Long story about a Motorola found on an abandoned farm
 

As some of you know, I like to go to abandoned houses. I went to three over the Easter break. I always take a souvenir when I leave and I always hope to find an old set in one of those places, this time I did. But something’s wrong with this old farm. I parked down the road since the driveway is gated and I didn’t want cops seeing my car out front. I walk to the back where I find an old 1955 or so Chevy work truck with a flatbed, sunk to its axles in the dirt, I felt bad for it and shut the open door after sitting in it for a minute and shifting the gears. I was already picking up a “weird vibe” that I didn’t like but there was so much cool shit to look at that I couldn’t leave. I found a total of I think 5 cars and trucks, two Chevy long bed pick ups from about 1975 one being a camper special, it’s been awhile since I‘ve seen one of those. One truck had been wrecked in the front. Two were AMC wagons from the early to mid 70s. All had plates that expired in 1983, all were sunk to the axles in the dirt. They looked to be in good condition when left, almost no rust or dents, just vandalism and theft of parts. One AMC had maps and a coat on the seat amongst other crap, the cars were simply driven there and left to rot. The Chevy trucks were rotted away from sitting, those mid 70s Chevy trucks in particular would rust a week after they rolled off the assembly line, the imported steel they used was very bad.

THEN there is the barns and garages, nothing good in there but they are all full, the hayloft is full of very old hay. The main barn had a lot of old household crap and magazines laying everywhere. Outside in the yard is farm equipment, tractor from the 20s that have been stripped for parts, a very large combine and other equipment, engines, barrels and shit. The garage stunk of chemicals, there are old metal cans of antifreeze and paint thinner rusting and leaking all over. All cabinets and drawers gone through and pulled out, things everywhere. You could tell people have taken anything of value, but there is so much there still. Sadly, no lawnmowers, probably stolen years ago. I don’t think anything was taken by the owners, only abandoned. WHY?

I saved the house for last, it had the most foreboding feeling of any old house I checked out. All windows are broken except a few which is too bad because that is why so much water is getting in. The back door was wide open, the second I walked up I got a chill and my intuition or inner voice, whatever you want to call it was saying get the f out of there. Did I leave? No. I probably should have but no. I went on in, smashed glass and crap all over the kitchen floor, looked into the living room, there was furniture, personal paperwork, family and school pictures, kids homework and more, all at least 20 years old. In the old front porch which had been turned into a room in the 70s had a lonely 1975 Zenith SS black and white tv and a 1987 MGA color set that was laying on the floor next to the very old bedframe that was in there. The roof has been leaking for some time now, the stairs have rotted badly so getting up there was not easy, water damage from top to bottom. The other side of the house has a leak in the roof in the same place, opposite the other leak. It is going to meet in the middle and the house will fall down in a few more years. The bathroom is upstairs and has the water damage from the other leak. More personal belongings up there, one bedroom has two beds for kids and a 1969ish Motorola 19” B/W set. The bed has seemingly been moved out of the way of the leaking water as if someone cares about it. The tv was on the floor in front of the two beds and a box fan is by the wall, wind howling thorough the broken windows. There is a very surreal and SAD feeling in this house. The only thing I noticed totally missing are clothes, I think that’s all they took like they left in the middle of the night and never came back. The other rooms have more paperwork, bills and crap.

There is something weird about the way this house seems to cry for help, it’s all I can do not to go out there and tarp up the roof and start fixing things. I usually never feel this way about them and have been in many, it’s like it’s calling me back. I was thinking of the house on Monday night laying in bed when it was raining, sad that more water is getting in. I have also never felt so compelled to write my story down. I am going back to check it out better and find info on the people that lived there and do some more exploring. I took the Motorola tv and it has the creepiest feeling, even after I got home. I may just bring it back to the house, I don’t want that energy at my house, I never brought it in, I just put it out in the garage. I doubt I’ll bring it back up those stairs but I’ll leave it in the living room. I also find it odd that there has been vandalism but no one smashed those tvs. Maybe it looked somewhat like this when they left, I don’t have any idea. I’m starting to wish I had never stopped there, it’s like I feel different now and can't explain it. I should have listened to my intuition. Thanks for reading my insanely long story about a wierd house and a crappy tv that none of us are really crazy about. I’m posting the story now but I’m going back this week to take pictures and bring that set back. I’ll post the pics.

that is a good story,mark.i think we all have been in similar situations.at least you didn t trash the place more.most folks your age would have done so.please post pics of your find.will see you in hilliard!

