Text and photos by Jeanne Brook
Truth can be stranger than fiction. And history is sometimes more frightening than ghost stories. In a small island village that sports over 80 graveyards and a colorful past, the tales are plentiful. But without a conscious effort to pass along stories to the next generation, local stories are in danger of being lost.
Thus came the Ocracoke Ghost and History Tours.
On a hot summer evening, folks converged from three directions (or four, if we are counting the spirits from the nearby family graveyards) along sandy lands to meet in front of the Village Craftsmen gallery.
Ninth-generation islander Amy Howard and her husband fiddler David Tweedie were there to greet them before leading them back under the 100-year-old oaks to share stories of an Ocracoke past.
Howard likes sharing the tradition of telling stories–reviving the old culture of Ocracoke from when she was little, when music was played and stories were told.
“People don’t gather the way they used to,” she said. “Family stories are contained to the living room or get lost. It’s an important part of Ocracoke’s essence, what makes Ocracoke so special.”
Amy’s father Philip Howard was inspired to start the tours more than 20 years ago after attending a ghost tour in South Carolina. His cousin, Dallie Turner, advised him that he should start telling the stories of Ocracoke Island and his family before someone else did.
Philip has been writing about Ocracoke since at least 2000, when he began a newsletter. This led to the creation of an online blog of island history and culture at https://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/
Amy soon joined him, and they would split into two groups: one staying “Round Creek” primarily on Howard St., and the other “Down Point,” across Irvin Garrish Highway and around the harbor.
Having grown up on Howard Street, Amy is a natural storyteller.
She lives in the home her grandfather built in 1957, which is next to her dad who lives in the house his grandfather built in 1865, and across the street from her mother who lives in their cousin Blanche Joliff’s house that was built in 1909.
Amy manages the Village Craftsmen which her parents started in 1970. Across from the shop are the Howard family cemeteries, which are quiet, most of the time.
As a child, she would clean the graveyards and was told not to step on the graves–or the spirits would reach up and grab her. She heeded the orders.
The tour’s story content has evolved over the years.
Amy has one story that developed when she heard from a number of different unrelated people about an experience they had in a certain room in one house on the tour. Everyone who shared their stories had similar experiences of a presence of sorts being in the room with them. The feeling was so unnerving that the room would be abandoned for the length of their stay.
Amy loves how the stories are intertwined with history.
“These are not just ghost stories,” she said. “A lot of these are family stories, about dad’s house, and the graveyards; Mad Mag (‘interesting cooking preferences’) was related by marriage.
“You learn where certain local sayings or expressions come from, and you learn how islanders interacted with each other and the outside world.
“Folks will say, ‘We signed up for the ghost tour but enjoyed the history just as much.’”
During the 90-minute walk, the audience is gradually drawn in.
One of Amy’s favorite reactions was when two teenage girls were on the tour; they had been strong-armed into coming by their parents but were too cool for school. Before the end of the tour they ran and hid in the car.
Even the tellers can be surprised.
One time when Amy was telling her last story in the dark by the store’s oak tree, there was loud screeching and two fighting cats came tearing down the tree, startling everyone.
“My knees were shaking!” she said.
About 10 years ago, Philip was ready to do fewer tours and that’s when Tweedie joined, bringing his own touches to the Round Creek tour.
As a well-regarded island musician amongst his many talents, he incorporates music from the times using a “strumstick” (a three-stringed, acoustic-folk instrument) or a concertina (a compact accordion-like instrument).
Tweedie came to the island in 1993 to play music and thought, “What is this magical place? By the time I finished my first summer, I felt like I’d been adopted as an extended member of the Ocracoke family.
“I think a lot of visitors have that experience when residents share the local stories with them. It keeps them coming back year after year. That sense of welcome is not anything new. It’s been going on for hundreds of years.”
Tweedie began his tour with an old Ocracoke folksong, written in the early 1900s by two brothers from the island.
“It’s called Paddy’s Holler,” he said. “It kind of takes a snapshot of life on the island. It talks about some very real people here. You kind of get an idea for the character of folks here.”
Later Tweedie gives more details on Paddy’s Holler and shares Fowler O’Neal’s recipe for meal wine, popular during prohibition.
The drink wasn’t just favored by humans. Sometimes during fermentation, a rat would find its way into the pottery crock. While a mainlander might just dispose of the interloper before getting a glass of the wine, an islander would wring it out so as not to waste any of the precious elixir. A touch of realism is added when oftentimes at twilight, a rat skitters across the electrical line above.
As dusk settles in, the mosquitoes come out, followed by the bats, and the stories get just a bit more eerie, keeping the dead alive.
More information can be found at villagecraftsmen.com/ghostwalk/.
Great story! I am definitely going to take that tour the next time I visit. Visiting the island when I was fairly young back in the mid sixty’s with my family and my uncle’s family while camping at the now Coast Guard and fairy parking lot. I remember my dad and Uncle talking about Dandelion wine that was made by the locals since the island at the time was dry and no alcohol was sold there. It might have been better than that Rat Wine, ha.
Comments are closed.