This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 15:02:09 -0700
From: Ross (ross@CritPath.Org)
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Subject: Brinton Lodge
I know I've sent in a bunch of stories already, but here's one more. It's not exactly harrowing, but it convinced me of the existance of the paranormal.
In High school, I got a bus-boy job at a local restaraunt, which at the time, was called Brinton Lodge. I got the job there, because the place had a reputation for being haunted, and I thought it would be quite a thrill to work there. The building (near Reading PA) was built in the 1750's as a tavern/roadhouse, and had been added onto quite a bit earlier in the century, so it was really rambling and spooky-looking. There had long been stories of creepy things happening there, supposedly an Indian had been lynched on the site, and a ghostly bride would roam the halls, and articles of old-fashioned-looking clothing would turn up in odd places. There were stories published about the place, even a few visits from psychics, one of whom said that the whole building was a "magnet" for spirits, who may have died elsewhere, but found their way to the building.
Anyway, I was entertained for months listening to ghost stories the waitresses told, but I was growing more and more dissapointed at my own lack of ghostly experence there. I was always looking for doors which would close by themselves, and lights going off and on, but I just couldn't seem to find anything, or even fool myself into believeing that I had.
Well, late one night after closing, I was upstairs alone, just finishing up. I was in the back hallway, heading toward the stairs, when I heard a noise at the end of the hall in front of me. It sounded like a totally sterotypical ghost noise, like a quiet moaning, or breathing, and at first I thought it was coming from the kitchen below, but I realized that it wasn't. It sounded likr a male voice, and was very soft, barely noticable, but it had this really wierd quality. It was though I was outside, hearing a sound coming from miles away, but this sound I heard was indoors, and only about 10 feet in front of me. I've NEVER heard a sound with a quality like that, and I was looking directly at the spot from where it was coming, and of course, there was nothing there. Needless to say, I was really upset, and to make matters worse, I had to walk THROUGH the noise to get to the stairs! So, I ran for it, and made it downstairs OK.
I told the waitresses, who completly believed me and who told me of similier experences they had while in the upstairs. A while later, one of the other bus-boys quit, because he said that he had been working upstairs alone one night, and had looked in a mirror, and NOT seen his reflection.
I quit a while later too, mostly because I hated the work, but also because I felt like I had finally made my contact with the supernatural, and I really didn't want to see more.
Ross in Philadelphia