I really enjoyed your post, and completely understand the feeling you had when you were around that house. Some places just have a stronger "imrpint" on them than others, and I can only imagine how much stronger that feeling is when the previous occupant's belongings are still strewn all over...

Some places definitely come to mind from your story...Places stuck in another time, like there's a layer of dust over a still-life of a deceased person. Sad indeed, but IMHO the TVs are still worth saving. Let's face it, no one wants them anymore and the place is probably going to be demolished one of these days.

It's eerie to think about what, if any, spirits or energies are attached to the possessions which come from these type of homes. I think most are benevolent, but you'd ''best watch out'' for the ones with malicious intentions.

Only one time, out of all the times I've taken stuff 'from the unknown' did I feel as though I had encountered a malevolent spirit:

A 1987 CTC-130 TV from the curb. Worked well enough as found. One day I went down to the room where it was set-up and it was on, with a blank picture. You can believe the next part or not, doesn't matter to me: But it did happen.

The set wouldn't shut off, or change channels, or do anything. You should have seen how fast I ran after I held the AC plug in my hands and a beyond-HD image of an old man's tattered face appeared.

Weird stuff associated with this hobby, for sure.

Houses like that are breeding grounds for all sorts of fatal to humans bacteria & viruses.
That creepy feeling or vibe you picked up is death reaching out towards you.
Better call the EPA if chemicals are leaking into farmland soil.

Nothing to worry about IMO-LONG response
 

Being raised on one of these farms/ranches before I moved to 'town' I can identify and totally recognize the scene you have described.
In fact, we still own several like you described.
Many farms here are conglomerations; a few thousand acres here, and then another thousand here, thousand there, Like us as people sold out to my family over the years as they left the trade for greener pastures.
Some of the previous owners stuff still resides here, and there in a few of our 'YARDS' as there is no garbage disposal services on the farm other than a dump, and burning barrel.... who wants to drive for 45 minutes or more just to reach a landfill, especially to throw away stuff that isn't theirs!!

When we moved to town all those years ago we selected things we wanted, and things we would sooner forget stayed out
Some are just acreage with a grainery here or there; the larger ones are peppered with a couple of houses and maybe a fuel tank or two with Toolbar's and disks, some seeders, combines, tractors ect, I just got done working on one of the farms last week.
Several farms have implements, but no tractor because the tractor goes from farm to farm with the operator rather than owning multiple expensive tractors and is stored off-site to prevent vandalism..

I was there from tuesday 7:00 am until 8:00 pm, same hours wednesday,thursday and also saturday last week.
I finished working the acreage and am not scheduled to return to this farm to work the land for another 3 YEARS, it is in CRP..
so for all parctical purposes this land is abandoned
So the farm is occupied approximately 48 hours over a 3 year period.
This can make for a pretty 'spooky' feeling for the uninitiated, non farm raised person but likely this scene would have not even caused me to pause for I know just how common it is.
To someone else coming to one of these farms/ranches from a busy, hustle, bustle city it could easily be culture shock; I can't even think how many 'farm garages' I have been in that look just like you described, pillaged and plundered; just like the owners left them:yes:
tal
http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/IMG00428.jpg

I believe it. With all the experiences I've had, I whole heartedly believe it. This might just be one of those tvs. I did plug it in as found, it tried to work but no HV, not bad for a set that has been in front of a broken window for years with the elements blowing in on it. I really don't know if I want it. No other "souvenir" form an old house ever gave me this errie feeling before, at least not THIS bad. What did you do with that RCA??? It would be scary just carrying the set out of the house after that. Weird stuff indeed....

