When the third-grade class
from Coyote Valley Elementary School visits each spring, the question
most commonly asked of Stone House docents is, "What about
Camphor?"
"Camphor" is the name assigned some
years ago to our Stone House ghost. Can we verify her existence?
(We feel confident it's a "her" rather than a
"him".) Well, no, not
exactly. But can we deny she exists -- no, can't do that either.
When our Society members first began renovating
the Stone House, around 1990, from time to time they noticed a
faint odor of camphor, a medicinal tincture little used
in the past 50 or 60 years but commonly used before
that. There was no apparent reason for the aroma.
One day several members saw a large basket of
artificial ferns fall from a sturdy hook that remained firmly
affixed to the ceiling. Here too, there was no reasonable
explanation. No one could have touched it. There was no breeze.
Nothing else  fell.
Perhaps our most active founding member was
Louise Saunders, who -- while painting inside the closed-up house
one chilly day -- voiced a fervent wish for a breath of air free
of paint thinner fumes. Almost immediately a refreshing draft
swept down the hall and freshened the air. Louise is still awed
when she recalls the occasion. "It was totally
unexplainable," she says.
Dee Davison claims to have once caught a brief
glimpse of Camphor, although no one else in the room at the time
did. She describes her as "a slight white-haired lady wearing
a gingham dress and smiling as if glad to have company."
June Blackney brought visiting relatives to see
Stone House but finding it locked merely peered in windows. They
claim to have seen a curtain pulled back as if someone were
looking out.
All that was years ago. In recent years,
Camphor has apparently been anchored to
a massive, heavy, cast iron and bronze hanging oil lamp in the
parent's bedroom. Occasionally, the lamp starts swinging when there
is no explanation. A number of us have seen the swinging, have
verified that nothing else in the room is moving even the
slightest bit, not even the delicate flowers on the bureau next to
it.
It's been postulated that perhaps Camphor is
attempting to communicate. The lamp's swaying seems most apparent
when the lady-of-the-house, any house, might be truly pleased or
truly annoyed.
Last year, a girl in the third-grade class
whispered excitedly, "I saw her!" But when we begged her
to explain, she wouldn't talk.
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Third-graders
listen raptly as Stone House members explain the
historical artifacts. Here, Nancy Williams describes a
stereoptican and its 3-D travel photo cards as "early
TV."
Some of the children's charming thank-you letters are
displayed in Stone House. |
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