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Jim Harold interviews experts on all things ghostly in this PLUS ONLY podcast! For Jim's other PLUS shows, go to JimHaroldPlus.com

 

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.