TIFTON — For some, a misplaced Windex bottle is all it takes to believe in the unbelievable.

It’s ingrained into the Southern heritage. Storytelling has been passed down from generation to generation, father to son, and remains a rich tradition in the South.

But sometimes those stories have a darker side — a side that makes the hair stand up on the back of one’s neck.

Tifton has many such stories, perhaps more than this conservative and deeply religious town should. But the fact remains that every year about this time, even the most devout Tiftonites, recall their own personal eerie tales.

One of the area’s most famous stories revolves around one of those tiny country churches that dot the Tiftarea.

One wouldn’t have to walk far to find someone who has heard about Hickory Springs Baptist Church. For nearly 20 years, eerie accounts of sightings and vandalism gone wrong have tempted teens and adults alike to drive out to this simple country church in search of the unexplainable.

Some accounts say that if one were to drive up to the church at night, cut off the headlights and slowly pull around the cemetery, a ghostly light will appear and seem to follow you until you speed off away from the church.

Another popular legend says that, in an apparent act of vandalism, teens were unable to move the church’s Bible due to some overwhelming force. The account says that as the group attempted to make their way to the door with the Good Book, it became progressively heavier and was impossible to get out the church.

To be fair, both of these instances have been explained away by skeptics who believe that the light in the cemetery is nothing more than brake lights reflecting off of headstones and the force experienced by the group of delinquents was nothing more than gravity mixed with guilt. However, for believers, the happenings at Hickory Springs are the real deal.

While Hickory Springs may be the best-known ghost story in the Tiftarea, the most compelling myth comes straight from the heart of Tifton.

“I have no doubt that there is something in there,” Tift Theatre Director Brenda Shaw said of the old moviehouse. “I’m not scared of it, but you definitely feel something when you go in there.”

Shaw is referring to probably the best documented haunting in the Tiftarea.

According to Shaw and her predecessor, former Main Street Tifton Director Julie Smith, the Tift Theatre hosts more than plays and movies; it features the love-plagued spirit of an Irwin County man.

According to Shaw, back in 1947 a young Irwin County couple were heading home after an evening at the theatre when something went wrong and she demanded that he take her home.

After complying, the boyfriend offers the distraught girlfriend a proposition: meet him back at the Tift Theatre for a movie the following Saturday and they’ll reconcile the relationship. But if she doesn’t show, then he’ll know that she isn’t interested anymore.

“Then the next Saturday rolls around but tragically the boyfriend, while on his way to the theatre, gets killed in a car crash,” Shaw said. “We think that he’s still wandering the theatre waiting to see if his girlfriend will ever show up to fulfill her end of the bargain.”

Shaw has had several apparent contacts with the grief-stricken ghost but doesn’t view him as a threat.

“I just tell him to go away or to leave me alone and he does,” Shaw said.

One incident that Shaw recalls involves the light switch for the auditorium. One night as she was closing the theatre down, she walked through the building to make sure everyone was gone.

Then, she went to the concession stand, locked it up and cut off one of the two light switches for the auditorium before locking the main doors.

Realizing she had forgotten something, Shaw unlocked the theatre doors and found the auditorium lights on.

“The only other light switches were upstairs in the control booth so I headed up there thinking maybe I left someone up there,” Shaw said. “But when I got there, the door was locked and the switches were off.”

Shaw’s workers and family have also experienced eerie happenings while in the theatre.

Shaw’s son left the theatre after feeling an unusually cold burst of air as he was standing in one of the aisles. While not usually a big deal, this happened during a South Georgia summer while the theatre’s air conditioner was broken. When he got home, Shaw’s son reportedly told her that it felt like someone had brushed past him even though he was the only one around.

The ghost is even gaining notoriety with schoolchildren as Shaw tells them about it when they tour the facility.

“He’s a friendly ghost,” Shaw said. “So he’s no big deal.”

Friendly and bothersome. While cleaning one day, one of Shaw’s workers misplaced her bottle of Windex while cleaning the dressing room mirrors. After searching the area, she went upstairs to see if there was a spare bottle. Upon her return, she found the bottle, on the opposite side of where she was cleaning. Since that day, says Shaw, she’s been a believer.

While skeptics may doubt the stories, nearly everyone has heard legends, myths or old wives’ tales about this area. From the hat creek critter to the baby foot bridge, stories abound about strange occurrences throughout Tift County.