Tipper Pressley has been writing about all things Appalachian on the popular blog Blind Pig and The Acorn since 2008. She recently started a YouTube Channel called Celebrating Appalachia to give a true view of Appalachia and it’s people. 
Here’s the link to the new channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP87Uu3q9IDUpEl1xr8-VQA

Appalachia is full of ghost stories, often called haint stories, unearthly tales, and eerie superstitions. I believe the propensity for all the spookiness is directly related to the culture of the region.

For generations people who inhabit the steep mountains and deep dark hollers of the Appalachian mountains have lived close to the land. Being in harmony with nature causes one to take notice of their surroundings and become more attuned to the things around them.

Another strong influence is the religious nature of the people. Appalachia as a whole, has a rich religious background where the Devil and his demons are thought to play a role in the battles which take place in a person’s life. Often unfortunate unexplainable occurrences are penned on the Devil whether he deserves it or not.

Living close to the land as well as close to the spirit teaches Appalachians to listen to their intuition at an early age and heed its call of danger being nigh. Feelings of impending doom or risk are rarely scoffed at in Appalachia. 

A friend of mine shared one such experience with me.

She was restless and couldn’t sleep. Her family was going through a tough troubling time so it was no wonder her mind couldn’t settle enough for her to rest. 

She rose from the bed and decided to give up on sleep. She lit a cigarette and paced the living room. Her restlessness quickly turned to unease—as though someone was watching her through the front window. 

As she drew near to the glass she noticed an apparition just outside. As she moved her lit cigarette around the window the entity followed it. My friend said she knew it was the Devil trying to further destroy her family, and that God had shown her what she needed to do. 

For the rest of the night she prayed for her family and by morning the unease was completely gone, never to bother her again. 

A nudge of your intuition is often a feeling that something isn’t right. The hairs on the back of your neck will rise up as you look around wondering what’s about to happen. 

Some common names for the feeling are the: heebie-jeebies, willies, all overs, jimmies, shivers, or jimjams. 

Several years ago my family was out for a day of shopping at local yardsales. We didn’t have a particular place in mind, we were just working our way around the county looking for yardsale signs. 

I like all yardsales, because you never know what you’ll find for a good price. I’m especially excited when I see a yardsale at an old House. I always hope the age of the house will correlate with the age of the sale items. 

We stopped at an old house in the eastern part of the county. I could barely wait to get out of the car. They had stuff spread all around the big front yard of the house. 

As I started to walk around I immediately got an eerie feeling. I looked up at the big old windows of the house fully expecting to see someone looking back at me, but no one was there. 

The yard was full of other people looking through the sale items and they all seemed friendly, yet I couldn’t shake the creepy feeling I had. All the hairs on the back of my neck were on full alert, standing at attention like a troop of soldiers. 

I noticed the rest of my family heading for the car and practically ran to catch up with them. 

Once we were all seat-belted in and idling down the driveway I decided I wasn’t going to say anything about getting spooked because I felt silly. Just as we pulled back onto the blacktop someone said “Well I’m sure glad to be gone from there” and another person said “Me too.” 

Each person’s intuition had signaled that something wasn’t right at the old house. 

So what was it? None of us had a clue, but we all agreed something really bad had happened at the old house or something really bad was about to happen at the old house and we were glad that we were no longer near enough to know about it either way. 

Tipper Pressley 2020

More articles on the Devil, and spooky houses:

Children were especially afraid of the two of them(Opens in a new browser tab)

The Devil danced on Fiddlers Mountain(Opens in a new browser tab)

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