Oh , you guys . you guys , you guys . Joel from Goat Farmer Records has recorded an audio version of " All the Same Old Haunts " and , as a Halloween treat , he 's graciously sharing it with us . Put it on repeat over your outdoor speakers to spook all your trick - or - treaters ! So , I finished up work early and came home to work on book stuff . I emailed the folks at WordPress . com to make sure I could hype my own book on my own blog without violating the TOS and they said , " Go ahead ! " so I spent all afternoon ( after work ) putting up my press release and my Q & A and videos to musicians and songwriters mentioned in the book . I even included my author photo , since y ' all made me feel like it wasn 't completely ridiculous . You all remember at the beginning of " All the Same Old Haunts , " there was mention of the guitar battle between Johnny Jones and Jimi Hendrix at the Club Baron , which was , apparently really called the Baron Club . Like as in " Bare - on " . In my head , I had been saying it " The Club Bare - oan " which I think has a nice ring to it . Oh well , it 's fiction . Some things are not like they were in real life . I wonder how they count a view . Were you counted as a viewer of the map when you saw it on a post ? Or did you actually have to click through to the map ? I don 't know . But it still delights me . That 's a lot of views . If everyone gave me a dollar for every time they looked at that map , I 'd be a thousandaire . Well , I am completely bummed that that 's over . I don 't say this mildly , but that was the most fun I 've had blogging in a long , long time . And I have some good times blogging . I thought they were fun , when I wrote them , but y ' all really enjoyed them , which is such a rush , I can 't even tell you . W . asked for a little background on each story , but I 'm not sure what there is to give . " The Infamous Witch " is , of course , the Bell Witch , the most famous Tennessee haunting . The more you read into it , the clearer it is that , whatever kernel of truth there is to the legend , it 's almost certainly completely fake now . Anyone writing fake ghost stories about Tennessee has got to give it up to the original . " The Man in My Back Yard " is a slightly fictionalized story about my back yard , in which people have seen a man who doesn 't exist . " Rachel Jackson " is completely made up . There are supposedly ghosts at the Hermitage , but I 've never heard of her being one of them . " The Three Babies " is based on a true incident . They really did find bodies at that intersection . But the ghosts are made up . " Dodge City " is based on a story I heard in college , a girl told me about not being able to get an ambulance to come to her neighborhood in Chicago , and on a TV show I saw where a psychic was being given a tour of a prison by a man who had served time there ; she picked out his cell because she said he still haunted it . There were Native American remains on the site where the Brentwood library is . They were , as far as I know , all moved . The WSM story was told to me as true , but I have never been down there to see if I could hear it for myself . " Dead and Gone " is based , in part , on a ghost story some folks in Nashville actually tell , but , as in the story , the couple in the grave were happily married and now are dead in Mt . Olivet , moved when it became fashionable to be buried there . " The Widow Ledbetter " is completely made up , except for the basic facts about Frank James being in town and he and his wife staying with that family . " Pressed into Service " I made up after seeing an x on the back of that particular grave and wondering about it . " Pebbles " is totally made up . " The Sylvan Heights Soldier " is in honor of the Ghosts of the Civil War , a long standing trope on Tiny Cat Pants . I blamed the Union soldiers who camped along the tracks that ended up being in my last back yard for stealing my awesome can opener . " Bacon Frying in the Pan " is based on a story I heard that actually supposedly happened here . " Granddad " I completely made up because I was so bummed to discover that a building as awesome as the Downtown Presbyterian Church doesn 't have a ghost . " El Protector " is made up , but we have famous ghost lights just south of town . " Laura " is made up , but I had heard a story about houses that don 't exist calling 911 due to some glitch in the system and freaking out the 911 operators . " Opryland " is made up , but the parts of the old theme park are still there , some of them . Um , " The Devil Lives on Lewis Street , I Swear " is based on my love of Elizabeth Bennett and the fact that the Devil lives on Lewis Street , as Steve Earle will tell you . " The Broken Mirror " is made up . But the Butcher 's friend works at Hooters , so I wanted to write a story she would get a kick out of . " The Home Depot Parking Lot " is based on the Jim Reeves ' Home being torn down and the frustration that a lot of preservationists felt