Hunting for Ghosts

There seem to be a lot of things getting in the way of writing my folklore book, but thankfully not in the research. My mom and I recently spent a weekend in Marietta, Ohio at the historic Lafayette Hotel. We took a ghost tour of the downtown area. It was a fabulous tour and the group (which was large) was allowed to take pictures and go inside a few of the buildings. One structure we were allowed inside was a movie theater that is currently under renovation. There was not a light in the place. Thankfully, the tour guide had a few extra flashlights to pass out but the huge silent theater with its crumbling dignity and old-fashioned empty seats definitely had atmosphere going for it. In its time it had obviously been a beautiful building. As it were, our hotel was on the list of haunted places and the management graciously let us ramble around in the basement which was a series of small rooms and hallways. Several people took pictures and captured “orbs” with their cameras. We were warned by our guide that no matter what, don’t let them put you on the third floor of the Hoag addition. She added that several of the cleaning people won’t go on that floor because of the paranormal activity. Hummmm, you got it, now I know why our room was so cheap…third floor, room 332. Of course, by the time we’d taken the tour and walked briskly for an hour and a half we came in and crashed. It had been a long day for us and it was nearly midnight when we got back to the room. By that time, I fell into bed and went to sleep so soundly a ghost could have been jumping up and down on my bed and I wouldn’t have known it. I have to say we will definitely be going back to the Lafayette many more times. The rooms were filled with real antiques, we had a view of the river and the staff was incredible. The whole experience was fantastic. Actually, the ghost of the Hoag addition is supposed to be playful and both Mom and I did experience a couple of odd moments – for instance I was in the shower and just for one second I was hit with cold water – freezing water, in fact. It was just enough to make me give a yelp and start to adjust the knobs, then all was fine. Mom was getting ready to dry her hair and the hair dryer started moving, like someone gently tugging it off the shelf. She couldn’t see any reason it would slide and caught it before it hit the floor. So, do those two occurrences constitute a playful ghost? I don’t know, seems a bit anticlimatic if it was the ghost being mischevious. I’d like something a bit more flamboyant.

Just found a couple of sites featuring the hotel and other guest experiences.

http://www.hauntedmarietta.com/stories/lafayette.php

http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=2811

I LIKE GHOST STORIES

No, I haven’t met any ghosts, but I’d like to. You could put me in the most haunted place on the planet and all otherworldly spirits would vanish. Immediately.

Actually, thinking back to my college days I did have a close encounter with “something.” Six of us rented the upstairs of a Victorian mansion that once belonged to a iron baron. The elderly lady that owned the home rented out the top eight rooms to supplement her income. I was attending a junior business college and was the only one home at the time. I was getting ready to walk to class when the room grew warm, almost unbearably warm, and the smell of expensive cigar smoke was nearly overwhelming. My first thought was that the old lady’s son had arrived for a visit. I went downstairs to let him know his mother had a doctor’s appointment that morning. No one was around. I went back upstairs and checked the thermostat, it read 70 degrees, as usual, but the room felt like it was a hundred, and the scent of tobacco smoke was still strong. As I grabbed up my bookbag to walk the ten blocks to class, the odd sensation of a heartbeat seemed to fill the room. It should have been scary, but it wasn’t. It almost seemed protective combined with the warmth. And the heartbeat was intangible, it was like I could feel it inside of me and hear it in my head, but I couldn’t distinguish where it was coming from. The experience was so unusual, that I wrote it down in a diary (missing my first class for the day). Somewhere along the line, I’ve lost the diary, but that morning is still vivid in my head. Since then, I’ve had a fascination with paranormal experiences. Friends and I often take trips to visit supposedly haunted places, or areas where strange occurrences are reported to happen. It’s a hobby for me now. This year it will be research for a ghost story I’m working on. I’ve had two romance novels published under a pen name, and have three contracted for 2009 (one of which I have yet to finish), then I’ll be starting on my ghost story. Next month my mom and I are going to spend the weekend hunting ghosts in Moundsville, West Virginia at the old federal penitentiary.