Unusual behavior for inanimate objects.......

Every now and then, strange things happen at our restaurant. The rumor is that it’s haunted. The original part of the building is 125 years old, and used to be an old farmhouse, and somehow became a stopping place for travelers en route between Detroit and Ann Arbor, in the days before automobiles.

Above the back of the bar, at arms reach (unless you’re short) are wine racks in which we store bottles. Several people were witness to the “shooting wine bottle incident.” The bottles didn’t simply fall out of the racks, in which case they would just drop straight down onto the rows of liquor bottles on the back of the bar…no…they shot out about 4 feet and smashed into the bar itself. Unusual behavior for wine bottles.

One of the servers was in the kitchen one night polishing silverware, when she witnessed a pair of tongs shoot off a shelf and land about 6 feet away. She picked them up and put them back, and it happened again. As with the wine bottles, this is also unusual behavior for an inanimate object.

One night after closing, there were 3 of us left, and none of us were in the kitchen, when we heard a crash and the sound of breaking glass. The boss casually looked up and said, “Must be the ghost.” I went back to the kitchen to see what had happened. There were 3 racks of coffee cups stacked on the floor. These racks are approximately 2 feet by 2 feet by 8 inches high, and when stacked, they interlock. As you look at these racks, you would think it would be next to impossible for the top rack to just slide off…but there it was, leaning on an angle against the bottom 2 racks, with broken coffee cups littering the floor.

Our latest incident happened the other night….the hostess was near the front of the restaurant and heard glasses rattling. She walked over to the lounge, which was empty at the time, (I was in the kitchen) and saw the wine glasses, (which hang upside down over the service bar, there about 80 of them) all boldly swaying and clinking together. She thought at first perhaps it was from the breeze she created when she walked by…but we told her no, then they would do that all the time, and it started before she got there. So we decided to an investigational experiment. We found some heavy card board, and had the busboy fan the glasses as hard as he could. Back and forth fanning…..up and down fanning…..every which way he could. The glasses barely moved. You could tell by the demeanor of the hostess, that she knew what she saw and heard, and was a little freaked out by it.

Our conclusion: It was just the ghosts way of playing Christmas Carols.