Time for Ghost Stories                

by Walt Belcher
 

Cold rushes of air. Faces peeking out of darkened windows. Objects falling, unexplained, to the floor.  Strange “orbs” of light, either seen with the naked eye or in photos.  And that mysterious, unexpected feeling that sends chills up the spine. You never know what might happen on a ghost tour.

Whether you are a believer in the supernatural or just love a good tale of hauntings, October is your month for things that go bump in the night.

And as Halloween approaches, ghost stories are a main attraction in Monticello, Fl., located about 20 miles east of Tallahassee.  The city is named after the Virginia estate home of Thomas Jefferson, and the Jefferson County Courthouse at the center of town is modeled after Jefferson’s Monticello.

The picturesque town also takes pride in being called “the most haunted small town in the South.”

This tiny historic village with its moss-draped trees, stately Victorian homes, creepy old jail, an 1890 opera house, and a meeting tree is home to once-a-month weekend walking tours, filled with ghostly tales. In October tours are held every weekend, culminating in a three-night Halloween event.    

The Historic Monticello Ghost Tours are a combination of history and stories about the places and people who lived and died in Monticello, says Linda Schuyler Ford, tour coordinator and nationally known storyteller.

"Schuyler" is well-know to members of the Florida Storytelling Association, having served on the board of directors and being active in the FSA annual festival. She was a featured tellers and workshop presenter at 2021 festival. Schuyler grew up in New York's Hudson Valley where folktales and stories like Washington Irving's “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” were early influences.  She says that as a child she loved Irving’s tale of a headless horseman that menaces the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane. 

Schuyler is familiar with the Old Dutch Church (the haunt of the headless horseman and final resting place of some who inspired characters such as Katrina Van Tassel and Brom Bones). Schuyler eventually became a tour guide for several years at the adjacent Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York.

She has been conducting tours and training volunteer tour guides in Monticello since 2018.

She says “I had no staff, no guides to work with that first year, so my storytelling friends bravely and generously stepped up to help, including Pat Nease, Robin Schulte, Paul Phelps, Rose van der Berg and Margaret Kaler.”

“As storytellers, they were quick studies, knew how to read a crowd, and offered the delicious benefit of offering traditional spooky storytelling performances.”

Now that the tours have gained traction, she hopes to add more storytelling in the future.

On a recent visit to Monticello, Schuyler was coaching a volunteer who called herself Agatha Christie.  Dressed in Victorian garb, Agatha guided the tour through several stops as a full moon peaked through the clouds. She told of spirits such as a “Woman in White” which has appeared in the window of a historical mansion.  

 

  During October hundreds of visitors traditionally take the tours, so         several guides are needed.  

  The Friday night tour is a two-hour jaunt through the town and the       Saturday night tour takes place in the city’s Roseland Cemetery,   established in 1847.

  The tours begin at 7:30 pm at the Monticello/Jefferson County   Chamber of Commerce, located in a small 104-year-old former   Catholic Church, which like every other building in town, might be       haunted. The tours are fund-raisers for the Chamber.

In addition to the regularly scheduled tours, the HMGT Halloweekend VIP package offers activities from 7p.m .Friday Oct 29 through 9 p.m. on Sunday Oct 31.

Guests can choose from at least four tour times. Included will be a tarot reading, a paranormal investigation workshop, and a “Macabre Magick” experience with spooky storytelling added. More surprises are planned, including the first annual HMGT town-wide Scavenger Hunt, with several prizes. The VIP Halloweekend tickets will be limited to just 25 guests (cost is $75 per ticket).

For more information see (12) Historic Monticello Ghost Tours | Facebook or reserve at MonticelloJeffersonFL.com

Old Jail

Linda Schulyer Ford

Other Halloween storytelling events include:

Tale Tellers of St. Augustine offers Family Friendly Gory Stories: Halloween Tales to Thrill & Chill. 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 30 at Flagler Health Village Murabella, 70 Turin Terrace. Masks required. Bring chairs for seating. $5 single. $10 family. 904-504-0402 or 949-293-7634 www.taletellers.org

 

The Storytellers of Old Tampa Bay will be doing a full Halloween show at the Historic Tampa Theatre, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.  Admission is $10 for an evening of scary stories around the campfire under the historic movie palace’s iconic star-lit sky. It’s a family-friendly program of PG tales appropriate for all ages (who don’t mind having a chill sent down their spine). Campfire Stories - Tampa Theatre

 

The Upside of Zoom

                                 How I Learned to Love Zoom during COVID

                      

                                       By Walt Belcher

 

Nothing beats a live audience when you are telling a story. Personal group interaction has been missing during this pandemic.

