Omens

My Mom’s side of the family all comes from the Crossville area and a little place called Pleasant Hill. My other grandfather has many stories from the Cumberland Plateau. One he used to tell I’ve actually heard from several members of my family.

He was around eight or nine years old, and the area was completely rural. This was still the 1930s and most of the men in this area worked in a nearby mine. Every day, a wagon would come around, and all of the men would get on the wagon and it would take them to the mine for work. Side note: It seems rural 1930s had better public transportation and ideas on car pooling then we do now. I swear the human race is de-evolving. Anyway, as the story is told, one afternoon, my great aunt heard the wagon returning from the mine early. However, when she looked outside, there was nothing there. A few hours later the wagon came, and so the chalked it up as maybe she was hearing things, but the next day, the same thing happened. She heard the wagon come down the road, bit when she looked outside, nothing. This time she became scared, and later that night, when her husband finally returned, she met him at the door crying. He assured her that it was nothing, and that everything was fine, but sure enough, the next day, she heard the wagon again. Almost too afraid to open the door, she worked up the courage to look outside. This time, however, she was shocked to see that the wagon was actually outside. The driver ran up to her, there had been a cave in at the mine, and her husband had been killed. As she approached the wagon, she saw his lifeless body lying in the back. To her dying day, she said she knew something bad was going to happen, and lived with the guilt of doing nothing.

Throughout the south, there are many ghosts that appear as omens, just before something happens. In west Tennessee there is tell of a white dog that appears just before bad luck befalls the person who saw the dog. In the South Carolina Town of Pawleys Island, usually before a Hurricane, the ghost known as the Gray Man appears to warn people to flee to safety.

The Gray Man is said to be the ghost of a young man who was returning home after being away from his fiancée for several months. Arriving by ship in Charleston, and then traveling north to Georgetown, his stage stopped for the night at an inn. Knowing that he was only a few miles from his love, the man acquired a horse and set off into the night hoping to make it home before morning. However, his eagerness misguided him as he some strayed from the road to try a short cut through the marsh. It was here the young man’s horse fell into quicksand, killing both horse and rider.

Devastated by the death of her love, the young woman took to walking the beach in an attempt to cope with her broken heart. One summer day, a man dressed in all in gray, approached her on the beach. She immediately recognized him as her dead fiancée. He told her that she was in danger and needed to leave the island, and then he vanished. The young woman and her family soon fled to the mainland. That night, a hurricane hit the coast, nearly destroying everything on the island. The family home of the young woman, however, was spared.

The first recorded sighting of the Gray Man was in 1822, days before a hurricane hit Charleston, killing over 300 people. In 1893 the Gray Man appeared to the family living in the home of his former fiancée. The family fled the island, days later the Sea Islands Hurricane hit, killing around 1,500 people. In 1954, he appeared again to a couple honeymooning on the island. He warned them to leave the island. Soon after, hurricane Hazel struck, killing 95 people. In 1989, he appeared again, just in time to warn a family just two days before hurricane Hugo struck killing 76 people and causing $10 billion in damage. When seen, the Gray Man is seen, the homes of those who have seen him, are spared.

JLP