at not being able to save the oldest house in Davidson County . " The Strange Case of Scenic Drive " is made up , but I liked the idea of two stories that fed into each other , without the people who had heard either story realizing it . " Adelicia Acklen " is based on a true story . I took some middle schoolers to the grave and had forgotten about the angel in there . Whew , that made them scream . In a little house on Venus Drive , she waited for him to come home from the war . She passed the time making airplanes and when he got home , he told all his friends that she was a better mechanic than anyone in town . His car ran because of her expertise . She died . Got hit by a car while she was out riding her bike . He was at home , sensed nothing amiss . Even when the police finally came to his door , he smiled much longer than was appropriate , because he simply could not believe she would leave him . When his grandson was born , he thought , " This is it , if she comes , it will be now . " And he waited for anything he could consider her , a noise , an out of place shadow , the smell of her perfume . But nothing . He met a woman at church and eventually it seemed to make sense that they would get married . Still , he didn 't want to offend his dead wife . " If you mind , " he would whisper , " just tell me . " His son - in - law was kind of a jerk and he would say things like , " Maybe she 's too busy . Maybe she 's got better things to do . Maybe she 's forgotten all about you . " It went like this . He had been semi - conscious for hours , not quite able to do much more than mumble . And then , he sat up , looked ahead of him , said plain as day , " Oh , so that 's why . " and started to sob . There is a house in Demoss Hollow , just off River Road , west of town that is tucked so far back away that you can 't see it from the road . It has the twin chimneys and the low slung porch that say that it was built a while ago . It has , at least , been there as long as anyone can remember . " It wasn 't the kind of place that seemed bad right away , " one of the neighbors told me . " It was on my uncle 's neighbor 's land and we used to go there all the time , stay there when we were hunting , hang out there when we should have been at school . It was up the hill a little way , so you could see out over everything . Beautiful view . " Now , don 't take this wrong , but I wished there was . Then at least we would have known it was one of our girlfriends or something . But no , none of us was John . " " His family goes way back here . Anyway , he married a gal from White Bluff and brought her back there until he could get them a house built up by his folks . And she hated that place . Said you 'd be just about to sleep in the bedroom and you could hear someone in the kitchen , sounded like they were doing dishes . " You 're kind of an idiot , aren 't you ? You think it 's fun not knowing in your own house that you can put something down and come back to find it in the same place ? That ain 't fun . It 's horrible . " " Bub got real sick one Fall , " he said . " He wasn 't going to go to the doctor , of course , but his wife called me up and begged me to make him . " He drummed his finger into the table to punctuate his point . " She begged me . " He took a long drink of coffee . " Doctor said that he 'd been poisoned . Called the police over it , too . Well , of course , they thought his wife had done it . Hell , I thought his wife had done it . " And I start to notice weird things . Like I 'd go into the bathroom and the closet door would be open , even though I 'd know neither of us had been in there . Hell , I wasn 't doing their god damn laundry and Bub wasn 't on his feet . Or you 'd find coffee cups right by the coffee maker in the morning , all by themselves . " And that … " he looked over his shoulder , like he was trying to decide whether to say something . I think that 's how she did it . A couple of times , there was something in the bottom of the cup , some white stuff , looked like a fine dusting of sugar . You might not have even noticed it , if you hadn 't realized already that the cups were strange . But I pick one up and I 'm looking in it and I see that powdery stuff on the bottom . " Now , I knew it wasn 't me . It couldn 't have been Bub , and his wife was sitting in jail . So , finally , I yell , ' who the hell are you ? ' and … " " ' Bub , ' I said , ' There 's something wrong with this place . We got to get you out of here and burn it to the ground . ' So , I get under him and I 'm lifting him up and I hear this low voice , like a whisper , but a little louder , a man 's voice , ' Wait . ' ' What 'd you say , Bub ? ' but he didn 't say nothing . I stand real still , with Bub kind of draped over my shoulder , and I whisper back , ' What ? ' and I swear , I hear , ' Don 't burn it . Don 't let her loose . ' " " Hell if I know . You 're supposed to be the one who can make sense of this stuff . " Again , it was quiet for a