A Sad Experience

Well, as usual, ghost hunting was less than productive. We were a little last minute about deciding on a place to look, so we decided on three places that we've already visited before; Thomas Cooper Library, the Apartments at Olympia Mill, and Longstreet theater. We also decided to try to find Old State Road that is supposed to be close to our house.

For those who don't know, in Thomas Cooper Library, the bathroom stall doors are known to slam shut, along with plastic toilet paper containers suddenly banging open when no one else is in the restrooms. (This has happened to me along with two of my friends.) Olympia Mill is supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of children who used to work there. People in the new apartments hear the sound of footsteps running up and down the hallways and have seen the faces of children in their windows and heard them laughing or crying. And, Longstreet Theater is said to be the home of a Confederate ghost who doesn't like Yankess. The basement was made into a morgue during the Civil War. At the end of Old State Road, there is a set of old railroad tracks that are said to be haunted by children who were killed during an accident. According to the story if you put your car in neutral on the tracks, someone/something pushes the car off to safety. Hand prints have been seen on the bumpers.

Well, to make a long story short, we didn't find anything. (Truthfully, I didn't expect to find anything, but it was more disappointing than usual.) The high point of the night was looking for Old State Road, mostly because we got lost the first place we turned and were laughing because we fit every horror movie cliche in the book. (We were speculating as to which one of us would die first. Since I was the only girl we determined I would be first, so I put on my reading/driving glasses to add some to my survivability, becoming the "geeky girl".) Still, either way, we didn't find the road. Next time we'll know to take the GPS.

Looking in the city was a total bust. First of all, people who aren't students are no longer allowed in Thomas Cooper Library. They asked for our student IDs and we were left slack jawed and having to go back to the car. I find this hard to believe Thomas Cooper is only for students since it's listed among other libraries on all other library computers, and I know for a fact they didn't used to check for ID. Still, the point is we weren't allowed in.

Olympia Mill apartments are very secure with key locks on the doors and cameras. We debated about waiting until someone came out to sneak in, that would be creepy and stalker-like. Not to mention, Olympia Mill is a very bad area and we didn't want to hang around that long.

The only place where we had any success was Longstreet Theater. We walked right into the student lounge, but it was very anti-climactic. Even though it was creepy and oppressive feeling, as always, we didn't find anything and nothing came up on the few pictures we took.

The evening ended with everyone taking solace in fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I may be dieting, but I'm not proud. I splurged and had one just this once myself. Hopefully next time we'll have more luck. I really do plan to go somewhere new next time we do this, possibly even Charleston. Still, it'll probably be a few more months before I try it again.