Book Cover

Today I’ll be getting my ducks in a row – or actually my ghosts in a lineup – so that I can introduce them at a couple of book signings that are coming up. These ‘events’ bookend Halloween. The first will be at Adelaide’s this Saturday, October 25^th at 3:00 P.M. The second will be at the Oysterville Store two weeks later, on Saturday, November 8^th at 5:00 P.M.

When History Press announced an October publication date, my first thought was, “Oh good! In time for Halloween!” But the reality is that here on the Peninsula people have other plans on Halloween. There are parties and organized trick-or-treat events and, in Ocean Park, the traditional party at the Fire Hall. So it seemed more fitting to introduce the protagonists in Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula either before or after Halloween weekend. As it turns out, I am doing both.

Haunted in Oysterville?

There are eleven stories and twelve ghosts – six women, three men, one child, and two ‘others.’ Some have been seen; some only heard. Most have caused mysterious ‘happenings’ in the structures they haunt. Of those who have been identified as historic Peninsula personalities, their birthdates range from 1865 to 1909 and reports of their ghostly doings have been talked about and speculated upon since the 1960s. In our house, Mrs. Crouch continues to make herself ‘known’ on an irregular basis.

Haunted in Long Beach?

Of all the people who shared their ghost stories with me, only one expressed any feeling of fear or uneasiness about their ghostly experiences. For the most part, the reactions people talked of having were not exactly what I would have imagined. Instead, “annoyance,” “amusement,” “reassurance,” and “curiosity” were some of the feelings my informants described. Many folks actually welcomed their encounters and hoped for more.

Certainly the stories aren’t the scary variety I remember being told around the campfire when I was a child. They seem more like an extension of Peninsula history – another window to the past being opened by someone who was there… perhaps.