# Last Night @ Ravens Grin Inn:



## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Totally cool! I think your only a hop skip and a jump from where we live in Misouri. One of these days my wife and I may pay you a visit. You might think again a bout a mountaintop castle. Lots of lightning. Good for Frankenstien, bad for computers, iceboxes,t.v.s airconditioning....... Nice choice of car.

I've been a witness to a few 'lights'. Never green though. One was in a rather active house. We where down in the basement witch at that time was almost empty. Off to our right there rose up in the floor a small whitish globe. That's the best way I can describe it. Only rose partially out of the floor. This was the only home I’ve been in were someone was actually hurt doing a makeshift seance. He was flung backward about eight feet or more into a wall and broke some ribs. I wasn't there at the time but had no reason to doubt the witness. I could write a book on all the poltergeist activity I witnessed in that house. If I can find it I do have a picture of the same house being bulldozed and burnt. You can plainly see two orbs in the shot. If I find it I’ll post and place it in my picture file. I have other pictures from inside the home but have always made a point not to display people. If I find them I’ll block faces and post them as well. 




Urgent information request from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “so what does a vampire smell like anyway?”


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*Putrid....it sounds like a good idea to me!!
I've had fantasies about getting married in this GRAND
Haunted house!! As of now thats not working out for ME!
So why not get some of my family members! Pack up a Van!
Take the kids and have some fun!! Our family is huge!! Jim...
I'd love to meet your better half--- Jessica!!
Your stories are delightful to hear!! Thanks for
posting them! How many hours would it would take to get
Raven's Grinn?? Maybe 5 or 6 ?? I'll have to check it
out!!! The former {Mr.} has an Uncle some where around
Rockford.....Ill. A doctor....his first name is Robert!
a Dentist! aha! Small world! 


Putrid......I want to hear more about these
strange happenings in this house, your talking
about!! My Aunt Camella lived in St.Louis!!
I have a million stories about staying with her!
My sister would take me on the train! I know 
they have a Union Station....cause they used
to pick us up there! Seems like we went up 
in the Arch and looked out! Yes....
I remember now!!WoW! Long way down! Yikes


The Arch is situated on the banks of the broad Mississippi River. That's M I S, I S S, I P P I. Laughing because I'd jump
rope to spelling it at school! haha!! My uncle would say when I asked
why they had this metal upside down -U- thing 
sticking up in the air?? 

''Well Kitten''.....''Its was for the thousands of 
people making their way west!'' I'd say ''Why'' West?
He'd say to follow their ''DREAMS''!! Oh ...I'd understand then!!
I knew what dreams were ! Putrid don't let these thoughts
of this house you lived in.....get pass us!! Write about it!
Gym....more stories ...if you please! 
Thanks!!.....Dawn 

Mademouselle ~~ Countess''Dawn''- Von ~~ Frankenstein~~ *


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

"Events From A Real Haunted House-Raven's Grin Inn" went to be printed today! Stevie King eat your heart out! hahahaha!
Available??? Whoo nose? Sooner rather than later, I hope, as soon as they can cut down the trees, grind the pulp.....(Special trees from next to the old graveyard, roots entangled inside of ancient coffins, tickling the ribs of the long "Un-Tickled"!) SURE!?

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*We can take the pulp of the tree's!
Put some toilet paper, elmers white glue,
knead it.....make all kinds of 
~~~~~PUMPKIN'S~~~~~~








The unused toilet paper{{Oh My}}
Thats the secret that binds 
.....this mix! ha-ha-ha


Hey Putrid ...We need a formula!!
Take his forever pumpkins__
Cover them!!! Paint as Old World
German style! Make top's.....hummm??
Or handles! Start a German Die Cut
Factory.....some where in the Mid-West!
Then 'We' become ''Million-Aires'' !!!
''World Leaders'' on turn of the
Century......Pre=War- Pumpkin's
Known ~~GLOBALLY~~ As
Vegetable Pulp Creator's 
YahoOoOo









Have our Orange and Black Viper __turbo-charged
Hemi Halloween Forum Car ....in the starting line
up at the BrickYard 500 !! go ahead an scream
~~~ {{Oh baby}} ~~~








Just think this all started
with some toilet paper! More Money has been made
on less! aha So.....True!! I'm a firm believer 
in ~~ Small business America ~~!!

Hey are there any backers out there?
We need capital to start this Awesome
Halloween Monopoly!!! 
Feed-back accepted
BLACK WIDOW

*


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## wicked (Aug 27, 2002)

*OOOOOoooo!!! A Halloween Monopoly! What a great idea! with Haunted properties of the most haunted places in America, like New Orleans French Quarters (several, pick one), Myrtles Plantation, Bachelor's Grove Cemetery, Winchester Mansion, Dudley Town, Bucket of Blood Saloon (not really, but I liked the place) and of course, Raven's Grin Inn! you could also have Ghost Train RR's, Spooked utilities (lightening bolts, and drippy fausets), and Ghoul tokens--like Jack-o-Lantern, skull, ghost, haunted house, tombstone, spider, headless horseman. The houses and hotels would of course be haunted! 

Sounds like FUN! FUN! FUN! to me! Roll 'dem Bones!! LOL*

"The banshee shrieks with WICKED delight, on this, a cold and death filled night!"


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## wicked (Aug 27, 2002)

*OH! And Gym, you seriously otta consider putting up a few "Ghost Cams" in your place---might make you that fortune your lookin' for![]*

"The banshee shrieks with *WICKED* delight, on this, a cold and death filled night!"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

I just wish my ex-wife would have pushed "record" on the VCR about 7 years ago.
She was sitting , tired after a very busy October night, just looking at the tv monitor that was hooked up to the surveilence cameras, the wine cellar camera was on the screen.
The lights were turned up big and bright in that room,(the wine cellar) the room was empty, I was going around through the rest of the house locking doors, turning off things, checking things.
Two specks of intense light came on the screen, they grew into larger white figures of a male and female, they also had glowing outlines, they looked at the camera, then turned away from it and began going through the physical motions that could have been them racking up bottles of wine (on a non-existent wine rack)
My Ex-wife felt as if she was watching something either illegal or immoral going on, she said she felt a "tension" from them in this reguard.Our black lab, Cana, watched intently too!
She got up , walked around the corner, got herself a glass of orange juice, stepped back around the corner and they were still on-screen!
She estimated she saw them for a total of maybe 15 minutes! With NO COMMERCIAL INTERUPTIONS!
It was suggested later that all of this could have been a stray TV signal bouncing off a cloud, but no, this isn't a viable explanation since this monitor does not have a "receiver" built into it to ever be able to pick up a stray signal, and the cameras are "hard-wired" to the monitor.
Several years after all of this, a psychic said more things about the wine cellar that tied in with things my ex-wife said she saw in that room. (and the psychic was from hundreds of miles away, not exactly a "buddy" of my ex-wife or anything...)
I have been trying to correlate all of the events of a supernatural nature, trying to maybe even predict when they might happen next, I seem to be getting a little closer, better at it, but then,maybe I'm just indulging in wishful-thinking? A major piece of being an "Adult" for most of us is that "Control" feeling, afterall.(this is what keeps alot of adults from going into a haunted house, in my opinion.)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Gym some advice on getting things on tape. Don't use digital equipment. I lmao when I hear someone brag about all the strange static they recorded. There has been some good results from recording questions. You ask then let things be. Replay the tape. Best done on good equipment. Some things to look out for. Some distortions and 'strange' noises are caused by RMF fields. Bad or old electrical wiring, areas where the electricity is 'grounded' can cause interference on a tape. Also old fuse boxes and appliances can create enough of a RMF field to create howls and bleeps on a recording. 
About using video cameras. If you remember or had watched 'Fear' on MTV you may recall the episode where there was a strange light on the kids video monitor showing the doorway into the room. EASY video trick! It's a phenomenon known as 'Video loop feedback'. Aim a camera at a monitor and briefly flash something bright in front of it. There are other situations that may cause strange phenomena to ruin your video. When setting up your camera make sure there's nothing reflective in the shot. Very strong RMF field can distort you image as well. At the time I did this we didn’t use audio or video equipment. I was always reluctant to use a camera because people with this sort of
‘problem’ didn’t want records. Nothing that could come back and ‘haunt’ them. (Couldn’t resist the pun.)

