Return to Gettysburg March 2011, Part 3: Widow's Cottage

Gettysburg Paranormal Association: Widow's Cottage
This was one of the newer locations to be offered to investigate and I was quite excited although I had no idea where it was at.
One of the nicer aspects of the Phenomenology events, is that the different locations you choose to investigate, has a limit of how many people to be in that group on a specific night. They keep it relatively small and this particular one, was to be about 10 of us. It was a bonus when I found out that it would be Spooky guiding it.
It took me a bit to park as parking is bad in Gettysburg, hard to find but I managed a side street and put money in the meter just in case although I believe it was free after 6 pm. Then I began to try to find it with the address in my GPS.

I was having a hard time but then heard my name being called and there was Spooky and her teammate, Cori, across the street and between two other buildings. The Widow's Cottage is located across the street from a cemetary and you wouldn't realize it was haunted or had anything going on but we were to find out later, that oh yes, there is!! There are some really unique looking trees too, edging the cemetary, here are two of them, seemingly twins or two lovers holding the other.

Once around the corner of the building, we waited for others to show up but no one ever did. We found out later that they also, had a hard time finding the location as it is tucked away from the main street.
After a while when no one showed, we went inside.
The front room, the parlor looked nice and Spooky and Cori came with some equipment as well as I had my own. Spooky went over the story and history of the Widow and talked about what they had been experiencing thus far at this location. She had several K-IIs and Ghost Meters scattered around the room as well as the back/dining room area where a trunk sat before the window. She told me of how they have heard a little boy's voice in that other room and near the trunk. We sat and talked and I turned on some of my equipment.

All was pretty quiet for a while and then as we talked, I thought I saw some shadows in the hallway. It seemed each time I said the word "Mommy" or "Mother", the Ghost Meter on the mantle would flash. I also had my laser on, pointed to the ceiling and yet, it kept getting drained as Spooky said the spirits didn't seem to care for the laser lights. Cori got a bit spooked by the shadows in the hallway behind her and moved away. Yet, something kept pulling me to go down that long dark hallway and to the back rooms. We eventually did go down there but it was dead. There didn't seem to be any activity although Spooky said that for some reason the spirits there did not like anyone to go to the back rooms. I didn't feel anything while there at all myself but I am not overly sensitive. We went around to each room and didn't really feel much. When we returned however towards the front of the house, things started to happen.

Walking into the dining room area, we were talking and addressing the spirit or energies that may be about and then the Ghost Meters began to go off and the KIIs as well. Cori did not wish to remain in the dining room and Spooky began to feel ill and she too, stepped out into the parlor. I remained in the dining area where the chest was at and the Ghost Meters and KIIs continued to go crazy!! As I stood there holding a couple pieces of my own equipment, out of nowhere, my legs and the entire lower half of my body began to tremble. I was not scared at all, but it was like every muscle was twitching and I could not stop it. When I looked down, I didn't see anything but yet my lower half of my body was going numb and everything twitching but it was all internal. I got the distinct impression that something or someone was knelt in front of me and it felt as if arms were wrapped around my legs and they did not want me to leave. I did not feel any malicious intent at all, only a sort of anguish or sadness. Some sorrow and pain of loneliness. I was talking the entire time and my voice took on a motherly, tender tone as I began to soothe and calm the energy or spirit, assuring it that it would not ever be truly alone and that many others would come and try to talk and would be there for it, not to worry.
Spooky filmed this whole thing and I have not seen the footage to know if anything was captured. It was very wild tho', I can tell you! It was one of the first few times I felt like I was being touched directly by a spirit.

Eventually, the more I spoke in that calming tone, the equipment began to calm down and eventually, the indicator lights went out and my legs went back to normal. The sensation I was feeling just faded away.

Now what was that? I didn't have my knees locked, my legs did not get pins and needles feeling of them going to 'sleep', this was much different than anything I had ever felt before. Was it a spirit knelt in front of me, with arms wrapped around my legs? I don't know. I have no proof of it at this point, but I can only tell you what and how I felt. It was very wild tho'.

It was ashame that the other people who were signed up to investigate the Widow's Cottage did not show up, but I was glad that it was only Cori, Spooky and I for I really enjoyed the dynamic energy of three women alone. It was a really great night.

After all of this, everything calmed down and we could tell that the spirits probably moved on or were calm and so we decided to call it an early night.

I felt so very special and wonderful for having helped or soothed the spirits or whatever it was in that house that seemed to connect with me. It brought out a lot of my own mothering instincts and I hope that I was able to help to some degree.

