Ghost stories also serve up history lessons, author says
MetroCreative
Ghost stories tend to be more enduring and more prevalent in Southwestern Pennsylvania, author Thomas White believes, because the region无毛视频檚 history dips back so far into the past and people who are from here 无毛视频渢end to retain their identity.无毛视频�
Courtesy of Thomas White
Thomas White, an archivist at Duquesne University, will talk about ghost stories and legends of Western Pennsylvania at Mt. Lebanon Public Library Monday.
Ghost stories and tales of the supernatural may give us shivers this time of year, but they also illuminate our history and offer a window into the concerns that we have in any given moment.
That无毛视频檚 the take of Thomas White, an archivist and curator of special collections at Duquesne University无毛视频檚 Gumberg Library and the author of several books on regional legends and lore, including 无毛视频淕hosts of Western Pennsylvania,无毛视频� 无毛视频淗aunted Roads of Western Pennsylvania无毛视频� and 无毛视频淭he Witch of the Monongahela: Folk Magic in Early Western Pennsylvania.无毛视频� He points to the appropriately named Shades of Death Road near Avella in Washington County as an example 无毛视频� stories have long swirled that a runaway slave was caught and lynched there and that the ghosts of miners buried in a nearby mine wander in the woods.
White has 无毛视频渁lways been interested无毛视频� in both history and ghost stories, he explained last week.
无毛视频淭hey overlap. They无毛视频檙e ways of telling and rewriting history.无毛视频�
White, of West View, will be stopping at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library Monday at 7 p.m. to illuminate the region无毛视频檚 ghost stories and legends. All spots are taken, but the library is maintaining a waiting list at eventkeeper.com.
His first book was published in 2009, after he researched some of the stories he had heard since his childhood. What he discovered is many ghost stories often contain a kernel of truth, even if they have otherwise been exaggerated. An example is the legend of the Green Man, a ghostly figure who was said to wander the roads near New Castle or Youngstown, Ohio. It turns out the Green Man was not an apparition but Raymond Robinson, a Beaver County resident who was born two days before Halloween in 1910 and severely disfigured in an electrical accident when he was a boy. Given the loss of his eyes and nose, and the attention he would attract when he ventured out, Robinson took walks at night along the roads near his home. He died in 1985, but the Green Man legend has endured.
无毛视频淗e was a real guy,无毛视频� White said. 无毛视频淚t was something that was partially true at the core that inspired the (ghost) story, or something that was misunderstood.无毛视频�
Ghost stories tend to be more enduring and more prevalent in Southwestern Pennsylvania, White believes, because the region无毛视频檚 history dips back so far into the past and people who are from here 无毛视频渢end to retain their identity.无毛视频� He also said that most of the United States无毛视频� folklore traditions began in Pennsylvania and filtered out to the rest of the country. And while ghost stories are often deeply rooted in long-running legends, they also reflect our own times, White explained, pointing to legends about satanic rituals that were abundant in the 1980s.
Scary tales are so engrossing because, more often than not, they make us participants, White said. When a particular place is said to be infested with wandering or malevolent spirits, there is 无毛视频渦sually something you have to do for an interaction with the supernatural. 无毛视频� You无毛视频檙e part of the legend.无毛视频�
And despite living in a world of science and technological advancements where few things can really qualify as being unexplained, White believes ghost stories will endure.
无毛视频淚 think it无毛视频檚 hard-wired in humanity, unless we无毛视频檙e taken over by AI robots,无毛视频� he said. 无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 one of those things. The belief is always there.无毛视频