Haunted House Above the Tracks

I took this picture several years ago.  It  is the back of an abandoned  house  overlooking  railroad tracks.   It was taken from behind the Federal Credit Union.  The house was a residence and years later when Dobbins Air Force Base owned the land it was on, it became the Officers' Club.  I have been there at least once at a retirement party.

I heard from several sources that the house was haunted.

It was torn down Monday:  Bulldozed away to make way for progress.  The Marietta Daily Journal said Marietta Museum of History C.E.O. Dan Cox  was allowed to go through the house before it was demolished in search of anything of historical significance.  He found a few items, like wood  pegs, used as nails.

My grandparents, Frank and Minnie Tyson Hunter owned a farm one time on part of what became the Dobbins-Lockheed  Complex, I don't know if they lived close to this house or not.

Now, where will the ghosts go to make room for progress?  Maybe the same place the deer, coyotes,  foxes, and bears went when their habitats  were bulldozed:  In your face! 

A Live ORB in a CRYPT

About 1977 my friend Sam Carsley (1941-2013) went on a mission with our new cameras, he bought a Nikon and I bought at Minolta 201.  We went to Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.  Our targets were the stain glass windows in Crypts.  We both grew up reading the comicbook TALES FROM THE CRYPT and were still fans  - so it fitted  right in.  The stained glass windows of course is aimed inward.  Just like church, the outside light illuminates giving a beautiful picture to the resident inside.  But since the residents in each crypt are dead it is argumentative if anyone  will actually see the stain glass art.  So, wanting to make sure those beautiful stained glass windows was not a waste of somebody's money we tried to help them out.  Above is an example of what we took.

When I took this picture I did not see the shapeless mass of light.  Only after it was developed was it plainly something odd.

I jokingly put it on facebook suggesting it might be a ghost.

A facebook friend, Jim Lamer wrote: That is called an Orb and it is a spirit.

Well, Hoot!

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Ghost Sitcom

This story is from CRACKED COLLECTOR’S EDTION. I think this probably was recycled in about 1981. It is illustrated by one of MAD Comic’s original four artists, John Severin. The story is a lampoon of the TV sitcom of the GHOST AND MRS. MUIR staring Hope Lange. The story line was that Hope Lang bought or rented a cottage near the ocean that is haunted by a dignified bearded ex-ship captain.

I remember in the early 1970s an old Navy friend Dick and his wife Nancy dropped by for a an overnight visit coming back from Florida. He is a professional announce and has a refined dignified voice. He also had a beard then. One of us said Dick reminded us an actor on THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR and Dick, as witty as he was in the Navy, said, “Who? Hope Lange?”

If you keep up with Chicken-fat.com daily you will might remember not long ago I mentioned that Johnny McCracken’s Restaurant in Marietta might be haunted. I went on to say that maybe Casper the Friendly Ghost might be the one haunting it. I gave him the name of Casper McCracken.

Strangely, for weeks Chicken-fat was visited hundreds of times more than usual for the next few weeks because of the mere mention of CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST.

Just because I mentioned CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST – can you believe that?

The reason I mention CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST here is because CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST is also in this illustrated story.

Dead Airplanes & People

Click on pictures to make them larger.

While cruising on Google Earth above Marietta this morning I saw that the Aviation Wing of the Marietta Museum of History has increased their decommissioned airplane inventory.

I already knew they had, but I didn’t know the Google satellite view over Marietta was that recent. Now they are probably have even more.

We were at the History Museum not long ago to attend a lecture and before the lecture the CO of the museum announced they had a commitment of getting plenty more planes from all over.


The Aviation Wing of the Marietta Museum of History is just on the edge of the Dobbins AFB/Lockheed Aviation complex. While hovering in the area, I scooted down to see from above something else I knew was there, the Haunted House on the property. Many people have claimed to have ghostly encounters there.





