Apr 29, 2022
Allen Sircy talks to us about Nashville ghost stories. You can find his recent book at Amazon: Southern Ghost Stories: Downtown Nashville
Thanks Allen!
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TRANSCRIPT
Please note we do not guarantee 100% transcript accuracy. The below
reflects a best effort. Thank you for your understanding.
Jim Harold 0:06
Ghosts. Have they become a cliche? Or can we once again examine
this phenomena seriously? After all, isn't it really our own
afterlife we're curious about? Let's delve a little deeper on Jim
Harold's Ghost Insight.
Welcome to Ghost Insight. I am Jim Harold. So glad to be with you once again. And a few months ago, we had an opportunity to visit with Allen Sircy. And he has been the author of the Southern Ghost Stories book series, and we talked a little bit about Nashville. But today, now that he has his book out Southern Ghost Stories: Downtown Nashville, we're going to delve in deeper into the mysteries of Music City. And Allen has a really interesting background with books on hauntings in the Middle Tennessee area, Allen ties in ghost stories based on historical events in the area. And his books have been featured on ABC and CBS as well as many other media outlets in Tennessee. So we're so glad to have him with us. Alan, thank you so much for joining us.
Allen Sircy 1:19
Thanks for having me back.
Jim Harold 1:21
Now, if I'm correct, right now, Nashville was one of the hottest
areas in the country, one of the fastest growing cities just going
from strength to strength and really just booming, right?
Allen Sircy 1:33
It's been nuts. In the last three years they've said Nashville's
grown by over 100 people each day.
Jim Harold 1:38
Wow.
Allen Sircy 1:38
And it's--yeah, it's crazy. And with the pandemic and the virus
stuff a lot of folks from Florida, I mean, from New York,
California moving here as well. So it's really just Nashville has
exploded. I mean, downtown Nashville. It's nothing like when I was
a kid. There are skyscrapers everywhere, and just, it's--I read
somewhere the other day, it's number two behind Las Vegas for
bachelorette parties in the United States. So it's nuts.
Jim Harold 2:00
And the thing is, is that, I mean, what I associate because my
family was--came from Appalachia, so they were big fans of classic
country music. So I always think the Grand Ole Opry, and I think of
music city, and the country music industry, which has certainly
been an important part of Nashville for a long time. But, you know,
obviously, it doesn't all begin and end there. There's so much more
to the history of Nashville. Can you tell us about how Nashville
was developed? And a little bit of the early history of the
city?
Allen Sircy 2:35
Yeah, it's kind of wild, I mean, originally Nashville and Tennessee
in general was part of North Carolina. After the Revolutionary War,
they rewarded the soldiers who fought against the crown with land
grants. So all the land to the west and the western part of North
Carolina, which became Tennessee, it was all granted land that was
given to soldiers, and those settlers came here, they battled with
the Indians. It's really nuts. While I was doing a lot of research,
Broadway, where all those trendy honkytonks are, where all those
bachelorette parties go to, right there on Broadway is where they
fought the battle of the bluffs, which was like in the 1780s. All
those settlers that were there in the original Fort
Nashborough--Native Americans, of course, they didn't want the
white settlers there.
Jim Harold 3:21
Sure.
Allen Sircy 3:22
So you know, they would, they would have fights and they would take
potshots at them. Well, they kept trying to bait them out of the
fort. And eventually they did. Some Native Americans went down
there early in the morning and were shooting at the fort, I think
it's a dozen or so of the settlers just took off on horseback and
chased them while those Native Americans had two or three hundred
also, fellow Indians laying in wait for right here on Broadway. And
they just fought it out right there where Broadway is. So where all
those pretty honkytonks are is the site of a huge battle between
the settlers and Native Americans.
Jim Harold 3:55
Now anywhere there's history, you think about things like
Gettysburg, and you--places where you have battles and those kinds
of things. There's usually some kind of ghost story. Are there
ghost stories surrounding these different battles?
Allen Sircy 4:10
Oh, yeah, all those honkytonks there on Broadway, they all have
stories about seeing people walking around, weird things that
happen hearing shadows, seeing things moving around, going upstairs
and seeing there's one honkytonk there and hallway where they go
upstairs and saw a guy, he was putting away dishes, they turn
around and the guy was just gone. So all those that I guess where
that skirmish happened, that's where it was ground zero paranormal
activity.
