Over the River and Through the Woods: To Tracey’s House We Go

As I pulled up to Tracey’s house on Sunday night, I was excited and nervous.  I was going to conduct my first paranormal investigation of the rooms where Tracey and I both felt incomfortable: the office and the blue carpet room a.k.a. the blue room.  I walked up the front steps and see Tracey coming down the stairs.

“Perfect timing! I was just coming down stairs.”  She ushered me in and shut the door behind me.

I point to the top of the stairs to her daughter’s closed bedroom door.  “Is she asleep?” I ask in a whisper.

Tracey laughs.  “Yeah, she’s out so you don’t need to whisper.  Come in.”  She leads the way into the kitchen.  “Don’t mind me, I really needed a glass of wine.  Can I get you something?  I have wine, water, or a beer if you want one.”

“Water would be great, thanks.”

“It’s been such a crazy week because the baby has been sick,” Tracey says as she pulls a pitcher of water out of the fridge and fills my glass.  “I think it might be allergies, but she’s been so fussy this week, so I don’t know if it’s like a cold and allergies.  I think I’ll take the day off from work tomorrow and take her to the doctor.”  She hands me the glass and makes herself comfortable at the kitchen table and I do the same.

“A lot of people have been getting sick lately.  My youngest sister has been so sick for almost two weeks now.  She just can’t get rid of whatever it is,” I say as I take a sip of water and almost spit it back out.  “Oh!”  Willow, one of Tracey’s two cats, jumps up on my lap and starts rubbing my leg.

“Is it Willow?  She’ll be so happy to have some attention.  We’ve been kind of ignoring the cats this week because of the baby.”

I pet Willow’s head and back.  “I will give her all of the attention she wants!” I scratch behind Willow’s ears and she climbs on my lap for more.  “So, did anything strange happen after the interview?”

“Not really.  I mean, I felt really uncomfortable, but that could just be because I was thinking about it.  I will say I felt kind of threatened…well, maybe not threatened, but like something was watching me.  I even thought about emailing you and telling you not to come, but I waited a few days and the feeling passed.  Now, I haven’t felt anything, heard anything.  It’s been really quiet.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief.  “Good! I was so worried that something would happen after the interview.  I kept checking my emails looking for a message from you telling me not to come back!”

“No, nothing happened.  Jimmy (Tracey’s fiance) did try to sleep in the blue room last night so he wouldn’t wake me up, but he couldn’t.  He felt like someone was watching him and, of course, no one was there.  So, he eventually came back in our room and slept on the floor.”

I cringe, knowing I plan on spending the majority of my time in the blue room.  I couldn’t get the uncomfortable feeling out of my mind.  I wasn’t looking forward to locking myself in that room.  After telling Tracey that, she looked out of the kitchen window.

“Well, at least it’s still a little light out, so you won’t be in total darkness, at least when you first start.  Do you want to go up?”

“Sure.”  I gently prod Willow off my lap and follow Tracey upstairs.  She stops in the office at the top of the stairs and I continue down the hallway to the blue room.

“Do you want me to turn off the light in the hallway?” Tracey asks, her hand on the switch.

“No, that’s ok.  I kind of want it on.”  I laugh and take a deep breath before going into the room.

I turn on the light and am surprised by how…normal the room feels.  I walk into the room and still can’t feel that opposing presence that was so prevalent the last time I was here.  I unpack my things and take a reading with my EMF detector.  Normal.  I open the closet and take another reading.  Normal.  I get everything situated on the bed, shut off the lights, and close the door most of the way.

I immediately feel uncomfortable after  shutting off the lights, mostly from my  nerves.  I sit back on the bed and start  my digital recorder.  I sit still for a  couple of minutes before asking, “Is  there anybody here with me?”  I have to  say, I felt pretty stupid asking  questions to…well…no one.  I sit  quietly, giving…whoever…a chance to answer.  I click on my flashlight so I can see as I take notes.

“Oh my god!”  I fling my pen out of my hands.  “You scared me!” I say to Willow, who is sitting in front of the bed staring up at me.  I pat the spot next to me.  “Come on.  If you’re going to be in here, you might as well keep me company.”

She climbs on the bed and makes herself comfortable in my lap, and I resume observing.  One of the things most of the paranormal investigation shows don’t mention is how boring ghost hunting can be!  In one of her interview responses, Jen Deviliier, EVP expert for The Ghost Guys, said “Ghost do NOT act out for us every single time we go out…They are NOT going to appear in the same place at the same time every single time.”  The South Jersey Ghost Research group said something similar at the bottom of the application to join: “You will spend hours in the dark, sitting doing nothing, with absolutely nothing happening supernaturally.”  After sitting in the dark for almost an hour, I decide to play back my digital recorder to see if I caught anything, and I was doubtful that I did.

