Buy these "I See Ghosts" gifts and apparel inspired by the Gavin House. These "Made in America" gifts and apparel were created to help stimulat interest and tourism by local artist/photographer, Terry Lynch.
Click to see more items like this.
Are there ghosts in the Gavin House? Certainly there is a lot of local history associated with the Gavin-Huff House and one cannot enter its doors without being touched by the spirit of past lives which built the house and made it their home. According to Debora Reese, a member of Historical Clarke County, the Gavin House was built around the 1900's, probably by its first resident, Dr. McNair, who lived in the house until the Great Depression, when it was purchased by Withers and Maude Carter Gavin. They owned house until Mrs. Gavins died and willed it to her friend, Mrs. Huff; then it was purchased from her son by Historic Clarke County, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) group, which hopes to preserve and restore the home and make it into a museum and garden park.
I spoke with Debora Reese while sitting upon the steps of the Gavin House as volunteers worked inside the house cleaning it early Saturday morning. Debora told me that over 400 old photographs had been recovered from the house, mostly of unknown people. She and others interested in genealogy are trying to discover who all these unknown people are, their images captured in time and posted on the net, hoping that collectively those interested in preserving our heritage may be able to identify some of Gavin family and friends before they literally fade from memory and are as ghost floating mysteriously in that vast grave yard of souls that is known only unto God.
Debora and other volunteers gathered at the Gavin House to begin the long process of cleaning the house and grounds. They mopped floors, cleaned the walls, repaired plumbing, vacuumed out an old floor heaters, and worked to clean up over growth upon the property. As they worked I explored the old house looking for interesting historical relics that might capture the spirit of the old house. Opening one door I was greeted by an image from the past, a rather dignified man who loomed from out of the past, dressed in an early 20th Century suit, framed in an ellipse as if to say, "Welcome to my home!" I had truly met a ghost!
I asked Debora if she knew the gentleman, if this might be Dr. McNair or one of the Gavins. She did not know for sure. Yet I felt who every it was, he was an important man, given the size of the photograph. Back in the early 1900s you had to have money to be able to afford large portraits; most people of that era could only afford small snap shots. Perhaps this was indeed Dr. McNair, as surely a doctor could afford to visit a photographer's studio and have his picture blown up to frame and mount over the mantle of his fireplace.
Whoever this ghost was, he was surrounded by old furniture and appliances. This included at least three typewriters and a several very large RCA phonographs. Those who inhabited the Gavin House must have loved music as well as to write. Debora said that they owned or worked for the Clarke County Tribune. That would certainly explain the old desks and the typewriters. There was also an old safe, indicating that the owners had valuable and treasures which they cherished. I wondered if anyone knew the combination of that safe, its doors hanging open and its contents long removed?
Yes, there were ghosts in the Gavin House. You did not have to look far to see them. The ornate iron cast chandeliers in the living and dining rooms seemed to yet glow of a time before I was even born. I opened the piano and struck its keys. They still sounded, reverberating a sweet melody. Someone had played that piano and sung gossip songs. I listened hard and could almost hear "Amazing Grace" ringing in the distance. A few keys were stuck and did not sound, indicating that the piano had been used much and was in need itself of some restorative work and TLC.
At some point the fireplaces had been bricked up and radiant gas heaters installed. I was quite family with such heaters; they were in common use in my grandmothers home in Montgomery, Alabama, back in the 40's and 50's. I loved old houses. As an Army brat I grew up living in many different old houses. As a child I lived in Orleans, France, and was exposed to everything from castles to cathedrals. Some of my fondest memories are from various old houses which I lived in over the years. Given my parents loved old houses and antiques, the went to great efforts to find nice old houses where the ceilings were high and the floors made of solid hard wood. Thus opening the door to the Gavin House brought back many fond memories.
I was impressed that so many people turned out to work on the Gavin House. I spoke with Ellisa Mayo who had brought her daughter with her and was cleaning cob webs from the high ceilings. I also spoke with Paul Brown who was vacuuming out the gas heater in the floor. I even snapped a picture of Tony Flemming after he crawled under the house to do some plumbing work.
The Gavin House is a fine building but is in need of much work and repairs. The house will need to be sand blasted and painted. There is a bad leak in the roof which is in need of immediate repair. In fact, the house really needs a new roof given the old one shows signs of weathering and corrosion. A thunderstorm came up while I was at the Gavin House, rain showering from the heavens, lightening flashing, thunder clapping. Soon water was leaking through the roof and running down the wall. I thought to myself that fixing that leak, repairing any water damage to the interior of the house, and donating a new roof to secure the Gavin House from further weather damage, would make a great way a roofing company or other businesses might help Historic Clarke County.
It is good what everyone is doing, coming together on Saturday morning, taking time to give of themselves to a worthy project. Yet much more needs to be done. Time flies by and it won't be too long before there is no one around who can identify all those people in the Gavin family photographs of which Debora spoke. Debora did say that a tally had been made and they inventoried all the furnishing in the house. Each item had been numbered and tagged. Effort was being made to preserve the Gavin House and its furnishings.
