Post by Tomspy77 on Jan 24, 2016 8:36:18 GMT -6
'Haunted Holidays' preserves stories
“Haunted Holidays: Twelve Months of Kentucky Ghosts,” by Roberta Simpson Brown and Lonnie E. Brown. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2015. 258 pages, $19.95.
“Haunted Holidays” is a collection of ghost stories focused on holidays and the seasons they take place in. “With its tales of benevolent and malicious specters, terrifying monsters and unexplained phenomena, Halloween is the holiday most people associate with spooky stories. But do spirits remain hidden the rest of the year? In the rich storytelling customs of the commonwealth, the supernatural world is also connected with holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Memorial Day.”
Beginning with January, the collection moves through each month’s holidays. Every ghost story is given an origin, such as something that happened to one of the authors, or if it was a friend of the authors or one of their family members. Sometimes they include names, and other times the person has asked to remain anonymous. There are other tidbits such as the creation of Lake Cumberland and how it changed the area, or the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum. Of course, they all take place in Kentucky.
If you enjoy family folk tales or small ghost stories, this is a great collection. It is a wonderful way to preserve memories and learn about holidays. For each holiday, the authors present a little bit of information about it, when it started, who started it if it is known and why. The ghost stories usually take place on that holiday or around that month. It is an easy way to categorize them and to help the flow of the book. From Valentine’s Day to Labor Day and even Christmas, the book covers 17 holidays.
Many of these tales take place in or around Smiths Woods in Adair County, so if you are familiar with that area you may recognize some of them or know some that are really similar. It is always interesting to compare ghost stories. Often the same kind of themes occur, because they may have started out as something different and become three or four tales in the telling from one family member to another. Other ghost stories take place around Lake Cumberland, involving people who drowned or were injured there. There are stories involving Civil war soldiers, a soldier from Pearl Harbor and others.
As is to be expected, Halloween has more ghost stories than any other holiday. They are also spookier than the others. Not all are about ghosts, though, and some of the stories in this book are about graveyards, consequences and such. Apparently, as demonstrated by the first Halloween story, “Graveyard Pumpkins,” you should never take dirt or anything growing from a graveyard. “Halloween House” also shares the same sentiment, but is about living next to a graveyard as well.
There is a story about the Octagon House, which is near Bowling Green. It mentions a story told by a Western Kentucky University student about a little girl who burned to death in the winter kitchen there. They also advertise the fact that you can rent the house for a night, if you are interested in true hauntings and respecting the dead. The background history of the Octagon House is nice as well.
Although the description states it is full of “hair-raising” tales, I did not see most of these as scary or frightening. It is mainly a family and friend collection of tales that have passed down through the generations or that have occurred to closer family, such as Roberta Brown’s aunts and uncles. I was disappointed by this, as I thought I was about to read some really interesting ghost tales. They are mainly one- or two-page little tales that mention a ghost once or twice, or end in tragedy and a possible ghost. Others are simply about haunting memories or visiting places rumored to be haunted. The few that got to me involved children being killed in tragic accidents, which as a mother of a small child I never particularly like to ponder.
Often in these tales, it is mentioned that the lifestyles were completely different. There was only one doctor for an entire town, or there were no phones. Men didn’t call on women home alone. There were more rural areas, and people were farther from one another than we are today. Travel used to take much longer, and before there were cars people used horses or trains to reach another destination – meaning that visiting family was usually more than an hour or two. It is interesting to note these changes, because the stories from these times have carried down to us. Thinking about it, now we often have less and less of these kinds of tales. We videotape everything, or find a logical explanation for most things. Perhaps we are missing out on part of the magic.
Families used to come together over these tales. We gathered around fireplaces and over campfires. Holiday visits lasted more than a couple of hours, and our extended families were often closer and meant more to us. As times change, it is important to write down these tales we love, so that they can be carried on to those after us. It is also important because it preserves memories, and the way of life we once had. Ask your grandparents if they know any ghost stories, and record them telling them to you. Write them down. Share it on a blog. I remember several fondly myself.
Overall, I recommend this book. This is light reading that could be great for camping and fireside tales, or perhaps to pick and choose a few warning tales for children. Just do not expect anything truly sinister or scary such as we are used to from the movies. Reading about family tales of ghosts and odd things happening reminds me of the tales I heard as a child growing up. Kentuckians do love to tell ghost stories, and preserving those stories and the memories of our family members is always a great thing. I always loved to hear ghost stories from my family, and I think it would be even better to hear these stories from the Browns themselves.
