HIDE AND SEEK: Pam Hauth holds a ring that she believes was hidden by a little girl ghost that lives in her house. The ring mysteriously re-appeared in a spot she had checked many times.
By Michele DeLuca
delucam@gnnewspaper.com
The little ghost who lives with Pam and Skip Hauth in Lewiston seems to have a fondness for candy and even a sense of humor.
Pam, director of the Lewiston Museum, sat down in the dining room of her beautiful old Victorian home on Cayuga Street to talk about life with a ghost in the house.
QUESTION: So, when did all this ghostly activity start?
ANSWER: Fairly soon, actually, after we moved here, my husband came home from a business trip with the little mint candies that are beside the cash register in restaurants. He knows I love them, so he brought me handfuls of the things. We put them in a little bowl, set them on the coffee table next to us while we were having coffee after dinner.
Q: Then what happened?
A: We came down the next morning to read the paper and have our coffee, and that little dish that had all the candy in it was empty ... and he said to me, “What, did you get hungry in the middle of the night or what?” I said, “I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't eat that candy. Tell me you did!” We looked everywhere. That candy was nowhere to be found. We decided it probably wasn't a mouse because a mouse would make a mess, chewing it up and leaving little crumbs all over everything. It just was gone. (She described two other incidents ,including one where a tiny candy bar was taken from a candy jar and moved to another cabinet. On another morning, a handful of malted milk balls were lined up on the counter.)
Q: So the little ghost clearly likes candy. You had another incident, didn’t you, with the skylight in February?
A: One day my husband came home from work ... and before "Hello, I'm home,” or anything, he said “What is the skylight doing open?” ... We went upstairs and it was as open as it could possibly be, and that's just not something I would have done in February. It is hard to open ... and it just cannot blow open.
Q: You mentioned your husband’s grandmother’s ring. Can you tell me about that?
A: I wanted to wear that particular ring, and there are only a couple of places that I will take my rings off and leave them because I am prone to losing them ... I looked in all of my usual places four or five times thinking that I overlooked it ... we were in the living room having our coffee after dinner and I reached over to put my coffee cup on the table. I looked and it was the ring I had been looking for two weeks. I had looked on that table five times.
Q: So, what do you know about this little ghost?
A: We had a friend of the family come to visit right after we moved here, and she claims to be sensitive to the ... (she searches for a word ) auroras. She said almost as soon as she got into the house, do you think this house is haunted ? ... They were here for two or three days and when they got ready to leave, she told me she thought it was a little girl who had spent some of the happiest days of her life here ... she particularly liked it in the attic, which happens to be where the skylight is.
Q: How do you feel about living with a ghost?
A: I feel fine with it as long as what she's doing is not malevolent (laughs). I have never seen anything. I have never felt a presence, it’s just these little things ... My husband is a skeptic. He wouldn’t even talk about ghosts before these things happened. There just doesn't seem to be a way to explain it unless one of us is lying, and I don't think so.
Q: Some people might think you’re a little ...
A: Dotty, maybe (laughs)? You can believe whatever you want to believe. These things have happened to me and if a ghost wants to change somebody’s mind, then I guess they can make these things happen to somebody else ... Our little friend, whoever it is, if she’s a little girl, she seems used to us. She’s been a little quiet lately.
Q: Well, you are the director for the Village of Lewiston museum, so you must have an appreciation for ghosts and their history, right?
A: Everybody likes ghost stories. People get chills down their backs when you tell a ghost story, and if it has a tie to history it gets people excited about knowing where we all came from and what happened before us. Lewiston, in particular, is just kind of stepped in history with the War of 1812 happening right here. Actually, I would be more surprised if Lewiston wasn't haunted than if it is.
Lewiston has a number of “ghost walk opportunities.”
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