Photo by Allison Slomowitz.
Neighbors, always be watching when the moon is full and the water is flat. You might very well see the Lady of the Lake, having clawed her way up to the surface from her watery grave at the bottom of White Rock Lake. In fact, you might see more than one Lady.
Or maybe it’s a group of female athletes from the neighborhood who love to paddleboard in costume and mess with our heads. They’re at it again this year.
These dozen or so women, among them rowers, basketball players, and roller derby girls, call themselves The Floatilla. They decided, in the pandemic-induced boredom that was 2020, to stir up some mischief come Halloween time that year and every year since, on one perfect autumn night when the waters of the lake are calm. Wearing long white dresses and veils, and illuminated by artful lighting, they float eerily and mostly silently on the lake together. One could call it spooky performance art.
The paddleboards create the effect of ghosts floating on water, and the ladies have been known to erupt into ghoulish howls and cackles during the hour or so that they are conjuring the Lady.
If you’re new to the area, here’s the story of the Lady of the Lake. Legend has it that a couple back in the 1940s was driving around White Rock Lake when they spotted a young woman in a sopping wet, long dress on the side of the road. She asks for a ride home various versions have her dropped off in Oak Cliff or in East Dallas, on Gaston or maybe in Forest Hills.
They arrive at the address only to find nothing but a puddle of water where the woman was sitting. Baffled, the couple speak with the owner of the house they were directed to, a man who says his daughter drowned at the lake years ago.
“We pay homage to her,” professional rowing coach Nan Miller says.
The idea was cooked up one night as the group hung out on boards in the middle of Lake Ray Hubbard.
“We were talking about how fun but kind of creepy it is to be on the water after sundown,” says Miller. “I mean, you just never know when that Lady of the Lake is going to come out of nowhere and scare the bejeezus out of you.”
Miller wove the tale of the Lady, both creeping out and inspiring her group to start planning their performance at White Rock Lake.
“We shared the vision right off the bat,” she says. “Because we’re all craycray.”
Floatilla member Cathy Ranspot remembers the night well. She says she immediately hopped on her phone to look up the lunar calendar and was delighted with what she found.
“I saw that it was a full moon on Halloween which fell on a Saturday,” Ranspot says. “That sealed the deal! The full moon was key.”
“From the tale,” Miller says. “A modern-day take on the Lady of the Lake was born – a more reliable way to walk on water, LEDs for uplighting, blonde wigs and white dresses.” “
We’re all a bunch of kids at heart. We love costumes, adventure, and, honestly, being a little silly,” Ranspot says.
But it took some doing to achieve just the right look. For their first outing, Miller decided to try the creative route and made a dress out of white trash bags.
“It moved in the breeze nicely but between my dress and my life jacket, I couldn’t see the board under me, my feet, or the water,” Miller says.
After that dicey experience, she decided to go with the white dresses other Ladies were finding on Amazon.
Group member Donna Castle talks about how Ladies completed the ghostly look.
“All of us have gotten really creative with the lights. We adorn our paddleboards with battery-powered LED lights strategically placed around our boards and under our dresses to give us that special eerie glow.” says Castle. “Some ladies even use neon rope lights on their paddleboards. We also wear veils and wigs with small string lights woven through our hair. A lot of the fun is seeing how creative our group gets with their outfits, hair, and makeup.”
Their first time out in 2020, they discovered there was a learning curve.
“It was so fun,” Ranspot says. “But it was tricky” standing on the board while wearing a long dress and veil.
She adds several in the group are rowers and have a heightened sense of safety on the water.
Interested in witnessing this spookiness? Keep your eyes peeled for a mention of the date, time, and launch site on Facebook pages for Lakewood, Old Lake Highlands, and Peninsula neighborhoods. But be aware it might be a last-minute announcement.
“We shoot for Halloween,” Miller says. “But I can’t stress enough the Ladies of the Lake serve at the whim of Mother Nature.”
Calm waters are crucial.
And who knows? Maybe this performance art will inspire the actual Lake of the Lady to make an appearance.
“Last year I kept feeling pockets of really cold air on the water surface when I was paddling,” Miller recalls. “The water is typically warmer than the air temperature in October, so it made no sense. I think it was the spirits of White Rock Lake trying to claw their way to the top.”
