We just have to hit another haunted roadway in my new state of Georgia. This time, one associated with poltergeist activity.

First, let's start with this - what is a poltergeist? 

This German word translates to "noisy ghost." These are associated with strange noises, object movement, fires starting, and other things that seem to be self-propelled.

When I was a kid growing up at Aspen Grove, a Civil War hospital in Virginia that saw both sides using it for the wounded and building a fort on the property, it was a very haunted home. But, some of the hauntings did not come with the feelings a psychic kid (me) gets when something sentient is near. Sometimes, it's poltergeist activity.

My youngest memories of this was when I was about 3-4 years old. (Stick with me, I have memories from being one year old that are vivid and accurate). My mom was an oil painting instructor in our home, in a glass-lined art room. She also was an historian. She had a big easy chair where she read her tons of library books and went over papers. She was sitting in it, smoking a cigarette like usual. She set the cigarette down in an ash tray, the old fashioned kind that had grooves to park your cigarette in. 

I was on the floor at her feet, playing with my brother's hot wheels cars on the oriental rug, using the designs as a roadway. I was humming and enjoying my silent play at mom's feet while she read the newspaper. I looked up to see if she was done reading, but she was still gripping the paper all around her so that all I saw was the black and white print. 

Just then, her cigarette launched itself, cartwheeling through the air as if someone had flicked it under the filter. He landed six feet away on the wood floors (stained with soldier's blood from long ago). 

Mom noticed I stopped humming and pulled the paper down. She saw my eyes looking away and she followed them. The next thing I know, she scrunched the paper away and got up and went and retrieved the cigarette with a lighthearted, "oh, it did it again, eh?" Apparently, mom was used to this routine. I guess I wasn't the only one that didn't like her smoking in the house.

Other times, I witnessed objects doing things they shouldn't do, a broom gliding bristles down along the kitchen floor for several feet before stopping and falling as if it just recalled it shouldn't be able to do that. 

For more on my family members and myself and how we handled the hauntings, check out my award-winning, 5-star book, Growing Up With Ghosts. I promise this is life with ghosts in a way you've never imagined.

When asked what I think poltergeist activity is, I have always seen it associated with anger, usually repressed. My older sisters were 11 months apart in age and they either loved each other or fought. It seemed like the times the tension between them was high that strange things happened around the house.

I have a story of my own life-long ability to become a magnet or to launch movement. When I was thinking about getting a divorce and had decades of pent up anger I couldn't express around a controlling spouse who had to have the last word, I went out to grocery shop one day and standing in the aisle, an elderly lady was there with her cart when a can flew off the shelf in front of me. The woman looked at me like I had done something when she looked away. 

I shrugged and picked it up and, as I did, two more cans came off the shelf, one nearly hitting her cart. The woman had her eyes on it that time and knew I wasn't near the cans. She looked terrified, stared at me like I was Satan himself, and ran off with her cart bouncing in front of her. I chased after her, wanting to tell her I didn't do anything, but then I realized I would only scare her more. 

That is only one example. Other times, while cutting veggies on the kitchen counter, a paring knife glided toward my hand on the counter. Other times, metal ornaments came off the Christmas tree toward me. I walked toward my toaster oven to open it, when the door swung open toward my hand that was more than a foot away and reaching. And, my favorite one, I was going to pin my hair up with bobby pins I kept in a cup on the vanity. I was standing up in front of the mirror when i reached my hand down to get another bobby pin. I was looking at the cup, my hand lowering to about a foot above the cup, when a bobby pin came up and into my fingers that I closed around it automatically. It was like a magical levitation you see in cartoons. I was in awe. My fingers tingled. I put my hand above the cup again, but it didn't happen. At the time, I was holding onto some anger, but had always been taught to never ever make a fuss or get mad. 

Now, on to the subject of Surrency Road - 

In Georgia, there is a place called Surrency Road and often associated with poltergeist activity. In the 1800s, a house owned by Allen Powell Surrency became the center of much poltergeist activity. Some of it was quite extraordinary including glass shattering, furniture turning over, even clocks running backwards. The thing that makes this so extraordinary is that it was witnessed by many dozens of people of all walks of life and specialty. It became one of the best known poltergeist cases in America. 

As i see poltergeist activity associated with the powerful emotions of humans, let's look at this fellow, Allen Powell Surrency, the focus of activity.

Surrency was born in 1825 and passed away in 1877 at the age of 51. He operated a sawmill and was the founder of the town of Surrency, Georgia in the southern part of the state. He built a large home along the railroad tracks. Afeature I find often around haunted locations is train tracks. Could it be cast iron rails build up static electricity? Or is it that historic old homes were built near tracks to be near the source of goods, as we didn't have semi's trekking things around the countryside?

In 1872, upon returning from a trip, the family experienced the launch of poltergeist activity. Glasses slid off and onto the floor, as well as items all around the house falling to the floor. This was apparently witnessed by up to 100 people. Doors opened and closed, cabinets slammed, dishes broke, items fell, and the family was terrified. 

The most popular explanation by many is that the house experienced an earthquake, but this wouldn't hold much weight, as it was not on a fault line, the witnesses experienced no shaking movements, and it happened over time, not in a few minutes, but over lengthy weeks.

At one point, the son saw a floating ghost that chased him. Then, the family decided to move. They did move, but the activity continued. This reinforces my belief that it is attached to a person's internal energy and not a spirit. When Surrency passed away in 1877, the activity stopped.

The entire road has been associated with haunting activity, making it a notorious Georgia location. 

The house has mysteriously burned down since all this activity, but the area is still reported by haunted, likely the way that legends live on and have no closure.