Here is a "ghost story" which actually happened to me. This is as it really happened - no agumentation needed.

In the early 1970's I was working at a Live Theatre on an Army base - Ft. Lewis, in Washington State. The Centurian Playhouse, had a small company of civilan employees & assigned military folks. We did about 10 Shows per year as well as 4 Operas.

There were many volunteers from the base as well as the local community, Lakewood (suburb of Tacoma). As a highschool heterosexual this was a great place to meet girls, who were actresses in the shows.(Perhaps this is best in another newsgroup)

Anyway, I was working late at night, hanging light fixtures high on the first pipe, (first row of lights out in the audience) standing on top of a large over-extended extension ladder. Definitely not OSHA approved.

Everyone had gone home for the night and I was making great time getting these lights up and ready for focusing in the morning. Because of the late hour, and so I could see where I was aiming the instruments, all the house lights in the building were off - had been for hours.

Alone with my thoughts, I was startled when I felt a firm tap on my left shoulder and heard a "hello" from behind me.

This really startled me because I was alone at the top of a 25' ladder!

I whipped around to see a male figure, from the waist up, dressed in a rough flannel shirt and suspenders with a full beard and messy hair.

This really scared the hell out of me, and I got down the ladder in a flash, ran out of the building, jumped in my car and did not look back.

The Theatre was right next to a Base exit and a freeway on ramp. I blasted north on Interstate 5, and in moments drove past the Theatre - to see all the lights in the building on and all the doors open!

I drove to my bosses house and related my story to him, feeling a bit sheepish by this time. He reluctantly went in and closed the building up. finding it the way I described. He had worked in the Army Live Theatre Division at Ft. Lewis for some years and told me of some of his experiences, much like my own.

He said that yes, there was some evidence of a ghost - local news paper reports from 20 years prior and things like that.

It seems the Centurian Playhouse was built in the beginning of WWII on a frontier cemetary, when the whole area was pretty much wilderness. (1850 - 1880's) Later it became Ft. Lewis, and in the early stages of WWII, the Army built whatever it wanted to, wherever it wanted to. Still does I suppose.

This marked a dramatic upswing in "experiences" related by other Theatre workers and even more personel ones by me.

During one performance, I was out front, way up in the back of the house. 2 large doors at the entrance to the balcony seats started swinging back and forth. This lasted long enough for me to check doors on the other side of the house, and to notice the sound of other doors in the building banging away. After the show, people back stage experienced the same thing.

Other times, while walking on stage, empty except for long black velour "legs", I would "feel" someone on the other side of the drapes - a bit of a breeze blowing the drapes I would reassure my self - still, nobody was answering my inquires. Other times I would hear mumbling or rustling on stage and walk over to say Hi to whoever might be there - to find nobody.

Aside from the first time on the ladder, I never felt threatened, and kept on rationalizeing my experiences, telling my self It must have been wind or that old building settling or something.

After time, the Vietnam war wound down and the Army phased out the Centurian Theatre, later to tear it down. It really was a fire trap after all.

To this day, I recall my experience on the ladder as if it were yesterday, even if I don't recall all of the girls I chased and caught. I don't consider myself a "believer" in ghosts, but always feel there must be something to it - like everyone else who says they have had an experience - I know I saw and felt something.

Rick Mills
rmills@earthlink.net