long time . " Lookaway " is the name of the old house on Manila Street . It was a wedding gift from Mr . Whitson to his new bride , Beth Slater Whitson . You have probably never heard of her . When the house was for sale a couple of years ago , the listing made no mention of her ever having lived there . The last thing anyone who wants to sell that house wants to do is to draw attention to Mrs . Whitson . Of course , after a while , you can 't help but notice her . You 'll come home to find your clean pots out of the cupboard an arranged on the kitchen stove . You 'll be sitting in the living room , reading a book , and the television will come on and start to flip through channels . Lights will be on in rooms you know you left dark . Even the neighborhood children who use the huge front yard like a neighborhood park will come home singing " Let me call you sweetheart , I 'm in love with you . Let me hear you whisper that you love me , too . " And when their mothers ask , " Did you make that up ? " the children say , " No , that woman in the funny dress sings it when she 's on the porch . " " It 's like this , " one says to me , " I don 't want to live there and I would scream if I ever saw her , but she 's kind of our neighbor , so what can you do ? I heard they called in a pastor to bless the place , but he said he didn 't think she was evil or trapped there . She 's just where she wants to be . There 's nothing he can do . Just wait for her to move on . " No one is sure if the thing on 18th Avenue North actually constitutes a ghost . But no one is sure what else to call it . Some say that you can almost see it on rainy or foggy days , a shape , like a person , but not quite , around which the moisture bends as the shape moves down the street . " I finally told them , " the cop told me , " that if you see a white kid in the Jewish cemetery , do not even bother to call us about it . There haven 't been white kids in that neighborhood in decades , I mean , like 70 years , and the gate is locked . No one is letting their seven year old climb the fence and play in the cemetery . That kid 's not real . Do not call me . " I waited for him to settle down . He looked down at his plate of food and continued . " I mean , I sure as hell do not want to ever , ever see that kid . " " My dad used to run this place and he would tell me about how , when he was a kid , there used to be kids who worked in the mills over in Germantown . Small kids . Or how you 'd go downtown and there 'd be these kids on the corners selling newspapers or stealing apples out of the barrels that sat on the sidewalks . Some folks wanted those kids in school , thought they were a menace and needed to be off the streets . Other folks said that they couldn 't run their businesses without those kids . " Bad shit … Sorry , miss , bad stuff would happen to those kids , sometimes . The Judge , my dad said , was beat to death by a man right downtown , in broad daylight . Worst part was that they just left that kid , like trash , on the sidewalk . When his mother got off work , she came to look for him and found him in a heap , people just walking around him . " He 's buried right there . " The third barber motioned across the street . " My father saw him once . He was sitting in this window and a white man pulled up in his car and got out and started coming towards the door . A few seconds later , a little boy , just a few years younger than my father was then , appeared and seemed to be hurrying to catch up with the man . " He had some business with my grandfather , that man . I don 't know what it was . Times were different then , and you sometimes had to make some unsavory deals to keep your family safe . ' Sir , your son doesn 't have to stand outside , ' my grandfather said . And my father said that they all looked out the window and there was the small boy , just standing on the sidewalk , staring in . " The white man went pale and started to shake . They tried to offer him a seat , but he rushed out , got in his car , and drove off . My father says that he looked right into the face of that boy . They weren 't maybe three or four feet apart . You can see how close that sidewalk is . Just separated by glass . And my father says he didn 't think anything strange of him . He just waved at the kid and the kid , for the first time , smiled and waved back , and then … And I am not even joking … he just faded from view . " And when that man finally died ? No cemetery would take him . When that kid died , he was just trash . But by the time that man died , that kid was the victim of a monster . You know what I 'm saying ? People couldn 't ignore what he did or just pretend like that 's just what happened to kids . And they didn 't want a child killer in their cemetery . " So they put him in the field there . My wife will tell you he doesn 't rest easy , that he 's the bad spot . I worry about that kid , but she says the kid seems all right , not scared or sad , but where he wants to be . " " That 's not what Granny Rose says , " the cop said , and I realized I was in the middle of a long - standing family discussion . " She says that kid is just waiting there for bad men , that even now , he can tell if you hurt little kids and he will torment you until you die . He just needs those bad guys to come close enough . " " Dad , that stuff is scary . I don 't care . It 's weird and it creeps me out , " the cop said . I thought for a second he might storm out and leave . But when he got to the door , he turned back around and he said , " And I don 't want to stop him . If he does what Granny Rose says ? Good . Most of the time , it 's more than we can do . " The women who worked Dickerson heard the cat days before they saw it . The noise sounded enough like a human voice , words in the distance , not quite made out . But the working girls had , if they had been on the street any length of time , learned to ignore voices not directed at them . But my god , can you imagine when the one of the noises the cat started to make was " ma ma " ? Women who had children they hadn 't seen in weeks would gasp and shake . Girls who had come to miss their mothers so desperately would cry . The police did not know about the cat , of course . So it 's hard to know if the disappearances really started after the cat appeared . Women along Dickerson Pike have a habit of disappearing . Some go home . Some move on . And some just vanish . If anything was being done about it , if they were even able to raise an alarm , they didn 't know . A file was started , a detective was assigned . But he knew those women , he thought , and thought they 'd probably just found something else to do with their time . What happened next is not the kind of thing any person wants to admit . They killed the cat . They killed the cat , put it in a garbage bag , and hid it in the basement of the Congress Inn , a motel they all were quite familiar with . Then one night , they saw four police cars go by , lights flashing . The cars stopped at the Congress Inn and a body was pulled out of the basement . It was , of course , not the cat . It was , of course , a man with his right wrist in a cast , badly decomposed . That was the problem , though , of course . Where could they put a body that would remain unfound ? He knew . He knew where to put them where no one could find them . But they were not monsters . The cat was captured again , eventually . And killed , again . And its body was brought , again , to the basement of the Congress Inn , along with bricks and mortar . It works best if you have two young , suggestible pre - teen girls in your back seat . You take them to Bobby 's Dairy Dip and then start filling their heads with ghost stories about Adelicia Acklen . It doesn 't matter which stories you choose to tell . Just tell those stories as you drive across town towards Mount Olivet Cemetery . As you 're pulling up the long drive , be sure to tell them how people have seen her figure around her mausoleum . And yes , you 're going to have to explain what a mausoleum is . There 's nothing unusual about the house on Scenic Drive . Scenic Drive , itself , is quiet . On one side of the street is a wooded lot where people often walk their dogs . On the other side are long , over - sized brick ranches . And this one is no different . It sits at the top of a hill and has , by all accounts , a cheerful disposition . Still , most dogs still won 't go in the front yard . There 's a way that the hillside is cut away that suggests something hidden and you 'd think that the dogs would be curious , but they 're not . Most will , if given the opportunity , cross the street to avoid going too close . This has lead to a companion ghost story , of a lone young college student , who , if female , had just gotten engaged and was walking to her parents ' home to tell the the news when she was hit by a car . So violent was the impact that the ring went flying and was never recovered . Or , if male , that he was walking to hisbeloved 's parent 's home to ask them for her hand in marriage when he was hit by a car . And so on . Weirdly enough , the ghosts in the Home Depot parking lot on Gallatin may be the most upsetting ghosts in town . They don 't do anything particularly scary . They tend to walk across the open grassy area between the parking lot and the road , looking around like something is missing , and then they stand in the parking lot , looking confused or shaking their heads or standing with one hand on their hips and the other wiping the sweat off their brows . Depending on when you visit the Hooters in Hermitage , sometimes there 's a mirror behind the bar . This is not the strange part . If you ask about it when it 's not there , they 'll tell you that the mirror broke and they 're debating about whether to get a new one . See , because no matter what mirror they put up there , eventually there comes to be one too many waitresses in it . Say it 's in the middle of the afternoon