What does it mean to actually be a local??
Hey there! My name is Brigid Pitts and I am owner of Witching Hour Savannah & Tybee Ghost Tours! I wanted to blog about my experience being a true local here in Savannah and Tybee Island so I figured this would be a great way for you to get to know me and my tour company and why I do what I do. So here goes nothing!
I was born in Savannah, Ga April 8th, 1993 and I have watched my community change throughout the years. I also got the honor and the privilege to live in a true Southern Gothic Fashion here in Savannah and grow up out on Tybee Island. I was given the real experience growing up here. Stories that aren’t regurgitated on every other tour and for that, I am forever blessed.
When people get to meet me on my tour nights ( since I am either downtown in Savannah or on Tybee giving a tour) I get to let you in on those little secrets around town. I still am a Gothic Southern Belle after all. So, I guess this is the part where I tell you more about me.
I started my ghost hunting journey for fun like most teens that grew up here in the area. We would sneak into the various cemeteries and haunted places around town and go looking for things we didn’t fully understand but it would always manage to find us. Regardless if you believe in the supernatural or not the one thing you can’t do is change my mind about the paranormal. There are things out there that we truly can’t explain and that’s what the word paranormal means, “Beyond Normal”. Im proud to say that I got 22 years of ghost hunting experience but my journey started much younger when I was a little girl.
When I was four years old, I was terrified of everything. I would go up to random people and tell you who was with you as a child. Sure, I was probably “that creepy kid” but it builds character. As I got older, I grew up with all the stories and history I share now on my tours, not realizing that when I became an adult that I would have a passion for this sort of thing and make it into a career being a tour operator. It’s ironic really, I used to get kicked off tours that still operate in this town to this very day when I was little because my family and I would correct them on the history and knowledge of this town. It’s poetic justice really.
My family has been here since 1875 on my daddy’s side and we have family plots in Bonaventure Cemetery and Laurel Grove Cemetery. People get surprised when I tell them that but that’s just life being an actual local. Heck, my family even has some true crime stories here in this town and I got the new clippings to prove it. Sometimes, I turn my nose up to outsiders that try to claim the word local because when I say that word, it means home grown. I take pride in the history of my town and I hold it near and dear to my heart because it’s sacred. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of us left so I hold it as a badge of honor while others play pretend.
P.S. I have never read the book or watched the film: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil but I know the story simply because I knew people who actually lived and witnessed it first hand themselves. Heck, my Aunt Julia was friends with Jim Williams Hair Dresser! That’s how you really get your southern gossip in a small town.