Black widdow thanks for the interest in my old 'ghost buster' days. Started when I was about 14. No mamby pamby kids stuff. I learned from all the early experiences how to tell a real haunting from 'haunted people'. Hadn't done anything like that for a long time till just this last summer. Some guy heard about me and had me over. Complained about being chased up his basement steps. This poor guy was ready to sell his house. I talked to him for a wile to get some background and then we both headed down stairs. It didn't take too long for things to start happening. Just as he had described happening to him on numerous occasions. A noise coming from somewhere. A visible presents moving through a doorway and right up the steps. It happened over and over. I finally was able to tell what was going on. The noise was someone falling in the kitchen above us. The presents is a
elderly man fearfully running up the steps. The guy still lives there and is sleeping better now. As I left the home I was reminded why I stopped doing this a long time ago. Men are NOT emotional. When investigating a haunting you get flooded with emotions. Very uncomfortable and strenuous. 

Gym are you pulling our preverbal leg or do you really have a book coming out? Your totally right with the ‘control’ thing. Hollywood would go broke using real hauntings without all the special effects. I’ve been in one place where the home owners got frightened out of there wits because they could smell bacon cooking. Had the hole house covered with air fresheners. Plug-ins in every outlet. Bag of smellies in front of every vent. Sented candles everywhere. The overuse was so bad there was a film on everything. Just because at about 4 to 5 am., not every morning, they could smell bacon waiffing through the house. 



Urgent information request from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “so what does a vampire smell like anyway?”


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Does a vampire smell like bacon? hahaha!
It would make quite a cologne! "Oink!"
Yes, my ghost-chronicling efforts are no literary masterpiece, I really tried to simply and plainly state what has happened here, when giving house tours I try to tell it all in an entertaining manner, and I also point this out to those in my little, personal audience, sometimes emotions will sneak up on me when I tell about certain parts of the story, but the room is dark enough that I only have to worry about the emotions in my voice, not my hideously, genetically deformed face, giving it away.
The emotions are feelings of extreme sadness, not fear that come out and whap me. Quite something when I tell these certain things and everyone in the room is laughing at what just almost brought me to tears, they don't know, I don't want them to know, I want them to enjoy the tour and the time spent here, and 98% of them do.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Pugsly (Mar 10, 2003)

Hey Gym, Since I am new to this forum, I was wondering if you could give a brief history of the Ravens Grin Inn? That is if it won't hurt your book sales. If you think it will, I completly understand if you dont want to detail the history here. I have been reading your stories about the ghosts that reside there, and I find it fascinating. I went to the Ravens Grin Inn website, and the history did'nt come up. I am curious as to what, in it's history makes it so haunted. Like, why is there a body behind the basement wall? 

Mike


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Pugsly: The Ravens Grin was built about 1870 to be an inn and a tavern.
It was also a stables with horses in large barns behind the house(all gone now)
During the late 1930s this house was also a Oldsmobile dealership, later an apartment house.
In its earlier days (or rather nights) it was probably also a house of ill-repute. (this is almost a "given", local reputation, sort of thing)
When I bought the house it had been empty for two years.

The first few weeks I owned it, several former tenents came here to tell me about their supernatural experiences they had had here(that usually helped them decide to move out)
When I bought this place it was to make it into a haunted house business, but my definition of this was a place full of my own bizzarre artwork and things that I would build in the house, any supernatural things didn't enter into my concepts at all, mostly because everyone that I had ever met who had seen a ghost seemed to have other influences working on them too, drugs, alcohol, emotional depression, a recent death of a loved one.
Then after I had been open for awhile I had murder mysteries for groups of people , they would tell me about a "Lady-In-White" coming out of the northeast corner of the wine cellar. I didn't believe them, then one day I realised that all of these people telling me this were all from various parts of the country and couldn't possibly know each other!? (I thought they were just trying to "Yank My Chain", so to speak.
On the other extreme of witnesses to a supernatural event there is the teenager who tells me about the ghosts they saw last night in the graveyard at 2 am as they were tresspassing, and drunk and /or stoned.
For some reason this doesn't impress me at all?
So this is the beginning of it here, since then much has happened and continues to happen, some of the events intertwine and have been predicted, like my death. Funny how death can make life more interesting for us.
My little phamphlet won't be a budget-buster for anyone financially, the one thing that makes it different is that it has all happened, and that some of it is very strange, not things that I've ever heard of before, and now an old house three blocks away from here is having alot of problems with people seeing multiple ghosts at the same time,night, day, it makes no difference. I know this house well, it last belonged to my first wife's Grandparents (her Grandmother died in the house about 5 years ago) I used to do some repair work there and spent a night there at least once. 
The house was built about 1845, I think the two old men on the stairs in the photograph(that weren't real people) might be some 1845 carpenters upset with all the new extensive remodeling going on for the last year. They keep taking one young man's tools and they find the tools on the porch roof!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Richard (Mar 3, 2003)

Ok, admittedly I'm a cynic about "paranormal" events, I've had a few premonitions and junk like that, nothing majorly serious but I find it hard to believe in so called "ghosts" the whole idea defies logic and physics as I understand them. The most plausable explaination I have so far come across is ultra sonic activity which has been deamonstrated in several "haunted houses" that I have come across.

I don't mean to belittle anyones experience or what they believe they have seen but is it just possible there is another explaination, one a little more logical and plausable than supernatural activity?



Richard


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Richard, What exactly was this "Ultra-sonic" activity in the haunted houses? Was it a natural occurrence from something, or maybe something mechanical? Subterranean plates grinding far below the earth's surface?
When I got this house I had no feeling for anything described as supernatural. I always had alot of ESP experiences, but I explain these as someone is "Sending" and someone is "Receiving" (except when it was a mechanical device once telling me how to fix it, and the normal order of the check-list was ignored and the 12th thing was the problem!?(1) power on? 2) switches on? 3) safety switch un-tripped?, this sort of thing, this sort of "list")
When so many people all see and describe the same thing, especially over a period of considerable time, this does have a tendancty to convince me that something is going on. This is where my personal beliefs in these matters come from. Most of the people seeing and saying the same things could not possibly know each other or , at that time, have heard any rumors or legends about the place, yet they all come up with the same story.??
Over the last two years, I have had a couple of very "real" things happen to me,(of a supernatural nature) personally, but I am a very curious person(versus being terrified) and I want to know "MORE" of the cause and effect of these "hauntings", most people are amazed and appalled that I continue to live here in this house.
Many, many people have come to me with their ghostly stories of the experiences that they have had in their lives(since I have a haunted house?)In person , and just over the phone.
After I hear their story, often times the event can be explained or at least sort of catagorised: 1) Recent death of a loved one creates either a morbidity of thought pattern, they see a ghost(real or created, or something in between)
2) They are emotionally vulnerable , temporarilly or perminently.
3) Alcohol, or drug-induced illusions
4) They are telling a story to acquire a sympathetic audience, or sometimes just someone to listen to what they have to say for a short while.
5) Or it is someone with none of the above influences, and wasn't seeking such an experience, it just came right at them, for whatever reason, and then of course, no physical or for that matter , any other explaination could be found for the event.
As I often tell people, I am not trying to "sell" them a belief-system or anything even close to it, I'm just telling what has happened to people here and trying to correlate and make some sort of sense from it all.

The first, most baffling thing in this house, that defied my existing ESP-Logic("Sending" & "Receiving") is the part of the house where a loud and distinct voice has always called a person's name.
If a ghost could be just energy left over from the past, how can it reason and speak, or at even put such a thought in our head?

As per-usual, things have been happening here(slight, small things) and we are getting closer to the full moon(April 16th) usually nothing happens here on the full moon, but rather just before and just after it.
Friday night (April 11th) two people said they were touched on the head, like someone running their fingers through your hair, as they stood in the wine cellar, in the dark. When it happened they were each alone, in the middle of this large room , that has a 12 foot high ceiling, stone arch ceiling, with much earth on top of the stones.(no place for secret places to mess with people by reaching down from above them.)
Thursday night was when a small, green light floated up along the rock wall, stopped and floated back down to the floor and vanished.
One first-time(maybe "Last-Time"?) visitor saw it as the lights were on in the wine cellar and we were standing close by her. She was more terrified when I told her that that section of wall was said by the "Psychic" to have a body hidden behind it.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Richard (Mar 3, 2003)

Gym, thanks for the reply, I was a little afraid I was throwing a cat amongst the pigeons with my posting but you have shown more interest than I thought.