Jim Harold 4:38
Now, I mean, having written these books about ghosts, you've--I bet
you've come up with some theories. What's your theory on, for
example, in one of those honkytonks, where they see a ghost of a
soldier or whatever it might be, do you think that's like a
residual energy or do you think that is the spirit coming back to
visit, quote, the scene of the crime or the scene of their
downfall, or do you think they're trapped there? What do you
think's going on?
Allen Sircy 5:05
It's really hard to say. I worked with an empath on some other
books and I kind of picked her brain. She can see things and sense
things and feel things that I can't experience. She would tell me
like there's a place in Gallatin, where this is where she works,
actually. She kept picking up this elderly woman there, with like
an old beehive hairdo. And she's like, you know, "this lady is
here, but she's not haunting. She's happy. She's where she wants to
be." So I went back and found a picture of the old librarian who
worked there. And she's like, "that's the lady I see." So it's not
really they're trapped there. Maybe they want to be there. In some
cases, they can be trapped. I don't really know. I'd love to find
out.
Jim Harold 5:42
Yeah. For sure. What is--and I may have asked you this last time,
but what's your favorite Nashville ghost story?
Allen Sircy 5:52
Oh, man, there's just so many. When I worked on the book, one of
the coolest things I've found is the Tennessee State Capitol, right
there in Nashville, on the largest Hill in Nashville. There's--some
people see a well dressed man walking through the Capitol. They see
soldiers, weird things happen. Well, when I was researching this,
there's a thing called the portico up there like the second story
of the Capitol. Well, before they had electricity in Nashville, all
these politicians would go there and they'd have meetings, and they
would tend to business there in the Capitol. Well of course it'd be
well lit, they'd have candles and all lamps everywhere. They walk
outside and realize it's pitch black. So I found probably a dozen
people just walk out of the Capitol and fall 20, 30 feet to the
concrete below, and it killed most of them. I call it the portico
plunge. Just because their eyes need to adjust, they walk outside
from the bright whites to pitch black. They just stumble over and
they just--they just die. And you keep hearing all these stories
and seeing shadows above the portico, and I think I found the
reason why.
Jim Harold 6:55
Yeah, yeah. It's--it's interesting, because--do you believe
that--do you believe that ghosts can harm us, that they have
nefarious, some of them are nefarious, or do you think they're
pretty much harmless?
Allen Sircy 7:12
You know, 99% of the things I've experienced and the people I've
talked to, it's just mystery stuff. I can count on three fingers
where a place where something mean's going on. And of course there
are, like someone explained to me how you if someone is you know,
quote, unquote, a butthead in real life, they're going to be a
butthead in the afterlife. But most of the time, and I lived in a
haunted house. You just--it's kind of mystery to stuff they want
you to know they're there, or else they will leave you alone and
they want to be left alone. Rarely ever are the risks is of
somebody coming back to the afterlife and doing something harmful
to someone else.
Jim Harold 7:49
Now, another place I've heard a lot about, Printer's Alley. Tell us
about Printer's Alley.
Allen Sircy 7:54
Yeah, Printer's Alley is a really cool little corner of Nashville
and it's--it's trendy right now, of course as hot as Nashville is,
but back in the day, it was called Printer's Alley because there's
like I think 20 or 21 printers that had offices right there on
Fourth and Fifth Avenue where it's located. And so initially, down
there in the basement level, they built all these bars and
speakeasies and the laws are funny in Nashville you could take your
own liquor to the establishment back in the 50s and 60s, and they
had to pour it for you, but they couldn't sell you the product.
It's really strange. But people go there and they drink after work.
And one of the most famous ghost stories is a guy named Skull,
named Schulman. He owned one of the bars down there in printer's
alley. And he's always flashing cash and he's very extravagant. He
was actually an extra on the show Hee Haw. I'm sure you watched it
as a kid.
Jim Harold 8:47
Oh yeah.