and you have two girls covering , one with brown hair and one with red . If you 're just looking around the restaurant , you 'll see them running around , lifting trays over patrons ' heads , leaning over to pour more iced tea , checking narrow black folders to make sure they 've got the right ticket for the table before setting it down . The staff is usually split 50 / 50 about how they feel about her . Some of them are terrified , even though she only appears in the mirror and there aren 't weird noises or a feeling like anyone else is present if you 're alone in the dining room . There 's nothing at all creepy about her . But eventually the patrons notice . And then it becomes really weird . Usually , one person will see her first and he 'll say something just to the folks at his table . You 'll see them looking at the mirror and then kind of sitting tall in their seats to crane their necks around and check if they aren 't perhaps mistaken . Their weird behavior will get the attention of other people who will see what they see in the mirror , and soon enough , the whole restaurant grinds to a silent halt . No one eats . No one speaks . They all are just watching the small blonde in the mirror . This was , you can imagine , a nightmare . Tabs remained open . Credit cards were left unclaimed . Meals were never paid for . The mirror was taken down , brought out into the parking lot , and busted into countless sparkling pieces . A woman could rest a hand on each shoulder , and put her ear up against his chest , and still feel like there was room to spare . Maybe that 's how come it was so easy for things to get out of hand - one woman , two women , three , four . Even before you got his clothes off , he seemed large enough to take it . Back then , the gates of Hell were marked by twin elms . And if you passed between those elms after saying the right words , you would end up in the Devil 's realm . And the rumor was that they were common words , nothing so tricky as " Open Sesame " or " Rumpelstiltskin . " Just ordinary words . Two children might be running through the field and one would say to the other , " I 'll race you to the two elms " and they would take off and one would see something shiny in the grass between the trees and he would turn to his companion and say " Look here . " For hundreds of years , people avoided the area . The trees were eventually chopped down . And cemeteries were put up where the trees had stood , as both an acknowledgment and an attempt to mitigate , to have the help of the godly dead to keep the gate sealed . No one knows much about Bennett 's life before 1786 . Not for sure who her people were . Not what she did to get by . Bennett is a Choctaw name , in that screwed up Southern way , but folks claimed she was from North Carolina , which would seem to suggest she was Cherokee . Mr . Bennett had not gotten even a mile from her parents ' home before he threw her on the ground and jammed his knee between her legs so hard she almost forgot to breathe . He pressed his hand against the side of her face and left , on one side , the red shadows of his fingers . On the other side , for an hour , you could make out the outline of the plants her face had been pressed into . And so Elizabeth went there . She fished near there . She trapped near there . She collected roots and herbs and leaves near there . She walked around there for no reason . And she never disappeared . But one day , she found found the Devil . He was laying half in the creek , at the end of where Lewis Street is now , and he was badly injured . She recognized him immediately . As much by the smell of sulphur as anything . " I 'm making no deals with you , my friend , " she grinned in spite of herself . " I 'm asking you an honest question . I don 't know how to help you , but if you tell me , I will do my best . " By candle light , she traced the line of his shoulders with her finger . She brushed his long hair out of his face . She looked into his black eyes . And she kissed him . She did it . She lead him . When the Frenchman , Timothy Demonbreun arrived , she was like no one he 'd ever met . She hunted , she trapped , she cussed , and drank , and sat with the men when it suited her , and sat with the women when it suited her . She letDemonbreun cook her dinner and when it was done , she burped in appreciation . What happened was that , when Durand returned , Durand and Demonbreun went out and chopped down the largest tree they could find and fashioned a large bed for Elizabeth . The three of them shared it . And then Durand and Elizabeth got married . But people were more terrified of Elizabeth . Elizabeth would chase a man from his home at the wrong end of his own rifle if she learned that he beat his wife . Elizabeth would sit in the back of the church and ask when a woman could be preacher . Elizabeth would vote in every election , just for the satisfaction of making them take her ballot , even knowing they would just tear it up once she