Hey Tal, thanks for sharing, this stuff usually don't bother me either but it was different this time for some reason. I too was raised in the county and we had a farm. I can't wait to go get the pics to share. It took a couple hours to look at it all, there is a few things I'm going to check better. It is weird that the tractors are there, like you said those usually go with the people because they cost so much.
eberts, I agree with you on the bacteria and viruses. I do this stuff at my own risk. These places are extremely dangerous, to think I used to do this as a teenager with no cell phone and no one knowing where I was......at least this time I had a phone:D

Yeah, Mark.....about that RCA....I didn't tell anyone why i wanted to get rid of it, and my buddy took it for free. Never saw it again, and he used it for another year or two and then upgraded. He threw it out.

There is a place near here called Pressmen's Home. It was the headquarters of the printing pressmen's union from 1911-1969. They built several buildings there, the most impressive of which was the Technical Trade school Building, a massive 5 story structure built at a cost of a million dollars in 1948. It was a swanky place in its day-the lobby had 2 man elevators in it, & was finished in pink variegated East Tennessee marble. Anyhow, I took a self-guided tour of the place in Feb 1991-by myself. The main floor was where they had printing presses set up, above that, the various floors had layout/stripping equpment, offices, classrooms, drafting/layout light tables, darkrooms, & the top floor was a 1000 seat auditorium. All the photographic/printing press equipment was long gone, but quite a few of the layout/stripping/drafting tables were still there. I guess I spent an hour or so wandering thru there, it was a bright warm Sunday afternoon, NOBODY else was there-And I had no real business being in there, either-But I'll swear on a stack of Bibles that I was positive I was being watched the whole time I was there. Nothing malevolent, you understand, just "under observation". There was one section of the building that I didn't go into-it was built into the side of a hill, & was black as pitch, & my Spidey-Sense said "Stay the F out, Fat Boy !" & I did. I guess I was so fascinated by all the stuff that was in there, that overcame my fear of being in a potentially dangerous place. I drive thru that settlement every so often, & almost every time I do, I get a feeling of almost indescribable sadness. But y'all know how sentimental about stuff I am. Maybe that's why the spooks 'n' ghosts didn't bother me the day I was there...

Abandoned houses
 

I travel quite a bit with my business, most of it in my Tahoe. I certainly run the interstate some and major highways as well, but a fair amount is on 2-lane country roads. As a result, I see a lot of abandoned houses.

The thoughts run through your head, what happened? Why is that house abandoned? Did they die and leave no heirs, or could the heirs not agree about what to do, or how to "divide up" the estate?

They seem to range from "already fallen in" to just starting to look scruffy.

The saddest part is seeing those big old houses that were beautiful at one time and maybe a few years ago, could have been saved, but now are too far gone.

I've never ventured inside one, for lots of good reasons, but practically every day I see one of them. :tears:

I'm a city boy, so I have no idea what this machine does. Maybe it injects seeds into the ground?

I've heard that the government paid farmers to not farm their land. Is that what "CRP" is?

Where I grew up, northeast NJ, in surburban NYC, a farm was defined as "a piece of land where houses haven't been built yet". In Montvale NJ there was a roadside food store "Tice Farms" and a farm with apple trees and such behind it. One day a fire destroyed the store, and it got covered on the New York City local TV news. A friend who grew up in a farming community was laughing at the NY TV news reporters doing a story on this "farm". That he figured that most of the food sold there was trucked in from far away. The place later became the "Tice Industrial Park", with lots of parking lots and 3 story office buildings...

In upsate New York, along Route 17 I used to see lots of hilly farms, some with cows. Something about where milk comes from (I said I was a city boy :D )

I'd love to see pictures of this set. Something about abandoned buildings, especially when their contents are left behind, really intrigues me.

I came across a house like the one in your story a couple of months ago. I saw an MLS listing for a cheap house on one of the only streets around me that fared well in Katrina. A little background - every structure in my parish (county) flooded except for about two dozen (my own best estimate), mostly a few old farm houses near the Mississippi River levee and about half the houses in this two-street subdivision. So I had to go check it out.

