Ghosts can have many forms and names

Does anyone dress up as a ghost for Halloween any more? All I see in the stores are superhero costumes, zombies and scary clowns. Then, again, ghosts always did roam in homemade costumes consisting of old sheets so there is no need for a store-bought costume.
When I was young, one of my favorite cartoons was Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper and his friends looked like flying dollops of whipped cream, or maybe meringue. Their adventures were much tamer than the other cartoon heroes.
I used to make up my own stories for Casper, and gave him aunts, uncles, and cousins by the dozens. I finally added so many characters that I couldn’t remember them all and the story collapsed.
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. I’ve never heard of ghost stories featuring animals, but I suppose it makes sense that animals could have spirits.
Ghosts can trace their lineage all the way back to pre-literate cultures where there were specific rituals designed to let the dead rest. This is important to prevent vengeful ghosts from causing problems with the living.
Spooks have taken many forms, in addition to Casper’s whipped cream body. They can be fully clothed, and have chains, as in Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol. They can be clothed in rags or elegant attire. They can even be holy, as in the Holy Ghost of the Bible.
I confess, that I often picture the Holy Ghost as that kid in the comic strip who has holes cut all over the sheet covering him. That makes it more holey than holy. Blasphemy? Maybe, but I believe God has a sense of humor.
White Ladies tend to appear in rural areas, and are supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them are abusive husbands or boyfriends.
Ghosts have as many names as they do forms. Spooks are from the Dutch, spectre is Latin, wraiths are Scottish, phantoms are French and some of them like opera. Shades, a word you don’t hear much anymore unless you are referring to my brothers, are Greek, and haint is southern American. A poltergeist is German for noisy ghost. Poltergeists are known to be mischievous as they like to move things around.
Most ghosts are solitary creatures, although there are stories of armies full of the apparitions.  Perhaps that is why they are so unhappy.
Most don’t tend to travel far from their base of operations. Can you imagine spending eternity in one place? No, thank you.
There are other types of ghosts. These are the traces of those we once knew, ones who have gone on to the other side. I need to deal with a bunch of them this afternoon. They reside in all the pictures, graduation announcements, wedding invitations and death notices I rescued from my mother.
I have avoided spending time with these ghosts because they make me sad. But I promised a picture to one of my mother’s cousins. She called me last night from a cemetery in Texas. That is the only place she could get phone reception. She thought I forgot, but it is so hard to revisit those parts of my life depicted in all those bits of paper.
This is the time of year for ghosts and their friends, the undead. There is something about autumn that compels us to build campfires and tell ghost stories. We like being scared in a controlled manner. Ghosts come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments. They can be friendly or scary. Some of them can reside in the dark recesses of our minds. We call them memories. Others reside in old cartoons and are called Casper.