Halloween, one of the United States’ most celebrated holidays, has very humble (and contentious) beginnings. Its roots can be traced to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced “SOW-in), a three-day celebration held at the end of October to mark the transitioning seasons. Participants would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts because they believed that the veil between the human and spirit realms was lifted during this time. Later in 1000 A.D., as Christianity became popular, the Catholic church made November 2 All Soul’s Day, a day to honor the dead. The honoring was done in much the same tradition as Samhain, with bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
How did Halloween make it to America? Slowly.
As beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians mingled, the American version of Halloween began to take shape. At the turn of the twentieth century, Halloween had lost much of its superstitious and religious overtones. Today we know it as a community-centered holiday filled with parties, pumpkin-carving, donning costumes and trick-or-treating.
As we make ready our preparations for the holiday celebration, I’ve been considering the “spirits” who the Celts tried to ward off. Does Plant City have a haunted history? Have its residents felt (or seen) vestiges of our dearly departed?
People have been living (and dying) in Plant City for nearly 150 years. Certainly there must be some among us who have sensed, a presence from beyond the grave.
I’ve spoken to dozens of Plant City residents over the past several weeks and have come to a singular conclusion: people would rather admit they hate strawberries (the horror) then publicly admit they’ve had a paranormal experience.
To protect the identities of those who agreed to speak to me, I’ve compiled a list of the stories they’ve shared about their experiences. It’s up to the reader to decide whether you believe or not.
• One Plant City resident is certain her historic home, built in 1905, is haunted by its former owner. She’s seen her on two occasions, a small, petite woman that is see-through. She’s also felt someone tap her on the back but when she turns around to look there’s nobody there. The owner’s mother once came to visit and was sitting on the sofa one evening and saw the apparition. She described the figure in detail to her daughter. It was the same spirit she had seen, a confirmation of her vision. It’s not a scary spirit, though, but a friendly one. The owner said she has a happy home filled with love and laughter.
• While eating Christmas dinner at a friend’s house, a woman saw a figure walking past the hallway out the corner of her eye and sensed a presence behind her. She told her host that someone was at the door but the hallway was empty. Her dining companion had the same feeling. “I really thought someone was there,” she said. This person doesn’t believe in ghosts but can’t explain the phenomenon.
• The Bing Rooming House Museum, built in 1928 to provide overnight lodging to African-Americans visiting Plant City, defies physics, said one Plant City resident. She doesn’t like to spend too much time on the home’s second floor, where lodgers stayed. “I get a cold feeling up there,” she said. Problem is, heat rises.
• One of the last movies to be shown at the State Theater was the 1953 release “Scared Stiff”. Is that fitting? People walking through the theater, now an antique store, say that they’ve felt someone tap them on the shoulder but when they turn around to see who it was, there’s nobody there. When ghost hunters visited the theater, their state-of-the art equipment went crazy. The venue is also the former location of a jewelry store where tragically at least one person died during a thwarted robbery attempt. Could this person be the spirit haunting the historic building?
• One woman was playing around with a ouija board to see if it worked. The board named all three of the astronauts that would soon perish in the Apollo 1 disaster. It also gave the date it was going to happen. Before it happened (this is why I don’t ever play with ouija boards).
• This story has to be my favorite, probably because I heard a similar story growing up in Prince George’s County, Maryland. One resident told the story of the Goat Man who roamed the grounds near the Glover School campus. A freed slave had dealt with many atrocities and after he died came back as a half-goat/half-man creature. An urban legend? A story for parents to tell to their children to get them to come home on-time and stay out of mischief? Or does Goat Man wander the wooded areas near the school?
• A woman’s grandfather would ride horses with his buddies through a hollar and at one particular spot they would all get the sensation that someone had jumped on the horse behind them then at the end of the hollar they’d jump off. Could it have been a spirit wanting to rest its weary legs?
These can’t be the only stories of Plant City residents having experiences that can’t be explained away by science. Can sudden cold spots, floating orbs or the sensation of someone touching your shoulder when no one is there be explained away? Fact or fiction? Truth or lie? Myth or legend? Belief or unbelief?
Does it matter? You don’t have to believe in ghosts to enjoy a good ghost story.
Happy Halloween.