left . There are two great mysteries when it comes to the Opryland complex just off Briley . One is large and I cannot answer it - why did it seem like a good idea to close down Opryland and put up a mall ? Could a mall and an amusement park not have worked hand in hand ? I take comfort in knowing that everyone who works at Gaylord is haunted by this same question . But it 's not exactly a nice walk . You are literally walking over the corpse of Opryland . There 's an old gate , old sidewalks , old light fixtures , and to your left , the old cave that featured prominently in the Grizzly River Rampage , a water ride in which you and eleven others were seated in a round barrel like contraption and set off down a fake river , to get wet . And there , on the path , coming towards you , looking suitably tired and excited after a day 's outing , is a family of four . At first , nothing at all about them seems that weird . And then you realize that the parents are both smoking and you can 't remember the last time you saw people looking so at ease smoking in public . Or those shorts that the men are wearing . Sure , fashions come back , but shorts that short on men ? There used to be a house on Old Glenrose , just across the train tracks from the big field behind Woodbine Baptist Church . If you have seen this field in the summer , it 's hard to forget it , since there seems to be often fifty sweaty men playing soccer in it at any given time . Men who are stripping off shirts with pin - prick holes where their name tags go . Other men who are switching from dress shoes to sneakers as fast as they can in their cars . Other men who sometimes reach unconsciously to cover tattoos they 're not sure they want the other men to see . You used to be able to sit on the porch of the house on Old Glenrose and watch them . When Laura was first born , before her mother had to go back to work , her mother would stand on the porch , a towel over her shoulder and then Laura draped over the towel and her mother would pat her back and watch the men . Her mother had this fantasy , which she told no one , of one day going over there , in her sneakers and shorts , and she imagined how all of the men would laugh and tell her to go home or frown and tell her that this was no place for a woman , but then she would somehow get the ball . " What 's that address ? Did we get the address ? Dispatch , we 've got to get trucks to the 700 block of Old Glenrose Avenue . 712 Old Glenrose Avenue . " " Yeah , two weeks ago . That house is burnt to the ground . Don 't worry . Probably just some asshole kids gave that address just because . " " Here 's what you 've got to understand , " Darlene said to me . " This isn 't an easy job as it is . You 're hearing people at some of the absolute worst moments of their lives , either because it 's happening to them or because they 're seeing something terrible happen to someone else , but you know you 're sending help . You know you can send someone to help . No , it don 't always work out , but at least there 's something you can do . My friend John asked me about ' El Protector ' over lunch one day , asked if I 'd heard anything about it . At the time , there was a big police initiative to reach out to the Hispanic community called ' El Protector , ' which we considered to be something of a sad joke . ' Yes , we 're trying to deport your friends and family , but we also want to work with you to reduce crime in your area , so , please , call us . ' Well , this is how it works in Nashville , often . Everyone who didn 't speak English who lived or worked along Charlotte Pike knew about El Protector . I didn 't know anyone who spoke English as his first language , except for John , who had heard of it . John has a friend , Joselito , who agreed to have beers with us at the Las Palmas on Charlotte . And I asked him about El Protector . He laughed and said what I said , " Who wants to call the police ? They 'll just take away your friends and the problems are left behind . Better to stick with your friends and take care of the problems yourselves . " John then turned to me . " He says it 's nothing . Swamp gas . Rising out of the creek and then up the hill towards the Kentucky Fried Chicken and that there 's a scientific explanation for it . " " I can tell you , " our waiter said , dropping off another round of beers and some more corn chips . " It is a man with a lantern . You can see the light from a long way away , clear down by Bobby 's Dairy Dip and it comes … " " JJ was sick and it was the middle of the night and I had to run to Walmart and you know how they 're closing down 40 at night to do repaving ? So , I was coming back home up Charlotte when I saw a light coming towards me . I thought at first it was a motorcycle . But it was going too slow . And the light seemed too high up . It was just like they said . Like where a lantern would be if you were holding it out in front of you on horseback . And … " But one morning , a young mother