I see ghosts. Perhaps it is because I have recently become engaged in a lot of local history research. Whenever I wander about New London these days, I see the ghosts of West Indies’ traders and whaling captains, heroes of the American Revolution like Adam Shapley, and, thanks to New London’s new Black Heritage Trail, I often envision previously hidden New London heroes, like Ichabod Pease and Sadie Dillon Harrison. And these “ghosts” are not only in human form. I see ghosts of buildings and old streets, like Shapley Street, that have entirely vanished! The wonderful New London Day history articles by Carol Sommer, Jim Littlefield, John Steward and others, serve to compound the issue. But, without their storytelling, I fear that there is a very real danger that these “ghosts” might disappear altogether from our memory, just as they have been erased from our landscape. This erasure would sadly diminish the rich, diverse history that makes us who we are: “E pluribus unum.” (From many, one.) Maybe it’s the time of year that makes it loom so large for me at the moment, but I hope these writers will continue their work, so that we can continue to preserve these “ghosts” in our collective consciousness. Oh, Happy Hallowe’en, btw!

Tom Schuch

Niantic