Over the years the house served many functions for Dobbins, such as office space, and I think its last job was to serve as the Dobbins Officer’s Club. Now, looks to closed up. I have been inside at least once at a retirement party and I had no face to face meeting with a spirit.

But again, that was before I knew the place was haunted. I didn’t know what to look for.

But maybe there were many ghosts all around me and I thought they were drunken officers? I see dead Officers!





Here is a picture of the Dobbins Haunted House that I took from my car. I would have went around to the front for a better picture but do you see that fence?

Book Report on HAUNTED MARIETTA

I finished reading the book HAUNTED MARIETTA by Rhetta Akamatsu.

It is not ghost stories with frightening plots that happened in Marietta. Vincent Price is not playing the fiddle while Marietta burns and the Alexander Stephens Clay statue in the park melts. Nothing like that. Not even any sudden BOOS! (gotcha!)

It is simple events or sightings of beings that probably used to be living and a good dose of local history to help paint the picture.

Ms Akamatsu tells of places all over Marietta and on the outskirts such as Sandy Plains Road and as far south as the Concord Covered Bridge. She usually gives her theories why a certain area or objects might attract ghosts, such as bridges.

She tells of haunts in downtown and the killing fields (and mountain) of the Civil War and explains the possibilities of why the spirits settled on a particular place.
The Civil War plays heavily in her narration because this town was under U.S. marshal law from the summer of 1864 on for a couple of years. The citizens starved and lived their lives in despair. Life was hell then…. The brewing ground for unsettled spirits.

Some people are skeptics about ghosts. Well, if they are they are.

You can read this book and keep your belief intact but still enjoy this book just for the local history education you will absorb. Rhetta Akamutsu covers every major historical event that I can think of. It lacks detailed facts and figures but has quality run-downs of each event that unfolded in Marietta.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book, which I already mentioned in a previous blog is that it mentions Chicken Fat and me three times!!!

OOOooooooo

As I mentioned we were going to on Thursday go to The Marietta History Museum to hear a talk given by Cathy Kaemmerlen the authoress of The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta: Speaking Stones.

Ms Kaemmerlen dressed in a period costume with a fancy hat – exactly what period is up for discussion. She, as an actress, took the personality of a gossiping old lady that knew all the residents of Oakland Cemetery and the low down “dirt” (pardon the pun) on all of them.

She put on quiet a show. She told some very interesting and amusing stories. It was a unique act and of course, like any good sales person, only hinted about the best parts.

While on the museum’s premises we visited the nook in the corner that the books were for sale and I saw an interesting book named HAUNTED MARIETTA by Rhetta Akamatsu. I decided to buy it.


In the evening I picked up the book and flipped through it. It looks like it has some good old Marietta ghost stories in it. Some of the stories I have heard and even mentioned them in my blog from time to time.

I decided to glance over the first page that was titled Acknowledgments. And then suddenly, there I was looking at the: Eddie Hunter of the blog “Chicken Fat”:


My my!

Hello Good Looking!

*
* Photo by Stacey Bode Photography.
That is what I first came to mind when I saw the above picture that was taken at my son Rocky's wedding April the 25th – just a few months ago.

I like black & white photos…. It fools the viewer by keeping my red nose a secret.

Hello Good Looking? Hmmm? I heard that expression before and I couldn’t quiet remember where… it seems there was more to it.

Hello Good Looking…. Wait! I know! The full sentence was:

“Hello Good Looking! Where have you been all my life?”

After he said that he told my neighbor Sheryl he was coming looking for her in his Cadillac and carry her away.

He told Sheryl that in about 1988 near the pharmacy department in Echards’ Drug Store on Sandy Plains Road in Marietta. Sheryl said it was Elvis Presley. She really said that and she was serious.

And to give this story an extra punch, Sheryl died about a couple of days later. Her body was found by her husband days later. Her husband was absorbed in his work at several little stores he owned and didn’t drop by his house often. Her body was well preserved, Sheryl was an inside of person who didn’t go out often and kept her air conditioner temperature down very low.

