Oh sweet friends – are you brave enough for this awesome buffet for Halloween? Do you have your costume ready? This is the spread that our friends Kathy and John Chafin had at their Halloween party this year. First we have to say bravo at the extraordinaire creativity in this ‘buffet arrangement’. Kathy Chafin runs a family restaurant here in Georgia in Forest Park. If you are ever in our area, (1) call mom/dad so they can join you and (2) go to this fabulous restaurant. If you want to see more of their menu, hit them up on Facebook here.
Tonight it’s raining hard in the cemetery. I want to finish what I believe are some famously eerie and interesting cemeteries. So put on your raincoat and straighten your spine. Be prepared to be spooked!
When I think of places that a lot people died during a lot of fighting, one of the places that come to mind is Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Cemetery Hill had so many people that died during the Battle of Gettsyburg that it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around it. There were so many bodies that it was hard to bury everyone in a timely manner. You can imagine the smell that overcame the land. There are still reports today of people smelling death. And you know what they say about unrested bodies, they become ghosts forever looking for redemption.
A famous cemetery that mom would like to visit is in Los Angeles, California. (I know – she’s weird like that. She finds walking through the cemeteries as calming as walking on a beach. Go figure – she’s my mom.) Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the final resting place of many celebrities over the years. I’ll need to break down a listing of more important graves here later on in the month. For now though, let’s concentrate on some hauntings of the cemetery. A famous person known to haunt here is Clifton Webb. People at the cemetery claim to hear voices and lights near the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum. A story that intrigues me that I’ve seen on television numerous times is the crypt of Rudolph Valentino. For years on the anniversary of his death, a lady dressed in black would be seen wearing a veil to cover her face at his crypt leaving a single red rose. No one really knew for sure who this person was and still today the tradition of leaving a single red rose continues on his anniversary.
And I must end this stroll through the cemeteries at one of mom/dad’s most famous places in Savannah, Georgia at Bonaventure Cemetery. Did you know that this cemetery had the “Bird Girl” statue that is the photograph of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? I say had now because it has since been moved to a museum nearby but there are still some amazing tombs and headstones left. Mom/dad have spent multiple days and hours strolling through and visiting with the folks still there. One of the famous haunts is of little Gracie Watson who died of pneumonia when she was only six years old. Currently they have her grave fenced off… is that to keep people from touching her little statue or from keeping little Gracie from touching you? There’s also the hell hounds that local legend have talked about. People claim to hear them snarling but no one ever sees them. Perhaps they feel the hot breath of a dog on their ankles letting them know they need to step back. You think?
So that ends our walk through the cemetery my friends. Did you get chilled? Did you get scared? Perhaps you should check your shoes. Mom did and this is what she found on her boots.
Welcome friends to my and Easy’s first Halloween Challenge of Before and After. The challenge on this spooky Halloween is to post a picture of you before your day starts and after your day starts. This was a fun challenge to show how much fun we can be.
Daddy thought he would go first. So I took his picture of before he was presented for the day and after…. what? Yep, dad looks the same. Goofy man that he is what can I say?
Then mom did a series of pictures. First straight from the bed with her hair pulled back… then with make-up and hair curled and then the final masterpiece. Mom says show it with pride my friends!
Oh my friends. Let’s do a twist today. Let’s see if you can scare me for a change. Mom/dad were sitting the living room last night with us anipals. The room was dark except for the flames of the fireplace. They were talking about movies they have seen over the years that scared them silly. Conversation went back and forth until they settled on two.
Dad’s Movie Pick – 1408. This movie came out in 2007 and started John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. You see John Cusack’s character was a so called ‘ghost hunter’. He went to famous places and would spend the night in haunted rooms. Most of the time, nothing happened and the places were debunked. But then while writing his latest book, he travels to New York to stay at the Dolphin Hotel in room 1408, a haunted room. In fact, it was so haunted that the hotel would not rent the room to anyone. Through lawyers, he finds out that if the room is vacant, the hotel has to rent it so he makes a reservation to stay. He checks in and meets with the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson tries everything he can to persuade Cusack’s character not to stay in the room – a room upgrade, expensive booze and even will allow Cusack to look at a book he has made showing over 50 deaths in room 1408. But in the end, Cusack stays in 1408. Let’s just say that 1408 is everything you can imagine it to be.
