CALLING ALL GHOSTIES ...
Our entire contact base was lost in 2001 to the extortionist programmers. They were familiar with our entire incremental backup system and also deleted my home personal computer files. Since that time I have had no way to send out a message explaining what happened as my home computers, and their back ups were destroyed by malware at the same time. I would love to hear from you. Please contact me. I would love to hear your ghost stories and would be happy to publish them for you here if you ask. I also don't mind linking back to whatever you are doing right now so long as it's clean. Remember, our ghosts have halos for a reason. And mostly what I want is to catch up with old friends. GhostSurfers is family. And it is about remembering the ones we've loved. We are not talking about ficitional accounts here. Show us the love!

Charley the Saintly Ghost
Many of our old members were unaware of this, but since this is a reintroduction, I may as well tell you the story of Charley the Saintly Ghost, (our logo). Charley was my Dad. He was an entrepreneur. His father was in the textile business - an Orlon salesman who became the first tenant of the Empire State Building. Charley Sr. knew a lot of important people in New York City and my Dad, Charley Jr. rode on his coat tails a bit, becoming a vice president at Allied Chemical Corp. (later Allied Signal, now Honeywell). In the 1960s he convinced Allied to move their office to #1 Times Square in order to introduce some consumer products for the fashion industry, a product called "nylon 6" that became very popular in the 1960s. Most people came to know Nylon 6 as "polyester." Well, we all know about polysester in the 60s and 70s but not everyone is aware of Charley Carvin's role in promoting it. Dad won a number of awards for his marketing. He was known as "the more colorful marketing man" for the many innovations to this product and the method of marketing it he developed known as the "Total Marketing Concept." And that is one of the reasons our logo is so colorful.

Now as I've said "ghost stories" are really memorials for our loved ones mixed in with stories about our own lives - the lives of our members, our web surfing "ghosts." As such they are true stories - not fiction, because our ghosts are real. And since this is the story of how our logo came to be I'll explain the symbolism behind it but I must warn you that it is religious. In addition to representing my father, the ghost with a halo is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. See Genesis 1:1-2. The Spirit "broods over" (surfs on) the waters. It's the first image in the Bible. I don't usually talk about that. It's like explaining a punch line. But since on this one page I'm telling you about Charley, and Charley is our logo, I may as well come out with all the facts. And I'll explain things here this time only.

The imagery of the Holy Ghost is the primary meaning. It was actually my wife's idea to refer to the logo as "Charley." I liked her idea because I knew, and she knew, that my inspiration for starting GhostSurfers.com was my father, his son, and the Holy Spirit - all three, not just one or the other, and that GhostSurfers was about the members, the people. This is not easy to explain. My father was not a perfect man. Nobody is. But we all have hope in the Holy Spirit and in what our logo symbolizes.

Now when you are writing a ghost story, keep in mind that although this is not the focus, it is perfectly OK to talk about the supernatural, the paranormal, the spooky and the eerie or your religious beliefs. And Charley supplied us with a few messages from "the other side" which make his story a bit more colorful. And for me, they were like little touches from heaven after he passed away - not really scary spooky, so much as comforting. Partly they reminded me that he was in a better place now. Partly they gave me direction. There is no question that without Charley GhostSurfers.com would never have started.

As an example, shortly after his death, a glitch occurred as I was attempting to print out a picture his company had given to him in honor of the move to Times Square. Both the Time Square building and his name on it stretched along with his body. It reminded me of the stretching room in the Haunted Mansion at Disney World. I thought I had lost the actual glitched copy in the hacking incident along with all of the work I had ever done. But I still have his original award photos and was able to find a copy I'd made of the printer glitch in a copy I had printed out of a rough draft of one of my books, A Family Portrait: Seeking Unity in the Age of Communication. The book was a journal I was keeping of correspondence between my family members along with some photos very dear to me, including copies of the eulogies of my brothers given at my father's memorial mass.

Now when your equipment does stuff like that all by itself, well, that's just spooooooky. We're talking about a ghost here.