Now seeing tens of thousands of destroyed houses, with everyone's possessions strewn about the floors or piled 7-8 feet high on their front lawns kinda numbs you after a certain point. I drive over to this house, and start walking around the property. There's a large garage (4-6 car capacity) I look in first that is packed full of furniture and stuff - staring at me through the window is a rather large mid-late 80's console TV (Zenith or RCA.) I walk back to the house and looking through a back window into a bedroom I see the roof has been leaking for a long time, and on top of a dresser is a military burial flag in a wood & glass case. Odd that someone would leave that behind. But many people evacuated and were either too sick to return or died before they had the chance, so I'm figuring that's the case, maybe they had no family. I try the front door next, and it opens. First thing I see is a 1980 Quasar console TV, still in great shape, but all the furniture, newspapers, magazines, etc....everything looks like someone left for the store one day and never came back. Creepy. I've walked in 100 flooded houses, but my intuition was telling me not to go in, so I don't. Before I left I noticed another window and I look in - there are medicine bottles on the sill that expired in 1998.

So I'd really like to know the story behind this house - it is in a good neighborhood where houses just aren't abandoned like in some poorer parts of New Orleans. And why is it for sale now? Why would the heirs wait over ten years to sell a house that they could have gotten 3-4 times as much for before the roof went bad? Weird, just really weird.

Knowing that someone is going to have to pay to clear the house out, I thought about calling the listing agent and asking her about the Quasar, but heck, I really don't need another 80's console TV, don't know what I'd do with it. Maybe if I saw a ghost in it I could get on the Maury Povitch Show (or whatever program caters to that type of crap these days!)

I went into a few abandoned houses as a kid,but it always creeped me out too much to go back.But one time when I was in my late teens,I just couldnt resist.A friend of mine and I always loved the old building,so we climbed through a hole in the fence,and found an open door in the back.There were several theatre seats in various states of disrepair,and a roll of old tickets.We checked out the stage,and looked around.I wish I could have just stayed for a few hours to take in all the history.
BTW,it was the old Pan Pacific Auditorium in L.A.One of the most beautiful buildings ever,IMHO.There is a replica of it at the entrance to the MGM/Disney Studios tour at Disney World.
Jimmy

I've also got a thing for old and abandoned buildings, although I haven't been in any interesting buildings lately. I've seen some interesting things, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of most of them. It's a subject that I can ramble on about a bit, so if this gets too long and too far off topic let me know and I'll edit it down.

I spent a lot of time in the old Nubrik brickworks/quarry. I found the site sometime around 1995. At that time the production had stopped long ago and most of the production equipment had been or was in the process of being removed, but the company was still using one of the office buildings on site so vandals hadn't gotten to it yet. Wandering around the site I was amazed by the scale of some the machinery. Also the contrast between the newer (80s) machines controlled by PLCs and the much older stuff with control cabinets stuffed with masses of relays, uniselectors and even tubes.

As far as TVs the whole site was littered with many late 70s 12" B&W portables. They had been modified with video inputs, but the modification was switchable so the tuner could still be used. They had been removed from a massive "mission control" console that was in pieces in the middle of one of the buildings. I guess the employees dismantling the machinery were watching them. By the time I returned to the site later with a camera the vandals had gotten to the place and this was the condition of what remained. They had also destroyed some rare and unusual computer equipment including an original HP-150 touchscreen. The site remained abandoned until 2003 or so as the masses of asbestos and contamination on the site had scared the developers away. Eventually the housing boom pushed prices high enough that a developer took a chance, but that failed when the houses they built started sinking into the big hole that was there.

