Amid the clinks of liquor bottles - Jameson, Jim Beam, Tito's, Smirnoff - and in front of some wood-paneled walls original to the 1950s and even in the women's bathroom, with its creaking stall doors and pink tiled walls, something may be lurking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3034.
Perhaps it's something sinister, perhaps something friendly; nevertheless, it seems to call the Gion Street VFW home. It must not mind the smell of lit cigarettes pinched between the fingers of Sumter veterans or the sounds of them chatting, laughing and making a routine of visiting the local veterans' hub.
The potential apparitions' tolerance of it all, according to members of the South Carolina Paranormal Research & Investigations team, may be because in their waking life, they may have been veterans, too. And maybe they, too, once frequented the black leather bar stools and enjoyed something neat or on the rocks with like-minded folk.
Amanda Farmer, the manager of VFW 3034, invited SCPRAI - ghost hunters for all intents and purposes - to the post after a few instances that gave her the heebie jeebies.
A wreath and a picture frame, during two different instances, came off the wall despite being nailed securely, Farmer said. And patrons have left the women's restroom in a fright, saying someone was singing in there and that someone wearing red heels could be seen in the adjacent empty stall.
"And no one here was wearing red heels," Farmer said.
"It was probably my wife coming back to haunt me," Harry Bausman, commander of the post, said with a laugh. "Her favorite color was red."
Farmer also said she has seen a woman in her office with curly brown hair when no one else was supposed to be in the building, which has a bolted front door.
So on Saturday, Sept. 16, at 9 p.m., Farmer and her assistant manager, Teriann Nash, cleared the post of all its usual patrons, turned off the lights and let the ghost hunters get to work. Farmer, on edge yet ready to learn more from the team, clung to Bausman, who doesn't think his post is haunted by something mean.
"Are you a man?"
"Are you a woman?"
"Are you a child?"
"Are you a veteran?"
"Can you show us where you are?"
Lead investigator Shaun England asked all of these questions and more to anyone or anything that could be lurking at the bar. He is sure to be polite, saying, "thank you" any time a piece of equipment would signal something is there.
The team's equipment included a ball that would light up when touched, a red laser grid shining out from a projector that could make something passing through easy to notice, goggles and headphones that would dull the five senses, thus making one more likely to hear subtle sounds, and many other pieces of machinery, some of which were designed to pick up on suspicious frequencies.
And some of their techniques are really quite simple. They put bells on the bathroom stalls in order to hear if they move, for example. And when they take pictures, they take at least two at a time so they can compare them and identify movement.
They also place audio recorders in multiple areas and instruct everyone to be as silent as possible, and if someone makes a noise, they have to verbally indicate it, so it's not mistaken for paranormal activity when the team reviews the footage.
At its core, however, ghost hunting is all about being observant. It's about feeling a breeze that shouldn't be there, England said.
Regardless of whether the joint is haunted or just has nails coming lose and a prankster with red shoes and a nice singing voice frequenting the ladies' room, the post's friendly atmosphere will remain and Sumter area veterans will continue to hang there.
"This is a good place with good people," 94-year-old veteran Bill Hartley said. "I'm not scared. I was in Korea."
The in-person investigation went late into the night, and the equipment did indicate a ghostly presence more than a few times. The team will take a few weeks to review footage and verify a haunting. SCPRAI does perform cleansings, but as of now, they do not plan on cleansing VFW Post 3034.
"So make sure you say a prayer before you leave so it doesn't follow you," Farmer said.
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