After listening, I found that every two minutes or  so, there was a strange beeping noise, but I figures  it something to do with the recorder rather than  something paranormal.  As I continue to listen, I hear Tracey leave the office and head down the stairs.  Willow, hearing the disturbance, rolls over on my lap for a stretch before hopping off of the bed and sashaying out the door.  I gather my gear and follow her.

I move into the office to investigate before Tracey comes back up to finish her work for the night.  Willow trots in after me while I set up my gear and take my initial EMF readings.  Again, normal.  I couldn’t believe how comfortable and at home I felt in the room.  The last time I was at the house, I only spent ten minutes in the office, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.  I step into the closet, which Tracey left open, an unusual move since she didn’t want any of the closets open during the interview.  Normal EMF reading and I don’t feel that foreboding, oppressive presence like I did before.

I sit at the desk with my back to the closet.  Unlike the last time, where I felt chills up my spine every time I sat this way, I feel nothing.  Still, I pull out my recorder to try an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) session.  I hear Tracey working in the kitchen, clinking plates and glasses as she puts them away, so I close the door before getting started.

“Is there anybody here with me?” I’m quiet for a minute before adding, “Did you not like people coming in here before?  Is this your room?”

I fall quiet again.  I don’t know how  paranormal investigators do it, but I feel  ridiculous sitting on an empty room (and it  actually feels empty this time) asking  questions.  I sit in silence for the next twenty  minutes before I decide to move on.  Nothing  was happening in here tonight.  As if on cue,  Tracey comes back up the stairs.

“Oh, do you mind if I use the computer?  I just have some last minute things to add.”

“No, that’s fine.  I was just finishing anyway.”  I head to the door to go back to the blue room.

“You can stay, if you want.  I’ll only be typing, nothing loud…”

“No, that’s fine. I think I’m almost done.  Coming, Willow?”  She follows me out the door.

Back in the blue room, I go over the recording from the office, and as I suspected, nothing happened.  The strange beeping noise continued about every two minutes, so I officially rule it out as anything paranormal.  I decide to try the bathroom quickly, but I’m not expecting anything out of the ordinary.  I sit on the closed toilet lid and feel absolutely nothing.  I take an EMF reading, which comes back as normal.

I go back to the blue room and realize it’s getting late and I have class in the morning.  I gather my equipment and head downstairs.  Tracey’s in the kitchen, unpacking boxes of tea cups, tumblers, plates, and bowls.

“We have so much china that everyone has been giving us, and I have no idea where to store it all!”  She finishes tips the stack of plates she’s holding onto the top shelf of the cabinet and turns to me.  “So, how’d it go?”

I shrug and reach for the extra tea cups she’s storing in a separate cabinet.  “It was ok,” I say, handing her the extras, “It’s so weird, but it doesn’t feel like it did the last time.  I was in the blue room for almost an hour, and I wasn’t uncomfortable or anything.  It was the same in the office.  It’s like whatever was here is gone now.”

“That’s strange, but it makes sense.  I haven’t felt anything since right after the interview.”  She gathers the paper the china was wrapped in and stuffs the sheets into boxes.  “I hope this helps your project though, and wasn’t a waste…”

“Oh, no! It definitely wasn’t a waste.  It’s actually kind of good in a way that nothing happened because it shows a side of ghost hunting that none of the TV shows do.  Something doesn’t happen every time you go out.”

Reflections:

• This outing, while anti-climatic, did open my eyes to as aspect of paranormal investigating I wasn’t aware of: it can be really boring.  I was expecting, and trying not to at the same time, to get something at Tracey’s, but to my surprise and hers, nothing happened.  All of the uncomfortable energy in the house was gone.  It almost felt like a different house.
• If I had more time left in the semester, I would have liked to go back to Tracey’s and spend an entire night in the blue room, but I doubt that will happen during the final few weeks of the semester.
• Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes by Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw stress the importance of writing down initial impressions, details about the physical setting, and what seems strange about the setting.  I used this approach and compared this experience in the same location to my previous experiences and impressions.  As a result, I was able to convey how different the rooms felt during this visit as opposed to the last time I was there.  In this case, the lack of “strange sights and sounds” made a larger impression than if they had been there (p. 26).

 

 

Pre-Interview Notes: Michael

This week I sent out interview questions via email to Michael Clark, co-founder, co-host, editor, and executive producer of Ghost Guys, a web-based paranormal investigation show, currently featured on YouTube and GetFanged.com, looking to become a nationally syndicated show.  In addition to the work he’s done on Ghost Guys, Michael also founded the Hamilton Paranormal Society, which uses the latest scientific methods, historical research, eyewitness accounts, and technology to try to capture evidences supporting the existence of the paranormal.  Michael’s combination of more than 20 years worth of experience with science and technology and 15 years of studying religion and spirituality made me curious about his views of the paranormal; hence why after connecting with him on Twitter, I wanted to interview him.