Allen Sircy 8:49
He opened a bar and he's friends with all the guys, but he'd give
money to homeless people. Well, the thing was after a while all
those homeless people kind of got together, said, "Hey, you know
this guy's got cash, let's--let's--let's go rob him." So they
robbed him and killed him. And it was just a tragic, sad story. But
ever since then they said they see him walking the Printer's Alley.
His old club, they got Skull's Rainbow Room's what's it called.
Haunted cooks in there. One guy told me he was cutting vegetables
one morning, and he kind of put the knife down, and the knife just
jumped two feet off the counter right in front of him, just scared
him to death. He almost quit.
Jim Harold 9:24
And you know, I've got to wonder, you write about these stories.
Have you had any ghost stories have happened to you?
Allen Sircy 9:32
Yeah, I've had some really strange interactions in these places.
I've been to. There's a place called Rosemont in Gallatin,
Tennessee. I wrote about Gallatin years ago, and I was talking to
the caretaker and, and we're wrapping it up. Of course, I recorded
a conversation, so I can go back and go through it all. And as I'm
leaving, we found out that the caretaker is a distant cousin of
mine. My last name is Sircy, which is very odd last name, and Sircy
was his mother's maiden name. So at that time, I had a little boy,
I just had him, and I was explaining, "I have a little boy and
through my little boy, my family name'll live on because I'm the
last on my grandfather's side with the Sircy name." And we talked a
little bit and I left, so I go back home that night, and I
played--played the recording back. And I'm telling the story, and
this little old lady's voice goes, "Oh, good," when I explain I
have a little boy. It was just me and him out on the porch there.
I'm leaving at that point. They're just weird things like that.
I've I've been into these old houses and you hear noises and I'll
say, "Hey, I heard something over there." And you point over there
and the noise comes from behind you I was just messing with you. I
lived in a home behind travelers rest historic house in Nashville.
Belonged to John Overton. He was Andrew Jackson's best friend and
campaign manager. He founded the city of Memphis. Well, I lived in
a house, first night I was there, trash can moved eight feet in the
middle of the night. Weird stuff like that happened. I've had the
chance to go and talk to them. "Oh no, we're not haunted. Sorry, we
can't help you. But a friend of mine saw an old lady standing in
the corner of my bedroom. I didn't see her but they swore they saw
her. So it was--weird stuff like that always happened. And I'm
taking pictures in places around town and gotten some really,
really strange images. I can't explain that. I've had--I've had a
handful of interactions.
Jim Harold 11:13
Interesting. Now, when it comes to--when it comes to Nashville, and
then you may have already mentioned, where do you think the most
haunted spot is?
Allen Sircy 11:23
Well, honestly, I think it's Second Avenue, which is right there,
off Broadway. When I was doing this, there was a year during
Reconstruction, I counted 12 fires in that one year on Second
Avenue, it was called Market Street back then. Those fire codes
were horrible. I think I may have mentioned to you earlier, you
know, it's like Nashville, New Orleans it was Chicago fire--fire
codes were a huge problem up until I guess the early to middle 20th
century. Everything's made of wood, so if your next door neighbor
has a fire, chances are your house is going to catch on fire too.
They were fighting the fires with bucket brigades and they get men
lined up with buckets from the river or from closest water source
trying to battle a fire and by the time they get the agents there
on a horse drawn carriage or by the train, the whole blocks
engulfed in flames. It happened numerous times. All over
Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Nashville all over Middle Tennessee and all
over the country.
Jim Harold 12:17
Now was there anything surrounding the Civil War? What was--what
was going on in Nashville at that time?
Allen Sircy 12:22
Well, Nashville, I didn't really cover in the book. I'm gonna go
more into that in the next book I do. The Civil War, it didn't
really affect downtown Nashville as much. It really affected South
Nashville, which is where they fought the Battle of Nashville. It
was maybe six or seven miles south of the city. There's a massive
fort here called Fort Begley. But there really wasn't much action.
They fired some cannons during the battle. But I mean, like I said,
the capitol, there's records of a show--soldier being shot. They
had the windows open during the storm, and this guy propped his gun
up against the door, and the wind blew the door, his gun dropped to
the ground, and when it did it shot and killed him right there in
the capitol. And they say they see a soldier walking to the Capitol
occasionally, which, you know, probably came from that experience
there.