http://65c02.org/images/ak/brokenbwtv.JPG

I also spent some time in the old Waverly Park stadium that is now a housing development. Being the only person in a place that once held tens of thousands of people is a strange feeling. The only intact TV I found on site was a 14" Rank Arena portable that had been modified with a video input and an NTSC decoder in one of the commentary boxes. In hindsight I should have grabbed that set. Waverly park had a Stewart Warner video scoreboard that was installed in 1979. It could display a quarter of a video frame in 16 grey (well yellow/brown) levels on a screen made from 150W incandescent light bulbs. This was controlled by a dual redundant PDP-11/04 computers with a mass of custom electronics. The video gear had been removed from the control room when it was sold at auction, but the buyer left the PDP-11. Vandals had smashed the terminals and put a couple of dents in the cabinet, but those machines were built tough. After seeing other interesting machines meet an untimely end I decided to save this one. Getting it down from the 5th floor in pieces was hard work. It's in the hands of another collector now as it was too big for me to keep.

http://65c02.org/images/ak/waverlypdp.jpg

One day while wandering around the city I found someone had left the back door of the old Melbourne power station open. I couldn't find a way into the main generator room which was probably a good this as there was supposedly pretty extensive contamination in there, but I did check out the other building that housed the offices, a medical center, class rooms, a pool hall, and an auditorium among other things. Over the years it seems that building was used by many people for purposes unknown. Candles on the stairs, paper arrows on the walls to lead the way, messages written in the dust. There were several tube PA amplifiers there, but I had no way to remove them at the time and wasn't able to get back in later. This was shortly before the redevelopment started so security was much tighter the next time I was there. I hope someone managed to save them. I made it to the roof and this ancient elevator appeared to be still alive, but there was no way I was going to try it out.

http://65c02.org/images/ak/elevator.jpg

has anybody read 'The Road', by Cormac McCarthy?

No, but please fill us in on the book. And thanks to all who shared their stories about this stuff, it fascinates me, keep 'em comin'. Long posts are always welcome in my threads. I like the way this thread is turning out. I am going out tomorrow or the next day to take pictures.

IMO put that TV back if your getting a weird vibe, and stay out of that house as well. Just doesn't sound good to me man. Take someone with you in case you fall or something happens next time. A phone won't help if your knocked out cold.

^ That might be good advice. Hard for me to say, not having been there with you.

Talking about abandoned equipment and whatnot keeps reminding me of the decrepit radar station at Camp Hero, Montauk, NY. Tons of old radar amplifiers, modulators, antennae, and god knows what else. One entire portion of the base, which is underground, appears to have been deliberately filled with water. Very creepy considering some of the alleged 'experiments' surrounding the place in the early 1980s...:scratch2:

Great Thread!! Great stories!!! Almost every time I have seen abandon houses, farms & factories I get to wondering what went on and would love to walk thru them, but never had the time or the nerve!!! Thanks all!

Just not my color
 

The biggest thing keeping me out of abandoned houses is the knowledge that I probably don't look good in an orange jumpsuit! :D

Private homes are one thing as far as criminality, but when it comes to abandoned government facilities, military installations and the like, you better watch yourself for sure! THAT would be a scary time for a black Crown-Vic to roll up on ya.....:yikes:

Very good reading! Some great mental images. Well, I love abandoned places, too, but have always been too chicken to explore much. Or maybe just too "goody-two-shoes" to trespass? The places I have nosed around made me very nervous, and there was no reason to be-they were owned by people I knew (if distantly.)

When I was kid I got to know the farm behind us pretty well. There was the remnants of a road in the woods, you could just make it out in a couple spots, and there were trash piles along it dating from the thirties through the sixties. I found lots of great bottles back there, and let my imagination run wild about the people who lived in the old brick farmhouse. It was abandoned then-a couple times I wandered over. I could never get inside the house itself, though an old addition on the back had a wall that was failing-I could nearly squeeze in there. The basement was open, though. I found some Newsweek magazines from the 70s and a wrapper for an AMC car part. One day the owner (a farmer who lived just down the street) came up the long drive while I was there...I didn't want to run, but I sure did walk home fast! Again, I'm sure he wouldn't have cared. Funny that I didn't get spooked more-get this: the house is now restored, I know the present owner fairly well. He has researched it quite a bit. One of the oldest houses around, and it was a stopping point on the Underground Railroad!

