Long story about a Motorola found on an abandoned farm

[fsjonsey]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Thanks again for the great stories, I have been fascinated with this kind of stuff since I was a little kid and strange things started happening when my Dad remodeled the house we just bought. This was back in 1987. He came down the stairs sheet white a couple of times. Here are the pics of the infamous Motorola tv.......

Not much to look at but it sure aint stayin' here no more.

Don't just toss it or return it to the abandoned house to rot. In a way it seems it was somehow meant to be discovered and saved from the elements or vandals. I'm sure someone here would take it. Heck, I might be interested..

[Sandy G]

There are at least 3 HUGE mansions in the Tri-Cities area I know of that were tied up in estate squabbles-Fortunately, 2 of them in Bristol, Virginia, seem to have been resolved, & have been returned to their former glory.

[Hemingray]

oddly, I'd keep it. Better than letting it rot or get decimated by vandals.

[zenithfan1]

We'll see guys, as strange as I feel around the damn thing, I too feel sorry for it and want to see it saved, that's why I took it in the first place against my better judgement. I'm going out there today with the camera, let's see what happens. If it's "not so bad" this time, I MIGHT keep it. But I'm NOT bringing it in the house.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by fsjonsey

In a way it seems it was somehow meant to be discovered and saved from the elements or vandals.

I too thought of this, and am contemplating. It is rather odd that no one has messed with them, especially the '87 color BPC set. You would figure someone would steal it. Now, if I keep this one, what about the other two I don't want? Let them rot in there?

[dr.ido]

Sandy G's mention of old phone switchgear reminded me of this.



It's a 25 line pabx with tube tone generators, probably from the mid 60s.



It was found installed in a tiny old house on the site of the Rocla pipe factory in the Springvale. That little house held the offices before the larger building was built in the 70s. It was abandoned until around 2001 after production was stopped in the mid 80s and the research lab closed sometime in the early 90s. It is now a housing estate, but the 70s office building remains and was still occupied when I was last in the area. Most of the production machinery was from the 60s or earlier and most of the control gear was still tube based in some way (well, thyratrons, analog computers and nixie tube displays anyway).

[Sandy G]

Dr.Ido- Yeah, that's kinda what I remember it lookin' like...Bunches upon bunches of relays, miles & miles of wire...It apparently was a "3-digit" system, which certainly limited growth. And the fact that the whole kit 'n' kaboodle fit in a room that was about half the size of a one car garage...Like everything else over there, though, it was in this solid little brick building that had opening windows, & was finished out as nicely as someone's house..EVERYTHING they built or did over there was done that way, though. I can just remember it when I was a little kid, the whole place had an incredible "manicured" look to it. Even the Trade School, which had suffered mightily from vandalism by '91, still had a hint of being well-taken care of-at least in part of its life.

[zenith2134]

3-digit system? Not surprised it was left to rot! But it is still an impressive looking machine

Mark: That's different from the Motorola I was picturing, but in a weird way, this one IS a creepy little bastid! Something about it, and I haven't even felt the odd vibe you have felt around it. Just looks like it was the property of some mean senior citizen who would yell at the kids to "stay off my lawn damnit!".....Someone from a different time; someone who bought the set new and used to watch Camel cigarette ads on network tv back in the day. Perhaps the same cigarettes which led to his demise.

That said, I'd return it for sure. And....watch your back on the drive....a creaky old set in the backseat can never be trusted....

[wilkes85]

Wow man, I can't wait for the pictures!

I've always been fascinated with this sort of thing too. There's a number of abandoned farms around here, in rural Saskatchewan. We used to drive around looking at them. We never really went inside, but just sorta looked in the windows and everything.
My grandparents used to take my mom and aunt to go see these places when they were kids too. Some of these houses were still fully furnished. One of them even had a 1940s calendar, still hanging in the kitchen (this was in the late 1960s, early '70s).
My grandma used to drive out looking at abandoned farms too. She came across a victrola, and a big pile of 78s, and an old diary in one particular place. She read the diary cover to cover. She left it behind though.

