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Hoping for a ghostly tale? Sorry.
Published October 25, 2009
Last weekend, taking advantage of the perfect autumn weather, I had a couple of people over for a fire in the fire pit, along with Mexican hot chocolate and a good ghost story swap. Very late at night, after everyone went home, I watched the fire until it could safely be covered and left alone. It was starry and chilly, and the stories still circulated with pleasant spookiness in my mind. The cat wandered over and curled up beside me, taking advantage of the warmth from the dying coals. A cold breeze rustled in the trees, and I thought, “This is Halloween.”
That’s about all the Halloween atmosphere I can offer today. Since this column is the last before Oct. 31, I wanted to have something creepy to talk about. In fact, I had hoped to write a story this month about haunted antiques. Alas, it was not to be.
Occasionally, antiques with creepy stories attached to them are auctioned on eBay. Earlier this week on the Web site, there was an antique desk offered, whose drawers reportedly open and close by themselves, and at which a ghostly woman has been seen. Someone else was auctioning a rather cross-eyed doll, which the seller claims whistles and communicates with people in their dreams. A third seller offered a radiator, reportedly from a haunted hotel, which was so disturbing it had to be moved into owner’s garage and now must be got rid of completely. Dearie me, a scary radiator! What would a radiator have to be doing to get kicked out of the house?
Of course, the online sellers must list their products as being “for entertainment only” and can’t guarantee what sort of spookiness — if any — a buyer will experience. I feel confident in guessing that most if not all such claims of haunted objects are a combination of coincidence, imagination and response to the natural air of history and mildly eerie vibe antiques often have. (Especially old dolls. Really old dolls are super creepy.) If a person buys something like that, it should be because they like the item for itself, not in anticipation that it will put on a supernatural show.
I wanted to hear what antique dealers thought about such claims, and how common it might be for shoppers to come in looking for items with haunted reputations. But apparently it’s extremely uncommon, at least around here. Of all the antique shops I called, no one I spoke with had ever encountered an item of haunted reputation or been asked by a customer whether they carried such objects. I was disappointed. It could have been a fun story.
Instead, we’ll have to find other ways to feed the seasonal need for spooky. Let me recommend swapping tales of gray ladies, blue boys, dark shadows and pale faces, by starlight and the glow of a good fire.
Mary Openshaw is a features writer for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0155.
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