This is something I have always felt that was needed on tv, the dynamic of three women investigators. Women have that special bond and link together and their energies combined is really magickal in my opinion. For far too long women's emotions and instincts have been disregarded by society and many men, our natural abilities ignored. Even many networks I have heard do not really care about the women's skills or talents in investigating and consider women as only eye candy, it is to their own detriment however to do so for women have a special connection through their emotions and own spirits with those who have departed or passed to the other side.
That being said, it is hard to find three women who are close and can work together without drama or egos or anything like that getting in the way and step beyond all the bs and work together as a whole cohesive team.
I do believe that Spooky, Cori and I, were able to do that, that night at the Widow's Cottage.
It was amazing and my deepest appreciation and thanks to them for a great experience!

Return to Gettysburg March 2011, Part 2

The Eisenhower hotel has another building where I have usually stayed, the Eisenhower II. It's just adjacent to the main hotel. It's where most of the classes, lectures are located as well as the large vendor room.
I could not wait for the vendor room to open up as that is where many other paranormal investigative teams and groups set up tables and will have laptops and computers full of evidence both EVPs and pictures for you to take a look at. Many vendors will be selling all sorts of things from T-shirts, Equipment, books and other items.

They have the vendor room open between lectures and before and after. It can get quite busy in there and the energy is just fantastic with so many like-minded people gathered to share their experiences.
Once you arrive for the start of the event, you register and pick up your badge.





At that time, you are given the itinerary for the event and other tickets for some of the ghost hunting events that you may have already paid for from the website. We received a Gettysburg poster and magazine and other odds and ends as well as part of the package. This is when you can purchase T-shirts if they have them and also other gallery readings or ghost hunting trips are available for purchase at that time. This is something you definitely want to be there early for to make sure you purchase and sign up for everything you were wanting to do. The sooner the better! Try to do most of this online if you can at the site so all you have to do is pick up the tickets at registration and then sign up for anything extra. Be sure to note when there are changes with the intinerary. This has happened at times when some speakers were not able to make it in time or had to cancel at the last minute. In this case, Father Andrew Calder, a demonologist, was ill and so was not able to give his class.

After registration, there is a panel of celebrities and speakers and hosts for the event that are introduced to you and you get to hear them talk a little bit and answer questions from the audience.
Aftewards is the meet and greet, mingle, get autographs, pictures and they will have a cash bar and karaoke sometimes. This is a fun time to relax and enjoy yourself in talking with the many others who are there.
This first night, some people had an investigation at the Farmhouse and they left to get there at their appointed time.
One investigation that got added for this first night was for a new spot, the Widow's Cottage. I had signed up for this and found out while visiting the vendor tables, that it was going to be my friend, "Spooky" hosting it! I had met Spooky last year and hit it off with her! She is a really friendly and bubbly lady full of energy and is the lead investigator and founder of (GPA) Gettysburg Paranormal Investigations. She has a shop on the main street in Gettysburg that I had visited the year before and now hosts a paranormal radio show, Ghostly Encounters!

There is me and Spooky at her table.
She has some cool bumper stickers there to the right.
And I purchased this T-shirt from her also that glows in the dark.
I just fell in love with it when I saw it! Be sure and check out the site ! You can find the Gettysburg GhostTours on Facebook as well.

I've been purchasing T-shirts from various events and locations and I try to get them in as big of a size as I can as I like to wear them to work out in. The bigger sizes will allow for shrinkage and I love the glow in the dark ones for when I take walks in the early mornings and they catch the headlights of cars as they pass by.

Return to Gettysburg - March 2011

Nearly back to back to my trip to the Stanley Hotel, I went off to Gettysburg, PA for another Phenomenology! How could I resist?! The price for this trip was very reasonable as you pay a base price and then pick and choose which investigations you wanted to go on and what night they are available. I really do like that set-up with the paranormal events and being able to choose. You pay then for each investigation. The base price gets you into all the lectures and classes and presentations as well as the vendor room and meet and greet.

Hats off to (NEPI) North Eastern Paranormal Investigations, for putting on another really great event! This one was even better than last time although my friend Tina was not able to attend so I was on my own.

Here's an overview that AdventureMyths put together on Youtube that shows you the very large vendor room!:

I went up early as I was visiting a sick friend in north-central PA/NY area. Sadly, she was not doing well health wise but it sure was spooky driving up to see her on the back roads of PA in the mountains and there are hardly any lights at all on the winding roads! She pointed out a place that she, herself had seen apparitions in and told me how haunted it is. It is one that I would love to go and investigate with her when she is feeling better.