When I was maybe 12 years old I was out riding with my Dad & one of his friends. I think they were scouting out a place to goose hunt? So they go up this driveway through a woods; to the left were the remains of what had been a large old house, nothing left but the basement. (it had been burnt) We then went in this small building to the right, probably a milk house or some such, and inside were several rolls of Scott toilet tissue that looked to be from the 40s! I didn't get them, but I did get the stack of late-40s magazines next to them-mostly Time. Then we went in this big barn; scary to me at the time because he stairs were not sturdy, but up we went. There were 2 very unusual things upstairs. One, and it still baffles me: it looked like a gallows! Maybe 16' tall or more, with a rope hanging from the highest point, and something in a noose that was ragged and looked about the size of, well, a head! My Dad & his buddy didn't seem to concerned with it. The other thing up there was a very, very long canoe! No idea how it got up there. Later we were looking through the magazines and in one there was an article on the Harvard (?) rowing team, showing the guys in a similiar boat. So, maybe one of the team was the son of the farmer? All gone now, another housing development.

Story I've related before: my great-grandparents lived in another one of the oldest houses around here, from the 1870s I think. He died in the early 60s and she died in '71, right before I was born. The house was inherited by their oldest daughter. While I have always lived near the place I never knew much about it. Finally, just prior to my great aunts death, one of my cousins bought the place. That was when I learned that all those years that house had sat, basically abandoned-and basically the way it was the day my great grandmother died. A few momentos and such had been removed, and and another relative had stored some furniture in there. But-her clothes were still in the closet, the food she had canned was still on the shelf (now ruined, of course), their 1951 RCA TV was still sitting there. It was said that my great aunt sensed her parents spirit in the house, and did not want it disturbed. And so it wasn't. I would not say I felt any eerie feeling when I finally did tour the place-it was more of a magical feeling, just an excitement of being in the middle of this time capsule.

I'll have to think of some other tales to tell, when I get time.

I didn't realize so many other people were also fascinated with abandoned homes and buildings. I've been exploring them since I was a kid, and have been in dozens of them.

In Paradise Valley, Arizona, there was an old "printing house" sitting in the middle of empty acreage, not even near a road, abandoned for years after it was fire-damaged. Lots of fascinating bits of printed stuff there, along with some of the old machinery, but I watched it gradually disappear to looters before it was finally razed to build something else on the property.

Here in Hong Kong during the 1980s, the pace of redevelopment was hectic. There were always old colonial-era buildings being torn down for re-development into high-rise developments. I went through every one I could, dozens of places, and picked up (rescued/salvaged) plenty of "souvenirs", including carved blackwood furniture with marble insets, old pressed glass, a solid copper-and-brass fire extinguisher from the 1920s, some nice colored-glass windows, etc...

There are also ruins going back a few hundred years, partly overgrown. Perhaps the most fascinating place is a large Banyan tree in the New Territories area, that grew right over a house that dated back a couple centuries. The brickwork of the house mostly either eroded away or perhaps was taken for recycling, but the roots and lower trunk of the tree, still grasping brick sections and single bricks in places, form an almost perfect square. You can literally walk "inside the tree" --well, inside the lattice-like web of its root/trunk structure-- as if you were walking into a room. It must have taken a couple of centuries to grow like that!

The most dangerous experiences I've had exploring the old buildings here were two staircases that collapsed while I was on them. I "rode them down" as if surfing, with only very minor injuries, but it isn't an experience I'd ever recommend. VERY dangerous! In one case, there was old chemical glassware (so it probably had traces of acids, etc...) on the ground floor below, where the stairway collapsed. One very elaborate and huge distillation flask I was keen to take as a souvenir, but unfortunately it was smashed by the collapse. :tears: I've never seen another flask quite like it, and am still curious to know what it was used for!

One other time that was scary was a place where a major section of an upstairs floor had collapsed, leaving only a strip around the outer walls, about 4 to 6 feet wide. The whole floor had been coverd with decorative Victorian or Art-deco tile work, laid over a thin cement layer, atop a wooden beam-and-board floor. My guess is that the weight of the tiles and cement on top had become too much for the aging (and probably rain-weakened, since the roof was poor) wooden flooring, leading to the collapse.

