As Forth mentioned, we were at a wedding in Des Moines this weekend. The reception was held at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, where we all stayed as well, obviously so the whole family could get shitfaced without having far to stumble. We have never stayed at a hotel as old as Hotel Fort Des Moines, which was built in 1919 and has a fairly reputable history. Famous people such as Mae West, Spiro Agnew, Charles Lindbergh, Red Skeleton, Jack Benny, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Liz Taylor and a slew of presidents including Richard Nixon, Calvin Coolidge, Lyndon Johnson, JFK, George H. Dubya and Woodrow Wilson have occupied a suite in the hotel at one time or another. Unfortunately, as extensive Googling proved, nobody seems to have been gruesomely murdered there, because I wanted to see a damned ghost.
Forth will tell you that I watch enough ghost and haunting shows on the Discovery and Travel channels, so when one of my aunts told us that she swore she saw a figure in a white nightgown cross the bedroom of her hotel suite as she was turning off a light and getting ready to leave for dinner, I got super-excited. I took a bunch of pictures of the area she saw it in, but all I came up with was two orbs of light that could have easily been reflected off the glass top of the dresser and end table of the room. There were no cold spots or draining of my camera batteries or anything. Of course when 5 other people are in the room watching TV, it’s probably not the best time to ghost-hunt.
In reality I’ve never had any experiences with ghosts. The one time my fifth grade friends and I held a séance to try and bring back Elvis, the basement door slammed by itself but I’m sure there was an air pressure change in the house somewhere. Oddly enough, as soon as Forth and I got back to our room after I took the picture, we stood and watched the door creak open, then shut itself. While creepy, we also had two windows open and it was windy outside.
That said, I would like to hear about any paranormal experiences from whoever stumbles upon our blog here. If you’ve seen a ghost, know somebody who has, or if there is a particular area in the city you live that is haunted, share it. Forth, a non-believer, won’t give a crap, but I’ll be interested. Perhaps I’ll even go explore the supposedly haunted lighthouse in a park near our apartment. Demonic child laughter and cold spots really don’t sound that freaky to me.
**Back.
4 responses so far ↓
Forth // 27 May 2008 at 6:42 pm |
Jack Kennedy is JFK.
I’m fairly certain Back’s aunt was suffering from a brief retina burn incurred when she turned off the light. She probably saw a slight white spot as she turned her head and it kept moving as she followed it because it was on the same spot in her eye. Thus…
Anyway, Ghosts? Spsh.
FarmacyMan // 27 May 2008 at 8:30 pm |
Yup one of the houses I was looking at was 100+ years old and generally creepy. I was standing inside a walk in closet on the 2nd floor (with my realtor nowhere near) and the door slammed shut behind me. Coulda been anything, but there was no windows or doors open, the house was all shut up and still as it was vacant….
I didn’t buy that house.
Back // 28 May 2008 at 7:39 am |
Creeeeeepy.
There is a house in my hometown that is supposedly haunted by these two kids who got locked outside during a rainstorm, were abducted by aliens, and came back with black eyeballs. Town of 10,000 and that is the best they could come up with.
Forth // 29 May 2008 at 9:05 am |
Ok so Farmacy’s story is the best so far. Back’s black eyeball one had me when I thought perchance the children died but then the aliens showed up and I cry foul. You can’t get to greedy with these myths. If you want to tell an alien abduction story, tell an alien abduction story. Don’t go mixing aliens and ghosts together. It won’t sell.