell I, well I bet you I _cuuld stay in this house 11 And they said 11No you cantt11 So he g,tiishim a walkin' cane, takes a char Md it had a great big old firpplace in it. So he sets his chair beside the fireplace and ah his wa1kin 1 cane. And he heard a blunder. He said, "Come on down Mister". So down come a man's a arm. Well, he just pull it out, see it fell sown down through the chimmney. He pull it out on the hearth. And ah so directly he hear another one. And so down come another man's arm. So he just took a took his old walkin r cane and pulled it out beside the other arm. So he heard another blunder and ah down come a man I s 1B g. So he pulled it out put it with the twoJ arms. Heard another blunder and down come another man's 1Bg. "o he pulled it with the two arms. So he heard another blunder and down co me the body. So be just got his old cane, but he had : a pretty hard time trying to get the body because it was kinda heavy. . o he pulled it out leside all the rest of it. Wasn't long 1foFe here come the head, And ah this head looked up at him and said 11Nis ter well' 11 have a pretty good time. 11 Now ibat like to scared him to deaib. So ah about ta that time the door opened. He ha.d the door closed. And the door opened and here comes a dog draggin' the coffin. (Laughter). So when tDE dog 1 come in a draggin 1 the coffin. He took off. He lef'.t chair and everything. So he took out to the woods and when he got to the woods well he fell over a big old log. And he layed lack a little lit and lilO he ah he looked up and was gonna get up and men he ah raised up on one side the other side raised up. A nan with no head on siiid, "We had a pretty good race didn 1t we ? 11 He said "Yes, and we I re going to have another one as so on as I get up from here. 11 So that was it. - ------------ Motifs: H 1411.1 Fear test: styaing in haunted house where corpse drops down piecemeal down chimney. J 1495 person funs from actual or supposed ghost The ghost nuns up beside him. The man stops to res'!:,; the ghost stops ssays, "That was a good run we hadl" The man says "Yes and as soon as I get my breath, I 1m gpdtng to run some more" Tale j;ype: 326 Similar to 9b in Roberts, South of Hell for Sartin, p,38',i 44 -RELEASEBy letting us collect your traditions--stories, so~.gs, music, remembrances, or beliefs of earlier days--you have made a valuable contribution to preserving and understanding southern history, and especially the way of life of your community. Because you have given unselfishly of your time to do this, the Georgia Folklore Archives, whose representatives are dedicated to preserving these traditions, wants to protect your rights to this material by guaranteeing that it will not be used for unscrupulous colll!llercial profits. By signing this sheet, you are giving us permission to use this material for educational purposes so that people who are interested can understand how life was in the old-timey days. If you don't want your name to be used, say so--we respect your right to privacy. Thank you for the time you have given to help us record a heritage that is an important part of American life. "I hereby grant permission to the Georgia Folklore Archives and its Director, John Burrison, to publish, or otherwise make use of, the material recorded from me by the agent of the Georgia Folklore Archives whose name appears on this sheet." Signed d;. J!v.r=t""t&~ I Address d-..1 6 -,3 1'l~geq,QC:l :J~ck e Sc Agent of Georgia Folklore Archives Aar11,4 C s;,-1/o/ Additional Witness ------------------ Georgi a Folklore Archives c/o Professor John Burrison Georgia State University 33 Gilmer Street South East Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Date_..a:..)+/.i../...;;,.,._/--'-7-'3~--- / I
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Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions.
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