As Chris Mann and Fiona Stewart mention in their chapter entitled “Internet Interviewing” featured in Postmodern Interviewing ed. by Jaber F Gubrium and James A. Holstein, “CMC (computer-mediated communication)…allowed researchers…to reach people who would have been unable to participate face-to-face…” (p. 83).  Twitter has really allowed me to expand my research by connecting me to people I would have never met otherwise.  So thanks to Twitter, I was able to meet, speak with, and set up an interview with Michael without ever meeting him face-to-face.  I’ll admit, at first I was a little wary of using Twitter as part of my research, but two of my interviews would not have been possible otherwise.

My interview questions largely focus on Michael’s attempt to get sponsorship and advertisers in order to transform Ghost Guys into a television show, and on the ever-expanding world of paranormal shows (which of the paranormal investigation shows does he think does the best job of producing evidence and portraying the lives of ghost hunter) and technology, particularly how he chooses the equipment with which he wants to work.  In addition, I’m also hoping to find out how Michael became interested in the paranormal and what is driving him and his research.  I’m also curious about the process of putting each episode (webisode?) of Ghost Guys together, so I hope to find out more about that as well.

I’m excited to hear what he has to say!

 

 

 

 

Ghosts of Cape May

Saturday night, I ventured all the way down to Cape May to take the Ghosts of Cape May Trolley Tour, the only haunted tour running in the off-season.  Christen, my friend and classmate who lives just outside of the city, joined me for both the tour and then dinner after.

I got to the beautiful and historic town in just under an hour and a half, so after parking the car I took some notes of my initial impressions of the city.

TRANSCRIPTION:

I knew the city had a rich history, which is what would help establish it as one of the most haunted city’s in America and the most haunted city in New Jersey, but I had no idea that it was so beautiful!  As I drove over the first of two bridges and enter the city limits, I notice a banner advertising psychic readings provided by a medium.  I continue deeper into the city and slow down to obey the twenty-five mile-per-hour limit, and marvel at how much slower the pace of the town seems to be.  Even though it is a Saturday, the couple of people I pass walking on the sidewalks move at a leisurely pace.  It’s as if the town is still partially stuck in the past, and it’s calming nature is contagious.  I roll down the window and breath in the sun-kissed air.  After a hectic week, I finally feel the tension in my shoulders dissipate.

I pull into the parking lot for Washington Commons, and look around to see if I can spot either Christen or the Chinese restaurant we’ll be eating at once the tour is over.  I give her a call, and she says she’s right down the block and will be here in a minute.  I watch the parking lot begin to fill and wonder how many of the passengers will be joining us on the tour.  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Christen get out of her car, and gather my things to go meet her.  She leads me through the shopping plaza to the booth across the street where she thinks the tour tickets will probably be sold.  As we approach the booth, we see we’re in the right place, purchase our ticket, and cross the street to the green bench the woman selling the tickets indicated where the trolley will pick us up.  We chat a bit about my ride down and hope that it won’t get too much colder as the sun begins to set.  The church across the street begins to chime as the minute hand of the clock tower ticks forward to seven.  As if on cue, the trolley pulls up the bench, and we climb on board.

The tour guide, Caitlin welcomes us on and says the trolley should be nice and toasty once we get moving.  As a Florida native, she chats with us about impatiently waiting for spring and summer to come, and Christen and I agree as we pull our coats tighter around us.  I pull out my camera, notebook, and pen and watch as a flood of people suddenly appear to board.

“Where did all of these people come from?  I thought it was going to be just us and the guide?” Christen asks.

I take in the strange mix of people as they take their seats: a large group of maybe six or seven with ages ranging from teenagers to adults in their forties file to the back of the trolley, a family of four take the two benches in front of us (the teenaged girls directly in front if us excitedly chat about which B&B’s will be mentioned and plan to visit every location mentioned), and a trio of friends in their forties take the seats across from us.  Once the trolley is nearly full, the guide welcomes us to the tour and asks everyone who believes in ghosts to raise our hands.  Most of the passengers do, but there are a handful who claim to be nonbelievers.

Caitlin has the driver close the doors, and we’re off.  As we head to our first destination, Caitlin provides some basic facts about the tour, like the buildings on the tour have had paranormal activity verified by paranormal investigators, mediums and sensatives, historical facts, and eyewitness accounts.

She then goes on to ask us if we’ve ever woken up at 3 AM for no reason.  Several of us say that we have, and she goes on to explain that 3 AM is considered “the witching hour,” or the time of the day when the baromectric pressure is at it highest and ghosts can supposedly use that energy to manifest.

“So, all of you who said you’ve woken from a dead sleep at 3 AM, there was a ghost in your room,” Caitlin says and several of the passengers gasp.

We then pull up the Physick Estate, the home of the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities.  The house was investigated by Ghost 1, a paranormal investigation team that was able to capture some impressive EVPs (electronic voice phenomena).  Caitlin goes on the describe how footsteps are heard regularly throughout the house, and a lot of Dr. Physick’s dogs still wander around the house.