Jim Harold 13:08
Yeah, I love--I'm looking through the book right now. And you give
these like the Hard Rock gift shop and all the Jack's Barbecue and
you show all these different places that actually have hauntings.
Now, these places have hauntings. Most of the workers and owners
and people who talk about it, do they want to get rid of them, or
they just kind of--they're just kind of like, "hey, it's just like
another member of the neighborhood?"
Allen Sircy 13:33
Some places they embrace it, some places won't talk about it.
There's a couple places that I know for a fact that are haunted,
they wouldn't tell me anything. So it's just, you're kind of
relying on some of the staff--staff members to tell you what's
going on. You mentioned the Hard Rock. Yeah, that old. There's a
Hard Rock is part of--there's two buildings. There's the gift shop,
and there's the other part on Second Avenue. The one--other room
was like a saloon and brothel hotel. And there's all kinds of
stories of people getting pushed and things falling over. It's the
same stuff all over town. It's just--it's Nashville's an iconic
city. There's so much history here. It's kind of gotten buried with
all the country music and touristy stuff.
Jim Harold 14:18
One--one thing you talk about--this was really sad, when COVID
happened. There were a lot of people that were hit by it very
quickly, like in--in March and April of 2020 when the medical folks
didn't know how to treat it, didn't know half know what it was. And
sad situation, country singer Joe Diffie passed of COVID quite
unexpectedly. He was a young man, relatively young, 61. But you
told an interesting story in here about Tootsies, his career, and
what happened after he passed.
Allen Sircy 14:54
Yeah, that's a really odd story. I was down there on Second Avenue
and Broadway just talking to the, you know, talking to the
bouncers, waitresses, waiters, just being with everybody and this
bouncer, he was telling me when he first started, the story was
they see Hank Williams Jr. Because Tootsies' right there, right
behind the Ryman Auditorium, and they said that he was always told
they'd see Hank Williams' shadow or see a figure look like Hank
Williams kind of--
Jim Harold 15:18
Saw Hank Williams Sr., you mean, right?
Allen Sircy 15:20
Yes, sir. Yeah. Hank Williams Sr. Yeah, Hank Senior is a smaller,
thinner guy.
Jim Harold 15:23
Yeah.
Allen Sircy 15:24
Hank Junior is a big burly guy with a beard. But they would see
Hank Sr. there by the door. And he--he's, you know, I don't really
believe it. And then occasionally, I would kind of see something
out of the corner of my eye, he's like, "Yeah, I saw a shadow that
kind of resembled the silhouette of Hank Williams Sr." He said,
"But the weirdest thing that happened was the day that Joe Diffie
died." Tootsies was shut down. All of Broadway was shut down. The
mayor decided he needed to close all those establishments because
of the virus that was going on. Well, they had to have a bouncer or
security guard there. 24/7. You know, because they have liquor and
they--they have stuff in there that is worth a lot of money.
Jim Harold 15:55
Yeah. And then Joe Diffie shot the video for one of his most
popular songs, "Prop Me up beside the Jukebox" there when he was
still breaking, right?
Allen Sircy 16:04
Yeah, and the security guard telling me that he was there the day
Joe Diffie passed away. And the thing is, Joe Diffie, he started,
he was a struggling musician. He played the honktonks like Tootsies
and stage down there on Broadway. And when he finally has a record
deal, and he filmed the video for "Prop Me up beside the Jukebox
when I die," he chose to shoot at Tootsies. Because you know him
and the management there were close. So even when he broke big and
did well back in the mid 90s, he'd always come back to Tootsies and
play. So when he died, the bouncer or security guard who spent the
night and the whole day there told me that he came in and just like
the--the whole bar was freezing cold. He goes and he fiddles with
the thermostat, he'd crank it all the way up, and nothing. And he
said, "but the next day, it was back to normal," he said, "it was
kind of like the building's in mourning, because Joe Diffie was
such a central figure to the bar."
