For the Record – Oct. 30, 2014

by Barbara Mastriania

This is the week that calls for ghostly stories. And I’m told there are more than a few in this Renovo area and more in Lock Haven and beyond. I am a believer. I’ve probably written more than once in this column about the ghost or apparition I saw in my house quite a few years ago.

We were putting a window air conditioner in a window that had not been opened for many years. I was asked to go inside and help shift the air conditioner in place. When I walked in the front door I saw a woman go up my stairs. Honestly. I swear it’s true. I went all through the house to see if someone had entered from the back door. I could not find anyone.

I’ve never seen the woman since or anyone else of that nature. I’ve always felt it was on the Klinefelter sisters who lived in my house for most of their lives, and that she wanted to know what we were doing.

Some years ago I was told there’s a ghostly spirit that visits the upstairs floor of the police station. Officers told me from time to time they would hear someone walking upstairs. The officers have moved on to other places. I’m not sure if the ghostly spirit still resides in the borough building attic or it has also moved on. My guess is that it’s still there. I don’t think ghosts move from building to building. But, I really don’t know about that.

I’ve also heard from a neighbor some years ago about some haunting lights that appeared some years ago.

In recent years there’s actually a haunted house that comes to life at Chapman Fire Company. It is a scary experience all made possible by Bucktail High School students. If you didn’t see it this year, be sure to mark it on your calendar for next year.

But now back to the ghostly story a neighbor, Jim Seyler, told me. He wrote to me about it in 2003, shortly after he experienced the event in North Bend.

“The following event happened on Friday night June 26, 2003. It was a clear starlit night! My brother Ken and I were stargazing in front of our house. I was on the sidewalk. Ken was on the porch when all of a sudden he said to me, “Hey Jim, look at that beam of light coming from the field.

He was right. Only it wasn’t coming from the field? I found this out by going into the house and getting my brother Richard’s yellow flash lights. Then I went out and told Ken I was going to see what was causing the light.

I walked across the railroad tracks and down River Road. I got to the field and looked all over but saw nothing. I yelled to see if anybody was there. No answer. I walked down to the river bank and shined the flashlight all around. I called out again. I saw nothing. I flashed the light to the right and to the left and then there they were. They were blue, white and red.

I yelled at them. They didn’t answer me or pay any attention to me. They just kept going around and around without making a sound. I reached down and grabbed some loose sand and rocks and threw it at them. It went right through them. Still, they kept going around and around each other without a sound.

I told Ken about what I saw and also my neighbor Lucy Janerella. Then she and some other people also saw the lights. My brother told me the lights appeared to be or look like an Indian Spirit . He claimed you could make out a headdress.

I told another neighbor and he told me people travel up and down the road and could also see the lights.

I went back to the riverbank the following year but didn’t see the lights. But something else happened. I was standing on the riverbank when all of a sudden shooting starts appeared above me, all together. There were 30 or 40 shooting stars.”