Now, a little more spice: The day of Sheryl’s funeral a long sparkling shiny Cadillac cruised our neighborhood.

Wait! There is more! Years later Sarah and Bill bought the house. Their dog was terrified at something in the house. Sheryl finally materialized in front of Bill. Bill described what she looked like and how she acted and we said, “Yep, that was Sheryl!”

Sarah and Bill asked the children of the previous owners and they said the ghost of Sheryl was no secret in their family, she was around a lot.

After a while of showing up here and there in the house Sarah said that enough was enough and called a non-Catholic priest to come and perform an Exorcism…. Or as they later called it, “A House Blessing”.

I think after that, if I remember right Sheryl made a final appearance to Bill and told him that all was ok, she forgave him… and poof!

Nevermore.

ghost TALES FROM THE CRYPT...heh heh

One time years ago I was impressed with some pictures my friend Sam took at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. The pictures I was impressed with were shots taken from inside crypts and mausoleums with illuminated stained glass windows the subject in each picture.

The next time I was at Oakland Cemetery I tried it. Some of the mausoleums have doors with bars. The bars allow you to look inside but do not allow you through the door. To take a picture one would have to stick their 35mm lens in between the bars, aim at the stained glass window, which would seem to glow, because of the outside light – you know how it works.

Something went wrong with my stained glass pictures. They just didn’t look as magnificent as Sam’s pictures. I think my internal light meter was having fits not knowing what it should set itself for, the stained glass or the dark walls.

I probably took about a dozen or so pictures Later, when I got them back in the form of slides I flipped through them and didn’t think they were any good, so just put them back in the box and forgot about them.



The other day, I was reexamining my slides and came across the above. It looks like a ghost to me….. the light swirl – I have seen similar light swirls in photos that people claimed "could be" ghosts.

Who knows.




Above are two non-ghosts examples of the slides I took that day…. No photography awards here folks.

A Pleasant Breeze

Earlier this week Anna and I visited a person in a nursing home. The nursing home structure is almost like a fort. There are for long halls, which form a square. In the middle is a small park. You can sit outside in the little small park which gives the appearance of being about the the size of a baseball diamond.

There are a few trees, a few chairs, a couple of rocking chairs, a wooden swing, and bird feeders. And there are chirping birds. It is a nice peaceful setting.

Remember, the little park is surrounded by four wings of the nursing home. You cannot walk out of there without first going through a door back into a hall of the nursing home.

We were sitting and talking and I noticed a breeze. It was not strong enough to be a gushy wind… just a pleasant continuous breeze.

How did the breeze get there? It was surrounded by buildings. Was it traveling 30 feet above the ground and swoop down when it came to an opened area. Or was it traveling along the ground and then leaped the building and landed onto the ground of the small park and continued its journey?

The nursing home is of old people, a lot are sickly. Maybe the breeze are spirits of those who died inside the nursing home and they are just seeking human organic warmth.

Postscript: There is a nursing home in Marietta that is named Autumn Breeze. Hmmmm?

The Community of Euharlee, Georgia

We went to Euharlee, Georgia, today to help celebrate my sister-in-law Thelma’s 70th birthday.

Euharlee, according to the Postal Service serving the area, is part of Cartersville but has its own distinct rural personality.

It has a rural personality that is in the shadow of a nuclear power plant…. I think it is nuclear, maybe I am wrong.

I noticed while driving around Euharlee looking for the birthday place an unusual amount of barbecue joints in the area, in fact, one road is named Barbecue Road. I’m going back!

Also, there is a covered bridge in Euharlee. It wasn’t far from the birthday party festivities, so I walked down and looked around. I think I have been there before years ago. This covered bridge is known to be haunted. I forgot the details, but I remember Natives Americans are involved. Which may have something to do with the Etowah Indian Mounds just a few miles away, also very near the Etowah River.

