From: jynxx5309@aol.com (Jynxx5309)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Maco Light
Date: 3 Apr 1999 12:40:21 GMT

My parents also saw the light when they were dating, I've gotten the same story from both of them independantly. It had been the thing to do for young couples. Go down to Maco, just down the highway from Wilmington NC. You would park your car off the little side road towards the station, then proceed to walk down the tracks till you git to the trestle (Bridge) Then you would sit and wait. If the conditions were right the show would begin.My mother tells me that her, my father (Before the fact) and another couple sat out there one night to watch on a summers evening. It than appeared at a distance down the track, flickering as if a match was just struck, then beagan to methodically swing back and forth about 5 feet above the track. It then starts to speed up as it swings wilder and wilder as if you can almost sense the doomed conducter getting more and more frantic, finally after repeating this silent bobbing. weaving dance for a few hundred yard it seemed to be flung violently off to the side. there it sat fickering in the swamp off to the side of the old Atlantic Coaost line till moments later it faded away. If you got to close to it the lantern would dissappear, but if it performed once, it was known to repeat at least a couple of times in one night, it would return. My Mother got close enogh to see the fastenings on the lantern, but also as an extra twist she experienced the cold spot phenomenon. Even though it was a hot muggy night (I was always told the best nights were before or after rain, some form of high humidity) After seeing the show (This would have been the late 60's) they were walking alongside the tracks when my mother came across an icy cold spot about a foot wide. The rest of the are around it was warm, hell it was summer. She stayed quiet a minute then brought it up to my father and the other couple with them. They then proceeded to tell her they had felt it to but had been to scared to mention it. They all then ran back to car, without a further word. Unfortunately the locality around the scene changing so much seems to affect the haunting. The road widening seems to have affected it, the deserting by the railway line (Not because of haunting, trains heyday is over), well that and it's just been a long time. The tracks have been ripped up, but there is a stretch remaining that DuPont rents to ship to their warehouse, the remains of the trestle are a few miles further down. Pretty much all that is left is stumps jutting from the water. But as most people who live next to railways know even after the tracks are gone there is till a visible path where it was and lots of loose gravel to mark it. I went out once with friends. (They stayed in the car) I hacked my way through till I stood among the weeds by the riverside at 3 am with a full moon out. I waited, and felt strange as I challenged him to show himself. No such luck, someday I will go back though. There was a feeling. If there is anybody who has seen it in the more modern times please post a response. I know there has got to be few people in my old hometown Wilmington, or Maco, or Lake Waccamaw that has a computer. If you need more refernce materials look up "Tar Heel Ghosts" by John Harding.

Here's to You Joe Baldwin,
An Uprooted Tarheel in Fl
Jynxx5309@aol.com