Linden Street Coffee House

THE GHOST POST - Chapter VI: Burned Basement Beams

How did those beautiful, heavy beams in the basement of Linden Street Coffee House become charred?

Honestly, I haven't found anyone in Lamoni, Iowa, who can answer that question ... who can tell me what happened in our building long, long ago.  I know that there was a fire.  The evidence is there.  The basement, which is two rooms and a crawl space, now houses our stockroom and a storeroom.  The door between the two rooms is an old-fashioned one, made from heavy beams and swinging with a hand-tooled, iron hinge.

The "second room" has a low ceiling.  Really low.  Even those of us under 6' have to duck.  Imagine what Erich and Tyson have had to deal with (they're 6'5").  The door remains open 24/7, but the staff requested that we put up a curtain or partition because - in their words - it's "creepy."  So, rather than shutting that old, hinged door, I hung a sheet there.  It's flowery and cheery and not creepy at all.

As you enter the second room, you can see where a fire has swept through.  The ceiling beams and the old door are charred.  If you let your mind wander, you can imagine the terror someone must have felt decades ago when they realized the building was burning.  During that era, that probably meant someone's home and/or livelihood - or life - were in jeopardy.  Today, it would probably just mean the headache of working through the bureaucracy of paperwork, insurance, etc.  In this day and age, smoke alarms and other gadgets would hopefully prevent any loss of life, but the loss of this beautiful old building would sure be painful.

Why am I including this in our Ghost Post?  Because I - and others - have often wondered if the fire in our building is the origin of our ghost.  Did a child die in the fire, or as a result of injuries from the fire?  Did a mommy and daddy mourn?  Or was it just a quick coal fire - the coal bin (see photo at left for a similar type of bin) is in the very location of the charred areas.  It's possible there was a quick, intensely hot fire but no loss of life or even property.  We are, after all, still using that room and the beams, though charred and sooty, remain strong enough to hold up this beautiful old building.

There could be a sad answer to our question, "How did those beautiful, heavy beams in the basement of Linden Street Coffee House become charred?" or there could just be an uninteresting story from yesteryear.  I like a good mystery, but I'd sure like to know the answer to this one.

THE GHOST POST - Chapter V: Trying Out the New A/C Unit

I would love to say that this is a photo of Mitch at the exact moment the ghost came to visit him at Linden Street Coffee House.  It's not, but it is a cute picture.  :-)  One day last week, we finally, finally, finally put the window a/c unit in the kitchen at the coffee house.  Yea!  Summer in Iowa can be brutal!

So Mitch is enjoying a day at work ... and a day with the new air conditioning.  Smoothies are whirring in the blender, the scent of baking scones is in the air, and customers are enjoying our famous coffees and Ashby's ice cream.  As Mitch walks toward the back of the kitchen, he realizes that the cool air he'd been enjoying had suddenly stopped blowing.  He thought, "a blown fuse, perhaps?" and "did the unit come unplugged, perhaps?" but no ... the a/c was turned off. 

Mitch called me.  "The ghost came to visit.  He must have a sense of humor, because he turned off the air conditioner."  Then he said ... are you ready for this ... "It was cool!" 

THE GHOST POST - Chapter IV: A Serenade for Patricia

Who doesn't love the sweet, soft sound of children singing?  How about Patricia, who heard the lovely, lilting lyrics of a child's melody as she was washing dishes at the coffee house one day.  (Maybe I should mention at this point that Patricia was the only one in the building ... no radio or CD that day ... no sounds from the apartments above.  Just Patricia and Our Ghost.) 

That's Patricia in the red shirt, by the way.   She really does exist, as does The Ghost of Linden Street Coffee House!

It's true, you know, that ghosts don't really say "boo," except in the movies.  And ghosts don't wear white sheets, except maybe that cute, friendly little Casper.  They might laugh, cry, or just be quiet, but Our Ghost likes to sing to us.  Or at least to Patricia.  To hear Patricia tell the story, it happened one afternoon when all was quiet in the coffee house.  She was washing dishes with her back to the rest of the kitchen when she realized there was a small, high-pitched voice singing.  She turned and just listened for a few seconds.  Her comment to me was, "It sounded like a little girl singing, not sad, just quietly singing as though she was playing with her dolls."

So we think we've identified our ghost as a small child, and not necessarily an unhappy one.  Just one who has found her (his?) way to our time, our dimension, our coffee house.  We welcome her, but feel a little sorry that she hasn't quite found her way "home," wherever that is for her.

One of my summer projects is to research our old building and see what it's history includes.  Watch in a few days for THE GHOST POST - Chapter V:  Burned Basement Beams.

THE GHOST POST - Chapter III: Who Turned On The Blender???

Only  Inspector Gadget or Spidey could stretch the 15 feet from the desk at Linden Street Coffee house to the smoothie counter (that's where our blender is).  Erich and Patricia sure can't.  But that's where they were the day the blender turned on by itself ... at the desk ... 15 feet away from the blender!

