Well, we tried...

...to conjure up the ghost of Blackbeard. But it didn't work. Last night, at the OPS Spring Membership meeting, Kevin Duffus, author of the new book The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate, gave a presentation on his research and his findings about Ocracoke's favorite bad boy, Edward Teach (or Thatch, or Tach, or Beard, or ... ).



Kevin started his presentation by telling the audience that his interest in Blackbeard (and in Ocracoke) was piqued when he saw a highly inaccurate Disney movie about the pirate. The movie's protagonist calls up the ghost of Blackbeard when he mistakenly says the following words out loud:



So we tried it. But nothing happened, of course.

Later in the evening, there was a loud storm, with some fantastic lightning and booming thunder. At one point, the power in the Community Center went out briefly. Kevin said he wished that had happened after we uttered the mysterious "bring back Blackbeard's ghost" words. To which several people replied with varying statements, but all generally to the tune of "had that happened, there wouldn't have been much of an audience left for your presentation after everyone ran out of here!"