Shellie Braeuner's Blog
November 1, 2009
My one and only ghost story!
Let me just start by saying, I am not a blogger. I just live with the very realistic belief that no one is particularly interested in my life.
But, having said that, in the spirit of Halloween, I will share my one and only Ghost Hunt.
I went to college in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee. And when I say the middle, I mean Murfreesboro is the exact geographic center of nowhere. We had the obelisk to prove it! (We also had some weird cult from California who said that it was the geographic center of the Universe, but that's another story.)
Anyway, one Halloween night a group of about six of us dressed up and headed out trick or treating. (We were in college. If anyone needed free sugar it was us!) After about an hour, we gave up and argued about what to do next since we were all dressed up with no place to go.
One of the girls had grown up locally. She said that there was a ghost often spotted in a particular pasture not far from town. She told us about Matilda, an old witch who lived alone in an old cabin. No one knows who broke in and cut her head off, but to this day she wanders the pasture with a lantern looking for her head.
I hated to be the voice of reason, but I just couldn't figure out why a ghost with no head would need a lantern in the first place. I mean, hello, her eyes were in her head, so what good would it do? It's not like she could call her body over to where her head was since her ears were in her head too.
But I was quickly overruled.
We loaded up in a very old Chevette and headed off into the backwoods of Tennessee.
When we got to the field it looked just like every Horror movie you had ever seen. There were patches of fog lit by a bright full moon.
There was a great deal of squealing as everyone unloaded from the car. One girl immediately started saying that the goose bumps on her arms proved that ghosts were nearby.
I pointed out it was about fifty five degrees outside and that she was dressed like a genie. I remember saying that I was cold and that we had better hurry up and see the ghost or I was heading back to the dorm.
No sooner had I said these words when there was a light, far off, in the middle of the pasture.
There were several screams and two of the girls headed for the car. I pointed out that a light could be anything: a farmhouse hidden by the trees, a farmer with a flashlight, but one little light didn't prove there was a ghost.
As if in response to my words, there was another light. This time much close to where we stood.
By now, everyone was in the car but myself and my best friend. I said that I wouldn't believe that it was really a ghost unless I saw it myself. So, after much debate, it was decided to push the car into the field (It was hypothesized that the ignition would frighten the entity. Don't ask me why!) The plan was to switch on the headlights suddenly and catch the headless ghost in the middle of the field. So we got everyone out to push except for two girls: One needed to steer and the other wouldn't stop crying. We pushed the car about twenty yards or so into the field before a barbed wire fence stopped us and then suddenly switched on the headlights.
None of us was prepared for what we saw!
There, across the field, were two other cars with their headlights pointed into the exact same field. We weren't the only ones exploring the headless ghost. The first car had seen the dome light when we drove in, and had gotten out of their car to investigate. That was the first light we had seen. The second car had seen both of the other cars, and decided to load up and get the heck out of the "haunted field." That was the second light we saw. Because they had been inside their vehicles, they hadn't heard our engine when we drove up.
Needless to say we all had a great laugh. And when I hear stories about the ghost of Old Lasscassas, I just have to chuckle.
And I still can't figure out why a headless ghost would need a lantern!
Happy Halloween.
Get more on Shellie Braeuner at SimonandSchuster.com
But, having said that, in the spirit of Halloween, I will share my one and only Ghost Hunt.
I went to college in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee. And when I say the middle, I mean Murfreesboro is the exact geographic center of nowhere. We had the obelisk to prove it! (We also had some weird cult from California who said that it was the geographic center of the Universe, but that's another story.)
Anyway, one Halloween night a group of about six of us dressed up and headed out trick or treating. (We were in college. If anyone needed free sugar it was us!) After about an hour, we gave up and argued about what to do next since we were all dressed up with no place to go.
One of the girls had grown up locally. She said that there was a ghost often spotted in a particular pasture not far from town. She told us about Matilda, an old witch who lived alone in an old cabin. No one knows who broke in and cut her head off, but to this day she wanders the pasture with a lantern looking for her head.
I hated to be the voice of reason, but I just couldn't figure out why a ghost with no head would need a lantern in the first place. I mean, hello, her eyes were in her head, so what good would it do? It's not like she could call her body over to where her head was since her ears were in her head too.
But I was quickly overruled.
We loaded up in a very old Chevette and headed off into the backwoods of Tennessee.
When we got to the field it looked just like every Horror movie you had ever seen. There were patches of fog lit by a bright full moon.
There was a great deal of squealing as everyone unloaded from the car. One girl immediately started saying that the goose bumps on her arms proved that ghosts were nearby.
I pointed out it was about fifty five degrees outside and that she was dressed like a genie. I remember saying that I was cold and that we had better hurry up and see the ghost or I was heading back to the dorm.
No sooner had I said these words when there was a light, far off, in the middle of the pasture.
There were several screams and two of the girls headed for the car. I pointed out that a light could be anything: a farmhouse hidden by the trees, a farmer with a flashlight, but one little light didn't prove there was a ghost.
As if in response to my words, there was another light. This time much close to where we stood.
By now, everyone was in the car but myself and my best friend. I said that I wouldn't believe that it was really a ghost unless I saw it myself. So, after much debate, it was decided to push the car into the field (It was hypothesized that the ignition would frighten the entity. Don't ask me why!) The plan was to switch on the headlights suddenly and catch the headless ghost in the middle of the field. So we got everyone out to push except for two girls: One needed to steer and the other wouldn't stop crying. We pushed the car about twenty yards or so into the field before a barbed wire fence stopped us and then suddenly switched on the headlights.
None of us was prepared for what we saw!
There, across the field, were two other cars with their headlights pointed into the exact same field. We weren't the only ones exploring the headless ghost. The first car had seen the dome light when we drove in, and had gotten out of their car to investigate. That was the first light we had seen. The second car had seen both of the other cars, and decided to load up and get the heck out of the "haunted field." That was the second light we saw. Because they had been inside their vehicles, they hadn't heard our engine when we drove up.
Needless to say we all had a great laugh. And when I hear stories about the ghost of Old Lasscassas, I just have to chuckle.
And I still can't figure out why a headless ghost would need a lantern!
Happy Halloween.
Get more on Shellie Braeuner at SimonandSchuster.com