It was in communicating with family that I realized that social networking was the Internet's future, which is partly what the title of the book was about. It copied correspondence from family members about the ones we loved. A year after my father died, my oldest brother, Charles III, (affectionately known as "Chickie") also died. And the book had much about him there too. As a result, the GhostSurfer logo is actually in honor of both Charleys - a father, a son and of course, the Holy Spirit. (Yeah, I know I'm a relgious freak).

T o add to the wierdness, I had a very vivid dream around that same time, which to understand requires a little background about Charley. As I already said, Dad had developed "The Total Marketing Concept" for Allied. Now in all of my other dreams, Dad was always dressed casually. Usually these included wonderful hugs. But in this dream he was wearing a business suit. And he said just two words to me - "total marketing."

That was the day that Ghostsurfers.com was conceived. I can't remember whether the printer glitch came after or before this dream. It doesn't really matter. What was clear to me was that the Internet needed what my family had already been sharing. It needed love. And it would see and know that love best in the context of a social network that centered around loved ones, most especially memorials and genealogies. This was a key tool for unlocking and discovering unity in the age of communication. Dad had our family name on the marquee of #1 Time Square - the world's largest billboard, for his photo opp. and was stretching it out from beyond the grave in order to enforce the message that bringing that kind of love to the web was possible and would even receive heavenly assistance - thet net effect being total markeing.

I could tell you lots of stories about my Dad. He was larger than life. It seems like every famous person knew him. One of his close friends was the legendary actor/comedian Jonathan Winters, who was a neighbor of ours in New York. Dad talked Mr. Winters into teaming up with him in marketing for Allied so very wealthy and influential people would come be entertained at the Allied Estate, at the conventions they held, and at the house. Allied called this "the good neighbor policy." I have to offer Mr. Winters the title "honorary ghostie #2" because on November 6th, while I was scanning images of my Dad's awards into my computer, a halo (or glowing aura of sorts) mysteriously appeared around him. Whatever it is you can judge for yourself. This YouTube clip shows the original photo, the scanner that did it, and the scan. Welcome aboard Jonathan!

I could tell you just as many stories about Charley's son, my brother, Charles III. But I'll have to save it for another time, leaving you only with a few pictures and with the statement that in our family there was a lot of love. Not everyone is so blessed. In 1967 we moved to Florida and along with many other ventures, Dad purchased the Palm Beach Pier and started a seat belt manufacturing business called Charley Company. For the next twenty five years we lived on a little street on the north end of the Island called Eden Road. Dad wanted nothing more than to leave his children a business legacy. But the 1970s saw the oil crisis, sky high interest rates, double digit inflation, a total hault in consumer spending, and very hostile business acquisitions. Unfortunately, Dad became a victim. He lost his health and wealth.

CHARLEY III ("CHICKIE") - August 6, 1947 - Jun 13, 1996

For anyone who understands how the world is it will come as no suprise that none of Dad's rich and famous friends showed up to the funeral or ever had anything to do with our family again. Few people sympathize with entrepreneurs who fail. Others simply lose touch. And that has been something that has haunted me, because in many ways I have followed in my father's footsteps.

However, I also gained much living on Eden Road. As Dad suffered loss, I drew near to him and we shared faith. He became a very spiritual man and encouraged me to study theology. So I enrolled in two seminaries, got a degree and by the time he died I was a theology professor at a small college. Paradise was lost. But another kind of Paradise, which we shared, rose in its stead. And it was the kind that can't be taken away.

I'd love to give you a much longer version of this ghost story. I could write long books about both Charleys. And once the ghosties come back I'll share more. For now, and right here, I'll simply leave you with this little ghost story since it explains the beginnings of GhostSurfers.com.

So now I'm in the mood to hear from you. Tell me your own ghost story. It doesn't have to include any supernatural occurrences. Just tell me about yourself, what you've been up to, and the people you've loved. It was from that spirit that GhostSurfers was born. It will be from that spirit that GhostSurfers rises back from the dead.