Thanksgiving was a lovely event with Ron and Ira Kaye joining us in the festivities. There was smoked turkey and dressing and cherry pie and pecan…as well. The family favorite of Brocolli Casserole…made an appearance and Green Bean Casserole… her companion. Ira Kaye brought some wonderful bread and MJ made well-buttered mash potatoes to complete the ensemble. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was on all televisions and that followed by The National Kennel Club Dog Show. Baileys Irish Cream for our coffee and vodka for our orange juice…kept us in the holiday spirit.

Yesterday we attempted to recreate our wonderful experience of a Ghost Tour in Edinburgh, Scotland…by attending a Ghost Tour of the Lemp Brewery in St. Louis, Missouri. We had a delicious dinner at the Lemp Mansion. ‘The Lemp Mansion is a historical house in Benton Park, St. Louis, Missouri. It is also the site of three suicides by Lemp family members after the death of the son Fredrick Lemp, whose William J. Lemp Brewing Co. dominated the St. Louis beer market before Prohibition with its Falstaff beer brand. The mansion is said to be haunted by members of the Lemp family.’ ‘According to the Missouri History Museum, Life Magazine included the Lemp Mansion in an article on America’s nine most haunted houses in 1980.’ Wikipedia

Last night we took a tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Lemp Mansion and the Lemp Brewery and concluded the tour by going into 4 of the Lemp Brewery Basements. The Tour included information regarding one of the residents of the neighborhood…being a prime suspect for Jack the Ripper… Also discussion about a serial killer in the 1980s murdering his victims in the basements that we were standing in… The excellent presentation regarding the Lemp Family was the best part of the Tour and was the highlight of the event and it took place on a very cold evening outside the Lemp Mansion.

As I lay in bed last night I wondered…what possessed me to want to spend the night in a haunted house. I was reminded of the funny movie with the actor, Don Knotts, ‘The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. The suites were a fantastic representation of 19th Century Architecture. Our Tour Guide spoke of learning that one of the women that was murdered by the serial killer during the 1980s had been kept in what was called the pit…and we were standing in close proximity to it. He went on to say that once when he was in the area alone he heard a voice which told him, ‘Don’t Leave.’ When he subsequently began to leave he heard…’ Stay.’ A few years ago he said that he had a Psychic Researcher who specialized in auditory psychic research…who told him that the spirit of a young woman had told her that she was kept captive in a white room. At that time the Tour Guide said that he had been in every room that he had access to and that there was no ‘White Room.’ Two years later he gained access to additional parts of the Brewery and discovered a white-tiled room that had been the vault of the Brewery.