Unfortunately due to my disabilities my memory isn't what it should be and I cannot remember the sources of the ultra sonic activity I seem to remember something about electricity and tectonic movement but nothing strong enough for me to grasp :-( my memory realy does frustrate me!

I know I watched it on a TV program on cable late one night when I was house sitting for my grandmother, I'll try looking it up in a moment to see if I can find out what the program was and hopefully the name of the gentleman that talked about the ultrasonic activity as I would be interested in reading further about his work and discoveries.

As much as I can remember the gentleman had experiences of a supernatural kind while he was working in the basement of a research facility, the basement was well known for being "haunted" he described seeing a grey shape out of the corner of his eye, feeling feeligs of terror and of feeling as though someone were with him. part of his work involved using a meter for ultra sonic and it registered while he had these feelings which is what put him on the track of the ultra sonic waves at frequencies that cannot be heard by humans but do affect them.

Unfortunately I cannot remember more about this but I shall see what I can find, you may also be able to turn up something with a little web research into ultra sonics.

Sorry to put you on a trail and then fade out on you but as I said my memory isn't what it should be. I can tell you I would do practically anything to have a photographic memory. 

Hope thats some kind of help anyway.



Richard


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My "Photographic" memory is on a disposable camera-format...
..and sometimes they give me one with a cheap lense....

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Ultra sonics may refer to sub sonic low frequency interference. Like those fond in high magnetic fields and earth quakes. In a scientific experiment subjects were exposed to this and became paralyzed with fear. Each claming to experience an unknown entity standing next to or coming toward them. Each subject was sitting in a chair blindfolded in a dark room. Nothing was ever 'seen' so it was inconclusive if these fields caused distortions in the brains processing of visual stimuli. If ultra sonics refer to hi frequency waves, those above 20khz I've not read any info on there stimulant qualities to the brain. However it's amplified high frequency that cooks your food in a micro wave so it's safe to say they are dangerous at high volume.

One of the fist things you do in the field of 'ghost hunting' is to learn what isn't a haunting. You research what may cause something to eliminate all the natural interference’s. If you get past all this then you become an amateur psychiatrist to find out if your dealing with 'haunted people'. You've heard the phrase "Your mind plays tricks on you". It's been proven that without a conscience decision you can't tell the difference between fact and fantasy. For some people common occurrences become hauntings. If you get past that then and only then you look for the paranormal. 

There are too many 'ghost hunters' out there who really think there doing someone good. When in fact they're convincing people who are already concerned that they live in a haunted home by not understanding all there gadgets and gizmos. I'm not a debunker. By no means. But there are hauntings that can be 'cleared' by replacing the electrical wiring in the house. Then there's the real thing. Witnessed too many of them to not believe.

It's good to have a decreeing attitude. Too many people tend to believe everything they hear. it's also safe to assume that logic and physics as we know them aren’t what they could be. It was a popular believe that the world was flat at one time. Galilao was almost put to death because he stated that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. And if you still don't have any doubt about modern science. Gravity. Everyone knows it's there. No one can explain why. As a kid I was taught that if the world stopped spinning we would all fly off. I always thought if you spun something fast enough everything on it would fly off. The moon doesn’t spin. It's covered with rocks that haven't flown anywhere. Scientist say that we have rocks on earth from Mars.???? If you figure the chances of that happening would be the same as one man traveling the hole world on one night delivering gifts then I guess it's true.





Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

Hey Putrid,so what does it mean if your daughter can turn her head around in a 360?

rod spain


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

HHHMMM? Able to turn her head around 360 degrees?
It must mean her dresses keep coming off when she flys through the tree limbs and she has "rodent-breath", but she's a "sexy-girl" with those huge, yellow eyes!
?

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

Yea but don't try to kiss her,you'll get green pea soup on your face!

rod spain


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

Let me throw out a question to get anybody's theories.Question:What is or ARE the causes for such things as ghost trains,ghost ships,ghost ships in the sky,etc?Out here near Manassas Batllefields there have been reports of ghostly Civil War battles on the what now are nice landscaped areas.

rod spain


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## wicked (Aug 27, 2002)

*I've always wondered about that myself Rod. Even if you believe in the energy "Fingerprint" theory, inanimate objects don't have conscience. Which brings up something else, how would a spirit have guns, or clothes, or carry an axe? Though I know objects absorb and reflect energy, but still, no thought to be able to "project" an image---And how do ghosts make moans, and screaches, and the like, when they don't have vocal cords---nor the "breath" that is required to make sound? If you believe the "Fingerprint in time" theory, how is it that a spirit can act independent of that fingerprint, like to interact with you in some way? I personally think it all somehow hinges on Quantum Physics, that way, because ALL things possess a certain amount of energy, it can exist on a Quantum plane---Maybe WE are ghosts to them? Or something like that, LOL. And why do ghosts or spirits always seem to be lost or confused? Too many questions, not enough answers *

"The banshee shrieks with* WICKED* delight, on this, a cold and death filled night!"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*Hey Gang!!!
...thinking about
~~~ how I feel in my line of
of work~~~~~~with a deceased body?
As a Mortician... My thoughts only!!!


This heat ....
temperature is ever present
A {{life shield}} until......
their in a complete cold state!!
Meaning.....
the intensity of life is
still present! No joking!! I know 
nothing of Quantum Physic's But...
I know about bodies....For all
practical purposes....we at the
mortuary know they are Dead!
Doing this much need job for 
their loved ones!

The Phenomenon of life force
in on going ? 
Are the {{SOULS}} still present!
I say yes!!
Until a body goes through a cooling
period....breath still comes! Gasping!
Body fuctions can be heard!! So true!
With no heart beats! Morticians don't
talk about this part of their jobs!!
I know of no mortuary that will 
embalm, a warm fresh body! 



The feel to a warm body is so human!
As if to say!-- I'm not done living yet!
The body goes through a process.....
Letting -US- know when its time is
up! {{Strange but so true!}} 



I truly believe the energy is passing
in some kind of {{MASS}} to another plane!
Does this coexistence of Phenmena.....
make it easy to say particles of light
can be moved in one world to the next? Yet
our world has a continious exchange of
life and death!




In all these experiences ___ I've never seen
a ghost! Living right next to the Cemetery,
no circimstances to tell!!! I know we all
will expire! Mortality, bestows all life!!
Its going to be un-avoidable!!
Are there others who feel these excessive
energies so strongly?!! I can only give
you the right after {{Deceased}}
feelings .......
Are these potential excperiences inconclusive?
Which bring in more questions! 
As we all know::::
The dearly departed can't talk
or simply won't! L.O.L.
~~~OoOoOoOoOoO~~~~ 
Dawn
*


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

..and then there was that experiment many years ago that attempted to weigh a human body as it died. They seemed to discover a weight loss of about 4 oz. I think, maybe this was the soul?

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*Gym, I believe all bodies have
a Soul!! Where it goes is up to US![^]
Dawn*


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## wicked (Aug 27, 2002)

*I think it depends how "Good" you've lived your life, and that when we die, we join all other energies of the universe. I think if your a good person and have been good to others, you increase your spirit energy, and are able to go on from there after dying. If you have not been good to yourself and others, I think your aura is depleated to a point you just fade away. I think thats what I believe anyway---At least this week, LOL*

"The banshee shrieks with* WICKED* delight, on this, a cold and death filled night!"