“The maid, while she was dusting, heard panting and felt something brush her leg, so she bent down to pet the dog and then went back to dusting.  After a minute, she realized there weren’t any dogs in the house, so she spent the next hour looking all over the house for dog but never found one,” Caitlin says as we pull around the back of the estate.

As we approach the main road, Caitlin describes how there have been several shadows and cold spots felt throughout the house.  “Ghost 1 will be conducting an investigation this summer, so if you’re interested, you can come back and be a true ghost hunter for a night.”  We pull back on the main road, and Caitlin jokes about how she always finishes talking too early for the estate.  We then pull up to Southern Mansion, which was built in 1876 and featured on the SciFi popular paranormal reality show “Ghost Hunters.”

Apparently, the owner’s daughter, Esther, loved to party, dance, and drink alcohol, so several guests have had their champagne and wine glasses and bottles shatter for no reason.  There have also been wine and champagne glasses found around the house with red lipstick on their rims.  Ghost Hunters, during their investigation of the house, heard a lot of footsteps walking around.  We turn onto Columbia Ave, which is said to be the second most haunted street in Cape May.  Caitlin explains the it used to be marsh lands, and water is said to be a good source of energy for ghosts to use, and therefore the cause of a lot of the hauntings that take place on the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old man walking with a cane in the middle of the road that has caused several people to slam on their brakes, get out of their cars, but nobody’s there.  Further down the street is Mason Cottage.  Several of the guests with children have been known to ask the front desk about the little boy, Steven, that plays with their children, but there is never a Steven registered and more often than not, that family will be the only one with children staying at the house.  Steven is allegedly the son of the original owner, and the man with the cane walking in the middle of the street is said to be Steven’s father and owner of Mason Cottage, Edward.

As we continue down the street, I get my first glimpse of the ocean in months.

“Coming up on your left is The Inn of Cape May,” Caitlin announces as we pull up next to a large white building.  This is the first building that’s been on our side of the trolley, so I quickly fumble with my camera and snap a few pictures.  Most of them are too blurry to use, but the two that are usable have some strange things happening in them.  In the one on the left, the bottom window is almost highlighted.  I’ve looked at the picture several times, but I can never come up with a logical explanation: it’s not a reflection from the other trolley windows, I didn’t have my flash on, and nobody else on the tour was taking pictures.  The picture on the right I took quickly as we were leaving the street.  On the left side of the balcony is a red orb.  I know orbs are not generally considered evidence of the paranormal, but it’s still strange.  You be the judge: did I capture something in these pictures?

 

 

 

 

 

Caitlin explains that some of the most commonly reported activity includes children playing in the halls, someone walking up and down the hallways, and the furniture in the rooms being moved around the rooms while guests are out.  We continue down a side street and come to Hotel Macomber.  Again, after reviewing my pictures, I found that the only one of the hotel that wasn’t too blurry was this one.  If you look on the right, there’s a glowing red orb next to one of the windows.  I have no explanation for it, but if you do, please pass it along.

“The most haunted room in this hotel, even though they don’t want me to tell, is room 10.  It’s supposedly haunted by a woman that the hotel refers to as ‘the trunk lady.’  She used to come and stay in room 10 every August, and it’s rumored that she loved this place so much that she has chosen to come back even after she died.  Many guests in room 10 have been startled when they come back to their room and see an old woman sitting on the bed,” Caitlin says as we round the corner of the hotel.

We continue on to Hotel Chal-Fonte, which was built in 1876.  The most haunted room in this hotel is room 19.  The ghost haunting the room doesn’t want anybody to stay in the room.  There has been a lot of activity happening at 3 AM.  Guests have called down to the front desk to report banging on the walls and brass bedposts, assuming the noise was coming from the room next door, but there was no one staying there.

“One guests,” Caitlin says, “woke up in the morning on the floor with the mattress from the bed covering their face, and they had no idea how they wound up like that.”

We turn back onto Columbia and approach Cabanas Beach Bar and Grill.

“Has anybody ever eaten here when it was not called Cabanas?” Caitlin asks.

“Yeah,” a man from the back of the trolley calls, “I ate here a long time ago.  I think it was named after a woman.  Julia’s maybe?”

Caitlin nods.  “Yep, it was called Gloria’s after the owner’s daughter.  Apparently she had a summer romance, wound up pregnant, and her father disowned her.  A couple of years after Gloria gave birth, the child was hit by a trolley car and died, and year later a similar accident happened to Gloria and she died as well.”

Some of the activity reported include exploding light bulbs, doors slamming shut on their own, and the staff being paged to the front desk only to be told when they got there that they weren’t called.

