Calling all ghosts ...

text by Brian P. Hudson, (c) 1998


This is an interesting legend--a one-time event tied in with a death that happened in the same place, both possibly unrelated before the story linked them together.

The Death

The death occurred "some years ago" (dates vary, possibly the 1970's), in Sweeney Hall, a typical CMU residence hall attatched to three other residence halls (Thorpe, Merril, and Beddow--what is called a "Quad").  Sweeney is one of many halls that, over the summers when there are very few students living on-campus, are used as housing dorms for kid's camps.  Acting as councilor for one of these camps was a very large man (read: fat).  The man was staying on the second floor of Sweeney Hall, the "counselor's floor" where those working at the camp and/or watching over the children stayed.

According to the story, the man was in his room on a weekend--camp did not start until Monday--and somehow, some way he  got wedged into the bathroom door (the bathroom door in CMU dorm rooms is thin, maybe 2/3 a normal door) and stuck there in such a way that his body blocked the main door from opening (dorm door and bathroom door are at right angles with each other).  He called for help, but no one heard him; and the legend goes that he passed out from hunger and starved to death before he was discovered.

The Event

The "ghost" story comes in just a few years after the death. It begins, again, during the summer, when the dorms are used as housing for kid's camps and councilors use the second floor as housing for themselves.  In this story, it was just before the beginning of camp (some say the anniversery of the man's death), and that year's councilors were checking out the second-floor rooms.  They had just reached the end of the hall when they heard a noise, from back the way they had come; it was a telephone, ringing in one of the rooms.  Then a second phone joined in; then a third.  Soon, all the phones began ringing, starting at one end of the hall and coming towards the councilors like a wave.  Soon the phones died down, but that entire summer the councilors swore they heard noises from the floor, and they did not like rooming there.

The event has never been repeated.