Loving the spooky critters came late to me. My first experience with ghost stories was at camp. My big brother Jon told the scariest ghost stories. I remember all us young 'uns sitting on a log, while Jon held sway. He waved his hands, let his voice whoop and simmer, and scared the shit out of us! Jon was already my idol, and now my role model.
As I grew older, I never liked the horror flicks, or TV shows - I got too scared - but when I entered the world of folklore and was asked to perform ghost stories at Halloween, I read and read and read. And the more I read, the realer it got. And the more it pulled me in. Especially some of the Native American Stories, or the Southern stories, or the old Jewish/Yiddish stories.
Somehow, reading these stories gave me license to put in perspective my own strange experiences. Like when I went to Pere LaChaise in Paris, looking for Sarah Bernhardt's grave. Or when my mother died. Or those noises in Chichester, England.
I began to tell them in shows. And that's when I discovered the stories that people told back to me. Like the woman in upstate NY who said, "Now that I have heard you, I will tell you my story. You are probably the only one who would believe me! Others would think I am nuts!" Then she proceeded to tell me a story of waking up and finding a translucent man at the foot of her bed, leaning in.
Or the group of school teachers who had one amazing story after another, about being in lighthouses and homes built on top of Indian burial sites, and living in a farmhouse from the 1700's. Or the kids who had some strange occurrences in their 10th floor apartments in the Bronx. Or the assistant who saw faces in her 3rd floor window. Or my brother's German girlfriend with her great grandmother's devil tale.
These stories are now my obsession. I love the weird true stories, not all of which have linear narrative structure or take you anywhere recognizable, but are always something I and the rest of the audience can identify with.
There might be people at these shows who make up stories. But for the most part, people tell their own honest to goodness experiences. In the time we spend together, we become a community of people who share something not usually talked about as believable. We are not "weird" or ridiculous. No, we are all grateful to hear of others with whom we can identify with, who will believe us, who can support us.
"Hi, my name is Robin. I have seen a ghost!"