A while ago, me and my friend were hired to clean up all the scrap metal off an abandoned farm. There were a bunch of buildings just FULL of stuff. You name it, it was in there.
The house was still full of stuff too. It was kinda eerie, how all the furnature and everything was still layed out as if they just went out for a pack of smokes or something.
The basement was totally flooded too. Down there, there was shelves full of all kinds of stuff, and furnature and everything, but all under water.
There was also a bunch of old cars in this swampy slewy area. Early '60s era GM's; 2 Pontiac Laurentians, a Pontiac Strato-Chief (Canadian models), a Chevy Bel-Air, and a GMC truck. All sunken right into the ground, with license plates that expired in the '70s and early '80s.
There was also an '80s era Pontiac Parisienne sitting by the house, which was obviously their daily driver, still sitting there, waiting to be driven again.
I did get a souvenier from that place; a ~1969 Road Runner 14" travel trailer, that was destined to be scrapped. But it was still in great shape, and would cost jack shit as scrap, so my friend said I could have it, and he'd help me get it home and everything, in exchange for a day of work.
I'm gonna start restoring it, and my friend's also very excited to see what I'm gonna do with it.
It's a cool little thing. I did have to totally scrub it all out with bleach though, due to the multitude of mouseshits lol

But yea, that's another thing. You gotta be careful at these places, because deer mice (the ones with the big round mickey mouse ears) spread the hantavirus, and that's fatal.

I think this summer I'm gonna go exploring in some abandoned farms, but i'm gonna bring a friend along with me just in case.

Just imagine stories that abandoned houses, cars, etc. can tell.

[zenithfan1]

Tom: Yeah.....I could smell it back there on the way to work. Same creepy smell of that house. Now, it's been back there all day in the sun, my car reeks I'm sure. It's funny that it is now sitting in the middle of Lake Forest Il, one of the most rich communities of the North Shore. It may or may not go back "home" today. I find myself becoming more and more attached to it. I was afraid of that. Same thing has happened before with weird old creepy stuff I've picked up. Nevertheless, I'm heading out there at 3:30 this afternoon, I'm almost free from work! Pics posted tonight. Video on my youtube channel too, I may upload that tomorrow.
Wilkes: Great story!

[qboneus]

Originally Posted by wilkes85

But yea, that's another thing. You gotta be careful at these places, because deer mice (the ones with the big round mickey mouse ears) spread the hantavirus, and that's fatal.
Just imagine stories that abandoned houses, cars, etc. can tell.

I have never understood the huge fear of Hanta, since Mt started keeping records in 1992 we have had a total of 8 deaths!
8 people in 17 years!

I and many other 'farm folks' here in montana feel that the hanta fear is unwarranted and very rarely take ANY precautions when dealing with "possibly infected" materials because I have a higher likelyhood of being struck by lightning, or a drunk driver than I do contracting Hanta.
tal

[zenithfan1]

Here are some of the pics, I'll do a photobucket of all of them soon. I also still have to make a video, I killed the battery on the pics. I'll do it tomorrow. Nothin's hurt me yet, what's one more time gonna do??
North side.

The set was found in front of the closet on the floor.

to the right in the same room.

Zenith in the front room.

MGA off to the right of the Zenith.

Living room looking north towards the stairs.

Looking down the stairs.

Me in the bathroom mirror, pieces of wall in the reflection.

More to come later. I'm tired and have to get up at 5.

[newhallone]

Did you jump when you saw yourself in the mirror? I worked in some old hangers at the K.I. Sawyer AFB and there was an upstairs that was no longer used. It was a locker room with showers. I went snooping looking for cool stuff. It was really dark because the lights were burned out. I turned a corner and I saw something move. Alas it was just my reflection in a mirror. Boy did I jump!

If I would have thought about it sooner I would have went snooping around the old airbase sooner. By the time I thought about it there was too many people around. Now if I was teen I could have gotten away with snooping around. If caught people would just tell you to get the hell out of here. the perfect time would have been when the land still was still military jurisdiction and the cops really were hampered by what they could do. I know people that were pulled over for speeding but were let go. Eventually it was all conveyed to the county and the local police then had jurisdiction.