The strips along the outer walls were the only way to get to some back rooms, so I walked along that slightly-spongy-feeling strip of floor, hugging the wall as the strongest part, just waiting for it all to collapse underneath me and send me plummeting down.

Fortunately, it held and I survived to tell the tale. STUPID thing to try, but I was into exploring these places then, and had the bravado (=stupidity!) of relative youth.

One place gave me a bad feeling, and a bad cough every time I went in there. There was a gorgeous carved wooden bureau there, which I managed to take home, but for weeks afterwards --as long as I had it in the apartment-- I continued to cough, until I decided it was carrying some disease germs. It sat in storage for a few years and eventually was shipped back to the States. Seems to have lost it's cough-causing power over the years, if there ever was any such connection.

That same place had a wonderful fancy old ceiling fan with ornate metal work and beautiful carved-wood blades, with ruby cut-crystal lamp globes suspended below. Probably the most elaborate yet beautiful ceiling fan I've ever seen. It looked like something one would have seen in a circa 190X high-class Parisian salon (or perhaps bordello...) I managed to get it down and bring it home safely, too. In that same building (a high-end place with several apartments in it), just a day or two before I was first there, someone (unfortunately not me) found a large cache of mostly silver coins. Wish I'd found that! (Although I did get a smaller cache of silver coins from another place, later. A friend who was working in the demolition company found that and passed it to me. He is since deceased, so I keep it in his memory. Not really worth much monetarily, but worth something nostalgically.)

Good point, as much as I want to save the set, I don't need any more bad energies around me. Not to derail the thread but I have had so many run ins with that sort of thing that it is just not cool anymore. In fact, I think I may start a thread in the off topic forums on the subject. I could post stories for days, all still very fresh in my memory. I can still see all the things that happened like it was yesterday, they made quite an impression. Believe me or not, but I don't make this stuff up. I don't have to. I'm going to bring it back and put it in the living room, it will be better off there instead of upstairs, that and I'm not carrying it back up there. You will understand when you see the pics. This will be the last time I go there. NOTHING like this has left such an impression on me since I was a kid. This will be with me for a while, it's hard to put into words the feeling I have and the sadness at that house. I do believe I was being observed there like Sandy G. said in his post earlier. I know all this stuff is crap to some people but I go with what I have experienced, call me a kook or whatever. There are things in this world beyond the physical exterior.

Similar to this TV set?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...eistposter.jpg
:D

I know I'm nuts but this time I'm bringing my Mag light to see what's in the second half of the basement or crawl space, I really couldn't see before and I wasn't going in the dark. The first half seems to be an addition ( the kitchen ) The older part is all stone, I would date the house at around 1900. I'll take pictures down there too if something don't eat me. If I don't post anything else in a few days, come look for me. No one I know has the balls (or stupidity) to go with me to these places, that's why I've always done it alone.

It was really spooky looking out the front windows on the porch, the only ones with glass pretty much. Just looking at the cars going by thinking, what the hell is behind me??, it was like someone was hovering over my shoulder looking with me, maybe my imagination but I don't know...... I really wish one of you guys could come out there with me. Any takers????

Yep, just not a Sony:D

Want creepy; make your skin crawl try exploring minesites!

Approximately 4915 abandoned hardrock mines exist in Montana by 'official' numbers

I only wish at the time, when I was more adventerous, I had a camera to document and share some of the 'findings'

I never took or picked-up anything that I didn't come in with though with good reason in these areas...


my great-grandfather blew 2 fingers off as a child living in red lodge Mt when he found a blasting cap laying on a rr track set by a mine and picked it up to play with it:eek:
That was 80+ years ago; imagine how unstable dynamite can become by aging and sweating in un-controlled environment for an additional 80 years or so....

some with larger cause to be concerned about 'energies' than others
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Mine_disaster
positively CREEPY atmosphere!