We miss those live, in-person storytelling events that have been shut down for more than a year now. As we struggled to find venues this past year, many storytellers turned to Zoom.  On the Internet, some of us faced a new learning curve.

We had to remember to “unmute.”  We had to figure out where to look, or where not to look. Those of us who are technology-challenged also had to grapple with lighting: “The glare off your eyeglasses is distracting” “Say, what’s that glow behind your head?”

I remember one session where a framed picture behind the teller was slightly crooked and I kept wanting to straighten it

Some struggled with camera angles: “Sorry, but your chin is out of the frame.”

Some struggled with Internet connections that caused the frame to freeze or the sound to break-up.  Panic sets in when “your Internet connection is unstable” pops up in the middle of a story.

We had to get used to looking at a computer screen filled with little heads in boxes – like a giant-sized version of the old game show “Hollywood Squares.”

But there has been an upside to all this. For me, personally, this COVID year has brought new friends, new discoveries, and new experiences – all thanks to Zoom.

Locally, Zoom has allowed our guild, The Storytellers of Old Tampa Bay, to swap stories, share experiences, and critique each other’s work through twice weekly Zoom sessions, hosted by veteran storyteller Ross Tarr. 

I turned my dining room into a little Zoom studio. I recovered a large piece of plywood, free from a local mobile home factory. I coated it with “green screen” paint from Home Depot. And by using Zoom’s visual effects, I can change backgrounds.  For example, when telling the origins of “Spanish Moss,” I can appear to be under a moss-laden oak.

I also learned that by hosting my own self at a Zoom meeting at which I am the only attendee, I can record and practice my stories, over and over again.

But the greatest, most wonderful thing about Zoom has been the ability to meet storytellers from around the world.

On Sunday mornings, for example, I often join the World Ceilidh, a group of tellers, poets and musicians from throughout the world. They are brought together by Marin Millenaar, a jovial storyteller, musician and tram driver based in Amsterdam.

It’s been wonderful sharing experience with tellers like the charming Rona Barbour from Ireland, Barnali Roy from India, Alastair Daniel from London, and Cathy Crawley, a former schoolteacher from Texas who now lives in Sohar, Oman.

There are many more, including the delightful Scottish teller Ann Pitcher who sketches participants every week (but still refuses to draw me like Cary Grant).

Thanks to Zoom, I get to spend time with renown storyteller Tim Tingle and the merry band that joins The Doc Moore Storytelling Guild on the third Thursday of every month. 

Originating out of Austin, this swap session is one of the highlights of my storytelling experiences. It’s just pure fun to spin yarns with this group which honors the memory of the legendary Texas tale-teller Doc Moore.

But I also enjoy Thursday afternoon Zoom sessions with the Georgia Mountain Storytellers, hosted by two fine storytellers Alex Peers and Kanute Rarey.   They welcome ideas and stories from beginners and the experienced. 

Zoom has also allowed me to join the WRAPPS 2nd Wednesday story swaps out of Cincinnati, Ohio, featuring friends and members of the Western Reserve Association for the Preservation & Perpetuation of Storytelling.  And I’ve dropped in on the Montreal Story Tellers Thursday night sessions out of Canada.

One of the more unusual story swaps I’ve found is the 99-Second Challenge, a monthly competition on Zoom in which you try to tell a true, personal story in 99-seconds. Created by Sean Wellington, it tests your ability to boil a story down to the essentials. I’ve tried several of these over the past year and made it to Grand Finale Challenge.

 Based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Wellington is a motivational speaker who also founded GRIT: True Stories that Matter, centered on mental health. He also is a former Moth & NSN Story Grand Slam winner.

Another upside of Zoom is that I’ve been able to watch several state storytelling festivals as well as online performances by some of the best tellers in the county such as Shelia Arnold, Jeff Doyle, Andy Offutt Irwin, Tim Lowry, Antonio Rocha, Bil Lepp, Anne Rutherford, Norm Brecke, Ingrid Nixon and others.

 On Zoom, I watched the National Storytelling Festival last year as well as a few state festivals such as those in Alabama and Georgia. I would never have been able to travel to all these in person. And with Zoom or Facebook Live recording, you can attend every workshop and every performance.

And while I really long to tell stories in-person before an audience, I’m going to miss all the tellers I’ve met on Zoom if these online sessions go away.

 

Walt Belcher is a former feature writer for The Tampa Tribune who started storytelling in 2018.