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## E.F. Benson (Aug 29, 2002)

I think the unexplained is more fun without any explanations.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Maybe, E.F., but have you ever had something totally unexplainable befall you? It kind of makes your mind beg for an explanation.
I remain thrilled yet very curious concerning such things. I once made a little button that I wore here for years it said, "Be Brave, But More Important, Be Curious!"
Last August when a loud, distinct, male voice called my first name from the back of the wine cellar, I simply said, "Well, after 16 years, you finally know my name!" (Owned the house 16 yrs.)
As I explain to people concerning this:"What else could I say? In 16 years they only manage to say one word, if I wait for another "word" will it be in another 16 years? Then wait for that third word in our conversation yet another 16 years? I doubt if I will survive the wait for a simple four-word conversation!
...16 years, "Jim!"...16years.."how!",..16 years,.."are",..16 years,"You?" 
"Who? Me?" I'm dead now!? (talk faster!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*E.F. Benson__ Two tumbs up!
All this -{{Unexplained}}- stuff
could be a -HECK- alot of fun 
~~~~{{Explaining}}~~~~ 
Where have you been?? Are you
a writer?.......I know you could join us
in Our Halloween Town! 
Your Freaky Friday Pal---
Dawn the BLACK WIDOW *

Mademouselle ~~ Countess''Dawn''- Von ~~ Frankenstein~~


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*Gym, you mean_______
I have to wait six more years
for -{{James Dean}}- to talk to me!!
I've been here for ten years!
If thats the case......he can just keep his
comments too himself! DARN IT!! L.O.L.
Dawn*

Mademouselle ~~ Countess''Dawn''- Von ~~ Frankenstein~~


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## E.F. Benson (Aug 29, 2002)

No, I'm not a writer like many of you on this forum, but I do stop by to read the posts. But even when I'm not here, I'm here in spirit. (no pun intended).


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*E.F. Glad you stop by our board.
You can't call me a write neither!
A rambling story teller!
Well....Maybe, just a rambler!! aha!

Dawn *


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Like I stated before, 'then there's the real thing." It's not hard to tell the difference. Real hauntings happen 24/7 365. 

Rod tell your daughter to stop watching so much T.V.. That ta do it to ya all the time! LOL Adn to save on food bills. Keep some of that soup in the fridge. Mmm Mmm Good!!



Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Like I stated before, 'then there's the real thing." It's not hard to tell the difference. Real hauntings happen 24/7 365. 

Rod tell your daughter to stop watching so much T.V.. That ta do it to ya all the time! LOL Adn to save on food bills. Keep some of that soup in the fridge. Mmm Mmm Good!!



Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

PUTRID!PUTRID!YOUR POST HAS APPEARED TWICE!Does that mean it's a "Fat fingered"therory that has happened.LOL.The local food market is making a killin'off of me in their soup department.The daughter is putting the warm pea soup in her MEGA SOUPER Soaker!

rod spain


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Maybe it was a ghost writer? LOL. 

One of the more interesting things about hauntings that I've investigated has been the way sound travels. In the one with the terrified man ready to sell his house you could be up in the kitchen and not hear a thing. However in the basement right under the kitchen you could hear the body fall and hit the floor above you.

One of the most horrific hauntings involved an old inn that was part of the underground railroad before the civil war. What would cause dead black birds to be in the kitchen? Even the icebox. You could get rid of all of them and go back and find more. This manifestation was physical. There where no sings of damage to any of the birds. 



Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Physical , natural things can seem to haunt a house. I have heard very strange rumblings and banging sounds transmitted through water pipes buried between two houses, the sounds of one water meter vibrating and being heard in the other house.
The one old , goofy guy called me because he thought this meant that his neighbor was stealing "his" water.
When repairing Kohler faucets with the sliding barrel design, if too much heat-proof grease is put on this barrel , the faucet will slowly turn itself on, sometimes full-on! It's kind of neat to stand there and see the handle slowly turn, very ghost-like! Very much a pain-in-the-butt if you have to take it apart and remove some of the grease!
I had a very old battery-operated smoke alarm whose dead-battery would squak ever so often,...for the next five years! It made these really strange noises too, people would say, "What was that?" That's why I left it up for all of that time!
I had an old toy that was made to be sat infront of a TV when a certain super-hero cartoon show was on, the tv show actually would somehow broadcast a signal to activate this toy, it would then talk, squak, make obnoxious sounds , uncommon to most of us. This toy also would sometimes pick up radio signals(this is just my guess)and it would do different, strange things , for seemingly no apparent reason, another good micro-personality with a mind of it's own to haunt a house with!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## wicked (Aug 27, 2002)

*I can add to the "Haunted Things" stories too. In my daughters room there are small battery operated toys---one inparticular, is a flying scaucer toy---One night, in the middle of the night, the toy began to play, making flying scaucer noises, and counting-"1-2-3-Blast off!". My daughter was very annoyed because it wouldn't stop! She removed the batteries-IT STILL PLAYED! She wound up having to put it in the hall closet. This was about a year ago. To this day it will still occationally play by itself.*

"The banshee shrieks with* WICKED* delight, on this, a cold and death filled night!"


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## E.F. Benson (Aug 29, 2002)

When I was 13 I believe I heard a voice in an empty room. It seemed to give a warning to something I was thinking about doing. I lived in that house for a number of years and nothing else ever happened to me or any other family members. I'm positive the voice didn't come from outside. After many years I have doubts about whether or not the incident really happened or was caused by an active imagination, but at the time I certainly believe it happened.


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

Well I can add more to this also.In my home one afternoon,I was down stairs sitting in my chair in the living room when I heard what seemed to be like a bowling ball being dropped onto the floor above me.Upon investigation,nothing was disturbed.Also about a week ago I was upstairs between my daughter's room and my music room,there is a 2nd bathroom in between the two rooms.Once I passed the bathroom I definitely heard a soft MALE voice saying"Hello".The bathroom door was open and no one was there.Go figure.

rod spain


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Did the soft, male voice actually say:"Hello, big boy, come here often? Can I buy you a drink?" then the toilet lid flew up and there came a flush! ? hahaah!
Why don't these voices ever quote us some un-called, winning state lotto numbers?
The deep, distinct, male voice that called out my first name from the back of the wine cellar last August (Did it yell. "Idiot!"?, no, it said, "JIM!") Sounded a little "raspy", infact, it sounded alot like MY VOICE? ..So does the supernatural like the "sound" of my voice to try to scare people with? Or should I be talking to Captain Kirk and Mr. Spok, maybe it's just me coming back from a future-past to scare myself?
The last time this happened to my ex-wife, she said that she thought it was me, because it sounded like my voice, but when this happened I was two floors above her leading a group of 12 people through the house, along with the fact that I never tried to scare her in anyway, because I wanted her to be "happy" and live here with me. (kind of makes sense, doesn't it?)
My ex-wife tolerated these events for seven years. Two years ago , last September, when "something" in the wine cellar yanked her hair straight up off of her head three times, she decided that she had, had enough! (The ceiling in that room is 12 feet high, nothing to have "caught" any hair on.)
If any of you guys reading this are having "trouble" with your girlfriend, or your wife,(or both of them!?) I can send some supernaturals over to scare someone of them away, it's easy for them, they just go, "Boo!", they have the technique.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Love the gadget hauntings! This is a true story told to me by a contractor.

They had finished a home and the new couple moved in. After a few weeks he got a frantic phone call and was asked to come to the house. Seems on very quiet nights they could hear voices. Traced the 'noises' to the wall behind the couch in the living room. When he put his ear to the wall he grabbed a hammer and broke away the plaster to revile a small radio that had been hardwired to the electric. Not the first tool lost this way but the funniest.



Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## E.F. Benson (Aug 29, 2002)

Well I'll go ahead and embarass myself and be more specific. My incident happened in the bathroom also in the middle of the night. I had a habit of flushing the toilet, shutting off the light and bolting to my room in a matter of seconds. I was simply preparing in my mind to run this routine again when I heard a woman's voice say "You better not". The only apparent danger I can think of is I might have hurt myself running to my room in the dark. Or of course since I was young and already "spooked" at being up and alone in the dark, I could see my mind playing tricks on me. As I get older I have more doubts, but I'll never be able to say one way or the other for certain.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Then there was the story I heard on Paul Harvey many years ago about a guy who didn't pay his re-modeler when the bill was presented (this customer had a bad rep. for this)
The customer frantically called the re-modeler to come over, there was this terrible smell in the addition?
After the re-modeler had the check in his grip, he walked over, reached up inside of the fireplace and pulled out the large fish he had put there afew days earlier!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

This Just In: Last Night At The Ravens Grin Inn-

Start of the tour-front room- Mom and two small boys (5),too small)
"Oh, they are big horror-movie fans, they watch all of that stuff, your house won't bother them!"
