Ghosts of the Bluegrass

7. Ghosts That Weren't Ghosts

One fact became quite evident to all those who collected stories for this anthology: people like to discuss the subjects of death and ghosts. Telling stories around the campfire (or in similar gatherings) has always been a great pastime, particularly when the atmosphere is just right. Consequently, some stories were collected that did not directly involve ghosts but were related. Some might be considered “scary stories,” others are about “sham” ghosts, and some are experiences with death. The fear of being buried alive is quite common and is the basis for many scary stories, including “Buried Alive?” in this chapter. Before embalming was a common practice in this country, there were reports of “corpses” reviving. This occurred when persons who were thought to be dead—but who were actually in a coma or trance—were laid out and about to be buried. In the worst cases, the burial actually took place before the unfortunate person’s awakening . Rarely, these people would be able to break out of their graves; most often they perished in their coffins after a desperate struggle to escape. Of course, people wanted to be sure this did not happen to them! Various devices intended to avoid this fate were marketed, such as a voice tube that extended from the inside of the coffin to the surface of the ground. There was also an apparatus, the Bateson Life Revival Device, that had a cord inside the coffin, attached to the corpse’s fingers, that led to a bell above the grave.1 Sometimes “ghost” stories turn out to have perfectly logical exGhosts That Weren’t Ghosts Chapter 7 117 118 Ghosts of the Bluegrass planations, as in the “Ghost or No Ghost” and “Ghost with Chains” stories in this chapter. This can be very disappointing to someone who has enjoyed telling the story to friends and family. Stories with many details that are repeated, such as “Scary Situation ” (following), are the kinds of stories that might be told by a father to his family while sitting by a campfire on a warm summer evening and then perhaps repeated by his child at the next sleepover with friends. They aren’t usually meant to be believed and often follow the tradition of “Where’s My Golden Arm?” and other campfire stories that invariably end with a loud exclamation to startle and scare the listeners. (A storm or heavy rain outside helps to set the scene and increase the effect.) Scary Situation A friend of mine from Lexington was making a trip on a train. As he traveled along, he could not help but notice that the person across the aisle was very nervous and evidently irritable. After observing his neighbor’s chain-smoking for quite a period of time, and noticing his shifting about in his seat and his glancing around repeatedly, my friend began to be very concerned. He decided to get a breath of fresh air, and, to get away from the nervous man, my friend went to the back of the train and out onto the observation platform. As the train clicked along, he realized that the door to the car had opened, and the man across the aisle had come out on the platform too. He began to move back and forth, still in a very high nervous state. Finally, he came to my friend and he said, “I’ve got something I just have to say. I’ve got a story that I have to tell you. I need somebody to help me, and I wonder if I can tell you my story and you’ll help me.” The man told this story: He said when he was in college, his fraternity prepared to initiate new pledges. He said each year the fraternity tried to find a more severe way, a way that would frighten pledges more than in previous years. He said that in his senior year he was chairman of the committee, and that it was his responsibility to select the most Ghosts That Weren’t Ghosts 119 difficult place, the most harrowing experience, and put the pledges through this. So he said, “I sought a place that we might use, and I finally discovered that out in the country was an old, deserted house, supposedly a haunted house. We developed a plan, and we waited for the blackest night to take the pledges to this haunted house and...