Mom’s Movie Pick – House on Haunted Hill. This movie came out in 1999. Mom/dad will usually go to the movies to see comedy’s but for some reason, they saw this movie in the theater. Don’t ask me why because it’s not like them. Mom actually watched part of the movies with her hands covering her eyes. At one time, she even told daddy that she might have to leave – that’s how scared she was. The entire movie is about a millionaire who offers a diverse group of people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past. “nuff said before I make water from being scared.
So my question to you my friends, what is the one movie that you saw that scared your pants off?
Shivers. Do you text on your cell phone? Well, this is the story for you my friends.
You see, for the past three years, a woman along with her father and uncle have been sending text messages to a deceased family member in order to deal with the grief. The loved one died from cancer and was buried with her beloved cell phone. When she was alive, she would often text her love ones throughout the day.
You can imagine the shock to the family when they started receiving texts back from their deceased loved one beyond the grave. One of the texts read, “I’m watching over you and it’s all going to bet better. Just pull through.”
Can you imagine the shock, the disbelief and then the miracle of what happened. The family was told that their loved ones number would never be given to anyone else. What in the world was taking place? Just for this moment, it was like they were texting again in the family.
Later it was discovered that the number had been reassigned to someone else who was unrelated to the family. He had been receiving text messages from the family that showed their grief. He thought he would reply to help them.
Sometimes, little ones can say the darnedest things when you are least expecting it. They say that children are more ‘open’ to the paranormal. After reading these stories below, do tell me what you think. Have you ever been told anything of this nature by a child?
A few years ago, I was putting my friend’s daughter to bed for the night. She was about three at the time and she was fighting going to sleep. She asked me why she had to go to bed and I said, “Because it is late and it’s time for little girls to get a good night’s rest.”
She then pointed at nothing across the room and said, “What about that little girl?”
I was heading to the bathroom on the second floor of my aunt’s house when I saw my cousin April on the stairs. April was four and very animated. She was busy making funny faces while sitting on the stairs. I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I’m copying the lady with the braid.” I looked around and there was no one else but us. I asked, “Where is the lady April?” She pointed to a beam running parallel to the stairwell. I asked April, “What is the lady doing?” She said, “Making funny faces.” I smiled and started walking up the stairs again when April said something that stopped me in my tracks. “Her braids are wrapped around her neck.” I turned back and and asked April to repeat herself. April pointed and said, “The lady is hanging by her braid, she’s making funny faces.” Then April started making a face which I then realize was as if someone was gasping for air.
I watched a few kids while their parents were at a movie. I put the youngest kid, age 4, to sleep and watched television downstairs until the parents came home. The next day, the parents called me. According to the 4 year old, I stood inthe doorway and stared at him for a very long time just smiling.
Hello spooky friends. Today, October 29the is Frankenstein Friday – booyah! Frankenstein Friday is always the last Friday in October. It’s a day to celebrate the birth of Frankenstein and its creator.
Frankenstein is one of the best known characters from horror movies and dates back to the 1800’s. Frankenstein was born and created in 1818 by Mary Wollenstonecraft Shelley at the age of 21 when she wrote the ever famous Frankenstein. Can you imagine being so young and creating a character that would last forever?!
Do you know where the origin of this day came from? Today was created by Ron MacCloskey from Westfield, New Jersey in 1997. He picked a Friday to celebrate so more people could participate.
Have you heard of Westfield, New Jersey before? Does that sound familiar? Well, Westfield, New Jersey is also the hometown of Charles Addams, the New York Times magazine cartoonist who created The Addams Family. Small world huh?
Barks my friends! I’m still looking for the *perfect* costume for Halloween. Since we have been watching a lot of football lately, I thought I could be a quarterback so I dressed up in my football jersey – it comes with shoulder and back pads. What do you think? You think coach will call me in to play? I’ve been know to run around the Hotel Thompson with my football and mom/dad can’t catch me at all. I may be small but I got me some good legs.
