Source Staff Writer
Employees and patrons of the Locker Room took part in a privated seance in which Clinton Township minister Patricia Davis attempted to contact the spirits left behind in the bar.
Source photo by Matt December
They?re not going home; they?re staying there.
Several employees and patrons of Utica?s Locker Room Saloon filled the third floor of the popular tavern on May 8 to make contact with some otherworldly guests that they say have not heeded the last call.
They decided to tell the departed barflies that if they wanted to stick around for a bit, that was no problem.
For years, employees of downtown Utica?s popular watering-hole have described strange occurrences that they believe could possibly be the work of supernatural beings. Dave Pittman, whose family has owned The Locker Room for 25 years, said he?s witnessed several inexplicable events himself.
?I?ve had doors slam shut on me, cash registers open on their own,? Pittman said. ?One of my employees has been locked in a freezer for several minutes that only locks from the outside and no one was downstairs with them. I?ve had several of my staff members say they?ve seen someone walking around downstairs.?
Pittman said that?s just the tip of the iceberg. Every few months he said his employees make him take them down to the Locker Room?s basement after closing and turn off all the lights. There, under the empty bar, Pittman said footsteps can be heard above. One time, his uncle?s keys were hanging on the back of a cooler and disappeared; Pittman said they found them nearly four years later, in the basement ceiling.
In conjunction with the 102nd anniversary of a major fire that destroyed much of downtown Utica and the Locker Room?s 25th Anniversary, the bar?s owners decided to hold a seance. They invited Clinton Township minister Patricia Davis to make contact with the Locker Room?s creepy customers.
Davis, a minister at Divine Dimensions Institute and Spiritualist Center in Clinton Township, said she became able to communicate with otherworldly entities after her daughters visited her two weeks after their deaths. As she toured the Locker Room?s dank, damp basement, she said she felt the presence of the supernatural.
?There?s a sick feeling in that room,? she said as she walked out of a small alcove near the Locker Room?s furnace. ?There was a man who used to put all the beer and liquor in there and he got stuck in the fire. There?s another man whose job was to shovel coal into the furnace and he still does that. He leaves sometimes when he doesn?t have to watch the furnace.?
Davis turned off all the lights in the basement in order to see if any entities would emerge. She said she briefly saw a ?wraith? near the furnace room, but it disappeared out of fear of all the people around.
As Pittman described the experiences of his staff, Davis said the events matched up with other reports of supernatural phenomena.
?Those things are all typical of how a spirit works,? Davis said. ?Tapping, touching. That?s how they let you know they?re there.?
Several of the bar?s employees described how they often play pranks on other workers, making them think the supernatural is occurring even when the ghosts haven?t appeared. Davis said the spirits are likely to be fellow pranksters and may even appreciate joining in on the fun.
?They?ll act like you guys. They think they?re still alive,? she said. ?We don?t change when we die. We?re still the same person, just not in our physical bodies.?
Before heading up to the Locker Room?s abandoned third floor to conduct the seance, Davis asked Pittman if his desire was for the spirits to leave and head to their homes on the other side; Pittman, however, said that they?re more than welcome to stick around, as long as they?re not hurting anyone.
But while the spirits, named Bert and Ed, were going to stick around in their basement home, Davis said two other visitors were waiting to head into the light.
In the establishment?s sweltering and unlit upper rooms, Davis said more entities were sticking around. Pittman said employees have glanced up at the bar?s upper windows and caught a glimpse of a woman staring down at them. Footsteps, he said, could sometimes be heard scampering around on the third floor. Davis said those were the marks of a woman and her young daughter, who had been trapped in a fire and were not able to escape to safety.
?They can see the window, but they can?t get out,? Davis said.
During the seance, Davis said the group of 23 was going to attempt to send the woman and her daughter home. Sitting in a circle with clasped hands, Davis urged the attendees to clear their minds and focus on loved ones who had passed on that they wanted to make contact with. The group sang hymns and Davis prayed that the beings would be taken away to their home on the other side, where they would be safe.
?The mother and daughter have accepted the light and are leaving home with me,? announced Davis, claiming to channel Saint Therese.
During the seance, as Prince?s ?1999? and the B-52?s ?Love Shack? drifted up from the bar?s jukebox, the crowd kept their eyes closed and meditated. Locker Room staff member Robin Bugbee was overcome with emotion and said the experience was immensely spiritual and powerful. She said the event provoked the response of speaking in tongues from her.
?I carry that gift and I?ve never been able to properly utilize it. But during (the seance), I was just speaking in tongues to myself over and over, that?s all I was doing,? said Bugbee. ?The tears were coming. I couldn?t stop them.?
Sterling Heights resident Michelle Figurski received a personal message from Davis, who told her to keep her eyes open for an old acquaintance named Murphy that would cross her path again. Figurski, a regular Locker Room patron, said she does indeed know a Murphy and would be paying attention should they meet again.
?It?s strange because the only Murphy I know is a long-distance ex-boyfriend of one of my friends who I?ve met once or twice,? she said. ?I?m not really religious, but I?m open to this. I?ve been to a psychic before and she was pretty right on.?
Jamie Grieg, also from Sterling Heights, said that while she came into the seance a skeptic she?s was taken aback by what she experienced.
?It?s almost like I don?t know what to think,? she said. ?It?s reminding me to stay open-minded.?
Pittman, who admitted having trouble concentrating on the seance with the noise drifting up from below, said the event was a fun way to celebrate the bar?s anniversary. He said the Locker Room will continue to welcome its otherworldly guests.
?Yeah, absolutely,? he said. ?As long as they?re not hurting anyone and having fun, that?s all that matters.?
http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/stories ... 1001.shtml
