The Haunting of Snow Hill Inn

If I were a rich woman,  I would have bought this house.  Snow Hill Inn is located in Snow Hill, Maryland and until very recently it was for sale.   The Inn at Snow Hill has been many things.  Its been a post office, a doctor's office, an apartment building, and an inn.  It is a beautiful colonial style house surrounded by trees and painted a cheerful yellow.  It is picturesque and welcoming.  It is perfectly pretty and utterly haunted.

The Snow Hill Inn was built in  1835.  In 1870, the town doctor bought the house and converted it into his home and office.  The doctor was a good doctor and was well known for his bedside manner and gregarious nature.  The doctor was beloved, but his son was never happy.  Many believe that his son was upset because he was failing pharmacy school. On December 14, 1904, the young man slit his own throat.  He left a note behind, but his throat was slit three times and this is a very improbably and uncommon way for someone to end their own life and some believe that the young man may have been the victim of foul play.

Whatever his cause of death,  the day after the young man died the house keeper at the house in Snow Hill reported hearing  groans and the sound of someone falling.   Since that time numerous people have lived in and stayed at the house in Snow Hill.   Innkeepers, guests, owners, renters, and many others have all described being haunted by the ghost of the young man.   They have reported lights going on and off on their own, shaking beds, opening and closing doors, seeing ghosts in mirrors, and seeing the ghost standing right in front of them.   The list of paranormal encounters in the Snow Hill Inn goes on and on.   Paranormal investigators have stayed at the inn and confirmed the haunting is real and one psychic says that she spoke with the ghost and he was the young man who did kill himself.  

It is a shame someone bought the house, because I was going to put it on Christmas list for next year.  I would have liked to meet the ghost of Snow Hill Inn.  To learn more about this lovely haunting you can read an article on the haunt at http://www.lowershore.net/towns/snowhill/haunting.htm .

From: Rika Takahashi
Subject: ENQUIRY
Date: January 9, 2011 1:45:15 PM PST
Reply-To: rika-taka7730@hotmail.com


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Alice's Short Version

A short one from Alice.


From: Alice Goldbery
Subject: RE: Legal Consultation (Divorce Settlement)
Date: January 9, 2011 10:48:34 AM PST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Reply-To: alicegoldbery@aol.com



--
Attention:counsel,

My name is Alice Goldbery. I am soliciting for your legal consultation
against the divorce settlement with my ex-husband (Allen .G.Goldbery) who
resides in your jurisdiction. I am currently on assignment
in United Kingdom.

Can your law firm help me out?

Your Truely,
Alice Goldbery

Should We Fear Ghosts?

The long history of ghosts and ghost stories is deeply rooted in horror and fear.   From such classic horror stories as The Haunting to the ghost lore that saturates folklore ghost stories are given a malevolent quality.  They are told around the campfire to scare children and they are brought out at Halloween to add to the spooky quality of the holiday.   Ghosts are supposed to be scary.  Almost every ghostly movie made capitalizes on this fear of ghosts.  From The Grudge to The House on Haunted Hill to  Thirteen Ghosts, ghosts are almost always scary and bad.

As I begin researching my second book, I have to wonder why ghosts have become associated with fear and terror.  Almost all of the people I interview who have had encounters with ghosts describe them as harmless and sometimes even beneficial.   The ghosts are scary in the same way bugs are scary.  They don't harm anyone, but they are scary because we have learned to fear them.  They are scary because they are unknown or just creepy, but I haven't encountered many true ghost stories in which the ghost itself is malevolent.   In fact, most of the really true scary supernatural stories I've gathered seem to be more drive by malevolent, nonghost spirits or demons.  They don't seem to be connected to a deceased person, but rather to some other kind of hostile entity.

 Many of the true ghost stories I've read step beyond being just neutral and are actually benevolent.  I heard one story in which the ghost protected a home owner from a burglar and another in which a ghost protected their child from a fall.  It seems to me that ghosts are like living people,  they can be good, neutral, and occasionally bad.  So why do we naturally fear them so much?  Should we fear ghosts at all?  I've spoke with people who say they've lived in haunted houses for years and never had any problems, just odd occurrences.  My family has a house that has been filled with odd, ghostly occurrences for the better part of a century and it has never bothered anyone.  It does keep you up at night, but it is never scary.  So why are we so naturally afraid of ghosts?  Is it a fear of the unknown or a fear of death or some cross between the two and will there be a point when that fear fades?  I've never really been afraid of ghosts, so I can't entirely answer these questions on my own, but I believe that ghosts shouldn't be feared unless they've been shown to be malevolent.

The Cathedral of Learning

 Last year I went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a writer's conference.  While I was there,  I met a young writer who had a passion for ghosts and ghost stories.  She was working on a young adult novel about a ghost hunter.   I was lucky enough to  have her give me a tour of her home town, where she had gone to school.   The first place the young woman took me was an amazing building called the Cathedral of Learning.   The Cathedral of Learning is the second tallest educational building in the world.  It towers above the landscape around it casting a long elegant shadow over the rest of the University of  Pittsburgh.  The architecture is all Gothic revival style so as you step into this tall building, you feel like you are stepping into a medieval Cathedral.   It is truly a Cathedral of Learning.