As I looked around I saw Jim Potuk, current president of the HCC, looking at an old newspaper. He said it was an issue of the Daily Clarion Ledger from June 18, 1933! After Jim set the 76 year old newspaper down, I took a look at it to see if I could discover any interesting "old news." There was a photograph of President Roosevelt signing the home loan bill.
Why would anyone save that particular newspaper? Could it be that it was this bill that enabled the Gavins to buy their home? Perhaps this is one more ghost speaking from the past from which we might learn if just we would listen. Instead of bailing out banks, the government should be helping people stay in their homes by freezing all foreclosures! In fact, perhaps the government would be wise to void all home foreclosures since 9/11. Perhaps the government could help the average American citizen better by investing in home ownership instead of wasting so much money on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps the government could help its citizens most by restoring home ownership to all who have lost their homes since 9/11!
Seeing that photograph of President Roosevelt signing a home loan bill 76 years ago was like a lightening bolt from the past. In fact, as I read the caption, there was a bolt of lightening which struck and thunder resounded through the Gavin House. It was as if God was saying, "Wake up! You can change the world! Everything is connected and related! The ghosts you sense are not ghosts; they are angels and each comes bearing gifts, with a lesson, a truth for you to become aware, see and share."
Here were all these wonderful people coming together to help preserve the Gavin House. It was a piece of local history, worth keeping, preserving and cherishing. Every item of furniture, every photograph found in the house has a story to tell. How great it would be if people everywhere exhibited such brotherhood and a helping hand as did those who came out on Saturday to work on the Gavin House. How much better a community and a world we would have if everyone help their neighbors as did those who came out to work on the Gavin House!
I know there are many, many people who do not even have homes. The recession has resulted in over 14 million people loosing their homes. I know what it is like to lose a home. When my own dear mother became desperately in in Montgomery, Alabama, and was placed in a nursing home, our family home was soon lost along with hundreds of thousand of dollars worth of property and many family priceless heirlooms. Instead of the community coming to the rescue of my dear mother and our family, various lawyers, judges and other greedy and selfish people circled my dear mother like sharks to steal away our home! It was an outrageous act of greed done by corrupt and powerful people against one who was elderly and helpless! Then when I tried to help my mothers, to get her the best care and doctors, I was targeted by these same ruthless, greedy people who financially raped and robbed my dear mother!
Having experienced the loss of my own home, I certainly appreciate seeing how a small group of people have come together to preserve and protect the Gavin House. Although no one is living in that home, the very act of people coming together to work to preserve the home is bringing people together for a worth cause. How different our world would be if everyone came together and worked together, neighbor helping neighbor, instead of responding with selfishness and greed.
Hopefully those working to preserve the Gavin Home will be able to learn about the people who once lived in the Gavin House, to tell their stories and reflect their life experiences. A house is just a house; it is the people who live in the house who make it a home. There are indeed ghosts in the Gavin House; their spirits speak to us from the past and have lessons to teach if but we will listen and learn. Each old photograph, each old newspaper, each piece of furniture and house ornamentations has a story to tell. Remembering history, the lives and experiences of those who lived before us, is important.
This is what the Holy Bible is all about, the struggles of our ancestors, how they came to see God and know His presence. Every generation since Adam and Eve has a story to tell. Too often we let the past slip away. This is true in our own lives as well as that of our children's lives. We need to be more reverent of our lives, to endeavor to record our life experiences and tell our stories to our children. This is perhaps the greatest lesson that can be learned from restoring the Gavin House, that we each are part of a continuing tale. We are not alone. We are connected to the past, to everyone who has gone before us. There are ghost in the Gavin House, the spirits of those who lived and worked a generation before many of us were ever born. The more we can learn about their lives and times, the better and more rich our own life experience may be, that our children's lives may be but the more enriched.
There are ghosts in the Gavin House. I have met a few of them, departed souls that perhaps only the most mortals never see. It is not that I'm a ghost hunter or even believe in ghosts. It is, rather, that ghosts find me, coming out of the walls, looming out of old photographs, tap, tap, taping away at the keyboards of old typewriters. I am aware of the ghosts in the Gavin house just as I'm aware of the spirit that one finds should they walk among the dead at a cemetery. The name and epitaph engraved upon each tombstone beckons of a life once lived, now dearly departed. Someone loved someone enough to bury them, to erect a tombstone, to leave flowers upon their grave site. Someone also loved someone enough to build the Gavin House, to live there among their fellows in Quitman before I was ever born, to work in the community, to go to church, to tap, tap, tap away at the keyboard of their typewriters, telling stories just as I am telling a story now about them. I never knew the Gavins, nor Dr. McNair. But I know they were good and decent people and that by some miracle or in some mysterious way through which God works, their home has brought others together, to work, to share a common cause, to make their community and the world a slightly better place.