The next stop on the tour is the majestic Congress Hall. It was originally built in 1878, but was burned down the following year in a fire that consumed 40 blocks of the city.  The owners decided to renovate the hotel in 2000, and encountered a lot of activity during demolition.  The most commonly reported activity is said to be from residual spirits, or ghosts who practice the same behavior as they would have when they were living.  One of the EVPs captured during the investigation said “Don’t hurt Schmiddy.”  The investigators later found out that Schmid is the brand of boiler the hotel uses, so they assume that the spirit they contacted was a maintenance man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The last spot on the tour is the beach!” Caitlin announces.  “Cape May was founded during colonial times, and there has been so much loss of life on these beaches since then.  The entire Atlantic coast is known as ‘the graveyard of the Atlantic Ocean,’ and drowning is said to be the most traumatic and horrible way to die.”  Along the Cape May coast, a shadowy figure of a man has been seen walking close to the shore and a woman in white as been spotted roaming closer to the boardwalk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFLECTIONS:

The trolley tour provided me with a lot of great information even though the tour itself was only a half an hour long.  I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to go on any of the other tours, such as the walking tour that takes guests through the hotels, but those don’t run until the warmer months.  Hearing all of the eyewitness accounts makes me anxious to explore more haunted locations for myself.  I’ll be traveling to one tomorrow for my next in-person interview with Rich, Tracey’s father and Civil War re-enactor.

One of the things I wish I could’ve done on the tour was speak to the other passengers on the trolley, but because the tour was so short and everyone had their own plans, I wasn’t able to talk to anyone.  I would like to say that I’ll be able to get back down there before the semester’s over, but I don’t think that will be possible.  I was also disappointed that because I was focused on writing my notes, I didn’t get to enjoy just being on the tour, and as a result, I wasn’t as aware of my own “activities, circumstances, and emotional responses” (p. 11).

Also, because of the amount of information, I had trouble “strik[ing] a balance between describing fully and getting down the essentials of what happened” (p. 47), but I think it all came together nicely.

 

 

Post-Interview Notes: Tracey

On Tuesday morning, I had my first interview of the semester with Tracey, Joe’s future sister-in-law and a fellow believer of the paranormal.  While I was driving, I tried to pay attention to the houses and developments I kept passing, expecting them to be older and rundown, you know, the typical picture you get when you think haunted house, but when I turned into Tracey’s development, I was completely surprised.  The houses were beautiful and looked relatively new; not at all what I was expecting!

I gather my bag from the floor on the passenger’s side and walk up to the front door.  I decide to knock instead of ringing the doorbell because this is Tracey’s daughter’s nap time.  I look around the neighborhood, and spy the garbage truck making its way down the street and a Ritter carpet truck backing in to the house on the culdesac.  As I turn back to the door, I spy a wisp of white moving past one of the side windows before the door opens.  A young woman in her late twenties, early thirties stands in the doorway.  I ask if she is Tracey, we shake hands, and she invites me in.

As I step into the house, I can’t help but be impressed.  It’s beautiful inside; all of walls and carpets are done in neutral colors, and the house has a very inviting feel to it.  As Tracey leads me through the dining room to the kitchen, which looks to be newly renovated with upgraded appliances and granite countertops, I am again surprised by how comfortable I feel.  Tracey takes my coat introduces me to her two cats, Willow, a very friendly girl, and Tracks, a boy Joe found wandering around the train tracks behind the development.  I am in kitty heaven, but that’s a story for another time.

As we walk through the house, Tracey tells me that the house used to belong to her fiancé’s parents, who then offered it to Joe’s brother and his family, and then when they moved, the house was passed on to Tracey and her fiance. After offering me  bottle of water, we move into the family room and settle into the couched facing each other.  Willow follows me onto my couch and makes herself cozy next to me while I stroke her fur.

I open the conversation by asking Tracey to tell me about some of the paranormal experiences she’s had in the house.  She tells me about the heavy footsteps in the hallway and multiple rooms upstairs in the family room.

“The activity was much worse for my future sister-in-law.  Her little girl, Jacklyn, used to sleepwalk in this house.  She hasn’t done it before or since, but I remember hearing about when her parents couldn’t find her when they woke up.  After searching the whole house, they finally found her asleep in the bathtub in the upstairs bathroom down the hall.”

She asks me if I’ve come across anything like that in my research, and I haven’t seen or read anything like that.  She continues by explaining that that family was very religious, and when she moved in, she was told not to bring in any psychics, mediums, or Ouija boards because it would only make the activity worse.

“She told me to say ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, stop,’ and that would make the activity stop.  And it works for a while, but it always comes back.  Some of it sends chills down my back.”

“A lot of stuff happened with Jacklyn.  When her family lived here, her mother would hear children running around upstairs and laughing, but Natalie was an only child.”  The final straw for Jacklyn’s parents was when they found out she had a imaginary friend named Dede.  “Her parents assumed it was a girl, but when they were going through some old family albums, they came across a picture of Jack, a distant cousin who was eleven when he died.  When she saw his picture, Jacklyn pointed to him and said ‘Dede!’  They left shortly after that.”  I asked if she was afraid for her daughter since so much activity happened with Natalie, but Tracey said she was used to it now, so she wasn’t ever really scared.

