I?m slowly becoming a believer. I?m not talking about the holy spirit here, but some type of spirit or spirits that reportedly share the Model Mill Building with the Noblesville Daily Times and other businesses.
I?m quite skeptical when it comes to most things. That?s partly due to my seeing-is-believing outlook on life, and partly because my given profession requires me to be so. I believe most ghost sightings, UFO close encounters and run-ins with Big Foot have some plausible explanation.
But I?ve also seen enough to know that we humans don?t know as much as we think we do.
I?ve long heard that the Model Mill Building is haunted. The historic structure is one of the stops on the Unseen Press ghost walks that visit locales around Noblesville. In October, around Halloween, I heard many stories of strange occurrences here in the building when we asked people for their personal ghost stories. Jerry Snyder recently wrote about some of the strange happenings and a couple deaths associated with the building in her ?Now and Then? column.
As usual, I?d written most of those stories off to overactive imaginations. But some unexplained incidents have hit pretty close to home ? particularly one that was reported to me this week.
Our digital media manager, Ryan Dillman ? who is at least as big a skeptic as me ? heard whistling and the sound of papers rustling in my office about 6 p.m. Thursday. That?s not unusual as I?m typically in my office at that time, and I frequently whistle while I work.
Ryan went into my office to talk to me, and found it empty. I had left early Thursday to meet my family for a Valentine?s Day dinner.
A bit confused, he began walking back to his desk when he heard giggling coming from my office. He checked each office in the newsroom, but all were empty.
This comes during a week when some very weird things have been going on with our computers and other equipment.
Technology always has some glitches, but some of the stuff that has happened this week defies explanation ? folders getting moved in our system, files that I know I saved reverting back to a previous copy, our trusty printer refusing to print without warning and then deciding to print later, and much more. All week we?ve joked about gremlins running around the office.
After hearing Ryan?s story, maybe it isn?t gremlins, after all.
Ghost stories began popping up around the newsroom again Friday after we heard about Ryan?s experience.
Many times I?ve been in the newsroom alone about 2:30 or 3 a.m. on a Saturday after putting together that morning?s edition.
Everyone else will have already left, when I hear the door to the newsroom open. I can?t see the door from my desk, so I assume it is one of the sports staff or Managing Editor Rob Borders coming back for something they forgot. When I don?t hear anyone, I go out into the newsroom to see that I?m still alone. This typically leads to me locking the newsroom door. I ain?t ?fraid of no ghost, but then again, my mamma didn?t raise no fool, either.
Several months ago, page designers Keri McGruder and Heather Hafer were leaving the newsroom, when they turned the corner and saw someone step onto the elevator. The door of the elevator remained open until they reached it.
Stepping in, they were preparing to thank the person for holding the door for them. But no one was inside.
I?m sure some of these instances have perfectly plausible explanations. Strange noises aren?t uncommon in an old building. And computers tend to do things that make no sense. Of course, that?s what I?m going to keep telling myself.
http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php? ... Itemid=225
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
