Deb Spalding Folklore suggests that signs and symbols determine our fate. Have good luck if you find a penny or start the day with a double-yoke egg; have bad luck if you break a mirror or have a black cat cross your path. These superstitions can become pretty detailed, like having a rabbit or squirrel cross your path to the right means an easy journey, while the same crossing to the left suggests peril. Well, I’d like to know what happens when the squirrel starts right, then jumps straight up in the air, hits the ground and stares at you, then darts back to the left. That must mean I’m really misdirected, right? It would appear that these traditions of lore are a bunch of “hoopydo” to me. I put them in the same category as ghosts, goblins, and witches, but I also know that many enjoy the good fun of Halloween. So, to prepare for this spooky article, I’ve been asking people about their ghostly encounters. Most don’t seem to have many, or at least that they’ll share. Short on leads, I read blogs on the internet, consulted books, and talked to our local historian/tourism expert/ghost tour docent, Roger Troxell for some tips. My research also included information from HauntedPlaces.org, Patrick Boyton’s book, Snallygaster, The Lost Legend of Frederick County; and Paula M. Strain’s book Tales of Mountain Maryland, as well as several other internet sites. The following is a glimpse of some real, or as real as we can remember, ghostly stories in our area. I will state that the facts may be clouded with retelling, or they may not be facts at all.   The Ghost on Main Street The Overall Man, named because he was seen, or imagined, wearing overalls, haunted a house on Main Street in Thurmont for several years. The Overall Man was a jokester. He would pull the covers off in the middle of the night, turn on the lights throughout the house, close all of the bedroom doors when they were left open, move the silverware around in the drawers, and manipulate utensils before your very eyes. He’s not been talked about for several years, and it is unknown if he has moved on, but it can be said that he had a fun spirit (pun intended). Grandmother Rings from Heaven A Sabillasville lady claimed that the spirit of her late grandmother would ring her phone at the same time every evening. Two rings. This was a rotary phone that her grandmother used every day and now held a special, sentimental value to the lady. She displayed it prominently on her nightstand. The puzzling part — the phone was not connected to any outlet. It didn’t even have a cord. The Flute Player Larry Dielman is said to visit the grave of his father in the Grotto of Lourdes Cemetery above Mount St. Mary’s University every year on Christmas Eve. An avid banjo player most of his life, it was not until his father, Prof. Henry Casper Dielman, a noted classical musician and composer both in his native Germany and later in the United States, died, that Larry learned to play the flute to honor him. His father had led symphony orchestras in Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, and in 1843, he joined the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, where he taught music and composed the Christmas carol With Glory Lit the Midnight Air. It is said that, if you listen carefully on a clear, windless Christmas Eve, that you can hear Larry playing the flute at his father’s grave.   The Snallygaster This creature first made its appearance in the Middletown Valley and Catoctin Mountains in the early twentieth century. It was described in the Tales of Mountain Maryland as bird-like and reptilian, a flying dragon with one eye. The Snallygaster was believed to be one of few of its kind in the area, for it was believed that eyewitnesses saw it die when it visited a whiskey still and drowned in a vat of liquor. The evidence of the creature was destroyed when two Federal Agents set the still with explosives and blew up the creature and the still. According to Boyton’s research, a March 5, 1909 edition of the Emmitsburg Chronicle reported that Ed Brown, an employee with the Western Maryland Railroad, encountered the Snallygaster when it stole some of his coal. The winged creature swooped down from above and “seized him by the suspenders.” Mr. Brown was rescued when his friend Bill Snider grabbed Brown by the foot. The two men, joined by Dan Shorb of Emmmitsburg, fought the creature for a reported hour and a half ending with it being chased into the woods. It is said that the creature headed for Emmitsburg where deputy game warden Capt. Norman Hoke showed it his badge and, “backed by the full authority of the law,” ordered it from the county. His words had little effect on the creature, but Clarence Fraley “loaded a gun with croquet balls and slag and shot at it.”   Civil war nurses The National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg was once St. Joseph’s College, which until 1973 was a Catholic girls’ school established in 1809. During the Civil War, this location was used as a hospital. Witnesses at the former college claim to have seen the ghosts of Civil War nurses, who were carrying buckets of amputated human limbs and heard the sounds of soldiers screaming in pain.