This covered bridge is one of only twelve covered bridges still standing in Georgia.

I also remember it was built ex-slave Horace King (1807-1885). Horace was a slave in Alabama. His master was a bridge builder and he learned his expertise from him and perfected the bridge building techniques. His master was so proud of him he gave him his freedom and he started a covered bridge building business and built a name for himself.

The Phantom at the Movies

The white marquee was the marquee for the Cobb Theater in the 40s through at least the 60s. Then it became a number of things, the two I know of is a disco and the latest before it closed was a restaurant that served healthier choice foods. It must not have went over too big.

Just down the side walk a few stores is the newly renovated Strand Theater. You can see its marquee that at the time I took the picture “Smokey Joe’s Café” was playing. Smokey Joe’s Café is a high energy paced music show. I saw a version on HBO and it is good. And there has been other musical type of entertainment or musicals.

As far as I know the newly renovated movie house is lacking one thing so far: Movies. True, there are some movies scheduled but they are not new releases. They are classic movies – time proven movies that movie lovers are in general agreement that these movies were/are great, such as Citizen Cain and Casablanca.

It will be nice for the Strand to show such movies… but what about just plain everyday newly released movies. Those would be nice too.

The price for admission to any of the shows I considered at the Strand is expensive.

So, we still don’t have a theater on the Square that is a movie house that just shows movies. We have a movie house that show classic movies and musical performances and we have another theater, Theater In The Square

What used to be the Cobb Theater is now empty. The last time I looked, it still has its stage, a place for a big screen, and a sloping floor. What is wrong with having a movie theater on the square that features regular newly released movies?

Not that it should matter, but I understand that what used to be the Cobb Theater is now haunted (the person that told should know).

Maybe if they get renovated they should specialize in horror flicks.

1848 Restaurant postcard

This postcard was published when the name of it was The Planters Restaurant. It was a little over a mile south of the Courthouse in Marietta.

After it was the Planters Restaurant Bill Dunaway bought it and changed the name to the 1848 House.

As the name suggests if was built in 1848. Interesting it was built by a Glover, one of the Marietta’s first, if not the first, mayors. And ironically lastly owned by a Marietta mayor. Bill Dunaway was the Mayor of Marietta when he sold it to a corporation* that built housing units around the remaining 13 acres of the plantation. It used to sit on hundreds of acres.

We have been there to attend several wedding receptions and once to attend their then-famous Sunday Brunch. All the food seemed to be divinely prepared by the most professional of chefs. Their kitchen has been on the Food Channel more than once.

The house has a lot of history, ghosts, shaking chandeliers and a bullet hole in the steps.

As most big mansions in Marietta, it either served as a high ranking union officer’s headquarters or a hospital – I forgot which one.

My father was a teenager this house was abandoned. On a bet he spent the night in the house… it was considered haunted. No frightening consequences to speak of, unless you consider getting one’s hair pulled by cobwebs frightening.

The house is still there but now surrounded by smaller houses as a well designed housing development. It just isn’t the same – the mystery and romance have been surgically removed.

*There was a rumor that Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was interested in the property but it must have just been a rumor (remember – Elton John has an apartment in midtown Atlanta).

Real Ghost or a Broken Record?

A reportedly true ghost sighting:

A man was driving his car with his son as passenger very near Kennesaw Mountain.

Kennesaw Mountain is a Civil War battlefield. Thousands of men lost their lives there in June, 1864.

The man and his son were in the car and suddenly a horse leaped across the street in front of them. The rider had on a Yankee blue uniform. They also saw enough in that instant to know the rider was an officer. He and his horse ran through a fence on the other side of the road like it wasn’t there.

The father and son both saw it and he had to pull over to gather his wits about him to before he could continue driving.

