So, what HAPPENED on the 2004 trip?
For me, the 2004 trip to Evansville was the most eventful trip yet. Yes, I was very luck to be able to be in the room at the time of the table tapping. That in itself was amazing, but there was so much more that went on while we were there. My first big surprise was that John (lknfrghsts) showed up for dinner. I was floored, because I certainly didn't expect him. I got all misty. He had planned to stay for a few hours with us, but something happened, which I will tell you about in a bit, that forced him to leave early. As the whole trip was so long ago, I'm going to skip all the niceties and get to the good stuff, although much of it should be explained to some degree or other. Please note that much of what I talk about is also referenced in the before we visit Evansville 2004  page, so if you are confused, looking there might help a bit.

We had dinner at the Sirloin Stockade - which is a silly name, but we enjoyed the food. Amy showed us some rather impressive pictures she had taken on a "hunt" - you can see them on her page by clicking here. They are at the bottom. Amy seems to attract things. I think it's the quiet, unassuming manner she has. Some pictures she took while at the library are at the top of her page. The window shot is especially intriguing to me as she didn't stand to take the picture. She was with her husband, alone in the room, and they were sitting down. The blinds on the window were closed (for the table tapping earlier). We went back before we left Evansville to check what we could, and the check on the window at night showed nothing out of the ordinary. It's a remarkable picture. I was THRILLED to find out that Billy was again in attendance. I'm not shy about my affection for people, and Billy is someone who makes me smile. As it turns out, Connie DID attend for a short time, and I barely recognised her.

The lead investigative team was a group called The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society. I had been led to believe this was a good group of people. I was very disappointed to find their behaviour rude and cold. Rude and personal comments were made by at least one member of the "team" regarding several people in our group. That, in itself, was unprofessional, but there was more. Director Greg was nearly stopped from using the restroom by one of the "team". Happily, Greg is not a person to let someone walk on him, and he went on his way. The "team" made complaints about us moving around the building, making the boards creak. Apparently it was then pointed out to them that they were also moving up and down stairs, and in old buildings, floors DO creak. None of us were approached until later - it was a sticky situation made worse by the way the "team" handled the whole affair. You can read the rather one-sided report they made if you go to their site. I won't be linking it. I found them whiney and immature (that shows up in the report as well, they didn't get our name, or who we were, correct either) and I'm not going to their house to play ANY MORE! Members of our team .. ALL members of our team found these people to be supercilious, snarky, and rude, and upset more than one person terribly. I can't think of any more adjectives, so I will move on. It should be noted that I, myself, have never been known to be mature, so don't expect it from me.