I ask if she can talk about how bad it was for her when she first moved in.  Tracey shivers a little and explains that that was when a lot of things would happen.  “It sends a chill down my spine just thinking about it.  I always felt like someone was trying to get my attention.”  One incident in particular, she was giving her daughter a bath and remembers feeling this presence behind her.  “It felt like a man was standing over me.  It made me feel very uncomfortable.”

I asked is she ever did any digging about the house to see if maybe somebody died there, but Tracey admits she’s never even thought to go look.  She was especially curious about who the land the development is built in used to belong to, and I offered to try to find out for her.  I haven’t been able to look into it yet, but I intend to once the semester ends.

I ask if she can remember when she first experienced anything paranormal, and since she’s been having these experiences all of her life, it’s difficult to remember her first.  She does remember a lot of activity associated with her parents’ house.  “It looks like a Civil War museam.  There is a cannon in the house, not a big one, but it’s definitely a cannon!”  Her father, a Cival War reenacter, has had so many experiences out on the battlefields, and says that he has some great stories he’d be happy to share with me.  I file that information for later on as she remembers a particular incident with the metronome that her sister would use when practicing the piano.  “The stick would unhook itself, and there was this one time when my sister saw the metronome fly off of the piano and crash into the opposite wall.  I’ve never seen it happen, but it really freaked my sister out.”

She goes on to explain who she thinks might be responsible for that.  “A little girl who lived in my parents’ house died in a fire.  I think it might be her because she’s said to have played the piano.”

As Willow stretches next to me, I rub her belly and ask if either of the cats have ever reacted to anything, but Tracey says with a chuckle that they’re too wrapped up in themselves to pay attention to anything else.  “Do you want to see the rest of the house?”  I agree, gently dislodge Willow, and follow Tracey upstairs.  When we reach the landing, I notice almost all of the doors are closed.  “You’re probably wondering why the doors are closed.”  I laugh and say I was just thinking that.  “I don’t like the closets open.  I don’t know why, but it makes me uncomfortable to have them open, especially this one.”

I asked what she does when she needs to vacuum, she laughed and said she procrastinates, but does eventually face the closet to free the vacuum.

Next, she goes into the room right next to the closet.  “This is the office.  This and out in the hallway are where it sounds like the footsteps are coming from.  I would never use this room if the computer wasn’t in here.”  I look around the room, and shiver.  I don’t like the feeling in this room.

I notice another closet in the corner; Tracey sees where I’m looking and goes over to it.  “I don’t like this closet open either, but even when it’s closed I feel uncomfortable.”

“If you sit at the desk, your back is to the closet,” I say, pulling out the chair.  “Does that bother you?”

“I don’t like it at all, but I spend as little time in here as possible as it is.  I can’t not do my job, you know?”

Next we move down the hall to the bathroom.  “This is where they found Jacklyn asleep in the tub.”

I step into the room, but don’t feel anything threatening or unsettling in here.  After a couple of minutes, we move back out into the hallway.  “This is my least favorite room in the house.  I tried to sleep in here a couple of times when I was pregnant, and I always felt like someone was in here with me, watching me.”  As we step up to the door, I immediately don’t like the room.

Tracey asks if I want to go in.

“No, no I’m fine out here.  What’s with the blue carpet?”

“We don’t know.  It was like this when Jimmy’s parents bought it, but it throws you off, doesn’t it?”

“And this is the only room in the house with the blue carpet?”

“Yeah. We were thinking if we ever had a boy, we could put him in here, but after trying to sleep in here, I could never do that to my kid.  I especially don’t like the closet in here.  Whenever I look at it, all the hair on the back of my neck stands up.”

 

We can’t go into the master bedroom because Jimmy is sleeping, but Tracey assures me that I’m not missing anything.  “Nothing ever happens in there.”  Just as we finish looking around upstairs, Tracey’s daughter wakes up from her nap.  After a brief introduction, Tracey takes the baby downstairs and leaves me to look around upstairs.  I spend the most time in the “blue room” and the office, but can only spend a couple of minutes in each.  They each make me feel extremely uncomfortable, and a chill runs down my spine if I look at the closets in both of the rooms.  I take my pictures and notes and head back downstairs.

After taking a look around the first floor, I then join Tracey and her daughter for some quality time with Elmo and the cats.