If you like abandoned industrial sites mines are :tresbon: if you are crazy :nutz:enough, know what you are doing, and careful enough..
tal

I don't know.........mines are where I draw a very big line. Those things make me feel claustrophobic just thinking about them:)

In Pressmen's Home, right next to the Trade School bldg I went into, is a chapel. The ramrod behind PH was a Maj. George Leonard Berry, he was president of the Union from 1907 til he died in '48. He was married, but it was common knowlege he had a "girlfriend". In the chapel, there was a fresco painted on the ceiling, w/angels & cherubim, etc, the face of one of the "angels" was sposed to be the girlfriend's face... The doors to the chapel were broken down, one was pushed over from the doorframe from where the floor was rotted away to where it got "solid" again. there was a maroon carpet that was about 2" thick covering the floor. I went in a little ways, could see the faded fresco on the ceiling, but it was dark in there, & you really couldn't tell much about it. Besides, the floor was kinda, well, not very solid, & I'm a big guy, I felt like Discretion was the better part of Valor, so I didn't tarry in there too long. Didn't particularly feel like trying to climb out of a basement in a ruined church...I also went into another bldg, it was their telephone building, it was kinda small, like a toolshed, all the old phone switchgear was still there, along w/manuals, spare parts, general junque. The latest date I found on stuff was 1948... Wished I'd "cabbaged" a bit on some of that stuff...The only thing I took was a weird tube that was pretty big, & had gold-colored getters in it instead of the more familiar silver...No #s on it of course.

Man, that place sounds cool Sandy. Is it still there?

Yep. There was a guy bought part of it though, & now he runs everybody off that wants to "look around". Google "Pressmen's Home", & you can see what it was like c. 1964...

Cool stuff! There is a lot that comes up about it. Glad to hear it's still there. On another note, WOW. I just got the weirdest de-ja-vu I've had in a while.

What's kept me out of abandoned buildings around here is *who* may also be inside. Lotsa crime in New Orleans. Guess that isn't much of a concern out in the country. There's a highrise downtown (The Rault Center) that's been vacant since the 1970's when there was a fire and 8 women jumped to their deaths. Pieces of it fall onto Rampart & Gravier Streets now & then. I know someone who's been inside (legally) and they say the upper floors are gutted, walking through the lobby & ground floor is like walking into 1973. There's more vacant highrises & industrial buildings since Katrina, but I'm more wary of the bums & crackheads than the police department!

I did find my 13" XL-100 and a Heathkit W-5M amp & pre-amp in a building my old boss was taking down in '06. Also saved the 1960's recessed fluorescent light fixtures from a board room and put them in my kitchen :) And an old ceramic-cased Western Union wall-mounted dialer that summoned a messenger to the place from the WU office.

YES! I have thought of this many times, sometimes going in with a knife in my hand just incase. I went into a house in the middle of the ghetto in Kenosha a few years ago, I was very worried that someone was in there, people scare me more than ghosts and whatnot.

You know what, the camera I'm taking also does video. I'll bring some extra batteries and make a video for youtube.
I can post a pic of the set tonight, it's out in the garage "evil-ing" the place up.

I can't wait to see what you find there....Great thread:thmbsp:

And yeah, people can be way more frightening than spirits....only thing, at least you can see/hear people better, and know what's actually in there!

(...Is there anybody....OUT THERE?) :D

No way in Hell I'd do now what I did back then...Not w/all the Meth Labs & other nonsense they find around here now. The area where PH is has ALWAYS had a very "creepy" feel to it...Lots of people have claimed to see odd lights & stuff in the bldgs there-most of which no longer have electricity connected to them. There was a tuberculosis sanatarium there where quite a few people died-Back in the old days, there was a good chance you'd contract TB if you worked in a platemaking dept of a printer, because of the chemicals they used. When the Union pulled out in '70, they tried to contact the families of folks who had died & were buried there, to see if they wanted them moved. Some did, but a lot of the older graves had no remaining kin, & the cemetary was subsequently abandoned, & a lot of the records of who was buried there were apparently lost. That cemetary is ONE creepy place.