There are still tons of empty rotting buildings out there. But the county want's a crap load for them. The housing area has steadily grown. When they started selling the duplexes they wanted a lot of money for them. Well with all the gov. loans defaulting they are a dime dozen from the banks. But who want to live there? All the riff raff in the county moved there because they couldn't get in anywhere else. And then the "prison family's" moved in from the big citys. Back when I first lived out there it was fairly quiet but as time went by kids slowly started forming into packs that would traverse the base causing trouble. There was two high speed chases while I was there. I should say slow speed because everything was glare ice and the banks 6 foot high. If you go there now it's pretty depressing area.

[zenithfan1]

Newhallone, too bad you couldn't have checked that place out better, who knows what you may have found.
Yesterday was a little different at the house, I walked in and that feeling of anger and doom was not so bad, maybe if there is something there, it knows I'm not there to do harm. I still felt the extreme sadness though. I lingered a while to take it all in. I noticed right away that things have been moved, someone else had been there. The wood paneling that was laying on the stairs from water damage was now thrown to the side, you can see it in the living room picture by the window. That revealed just how rotted the stairs were. It seems that fate had saved that set after all, maybe I was supposed to find it when I did. Those stairs will not hold a person this time next year. Those two leaks in the roof are fatal to this house, they are eating away a load bearing wall that holds all the floor joists for the second floor. it will then fall in starting in the middle. I'd like to patch that fucking roof but it would be pointless, the damage has been done. It leaks where the two peaks of the roof join in the middle, the gutters plugged and water backed up and started coming in, plus it rotted the edge of the roof and the soffits. I think it could have been saved about 8 years ago. The roof is starting to fail in other areas too, the spots are showing and will eventually look like the corner of that room by the bed. One place is the front room where the other two sets are, one spot being right over the Zenith. I have pics of the adult bedroom and it has a small religious keychain on the window sill that is for protection, I took a pic. A wish prayer on a piece of decorative cardboard is also on the floor. This is the nicest room in the house, no broken windows or bad damage, just a mess. A photo of a woman is there on the floor by the bed and alarm clock. The corner of the closet in that room is starting to show the slow demise of the house, it is the wall shared by the bathroom, the other leaking area. The small blue room is a nursery with a crib and stuff everywhere, more mail, receipts ect. One being form the Kenosha Co. Co-Op for feed in 1965. This was the Schaffer farm. That is the only name on everything of any date, this house was in that family for a long long time. I wonder if there are descendants that know anything about the place? The closet in the blue room is falling through too, also because of that leak in the other kids room. It's right above the stairs, mail and paperwork are starting to fall to the first floor.
I noticed in the pictures, there are some white orbs in the pics of that front room, coincidentally, the room with the strongest presence in it. Look at the pic of the MGA by the window, it's sticking to the wall there. I've seen this happen many times, people tell me it is dust, I only see these when there IS some sort of presence in a place or on things. I have seen these little orbs in pictures clinging to tv sets in my collection and Doug Harland's too amongst other things. I have pictures of things no one has been able to explain logically. I have also seen very odd colored ones, and with my own eyes floating down a hallway. That will be one of the stories on my thread in the OT forums. Also, coincidentally, these are sets that neither one us can seem to let go of. One of his is a CTC7 Sanford model.
I may very well be the only dumb son of a gun that wants to preserve the history here, soon my knowledge and pictures will be all that remains. I took 115 pictures. BTW, I can't seem to let go of that damn tv......

[wilkes85]

Aww man, just imagine all that's gone on in this house. Families being raised there, and now it just sits to rot.
I wonder how long it's been abandoned? The damage looks as if it's been abandoned for decades.
That house does have a wierd energy to it too, like there's still a family living in it. Even from the pictures, you can tell.
And about those orbs, I have seen those before, and I don't think it's just dust.