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gray.man
gray.man
From: yolig@aol.com (Yoli G)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Gray Man Ghost of Litchfield/Pawley's Island, SC
Date: 7 Jan 1995 15:46:40 -0500
This is a true story ... not fiction, and only the second time that I've
ever felt that I've experienced something truly unexplainable.
In 1979, when I was living in Myrtle Beach, SC, I went out with a group of
friends one night. We ended up at a club -- Big Daddy's, of all places --
in Litchfield Beach, just south of Myrtle Beach. Since Big Daddy's was on
the beach, we decided to go for a walk. Around 10 p.m., six of us started
to walk north on the beach.
In 1979, this area, unlike now, was fairly isolated. About a block or two
north of BD's, it was dark and there were no houses. We were just walking
along, kicking sand, having fun, when someone said, "Hey, what's that?"
We all noticed something that looked like a piece of material blowing in
the wind -- maybe a towel left on a pole -- further down the beach, about
a hundred yards in front of us.
We all slowed to see what it was, then decided to walk closer. We're
saying it's this, or it's that ... Then, almost at once, we stopped. The
material wasn't on a pole and it wasn't hanging from anything. It was
fluttering ... stationary ... in mid-air.
I didn't say anything, I was trying to figure out what it was. Almost
collectively, the rest were saying things like, "I don't know what it is
..." None of us really believed what we were seeing. No one wanted to
go any further; we all just stood there, about 75 yards from the material.
At this point, I was kind of scared, maybe alarmed is more like it. You
know the feeling, when you see something you can't explain and you get
goose pimples.
The material, still loosely blowing in the breeze, took shape, I guess is
the best way to describe it. We were seeing a silhouette and we couldn't
see what the material looked like, but it began to take the general shape
of a head and shoulders ... no features, but what it would look like if
you draped a very light cloth or blanket over a mannequin. From the sand
to the bottom of the cloth, there was nothing. It was floating three or
four feet in the air.
Where you would expect an arm to be on the figure, the cloth moved
outward; motioning to us, was the feeling we all got. When it did it a
second time, we knew that it meant for us to leave. Although the motion
was very subtle, it was deliberate and the second time was no confusion as
to what it was or what it meant. All six of us pivoted in our tracks and
ran.
Back at Big Daddy's, we were sitting on the steps, chattering about what
we had just seen. An older man approached, having overheard us, which
wasn't difficult, considering how excited we were. He said that there was
no reason to be afraid, it was the "Gray Man." This man then said, "You
know there's a storm coming." None of us had ever heard of a "gray man"
and we figured the guy was drunk, but then he began to tell us about the
"Gray Man."
As the story goes, during a killer hurricane years earlier, a man was
trying to save his family and was unsuccessful. According to legend, he
now appears before certain storms to warn people of the coming danger. At
that point, we really knew what the motioning cloth/arm meant ... it was
telling us to leave.
Later, after we arrived in Myrtle Beach, a torrential downpour started ...
the streets were flooded and we pulled into a gas station to wait for the
storm to pass. While this storm was strong, a week or so later the entire
beach area was evacuated for a hurricane, I think it was David, although
someone else might know.
Not because of our sighting, but others, Pawley's Island -- if you've been
there, you've seen the signs and gift shops -- is known for the legend of
the Gray Man.
But we didn't know of the legend at the time.
If anyone else has ever seen the "Gray Man," please let me know. It was
really one of the most incredible things that has ever happened to me.
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