Jim Harold 16:56
Wow. That's and that's--that's really very, and that's just a
microcosm of what happened to millions, you know, but people who
were in relatively good health and things in this just caught them
the wrong way. And the treatments weren't there. And just just a
very, very, very sad story. Oh, we talked about music a little bit
last time. Maybe we'll talk about a little bit more you told us
about the the Diffie story. What are--what is one of your other
favorite music oriented stories when you talk about Nashville and
Nashville ghost?
Allen Sircy 17:33
Well, I'm not sure it's music, but it's right there on Broadway by
all those honkytonks, there's a place called Merchants. It's a
restaurant. It's kind of upscale dining. It was no hotel, it was a
pharmacy during the Civil War. And when they remodeled during the
1990s they found love letters from a soldier to a girl who worked
there. And of course, there are stories of, you know, a guy
stomping around upstairs and things get moved around. And they say
it's the spirit of that Civil War soldier because he was--they were
not under the war. Afterwards, he started messing around, he gets
sent down south and started cheating on her, they broke up, and
they say that he returned there because that's where he was truly
happy. So it's an interesting story. It's I'm not sure how much is,
you know, embellished or whatever or tied to that story. But it's
really weird. They have the tiles of war there in that
building.
Jim Harold 18:19
What is the oddest? Like, I mean, just kind of outright weird?
What's the story that just as kind of like, it's not like
conventional, maybe just something outside of the normal, one that
strikes you as just a bizarre story.
Allen Sircy 18:34
Well, I mean, it's a crazy story I've got recently. It isn't really
even in this book, but I'll go ahead and tell you, I'm working
on--when I first sat down to write this book--I've been working on
this for several years. I've got a back burner on my lawn. So I sit
down next January, I was looking at this. And I had like 650 pages.
And it's like, no one's gonna read a book that's 700 pages, you
know, about Nashville. So I decided to break it up in downtown,
north, south east and west of Nashville. I'll just break it up.
Well, back in reconstruction, there was a man who was hanged and
killed his girlfriend. And down there in South Nashville, it's just
down the national road. It's called Tribeca. It's a Christian
college. But back then it was the Hanging Fruit. So there was a man
he was sitting down there. He was hanged. Before he was hanged, he
made a deal with the two doctors. Doctors gave him some money, and
he agreed to sell them his body. So once the doctor and sheriff
said he was--he was dead and they could have his body. They took
him under a tent like right there behind the gallows. And they
hooked up current to him. So they're in the current room and he
shot up, his eyes open, he do--drew a deep breath and fell back
down and they they lost him after that. So once that happened,
they--they took his body, threw it in a wagon and took him up to
the college. It's part of the Ben West complex down in Nashville.
It was called Langley Hall back then. Well, they took them up there
and they tried to revive him again. But when they got to Langley
Hall, there wasn't a crowd watching so no one really knows what
exactly happened to him. But a week later, people were writing
letters to the Tennessee and the local newspaper in Nashville from
Winchester, which is 30, 45 miles south saying, "Hey, we saw Knox
Mark," that was the name of the guy who was hanged. "We saw him
walk through town and I thought he was hanged." Well, a few days
later, they're getting letters from people in Alabama saying, "Hey,
Knox Mark is in Alabama, we thought he was killed a couple weeks
ago." And then pieces--pieces of the rope that was used to hang
Knox was sent to a bank. And just a lot of weird things happened.
And you gotta wonder is it just people messing with the
Tennesseean? I mean, chances are, I'm 99.9% sure they didn't revive
the guy, he didn't come back. But it's really really weird that
they find the guy, they brought him back, he shot up and drew his
breath. They go back to another building. It's kind of hush hush
what happens. Then there's letters saying, "hey, we see him." It's
really really, really strange.
Jim Harold 21:00
Do you think Nashville is more haunted than your average city?
Allen Sircy 21:06
Oh, man, it's all subjective, I guess. But there's just there's so
much history. You know, you have Native Americans who were here and
the settlers came in and they're fighting every day. You have
terrible fire codes. You have the war, there's slavery, it's just
Middle Tennessee is ground zero for a lot of bad weird things. It's
in Nashville, Murfreesboro right up the street. It's the only city
in the country had three Civil War battles. The Franklin, the
Battle of Franklin took place, they--they marched Amala to the
square and every building becomes a hospital. So it's just a lot of
death and destruction and the war, you know, it just really stayed
in Middle Tennessee. So I'm not gonna say it's the most haunted
place in the country, but it's--it's gotta be pretty close.