“Haunted Holidays” is a collection of ghost stories focused on holidays and the seasons they take place in. “With its tales of benevolent and malicious specters, terrifying monsters and unexplained phenomena, Halloween is the holiday most people associate with spooky stories. But do spirits remain hidden the rest of the year? In the rich storytelling customs of the commonwealth, the supernatural world is also connected with holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Memorial Day.”
Beginning with January, the collection moves through each month’s holidays. Every ghost story is given an origin, such as something that happened to one of the authors, or if it was a friend of the authors or one of their family members. Sometimes they include names, and other times the person has asked to remain anonymous. There are other tidbits such as the creation of Lake Cumberland and how it changed the area, or the sinkhole at the National Corvette Museum. Of course, they all take place in Kentucky.
If you enjoy family folk tales or small ghost stories, this is a great collection. It is a wonderful way to preserve memories and learn about holidays. For each holiday, the authors present a little bit of information about it, when it started, who started it if it is known and why. The ghost stories usually take place on that holiday or around that month. It is an easy way to categorize them and to help the flow of the book. From Valentine’s Day to Labor Day and even Christmas, the book covers 17 holidays.
Many of these tales take place in or around Smiths Woods in Adair County, so if you are familiar with that area you may recognize some of them or know some that are really similar. It is always interesting to compare ghost stories. Often the same kind of themes occur, because they may have started out as something different and become three or four tales in the telling from one family member to another. Other ghost stories take place around Lake Cumberland, involving people who drowned or were injured there. There are stories involving Civil war soldiers, a soldier from Pearl Harbor and others.
As is to be expected, Halloween has more ghost stories than any other holiday. They are also spookier than the others. Not all are about ghosts, though, and some of the stories in this book are about graveyards, consequences and such. Apparently, as demonstrated by the first Halloween story, “Graveyard Pumpkins,” you should never take dirt or anything growing from a graveyard. “Halloween House” also shares the same sentiment, but is about living next to a graveyard as well.
There is a story about the Octagon House, which is near Bowling Green. It mentions a story told by a Western Kentucky University student about a little girl who burned to death in the winter kitchen there. They also advertise the fact that you can rent the house for a night, if you are interested in true hauntings and respecting the dead. The background history of the Octagon House is nice as well.
Although the description states it is full of “hair-raising” tales, I did not see most of these as scary or frightening. It is mainly a family and friend collection of tales that have passed down through the generations or that have occurred to closer family, such as Roberta Brown’s aunts and uncles. I was disappointed by this, as I thought I was about to read some really interesting ghost tales. They are mainly one- or two-page little tales that mention a ghost once or twice, or end in tragedy and a possible ghost. Others are simply about haunting memories or visiting places rumored to be haunted. The few that got to me involved children being killed in tragic accidents, which as a mother of a small child I never particularly like to ponder.
Often in these tales, it is mentioned that the lifestyles were completely different. There was only one doctor for an entire town, or there were no phones. Men didn’t call on women home alone. There were more rural areas, and people were farther from one another than we are today. Travel used to take much longer, and before there were cars people used horses or trains to reach another destination – meaning that visiting family was usually more than an hour or two. It is interesting to note these changes, because the stories from these times have carried down to us. Thinking about it, now we often have less and less of these kinds of tales. We videotape everything, or find a logical explanation for most things. Perhaps we are missing out on part of the magic.
Families used to come together over these tales. We gathered around fireplaces and over campfires. Holiday visits lasted more than a couple of hours, and our extended families were often closer and meant more to us. As times change, it is important to write down these tales we love, so that they can be carried on to those after us. It is also important because it preserves memories, and the way of life we once had. Ask your grandparents if they know any ghost stories, and record them telling them to you. Write them down. Share it on a blog. I remember several fondly myself.
Overall, I recommend this book. This is light reading that could be great for camping and fireside tales, or perhaps to pick and choose a few warning tales for children. Just do not expect anything truly sinister or scary such as we are used to from the movies. Reading about family tales of ghosts and odd things happening reminds me of the tales I heard as a child growing up. Kentuckians do love to tell ghost stories, and preserving those stories and the memories of our family members is always a great thing. I always loved to hear ghost stories from my family, and I think it would be even better to hear these stories from the Browns themselves.