There is a ghost hunting organization who joined forces with the Marietta Ghost Tours Company. An expert on ghosts of that group said he believes what they saw was not an actual ghost, but a action caught in time which keeps playing over and over at unpredicted times – that moment in time is locked in that certain area – it is almost a matter of electronics

A Scary Story That Really Happened!! heh heh

This is a true story.,, really, I was there, I was part of it. Hold on to your seats:

Glover Street in Marietta now is the home of a Sears Warehouse, a Texaco Warehouse, the Cobb County Board of Education, and at the corner of Glover and Fairground Streets is the Marietta Daily Journal. Across the street from the Marietta Journal is the Little League field, which was fairly new back then.

There used to be houses and patches of woods up and down the street. Before the Marietta Journal was in that location, behind the area was a patch of woods that led by a small branch and the trail continued up the hill beside an old barn which belonged to the Nichols family who lived in a nice white two level house in front. We called the trail "The Hollow".

The barn was haunted. And so was "The Hollow". Or at least we thought so.

One summer evening in our preteen years several of us boys were standing on Glover Street at the mouth of the Hollow. It looked like a big dark opened mouth. We were daring each to walk in. We heard a noise in the tree thicket banging around. I don't know about my peers but I imagined ghost of some kind, insane and on a rampage.

Wanting to be known as a brave person - after all, image is everything - I told my friends I would alone go into the Hollow.... I felt some silent "ooohhhs" and "aahhs".

I went in.

Although, standing out on the street the hollow gave the appearance of a big black hole but on the inside, because of the strong field lights from the Little League park I could see the outline of some of trees and bushes to make out how the trail went. My memory also helped.

Again, I heard the thrashing of something. I thought I could not run out, I would be labeled as a coward. I walked up the little hill that led to the Nichols' barn.

Half way I looked up and in the middle of the trail was a pair of green eyes looking me.

I slowly backed up. The green eyes started moving towards me at a speed faster than I could walk backwards.

The green eyes was at me and went to my eyes! I tripped (try to walk backwards down a hill without tripping) The next thing I knew my dog Skipper (part bird-dog and part collie) was standing over me licking me in the face.

I think the Little League lights caused Skipper's eyes to reflect green - like a photo-flash's red-eye... same principal I think.

And that is the scary story.

Dupree House - Haunted?

Local Ghost Tour

I think The Marietta Daily Journal was timely in announcing a new company in Marietta: Marietta Ghost Tour. Halloween is just around the corner.

From the article in Sunday’s Marietta Daily Journal Marietta Ghost Tour’s tour is based on real local ghost tales. This is good. It is not something someone made up recently.

I think I could add some that they do not know about. The old Dupree House, my father, as a policeman was called to their old white brick big house many times because things up in the attic going bump in the night. Mrs. Dupree was sure it was a ghost.

Several years ago Anna and I went on a Ghost Tour in Charleston. I thought it was very good. We met at the appointed place in the old section of Charleston which went by the old jail and several old taverns, the old court house, and several other buildings. We were told of duels, hangings, and other things that caused spirits to hang around un-rested. Each story fitted a good niche of history that I really enjoyed, like for instance when dueling was a commonplace practice.

Whether you believe in ghost or not, if you appreciate history I think you would appreciate the Charleston Ghost Tour we went on – there are several to choose from. Savannah also has ghost tours and I’m sure New Orleans and New York has them also. Now, Marietta has one!

From what I read in the Sunday paper Ms. Joni Goodin, a newcomer* in Marietta, is giving an excellent tour based on real ghost local ghost stories – and you also get a good dose of local history in the bargain. What more could you want for $15 – you can hardly get a good salad for that.

* I think being a newcomer in Marietta gives Ms. Goodin an advantage. She automatically sees things from a different prospective: from the outside looking in – she probably sees things that we local yokels take for granted.

Hare -de- Har Har Ghost

Speaking of me bringing home unwanted pets as a boy, one time a woman who lived about three blocks from us offered me a one day job of cleaning up her yard and animal cages. As payment she said she would give me a bunny.

