Ghost hunting? I’m in.
I had just gotten an iPhone. I was sharing my apps with everyone. “I can do this with this one!” and “Look! I can do that with that one!” (c’mon, it was my first) I even had a flashlight app! How cool was I? (less cool by the moment, but who’s counting?)
So I had just found an EMF detecting app and realized I could use my Voice Memo as an EVP recorder. I didn’t need any other ghost hunting equipment than that, right? I was set. Who’s with me? I recruited my little sister and her hubby.
Me, my little sister and her hubs. Ready for a serious hunt.
We’d been wanting to do a paranormal investigation for a while, (huge fans of Ghost Hunters) but we knew we didn’t know what we were doing. And who wants to join something only to embarrass themselves, right? (the new me, of course, but this is before then)
We were back in our hometown of New Paris in Indiana. Population of about 1500. In the day, it was the sort of place where anybody knew everybody. Very hospitable and you could get away with murder. It had appeared to change some over the years. People seemed a bit more guarded. Signs were posted at properties saying “No Trespassing” and “Stay Out!” People had become skeptical, I guess. And in today’s age, who can blame them? So what we were about do now had great risk, but with great risk comes accidents, citations, arrests … Ghost hunting in the new version of our hometown was going to take some old school skillz (yeah, I just did that).
First stop was Jackson cemetery.
Jackson Cemetery. Scariest locale in our town.
This cemetery was legendary in our little town. It was down a long lane, up a hill and at the back of the cemetery there was a complete drop-off. People had witnessed fires in the cemetery, yet no one was around. There were also claims of seeing ghostly spirits and a light mist that rolls along the ground.
It wasn’t dark, but this cemetery still had a pretty high creep-out factor. It was also checked pretty frequently by the police, too. Vandals had made that necessary over the years. So we were past closing, but we could still see. I had declared myself the getaway driver (hey- it was my car). So I couldn’t get out in case we needed a quick escape. My sister decided she’d be the lookout. Which means we told the scary stories to her husband, kicked him out of the car with my phone and left him alone to find ghosts in the cemetery.
He got nothing. So we moved on. It was dark by this point and we decided to hit the Scout Cabin next. The good old Scout Cabin.
We thank you Boy Scouts of America for providing us this lovely little cabin and the hill upon which it sits.
Seemed like it had been around forever. It was also home to one of two hills in the area. Surely it would yield paranormal evidence.
Now my sister’s husband had never spent much time in New Paris. And he’d certainly never seen the Scout cabin before. Again it was decided that I was the getaway, my sister was the lookout and that left her hubs to investigate. It was so dark, though, by this point he couldn’t see a thing. But WAIT!! I had the Flashlight app!
Flashlight app to the rescue!!!
New iPhone saves the day. I handed it to him. He stumbled over to the gate. We had all been struggling to see the new sign posted next to it. In all our years, there had never been a sign …
“Trespassing. Private Property.”
What? This may be the one group in America that’s always supposed to be prepared, but what were they preparing for? Tom Foolery? Zombie Apocalypse? The Girl Scouts? What happened to neighborly love and all that jazz? Another ghost hunting fail.
All right – onto the Baintertown cemetery.
Baintertown Cemetery. Our final resort.
A small little cemetery near the river preserve by our house. Practically a free pass. Only a couple of houses. No one drives along that road. We were good. But still, just in case … I needed to be the getaway, my sister needed to be the lookout and my brother-in-law needed to be as stealth as possible.
I’d given him my phone. He turned on the flashlight app that had just done him a solid. Then out of nowhere the lookout calls “car lights! Get down get down get down!” Her husband awkwardly dove back into the vehicle and we all ducked down so we wouldn’t be seen. Oh no!!!! The flashlight app!! I screamed “turn it off turn it off turn it off!” The car lights were almost upon us! Finally he managed to turn the app off. Whew! And we all crouched as low as possible so we wouldn’t be seen and reported to the cops for suspicious behavior.
The car passes by. We were safe! I had a black car. No one sees a black car in the dark. We were sure we hadn’t been seen. Till we realized the dome lights were on from my sister’s husband getting in and out of the car. Another fail. We headed home.
This is a no-take-back because I learned two valuable lessons that day.
- I’m a fabulous getaway driver.
- iPhones are awesome.
