Hello Linda and family....

[catchersmitt]

Hello everyone:

I'm back after a long battle with depression.

Linda you still at the same place? I have a friend who I might like to visit one afternoon and see some of your family's collection.

I am just starting to get back into all this Native American stuff. I have been more intrested in ghosts lately so.... Needless to say, I haven't seen any yet - including the Pactolus Lights in nearby Pitt County in which I visited last night.

Speaking of ghosts, is there any local Native American ghosts around here? I have heard rumors of there being a dinning hall called "Croatan" on the campus of East Carolina University being built over a Native American grave.

Linda: a little local rumor.... St. Barnabas church downtown Snow Hill is said to be haunted as well. Rumor is that if you run around the church ten times, the ghost of a female will appear crying over her lover's grave. When she appears, the guy's (her lovers) ghost will appear behind her and if he sees you, he will chase you. They say that he can run as fast or as slow as you can.

Needless to say, I haven't tried this one yet. Besides, the church is scary looking enough in the daytime. I mean the graves run right up to the church door almost.

Speaking of ghosts, were are those pictures that we worked so hard on one afternoon at your house? I would love to show them off if you do not mind!

Derek - catchersmitt
catchersmitt@hotmail.com

[Linda]

Hello, Catcher's Mitt, sorry to hear you've been feeling blue.

There's a problem with pursuing the "ghost" aspect of native ancestors, basically because they never went off into the hereafter with the same kind of expectations as we have had in modern, Christian influenced times. Ghost is the wrong word. The word is "spirit." One is expected to venerate the spirits of one's ancestors. They will advise us, they care about us, they look after us. They aren't spooks to gawk at or feel afraid of. They're just our folks. We realized that it was not appropriate for us to be exhibiting what we thought we were seeing in public.

These spirits are more in the line of Saints -- conduits to the Creator.

Christian theology sees spooks as lost souls ruled over by, or vulnerable to, the devil.

Not the same kind of experience at all. You know if you've run in to a Native ancestral spirit because you feel blessed, not spooked. You know, that "Touched by an Angel." kind of glow.