Sue St.Clair and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Posted by Matthew Didier

Toronto is doing it's annual "Doors Open" day where people can go and visit buildings and sites sometimes not open to the general public or, for this event, have no entrance fees. It all happens Saturday May 27th and Sunday May 28th.

http://www.doorsopen.org/

Now, I love this event... it presents good history and allows people a greater understanding of their city.

...but it's still not capitalizing on one simple thing... Toronto's ghosts.

Now, I understand that many purists see ghosts and hauntings as silliness that belittles the "real" stories of certain places... other's see stories of ghosts as "sly-asides" and little more than folklore that, to be honest, is not important.

Now, it's obvious that I feel differently... but there's something else I know for sure...

If you take a group of school kids and sit them in a room of a historic place and start telling them about the construction of the heating ducts, you might as well dispense pillows for the sleepy ones and puppies to play with for the rest. In short, THEY DON'T CARE.

If you take a group of school kids and sit them in a room of a historic place and start telling them of the "great historical figures" that graced the floors of that room and maybe 5% will listen... the rest will need the puppies and pillows.

If you take a group of school kids and sit them in a room of a historic place and start telling them the tales of "daring-do" that happened in that room, you'll gain a few more listeners... but many will be comparing the stories they're hearing to Batman Returns... and probably you should have the puppies and pillows on hand again.

Now...

Tell them that the room or even the building is reportedly haunted... and they'll hang off every word. It doesn't even have to be a "scary" story and you can even let them know (and yes, statistically speaking, unless you're in the early 1800's in a farm in Tennessee, it's going to be the truth,) that the ghost(s) are harmless.

People need to remember that the BEST "true ghost stories" END with the words, "...and to this day, his/her ghost is seen..."

In other words, the story is told, THEN the "ghost" is introduced.

In doing this, the story is put across, retention is better, and people enjoy themselves more.

Now, I'm REALLY a historian first in many ways... and I love the darker side of history and, of course, it's ghosts... and I've seen first hand the attention that the history of a site is taken in when wrapped in a ghost story.

But does the City of Toronto Department of Museums and Heritage acknowledge or promote it's ghosts? Not really... in fact, in many places, not at all.

You see, they feel that THE HISTORY SELLS THE SITE!

...so, we get 30 minutes of the discussion of the way the bricks of a building were made... 20 minutes of the list of names of people who lived/worked in a site recited... and then the ever popular, "Any questions?"

Wow.

What passion.

What kid wouldn't love that?

What kid/teen wouldn't be inspired to study more when hearing this?

Oh well... they all know better than us... and they know what entertains and educates the masses.

Our tax dollars hard at rest.

Oh, and before I'm blasted, I do respect the work that SOME sites do... and I do respect about 15% of those who work for the city's historic sites... and about the same number who work for the province's sites... and probably only 10% of those who work for the national sites.

The rest are very obviously there to collect a paycheque. History (or folklore) obviously intrigues them about as much as watching rust develop on an old Ford Escort.

Gee, I wonder why more Torontonians know what happened on the finale of Friends then what happened in their own city in 1837... which shaped the entire British Empire for years and to this day... and also led to some of the most colourful and exciting moments of our entire country's history... and involved some of the most tragic moments in Quebec's history as well.

Is this a fair thing to say? Should "we" expect our citizens to know more about their own history than a popular American sit-com?

Sorry to say, I have to answer "YES".