I think I was between 8 and 10 years old. I got up early one Saturday morning and left. My parents knew I was someplace in the neighborhood and did not worry about me. I would show up when I show up.

I worked hard all day, hosing down rabbit cages and scrubbing them, moving old rotted wood from collapsed cages over to the vacant lot behind their house. And many other little jobs she told me to do one at a time.

There was a heavy set man and I think he was in a wheelchair on the front porch. He kept wanting to talk and each time I sat down to talk to him the woman would put me to work.

Across the street a one-arm man lived. He drove a jeep. I have also seen him play on the softball league. He didn’t let being handicapped stand in his way. He was one of the best sluggers and outfielders on the team. Not that that had anything to do with this narration – I am just pulled it from my memory as I was thinking about that street.

Next door was a girl visiting her grandparents about my age. On my lunch break the girl told me the empty house with the yard all grown up, two houses away was haunted. We went inside and looked around. Old furniture, covered, old portraits on the wall, and an organ or a piano certainly gave the atmosphere of it being haunted – but I saw no proof except it looked like it should be.

At the end of the day the woman kept her promise and let me pick out a young rabbit. I carried it home and slipped it into my room. Not knowing how my parents would react if I brought home a little rabbit, so I thought I would hide it a while.

I couldn’t figure out where to hide it. I let it stay in bed with me.

The next morning my mother opened my bedroom door to tell me breakfast was ready. She screamed. There was a hare in her son’s bed!

Then, I had to explain myself. Somehow we knew somebody with a cage and we borrowed it and I put the rabbit in the back yard.

In time we bought another rabbit and put it in the cage also. In time one of them, I forgot which one, had little pink hairless rabbits. They were all dead. After that, I forgot whatever happened to the rabbits.

Fast Forward: About 1995 or 1996, one of the Williamson Brothers of Williamson Brothers Barbecue opened up a seafood and catfish restaurant. It was in the same house that the little girl my age and I went into looking for ghosts.

We ate there a few times before it became a catering service for Williamson Brothers Barbecue.

The first time we ate there we overheard one of the waitresses talk about the house being haunted. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I told them about ghost hunting in that same house about 45 years ago with a little girl who was visiting her grandmother.

They were surprised. They told me only about an hour or so ago a lady was in there who was telling them she came to visit her grandmother one time and she and a little boy about her age thought the house was haunted and looked for ghosts.

Roughly 394,000 hours passed since we saw each other last in that house and we miss each other by one or two hours. Somebody up there is playing His Fate & Destiny games.

Gracie

This is Gracie. She is buried at Bonaventure Cemetery. Gracie died of a childhood disease. Her father was either manager or owner of a restaurant and hotel in Savannah.

Some people say that her ghost still roams the halls of the building of her father's establishment trying to locate children her size to play with.

Oh Sheryl, Where Art Thou?

Ahhh, it is beginning to look great outdoors! I have been outside burning leaves. It just didn’t seem as cold as it has been lately. Maybe, because the Sun is out and only a slight breeze.

the birds were chirping and singing. Squirrels were scratching their heads trying to remember where they buried their nuts. And it just seemed warm and nice.

My neighbor came out on his deck and we talked a few minutes, not once did he ask why wasn’t I picking up the leaves with the lawnmower.

As always, another neighbor’s tiny little dog Skip ran up to the fence and barked fiercely to let me know plainly that he marked his territory, in dog language he told me he pissed a line and if I knew what was good for me I will stay on my side.

Which brings to mind that the house Skip lives in is haunted. Only Skip knows when the ghost is present. Skip used to make a big deal about it when the ghost entered the room but he has pretty much got used to Sheryl (the ghost).

