Happy Halloween

The pumpkins are carved and the house is decorated.  The cemetery is glowing and the spiders are placed.   It is Halloween, the best night of the year.     The spells are cast and the curses set and all of our horrifying toy ghouls are out to protect us from the evil spirits that come on Samhain when the veil between the worlds thins and the ghosts come out to play. When everyplace becomes a haunted place and ghosts are as common as people.

So from our house to yours,  enjoy this beautiful night and may your evening be filled with ghosts, goblins, and everything else that is Halloween.  From Mr. Todd and Mrs. Lovett come have a shave and eat a meat pie and Have a very happy Halloween!

The Ghostly Book Store

I have so much to write about today I don't even know where to begin.  All the information is crowding my brain.  Last night we had a wonderful Halloween party and I woke up this morning feeling like I had been run over, which is the way you should feel after a good party.  I probably said several things I'll live to regret, but that is also a sign of a good party.  After a shower and the removal of the remains of my Mrs. Lovett costume I pulled myself together for my two book signings.  

The first book signing was at Coldwater Books in Tuscumbia, Alabama.  Tuscumbia is most well known for being Helen Keller's home town.    Coldwater books is in the center of downtown Tuscumbia.  This area has the kind of small town charm that is rarely seen anymore and Coldwater Books is part of this charm.  It is a beautifully maintained bookstore that makes me wish B&N would be destroyed and small, local bookstores like this one with a taste of the region would be allowed to grow again in their place.   I wish I had done my book signing before I wrote the book because people came in and as I signed their books they told me the most magnificent ghost stories.  Some I will blog about later because the deserve their own post, but some were short and sweet.   One woman told me of her first house, where every night a phantom would walk through the doorway and vanish.  Another woman told me of a haunted house that was so filled with ghostly activity it became the background noise of her life.

Amidst these stories, the owner of the little bookstore sat down next to me and told me the story of Coldwater Books.  Apparently, the location used to be used to make caskets in the 1800s and has been described as haunted by many.  The owner has never witnessed any paranormal activity, but a ghost hunting team came in once and stayed over night to study the store.   She said that they found the most ghostly activity in the back corner of the store.  She wasn't sure she believed in any of it, but she enjoyed being part of the adventure.  I did too and this was a very fun outing for me.  I also signed books at the very haunted and historical Sweetwater Mansion tonight.  But that is a story for another day.......

Cable Lawyer

From: Dumei Cable Co. Ltd
Subject: Re: Legal services
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Pre-Halloween Breakdown

I usually try to stay fairly on topic with this blog.  I try to veer away from personal stories and go with the ghosts and ghouls, but tonight I'm far to tired to think clearly.  I have had a long day.  I am having my annual Halloween party tomorrow.  I have invited more people than I invited to my wedding.  I'm not sure why I did this.  I guess I just really like Halloween.  I must have forgotten how much I hate work and entertaining, which always seem to go hand and hand. Sometime today,  in between hanging up the electrical for the giant spider that leaps out at the children and taking my son on his field trip to the scarecrow trail,  DHL informed me that my costume would arrive sometime tomorrow between 8a-8p.  This precipitated a massive breakdown.

Plastic spiders flew through the air.   Grinning, bloodied skulls were hurled at a witch that predicted their early death as she collapsed on top of her own coffin.  I begged and pleaded with DHL.   Please, can't you just bring the package early?  Please, please, please?  No. No. No.  Halloween party starts at five and Halloween costumes arrive at 8pm.  That would be an obvious problem.   So I called the sitter and my husband and I went out to leaf through the sexy witch and giant boob costumes to find something.  We found nothing.   By the time I made it home, I was tired and irate.  I sent http://www.cosplaysky.com/ an email filled with so much frustration and anger that I think I caught the ocean between myself and them on fire. 

Of course, as soon as I had given up and climbed into my bed clutching my head, the costumes came.  DHL had pulled strings for me.  Somehow they had heard my desperation.  They heard and had sent a special truck just for me.   Shortly after, http://www.cosplaysky.com/ called to apologize for their late delivery and offered me special coupons to make amends, so it all worked out and I can go to be tonight and not worry about my party, because everything is going to be OK.  I will not be forced to be a sexy cab driver for Halloween and the bounce tent will be set up on time.  The haunted house will be scary and there will be enough beer and food.  I know all this, because if today could end on a good note, any day can.  

