Haints

"Growing up, I always used to hear my mother and my grandmother, those two generations, talk about "haints." And they didn't say "seeing spirits" they were just plain "haints" they didn't call them "ghosts" they called them "haints." Haints were these spirits or apparitions that they saw if they were out walking at night. They say them sometimes in the evening. They always rented these old two-story houses back off the road and they were houses that had been abandoned by white families and so Black families rented those places typically. And usually there would be a pasture where the owner of that house would keep their livestock. But anyway, there was--so there was lots of walking. There might be a car in the family, but it wouldn't be the best car. So they got used to walking. Kids walked at night, you know, you might be three miles from your buddy's house, and if they stayed till after dark, but grownups tried to get them--discourage them from doing that. And they would tell them, "You know, there's some haints out there by the cemetery. You'll have to pass the cemetery. If you're not careful, you're going to see some haints" or "You'll see some haints coming in by the road by the pasture"