Bachelors Grove – Chicago

OK, I am now 76 years old, but this has stuck in my mind since it happened in 1966. And I had another experience 5 years ago.

First the Grove. There is a very, very old cemetery in the Chicago burbs named Bachelors Grove. The idea was only men who were not married could be buried there. As a kid you hear all the stories, most made up, but there have been some that you could believe.

Two pals of mine and myself were killing time one Friday night. Normally we were busy playing at some dance, but nothing that night. We were having coffee at a donut shop watching the police come in and get free stuff and talking about ghosts and if we believe in them.

Me? I always believed that there are spirits that won’t leave. It is my belief that when we pass God gives you 2 choices, into the light or stay here to finish business.  I always said  when I go my choice is to stay here at a all girls high school. But now I just think I take the light.

Anyway! We decided at 10 minutes to midnight to go to the Grove. It took 30 minutes to get there. We parked in the gravel lot and walked into the run down cemetery. There were broken bottles, turned down headstones and weeds everywhere. It was sad to see all that due to stupid teenagers. Guess it all depends how you are raised.

I noticed a blue, what I thought was, flame way in the back. It looked as that flame that the gas company uses as their logo. We decided to see what they had rigged up there. We walked forever and now are within 15 yards of the back of the cemetery. All of a sudden this blue thing starts moving toward us. We stood there in awe. I said guys it’s about 20 feet away, I’m getting out of here.

Picture a guy 6 foot 225 pounds running so fast I could have gone to the Olympics. They were right behind me. We got to the old ’53 Chevy, got in, locked the doors, and started out the road that we got in. There is a hard left turn going out, after we made it we had to stop. There was a HUGE tree across the road, blocking it entirely. Now a tree that size would have made enough noise to raise the dead. We drove into the ditch slowly to get around it and got out of there.

Next day I picked up my buddy and we went back there in the daytime. Got out of the car, found no tree, no marks that one was ever there and to this day I have never been back there.

Look on the internet and there are lots of stories, including a pic of a ghost of a woman. This has been known to be haunted for years. They claim a house comes and goes. It is a spooky place. Today the state has it chained off and road is overgrown. There is a group of people that work there every summer trying to clean out all the broken bottles, reset stones and cut the weeds. Every time they are there something happens.

This place and Resurrection Mary are two of the biggest ghosts in Chicagoland. I have driven Archer Ave by myself several times between midnight and 3 am trying to see if she will show up for me.

My second story is kind of strange. We moved my mother-in-law into a senior home. A very nice, classy place where the people there have a 3 room apartment and are self sufficient. The day we moved her in was a Sunday. Sunday most of the people there are out for the day with relatives, children or close friends.

Needless to say the place downstairs was empty. I had to go to the bathroom and I knew there was one outside the big meeting room. The meeting room has functions and they have a fully stocked kitchen in there. So I’m in the bathroom and I hear loud banging of pots and pans, like someone is in the kitchen. I’m not nuts, so when I was done in there I decided to see who was in the kitchen. When I opened the bathroom door there there was a curtain like spread across the opening that went into the meeting room.

Now this doorway is about 8 feet wide. It was thin multi-color stripes that went from top to bottom. Now the kitchen noise is still going on. So as I started walking towards it, I was about 12 feet away, it started leaving forom the right to left. When it was completely across I could not see in the room. By the time I got to the opening it was gone, still hearing pots and pans.

I looked to the right and they had a old electric organ sitting there. For some reason it gave me the creeps. The first foot into that room the noise stopped. I walked to the right into the kitchen, it was dark and still. I said out loud, if your trying to scare me, you don’t. Have a nice day. I keep telling my mother-in-law that place is haunted, and she thinks I’m nuts.