Jim Harold 21:52
And the thing is, is that I've heard people say things like, you
know, "I'm really interested in the paranormal, but this history
stuff, I'm not in for it," and it's like, wait a minute, it's the
same thing in many ways. You know, you don't have a lot of the
paranormal activity unless you have the history behind it, whatever
that history may be. So to me, you know, they're--they're like
bread and butter, you know, salt and pepper, peanut butter and
jelly. They really fit together. What do you think about that?
Allen Sircy 22:25
Yeah, definitely. I mean when I did the Gallatin book, Ghosts of
Gallatin years ago, I was on the square, this gentleman who had an
art gallery is telling me that there's a psychic in Nashville who
buildings haunted her on tour. So she walked in, she touched the
banister, went to walk up the stairs, and she just falls back, and
she's like, "I can't feel my right arm, I've got a splitting
headache. I gotta sit down." So he told me that, so I go to the
archive and I'm digging and digging and digging. Turns out the guy
who owns that building, he was a Confederate veteran who lost his
right arm and suffered a head wound. So when you put two and two
together like that, that's--that's like the Holy Grail for me as
far as being an author about the paranormal.
Jim Harold 23:02
When you walk into a place with a lot of history, do you feel it?
Do you feel those spirits? Do you--does it, you know, I don't
consider myself psychic. But when I am in like places with old
artifacts, I just feel differently. Now maybe it's just--and I
always joke, I'm about as psychic as a board. But do you feel that
when you walk into places like that, do you feel something
different? Do you feel a presence or a different in just the
environment?
Allen Sircy 23:31
No, sir, I'm not an empath. I wish I had those abilities about
down. I mean, I've been in Philadelphia in buildings, George
Washington's buildings, and I think that's really cool. But I had
an experience where I was in the Gallatin square with the empath,
and we go upstairs and she's like, takes off running. I said, "What
are you doing?" She said, "there's a little girl here. She's trying
to show me something." Some kind of a skeptic. You know, I don't--I
don't just believe everything someone tells me. So I said, "Okay,
I'll tell you what, tell her to touch my hand." So I had my hand
sticking out. And at that moment, I start scratching my ribs. And
she goes, "Alan, she's trying to hold your hand right there where
you're scratching. And I was like, oh, you know, maybe it was a
coincidence. Maybe there was a little girl touching my hand. That's
just, I don't know. That's kind of strange.
Jim Harold 24:13
Yeah, I know what you're--know what you're saying. I've never had
that, though. I've never--I've never felt touched. I've never felt
anything like that. I just, you know, I--it's one thing that I used
to--and I've told this on the show before. I used to be very
interested in, you know, thrifting and going and buying like old
radios and different things like that. Just I've always kind of
liked old stuff. Now, there's two reasons that I've kind of really,
three reasons that have kind of really dialed that back. First of
all, my wife does not like antiques (laughs). So she's kind of
broken me of that habit. Second of all, you, you know, after
accumulating so much stuff after so many years, you're like,
there's no place to put it. And then the third thing is, though,
that I have a real concern about is I wonder about when you get
things at thrift stores, in some cases, can you pick something else
up with it? You know, somebody had a piece for a long time. Is it
energetically charged in some way? And can you bring things into
your home? And I do, you know, I've had a lot of people on my
Campfire show that have talked about that. So I always, you know, I
occasionally will get something older, but I always kind of think
about it twice because it's like, you might get a little extra
added bonus. I always worry.