Sheryl lived in the house before Skip’s masters bought the house. In fact, two other families lived in the house since Sheryl died and her husband and children moved, and the present owners. When Sheryl was alive she was terrible bored because her husband, who owned several little convenience stores in the area stayed gone all the time. She would drink a lot and took a lot of prescribed drugs.

She was almost always loaded and said and did some crazy things. For instance one time she was telling one of the neighbors that she was at Eckard’s Drug Store waiting to have her prescription filled and Elvis Presley came up to her and said, “Hello Goodlooking! Where have you been all my life?” He went on to tell her he knew where she lived and he was going to come to get her in his white Cadillac limousine and take her away.

Really, she told one of the neighbors that. I heard she said that before she died.

She was something of a recluse. She rarely went out of the house. She was also hot natured. She kept her thermostat turned very cold. It is believed she was dead about two days before her husband found her and she was preserved well.

And this is true also. A white limousine was seen going down the street she lived on about two days before her husband found her.

The day he found her he came over and told me how tragic it was that she either drunk or pilled herself to death. He went on to say that he had a girlfriend that he stayed with most of the time so that is why he hadn’t been home for two days.

“And why are you telling me this?” I thought.

So, Sheryl was buried the family scattered. The boy was about 20 and the daughter was about 18 and they had already had their own apartments. Now, the husband legally moved out and put the house up for sale.

I thought that was the end of that.

Then, the family that lives there now, one time I was in the yard working when the wife, Sarah, was out working in her yard. She edged herself over to the fence and ask me what did the lady of the house look like who used to live there. I told her first Rose, which she knew her, they bought the house from her, and then the family before, was sort of non-descript. Then I described Sheryl, dirty blond hair, a slightly overweight – she interrupted with her eyes wide: “Did she look something like Marylyn Monroe?”.
“Well, as a matter of fact yes.”
Then she said the other night in bed a lady was by the window looking out. She woke her husband up, but he said he didn’t see anything.
Then, she saw the same lady in the dining area of the kitchen.
Then she talked to me.
The next action she took she had a female minister (Priest?) from the local Episcopal Church to perform an exorcism on the house. She invited her daughter, a couple of friends, and a few neighbors – I was the only one of the neighbors to show up.
The lady minister had her little brass thing to burn incense and wave around and she had something draped around her neck and a cross. She didn’t call it an exorcism but a freeing of a soul, I believe what she said.

We as a group walked room to room. Some bible scriptures were read by the minister and the husband and wife. Afterwards, tea was served and we had pastries and coffee and tea and sat around on the back porch and chatted as if we were at a cocktail party.

So, a few days later I saw Sarah out in the yard and I asked was Sheryl gone, and she said as far as she knew, but she acted like she didn’t want to talk about it. So, I guess her belief was let sleeping dogs lie, or in this case, dead humans lie.

A few weeks later working in the yard and Sarah told me her husband Bill was awaken by a feeling of somebody pulling on him. He opened his eyes and there was Sheryl stroking his arm and nodding her head. This was the first and only time Bill saw the ghost. According to her body language that Bill described, Sarah thinks Sheryl was thanking them for having the exorcism and giving her the proper send off.

Not that this has anything to do with the story, but now Bill is researching and writing a book about a North Carolina football or basketball star who killed his wife, or maybe it was his girlfriend.

The Smiling Man In the Blue Suit

This house is located on East Dixie Avenue in Marietta.

In 1937, my mother and father spent their first night of marriage in this house. My father was a patrolman, so there was no honeymoon cruise or anything like that. He had to be back at work the next day.

During that first night, Mama woke up in the middle of the night and saw that a man in a blue suit was standing near them, looking at them smiling. He was red headed and appeared to have one arm behind him.

Mama screamed and by the time Daddy was awake the man was gone.

The next morning Mama was telling the landlady about the man she saw after my father went to work.

The landlady was surprised. She said her husband was red-headed, lost his arm in an accident, and was buried with a blue suit on.

OOOOOOoooOOOOOOooooooo!