Ghost by the elevator

MONDAY NIGHT AT Second String Music, our band Pepper Spray took some photos. We are playing Nov. 29 at Twin Oaks in Quincy, and the venue owner is making a poster.

We took a bunch of photos in the main room, the back room, outside of the building and by the elevator inside the 505 Maine entrance. In that room, in front of the 1920 Hollister Whitney birdcage elevator which needs to be repaired, we took the final photos of the evening.

Original photo

The next day, as Sheryl was editing her pictures, she noticed a strange white cloud in the elevator photos. She checked the camera - no smudge on the lens. She checked the other photos from the other areas of the building, No smudge.

The smudge or cloud appeared beside Adam Yates, to the right up the stairs. It looked like a cloud of dust.

Trick of the light? Or something or somebody appearing in our photo? This white cloud appeared only in  the 505 Maine inside photo. Sheryl took several photos and each one on the stairs had this cloud.

With a little imagination, you can see the outline of a man. He appears to be coming out of the wall. He has short dark hair and is wearing a tie. He is facing our bass player, Justin Sievert, who is standing on the far right.

Sheryl circled the spot and you do have to look at it closely. Maybe it's just a bunch of hooey.

Original with circled image

Maybe it's Mr. Wilson, who started his law firm on the second floor exactly 100 years ago. Maybe it's Mr. Houston coming down from the fourth floor, or Dr. Glower coming down from the third floor, or somebody who worked at Fischer Jewelers on the second floor.

A lot of paranormal stuff today is trumped up and designed to scare and provoke. We've had a team of paranormal investigators go through the building and they didn't pick up anything. We've been up there at night and heard some strange things, but that might have more to do with the post-jam session conditions than anything.

Or maybe there are ghosts, and they hang out at Fifth and Maine on occasion. Maybe they like music. Maybe they just want to be in a band. Maybe they will be at our Nov. 29 show, too.

I say, the more the merrier, dead or alive.