|
This is a tiny little free subscription ezine for friends of The Grove - it is by request only. In other words, we NEVER arbitrarily add email addresses. We also NEVER sell or share email addresses with anyone else, for any reason at any time. We hate SPAM as much as you do!
Well, March is almost gone - I can't believe that 2006 is whizzing by so quickly. It'll be time for Christmas again before we know it (actually, more about that in a second). The weather here in Jefferson has been crazy - hot at the first of the year, a freeze here in March, and a ton of rain in a short amount of time. It's been keeping us guessing.
There's a lot of events coming up in Jefferson - the Chamber of Commerce is doing a great job of planning weekends here in town. Something always seems to be going on, which makes this an exciting place to live. Check the Chamber's website (www.jefferson-texas.com) to see the 2006 calendar. It's awesome! Okay, it's official. The Grove is going to be on the Candlelight Tour of Homes the first two weekends in December. No ghost stories, but it will be decorated for the holidays featuring natural greenery and candles. Docents dressed in Victorian attire will be in every room, and we're going to do our best to make The Grove its most beautiful ever. Oh, and don't forget the First Annual Texas Paranormal Conference that will be held in Jefferson, Texas on April 22, 2006! I'm going to be speaking there, and I can hardly wait. I think that it's going to be a fun weekend. You can get the details by going to The Grove website (www.thegrove-jefferson.com) and scrolling down until you see the conference banner. Click on it for all the info. As you may know, the bigfoot conference has been held in Jefferson for the last several years, and it has grown into a huge event with 400-500 attendees. I would imagine that this conference will do the same thing in years to come, so don't miss out on this very first one. I've got to get the tee shirt - the logo is very cool.
If you've visited the historic Oakwood Cemetery here in Jefferson, you know that it's a fascinating place. It has graves dating back to the 1800s, and the statuary in incredible - angels with swords on top of the monuments. I've always been intrigued with it, and I've spent literally hours there walking along the paths. Because I love the place so much, it is the topic of my latest book: Angels of Oakwood: Jefferson's Historic Cemetery. Check out www.thegrove-jefferson.com/oakwood for more info!
We've got a few very cool ghost stories this month: a dog story, a tour story, and a "scientific equipment" story. One evening, February 23rd to be exact, I was up late doing a little writing. Our basset Lilly was asleep on the couch there in the den, and the last time I'd seen our other basset Delaney, she was at the foot of the bed (Tami had already turned in). About 11 PM I distinctly heard what sounded like dog footsteps coming through the center stairwell and into the hall. There's no doubt about what I heard, so I assumed that Delaney had gotten up and was walking into the den. When the dog never showed up, I stood up to check - she was still fast asleep at the foot of our bed. I don't know who those little paw-steps belonged to, but I can only hope that it was one of our departed bassets - Murphy, Samantha or Fred. On the 14th of March, I was doing a tour and everything seemed to be going as normally as ever. We were in the den - the "new room" - which if you've been to The Grove before you know is the place where most things happen on tour. In fact, so many things have happened in there that when I eventually write a book about The Grove, I'll probably be able to fill an entire chapter with events just from tours in that room. On that day, one gentleman was standing in front of the television cabinet in the corner, when suddenly someone started grabbing his calf from behind. Since I always try to come down on the skeptical side of things, I wondered whether it could be something like a muscle spasm. He told me that it was definitely something grabbing him, though, just a couple of feet off the ground - like a child, I guess. Hmmmm... We're already planning Candlelight here at The Grove, and one of the things that we're planning is an outdoor tree surrounded by animals - fake ones, since we probably can't get real ones to stand still during the entire event. On March 3rd, we'd just been given a plastic, life-sized duck to use in the menagerie. It looks great, but it has an extra feature - it quacks when you walk by. We had it in the kitchen to play with it, and then put it on the kitchen floor for the dogs to experience. They had fun barking at it to no end. I was just about to turn it off when I had an interesting idea... I took it up front and placed it in the parlor in the corner where the house is most active. It sat up there for a while, and I'd pretty much forgotten about it. Suddenly, the duck started quacking. I was in the rocker, Tami was on the couch, and Lilly and Delaney were both curled up asleep. I walked up front to see what was happening, but there was nothing there - that I could see, of course. The air conditioning wasn't on, neither was the heat, and the room was very still. I went back to the den, and it wasn't long until it quacked again. I went back and moved it to the very top of the mantel - at least six feet off the floor. I went into our bedroom for a second, and as I was walking out it quacked once again. I stuck my head in the parlor, and I could see nothing there. The quacking went on through the rest of the evening. Finally, I moved it to the other side of the dining room, where it was silent for the rest of the evening. I have no idea what was setting it off, but it was clearly picking up some disturbance in that corner. Well, things continue to happen, and I'm sure that I'll have a few new stories at the conference - and definitely for the next GroveZine. Thanks for reading!
Okay, time to close for a cold, rainy March at The Grove. I'd like to sincerely thank you for reading the GroveZine, and for your interest in the spirits of The Grove. The main website for The Grove is: www.thegrove-jefferson.com To repeat our words from the beginning, this is a free subscription ezine for friends of The Grove - in other words, we NEVER arbitrarily add email addresses. We also NEVER sell or share email addresses with anyone else. To subscribe, send an email to mitchel@whitington.com with the following words in the subject line: Subscribe Grove To unsubscribe, send an email to mitchel@whitington.com with the following words in the subject line: Unsubscribe Grove |
