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light bright red and making a god-awful noiseVINA RAE'S GRILL & GRAZE
Avard, Oklahoma
We conducted an investigation at Vina Rae's Grill & Graze, the only cafe in Avard, Oklahoma, on February 22, 2003. Present were myself, Shirley, also of Eerie Oklahoma, Mike & Alex of Oklahoma Ghost Patrol, and Tonya of GHOULI, and Nan, the owner of the cafe. The weather was relatively nice, getting colder and windier as the day went on.
I'll tell you a little about how Nan & I ended up "meeting" because it's kind of strange. My sister had just recently moved to Cherokee, Oklahoma, which is not far from Avard. Her husband and his family are all from that area. I told them to keep their ears open for any stories of hauntings around that area that I might be able to check out. My sister calls me one day and tells me that they heard there was a haunted cafe in Avard. My first reaction was WHERE the heck is Avard? She didn't know who owned it or anything but thought I should contact them. I said I would. I didn't get a chance to find out much about it and she called me a few weeks later one Saturday morning and asked if I had called that lady in Avard yet - I had not, but assured her I would soon. That very day I received an email from Nan - the owner of the cafe. I assumed that since all the towns around there are so small and everyone knows everyone that my sister or her husband's family had told her to contact me. Not the case - she "happened" upon my site while looking for stuff about Oklahoma ghosts on the net and emailed me. There are lots of groups in Oklahoma so it was kind of strange that she happened to contact me when I had been planning on contacting her.
Anyway - we arrived at the cafe and set up our equipment. We placed an EMF meter in the doorway to the cafe part of the building and it started going nuts with absolutely nothing around it. I checked the setting and it should have taken quite a bit to set it off and we could find no answer why. The pictures show us checking it out but when it started, there was absolutely NOTHING around it. This was the only time in the evening when this happened.
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light bright red and making a god-awful noise
Nan went to get her business partner and the witness to a sighting of an apparition at the cafe. This witness told us of the time she was sitting at the cafe and saw a headless woman in a long gown, like the ones the ladies in that town used to wear for their lodge meetings, come right through the wall. It frightened her so badly that she was unable to sleep alone at her home for a few days and barely sets foot in the cafe anymore. The reason this witness is so credible is that she was never a believer in the paranormal before this incident. She is an elderly woman and is highly respected in the town, in fact, she is the mayor! We interviewed her and while she was telling us the story Shirley caught this orb above us:
The camera was pointed downward, so I don't think it is a reflection from the lens. The picture was taken with a digital camera and we looked at it immediately after and could find no source for a reflection in that particular spot.
Besides this sighting, the owner shared the other things they have experienced at the cafe:
"The odors are that of burning electrical wire or wood. Once was pipe tobacco. A sweet tobacco like cherry. Once was cotton candy and the most sickening was hair. Burning hair. Not just a faint smell but like someone's whole head combusted. It was very over powering. The hair thing has happened more than once. Noises consist of knocks on the wall, footsteps, doors opening but really not and voices. Mainly, things in the kitchen part are the only area where we've seen things move. The dish busboy rolled, broom handles have fallen over from a propped position, metal zipper pulls swayed. Just little things like that. Electrical problems deal with tape recorders that won't record while I'm gone and one of my salesmen's laptops would lose my orders and he say's I'm the only place this ever happens. Only 2 encounters I know of one of which being the woman coming at mom and something grabbed me by the shoulders years ago and threw me down the hall. Our dog goes to work with me and comes inside when he can. (No, not the cafe part! ) Ha. Anyway his hair bristles up when he stares in certain spots and there are area's he won't go in and then there are times he will. ... The electricity has never been checked but the wiring is new. I climbed up above the ceiling several times when we noticed the smell but nothing. This particular odor has only been associated with the hallway and by the French doors that open into the cafe. The smell is always located in about a 3X3 ft.square. Move out of that spot and the aroma is gone. Move back into that area and the smell is still there. Same way with the other smells. By the way, the burning hair was in the kitchen with me today. It was next to me for about 2 min. and then gone. Just before that I heard a movement in front of me about 3ft.away."
We conducted EVP sessions in several areas of the building and we heard several knocking noises. Mike from OGP stood at the doorways during most of them and listened from that standpoint and he also heard the noises and verified that there were no explainable reasons for them. Avard is very little and there were no people around but us. My tape recorder is heinous and I picked up absolutely nothing but a bunch of white noise, so I have nothing from the EVP sessions, which is disappointing.
These are some pictures we got while touring the kitchen and Nan was telling us about the happenings there:
The first one is hard to see, but a feint orb appeared while we were touring the kitchen. The next one is also very light, but on the camera it was very prominent. It looks like it is the lighting or a shadow, but I assure you that the lighting was bright in all areas of the kitchen at this point and this mist appeared in the corner of the kitchen. Just that one area is all that is darker in the whole kitchen. The picture has been cropped to show it, but here is the whole thing:
Here are two more that we got up in the loft. There was a lot of dirt getting stirred around up there, so I know a lot of these are dust, especially the second one. The first one, though, was taken before anyone got up there and although I think some are dust, there are those three right in a straight row that are very bright. However, while we were up there conducting an EVP session, we ALL felt the floor shaking under our feet. There are ducts as you can clearly see in the second picture, but there was no heat or air on at the time the floor was shaking. And the shaking was very slight - not like what the duct work would cause.
Besides the EVP sessions, the EMF meter, and the pictures and video, Mike also had a motion detector that we experimented with a bit, but I don't believe we got any readings from it.
I want to add that there are several storage areas in the building where the walls and ceilings are lined with metallic insulation which would make them nothing but huge reflective surfaces, and we only got one picture with any orbs in it out of 7 taken in those rooms. Here it is - probably NOT paranormal, but I'll post it anyway. The small orb is kind of above the stacks of stuff on the left side of the picture. You can see how everything reflected in those rooms. And there's Mike!
All in all, it was a relatively quiet evening, but that happens sometimes. I don't discount the things that have been happening there. We are hoping to go back when it gets a little warmer for a follow up visit.
This photo was taken by Nan a few weeks after our visit. The picture immediately before it contained nothing. There are no reflective surfaces or objects anywhere nearby.
Vina Rae's Grill & Graze is in a building that was once the high school gym. An interesting theory of the haunting is that back in the 50's there was a woman murdered in Avard that was burned to death in her car. Her husband was the basketball coach in that gym for a very long time and the theory is that possibly this woman is manifesting as the burning smell and returning to the place she and her husband spent a lot of time in.
Nan was very hospitable and fed us well. The yummiest chocolate cake ever! So if you are ever around Alva, Cherokee, Carmen, Waynoka, or Avard, or just want to take a road trip, take the time to stop in and eat at Vina Rae's! You might just see a ghost (or smell one)!