Carbondale Bytelife

Halloween was extremely quiet this year. Despite the Trick or Treat on Main Street that I had seen mentioned in the paper, I had zero trick or treaters come to the store. Looking at the CMS' website, I see no such event listed, as the schedule jumps from the Chili Cook off to Lights Fantastic, so guess the metnion I saw of it was wrong.

I heard from people who came for the store's party that they number of trick or treaters visiting them was markedly down from last year. However, as I drove through town earlier in the evening, I noticed a number of churches set up for "trunk or treat" so we may be seeing a shift of behavior from gathering candy by visiting strangers houses and gathering candy that may have been tampered with to gathering candy in a more controlled and structured environment. Also much less chance of getting hit by a car as the kids run from house to house.

Labels: Halloween

Faner Hall has had several sightings, mainly during the '90s, of a female student in striped top and jeans, carrying a backpack and hurrying briskly down a hall or into the women's restroom. The sightings I'm aware of took place in the evening and were reported by janitorial staff. The stories were genrally the same. They staffers were cleaning and the girl walked quickly past them but when they turned to look at her, she had vanished.

In one store, the staffer was cleaning one of the women's restroons. A girl came through the door of the restroom, walked past the staffer into one of the stalls. The door didn't close and the staffer didn't hear any sounds coming from inside. After several munites passed and the rest of the room was cleaned, the cleaner knocked on the unlatched stall door. The door slowly swung wide open revealing an empty stall.

Supppoosedly the girl killed herslef in Faner over a romance gone bad, but as with similar stories from other SIUC buildings, there's no evidences any deaths have ever happened in the building.

Labels: Halloween, siuc

Glad to see a few places in town have decorations up. I do see a lot of scattered pumpkins sitting on front stoops or pruches but only a few homes with anthing beyond that. As far as I can see, only the Petal Patch has any exterior decoration.

Labels: Carbondale, Halloween

Oakland Cemetery, at the north end of Oakland Ave, has a couple of interesting haunts that could give someone on a dark night quite a start.People have reported occasionally seeing balls of light floating along the old railroad bed that runs along the northern edge of the cemetery. BTW, if you want to make a tour of it, people have seen similar balls of light floating along the railroad tracks near Boskydell and those running south from Makanda as well. In fact, floating balls of light are a staple along railroad tracks all over the country.

Also, there are a couple of mausoleums in Oakland and someone likes to play tricks with the one closer to the road. Thought apparently the key is lost, on occasion visitors have found the door unlocked, entered and seen a painting or glass image of a young woman moving to look at them. I have heard of a FOAF who entered the mausoleum, had the door lock behind her, and saw the image of the woman move to look at her. Never did hear what happened next, though. I've been there several times, never lucky enough to find the door open though. Strange thing though, every time I've been there, I've found burnt candles in glass jars or holders on the steps, sometimes votives but most often larger ones.

Oakland closes at 6 p.m. but the road runs right alongside with a clear view of the old railway bed and the nausoleum.

Labels: Halloween

Since it's October and Halloween is coming up, I thought I'd point out some of the haunted spots in town over the next couple of weeks, besides the Huntley House, that is. Wheeler Hall, on the SIUC campus tuned 100 in 2004 and has been the site of some poltergeist activity over the years, most notably during the 1990s. I was told of one incident by a student who's mother worked in one of the Wheeler Hall offices prior to the 1992 renovation. The woman was in the basement one evening filing some paperwork (by herself of course) when a chair suddenly slid across the floor towards her. Needles to say, she exited the basement posthaste and refulsed to ever go back downstairs again unless accompanied.

Labels: Carbondale, Halloween

It's officially October now that Chittyville School is open again. The haunting starts tonight and continues every weekend through Hallowe'en. You can read the legend behind the haunting here (beware the annoying music that starts as soon as the page opens). BTW, the research I've done, and admittedly it's very little, shows no records of anyone vanishing from the school during the early part of the 20th century. After all, you'd think local parents would get a mite disturbed with one of their children vanishing from school halls every October Thee's been some strange stuff happen at Chittyville School over the years, but not due to putting up the building on an abandoned cemetary. Makes for a good story, though.

Labels: Halloween

Well not Main Street exactly but around the Square and down Illinois. A dozen businesses in the downtown area will stay open from five p.m. until eight, handing out candy. Participating businesses include Longbranch Coffeehouse, Rosetta News/Tropicana, Town Square Market, Clayship Guitars, Arthur Agency, the C'dale Main Street and Chamber of Commerce offices, Castle Perilous Games and Books, Country Goddess, RagWear, Tantastic, Book World and Attitude Designs. Check the ads running in the Carbondale Times and NightLife or call the Main Street offices (529-8040) for more details.

Labels: Halloween

It's October so that means it's time for the local media to revisit the Hundley House, site of the most notorious unsolved murder in Carbondale, and a touchstone for local ghost enthusiasts. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a short, somewhat jumpy, video on the murder and haunting.

Labels: Halloween

Apparently there've been quite a few thefts of Halloween decorations from people's yards in the last week. I had a stuffed witch and plastic pumpkin taken from my front porch Wednesday night and a friend over on Glenview had about a hundred dollars of decorations stripped from his yard in one night. One family over in the southwest part of town puts out such a large display and has had stuff stolen often enough that they've installed permanent tiedowns in their yard to which their decorations are fastened. It's a darn shame that people can't put out something nice for others to look at without having to worry about a thief helping themselves.

Labels: crime, Halloween

Apparently Carbondale made it through unofficial Halloween with only hundreds of people arriving on the Strip rather than the thousands that joined the Facebook group focused on making it happen. About 90 people got picked up during the revelry for underage drinking. Luckily, it appears no-one engaged in the type of violence and vandalism that marred past Halloween celebrations. However, it's going to take more than one peaceful, albeit drunken, night to convince the University and city to eliminate the ban on official Halloween.

Labels: Halloween

Interesting piece in the DE today about unofficial Halloween. I've been hearing some talk about this. I found the last couple of lines in the story pretty disingenuous:

Mulderink, however, said he disagrees and thinks if students prove they can handle themselves in a Halloween setting without riots he is sure Carbondale will remove the restrictions.

Mulderink said he was doing everything possible to keep this celebration from turning out the way past Halloweens have.

"I don't want any rioting to take place, and I've been trying to do everything to prevent that," he said.

You've got 8000 people interested in coming downtown the 20th to drink and don't think there's going to be trouble? I'd like to know what the "everything possible" he's doing to prevent riots is? Somehow, I don't think it includes him hiring security for crowd control out of his own pocket. And I don't think people are going to be remembering warnings on a Facebook page when they're out at PK's or Hangar 9.

Labels: Halloween

This week's story is on DCI Biologicals. Apparently the basement is downright creepy.

Labels: Halloween

The DE has published the first in their annual series of articles on haunted places in Carbondale and Southern Illinois. Hopefully, they can get through the month without Huntley House or Hickory Hill.

Labels: Halloween

No, not Christmas. Despite stores putting out tree trim already, we've still got three more months. Halloween's the holiday where it's at. When else can you run around in a mask, extorting candy from innocent households with official sanction, then gorge yourself until you're sick to your stomach.

This is also the time of the year when it's cool to talk about one of my favorite topics: ghosts. I've already done two interviews on the topic. So here's your chance to post your favorite experience or story about someplace local. Had an experience at the Huntley House? Seen the blue glow in Oaklawn Cemetary? Ran into the student wandering the halls of Faner? Inquiring minds want to know.

Labels: Halloween