MESA set up for the table tapping, and while they did that, we waited. We had been on the last tour, and near the end I was approached by John, who was shaky and pale and visibly upset. He had what can only be described as a very bad feeling. Linda's table tapping "assistant" and friend, Sherry, performed some Reiki on him and was able to lift some rather nasty energy. It seemed to be caused by being in the library. Later we wondered if the bad energy was being caused by the "team". John felt a bit better, but was still shaky enough that he had to leave, and was not there for the overnight. Bear in mind this is not fear I'm talking about. John has been on all the overnights thus far.
Mike found a spike in his EMF in the Research Room. It lasted for quite a while, but even though we took some photos, nothing came up - at least not then. *cue ominous music*
The Table Tapping
To be brutally honest, while I firmly believe there is something haunting the Willard Library, I really didn't expect much to go on during the table tapping. I figured I would sit quietly and take notes and we would maybe see some results on the MESA scans later. I was wrong on the first two. I should point out that while MESA was set up, they had a computer ready and willing to do all it needed. There were several tape recorders (including mine... but some idiot forgot to turn it on) set at the end of the room ready to record. Billy had set up a video camera, but in the end they couldn't use it because the light in the room was too dim. I gave my camera to Yakumo (Chris) because I wouldn't need it, and asked him if he would take some pics for me. I watched Linda set up the tapping table which was a small pressboard circular top stuck to three stick legs. There were three chairs set up around it, and one set up for me at the other end of the library table in the Bayard Room. I would be facing the window of which Amy took the picture seen on her page. Linda was very anxious to try to contact the little boy she had seen the previous year. While we stood talking, just after most of MESA (Mike and Dave) had left the room, Tim and I.. at least.. saw the table begin to move of its own accord. Linda looked up and said she could feel him (the little boy) there. The only light in the room was a very small one to my left and up which was not too much stronger than having a couple of candles lit, but was sufficient to see what we wrote on our notes and to see each other. I don't remember where I put my notebook (it is my way), but when I do find it I'll elaborate more. As it stands, I'll tell you what I remember. All tape recorders (except mine) were turned on, and we began. The room was very still and warm, although every so often the airducts gave a bit of a cough. As soon as Linda, Sherry, and Linda's son (whose name always escapes me - I'm SO sorry - is it Jake?) touched the table it moved. This fascinated me as I have sat in on "seances" and have not seen this kind of activity happen. The procedure was that Linda would ask questions which would require a yes, no, or I don't know, and letters could be tapped by numeric sequence to spell names or other words. Made sense. The little guy was anxious to get started. He told us his name was Peter Williams. He said he didn't know how he died - something to do with his stomach. He said his dad was a farmer, and that he was from Louisville. His family would come to Evansville for trips and he liked the library very much. I believe he said his father's name was Peter, and he gave some sibling names and the name of his mother. If I remember correctly, he said he died in 1898. I can't remember his age at the moment, but he was less than 10. He told us he liked baseball, and the name of his best friend who lived down the road. I do genealogical research, and I was hoping to find something to help us find out more, but unfortunately the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire, and many Louisville records have also been destroyed or vanished. By the next census, the 1900, Peter is dead. So far we haven't found any data which would corroborate the story. Linda let me know that it was ok to ask questions, so, among other questions, I asked who the Grey Lady was (although not in those exact words). Peter told us it was Louise Carpenter. He said she didn't like or trust adults and that the was very angry. We asked if she scared him and he said no, that she took care of him and that she never tried to scare children - only adults. Louise was angry that her father left nothing to her in his will. We may never know if that is true. He said she was in the room with us and that she didn't want to answer any of the questions we had. There were two points at which I saw things in the room. I wrote them down in my notes (which were more or less chronological) but as I don't know where they are I will tell you that I saw, in my perifery, a "shadow" sort of thing cross in front of the light to my left. To me it was very noticable, but no one else said anything at the time, so I don't know if they saw it too. It visibly darkened the room for me, though. Another thing I saw was.. hard to explain. Sort of like a shadow orb/streak which began in the upper right quadrant of my vision, and streaked up and to the right further. It was short.. maybe 1.5 to 2 seconds, but it was a definite "something" . Peter was losing "energy" and you could tell he was tired, as answers came less quickly. Linda promised him that soon she would go and release him to "the other side". Again, bit of a skeptic me, I wondered how this would be accomplished. Linda said that he could take energy from her so he could continue to talk. I watched her coax him to do this, and then I saw all three of them sit up straight at the same time. I was about to write that down when I felt something snake up the inside of my thigh and and around my hip, up my back and down my arms. It was like a touch and a chill and a warmth - all those things and not. I had goosebumps and I said "WOAH! Should I be feeling something, because I'm pretty far away, here." Linda nodded. It felt amazing. Tim wanted as much time devoted to this as possible to get the data he needed, but Linda knew Peter was tired, so we finished up after about 45 minutes. OH!! wait! Those two events aren't the only things I saw. Linda had Peter keep the table up (for the video camera she didn't know wasn't running) while no one had their hands on the table. It stayed up for several seconds before the legs clattered back to the floor. That was chillingly beautiful. She told Peter she would meet him in the Children's Room, and he "left". As we were about to get up, I heard a very loud, hoarse kind of whisper say my name. It didn't say "Maer", it said my given name: "Mary". Two syllables. Very clear. No one else seemed to hear it, but it's not the first time that has happened to me. Linda invited me to watch her release Peter, so the four of us went down to the Children's Room in the back. Linda asked people there to leave. Several from our group were there, and were a bit shocked because they had been told by many people  from the "team" to get out of rooms, and now there was another person from "OUR" group saying it. Linda didn't want anyone to know what she was about to do, because she didn't want to disappoint anyone. I later explained to everyone what had happened, and I think that sorted it. As we made our way down the stairs, I caught a very strong whiff of incense - like sandalwood. Sherry smelled it too, and we could smell it in the Children's Room as well. Later I found out that Molly and Amy had both experienced this same fragrance.  Also, for me, I got a very strong smell of rotting garbage around the time Peter "left". I don't know what caused it. No one else in the room smelled it - I made a point of commenting on it because it was so strong to me. Linda was very emotional at this point, and it was interesting to watch her work. I bvelieve I saw him go.. ok, saw his energy go. I saw a streak of obvious distortion in the room as I looked. It was right in my centre of vision - no perifery. It was reasonably wide and long. It only lasted about 3 seconds and then it was gone. That was when I smelled the garbage.
And Now For The Sad Part, and More Interesting Bits
Every tape recorder in the room failed to record. Not just one or two, but at least four. This was not the only failure we found to happen. Chris couldn't get my camera OR his camera to work for a short period of time when he and Tina and Danny were in the Adult Reading Room. If I recall correctly, Danny couldn't get his to work either. ONE picture of Tina taken by Chris with his camera is very messed up, but I will link it here and you can see the original, and a doctored version. We can see someone in the picture. See if you can. It could be a complete coincidence. It could be "stucco ceiling syndrome". I'll add this, though. One of the reasons Chris took the picture was because Tina became icy cold and started doing a very strange kind of dance as in rubbing her arms and legs and shivering. She had goosebumps. We later wondered if she was channeling someone.
That Icy Dance wasn't the only one Tina performed that night. I got to experience seeing it later on after most people had gone. We were in the Bayard room. I forget what we were discussing, when she suddenly started rubbing her arms and telling me how cold she was. Freezing. She had goose bumps and she kept grabbing my hands and pressing them to her skin.. her back, her arms, she said she was freezing, but to me she felt normal. She asked me to hug her to warm her up, so I did. It didn't help. I tried rubbing her back, but that didn't work either. It was almost like an hysteria, only Tina is a level headed person, and it wasn't like she wasn't herself for the most part. She said she could feel someone was there, and she saw the edge of a long skirt. We put our hands into the area only to feel a very obvious cold spot - coincidentally right where the table tap had been. The cold spot had edges and we kept our hands in and tried to figure out the dimensions. It wasn't very large, maybe 1.5x 2 to 2.5 feet. Chris entered the room and we asked him to take pictures, but nothing appeared in them. I don't remember if it was before that, or after, that Amy took her picture, but it was from my chair and in the direction of the cold spot.
Rain had something odd happen to him, two books moved out together in front of him. They were in the history section. Chris and I took pictures of the books, but I don't have thenm on my laptop. so they are either from his camera, or on my TBA Harddrive. 

I don't know what is in store for us this year, but it will be fun. To see the data which MESA picked up, please see their site MESA Project.com and first see the guys setting up the computer on that fateful night, then go to The Page About The 2004 Overnight which has some interesting data. I hope that link worked.. took me forever to type it in. You can also join the MESA site and participate in discussions, chats,  and so forth. There is a lot in there. Enjoy.

~Maer, July 18, 2005
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