was sitting in her pew , her baby in the carrier beside her on her right . The baby , as babies often do , began to fuss . The mother turned to her left to dig through her bag to get a pacifier when she heard the faint , but unmistakable sound of keys jingling . Years ago a couple , the Andersons , moved to a little house on Ordway . Their neighbor was a little old man named Tim Macon , who lived alone now that his wife had died and his children had moved north . He was a perfectly delightful neighbor . He 'd come over to help Mrs . Anderson dig bulbs . He could be counted on to watch the dog while they were on vacation . And when Mr . Anderson needed someone to stand under the hood of his old beater with him , Mr . Macon was knowledgeable and brought beer . And one day , Mr . Macon died . He sat down to rest on the swing on his front porch and never woke back up . It was as mild a death as one might have . Which is , perhaps , why it didn 't seem to slow him down . " I smelled bacon , " she said , as she started to calm down . " I heard bacon frying in the kitchen . I thought it was my husband . But he was still in bed with me . We went into the kitchen and … " " Mr . Macon ? " Mrs . Anderson asked . " Is that you ? Now listen , you are scaring the pants off these poor people . Why don 't you come and live with us ? You know we don 't mind . " But here 's the weirdest thing . So , years go by and the property values on Ordway go up and the Andersons decide to sell their house and move out on Lickton Pike , in the country . The new people who bought the Anderson 's house , after about six months , came over to the neighbors ' and said , " You 're not going to believe this … " It 's harder to explain the mornings when you are out walking your dog down Park Circle , when you cross Acklen Park and you look down towards the curve and you see a man standing there , a plain wool blanket over his shoulders like a cape , and a strange hat . In the early dawn light , you cannot make out much more than that , just a man in a blanket . You keep walking and when you get to the next block , you look downWrenwood towards the train overpass and you see a man - surely not that same man - hunched down in the middle of the intersection , watching you . So , you stand there , in your overalls and your winter coat , your pajamas still on under it all . Your breath making an icy cloud in the cold morning . If he has a breath , he 's been holding it a long time . Here is a sad story I heard . There is a son , who is old now , whose mother died when he was young . They lived out in the country , down Bull Run Road , and she was buried in their family plot . Every Sunday he can , he still goes out to her grave and sits with her . He then leaves something , a small rock , a penny , his receipt from lunch , just a little something to let her know he 's still there . Only the small neighbor girl knows this . If she isn 't forced to go to church , she will run through the cow pasture and hide herself behind the old stone wall . She peeks over to watch the two of them pass right through each other . See , during the Civil War , this part of Nashville was basically an open air brothel . Every building housed prostitutes . And I 'm not going to lie to you and tell you some romantic story about how wonderful it was . It was , in general , pretty horrible and a pretty horrible way to make a living . Yes , women were treated poorly . Yes , they had diseases . Yes , often times they laid there and stared at the slow shadows on the wall passing while they waited for the soldiers to be done with them . And sometimes they were beaten , and robbed , and killed , and no one cared . But the truth is that , when it 's quiet , bar tenders will hear a woman clearing her throat at the end of the bar , the universal signal for " Poor me another one . " When it 's quiet , they can hear the silverware being pushed off the tables as if someone has taken her arm and brushed it all aside in one dramatic motion to make room for her butt or her hands and knees up there . When it 's quiet , you can hear the moans of dead women , the gasps , the shrieks , the screams , and those places , all trying to be respectable now , can only wish those noises sounded scary . Jesse Price was an ordinary guy , who died when he was 26 in a train accident in 1880 on Valentine 's Day . If there was speculation about his death being more suicide than accident , based on the day , let me put that to rest now . Price just died , in a way people just die . But imagine , you 're in an ancient cemetery at nigh , stumbling around with only a small flashlight you need to keep pointed down if you don 't want to attract the attention of neighbors or the police . Every twig snap , every shadow shift , and soon she terrified out of her mind . And there , before her , was Mr . Price 's grave . The cute Starbucks guy heated up my cookie and said my name three times . Turns out that 's all it takes to win my heart . 1 day ago