How has your week been? Last weekend, us anipals had mom/dad all weekend. We never let them leave the Hotel Thompson – not even once. I guess it helps that Bacon hid mom’s Jeep keys – barks with puppy laughter. So this weekend, mom/dad have a LOT of errands to run around and get done. It kind of stinks but we all look on the bright side knowing that mom will pick us all up something special from the market. That we can’t wait for! So do you have anything planned for this weekend?
I leave you now with Jokes from Daddy. Hope you enjoy sweet friends!
This month, we are focusing again on embarrassing moments. There is so many things that our humans do that is embarrassing – it’s sometimes hard to pick just one for sure. But don’t worry, this month we are blasting daddy again… snorts with piggy laughter. It’s what I do – what can I say?
Many years ago, mom/dad chartered a boat to themselves and went deep sea fishing. The Captain of the boat happened to be a woman that mom/dad knew and they always had such a blast together. So there they were about 50 miles from the shore having a great time. Daddy is fishing away loving every minute of it while mom is talking to the ocean gods and feeding the fish if you know what I mean. That’s when it happened. What you ask? Well dad started reeling in to catch a fish, pulled back on his pole and the shorts he was wearing fell down around his ankles. Now several things happened. Mom rolled hysterically and was of absolute no help. Captain Elizabeth stepped in hiding her laughter to take charge. She looked at daddy and said, “You want me to pull up your shorts or take the pole?” Dad of course said take the pole, laughed and said thank goodness he wore underwear.
Miniature pot bellied pig and friends - Bacon, Houdini, Hemi and all of the Rock Clan with Journalist Rocky the Squirrel all out looking for adventures from the Hotel Thompson.
today of people smelling death. And you know what they say about unrested bodies, they become ghosts forever looking for redemption.
Georgia at Bonaventure Cemetery. Did you know that this cemetery had the “Bird Girl” statue that is the photograph of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil? I say had now because it has since been moved to a museum nearby but there are still some amazing tombs and headstones left. Mom/dad have spent multiple days and hours strolling through and visiting with the folks still there. One of the famous haunts is of little Gracie Watson who died of pneumonia when she was only six years old. Currently they have her grave fenced off… is that to keep people from touching her little statue or from keeping little Gracie from touching you? There’s also the hell hounds that local legend have talked about. People claim to hear them snarling but no one ever sees them. Perhaps they feel the hot breath of a dog on their ankles letting them know they need to step back. You think?
Movie Pick – 1408. This movie came out in 2007 and started John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. You see John Cusack’s character was a so called ‘ghost hunter’. He went to famous places and would spend the night in haunted rooms. Most of the time, nothing happened and the places were debunked. But then while writing his latest book, he travels to New York to stay at the Dolphin Hotel in room 1408, a haunted room. In fact, it was so haunted that the hotel would not rent the room to anyone. Through lawyers, he finds out that if the room is vacant, the hotel has to rent it so he makes a reservation to stay. He checks in and meets with the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson tries everything he can to persuade Cusack’s character not to stay in the room – a room upgrade, expensive booze and even will allow Cusack to look at a book he has made showing over 50 deaths in room 1408. But in the end, Cusack stays in 1408. Let’s just say that 1408 is everything you can imagine it to be.
movies to see comedy’s but for some reason, they saw this movie in the theater. Don’t ask me why because it’s not like them. Mom actually watched part of the movies with her hands covering her eyes. At one time, she even told daddy that she might have to leave – that’s how scared she was. The entire movie is about a millionaire who offers a diverse group of people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past. “nuff said before I make water from being scared.
for the past three years, a woman along with her father and uncle have been sending text messages to a deceased family member in order to deal with the grief. The loved one died from cancer and was buried with her beloved cell phone. When she was alive, she would often text her love ones throughout the day.
A few years ago, I was putting my friend’s daughter to bed for the night. She was about three at the time and she was fighting going to sleep. She asked me why she had to go to bed and I said, “Because it is late and it’s time for little girls to get a good night’s rest.” 
Piglove 