I came into the coffee house one day through the back door.  Erich and Patricia were standing at the desk talking, and they looked at me with a strange "how do I say this" look.  I just asked what was up and they kept looking at me as though - sorry for this - I were a ghost.  Then Patricia said, "We were over here by the desk a few minutes ago, and the blender started up.  We didn't touch it, we weren't even close to it, it just started running!"  Erich, who is normally level-headed, calm in the face of crises, and logical to the point of Vulcanistic, simply said, "I have to admit it was a little strange.  The blender just started blending."

The photo to your right shows (l to r) Patricia with her mean, military look, then Erich with his wonderful smile, and Jeremiah - they're in front of the smoothie counter on one of our busier days.  The counter is trashed with orange and pineapple juices, milk, chocolate, strawberries, and blender parts.  Ahh, those were the carefree, happy days before the blender was possessed.  You can see how comfortable they all are with their backs to the counter.  Not anymore ... bwahahahaha.

Now, maybe it's because we have a new Vita-Mix blender, but our blender hasn't turned itself on lately.  Maybe Our Ghost hasn't figured out which button to push, or maybe it's just waiting for the right time.  Either way, for the time being anyway, Our Ghost has "blended in" with the scenery at Linden Street Coffee House.  Come back soon for Chapter IV of the GHOST POST:  A Serenade For Patricia.

THE GHOST POST - Chapter II: The Open and Shut Case of the Freezer Door

Okay, so you're back to read more about Our Ghost.  If you missed The GHOST POST - Chapter I, just scroll below so you can start from the top!

Two weeks ago, my husband, Mike, and I went to the basement storeroom to put some things away.  The door to our upright freezer was WIDE OPEN.  Not a good thing when you're the one paying the utility bill.  We calmly asked Kaitlyn (she was working at the time) if she had been in the freezer lately, and she said, "No." 

We figured the door hadn't suctioned properly the last time someone closed it, so we went through the whole how-to-close-the-door-of-the-freezer-so-it-stays-shut routine with Kaitlyn.  She was bored, but politely said "thanks" and went back to work, but not before telling us that she had also heard was she thought was a bat flying around in the back room of the basement.  We chalked it up to late night jitters.  Silly us.

Four days later, I went downstairs at 6 a.m. (before anyone else came in to work) to do some inventory checks and, lo and behold, the freezer door was, yes, WIDE OPEN.  I would love to be able to tell you at this point that someone left it open the night before, but no.  Everything was still frozen and there was no condensation, so the door had only been open a short while ... while no one was there.

Yes, it's freaky and it's kooky, mysterious and spooky.  In fact, it's altogether ooky. 

Oh!  About the photo accompanying this article.  That's Tyson (he's 6'7" and plays basketball for Graceland University) and Sharon (she's, well, shorter than Tyson).  This picture has nothing to do with Our Ghost, but I love the photo so here it is.

Stay tuned for Chapter III of The GHOST POST:  Who Turned on the Blender???

The GHOST POST - Chapter I: Footsteps Without Feet

If you had told me three years ago that I'd be writing about ghosts - and not laughing - I would have, well, laughed.  But here I am writing about The Ghost of Linden Street Coffee House. 

When my husband and I first bought Linden Street Coffee House in February 2004, no one told us about The Ghost of Linden Street Coffee House ... hereafter called The Ghost of LSCH, or just Our Ghost.  Our Ghost is the real thing, complete with creaking floors, childlike singing, mysterious activities, and mischievous pranks.

So today we bring you GHOST POST Chapter I:  Footsteps Without Feet

The first time I met Our Ghost it was early afternoon, which is usually a quiet time at the coffee house.  Now, you have to understand that the building where our coffee house is located is about 100 years old.  We still have the original wood floors and some of the original interior brick walls.  It's quite beautiful, but old.  We really can hear the old floor creak ... sometimes when we're in the basement storeroom the only way we know a customer has come in is because we hear the floor above groaning!

So it's early afternoon, I'm the only one in the building, and I hear footsteps crossing the old dining room floor ... they stop at the cash register counter ... I go to the counter ... there is no one there!  (Take a look at the picture ... the green counter on the right is where Our Ghost's footsteps stopped.)

I chalk up the "footsteps" to my imagination and go on with my work.

Later that afternoon, Katie comes in to work and I say, "Katie, the weirdest thing happened to me today."  (Note:  I have mentioned nothing nothing nothing to anyone about my Ghost encounter.)  She smiles and says, "Oh, you met Our Ghost!"

Apparently, Our Ghost has introduced herself to several Linden Street Coffee House folks, and that day she was polite enough to introduce herself to me. 

Stay tuned for Chapter II:  The Open and Shut Case of the Freezer Door