Reflection:

• The interview exceeded my expectations.  In my pre-interview post, I was really worried about being able to keep the conversation flowing, but it turns out I needn’t worry.  Tracey was so full of information that I was struggling to keep up.  I’m really grateful for her letting me come into her home and giving me free reign of the house.  The interview would’ve been completely different if we hadn’t conducted it there.  But because of Tracey’s willingness to share her experiences, I was able to actually experience the discomfort and uneasiness she feels in certain parts of the house.
• Speaking with Tracey allowed me to learn about paranormal activity from someone lives with these experiences on a daily basis.  Rather than watching a paranormal investigation show from the comfort of my couch, being in this haunted location was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.  I was hesitant to bring my recently purchased EMF detector or even my digital recorder for fear of provoking the spirits there, so I kept it simple and only brought my camera.  Tracey and her family have had so many experiences that they have almost come to expect them, and they are rarely disappointed.
• The interview with Tracey gave me the unique opportunity to learn about the experiences she’s had with the paranormal, but also to observe how she lives with these experiences on a daily basis.  “The interview itself has created, as well as tapped into, the vast world of individual experience that now constitutes the substance of everyday life” (Postmodern Interviewing, p. 27), and while most may think of these ghostly happenings as rare occurrences, Tracey’s stories are a testament to the opposite.  And because of that, I never thought of Tracey as a “vessel of answers” (Postmodern Interviewing, p. 70), but always as a person who would have to live with this ghostly inhabitants after the interview was over (which was why I didn’t want to bring any equipment that could potentially upset him/her).
• The only thing that I was hoping to happen and didn’t was that I would get to hear exactly what Tracey hears on a regular basis.  Since the activity seems to happen almost always at night, Tracey has invited me back this coming Tuesday night in the hopes that I will get to hear and experience what she has in the past.  Wish me luck!

 

 

Pre-Interview Notes: Tracey

Tuesday morning around 9:30/10 A.M., I will be heading to Sicklerville, NJ to conduct my first interview with Tracey, Joe’s (my friend and classmate) future sister-in-law.  I know what you’re thinking.  Several of my classmates have been interviewing experts in their particular field of research, and don’t worry I will be as well, but because ghost stories are founded on people’s individual experiences, I thought it only appropriate to interview a non-professional as well.

According to Kirin Narayan and Kenneth M. George, authors of the chapter entitled “Personal and Folk Narrative as Cultural Representation” in Postmodern Interviewing edited by Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein, “…experience appears to dictate the content and form of personal narrative, and so the teller is of central importance.  In contrast, folk narratives have been seen as highly conventional, widely shared cultural representations mediated by the narrative community at large” (p. 124).  Ghost stories are both.  Without an eyewitness account there is no proof that something paranormal took place, and without the general knowledge widely shared throughout this particular community, there would be nothing for eyewitnesses to compare their experiences against.

Tracey has been experiencing paranormal phenomena throughout her life, and told me in the many emails we’ve exchanged that she has many stories to tell.  In addition to having years worth of experiences, Joe also mentioned to me that the house Tracey is currently living in is haunted, and that there have been a couple of times when Tracey would call him in the middle of the night and ask to spend the night because of the ghostly activity.  So, in order to try to experience some of this activity, Tracey has invited me to her house, where we will conduct the interview. So, I’m pretty excited!

I hope to discover not only what other paranormal experiences Tracey has had throughout her life, but what affect they’ve had on her, if she’s worried about how her young daughter will be affected by the ghostly goings-on, if her daughter has ever sensed a presence in the house (children, young children especially, are said to be extremely sensitive to ghosts), if anyone else in her family has sensed something happening in the house that couldn’t be explained, if she has looked into the history of the house, and if so, did she find any information that might explain these phenomena.

As excited as I am, I equally nervous, or I will be once it gets a little closer to the actual interview.  I want the interview to be casual with Tracey doing most of the talking, but I also want to make sure we’re able to cover all of the points I’m hoping to discuss.  I was not blessed with a talent for small talk, and I don’t want to make Tracey feel awkward because of my inability to carry on a conversation.  However, I’m trying to maintain a positive outlook and focus not on my nerves, but on my excitement.  Wish me luck!

Ghost Hunting Research Progress

The semester is gaining momentum, and my research is growing right along with it.  I have, as mentioned , secured all of my interviewees (thank you to Tracey, Lee, Jen, and Michael!), and I have a mountain of books that I’m slowly working my way through…very slowly.

I’m also planning on making taking some more trips out to haunted locations.  Through my readings, I found out that Cape May is considered to be the most haunted location in New Jersey, and Cape May Haunts: Elaine’s Haunted Mansion and Other Eerie Beach Tales by D.P. Rosenberry is a great guide to several haunted locations.  I’ve also been looking into tours that run through the town and stop at several of the haunted establishments.  A classmate of mine, Christen, who lives in Cape May, is going to be my touring buddy when I do actually make it down there so I won’t have to go to all of these haunted locations alone.

I’ve also been reading Ghostly Adventures: Chilling True Stories from America’s Haunted Hot Spots by Christopher Balzano, which is full to the brim with tips about ghosts, paranormal investigating and its revitalization thanks to the Internet, Ouija boards, and ghost stories from across the country.

I’ve been learning so much; there’s such a wealth knowledge that everyone in this cultural world is willing and eager to share!  I’m looking forward to seeing how much more information I can uncover throughout the next couple of weeks! Happy hunting!