After our visit, I drove back down to Gettysburg and arrived at the hotel a day ahead of time. I really do like getting there before the event because I like to get settled in and explore then on my own. This time, I had picked up a great book of history with a walking tour. The book is great, complete with maps! I loved it! I didn't get to utilize it however too much as it was raining and cold and miserable out when I arrived. Figures. But I do have it for future visits and I intend on using it when I have someone else who can navigate while I am driving. That is the only bad thing about going to these events alone is that you don't have someone there to help you and do things with.

I did manage to drive back out to Sach's Bridge, found it on my own and parked there.

I did a small evp session and played Dixie while on the bridge. I was able to be there alone. I've played back the recording and didn't pick up anything on there unfortunately.

 I then drove back over to Confederate Ave, where Tina and I were at last year and I played some civil war music that my father used to play and I sang along while in the car. I did another evp session but have not heard anything on it aside from myself and the movements of my jacket and outside noises. There were alot of people there outside milling around and making noise so it was hard to really distinguish much.

I've talked to alot of people about EVPs and most think the shows are fake and that many times, when they have investigated, they didn't pick up anything. So that is why they don't believe the shows that are out there. Well, I can see their point, however, they have to remember that what they see on a show is a condensed version of the full investigation. They may not have gotten hardly anything at all for hours upon hours and then all of a sudden got this one thing. So that one thing will get hyped up on the show and replayed. All the evidence gets shown then at once and what they do not show is all the many hours it took to get even one thing.

Also, most believe that if they go out and try it and get nothing, then it must not be haunted. No, that may not necessarily be true. Many seasoned investigators will go out for hours on end and not get a single thing and then someone brand spanking new to it will go out and get a good class A EVP! Now why is that? Well, luck is one thing. Sometimes the spirits or energies may not have responded to one versus another person. Style, technique, personality...and did I mention luck? Even on the shows we've been watching like on Paranormal Challenge, some teams got all sorts of things and others didn't get anything. It came down to being at the right place, at the right time. It happens.


My best friend from high school, Penny, lives not far from Gettysburg, so I got to go visit and have dinner with her. My plans to do some investigating on my own got waylaid however with the weather as the storm got worse while I was there. We nearly lost power at the restaurant even! All I felt like doing was to curl up in bed with a nice cup of hot tea afterwards.

As I drove along Confederate Ave, I realized how much of this huge place that Tina and I had missed! So much we had not even seen! I have promised myself when I go back to go up for a full week and early, so I could take advantage of some of the local tours and truly entrench myself into the history of the civil war. I did go back to the graves and I went walking along the area her and I picked up the voice on the Shack Hack radio, looking for the name "Neil". I didn't find that name on the monuments but not all the soldiers are listed, only the commanders. Ashame. It was great to do the follow up however and to see it all better in the light of day and explore places we missed.

While at the Stanley, I was hoping to convince Zak, Aaron, and Billy from Ghost Adventures to go to Gettysburg and drop in as a surprise but they were busy and had filming to do although Billy was scheduled to go out there but then the filming came up and he had to cancel. Bummer!

I was excited about going back to Gettysburg this time for I was more prepared than the year before. I have been really intrigued by utilizing the music of the time to entice the spirits to make contact. With that in mind, I had been preparing for weeks ahead of time, going thru the internet to find some of the old songs as my old Soldier Song 33 1/3 record was warped and I could not get it recorded to save it. I did manage to record the Jimmy Driftwood civil war songs from my father's record collection that wasn't warped. Below is a sample of one of the Civil War songs, Billy Yank and Johnny Reb.  Picture is of Jimmy Driftwood.

I put all of the civil war songs up on my computer and even burned a couple copies to take with me in case I had to use the car's player instead of my laptop. I grew up on those old songs and you can get them in a huge collection of Jimmy Driftwood's but it's expensive. As I was recording these songs and making them into mp3s, I read up on Jimmy and learned that he was a schoolteacher and he wrote those songs about American history to teach his students. How cool is that! I loved those songs and used to sing along with my father as he played them on his guitar and when he played the record. It brought a tear to my eye when I first played them in remembering him. My father was a big civil war buff. This is not a picture of my father, but I believe it is Jimmy Driftwood and the song is, On Top of Shiloh's Hill. It's a very sad song that reflects the turmoil amongst families and how torn they were, fighting brother against brother, father against son.

I taped a few other more traditional civil war songs and mixed them up with Jimmy Driftwood's that he wrote. Some of those other songs like Dixie and Goober Peas, I downloaded as mp3s off Amazon.

I did take a few lead soldiers up with me too that my father had bought many years ago, Britains. They were civil war soldiers. I was going to talk to the Soldier museum about my father's collection but I didn't get a chance to get over there this time.

This year, they did not have any T-shirts for the Phenomenology event. I was a bit disappointed but I did manage to pick up one from Gettysburg Tours. And it glows in the dark! It's very cool.