Ghost Stories

Uncle Tom

For several consecutive summers, my friend (the co-worker, let's call him Tristan, shall we?) worked in a summer camp in upstate New York. The camp catered to children with disabilities, mental and otherwise. There were also some non-disabled children there. One night, while Tristan was chatting with some of the older counselors, they began talking about a counselor he'd never met -- they called him Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom had worked as a counselor during the late 70's. He was much-loved by the children there, but very eccentric. He was known for wearing pajamas all day, bathrobes, even a graduation gown (complete with hat and tassel). At first they thought he did it to amuse the kids, but later found out that he dressed this way year-round. He was also an amazingly talented Cellist. A charcoal portrait of Uncle Tom, done by one of the children, still hung at the camp when Tristan was there.

Unfortunately, Uncle Tom had emotional problems that no one knew about. One summer, just before all the children were about to leave, he attempted suicide in one of the cabins. Luckily, someone came looking for him, and got him medical help before it was too late. That Winter, Uncle Tom was in and out of psychiatric institutions. By Summer, however, he seemed to have really gotten his act together, and was allowed to return to camp. His recovery was short-lived. At the end of the summer, he attempted suicide again. This time, he succeeded, hanging himself in the same cabin he had used the year before. The children were scheduled to leave the following day, and the other counselors managed to cover-up what had happened.

By the time Tristan began working at camp, the head director had firmly told all the counselors that they were not to speak of the incident, or of Uncle Tom, in general -- as it would scare the children. That year, they started out with a fresh crop of children, who knew nothing about Uncle Tom. The summer went well until just before it was time to leave. The night before (no kidding, on the exact anniversary of Uncle Tom's death) an entire cabin full of girls (ages 13-15) began to scream hysterically. There was a female counselor in the cabin with them at the time. Some were sobbing uncontrollably and saying they'd seen a man in the cabin. A man they didn't know. These were non-disabled children, if that makes any difference. Tristan was one of the first to get there, and was comforting the female counselor, who was also crying. He remembers her saying over and over again "it looked like Tom...he looked just like Tom!!!!" After a thorough search, no intruder was found on the grounds. Nobody had been seen leaving the cabin.

The next year that Tristan was there, the camp was having a "dress up day." The kids got to search through boxes of old clothing and costumes and wear anything they liked for the entire day. One boy found a black graduation gown which had belonged to Uncle Tom. I'd like to mention at this point that the boy suffered severe mental retardation, and was classified as "low functioning" -- i.e. -- barely able to talk. Tristan said he had never known the boy to speak at all, unless spoken to. Even then, not more than a few short words. Well, the boy put on the black gown and began to run around in circles, flapping his arms, calling "I'm Uncle Tom...I'm Uncle Tom...." over and over. Tristan said that there was no way this particular child could have associated the gown with Uncle Tom, or even understood the whole story if someone told it to him. Suffice to say, the counselors were a little freaked.

The next year, some of the counselors decided to get together and have a "jam session" (as it was so affectionately called in the '80s!) One guy had a guitar, another a piano. The music room still housed Uncle Tom's cello, so they thought it might be cool to add that in as well. They asked a third counselor, who'd had a *little* experience playing the violin to play the cello. He reluctantly agreed, warning them that he wasn't very good. No sooner did they start playing when they realized that their cellist was incredible! They said he was playing the thing like one of the old masters! After it was over, they all asked him why he'd been holding out on them about how talented he was. He couldn't remember anything about playing the Cello...he'd blacked out the whole time. All the older counselors commented that they'd only heard one other person play like that...and guess who it was?

Those were the only three incidents that Tristan experienced. He said he suspected there were more, but the counselors really weren't supposed to talk about it. Tristan, and a lot of the other counselors seemed to share the feeling that the reason Uncle Tom was making himself known was because he WANTED his story to be told. Tristan thinks that if the head director had never forbidden the counselors to talk about Tom, then he wouldn't need to manifest. The camp has since closed down.

Sorry about the colossal length of this...hope you enjoyed. :)

Deena