The Old Jail Ghosts in The Main Street Cafe

In the small town of Madison, Alabama there isn't much to the downtown.  The old buildings are reminders of quiet days when Madison was a tiny town unto itself.  These days Madison is more of a suburb than a town itself.  Everyone drives off to Huntsville to work and the little downtown area is mostly forgotten.  The Main Street Cafe in downtown Madison is one of the reminders of the old days.   It was the old jail house.  Inside the Main Street Cafe, the two chambers that used to be jail cells remain.  The doors have been removed but the barred windows remain.  You can eat in the jail cells.    The Main Street Cafe has been remodeled so the cells are the only pieces of the history to let you know that this  pretty, quaint eatery was once a jail.   Most people don't even know The Main Street Cafe was once a jail.  They enjoy the place for what it is.  The food is good and the atmosphere is pretty.   You can easily forget that the Main Street Cafe has a darker past.  The cafe was once a jail and it still has its ghosts.

According to employees of the pretty restaurant,  the old jail is haunted by a ghost they call George.   George isn't a particularly malevolent ghost, but he does like to mess things up.  He enjoys moving things so that when cupboards are opened in the morning everything falls out.  He enjoys moving objects in the kitchen so that the staff can't find them.  In general,  he just enjoys making a pest out of himself.   The staff didn't know who George was.  They weren't sure if he was a prisoner, but they know he likes to make life more difficult for those who have to work at this old jail.

The Boo Ball: Turning a Haunting into a Fundraiser

I am reviving an old blog tonight because one of the people in charge of raising funds for Birmingham public library wrote to me last week and invited me to join her for a haunted tour of her library and for a Boo Ball.  The Boo Ball is a fund raiser that will help raise money for the library.  It also takes advantage of the library's wonderful haunted history for a good cause!  I can't think of anything better.  So if you happen to be in the Birmingham area and are looking for something to do Saturday night consider going to this costumed event.  I have posted all the information below.  Here is the story of the real ghosts behind the library as I told it the night I slept across from the library:

The old Birmingham Public Library is one of the most striking buildings in downtown Birmingham. It's darkened windows seem to hint at movement even when the library is closed. Sitting across from the old Library two nights ago, I thought I saw a face staring out at me. I watched it and it watched me and for the longest time nothing happened. I took a picture and went to set the camera down and when I returned it was gone as quickly as it had come.


The building was built in 1927 and was the Birmingham Public Library until 1984. At this time the primary library was moved across the street into a modern building of glass and harsh angles. The two buildings are attached by a catwalk and the architectural differences between these two buildings that are connected like Siamese twins are so vast that they should be in different countries. But the two buildings are bound together by their common purpose.

In 1984 when the old building was partially abandoned it took on a new purpose and became the archives where the old books were stored and the history was kept. There are no stories of bizarre deaths here. There are no horror tales of Indian burial grounds or murdered children, but the ghosts that have been described in this building are so terrifying that some of the librarians have refused to go back into the stacks alone and without every light on. Many staff members know about the haunting in a general sort of way. They know that doors open and close on their own and phantom noises fill the building when it is empty, but a few report an even more active haunting.

The auditorium is the most haunted portion of this old library and it is in the auditorium that a young librarian described seeing a man appear out of nowhere. The librarian was mortified and she was even more mortified when he vanished as quickly as he came. An electrician also saw this man. He was working on the electrical problems that permeate the building when a man materialized in front of him and vanish again.

Other staff members, have described the elevator moving on it's own and the doors opening with no one in them.  The man that wanders the halls of the library is thought to be Fant Thornley.  Thornley was  a former director of the library in the 1950's.  He must have loved the library because his ghost seems to want to linger in this beautiful, old building.
 
If you are interested in attending the Boo Ball here is the information:  
 
Saturday October 30th at 7pm at the Down Town Library
 http://www.booballbhm.com/

My Little Haunted House

Every year a friend of mine and I get together and throw a Halloween Party together.  Actually,  last year was more of a practice run.  This our we are expanding our work and inviting more people and turning it into an event.  Part of planning this event has been turning a portion of my home into a haunted house.  This week we've got the wall up and most of the props up.   I still have a few more props to add, the bridge to paint, and the wiring to finish, but we are making progress.

I have some of the pictures of our work below.  We aren't done, but we are on our way.  The target age for this haunted house is 5-10 so there won't be any decomposing bodies or actors with chainsaws, but we're hoping the kids will have a good time while the grownups drink and act foolish.   Despite the target age, after looking at the pictures I do know I'm going to have to something about the Spongebob lamp.  Spongebob just isn't scary.  Now if it were Elmo.....