I love the fall! All the changing colors, and the bite in the air. I'm so excited to be here in Forest Grove this year for fall, because they actually have fall here!!!! Not even worried about snow for Halloween this year, cause it doesn't happen, that's crazy! So yesterday I decorated the house with a few decorations I picked up at the dollar store. Nothing amazing because I can't afford very much, but I have to decorate for Halloween! Besides decorating I went for a little drive around Forest Grove, and you will never guess what I was looking for...so I'll have to tell you.
First off I love spooky things. I honestly don't know why, but especially this time of the year I'm totally obsessed with anything scary. So I went for a little tour of the Portland area cemeteries. Haha, I know it's a little weird. That's what someone at church told me too. I was actually going for a reason.
A couple of weeks ago I was driving by this little cemetery I always pass when I go to institute. I just sort of glanced over there and I saw something near the back of the cemetery. It was moving really fast, and it was white. I just glanced, like I said, and by the time I really looked nothing was there. A tingle of spookiness went through me so I decided I would check it out when I had some time. By the time I got to it I had done a little research on area cemeteries and I turned my adventure into a search for the spookiest cemetery around Forest Grove. As it turns out I have only been to two so far because that's all I've had time for, but I was not disappointed.
I found this one cemetery out in the country all by itself up on a little hill surrounded by trees on one side. It was around 4:00 in the afternoon. It was a little windy up on the hill, and there was nothing out there except for an old farmhouse you could see off through the trees (how scary would that be to live by a cemetery all by yourself!) The cemetery had really old graves, some that had been moved from another spot. Most had dates of around 1830-1850 on them. Some of the graves had these little fences around them, all old and falling apart. All the grass was dead in the cemetery, and it looked like no one had been there in ages. It was definitely spooky, and it would probably be a good spot to take a group and get freaked out, mainly because it's totally isolated.
Then the next day I went to the cemetery I have drivin by thousands of times. When I went there it was starting to get dark out, it was around 6:30 at night. Of course I went to check out the back of the cemetery first, and found train tracks, and then forest. It was totally spooky back there, but I had to admit that what I had seen might have been the end of a train. There are really big/old trees in the cemetery there, and the graves are even older than the ones in the other cemetery. I was walking around and I kept walking into spider webs going from the trees to the ground (and if you know me that is about as scary as it gets for me!!!) The tree roots had pushed up and knocked over a lot of the gravestones. A lot of the markers where just lying on the ground...that felt a little spooky seeing the gravestones lying on the ground like that. All in all the spookiest of the two would have been the one with the train tracks, except for the fact that it's right next to a really busy road, sort of ruins the scare.
Forest Grove has two cemeteries, but I have not been to them yet, so I guess I still have some adventures left. I have heard that at one of the Forest Grove cemeteries a lady got locked in when the groundskeeper didn't check the cemetery before he locked the gate one evening. She had called the police to come and unlock the gate, but while she was waiting she started hearing little kids playing in the cemetery. She looked all around but didn't find anyone else there. She said she started hearing footsteps crunching through the trees she had just checked. She decided to take off and leave her car when the policeman finally showed up to unlock the gate. I'll make sure to go to that one right in the middle of the day....
For a final note, I've heard that a few of the building at Pacific University are supposed to be haunted. I haven't looked into it yet, but sounds like a good Halloween project...maybe something that needs to be embarked on with a certain hot boy from my singles ward....