The boys wouldn't get off of the couch, too scared....
The next room, the kitchen, I realised the one boy was "loaded" (some can be real good at hiding this) he wasn't drunk, but he was "loaded", he had loaded his pants!
Unlike sitting at home with a remote control , this is just the "Jim-Channel", and when they can't turn it off so easily, it must get more scary than a movie.
Unfortunately parents don't realise that there will be a big difference,...but then she did say she wanted the s---! scared out of them!
Some people bring their children here for "discplinary" reasons, "You be good, or we will take you back there!" 

(It really wasn't pleasant, trying not to inhale, I mean, I naturally want to inhale several times each day!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

You should charge more for being used as a school principal.




Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My school princilpe spent most his time chasing golf balls around, and getting paid for being a school principle!
I don't golf.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## putrid (Aug 18, 2002)

Try harder to scare the parents out of there wits. And then charge them more for it!




Reminder from your O.C.C.O.C.P. “Ready...Set.....PROP!!!"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

April 19th-What a lot of fun!
A group of fourteen toured the house at 7 pm last night, only two guys in that group because it was a "bachelorette" party!
Standing outside of my house at the ticket window was where that show began.
After seeing a rubber dog puppet of mine one young woman asked if she could "pet" my "dog", to which I asked her, "Do you spend alot of time stroking latex?"
Different groups do get different tours here, maybe that is part of the appeal.
Late that night three guys wanted to see a certain outrageous video that I used to show at the start of my tour, it only took us about 35 minutes to locate it, but we do special things to give the customers what they want here, when we can (like now)
Then a couple showed up and I put them in with this group, the guy's girlfiend was a great, even though she was the only female in that group and I picked on her alot, she never stopped laughing and smiling and participating as I asked for a "Volunteer", then as I was holding her hand for one kitchen-experiment(usually Mr. Tuxedo handles this for me) I got a mental image of a hospital, I asked her if she worked in a hospital,? At the tour's conclusion as we were standing outside talking, I found out that both her and her boyfriend work in a hospital in Tenn....?
I have had such ESP-things happen often, unfortunately I would say something though that would dredge up unpleasant memories, "OOPS!"
Maybe I'm getting better at not doing this as I get older? I hope so.
It was a really fun night!
A couple also came here from Mich. to celebrate their anniversary, they were driving a hearse, they have a pumpkin patch and haunted business, so we stood around and compared goofy stories concerning scaring people , alot of fun too! Whata night!


"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Sunday, April 20th Ravens Grin 
A local family brought everyone, the small children included here, some had asked to come here (first time) some were scared, but made it through.
The couple here last night from Tenn. are related to this local family, so they came back again tonight too, but this didn't make it any more difficult to scare these two, we got them good, several times.
The father of the local kids screamed, jumped backwards, rammed up against a solid wood wall , doing this infront of everybody in their group! What a memorable night!(he has been through here probably 8 or 10 times!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

I have a few of my "children displayed in my foyer area.I had a friend of mine over from church and she brought her two sons with her.One of the boys was ALWAYS misbehaving.He came inside and immediately saw the corpses and started to cry and beg his mommy to come and bring him into the living room(the boy is about 9 years old).So the mother came and got him but not before telling him that the next time he acted up,he was going to spend the night at my house with my "children"!Its amazing how certain little props can be used as disciplinary tools.

rod spain


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Almost all fear begins within a person's own imagination, stimulate that and then "Anything" is possible.
Many small kids are driven passed my house, go home, have fear-full dreams, imagining what might be in here.
After they come through the house, the bad dreams stop because now they know what's here and it can't match the extremes of their own minds, because afterall, they know what really frightens them, I don't!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Tonight something may have been proven in the age-old debate in the haunted house business. The "experiment" was in progress and I didn't realise it at first.
Through-put versus entertainment value in the venue of the show?
Here is what happened here tonight:
A woman who was through the house just last December came here again bringing her children (who had also been here before) and her niece, a first time visitor.
Because this woman was here just 4 months ago, logic would seem to dictate that she should be more at ease compared to a first-time vistor.
About half way through the tour she began saying things expressing her doubt at making it through the house! She said she was very scared! She wasn't kidding.
Then she said the reason she was so scared this time was because of the stories of the house that I had been telling in the front room!
I had gotten into this actually just trying to kill some time (the evening was early yet)seeing if maybe this way, if someone else showed up too that I could then have everyone in one nice group, cutting my potential workload in half!
As human, thinking beings, we all do better and are happier when we also are dealing with human beings, relating to us and our needs and expectations.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## rod spain (Aug 27, 2002)

So Gym,did the kid make it?

rod spain


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Yes, they all made it through the house(This is what I really want to have happen)
I did scare the poor woman severly at the end of the tour, but she laughed about it afterwards, (what else could she do but laugh, it was so simple-minded, yet effective! And it happened right infront of all of the kids !)
Sat. night I scared a guy who has been through here maybe 8 times since I've been open (coming up on 17 years), he screamed, jumped straight back about four feet! It was quite a "show" since he is a tall, thin person, and this all took place right infront of his wife and three children! He laughed about it, he should laugh, he only lives 4 blocks away and has known me since he was born! (and I still scared him!) but then, I'm remembering when an old H.S. girlfriend of mine came through , many years ago with her family, I had her really distraught in my kitchen, with all the lights on as she was surrounded by her friends and family, of course they were all helping to hold her down, whereas she was the designated "victim" for my one routine!
Her eyes were bugging out of her head, she was protesting and twitching!..and begging, not at all like she was when we dated!
"Go Figure?"

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## paintballfreak63 (Apr 24, 2003)

Hello all! I just stumbled across this forum and decided to become apart of it seeing I love Halloween also. If anyone would like you can check out my site at httt://www.geocities.com/bursacsyardofhorrors. If you decide to venture over and check it out please be sure to drop me a line on my guestbook telling me what you think of my yard and site. Thanks. Hope to hear from some of you soon!


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Tonight at the Raven's Grin Inn seemed to be "Fan-Appreciation" night, Jessica pointed out to me at the night's end that everyone here was pretty much in this catagory, of being a fan of what goes on here."Jim! Jim! Jim!"
And just why and how would a guy running a haunted house have such fans? Maybe from entertaining(versus terrorizing) almost 100,000 people, face to face right here in my front room over the last 17 years.
Every show is different(somewhat) and can be taken very personably, and most seem to enjoy this.
They drove from Rockford,(65miles) Joiliet,(120 miles) and Alvin,250miles away) all in Illinois, with another group coming from 45 miles away in Iowa.
Why am I so tired after doing these tours?
Maybe we shouldn't have played volley ball in the sand at the park late this afternoon? Duh!?

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Last night seemed to be "Drunky" night here as far as the recent activities of the patrons.
No bad drunks, just a little louder than sober.
I am sure that some of them needed the "Courage in a Bottle" to even think about entering the big, old spooky house.(at least they said that they did!)
One young woman looked like she was in a movie, but was it "Lost Temple of Doom", or "Jackass?" A great part of the fun that people can have here is being set-up to then be able to scare the people they brought here.
So, she walks across the dimmly lit wine cellar, and "Wow!" This mysterious, ill-defined "thing" attacks her!(her friend, in hiding)but it's set-up so after it happens she still doesn't know who or what it really was!
She threw herself away from the "attack" and spun up against the solid stone wall six feet away, then stayed clinging to it, with her back to it, for all the world, affecting the look of a movie heroine , standing against some high, rocky cliff as the sea wind ripps at her clothing and her vice-like death-grip!
She is a very "toned" and athletic woman, who I later found out runs and jumps in and out of a UPS truck all day!
So my question to ponder is:"If this happened while on the job, would she still be hanging onto the package? Or would she have dropped it?
It's really hard to tell, she seemed rather tenacious but she was also very scared?
I had her climbing the walls of the front room (first room of the house tour) by saying "Hello"! (some fun!)hahaha!
As I "Boo! and they scream, often I hear it said, "And we paid YOU to do this to us!?" Of course I'm laughing hard enough that they already know what any response of mine would be!
The tours can be an hour to an hour and a half in duration,but beyond that , I have to stop and replentish my oxygen, nobody (not even me) can laugh longer than this!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*These are new ~Bragg Pic's~ from
~~~Jim's Haunted House~~~
At __''Raven's Grin Inn!'' 
Shhhhh~~~~ He doesn't know
about it ''YET''!! YIKE'S*
[/b]










