Welcome to our regular Saturday feature “What Aggravates Me”
I know, Halloween already seems like a distant memory. You’ve already taken down the Halloween decorations and put up the Christmas tree. Do they have Halloween lights that can change from orange to Christmas colors? Maybe even just turn to white. This would save the trouble of taking down one strand and replacing it with another. If nobody invented them already, I just did.
Last Friday I went on my third annual Halloween ghost hunt. This one was at Arsenal Middle School in Lawrenceville. It was hosted by the Steel City Medium, Leslie Gray and John Schalcosky, founder of “The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh.
The school is located on the sight of the former Allegheny Arsenal. We were given the history and the fact that an explosion happened on September 17, 1862. Some of those killed in the explosion are believed to still be hanging around.
We then were told that we should download a Ghost Hunting App they were recommending. That was problematic because I had to remember a password which I can never do. You’re supposed to make passwords difficult so other people can’t figure them out. Good luck staling mine, I can’t even get them myself. Finally, somehow it came to me. I don’t know, maybe a ghost whispered it into my brain. Which means now a ghost can hack into my e-mail and Twitter accounts. Yeah I know, nothing to lose sleep over.
Then we broke off into two groups. One would go outside to the sight of the explosion, the other to the third floor of the school where there is reported activity. John Chamberlin decided we would go outside first and then come in to do the podcast before moving upstairs.
As we moved outside we turned on our ghost hunter app and began to explore. It was a combination EMF detector, which detects electromagnetic fields, and a voice box, which plays white noise that supposedly ghost voices can infiltrate. There also was a box where words could appear.
On previous ghost hunts, the people I went out with had different combinations of these types of actual devices. Here we would be using a phone app that I just downloaded. Right away my wife Chrissie’s EMF field was going insane. She also had the words “Near You” appear in the box. I looked down at my phone and the word “Mother” appeared. It never did finish what it was trying to call me. Which should have told me something right then.
Every person in our group of, I think was around 30, was picking something up. People were getting voices and growls. Then my wife picked up a breath or growl, then I picked up a breath or a growl. People in the group were asking questions and feeling like they were getting answered and then it started to dawn on me. My wife and I began to discuss what was going on. Either we were in one of the most haunted places in the world that was having amazing activity or…and this is the conclusion we went with…
“This app is a load of crap!”
Later on for fun, I put it on in my car which I found out is extremely haunted for a 2016 model. Also, the drive thru window at Taco Bell was having a lot of activity. I’m going with the word “Pain” coming up as nothing more than a coincidence and had nothing to do with what I would experience the following morning.
We turned off the app when we went back inside and now would be left with only our senses and that’s never good. My wife and I went out to explore on our own while I was waiting my spot on the Podcast. I had a lot of time since those bastards always bump me to the end of the show. Sometimes when I think I’m about to go on, they’ll start wandering around the street asking anyone if they would like to be a guest. I think they do it just to aggravate me.
We really didn’t experience anything. Didn’t see or hear anything. Took some photos and there was nothing unusual. We did run into the night custodian and asked him if he had any experiences. He said that he often hears footsteps and smells pipe smoke. He also said that the hand dryers in the third floor women’s restroom sometimes come on by themselves.
There were also some teachers that came on the podcast and said they all see the same things. So, there are experiences there. It’s just that we didn’t have any. It could have been because too many people were wandering around. Maybe the ghosts were turned off by the Friday night Lawrenceville hipster traffic. Unlike the app, ghosts don’t show up on command.
My wife and I did run into a couple of women who were scaring the hell out of each other with the app. They told us that they were having a conversation with two little girls. I said,
“Be careful, you don’t want them to follow you home. In fact, when you get home, turn on the app just to make sure they’re not still with you.”
Ok, it was a slow night and I needed to have some fun. Oh, and ladies if you’re reading this, If you can’t get the girls to leave, just take them to Taco Bell.
Follow John on Twitter @jknight841
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