Allen Sircy 25:32
It's funny you bring that up. There's a museum in Gallatin. I've
been doing haunted tours up in Gallatin. And we also do
investigations. There's a museum, Sumner County Museum, and
upstairs, there's a mannequin they call Cinderella. She's been
there a long time. I don't know where she came from. But a few
years ago, I did the Gallatin book, I was at a historical site,
selling books. And that night, they're doing a bus tour, going to
Cragfont, Wynnewood, a bunch of historic sites in Middle Tennessee,
or in Sumner County. And they came to where I was, and this guy
said, "Hey, we were at the museum a while ago, did you hear what
happened?" And I said, "No, sir, tell me." And they said, "well,
there was a mannequin there and a lady held up a rosary, and it
broke apart in her hands." So I was like, "okay, that's kind of
strange." Well, 30 minutes later, and the next bus got there. He
said, "Hey, you asked about the museum a while ago and somebody
said something to a mannequin and put a rosary in front of her, and
it just disintegrated right there in her hand." So at the end of
the night I was with the director, and I said, "Hey, two people
told me the same story about the mannequin, what's going on?" And
he said, "Yeah, I don't believe in that stuff. But I saw it happen.
I can't explain it." So I've been in there, and doing
investigations. I've seen her just topple over. Like, no one's
around, you know, we have some equipment there. And she'll just
fall over. We were there last year. And there's a girl--there's a
historic house in front of the museum called Trousdale Place. And
there was an intern there, and she's very skeptical. And she made
the march with a friend of hers. And she said, if something's
there, or something's here, it's got to be near the side of my head
to get my attention. Well, maybe an hour or so later, we're in the
museum. And she's standing maybe three feet from it, and I hear a
scream. So I walk over to her, and something has smacked her on the
arm. I got a picture of her arm and there's a handprint where
something smacked her. And a friend of mine was standing right
behind her. And he's like, I don't know what happened. I just heard
her scream. He says there was no one around her. So it's not like
she did it or had somebody do it to her, it's just whatever is
there is attached to a mannequin. And it lashes out sometimes.
Jim Harold 27:31
Interesting, interesting. You talked about your work in doing ghost
tours and things. I'll ask you two questions wrapped into one.
Number one, what do you think people are looking at, or looking for
when they want to go on a ghost tour? And I guess B, from your
standpoint, what do you want to deliver to them?
Allen Sircy 27:53
You know, I've done the ghost tours. And I've been down there in
Savannah in New Orleans and stuff. And it's just, I don't really
know why. It's the history I really enjoy. I want to go, I want to
learn outside of the books. I want to know why something is
haunted. You know, you can't say oh, there they see the ghost of an
old lady, you know, well, who was the old lady? Why is she there?
What happened to her? Is she sad, is she happy? What's her life
like? That's what really intrigues me. So when I do the tours, I
try to give a little history on locations, the people there, some
of the stories. And you show the pictures. I was at a location up
here on the square of last year. And this little boy said, "Hey,
there's someone up on the stairs, and it's watching us." And so I
said, "Okay, take a picture, send it to me." Well, he did. And you
see me and you can see like, it's like a, it's like a witch almost.
It's like a lady's face. But with Gonzo from the Muppets nose, a
real long nose. And I've never seen anything like it, it just blows
my mind. I'll have to shoot it over to you. Which is it's fun
when--when you see somebody and they're getting into it. Like I've
been at Trousdale Place and someone will take a picture of the
house and then 20 mins later, like, "Hey, come look at this." And
there's a old lady standing there as clear as day that wasn't on
the tour. So it's, it's fun for me that I hope they get a thrill on
it. But I wanted to learn something about Gallatin and the square
and history because that's what's really fun and cool to me.
Jim Harold 29:19
Well, it's always fun and cool to talk to you about Southern Ghost
Stories, Allen. Where can people find the book and more information
about everything you do?
Allen Sircy 29:30
southernghoststories.com is the website, we got the information and
books on there. You can find the books on amazon.com. And they're
on a few retailers down here in Middle Tennessee, but it's probably
amazon.com is probably your best option.
Jim Harold 29:41
Well, it's always fun to speak with Allen Sircy about Southern
ghost stories. And today we talked a lot about Nashville. Allen,
thank you for joining us, and we look forward to having you back on
the shows.
Allen Sircy 29:53
Alright Jim, thanks so much.
Jim Harold 29:54
I enjoyed speaking with Alan and I hope you enjoyed it as well.
Thank you so much for tuning into Ghost Insight, and we'll talk to
you next time. Have a great week everybody. Bye bye.