*I -LOVE- your Home! This occupation So WoW!
Thinking the 'Haunted House guy'' has the best job
in the nation! aha Wondering~~~ if his repeat
business!!! Comes back to [email protected]@ his Haunted House?
Or the irresistible devishly wicked fare? OoOoOo
His nightly preformances, serve up! All
this Halloween Hootenany had got me
BOO-nana's again! {{OoOoh My!}}


Jim, your ghoulish gathering , has keep
-US- all in stitches!! Tempt us! Terrorize
us! With your wicked, sinister, crazed mind
....L.O.L. Wet our appetite~~~~
Gives us more.........YahoOoOoOoO!!!!! 


Sitting --Drinking -Red Gold- and smiling!
Thanks for coming back to our ~Little Haunt~
You put a gigggle around my halloween Heart!
Dawn














Pterodactyl.....hummmmm!
~~~ Out-Rageously Talented~~~ 
Your going to be dubbed the {{Halloween Jester!}}
My dear, I'm bam___''Boo''___zled with your haunt!
You make money!! Yet_____The focus is always
on amusement!!! Only in America. Wishing you 
folks much folly......smiling 
Mademouselle:: Countess ''Dawn''- Von Frankenstein *


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My old "raven!"
What else can you say if asked, "What kind of a bird ARE YOU?"
If you say, "I'm a pre-historic Lizard-Bird, then they would cut you up to see the "How" and the "Why" of such a thing, so it's safer to be a "raven".
I had the backbone / ribcage built when I got an idea!
At 2 am I walked these bones down to a local little restaurant, a very unusual , fun place, there were maybe 4 or 5 customers in there when I "floated" the bones passed the window afew times, then I heard, "What is that?"
You would think that with their mouths full of hamburger they would have made the connection, it was the "Great Plains Spirit of Moo-Moo-Cow-cow" coming to haunt them!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

2nd "Night of the Bachelorettes!"
Last night !
Read all about it on my website hauntedravensgrin.com under Jim's Ramblings.
I still type real S L O W! putting it down once will save me time , time that I need to more fully train Mister Tuxedo, my un-trainable Cat!
Also find some more sleep, those women had a 2 1/2 hour tour of this place! 3am stuff finds me tired the next day, why's that Jim?
HHMM?
the answer: one word ...Bachelorettes!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Deadna (Oct 19, 2002)

Hey Gym I caught your place on HGTV tonight---pretty cool! You and your wife make a cute couple. How on earth is she able to live in the same house with that giant spider in the wine cellar---creepy!!!!!!


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

That was an actress pretending to be my wife.
She pretended for about 7 years, then her contract wasn't renued, the sponser wanted Mr. Tuxedo to play my "love-interest" instead! What do you expect, the sponser was Tender Vittles Cat Food!
The Show was filmed in 1997 , alot has changed here since then.
The huge spider in the wine cellar is one of those seasonal sort of things, they appear for a week , disappear for 2 or 3 months(couldn't find one down there if money was riding on it happening!)
The part of the huge spider WAS played by my real wife! She wasn't deemed "photo-genic" enough for the leading lady role. hahahah!

Wifey had alot of "problems" living here, problems of a supernatural nature, they did seem to pick on her, putting on "special shows", just for her, and she never appreciated them very much!
When she would tell me about them, I believed her, 85% (I'm a natural "doubter") But then after she left ,...and some of those things happened to me....it's quite abit different when they call Your name, when they touch Your body in the dark, when things happen.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## BLACK WIDOW (Apr 17, 2002)

*Hey gang.....I'm over here tonight!
Right next to the cemetery! Yike's-
Not a soul








touching my hair! Nor Calling my name out
loud!! DARN!!! I've always heard there are
certain times of the year...You shouldn't
go in the cemetery!! Divine guidance....
something like that! With beautiful Urns
and stone benches, monuments and structures.
[email protected]@ why I don't need any tombstones or a
scary haunt for Halloween!! OoOoOoOoo


Its all so appealing.







Classical architecture 
with deteriorated marble inscriptions.
What a back drop!! Some of the tall monuments 
block my view. Boo hoo!! My thoughts are____
will my beloved ~~James Dean~~ ever call out
my name? YUM! Since we have
always been in the death business....wondering
if I have a deaf ear to these spirits!!? hehe
Been used to playing in the cemetery and
planting the dead! {Our Family Business}}
My mind isn't open to such
nonsense! I meant spirits...hehe 


She cuffs her hands and screams at the top
of her lungs!!!!

''James Byron Dean.....
''Come sit with me tonight!!'' 

Not a damn thing happened!
Her face puckers as if she
were going to throw a fit!!!


''The least you could do is 
make some figure eight's
in my hair!'' OoOoOoOO

''What about just whisper...
my name softly Jimmy!!!''

A long pause_______


Some nosies were heard after all!!
The screeching sound of a thrill
voice came from another room!!! 
..... ~Oh My~ .... 
She crossed herself!

The voice said -James Dean-
as it had ~Many Times~ before!!!









Drat's ___ I forgot to cover up the
bird tonight! So True!! OoOoOoo

She puts both elbows on the computer
table!! With open hands, she puts one
on each cheek of her face___ then
sighs deeply......

''I can't stand it anymore!!''
'' Where is my beloved
Day wrapped in Orange and Black???''

''How many more days until Halloween?''





Gym,.... Thank You for giving -US- such
refreshing stories about your Haunted house!!
I do enjoy them! Smiling  
Dawn




Mademouselle ~~ Countess''Dawn''- Von ~~ Frankenstein~~*


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Storms, nasty images on those radar screens, warnings, more warnings, the sky looks crazed and running at twice -speed, yet they still brave it all and drive 70 to 100 miles to come to see my house!?
We had a houseguest, he saw it for himself and couldn't believe it, but then, he had fun as he crept around the house and got in on the "Boo!-Fun!"
Maybe there are some positive things to be said for touring a real haunted house during a fierce storm? Positive things if you enjoy seeing such sort of things in movies, "It was a dark and stormy night..."
Ah, yes, those "Special Effects" of the lightning, thunder, rain trying to penetrate the siding, the county sheriff's siren going off a block away(the whole-town roof-mounted air-raid-sounding siren!)
It's just the kind of night that you would naturally expect there to be "extra" help spooking a haunted house, what did you think that you just saw out of the corner of your eye?
Visitors can somewhat relax once they are here during a storm or even a tornado, the wine cellar isn't crowded and it's deep under the ground. What's that? You don't like the idea of being "deep under the ground?", but my dear, that is such a common destination for most of us anyway,...event- u - a - l - l - y! (insert evil-laugh HERE!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

It was "Scream-At-Everything" Night tonight!
The group had this one young woman in it that began shrieking outside of the house!
She screamed quickly and often in the dark front room and if she was still sitting there now, I could do the exact same, simple-minded things and she would still be screaming just as loudly and as intensely!?
I pushed a button that activated a buzzer in that room and she screamed! I pushed it again, she screamed again, and again and again!
It became an experiment or a test. "If I keep pushing this button, will she just keep screaming?" YES.
Can anyone reading this even begin to visualise this scenario?
It was so funny, the other 14 people in the room thought so too.
The fun thing is, this has happened before.
So now you are asking yourself, "Was she just sort of really scared? Or just sort of Goofy?"
Well, the stimulation of this haunted house begins the moment you first see it, it does get people thinking and wondering and opens their minds to the impossible , maybe being possible, at least at this end of this street in this little town stuck in a time warp, or so it might seem, with all of the old buildings here.....
go ahead, you can scream if you feel like it,...others have...

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

What a Mixed Bag Tonight Was !
First some local girls who wanted to play Hyde & Shriek in the house at noon, didn't show up until 12:30,all of them had been through the house numerous times, one girl is a head taller than I when I saw her last, but I still heard her say to her friend, "I'm scared to go into the wine cellar by myself!"
One girl was walking down the basement hallway by herself, she slowly opened a door, looked into the next room, she didn't realise I was now holding the door open(it would have swung shut by itself), she still didn't notice me behind the door, so I ran my fingers noisilly up the door sort of like a really big, clumsey spider, then she screamed!
After this the tour from "Hell" showed up, the Moto-cross club.
They never quit talking for 2 seconds, one of them was constantly yammering and saying nothing, sometimes just making noise, sometimes acting out some obscure character that exists only in their own head(too many head bumps to the packed earth at the moto-cross track? Maybe?)
Jessica and I agreed that these 16 year olds displayed no traits of adultness, or anything like it that would help them to fit in with society.
Once in the wine cellar they all had a great time being scared and scaring others, then ten minutes later as they were walking to get back into their cars to leave they told the next group waiting at my front door that going to my house was a "Ripp-off" and not to waste their time!?
