Posted on 12/15/2004 8:18:49 PM PST by CurlyBill
I'm not one who has ever really believed in ghosts. I've always thought there was a logical explanation for everything.
I have a couple of good friends in Greenwood who have always claimed they have a ghost in their house. Since I have never had a firsthand experience with a ghost, I always shake my head, laugh and think, "Yeah, right."
But after last Saturday night, I'm beginning to rethink my views on ghosts.
It's more than a week later, and I'm still a little spooked by what I saw.
As I was standing by my friend, Melanie Riley, on the porch of the Confederate Memorial Building following the late-afternoon wedding of her sister, Michelle Cleveland, to Ronny Joyner, the freakiest thing happened.
Several of us were taking a break from the after-wedding cleanup, when Melanie saw a cute picture of her sister, Cindy, wearing the boot of her boyfriend, Trampas.
She said, "This is hysterical. I've got to have a picture of this."
Melanie snapped the picture, and then her jaw almost hit the ground when she viewed the image on screen.
It was evident something wasn't quite right when she said, "Oh my God. I've always heard you can catch apparitions on camera, but I've never had that happen before."
We all kind of looked at each other for a minute and let what she said soak in. Then we all wanted to see the picture.
Even on the digital camera's miniature screen, you could see a ghostly image.
Immediately the group on the porch started analyzing the situation. I'd say there were at least a half dozen people standing there at the time.
In the picture, the ghostly image started across Cindy and wound around behind Trampas.
It appeared that at least two ghosts, who I think look like Confederate soldiers, decided to join in the wedding fun.
But being the skeptic that I am, I told Melanie to take another shot just to make sure it wasn't something with the lighting. There was only one person with a cigarette, so it couldn't have put out that much smoke. Plus, I would have noticed it. An image like what I saw in the picture would have been hard to miss.
The second photo was as clear as a bell, so there goes any theory about it being smoke - and it was a cool, crisp winter night, with no fog or haze to speak of.
Talk about a hair-raising experience. I've never had a feeling like that in my life.
There were no ghostly sounds. Things didn't move by themselves. There was no evidence they were even there, except for the images caught by the camera.
Needless to say, that incident has been a big topic of discussion this week.
Melanie immediately went inside to show her mom and dad, Bo and Jean Cleveland, who were downstairs cleaning up with a couple of their friends. Then she got on the phone with the newlyweds to tell them about the apparitions. And her brother, Donnie, and his wife, Angela, were there as well.
We were all trying to figure out what was going on, and we couldn't wait to see the photo on a larger computer screen.
Melanie went home and downloaded the picture, and she called me a little later to tell me what she saw.
On Monday morning, I had her e-mail it to me at the Commonwealth, so I could get a better look.
I thought surely after the weekend I would think about this image in a more rational way.
But there was no getting past it. It would be easy to write it off as something else if I hadn't been standing there and seen it with my own two eyes.
It still appeared to be an image of two men who looked, oddly enough, like Confederate soldiers.
The first thing I decided to do was call Mary Ann Shaw, who has been the driving force in restoring the Confederate Memorial Building. She said she had never heard any ghost stories about the building. But the incident piqued her interest, and she came by Tuesday afternoon to see the picture of the ghosts.
Some of us who were there Saturday have been wondering if there was something significant about Dec. 4. What could have caused the images to appear on the camera?
I haven't found answers to these questions, and I may never know, but it will always keep me wondering.
As people at the newspaper saw the photo, I got mixed reviews. Some are just as caught up in the ghostly image as I am, and others aren't so sure.
One woman came by to see the picture and said it looked like a bunch of smoke to her.
Another friend has examined this picture to the extent that she thinks it is one ghost that was moving so fast it appears to be two. She can show you what she believes are the facial features, the hat and everything else.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and I respect that.
No matter what other people have thought about the picture, it has been so much fun to talk about. It has given me a new perspective about ghosts. I've even gone to Web sites to see if what we saw compares to other sightings.
Oddly enough, the picture Melanie took looks creepier than anything I've seen on the Internet.
The theme song from the movie "Ghostbusters" also has been ringing in my ears since someone on staff said that was what the picture brought to his mind.
And the funniest thing is, it's amazing how many people have ghost stories to share. I've heard more of them in the past few days than I care to admit, and it's not even Halloween.
I agree it could smoke. As someone else mentioned, the flash could have bounced off the smoke. If it was a very still night like the author says, it could have taken along time for the smoke to disapate.
I was visiting my mom and dad a few years ago and my mom had one or two frames left on a roll. She snapped a picture of me when I wasn't looking while I was sitting on the couch looking at the Sunday paper. My brother was there and a smoker. When she got the picture back there was all this white haze around me- smoke! It looked very, very eerie, but it was not ghostly at all. It very much looked like this picture.
