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Friday
March 19, 2010 Since 1922 |
Ghost hunters & a ghost car
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published October 29, 2009 Given the popularity of ghost hunting shows on television, a lot of people are apparently really into that sort of thing. No doubt some truly believe in ghosts, some are in it just for fun and some are on the debunking side of the aisle.
I’d say I was in the middle, but upon reflection I guess I really just find it fun.
I like watching those shows, but I don’t put a lot of stock in them. Any of the things that the ghost hunters on the shows turn up — the unexplainable noises, the whispery voices, the dark shadows and such — could easily be faked. I’m sure if they never found anything spooky their shows’ very existence would be threatened, so the temptation to fake it is definitely there.
My own ghost hunting history goes way back.
Part of the blame for that can be attributed to a wonderful woman who used to work for my family. She had what many call "the sight," and had dreams that foretold the upcoming death of anyone she knew who was about to die. She didn’t like having that ability. While still quite young she would try to warn people but learned that it didn’t work that way. If she warned someone that they’d be in a car accident and they actually tried to avoid riding in cars, they would get hit by a car while walking. Since trying to warn people just freaked them out without helping them avoid their fate, she learned to just keep her mouth shut. All she could do for them was pray for them.
Or so she told us.
I had an aunt who wrote books for young people (not children’s books, but books for teens and pre-teens) and many of them involved spooky old houses and spirits. Those spirits always turned out to be good ones, though. No evil, nasty ghosts for her.
Those two women inspired my interest in horror movies, scary books and spooky places.
When I was a teenager there were a few places around the town where I lived that people said were haunted and it was considered cool to go hang out there, sneak around and look for ghosts. We never saw any though.
I went to a weird sort of party in Mississippi one time. It was held on Halloween at an old plantation house that had been vacant for decades and was supposedly haunted. The story went that people would go there late at night and sometimes be able to hear the sounds of a ghostly dinner party. There would be murmuring voices, music and the clinking of glasses. We heard that at our party but it was the party goers, not spirits who made the sounds.
I can remember spending several Halloween night hours in a cemetery or two in my younger days. No spirits ever popped up there either.
The only time something happened to me that could fall into that realm of ghostly occurrences happened about 15 years ago.
I had been working on a series of newspaper stories about people involved in some unusual activities. There was a group of adults that was into witchcraft and satanism and, though they seemed fairly harmless, they did some weird things. There was also a group of young people led by a teen-aged wanna-be Charles Manson type who preached black magic and convinced the other teens to do things for him — things of a criminal nature. Eventually it led to a robbery ring that got some of them sent to prison.
My old friend Cindy had an interest in ghosts and witches and all things of that sort so she accompanied me on some of my visits with these people.
We had a source on the teen group who told us they met out at the old Brownwood subdivision. Now days that subdivision is the site of Baytown Nature Center. Back then there were still quite a few abandoned houses out there and the teens would meet in those houses for wild parties, prior to going out and committing crimes on the instructions of their leader.
Cindy and I decided to do some surveillance on the group and set ourselves up in a spot that provided concealment, yet let us see and hear most of the area where the party was supposed to be held that night. We settled in with sodas, snacks and a pistol, just in case, and waited to see what would happen.
We didn’t find the group we were looking for that night, but we did stumble on something else. Something very strange.
Somewhere around 1 a.m., we heard the noise of an approaching vehicle. We also heard a car radio playing and the laughter and loud voices of what seemed to be a carload of young people. We figured it might be some of the people we were hoping to see and very quietly waited to see where they would go.
We were parked near the slab where a home used to be, at the end of a pretty long driveway. There were high weeds and scrubby bushes between us and the driveways of abandoned homes and slabs in that area. We could see the roadway and see parts of the neighboring lots. We could see enough that we could see car lights and know where people drove.
We heard the car pull into the driveway next to us. We heard it drive all the way in, heard the tires on the gravel, the squeak of car springs, then heard it slide to a stop. We saw car lights that went along with those noises. We heard the radio and the voices while the car approached. Then the lights went out and all the noises stopped.
We waited. We thought they just happened to be quiet, perhaps listening to determine if anyone else was around. We stayed quiet. They stayed quiet.
After quite a while, we began to wonder how a car full of previously noisy people could be so quiet for so long. Surely at least one of them should be giggling by then. Even if they were there to fool around, we would surely hear something, but no. Not a sound. Not a whisper. Not a creak or squeak.
We sat there in silence for close to an hour, I think. We started to wonder if they were sneaking up on us for some reason. I held the pistol at the ready.
Nothing happened.
Eventually we went to investigate and found that there was nobody there.
If I’d been alone I would have wondered if I had imagined it. There was no way that both Cindy and I imagined the same thing though, right?
So we have no explanation for what we saw and heard. That vehicle pulled in that driveway and just disappeared. We saw the lights and we heard the noises, then it just disappeared. There is absolutely no way that it could have gone back out the driveway without us hearing it so either it just disappeared or we somehow did imagine the same thing.
