Historic Venice Press

When I first met the ghosts…

Added March 12th, 2005

On Dec. 5, 2001, when the idea to go ghost hunting in the Gulf Coast city of Venice, Florida, was presented to me, I had never heard a ghost story in relation to that city.

Turns out, there were several and, one by one they began to drop in on me. Within five months, there were enough stories for a slim volume of stories, I had met several mediums and the hunt continued for more stories, moving next to Sarasota and then, this past year to the Clearwater& St. Petersburg area. Through it all I had ongoing help from the person who started me down this interesting path and for that I shall be eternally grateful.

Not only were ghost stories dropping in my lap, a circus history book also begged to be written and was published in April 2004. Although there is nary a ghost story in that book, that book came about because of the Venice ghost book. Because of the importance of the circus to Venice,which was the winter home of The Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus from 1960-1992 and of its circus college for an additional four years, I felt strongly that I needed to have a circus-related ghost story in my Venice book. Perhaps the circus ghosts were playing tricks on me or, perhaps they really wanted that circus book to be written for, I had to interview more than 70 circus performers, fans and show personnel before I finally found my circus ghost story.

In two years I had gone from someone who was open to the idea of ghosts and their stories to someone who seemed to be guided by those spirited characters. Never one to look a gift horse (especially a whole circus act of Liberty horses) I penned the circus book before getting back to my ghost hunting.

The spirits must have been happy because the Clearwater & St. Petersburg book fell quickly into place and Ghost Stories of Tampa Bay began to arrive in all manner of ways—some by e-mail,some from my new Clearwater friends and others from casual acquaintances who appeared in my life.

About the same time, I also decided to write a book of day trip ideas for residents and visitors in SW Florida. Working on both books are once, I was making great progress. That changed when Began to concentrate totally on the day trip book. It seems the spirits had no problem with my working on two books but they did not like being put on the shelf.

All of a sudden, road blocks appeared to disrupt my day trip book’s progress. The spirits seemed to be speaking.

And,to make sure that I was listening, they even sent me a new medium, a lady named Rosemary Altea, who is internationally known for her work and her gifts. She has been on the Larry King, Diane Sawyer and Oprah shows, has had several New York Times best selling books and has healing centers in Great Britain and in Vermont. My first knowledge of her appearance on the scene came from Susan Lockwood, a Clearwater medium who had helped me find stories for the Clearwater book. Out of the blue, Susan emailed me about Rosemary's coming appearance in Tampa. A few days later, Rosemary's secretary contacted meat the newspaper where I work, to tell me that Rosemary would be conducting a program in Sarasota and, she had recently moved to Venice and, would I like to interview her.

Does Hershey make chocolate?

The interview was arranged for the following Wednesday afternoon, and, accompanied by several family members who are in spirit, I headed over to her Venice home. Actually,at the time, I did not know I was accompanied by anyone at all but, an hour into the interview, Rosemary began carrying on a conversation with my late husband. She had described him and his arrival in detail and also had described my father, mother and my mother's twin sister. It seemed that all of them were with me on that day.

As the interview ended, Rosemary asked me about the possibility of going ghost hunting in the area. Since Susan Lockwood and her husband had already contacted me about heading up to Tampa on the following Saturday, it seemed I was getting another message about the Tampa book.

The following Saturday, Rosemary accompanied me to Tampa where we toured the American Victory, a U.S. Merchant Marine cargo ship that served at the end of World War II, in Korea and Vietnam. While our guide stressed the use of the ship for cargo, Rosemary sensed that troops had been aboard too and when she asked about that, learned she was right.

Still not sure if there is a true ghost story there but it is a start.

Rosemary and I are going back again in a couple of days—this time to the Falk Theatre and some other places recommended by Chris Lockwood.

And with some more help from my spirited helpers, you BLOG readers may be moved to add some stories to this site.

May the spirits be with you

Topics: Blog, Ghost Hunting

Tags: ghost hunting, ghost stories, research, writing