The Father of this group of nasty-boys spoke up and then loudly said to the people waiting that my place was very good, but that you had to "listen" to what was being said to get the entertainment!"
I guess someone only needs to have a three-second attention-span to successfully handle one of these bikes on a fast dirt track where reflexes weighs heavier and more importantly than rational, concentrated thought, which of course requires more time invested in it. I'm not saying this as a put-down, not at all, sports requires that competitors being winners have to be doing certain things, mentally.
The next group was alot of fun! (The way most groups coming here usually are!)
One cute little "Goth"-girl wavered from being brave enough to willing sacrifice some of her body-parts for "show", to screaming and being scared of everything!? She was quite a show for everyone else in the group!
One big, macho-guy in that group found out he could indeed get scared and even admitted it at the end of the tour!
Then came our late night tour and Hyde & Shriek group!
After the tour and again after the total program for the night was over (3 am) the one young man said a couple of times that this(the tour) was the most fun and interesting thing that he had done in the last 15 years! (I guess I did have this entire group laughing uncontrollably in the fron room quite a few times!
Only one woman in their group had ever been here before. She had asked on the phone if anything here had changed, I said, that "last year I had even changed my underware once!"
When they finally showed up, they were talking to me as I leaned out the 1958 Ford backdoor car-window that's my ticket-window, she was with her group, and she mentioned something about me changing my underware, I sort of cut her off and said, "I lied!"
She must have told her friends all about the conversation, because they all laughed!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

No tours tonight, but here's what's been going on at the Ravens Grin Inn tonight, I have it almost done, the Mayfest art show is this weekend. I have built Mr. Tuxedo his own Cat-O-Lic convertible, it's pink , of course to contrast with his black and white fur.
The car is made out of sheet metal and is six foot long.
The front end is kind of pointy/square, sort of like some 1979 Mercury, I think, but then it morfs into a cica 1964? Cadillac rear-end with smooth sides and small,pointy fins, and even a continental kit and dual exhausts.
The inspiration for this came from a plastic cat-dish we recently bought, it looks like a frame for a dual headlight set-up,(It's even made in silver plastic!) so I bought two of these plastic bowls and built the rest of the car from headlihts on-back.
Always an industry-leader, Tuxedo Industries is showing off it's new passenger restraint system (light-years ahead of bags and belts!)
On the rear deck behind Mr. Tuxedo's seat is a metal ring around a hole in the deck, Mr. Tuxedo simply feeds his tail up through the hole allowing it to almost fully stick up into the breeze, no seatbelt necessary!
(Maybe a clothes pin on the tail might become necessary, no knots in the tail, please!)
The figure of Mr. Tuxedo is all sheet metal and pop-rivets through scrap metal. It took alot of bending, figuring to get it to look like I thought it should

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

This isn't "Last night", it's tonight, but yet it happened at least ten years ago!
I had a call, a woman and her husband will be returning here soon.
Then she told me about their first time that they were here.
They were in a gas station picking up a tourist type flyer and down at the bottom of the page just a couple of lines said, "Ravens Grin Inn Haunted House, OPEN all year long" 
"We have to find this place!"
Later they came out, bringing one friend with them, first they checked into a local Mount Carroll hotel, the Carrollton Inn.
They watched some TV in the hotel, "The Silence Of The Lambs" was on.
They were freaked , just a bit, they were the only people staying in this large, three-story hotel(it's been closed now for quite awhile)
They came down to my house.
I opened the door, they came in, and it was one of those rare nights about ten years ago that I had decided to dress in "Drag"!(Not that it's a common thing now)
Remember the drag-dressing Psycho, Jody from the "Silence" movie?
Everything was just coming together , oh so well, just to give them some fear and apprehension....what fun! hahahaha!
We laughed almost non-stop on the phone tonight over all of this stuff.
She said her husband considers himself to be a very brave, non-plussed person, but I had him really scared in the little kitchen here! (No, I hadn't threatened to make him eat something that I had fixed!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Well, it's the first holiday weekend of the upcoming summer, kids are out of school, people are on little vacations, finding my house as a destination, sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident.
Last night three haunters drove quite a distance to see my house, they tok the house tour, then stayed the rest of the night to help with the remaining evening's business! What fun!
"Damon" was walking like a duck down a hallway with a black cape over him with a monster-arm sticking out, growling and one teenage girl screamed like you just wouldn't believe! Of course I was laughing very hard!
When some people would ask, "Why would you want to have a haunted house that's open all year?"
Maybe because it's alot of fun? Why limit you fun to just a few days of the year? HHHMMM?? Obviously the people asking this have never had this sort of fun in a haunted house, or they would know.
Some are so deprived.......hahaaha!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

That night that the two haunters came here and ended up spending the night, helping to scare the customers, they had some strange eperiences here.
An upright coffin in the wine cellar came open quickly and Damon heard a voice say, "Hey!" Damon thought it sounded like Adam, but Adam wasn't there!, nobody was! Welcome to the Ravens Grin Inn
A Real Haunted, haunted house!

Kevin, the other haunter was standing next to a pig that I made several years ago from steel and latex, he heard it "Oink!" at him, and no, I don't have any speakers nor devicea hidden therein, once again, welcome to a real haunted house!
They both remained impressed.
I had nothing to do with either of these incidents.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

It all began with an inquiring phone call."How late are you open tonight?"
"Till 12midnight, is that late enough for you?"
"Yes,I was to your house when my son was 12 years old, he's 24 now, I haven't been there since then, that was nine years ago!"
("24-12= 9?, no.")
"Er, I mean, er, no, gee I can't subtract can I?"
"Don't worry, I'll have your change waiting for you at the ticker window!"
"I bet you would!"

Hours later the doorbell rings and there they are.
The Father says, "I'm the one who can't subtract."
"I have your change ready, " I said.
"How much is it to get in?"
"It's ten dollars per person, so since there are four of you, if you gave me a 100 dollar-bill, I would give you back ...$10.oo change."
They were all now laughing, then I told them they were lucky! IT'S DOUBLE-CHANGE NIGHT!! ($100.oo -$40.oo= $5.00 ,Times 2 for double change-night = $10.00!
What a funny , interesting group that they turned out to be!
I managed to scare the hell out of them all, so many times!
Just a few feet from the exit, I got them all to really jump by just turning on the light!
Three of the four are from Arizona, they all want to come here and bring their friends! (It might be alot cheaper to make or buy "friends" closer to home!)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## wytchy (May 26, 2003)

Wow! Your house sounds _brilliant_. I am going to have to visit sometime. I live in England though, and I'd have to bribe the rest of my family to come too (they'd never let me go to the USA on my own) so it might take a few years but... I WILL FIND A WAY! 

Zer Vampir


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My business grew gradually over the years, and the fall got to be very nuts, requiring others to help to make it happen here.
My wife was the ticket-seller, yet it never worked out real smooth as far as she and I communicating as to when or if I was to begin another group, then she would get mad, frustrated.
She decided she had had enough of this place, the business,having her hair yanked three times in succession by unseen forces in the wine cellar was the last "straw" for her, this is a "Haunted", haunted house. Then later she said that there was no way that I could sell all of the tickets every night AND do the door-opening into the house AND do the front room routine ANd run the rest of the house when we are that busy!
That fall, she offered to "work" selling the tickets if I paid her an exorbitant amount of money! No thanks, I'll manage somehow.
I personally sold EVERY ticket that season and had an absolute BALL doing it! What a lot of fun! I got to see and talk to them all before I opened the front door, and sometimes even scare them, or at the very least come up with some funny improv dialog as I made change.
My ticket window is on the door of the rear door of a 1958 Ford that hands on the side of the house, I roll down the window to talk to them. It's part of "Kamakazie Cab" that is impaled into the side of the house (seemingly), all part of the swirling dark vortex , drawing in everything and anything nearby. The first floor of my house is painted flat black to attempt to achieve this sensation, as the upper areas go to grey, then light grey, finally ending with all of the fancy woodwork all detailed and painted bright colors.
