Olga Marie asked:
As the burnt orange light of dusk dimmed into deep, dark blue on the evening western horizon, Scarlet the Wiccan ghost tour guide of Fort Lauderdale did her glide-walk around the corner of Las Olas and Andrews to meet tonight’s group of ghost hunters in the Ghosts, Mysteries and Legends tour.
It is what to do in Fort Lauderdale beyond the pale of the ordinary. Are you drawn to the mysterious, the unknown and the explained? Then this is your thing to do in Fort Lauderdale — under the cover of the night sky.
For most ghost tour guides giving a ghost tour, it is merely a night job to make extra income. But for Ms. Scarlet the Wiccan, dealing with the spirits is part of her life. “I believe in the afterlife,” she says, “and that is a part of my daily life. The spirits are always with me. As they are with all of us.”
She adds, “Ghosts have felt the need to reveal themselves to me since I was four. My first visitation was from a great aunt. I didn’t realize she was a ghost until I told my mom about the lady in my room. My mom gathered up the old photo albums and asked me to show her who it was. The lady I selected was my great aunt who had passed three days before I was born.”
“I wear a black dress, black cape and top hat. It is not simply part and parcel of an entertaining night out with someone wearing late 19th century attire. Black is traditionally worn to protect from evil spirits. So this getup actually has a purpose, no matter where a ghost tour is.”
This is not your ordinary ghost tour. It is more like taking the first class in a the course of How a Wizard Deals with the Spirits of the Night. More importantly she has fun on the tour, as a result, so do the guests – particularly the children. They are fascinated by Ms Scarlet’s collection of amulets, charms, incense and stones along with diving rods and a laser thermometer, which she uses to find and bring out the spirits of the Netherworld. The adults like her total style.
The night I went on the tour, there was a group of ten adults, half of whom were on it for the third time. “The tour can vary from night to night,” says our tour guide. “What I cover depends on the curiosity and questions of the crowd. “
“Usually the tour ends outside of two haunted, 100 year-old mansions,” says Alison, one of the third-time participants, “but tonight, because we have repeated the tour, Ms Scarlet walked a little farther to the site of the Cooley Massacre. “
“This incident, by a group of renegade Seminoles killing a wife, her three kids and their tutor, execution style,” adds Ms Scarlet, “started the Second Seminole War for which President Jackson had a fort built nearby called Fort Lauderdale. It is this area of land, next to the fork of the New River, where our city began and how we got our name.
“The spirits of the Indians, and the early Spanish and American settlers still linger. There are a few sightings of early and mid-20th century ghosts, but otherwise we have gotten lots of readings in this neighborhood and photos of many orbs.”
In a group of eight participants, there were five children from three to 12 years old. It was the latter’s birthday. “They were a lot of fun” says Ms. Scarlet, “and I made the night special for the kids. I took dye-cut goody bags with a pattern of roses, hearts, and stars and put a few items in each one — a glow-in-the-dark eye bouncy ball, a package of popcorn that turns orange when you pop it, an “energy stone” and each girl got a chocolate-covered granola bar. I told the girls if they put three push lights in their bags, the bag would cast shapes on their walls!” What made the tour special for the birthday girl is the guide brought her a cape and battery-operated candle so that she could be her assistant and guest guide. You could see the thrill in her eyes.
All the party girls were into the ghost tour. An 11 year old told me she wanted to be a ghost hunter and a medium so that people could talk to their dead family members. What an unusual profession for an 11 year old to want. Then the birthday girl added in that she has seen ghosts before. She said she saw her Dad! The six year old then chimed in that she didn’t see her Dad but she felt him!!!!!
Like going to Disney World, taking the Ghost and Mystery tour in Fort Lauderdale is for the kid in all of us. More information and photos are at — and at MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/fortlauderdaleghosthunt.
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