Blake Dowling
Who you gonna call?
I was talking to writer, former elected official, marketeer, and man about town Gary Yordon on our podcast recently, and I kept forgetting to ask him my new podcast question: Do you believe in ghosts?
Gary kept sidetracking me with pre- and post-production comments about cat laxatives and sedatives.
No joke.
Gary is working on a column about Big Tech listening to our every word and placing ads accordingly, so he is Googling crazy stuff to see how it affects ad placement. Excellent, gonzo journalism, Mr. Yordon, and a solid podcast.
But the question remains, do you believe in ghosts?
I believe in ghosts. Why not? With mysteries being solved right and left we might as well embrace the ones we have left. Plus, it is hard to miss the avalanche of Ghost Hunter-type shows out there.
While spirits and apparitions used to be the talk of the fringe, the paranormal has recently become normalized. Those ghost shows don’t really do it for me, but there is nothing better than an old-fashioned ghost story.
First on that list is the Dresden Files.
I am on to book 15 of the series and the exploits of Harry Dresden are perfect. He is a Chicago private investigator who solves mysteries, and he is a wizard. Drama ensues as magical trouble is indeed afoot in spades.
Jim Butcher created Harry around the year 2000 and it is damn fine work. I have not binged a series like this since I stumbled into the world of Dan Silva and Mossad agent Gabrielle Allon a few years back.
But every once in a while, you find a book (or 20 in this case) that just grabs you. “Dresden,” along with “Rabbits” and “The Passage” and a few others in recent years are hauntingly good reads.
The current Dresden Files book I am reading is called “Ghost Story” and is about a ghost. I’m glad we got that cleared up.
SPOILER ALERT.
The main character comes back to earth after dying and he begins interacting with the people he used to know and has a mystery to solve.
Will we get that option? Haunting people would be great, in a very Casper the Friendly Ghost kind of way.
I would haunt football games. Maybe help some long field goals find their way in?
I suppose my view on the paranormal is because my generation thinks ghosts are cool.
Hollywood pushed the view that ghosts aren’t that bad.
“Casper,” “Ghostbusters,” “Beetlejuice” and “Field of Dreams” all featured ghosts in a good or funny view.
Besides folks like Zuul (the big bad in Ghostbusters). Speaking of New York’s best and brightest. Did you know they are back for a new Ghostbusters? Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray? Are you kidding me?
Us 80s kids had it great, we arrived just after psycho paranormal onslaught that featured “Poltergeist,” “The Exorcist” and all those super creepy 70s films.
What was wrong with y’all in the 70s? Yikes, weirdness, disco, and bad news around every corner.
Florida is loaded with ghosts, so let’s take a tour of some of them.
We begin in Jacksonville at the Florida Theatre, which sets two seats aside just for its resident ghost. According to legend, the ghost is the spirit of Doc Crowther, a motion picture technician in the theater’s early days. He prefers to be called J these days. (I guess even ghosts have Prince and Cher name egos.)
He is a friendly ghost, and the J stands for the Joy he has for the place he haunts. He turns on lights and occasionally pranks visitors and theater staff.
Moving over to North Florida, in St. Marks, there is a lighthouse built in 1830 for just over $10,000 to help prevent shipwrecks at the mouth of the St. Marks River. It still stands today as part of the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge, and it has a ghost, too.
Former lighthouse keeper Benjamin Metcalf is said to be still on the job today, watching and scaring visitors from time to time. Some say you can still smell his cooking when you walk through the lighthouse.
This area has also been made famous by everyone’s pal and rock star writer, Jeff VanderMeer, in his bestselling Southern Reach trilogy of books (and the Paramount film “Annihilation”).
In the book, it is referred to as Area X, and it is another dimension, aliens, time travel, wormholes, and many other things. Check out the book, see for yourself, and say hi to Benjamin if you visit. Book info is here, and you can read my 2012 interview with Jeff.
The Cuban Club in Tampa is also on our list of haunted spots. Once upon a time, the venue was a theater, and an actor committed suicide on stage.
Actors and their egos, sheesh, he is still there.
He haunts people, bothers them, complains his dressing room is not big enough, etc. This spot is also home to other ghosts, as the story goes. These ghosts are not friendly, as shown when Tampa Bay Times reporter Paul Guzzo tried to spend the night there. He ran away by 2 a.m.
According to USA Today, two out of five Americans say they believe in ghosts. I wanted to conduct my own poll.
I walked to Izzy’s Sushi in Tallahassee from our office last night, sat down at the bar, and said hi to the bartender.
I introduced myself to Dellah and ordered a tasty beverage while waiting for the best sushi in town, with bluefin tuna just in.
I asked her if she believed in ghosts. She could have responded in a lot of ways, but she smiled and said … yes.
In fact, she added, we have one here at Izzy’s.
Asking what the ghost does, Dellah said he knocks things over some nights after they close.
Poll completed.
One out of one people polled in Midtown Tallahassee believe in ghosts.
That’s a wrap. I hope you enjoyed our breakdown of ghost stories, Gary Yordon, and a virtual tour of some popular Florida haunts.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and can be reached at [email protected].