The Cathedral of Learning was begun in 1926 by Chancellor Bowman and community contributions helped him realize his dream.  The 42 story building contains classrooms, libraries, and a common room.   The most famous rooms in the cathedral are the nationality rooms.  These are a series of rooms on the second floor that have been decorated with historic pieces from numerous cultures so that each room looks like a room from the culture it represents.  According to my guide, it was one of these rooms that was haunted.

The Early American room  looks the part.  It is filled with historic pieces and has been decorated to look like it stepped out of time.   It is a shadowy room that feels haunted.   It isn't just the decor.   Many visitors to the Early American room have described having paranormal experiences.  The stories began 30 years ago, after  a woman donated several of her grandmother's items for the space.   The items had belonged to Martha Jane Poe, a relative of Edgar Allen Poe.  Many of the paranormal events described in the room seem to revolve around Martha Jane's wedding quilt.  One janitor described finding hand prints on the quilt when he was alone there at night.   Other visitors have seen doors open and close on their own and seen objects shift on their own. The baby cradle has been seen to rock when the room is empty and visitors that have spent the night in the room have reported feeling a cold spot.

According to Gretchen McKay of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette,  there are innumerable reports of ghostly activity in this old room and it may be that Martha Jane's ghost still stays with her things.  I didn't have any ghostly experiences in the Cathedral of Learning, but the building's decor certainly gives the building a chilling feel.  I know I would hate to be in the Early America Room alone after dark.

A Look Back at 2010

It is now officially 2011 and a new year has begun.   New Years day is traditionally a day to make resolutions and plans for a better year, it is also a time to look back.  I did a lot of blogging last year and it is interesting to me which of my posts were the most successful.   The posts I spend the most time on and love the most usually aren't always the ones that others love the most.  However,  I'm hoping to fine tune my blog a little next year and write more posts like the ones that were the most popular last year.  So which of my posts were the most popular last year?  Here's a look back at my top four most popular posts:

1.  The Ghost Town of Pripyat:   This was a post done on one the abandon cities after the Chernobyl incident.   I had to do a lot of research on this post because I hadn't ever traveled to Pripyat.   This was by far and away my most popular blog post gaining almost 18,000 hits since I've posted it.    http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2010/05/ghost-town-of-pripyat.html

2.   The Ouija Board:  Good or Bad:   I think this post sparked a lot of discussion.  Almost everyone has passionate feelings on the Ouija Board and a lot of readers commented with their own Ouija Board stories.  It think the Ouija Board topic is always popular do to the emotion and fear that surrounds it.
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2010/08/ouija-board-good-or-bad.html

3.  Green Orbs and the Meaning of Colored Orbs:   Again,  this topic sparked a lot of discussion and drew a lot of readers.   People have strong feelings about orb.  Some feeling they are just mistakes in photography others feel they are strong representations of the paranormal.  This post was very popular and I loved hearing every one's opinion on the matter.  This is one of those posts where I learned a lot from the comments.  I could probably do a second post based just on the comments from this post.
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2010/09/green-orbs-and-meaning-of-colors-in.html

4.  Ghost Hunting at the South Pittsburgh Hospital:  This post was an amazing one for me because I actually got to go ghost hunting with the team from Southern Ghosts and Courtney Mroch from Haunt Jaunts.  This was so much fun and so educational that I didn't think I could ever top this post.  I'm putting a chapter on this haunted location in my Haunted Chattanooga Book. 
http://ghoststoriesandhauntedplaces.blogspot.com/2010/07/ghost-hunting-as-south-pittsburg.html

So what have I learned from these  blogs?  I've learned that although haunted places will always be some of the most fascinating paranormal posts in the world if they are really engaging, there is nothing like a good discussion from time to time.  So for 2011, I plan on doing a haunted place and a discussion every week with the occassional ghostly potporri for color, like my beloved book reviews.  These will never be my most popular posts, but they are my favorite to do!  

So Happy New year to all and may 2011 bring joy and peace!

Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to all our readers - as they used to say in the Beano.

Is it really 50 years since Biffo the Bear wrote 1961 on a wall and stood on his head to prove it read the same upside-down? Of course it was - do the maths!

Those were the days. When teachers were literate, only men had tattoos and us kids were actually encouraged to eat the fatty bits on meat because it 'put hairs on your chest'. (Worked for me.)

How different it was then. Our soldiers were fighting in foreign countries, Coronation Street was the most popular programme on TV and Cliff Richard was belting out songs on the radio. Hang on a minute - maybe things haven't really changed that much.

Anyway, here are my predictions for 50 years from now.
Having celebrated their one hundredth birthday by having the Rover's Return regulars abducted by aliens, the Coronation Street boozers are returned to Earth as if nothing had happened but the population of Weatherfield don't seem to notice that they now speak in a strange monotone and can't bend their little fingers.
Cliff Richard is preserved as a hologram and is still touring the country to packed venues.
The President of the United States of Europe declares Britain to be an offshore penal colony.

Have a good one.