I don't remember where I read this- I think it may have been in a book about ghosts in the White House- but a family was on tour in the White House and at some point on the tour they saw someone dressed up like Abe Lincoln. The families little boy was about six years old and went up to this man and talked to him for a few minutes. The man bent way down and shook the little boys hand and patted him on the head.
The family thought this was such a neat idea to have people dressed as the former presidents and at the end of the tour commented to the guide about how great they thought it was. The tour guide looked puzzled and said, "We don't have anyone dressed as Lincoln on the tour."
It's smoke. You don't need much smoke to cause a reflection, when you catch it just right. That is what has happened here. The "ghost" is nothing more than a reflection of light froma small amount of smoke, about the amount you would get from one smoker.
I went to Carnton in the late 70s when it was in disrepair and being used half as a barn and the other half had hippies living in it.
Carnton has lots and lots of blood and of course we all know the spot where the generals were laid out dead after Hood's quioxtic offensive.
The Nashville metro area has lots of WBTS ghost sightings including near my own home.
Ditto....Vicksburg Military Park and Shiloh.
Me too! I'm glad I'm not nuts!
There are pictures of me just after I delivered my baby, with 2 distinct orbs in the picture. They appear to be floating right over my newborns head. :)
Either angels.... or Someone close to you that had passed on, came back to check on you and the baby.
My Mom claimed that a vision of her deceased Grandmother (they had been very close) flooded the room over her bed as she was in labor with me. She even heard her Gram's voice telling her everything would be alright. And the voice used a name that no one else called my Mother, so she knew it was her, not her imagination.
Aaaaah! I see dead people! When I was 13 I lived in Hawaii at Hickam AFB. At night I use to ride my bike over to the morque where they would identify new remains found in Vietnam, this was in the early 90's. One night I was climbing on top of the morque and I heard screams and people asking me to release me and tell my family they found me. It was whack!
Also we went to this morque from WWII in Hawaii that was turned into an alternative school on Pearl Harbor. One of my friend's mom worked there. So one night we got a bunch of tape recorders and polaroids and went on a ghost hunting expedition at night. She actually opened up the school for us that night and gave us free reign to run around and caputre proof of our ghosts. This was probably pretty stupid in retrospect. Anyways we didn't find anything, we ran around and screamed because we thought we heard noises, but nothing really overwhelming. Well the next day when I got the film developed, the one camera that wasn't polaroid, there was a big streaking light across my bedroom with a face in the middle. I snapped a picture in my room before we left that night, needless to say I was not amused. I don't know whatever happened to that picture.
Or maybe it really is the ghost of a headless southern belle.
Gee, maybe my first wife?
If ghosts WERE nekkid would they yell "Boobs"?
Very interesting.
Do you have a picture of the bride you can show us?
I don't see devils or soldiers. I see a lady dressed like a bride could be with a scoop neckline, with her leg raised up and her right arm extended out like for balance. I even see shoulder length hair and a bodice. And I kind of see what could be earrings. I think it could be somehow a picture of the bride overlapping, as it were. Plus I don't think the image goes behind the man. I think it goes in front of him (or on top of his picture). We just cannot see it very well because of the color of his shirt.
But I am not a naysayer. I had my own ghost experience and who am I to say anything. This could be anything. I just wish I could see the soldier aspect. I'll keep looking from time to time. Thank you for this intriguing interlude.
I meant to mention that there are similar pictures at this website. There are several that feature this smoke idea. Since you are interested you might like to compare your picture.
http://www.ghoststudy.com/gallery.html
I know all about ghosts from the WBTS.
One of these days, I get my pics posted.
This pic is "nothing." lol.
Thanks for the ping.
I dunno. I only see the devil face others have mentioned. Can't say what caused the image, interesting none the less.
My father - a combat veteran - said he could clearly feel the presence of the Shiloh dead when he and my mom toured the place. The sensation hit him as soon as he got out of the car and looked at the battlefield. "I could almost hear them yelling and screaming," he remarked. "They WERE there, right then and there." (For the record, dad was about as sober and unemotional a man as I've ever known.)
Wow! I wasn't expecting to see my hometown mentioned when I was reading this thread -- I was born and raised on St. Simons Island. I know there are lots of ghost stories about the Christ Church cemetery, and even the lighthouse, although I'd never heard ghost stories at Fort Frederica.
Hawaii has lots of freaky sites, South Point on the Big Island creeped me out big time, I stayed away from the Heaiu's there. I just felt very unwelcome there, and I was the only one there.
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