I'm a Ghost Each Year at the "Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk" in Sebastopol CA

The thought occurred to me that many of my contacts here on Gather don't know about the one activity of mine that I'm the proudest of and that is my participation in "The Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk" that takes place each year in early October here in Sonoma County, California. The Cemetery Walk is a fundraising event that benefits The Western Sonoma County Historical Society here in the little Northern California town of Sebastopol.

I am a Past Co-President of the Society which is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Western Sonoma County history. The Society has several "projects" and one is the administration of the historical site of Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm which is the place where the famous "Plant Wizard", Luther Burbank (1856-1926) did most of his work in plant hybridization. I am a former Co-Chair and Secretary of the Farm Advisory Committee, as well, and remain an active volunteer there.

The Society also administrates the West County Museum, the local genealogical archives and the Triggs Reference Room (an archive of Sebastopol history) and has quite a few other projects, as well...

However, the Cemetery Walk is my special baby... :o) 

This year will be our fifth successful year (we've been a "sell-out" event every year since the start and probably will be again this year) and I have been a member of the Organizing Committee since the Walk's inception.

The Cemetery Walk is a wonderfully educational and entertaining event where we offer our patrons a sit-down soup, salad and homemade bread supper in the dining hall of a local church. The "audience groups" of approx. 25 people each are given about a half-hour to eat before they are led by a couple of guides from the dining hall up the hill through Burbank's Farm and to the next property which is the "Sebastopol Memorial Lawn Cemetery". The guides then lead the group around the cemetery to view 5 or 6 different grave sites where volunteer actors act out short "vignettes" based upon events in the lives of different cemetery "residents".

Afterwards, the groups are then guided back out of the cemetery to the "Caretaker's Cottage" on the Burbank Farm property where they are treated to a homemade apple dessert and coffee or tea which is served on delightful, mismatched, antique china cups and plates and there is a drawing for a "doorprize" of a copy of a book on the cemetery that was written by one of our Board members.

We hold the Walk on two nights (usually a Friday and Saturday night) and cycle through four audience groups per night.

Knowing my interest in the paranormal, the fact that I was a theatre arts major and am a writer with published ghost stories to my credit, the Walk's founder, Barbara Bull (who served as Vice-President on the Society Board of Directors where I was Co-President before she, regretfully, passed away the spring following our first Walk) asked me specifically to participate during the planning stages of the first Walk because she had it in mind to offer one ghost story to provide our audiences with a kind of mental break from the somewhat dry material offered in the 4 or 5 other "strictly historical" vignettes.

I was aware at the time of at least one local site, an old lumber mill, that was fairly locally well-known as being haunted  by Native American spirits -- according to everyone I talked to who'd witnessed it.

I researched local Native American folklore and history and, dressed as a Native American Storyteller, I spun a tale for the audience that included both what I knew about the haunted mill and some of the local Native American folklore and history and offered a possible explanation for the haunting.

After that first Walk, I decided to make it my "personal mission" to present ghost stories, folklore, mythology and/or legends of a different ethnic group at each year's Walk each. Luckily, I have a pretty good command of ethnic accents from my over 30 years in and out of the theater which stands me in good stead during these performances...

While doing research on Chinese ghost stories for the second year's Walk, I found that, in some areas of China, they believe that ghosts are created only from those who die of suicide, violently or when women die in childbirth. Additionally, it is thought that ghosts wish to take over the bodies of the living and can appear just like anyone else except that they are each forced to carry a "red scarf" to help identify them.

That year, dressed as "Ling Moon" (a "composite character" that I created from the moving and touching stories of several different California "Gold Rush Era" Chinese women), I gave the audience some background on Chinese ghosts and then told the sad story of Ling Moon's unfortunate life during the Gold Rush -- hinting that Ling Moon had either died in childbirth or committed suicide.

At the end of the vignette, I "accidentally" pulled out a long, red scarf that had been hidden up the sleeve of the Chinese jacket I wore (which was sewn by another Society volunteer from an authentic period pattern) much to the surprise of the audience who then realized that a "ghost" had been speaking to them the entire time...

The third year I played an Italian-American waitress from the 1940s who told the horrible but true story of a New Orleans axe murderer from the 1920s into which I incorporated a great deal of local history by way of the early Italian immigrant wine growers and stone masons that Sonoma County had in abundance. I modeled my composite waitress character after the Italian waitresses that I'd seen since early childhood in our local "family style" Italian restaurants -- some of which have been here in Sonoma County since the 1850s.

Last year, I played a "Russian Storyteller" who told the incredible and sad love story of a Russian Count, Nickolai Petrovich, and the Spanish Governor's daughter, Conchita del Arguello, which took place in the 1830s here in Northern California -- hinting that perhaps "the ghost of Conchita still walks the fog-shrouded coast awaiting the return of her lover..."

This year, I will playing a bonnie lassie of a Scottish "ghostie" named "Annie McGregor" who will tell the "Incredible Story of the Clan McGrew" -- several descendants of which are buried in the cemetery. The performance will be complete with dry ice effects to simulate "the fog upon the moors"...

I haven't yet decided which ethnic group I will be portraying next year... There are so MANY to chose from!  :^D 

Edited 09/15/2007 to include newly-joined group on distribution.