Ghosts along the Texas Coast by Docia Schultz Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

down-home,” and combines good home cooking with the added flair of gourmet cuisine. After a recent visit and a delicious lunch, we can attest to this being a pretty accurate description. The food is excellent, attractively presented, and not inexpensive.

    Beulah’s Restaurant, at Tarpon Inn in Port Aransas.
    When I first approached Ms. Caraker, via telephone, and asked her, point blank, if there might be a ghost at the establishment, she did not seem at all taken aback. She quite freely described her feelings and experiences.
    Paula Bonillas, of Corpus Christi, and her husband, Steve, own a restaurant by the name of Blackbeard’s in Corpus Christi. Their place is haunted, too. Knowing of my research project, Paula had sent me a copy of an intriguing article that had run in the
Silver King Newsletter
some years back. That is why I decided to contact the present management of the restaurant and learn more about the place.
    The
Silver King
article stated that Beulah’s (then the Silver King) was haunted. It mentioned that while Beulah Mae Williams had never seen the ghost, she had definitely heard it. Beulah cited one particular day when she was walking outside past the kitchen and had heard quite a clatter within, such as would be going on during a very busy day. She knew the restaurant was closed, however. Curiosity beckoned, and she went inside and found everything in its place. There was no explanation for the din she had heard. It had to be the ghost that she had heard other employees mention. This ghost must have been hard at work in the kitchen that day!
    The article went on to say that Mr. Kent Marsh, an evening chef at the Silver King, had witnessed what he called “an eerie haze” in the form of a “woman of middle age and medium height.” Mr. Mike Buvosa, a former employee, also saw the apparition and thinks she is from a past era since her hair was pulled back in a severe bun, a style not often worn today.
    Ms. Caraker informed me that the fire in the original Tarpon Inn building had caused massive damage. It is rumored that the cook lost her good pearl necklace in the fire, and she still comes back in search of her lost gems. This might explain the hazy figure seen in the kitchen by both Marsh and Buvosa. However, Ms. Caraker believes the “main ghost” is a man who once worked as a cook at the restaurant. Caraker said a lady who said she was a psychic from Colorado stopped at Beulah’s recently and asked Julie if she knew the place was haunted. When Julie answered that she did indeed believe that there was aresident spirit, the psychic asked her if the ghost’s name started with an “S.” Julie said she believed the ghost was a former cook who was named Samuel, but everyone always called him Sammy.
    According to Julie, Sammy still comes around, often at breakfast time, to help her cook. Recently, after the kitchen floor was freshly mopped, Julie was astonished to see large footprints following her much smaller ones on the kitchen floor! Sammy was following her all around the kitchen as she worked!
    The mischievous side of Sammy often comes out. He turns lights on and off in the original portion of the old inn, the part of the building that was no doubt his bailiwick.
    Mark Wilks, another employee at Beulah’s, spoke with us on a visit we made to the inn in August of 1993. He also believes there is a ghost there. He told us about an incident that took place a number of years ago when he and his wife, Janet, were just teenage friends. Janet had left her bicycle leaning against the wall of the restaurant one afternoon. Later that day, she asked Mark to accompany her to get it. Since it was beginning to get dark, she was afraid to go alone. Just as the two retrieved her bike, they heard the “wildest clatter imaginable” coming from inside the kitchen. Mark said it was so loud he was sure that they could hear it across the bay in Aransas Pass! It