Oxner mentioned a word I’ve not heard in ages. Have you ever heard?

There are also some things you may have seen in the south explained in this link

https://haints.org/what-is-a-haint/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haint_blue

http://www.lowcountryweekend.com/haints-and-boo-hags-what-ghosts-haunt-you/

My dad preferred the word "haint" over ghost or haunt, as well as the word "drouth" over drought. I clearly remember my two older sisters trying to correct him to use the word "drought" but he insisted drouth was an old Texas term.

I remember one young man in Vietnam that was from small town north of Lafayette, Louisiana, he had some stories to tell about his either his aunt or grandmother and her witchcraft. He also had some sort of ritual he would mumble every time we went on an ambush. What ever it was worked, it got him a million dollar wound and a ticket home. I saw him in the Camp Drake hospital in Japan, he already had his flight manifest for the States, he went home, I was sent back to Vietnam.

See? I don`t get on THF and make things up.

I just always remember haint blue on the porches to protect against the Booger Man

Haints are real. Boogers are fake unless you pick them out of your nose and put them in that little bitty drawer of your bedside table.

The blue porch ceiling is to deter birds from nesting.

I've heard it'll also keep wasps from nesting.

False. its to look like water and keep the spirits away from entering the doors ...........BOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The origin is apparently to ward off evil spirits.

The color is turquoise and it is to scare off evil spirits.