Hunting for Hauntings

Ghost Orb photographed in Churchyard in Key West

I believe in ghosts. My apartment in Jersey City was haunted and I worked in a haunted bar in Ft. Lauderdale a million years back (on Commercial Blvd, it was a haunted country-western, lesbian sports bar named Our Playhouse to be exact).

I believe in ghosts because I've seen or heard them or have had people I know see or hear them. First person encounters tend to make you believe. And I believe in the most tourist-trappy of all tours - the Ghost Tour!

For those of you that don't believe in ghosts - how about a good story? I think believers and non-believers alike can all agree on liking a good story that's well told. Let's up the ante. How about a good ghost story? I'll see your ghost story and raise you.....what about if there are actually ghosts present? Jackpot!

One of my favorite ghost towns is Key West. You just feel the place is haunted. I mean ya got a small island that has a history of Indians, Bahamians, Pirates, Artists, Drunks, Eccentrics all in a lucious simmering stew of hurricanes, malaria, murders, drownings and shipwrecks.

Ghost Tour Guide Giving the Rules - You might be touched.....Be open...

The tours are chock filled with stories like the story of Robert the Doll, an enchanted doll made for a little boy by his nanny. Cute story? Not so cute when said nanny alledgedly had an affair with the little boy's dad, had a child by him who mysteriously died and was fired by the wife. the doll has a "soul stone" sewn into it, thus making the lifesized doll enchanted with a voodoo spell...The legend of Robert the Doll is still alive and well. You can visit Robert the Doll at the East Mortello Museum (itseld kinda haunted). Ask his permission before you snap a pic because the walls of the museum are filled with letters to Robert from visitors who didn't ask his permission and lived to regret it.

Robert the Doll messed up my camera and wouldn't let me buy a Pepsi.

Another good haunt is the church turned theatre turned abandoned building where a group of children and their Sunday School teacher were burned alive by the Church's Pastor. The Pastor also happened to be the Schoolmarm's husband and he thought she was cheating on him. So he burned her and the kids alive. If you put your ear to the glass doors you can hear tapping back from little hands. And the scent in the air? That sweet smell of roasting? That's the flesh of the children burning. I myself was pushed by phantom hands there and my husband (a skeptic) said aloud "If your're in there show me". At that point lights went on in the abandoned theatre. He's not so skeptical now.

Haunted Theatre where children died. Do you see a ghost?

Churchyard where the children were buried.

My favorite ghost that I search for is of course, Pappa Hemingway. It's said that Ernest Hemingway roams Key West on his birthday. I've yet to see him, but I would love to. I do have a drink (or two or three or five) in his honor for his birthday every year. Hey - it's my birthday too!

And of course, there's the cemetery in Key West. Located in "dead" center of town on Passover Lane, the cemetery is not open at night, but still a great place to go in the daytime. This is the place where the dead have a sense of humor - like in the gravestone that says "I told you I was sick". Gotta love it.

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Key West Cemetery on "Passover" Lane. Anyone home?

Some may think that touring cemeteries and looking for ghosts is morbid. I beg to differ. I'm the first to tell you that I am scared to death of death. I think we all are to some degree - the ultimate unknown has to bring fear to everyone. Looking for ghosts can maybe give us some answers to the questions we all have, possibly some comfort in knowing that this life is not all there is in the universe and at the very least....some really good stories.

Boo-Yah!