Ghost Hunting Interview Schedule

So, here are the interviews I have lined up so far. Specific times and places soon to follow:

In-person:

Tracey, whose house is full of paranormal activity, has agreed to let me come to the house to conduct the interview.  We’re trying to nail down a specific day and time, but I’m really looking forward to getting the perspective of someone who has always experienced the and is not a professional in the field.  I think my final piece will be written from this rather than from a professional’s viewpoint.

Lee Perley, manager of The Ghost Hunter Store and member of the South Jersey Ghost Research group, just emailed back yesterday agreeing to be interviewed.  We are also trying to set up a time and place to conduct the interview; I think it might be best to conduct the interview in the store, so we’ll both be comfortable in our surroundings.

Online:

Jen, @Ghost_PI_Jen on Twitter and the EVP and equipment specialist for The Ghost Guys, has been chatting with me for the past several weeks, and said she’d be more than happy to tell me about her experiences as a paranormal investigator, especially the audio evidence she’s been able to collect.

I’m currently looking for one final person to interview online; I’m hoping one of the actual Ghost Guys will be willing to talk to me about their experiences and their new show they are trying to launch.

I’m excited now that things are finally coming together.  More posts soon to follow on each individual interview within the next couple of weeks!

The Ghost Hunter Store

Today on this very blustery day, I took a trip to Mt. Holly to visit the Ghost Hunter Store, which is the only store that sells paranormal equipment in the country!  The trip was very dangerous since my teeny car gets blown off course by the wind very easily, but after I parked the car it was great!

During my visit, I met Lee Perley, who manages the store, is a member of the South Jersey Ghost Research group, and was full to the brim of information.  He showed all of the different equipment that paranormal investigators typically use during cases.  The piece that particularly interested me was this EMF detector.

An EMF detector is used to read the electro magnetic energy, something ghosts are supposed to give off, in a room.  This model does that as well as shows the current temperature in the room, sounds an alarm if a cluster of electro magnetic energy comes too close, and the antenna emits its own magnetic field, which is energy ghosts can use.

Unfortunately, this piece of equipment costs close to $2oo, so I had to leave the store without it.  I did, however, buy a book, Ghost Research 101: Investigating Haunted Homes by Dave Juliano (the director of the South Jersey Research group and owner of the Ghost Hunter Store), that I think will be very helpful during my research.  It covers everything from types of hauntings and spirits, explanations and breakdown of the equipment used during cases, psychic investigator, and so much more.

While chatting with Lee at the store, I mentioned that I had submitted my application to join the South Jersey Ghost Research group, and he said that I should be hearing back from them shortly.  Hopefully I’ll be offered an invitation to be interviewed, and if I’m accepted I’ll begin the 9 week intensive training course to become a licensed paranormal investigator.  Did I mention the training will take place in haunted locations?  I’m excited!

That’s the latest on the research front.  I’m also trying to gather books and journal articles pertaining to ghost hunting and paranormal investigating.  If anybody has any suggestion, please share!

Broadening My Scope

In keeping with the Idea Map tradition that some of my Core 2 classmates have started, I made one of my own.

I was surprised by how much more broad my research scope became just by my thinking about other directly related or associated topics.  Last Tuesday in class, a couple of students volunteered their topics to be made into an idea map, and I knew after looking at the first example that this was going to be so beneficial to conduct the type of extensive research that’s required.  As an added bonus, I’m a visual person, so having my research points laid out in front of me definitely helps.

I’ve never done research where I had to consider so many different avenues my investigation could take me, but now I can see how much I was limiting myself by just sticking with my original topic.

These ideas are just what I could come up with at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be morphing and expanding in different directions once I really start my research.

On the research front, I’m still waiting to hear back from the South Jersey Ghost Research Society to see whether or not I qualified for an interview.  I hoping that to complete my paranormal investigation training with them as well as go out on cases with them in the near future.  In addition, I’m looking into visiting a/some paranormal investigation tool shops in the area to see what sorts of tools are needed to successfully conduct a paranormal investigation as well as maybe score some interviews with the shop keepers.

I also looked into some books while I was at the bookstore for another class.  I didn’t find that many, but the names of the authors, editors, and websites may prove to be useful in the future.

It’s been a slow process, but I’m starting to gain some momentum.  I can’t wait to see where my research will lead to next.

Ghost Hunting

It’s official!  My topic, ghost hunting and hauntings, has been approved!  My first step is to hopefully connect with the South Jersey Ghost Research group.  I just submitted my application to join the group, and I’m waiting to hear back from them.  I was getting a little anxious as I read the laundry list of warnings and disclaimers at the bottom of the page below the submission button.  I don’t think it fully hit me what I’m about to undertake until now, but I am still excited about the experiences I may get to have and the people I’ll connect with.

I do hope that if/when I start going out on investigations that the weather will be more cooperative than it is now.  I’m not looking forward to traipsing around in the cold and wet!

I’ve also been trying to connect with ghost hunters on Twitter, but I’m still new to the site so I haven’t figured out exactly how to best use it for my purposes (more on that in my next post).  If anybody has any suggestions for how to best find people, please share!