I don’t think it was imagination.
Contributor Published October 29, 2009 Given the popularity of ghost hunting shows on television, a lot of people are apparently really into that sort of thing. No doubt some truly believe in ghosts, some are in it just for fun and some are on the debunking side of the aisle.
I’d say I was in the middle, but upon reflection I guess I really just find it fun.
I like watching those shows, but I don’t put a lot of stock in them. Any of the things that the ghost hunters on the shows turn up — the unexplainable noises, the whispery voices, the dark shadows and such — could easily be faked. I’m sure if they never found anything spooky their shows’ very existence would be threatened, so the temptation to fake it is definitely there.
My own ghost hunting history goes way back.
Part of the blame for that can be attributed to a wonderful woman who used to work for my family. She had what many call "the sight," and had dreams that foretold the upcoming death of anyone she knew who was about to die. She didn’t like having that ability. While still quite young she would try to warn people but learned that it didn’t work that way. If she warned someone that they’d be in a car accident and they actually tried to avoid riding in cars, they would get hit by a car while walking. Since trying to warn people just freaked them out without helping them avoid their fate, she learned to just keep her mouth shut. All she could do for them was pray for them.
Or so she told us.
I had an aunt who wrote books for young people (not children’s books, but books for teens and pre-teens) and many of them involved spooky old houses and spirits. Those spirits always turned out to be good ones, though. No evil, nasty ghosts for her.
Those two women inspired my interest in horror movies, scary books and spooky places.
When I was a teenager there were a few places around the town where I lived that people said were haunted and it was considered cool to go hang out there, sneak around and look for ghosts. We never saw any though.
I went to a weird sort of party in Mississippi one time. It was held on Halloween at an old plantation house that had been vacant for decades and was supposedly haunted. The story went that people would go there late at night and sometimes be able to hear the sounds of a ghostly dinner party. There would be murmuring voices, music and the clinking of glasses. We heard that at our party but it was the party goers, not spirits who made the sounds.
I can remember spending several Halloween night hours in a cemetery or two in my younger days. No spirits ever popped up there either.
The only time something happened to me that could fall into that realm of ghostly occurrences happened about 15 years ago.
I had been working on a series of newspaper stories about people involved in some unusual activities. There was a group of adults that was into witchcraft and satanism and, though they seemed fairly harmless, they did some weird things. There was also a group of young people led by a teen-aged wanna-be Charles Manson type who preached black magic and convinced the other teens to do things for him — things of a criminal nature. Eventually it led to a robbery ring that got some of them sent to prison.
My old friend Cindy had an interest in ghosts and witches and all things of that sort so she accompanied me on some of my visits with these people.
We had a source on the teen group who told us they met out at the old Brownwood subdivision. Now days that subdivision is the site of Baytown Nature Center. Back then there were still quite a few abandoned houses out there and the teens would meet in those houses for wild parties, prior to going out and committing crimes on the instructions of their leader.
Cindy and I decided to do some surveillance on the group and set ourselves up in a spot that provided concealment, yet let us see and hear most of the area where the party was supposed to be held that night. We settled in with sodas, snacks and a pistol, just in case, and waited to see what would happen.
We didn’t find the group we were looking for that night, but we did stumble on something else. Something very strange.
Somewhere around 1 a.m., we heard the noise of an approaching vehicle. We also heard a car radio playing and the laughter and loud voices of what seemed to be a carload of young people. We figured it might be some of the people we were hoping to see and very quietly waited to see where they would go.
We were parked near the slab where a home used to be, at the end of a pretty long driveway. There were high weeds and scrubby bushes between us and the driveways of abandoned homes and slabs in that area. We could see the roadway and see parts of the neighboring lots. We could see enough that we could see car lights and know where people drove.
We heard the car pull into the driveway next to us. We heard it drive all the way in, heard the tires on the gravel, the squeak of car springs, then heard it slide to a stop. We saw car lights that went along with those noises. We heard the radio and the voices while the car approached. Then the lights went out and all the noises stopped.
We waited. We thought they just happened to be quiet, perhaps listening to determine if anyone else was around. We stayed quiet. They stayed quiet.
After quite a while, we began to wonder how a car full of previously noisy people could be so quiet for so long. Surely at least one of them should be giggling by then. Even if they were there to fool around, we would surely hear something, but no. Not a sound. Not a whisper. Not a creak or squeak.
We sat there in silence for close to an hour, I think. We started to wonder if they were sneaking up on us for some reason. I held the pistol at the ready.
Nothing happened.
Eventually we went to investigate and found that there was nobody there.
If I’d been alone I would have wondered if I had imagined it. There was no way that both Cindy and I imagined the same thing though, right?
So we have no explanation for what we saw and heard. That vehicle pulled in that driveway and just disappeared. We saw the lights and we heard the noises, then it just disappeared. There is absolutely no way that it could have gone back out the driveway without us hearing it so either it just disappeared or we somehow did imagine the same thing.
I don’t think it was imagination.