[This sidebar accompanied my Local Haunts piece in the
Elmhurst College Leader. It was true then, and it’s still true today: the
Country House makes the greatest cheeseburger in the world. I go at least once
or twice a month. I also go out to Bachelor Grove Cemetery every once in a
while. One time I went with my friend and co-creator of THE COCAINE! BROS.
Robert Tannahill. He took a picture of the double grave all the way back and
left from the gate. It looked like someone had been digging in it. When we got the
film developed, he saw fog in the shape of a face. Sure enough, it was clearly
a face, and it took us a moment to see a second figure, this one head and
shoulders with two cigarette burns for eyes. I would love to post that picture
here, but goddammit. That asshole lost the picture when he moved away from
Chicago. As for Munger Road, it is no longer as creepy as it used to be. It’s
paved and well-lit. The house by the railroad tracks is gone. There are no more
frogs or even fog. Too bad.]
I went to a lot of these places in order to research them,
and given the number of sites I visited, I had a minimal amount of
“supernatural experiences.”
The first was at the Country House. I had just finished my
interview with David Regnery and was unlocking my car door when I heard a
knocking sound on the hood of my car. It wasn’t anything weak like a tapping,
it was an actual knocking. It was my second trip to the restaurant (of three),
and I have not experienced anything else there. I don’t know what to make of
it, but spooks or not, the Country House makes the best cheeseburger I’ve ever
had.
At a second trip to Bachelor Grove
Cemetery (again, of
three), I didn’t have any experience while I was actually there. I took a few
pictures. Nothing fancy, just a point and click camera. When the film
developed, all the pictures except for one came out with a strange white streak
through them in the dark background. I don’t know what to make of these
pictures, but I’ve been asking around. So far, there hasn’t been an
explanation, but I’m having a friend of Richard T. Crowe look at them.
Aside from that, I just went to very spooky places. In fact,
the first time I went out to Munger
Road, it was 3 am, and raining fiercely, complete
with thunder and lightning. Fog covered everything, but I saw no dead children.
Whether these places are haunted or not, I don’t know, but they certainly are
scary places to be.
And yes, I do have a pinch of dirt from Mary Alice Quinn’s
grave. I experienced the smell of roses while I was there, but that was because
someone actually left a couple of roses there that time.
No comments:
Post a Comment