As I told the students at school in Madisonville about the ghostly footsteps I had heard in the hotel in their town, their mouths dropped open and their eyes grew as big around as breakfast sausages. All of them wanted to know more, and I promised I would go on a ghost hunt and send news to them through their siblings at the Junior High the next day.
Did I tell y’all that Madisonville, TX is a small town? News travels fast. That evening, I sat down for supper in the dining room of The Woodbine, and the owner waltzed over to my table.
“I hear you have been telling ghost stories about my hotel,” Susan said. I gulped and glanced up at her. Although her voice was stern, her eyes were twinkling.
“Yes,” I replied. “Has anyone else seen any ghosts?”
She threw back her head and laughed, “Oh, yes!” She sashayed out into the lobby, and brought back a picture that she plopped on the table. “That’s Claire,” she said. “She haunted this side of the hotel until about three years ago.”
The Woodbine was originally called The Shapira Hotel. It was built on the site of the boarding house, owned by Jake and Sarah Shapira, that had burned to the ground in 1903. Two “kit houses,” probably sold by Sears & Roebuck, were brought to the site and built to face each other; then they were connected by downstairs and upstairs parlors.
Susan told me that Claire had once lived in the room opposite the one I was occupying, and said that in life she probably worked in the restaurant of the hotel. In her afterlife, Claire was a playful and sometimes petulant ghost, who still haunted her old room and workplace. Claire liked to move things, to appear unexpectedly, and when she got angry Claire was a door slammer. Susan had actually seen her apparition (she said in fact that her dog had seen Claire). One day when she was looking through some old photos she found at the hotel, Susan came across the picture above and thought, “That’s her! That’s our ghost!”
I explained to Susan that I had stayed in the room that she called “Claire’s” but had not felt a thing. Susan wasn’t surprised. “Claire likes men,” she said.
Once, a man had been living in that room for three years. When he moved out, Susan said that Claire seemed perturbed. No one was upstairs and the doors were all closed, but suddenly all the doors began slamming. Susan stomped upstairs and shouted, “Claire, stop it! We’ll find someone else for you!” The noise subsided, and soon after that Claire didn’t come around anymore.
Susan said she thought that Claire had been driven out by the other ghosts in the hotel. I looked at her wide-eyed and gasped, “How many more?” She shrugged and said, “Eight or nine. They come and they go. It seems that there are some who haunt one side of the house and some who only haunt the other side.”
She invited me to prowl the hotel and take pictures after dark. Some people have gotten pictures that showed “orbs” and other strange objects. In fact, I did prowl the hotel that night and had another strange experience. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.
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I can’t wait until tomorrow!
Stacys last blog post..Observers
It’s already in the works
Ooh, creepy
! I’ll be avidly awaiting chapter two.
Robins last blog post..Palm Tree
It wasn’t really “creepy”…just a bit “eerie.”
Be sure you read “Chapter One.” This is actually the second part of the story.
I am looking forward to tomorrows story too(-:
My daughters resident ghost at her work is still popping in at odd times. She saw him last week while she was working. She said she would rather not see him(-: She works at night and when she gets to work she says please don’t visit me tonight! LOL(-: She works for the Sheriffs Dept. and most of the time he is seen in the evidence room. I believe he is a Cold Case. She won’t tell anyone at work because she thinks they would think she is nuts. I bet other people have seen him though.
Then there is my niece. Last time she was here visiting with her family she woke up while she was at my Grandpas house and saw a man standing near her. She said he was tall and thin. My grandpa was not tall or thin. So we have no idea who it was. She said she did not feel threatened and that he seemed friendly. He did not try to communicate to her. She said he disappeared in a flash and did not return.
I love ghost stories. I have never “seen” one my self but I have felt their presence at times. I have also had weird things happen around the house at times. We don’t live in an old house. We had our house built so no previous owners like the hotel where you stayed. Same with my GP’s house. He had that built before he moved there.
cindees last blog post..Valentine Tree
As for your house…I wonder if the land you are on has some “history.” I want to go with your daughter to work (but I won’t be telling the ghost to stay away. I love ghost stories, too (as you might be able to tell). I also like searching for them!
OMG… this is so exciting!! I am still reading “Haunted Wisconsin”. It is a book we selected at a gift exchange party on one of our cruises. Everyone brought something that related to their home ‘area’. This is the gift that R and I selected (all the gifts are wrapped so we had no idea what it was). All these stories are so haunting… I can’t wait for the next installment on your saga, Shelly!! Perhaps you could put together a book of all the “haunting” stories in your part of Texas!
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Hehe. I love ghost stories; especially true ones. We have a number of resident ghosts out here on Pair-O-Dykes Ranch. Grama is awfully lively around the house, too. I love it.
Can’t wait for part deux.
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Actually, it will be part 3. I wanna hear about your ghosts. Your Grama came back? Whoooeeeooo
That’s one place I wouldn’t want to visit. You are far braver than me. Yikes.
Have a terrific day. Big hug.
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Nahh. I didn’t feel any “threat.” If I felt a threatening ghost, I’d run hide under the covers.
I am on the edge of my seat!
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