Post #121245 by johntiki on Fri, Oct 22, 2004 11:33 PM

Here’s my only personal ghost story…

When I was 15 my older brother Barry died in a car accident. He was 13 years older than me and I really respected and admired him as any younger brother would... so when my parents, aunts, uncles and older cousins had to go to his house and sort through all of his belongings, I was given two gigantic boxes full of records. My brother was into all kinds of music - Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, etc. but what stood out for me was a nearly complete catalog of Bob Marley's albums as well as a few Peter Tosh LP's. I had only heard of reggae, I never really bothered listening to it until then. Well as the years passed and I got older I branched out from what my brother "left" me and became totally immersed in reggae music. After graduating from high school I decided that I wanted to pursue a Mass Comm. degree initially wanting to go into radio - so when I attended a local community college I pressured hard to get a show on the college radio station to play reggae. Being an amateur radio DJ I think my parents were probably my only consistent listeners but the first night on the air I got a phone call from my mother who had obviously been crying and I asked her what was wrong...she told me that she was in the kitchen with the radio playing in the living room when she heard a vibration coming from my parent's bedroom - on the wall where my brother's high school graduation picture was framed and hung beside my 2 sister's and my own. Barry’s picture was vibrating and rattling in tune with the music - the other 3 frames were completely silent. I got goose bumps and even choked up myself when I realized that the record on the turntable was my brother's copy of Bob Marley and the Wailers - Survival. At least Barry was appreciating what I was playing, even if he was listening from somewhere else.