With a name like "Sandra Ghost", I feel compelled to say a few words of comment regarding the season-"This is my time of the year to howl, y'ahll!"

 

I must confess that many ask how I got the name and I always tell them I married a Ghost. In fact, the Ghost family has had their family reunion since 1927 in Grove City Park. Wouldn't you think that after 82 years they'd change the name of the town to "Grave City" on our behalf? The only notoriety received was a syndicated Ripley's Believe It Or Not picture of a tombstone with the single word "Ghost". Under it, "Grove City, PA" was shown as engraved on it. This was actually a newspaper cartoon that depicted Grandmother Ghost's gravesite.

 

Actually, the name Ghost is of German derivation (like poltergeist). The Ghost family arrived on American soil in 1750 as legal immigrants from Germany to haunt the good ole' U. S. of A, plus be fruitful and multiply.

 

Bill Ghost and I did our best to comply by having twin boys, Kurt and Kent, our oldest son Eric, and sister, Lisa two years his junior. The name has always been a novelty and when our family lived in Louisville, Ky., the Louisville Courier Journal ran an article at Halloween with a headline that read, "2 Ghosts and 4 Spooks". There was a picture of the children carving a pumpkin on the front porch of our home.

 

As we were the only Ghosts in Louisville and surrounding suburbs, the name and number in the telephone directory became a target for random calls from kids. It was not unusual to get calls asking, "Is Casper there?" or "How much do you charge to haunt a house?" The reply to that was always "Three hollers an hour!"

 

As this became more of a Halloween tradition, we finally began to make tape recordings that we changed from year-to-year. The whole family got into the production with suggestions: shrill screams; followed by the sound of a squeaking door closing; the 1812 Overture played by an organ (at a slow, ominous speed); fighting cats; wolves howling; hysterical laughter and on...and on. Kids would call and all we had to do was punch the button on the tape recorder. We found out those who called would listen, then dial up a friend and recommend, "Call this number! You won't believe it!"

 

I remember one Halloween season I made a trip to K-Mart to get some cleaning supplies. A broom was among the purchases. When I handed my credit card to the cashier I saw her read the name, raise her eyebrows and with a voice dripping with sarcasm she asked, "Would you like me to package the broom, or would you like to ride it home?"

 

The name was always a good gimmick when I was a professional singer. I remember making a television appearance on the Mike Douglas Show out of Cleveland. The producer decided to make use of the name. The set was similar to that of all talk shows-Mike's desk and interview chairs were stage right, there was a long peninsula that extended toward the audience in the middle, the band was stage left. On that peninsula the producer had placed an empty microphone stand. I was actually standing in another location, singing into a microphone held toward me on a boom. As the band struck up the opening number, "Mack The Knife", the announcer shouted, "The Mike Douglas Show starring vocalist, Sandy Ghost!" I was actually being superimposed over the empty microphone on stage and as the announcer said the word "Ghost" they killed the camera with my superimposed image and it looked like I had.....disappeared!