April 14, 2008
Looking For the Bars
Rate this encounter:
Cathy Shaffner, Williamsburg Hill, Illinois, April 14, 2006
My husband Jerry and I were mushroom hunting by Williamsburg Hill Cemetery.
There was a town there in the 1800s and now there are only a few houses,
communication towers, and a lot of ghost stories. But my husband and I were
looking for the scrumptious morel mushrooms and I was leaving the timber
area next to the cemetery to go back to the truck to get a drink when I
encountered a man. I'd say he was in his 60s, dressed in a silk shirt,
creased and cuffed dress pants, with wing tipped shoes. He was standing by
our truck when I closed the truck door after getting my drink. He looked
away from me and I heard him mumble something. I said, "Excuse me?" Not only
did I not understand him, he startled me. But I did not feel threatened by
him, so I said, "Excuse me?" He looked away from me again and all in one
like long word he said, "Can you tell me where the bars are at?" But the
strange thing was, his mouth did not move! My husband saw that I was talking
to someone and said, "What's the matter?" I told Jerry that the man wanted
to know where the bars were at. Jerry started telling him where the bars
were, and the man just looked off and smiled. I walked over to my husband
and he said, "Who is that? Do you know him?" I said, "No." We thought that
it was odd that a man of his age would be out in the country dressed like
that and no vehicle! Ours was the only one there. But when we turned around
to look at the man, he was gone! Just like that. Poof... and he was gone. We
even went through the cemetery to see if he was there. He was nowhere to be
seen! I told Jerry that the man talked so fast that it was really hard to
understand him, but he was very friendly. After that happened, we kept it
between ourselves, then we heard about some other people that had been in
the same area that had encountered a man fitting the same description as the
man we had encountered. They also said he was looking for the "bars." I am
very curious to find out about him. But I do believe he was a lost soul.
