Appalachian Ghost Stories Beneath the Stars
Some say that tragedy was inevitable for May, when she broke an old mountain tradition on the night that she met her future husband. May thought that no one would ever learn of her deception, but the knife that slipped in her hand haunted the couple through years of married life and ultimately became the weapon of May’s death at hands of her beloved husband. What happened to the unlucky lovers seems a high price to pay for a little deception. But it is a true story, handed down in the communities near the Tennessee/Georgia border. At least, that’s what they say. May’s story is one of over 400 such Appalachian stories of fear and intrigue collected by Dr. Charlotte Ross during her 45-year career as an Appalachian folklorist. Ross will come to Mars Hill College for a firelight program called “Appalachian Ghost Stories Beneath the Stars,” on Friday, October 30, 2009, 7 pm.
Event Contact Information:
For more information about “Appalachian Ghost Stories Under the Stars,” contact Amy Carraux, Program Coordinator for the Liston B. Ramsey Center for Regional Studies at 689-1571, or a acarraux@mhc.edu.Occurrence Information
Date:
Oct 30, 2009Time:
07:00 PM-10:00 PMCost:
The charge will be $5 for adults and $3 for children aged 6 to 16.Details:
The concert, which will take place in the “Lion’s Eye” behind the new Ferguson Math and Science Center on the campus, is a fundraiser for the Southern Appalachian Archives. The charge will be $5 for adults and $3 for children aged 6 to 16. Ross, who is also a communications professor at Appalachian State University, plans to begin the program with stories appropriate for children, school age or older. Then, as the evening progresses, the subject matter of the stories will progressively become more appropriate for adult audiences. “Our mountains have the best ghost stories,” Ross said, because the stories tend to have a sense of place, and a sense of traditional Appalachian mindset and culture. Despite the concert title, Ross said that participants may or may not consider the stories to be “ghost stories” as the term is normally defined. “You can call them ghost stories, you can call them mysterious or you can just say they are unexplained, but they are all haunting in their own way. And they are all true, or at least, the people who told them believed they were true,” she said.Location:
Mars Hill CollegeHwy 213
Mars Hill , NC 28754