Southern Ghost: 8 (A Death on Demand Mysteries)

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The 1941 movie King of the Zombies contains several mentions of the word “haints.” It’s not a great movie, nor is it really about ghosts, but it was interesting to hear the words “haints” and “hainted” used in the dialogue. Gate to Savannah's haunted Bonaventure Cemetery. Fine art photograph by Keith Dotson. Buy a print here.

Clean the house - Burn sage or incense. Mop the floors with pine and camphor, and place salt across doors and windows, and in corners. In the 2019 Netflix documentary " ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads - A Robert Johnson Story" it's suggested that the origination of blues guitar legend Robert Johnson's story of selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads may have morphed from his habit of practicing in a graveyard. According to the documentary, Johnson (a very mediocre guitarist at the time) sought help from Ike Zimmerman who was known as one of the best guitarists in Mississippi. Zimmerman instructed Johnson to practice in the graveyard where no one would complain about his terrible noise, and to sit on a gravestone and let the haints teach him how to play. Whatever Johnson did, it worked! The word ‘Haints’ in the 1941 movie King of the ZombiesHaint blue, which can also be found on door and window frames as well as porch ceilings, is intended to protect the homeowner from being 'taken' or influenced by haints. It is said to protect the house and the occupants of the house from evil." (1) In her article " Pretty & Practical: The History of 'Haint Blue' Porch Ceilings," Taryn Williford advises that powder blue on the porch is a beautiful color choice for aesthetic as well as superstitious reasons, and reminds us that blue porches are popular up-and-down the east coast. The old Spanish fort Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, the oldest and possibly most haunted city in America. Buy a fine art print. The first time I heard the word, “Haint”, was in 1969, while hunting in Mt. Olive, NC. It was a tradition on my father’s side of the family to small game hunt in Mt. Olive and surrounding areas. This time, I drove with my father and my hunting dog, Duke. A German Shorthaired Pointer. We My father loved to quail hunt. On this trip, my favorite, Uncle Ed, took the rabbit and coon dogs in his trailer. We departed Chester, PA at 10:00PM on Thanksgiving Eve to arrive at my Uncle Alonzo’s house at 7:00AM on Thanksgiving, the start of small game season. From the Appalachians to the Ozarks, and from Savannah to Alabama, haints, hanks, booger men, boohags, and boodaddies still haunt the woods, foggy hills and hollers, and darkened doorways of the southern imagination. Tennessee and the Bell Witch Haunting

many Southerners suggest that blue porch ceilings originated out of the fear of haints. Southerners, especially in the area of South Carolina, have a name for the ceiling paint used on porches – the soft blue-green is referred to as 'Haint Blue.'

Photographs of some of the haunted places I have visited in the south

The word "haint" is also used outside the low country, in other parts of the south, with slightly different aspects from region to region. I hunted with my Uncle Ed that day, my father took Duke and went to Faison to hunt with one of his old friends. That evening. they wanted to coon hunt, I passed on hunting that night. I was the one that drove to Mt. Olive. Denver-based motivational speaker Jonathan McMillan sent a great story fondly remembering his grandfather — a second-generation freed slave from a small town in Kansas. One online dictionary defines the word "haint" simply as a ghost. The tradition is more complex than that. The Tudor House Hotel is a gorgeous oak beamed wonder, with views spanning the River Avon, that sits in the middle of Tewkesbury’s high street. The 16th century Tudor building has a rich history so there’s a little wonder that a few spectres have decided to linger long after death.