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My interest in ghosts and legends goes back a long way. In my younger days, I organized all of my cousins into a loose-knit group that we called the Ghost Gang, and that pretty much began my involvement with paranormal investigation. I was six years old at the time.
We investigated our homes, which was about all we had access to at that age. I'm convinced that our low discovery rate was more due to the lack of available ghosts than our actual methods. As I got older, I learned journalism, mainly because I was terrible at math. Also, I was routinely told by my teachers that investigating ghosts was never going to be a good career move, and I look forward to hearing their current views on this when I photocopy this column and send it to them in the mail.
As I tell these stories every year, and I have no real desire to start repeating myself, I thought I'd share a few stories from my younger days in Lehigh County with you. These stories have nothing to do with Clinton County except that I moved here, but still, I thought you might be interested.
My father used to claim our farmhouse in Slatington was haunted. Before I was born, when he was living there alone, he always said he'd heard an unexplainable noise at night, like a ball bouncing down the stairs. He never saw anything that made the noise, and never figured it out. He also claimed to have once seen a smoky, shadowy humanoid shape in the meadow. A few years ago, when I asked him about it, he remembered the sound but not the shape. (I can't decide if it's because he's 80 now, or made up the shadow figure to entertain me.)
The next town over, Palmerton, has a house said to be haunted. As you drive into Slatington along Route 873, you can see it on top of the hill, overlooking everything, and the place simply looks haunted. It looks like you'd picture a haunted house from a Stephen King novel. If you've driven through there on 873, there's a pretty good chance you've noticed the house.
A couple of my friends decided to explore the house when I was about 19. I'd just had my wisdom teeth taken out and couldn't join them, but they promised to report back to me. Then they lost their nerve on the front porch and bailed early, which may have been the smart thing to do.
If there's a famous ghost story from Slatington, however, it's probably the Lady In White of the Lehigh Canal.
Right along the Lehigh River, on the border between Slatington and Walnutport, there's an old canal that's got a nice walking path these days. And for decades, there's been said to be a lady in a white dress walking along -- Possible someone who died in the canal, or a woman who lost a loved one in the canal. Accounts vary.
I may have seen her once, and tried to snap a photo. It wasn't the high point of my career.
It was back when I was first married. My wife and I visited my parents, and we took a walk along the canal. I saw a woman in a white dress maybe a couple hundred yards ahead.
I'd heard this story for most of my life, so of course I was interested. I lifted my camera (A Polaroid -- What was I thinking?) and snapped a photo. When I lowered the camera, the woman had disappeared.
And when the photo developed, like five minutes later, she wasn't in it.
Maybe it was just a woman in a white dress, and she turned a corner or something. I almost prefer that explanation to the idea that I really saw the ghost, and my only proof is an old photo of a canal with no ghost in it.
These are a couple of the ghost stories from my younger days, which I've brought halfway across the state to share with you. You never know, you may eventually want to ride out to Lehigh County and check them out for yourself. If you do, be sure to stop by Northern Lehigh High School and let everyone know how much you enjoyed this column, and who wrote it.
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Lou Bernard is a Lock Haven resident with a keen interest in the history of this area. He is adult services coordinator at Ross Library and may be reached at loulhpa@gmail.com or 570-660-4463.