Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? I’m not into the creepy, demonic, blood and guts ghost stories where people get hurt, but I do enjoy a good chilling tale now and then.
Original photo by P. Rickrode 2015
The Baer House Inn is one of the houses on the Haunted Vicksburg Tour. The leader of these tours brings people inside and tells them a tale of intrigue that may or may not have happened here.
Now, I have never experienced any of the strange happenings that are talked about on the tour, however, something rather ghostly did happen here. Something unexplainable and very real.
Not too long after my husband and I bought the inn, we started remodeling and redecorating. One of our projects involved relocating some chandeliers. Five to be exact. We hired an electrician and early one morning, they went to work, taking down lights and rehanging them in their new spots. About an hour after they got started, my husband and I were in the hallway talking about something. We heard a crash that sounded like a thousand expensive crystals shattering into a bazillion pieces. Followed by dead silence.
We looked at each other with wide eyes, our mouths yawning into perfect O’s. I muttered a hushed curse. Obviously, the guys working upstairs had dropped one of our super expensive chandeliers. We whispered amongst ourselves about how to handle the situation. Should we confront them or let them come to us? We waited with bated breath for someone to slink downstairs and apologize profusely for damaging our property. Nobody came downstairs.
“They must be texting their boss,” I said. “Find out how to tell us that they’d broken one of our lights.”
We waited. And waited some more. We decided to give them ten more minutes. After five, I couldn’t stand it any more. I crept upstairs, being extra careful not to step in any glass fragments I was sure littered the floor. Nothing. No mess. No sound. Two guys were up on a ladder in one of the rooms attaching a chandelier to the ceiling.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Great. We’re almost done.”
Almost done? That’s it? They aren’t even going to mention the broken $10,000 light fixture?
I turned to face my husband and mouthed, “They’re lying.”
I proceeded to march my little self into every single room upstairs, checking for lights, damage, broken glass, a broom, trash bag, anything evidencing the crash we heard downstairs.
Nothing. NOTHING. Every light exactly where it was supposed to be. Say what?
I went back into the room with the men on the ladder.
“Hey,” says I. “Did you guys hear a crash a few minutes ago. Like something big, and crystal, and expensive, falling and breaking?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“We didn’t hear anything.”
Now, my husband and I both heard the crash. We both knew immediately what it was. And yet . . . nothing broken. And that my friends, is the mysterious case of the shattered chandelier.
Have you ever had a ghostly encounter? Ever experience something you couldn’t explain? What do you think we heard?
Word of the day: Gagaku
Fun fact about me: I don’t really believe in ghosts. And yet . . .
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, October 2016. Photos courtesy Google Images and P. Rickrode.
jansenschmidt 
Ooh…spooky. I definitely prefer an unexplained sound to seeing anything I can’t unsee, like red-eyed clowns staring at me from the shadows beneath my bed. Maybe someday Miss Patricia will change her mind about ghosts. 🙂
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What can I say? I’ve always been a skeptic. I don’t believe anything I hear and only half of what I see. I’m a hard sell.
However, I do know for sure that I heard a chandelier breaking.
Thanks for visiting. I’ll keep a look out for red-eyed clowns.
Patricia
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Maybe the crash came from outside? Someone drove by with a radio on, and it was the sound effect in a commercial? Who knows. I’m pretty skeptical, but cool story! And a fun one you can tell guests.
DH and I went on one of those ghost tours in Marietta, OH. It was pretty silly. One “ghost” liked to rattle a flag on a streetpole, funnily enough, every time a breeze blew. A lot of the tour was really just local history, so I enjoyed it for that. And wow, did that tour guide convince me that oral storytelling is alive and well!
Can’t say I’ve ever seen or heard Gagaku…
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The “haunted” tour here in Vicksburg is pretty cheesy, too, but the historical information is really cool. A lot of men died here so, who knows, maybe some are still wandering the streets at night.
Makes for good story telling that’s for sure.
Thanks for stopping by. Now go get your Gagaku on.
Patricia
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$10,000 chandeliers? Really?
One thing that happened to me would have been unexplainable to most people. I was taking off from what used to be called Arapahoe Airport in the Denver area on a hot spring afternoon. A very new pilot at the time, I’d overloaded the plane without realizing it. As we accelerated down the runway, I could see we weren’t going to gain enough speed to lift off. A barbed wire fence at the end of the runway seemed to move toward us.
At the last second, the plane jumped the fence. A valley fell away beyond the fence, so I was able to point the nose down and build up enough airspeed to keep flying.
There is no physical way that airplane should have gotten into the air. I know, although I can’t prove it to doubters, that angels picked up the wings and threw the plane over the fence. You are free to believe that or not.
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Dave – I’m so glad those angels were paying attention. I’ve have a similar experience while driving a car – waaaayyyy too fast – on an ice slicked road. I should have gone over the edge when I lost traction, but at the very last second, something (or someone) literally pushed my entire car sideways away from danger. That was a creepy feeling. I’ll never forget the presence of those angels.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story. And, yes, $10,000 chandeliers. I have about 10 of them in the house. They’re huge, Austrian crystal fixtures. Very beautiful.
Have an awesome week.
Patricia
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OOH I loved this story, Patricia. That is awesome and I wonder if it was a sound that waited hundreds of years to be heard??? Yes, I’ve encountered ghostly experiences and have always thought them awesome.
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Unexplainable things like this are a curiosity that’s for sure. I love the idea of a sound waiting hundreds of years to be heard. Like there’s a whole vault of sounds waiting for the right moment to be released. Cool!
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.
Patricia
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At least you now know why you are on the ghost tour
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Indeed we do. That was such a weird experience. There’s another story, too, but that’ll have to wait for its own post.
Thanks for visiting today. So nice to see your happy face.
Patricia
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I know!!!! Our back door to the garage used to slam and when we had the banger, sometimes it sounded like the house split in half during the day. I would run around expecting to find a big mirror had crashed. Nothing. He was quieter at night.
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I never even knew that spirits could make themselves known by noise; I always assumed they appeared as an apparition. I know sometimes people say they feel cold or smell odors,but I never even considered sounds. It was a strange experience for sure.
I hope your banger leaves you alone. I hate not being able to sleep when something like that wakes me up.
Thanks for stopping by and weighing in. I guess we have this strange little thing in common, huh?
Patricia
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