There are ghosts in the Gavin House, but they do not haunt. Rather, they reflect the lives and times of the 20th Century, a generation before that of the vast majority of the world's population which now exceeds 8-billion! It's hard to imagine so many people, many of whom are struggling just to survive. Some 47 million Americans do not even have health care. Millions more do not even have a home. Unemployment is at levels not seen since the Great Depression. There are so many people across the nation and throughout the world who are just trying to survive, that most do not see nor care to see ghosts; are not aware of their ancestors or the struggles of their parents or grandparents. So much is lost from generation to generation. This is one reason that souls become lost, as when you do not love and cherish your own life and the lessons that life has taught you, to give this unto your children, then their life is all the more difficult.
Perhaps we could all learn a lesson from those who came together to work at the Gavin House. Take this same spirit and generosity with you and share it with others. Love your neighbors and work together rather than apart. Give what you can of yourself unto others. Make time to contribute something of yourself back to your community and to those who may be in need and less fortunate than you are.
Yes, there are ghosts in the Gavin House. We each leave a part of ourselves wherever we go. Did you know this? We humans shed millions of skin cells daily; they rain from our bodies like a snow storm. Dogs have such keen sense of smell that they can track humans by the scent they leave behind them with each fall of their feet and the raining of epithelia cells which it brings. Yet, each day we have the opportunity to leave behind more than just a showing of skin cells. We can share our hearts and give of our love. We can do good work or deeds and touch the lives of others. We can do so many small things to make the world a better place, small things which together add up to make a big difference! Like crawling under a house that is not your own to fix a leaking pipe. Or cleaning the cob webs from the ceiling of someone else's house. Or mopping the floor or cleaning the windows of a home that is not your own. Or collecting rainwater falling from the roof to mop floors. Or vacuuming out the heater in the floor of a house which belongs to someone else. These are all tasks I observed people doing at the Gavin House; little things which together will add up to preserving a bit of history from which we may all "see ghosts of our ancestors" and perhaps learn something from them to enrich our own lives.
There are ghost in the Gavin house... but they do not haunt. Rather, they are as ancestral spirits beckoning from the grave to teach us and guide us through life, to enrich our lives just as is done by every Bible story and tale told by parent and shared with a child. If we live our lives to the fullest we will leave more than just a showering of epithelia cells; we will leave our own ghosts through letters writ and emails sent, through drawings scribbled on paper and even nails hammered into a wall to hold up a picture. We will leave our own ghosts behind in photographs and video tapes, in so, so very many little ways that our lives touch others. That's why it is import to love your neighbor and to help others every chance you get. We are leaving behind our own ghosts, not even knowing that long after we part this good earth, someone will open a door and find us looking from beyond the grave speaking to them.
Yes, there are ghosts in the Gavin house; indeed, there are ghosts all around us and one day we will all be among those ghosts. Some will profess they will be living for eternity in Heaven; others no doubt are going the other direction. But me, I'll just be a spirit lingering about to haunt those able to see beyond their own mortal selves into the lives and hearts of their ancestors ... and not forget that once there were others who walked this good Earth, who lived, and breathed, and loved, and struggled to survive. As an ancestral spirit I will linger for eternity right here on Earth, in the heart and minds of living and breathing bodies. That is how I see my life after death, either that or being forgotten altogether in time, as no doubt will be the majority of souls that walk this good Earth. For were it otherwise, there would just be too many ghosts for comfort!
After visiting the Gavin House I was fascinated to learn more about the Gavin Family and to see who these people were. I browsed through the Gavin Family Photographes which Debora has done such a good job to collect and post upon the Internet. I selected a few for exhibit, as they serve to capture the spirit of the times when people road around in carriages pulled by horses or cattle and communicated by morse code, taping out dots and dashes to send telegrams to friends and relatives far away. I also created a digital collage entitled "Ghosts in the Gavin House." Perhaps if you visit the Gavin House one dark night you will be able to sense the spirits and hear the melody of the Roaring 20's coming from an old phonegraph. Listen carefully ... is it just the wind and a cat crying in the night or perhaps a child's spirit? Who are all the men, women and children in those Gavin Family photographs? Are they Gavin relatives or church membler, or was someone a collector of period photographs? What love, what happieness, what tears did these people know? Where did their life adventures take them? So much of history has been lost. Will we learn to tell and teach our children about our roots? Or will we become as ghosts, silver halide images fading in time, bits, bytes and pixels, vague memories of wonderment for those in love with life and all who have walked before us?
You may help support this site throught the purchase of gifts and apparel in our emporium. When you buy one of our high quality products we get a small commission which will be used to support this site and on-line publication. Thank you for your patronage.
Put Your Ad HereThis space is available. If you would like to advertise on this page or any of our Popular Portals please contact Terry. See our economical Advertising Rates. |