The house may seem to be "Floating" at night.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Last night I discovered that in a group here, there were three returning members of a group that was here about a year ago in which a very strange thing had happened in the front room portion of the tour, infact, the one girl was even sitting in the same location on the same couch as she was that night!
This was the night during which this particulair girl asked the question:"How often do supernatural things happen in this house?"
I said, "It seems to me that they happen either just before or just after the full moon, about every other month."
A very short time after this, there came a rather loud, strange noise from behind me, a sound that I've never heard before, "What was that?"
I couldn't figure it out, there was nobody in that room that could have influenced any such activity behind me, everyone was sitting infront of me, quite aways from where this sound had emminated. 
"I think that something fell off of your television." The young man said.
A skull was missing from it's usual location up there.
We couldn't find the skull for quite sometime.
I finally found it 12 feet away! On the floor, at the feet of the girl who had just asked THAT QUESTION! (pertaining to supernatual frequentcy)
So to start last night's tour, not even realising she was this person, or that she was seated in the same location from a year ago, I bent down toward her in the dark room and shined my flashlight into my own face and she screamed bloody-murder! Of course everyone else had a good laugh over this!(a common response).
After I found out that three of the four people that were here a year ago were all once again seated in my front room, I then told the story, and upon finishing I asked all of them to please correct me , or add or subtract anything that they might disagree with in my telling of it,,,I was once again given a grade of 100% for the recanting of the facts, this is what I trully strive to do each time for accuracy's sake.
It's a "Haunted", haunted house.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

This afternoon a woman and her daughter toured my house, she has been meaning to see it for a long time, but things would come up or she would feel just too apprehensive, she has some certain abilities to sense the supernatural.
She and a daughter were driving down the alley next to my house one time at 3 am and they saw a young man waving to them from my second floor southeasterly window!
For a living person to have been in this window would have required alot of work for them, whereas that window is basically boxed in and is a display window with some dim lighting in it, a screw gun and some labor would have been required to have access to this area.
After her tour today she said, "There's an "Un-Happy Camper" in the wine cellar."
She felt touches upon her right shoulder as she walked down the steps into that room.
This would have put the "Un-happy one" in the south wall, the same area at which four people who were here for Ghost-Seekers night last October saw mists floating around at 2:30 am, as they sat in the total darkness.
This is also the same side of the room in which my now ex-wife had her hair yanked rather vigorously three times straight up into the air, three years ago, this September as she waiting alone in that room to help with a tour.
This is also the same side of that room that a huge, heavy bag of padding flew up , through the air, traveling many feet, for no apparent reason, then fell to the floor, causing my two employees that saw this happen to quit and never come back again!
The most recent thing to happen in that room (I don't know the exact location)was a man getting kicked right in the butt , he turned and there was nothing behind him except a solid stone wall!
(No, I don't have a stone that pops out of the wall and does this either!)
It's a haunted house, you can see what it looks like at : hauntedravensgrin.com

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Well, it wasn't "Last night At The Ravens Grin Inn", it was this morning at ten O'clock, a requested tour for a group of ten 7th graders with the YMCA.
Every little thing made them jump and scream and stop moving, going into a protective huddle and ensuing tactic-conference for the next five minutes!
By the end of the tour they were all having fun scaring each other in the wine cellar!
A really neat thing to me was how eventually they got much braver than I expected them to and had a really fun time, forgetting about the abject fears that they started out with here from the beginning of the show.
Incredibly cheap therapy! We identify the fears, laugh at it and go on to something else!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

New here, "Seatbelts for your Motorcycle!" Courtesy of the Ravens Grin Inn Haunted house, at least this is a suggested usage for my new orange, black and white bumper stickers! (They are sticky)
This summer I am trying to take the Ravens Grin car to as many parades and car shows as possible(but I have to be back here by 2 in the afternoon for tour business)
The car is a 1989 Olds station wagon (just like some small-town morticians used for hearses!)
I have modified it ever so SLIGHTLY! hahaah!
I don't quite yet have any very recent pictures of it on my website, but the pictures there may just give you an idea..
"It's the Corn-Fed Illinois LandShark!" see at : hauntedravensgrin.com

What makes this "Haunted House" a bit different from any others out there?
Could it be that this is a "Haunted", haunted house?
Could it be when I am telling people about the house in the front room as the tour begins, that I tell it all so logical sounding and real?
Could it be that I have absolutely no trouble making it all sound believable because it is all true, and a lot of it has happened to me?
Who needs "Hollywood" when home-grown, hometown ghosts are already here and on the job?
A portion of the people that come here and bring their children here, bring those children here for "Discplinary" reasons, "You be good, or we will bring you back there!"
Lately we have "cured" a few who were very obnoxious children, funny how being suddenly alone in the total darkness, in a large, strange, underground room with scratching and growling next to one, can achieve these results.
Now if I could only figure out how to get a monthly payment plan set up for non-returning visitors?
HA-ha-HA-ha! (evil laugh inserted here)

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

The second floor of the Raven's Grin Inn is now Air-Conditioned!
(Well, at least most of it!)
All of the doors and walls kind of mess-up the best air-circulation, but eventually it will bring down that air temperature and humidity.
For many summers when it would get real hot and remain that way for extended periods, I would try and try to talk visitors into just a tour of the cooler parts of the house, like maybe telling all of the spooky haunted stories in the 53 degree wine cellar, but "NO!?" They always wanted "The whole tour", even if their nose was melting , dripping down into their underware!
Well, now almost all of the second floor will be much more hospitable, it will even be easier on the helpers this October when it gets hot from simply body-heat! On will go the AC!

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Last night here was hysterical!
There was a group of October-Haunters from 90 miles south of here who came to see my place. It is definately fun scaring these guys !
"I have to go home now and change my pants." I heard one say, funny thing is, my neighbor working on his truck out in the parking lot heard him say it too!
The lights were on, they are walking passed me single-file and each person sees the reaction of the person just ahead of them, but still I get them each to jerk, scream, drop, hustle on passed, they all know "something" is coming, so it isn't exactly like a surprise, yet it still gets them!
One of these guys said after the tour, "Your house is a mind-F***!"
I asked him to explain?
"Well, it's partially the confusing physical lay-out, but it's also your stories that you tell during the tour and the other distractions, I asked my buddy, "How long have we been in this place??" He didn't know either! You totally screw-up a person's sense of time when they are in there!"(Or maybe it's the supernatural properties of the haunted house? How does a ghost measure "Time"?)
He said something like the "Attention to detail" also got him, so much to see and contemplate when going through!
Seventeen years , same location, working on it everyday, working in it every night, and that's what happens! (sorry!) hahahah!
Then a late group came in, led by a customer who has been coming here for about 14 years!
The fresh victims he brought were so fun and funny! I had to inquire (when he and I were alone) "Where did you find these people?"
So scared, yet here in the house, so imaginative, so reactive!
The guy was so reactive to every little thing, that I really started having fun with him, I would do something, only to him, he would scream and react, then I wouldn't do it to the rest of them, he was left to try and describe his recent experience to these doubters! It was hysterical!
A cardboard-cut-out doll became "The Lady-In-White" ghost to him!
After the monster arm reached out at him(no one else saw it)his description of it was" something squiggly!"?
Then they heard the backyard bug-zapper fry a bug and they said, "Maybe it was just that, the bug-zapper?"
(So they thought a noise from 35 feet away could have manifested itself into a physical arm?!) how funny!
Of course I make my living doing this, but "payment" last night for me was much more than mere money, the fun, the memories and the gracious compliments from all, made my night!
I am very fortunate.

"My Insanity is well-respected, until they wiggle free and become a stringer for a tabloid"


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