[this is from April 1st. But it doesn’t really read like an April Fool)
Jack Nicoll goes ghost-hunting.
‘What a Life’ – They’ve a spook.
There is a ghost abroad in the Union! I mean the Students’ Union in Broad Street. The ghost – he, she, or it – manifested itself in my short visit, by starting off an electric sewing machine which was unattended at the time. It started, too, when I was being very sceptical to the wardrobe mistress. Weird things have been happening since seven girls moved in to the committee room last week. The girls are the wardrobe team, and they have been making the 200-300 dresses which are to be worn at the forthcoming students’ show.
Locked doors have been unlocking themselves. Lights have been flickering on and off. An electric sewing machine suddenly starts going when unattended. Dresses have been thrown from their hangers. And one beautiful salmon pink creation has had a hole bitten out of it.
Wardrobe mistress Lyn Stephen was busy reeling off this list of incidents when she stopped short and pointed – there was one of the electric sewing machines whirring away on its own! Most of these happenings have taken place in the evenings, when, as Lyn says, “It isn’t funny.” The sewing machine was sent back to the shop for a check and was returned with an “O.K.” label attached. Another electric sewing machine which broke down and defied the mechanic’s efforts, started working the following morning.
That evening a red shadow appeared at the glass panel of the communications door. When the girls opened the door there was no sign of anyone. Another evening the provisor phoned through to ask if any of them were wandering about the union building, which was locked on the outside. A quick check showed that all the girls were busy working. The provisor had answered a knock on his door, and no one was there when he answered.
Naturally, all this is a little disturbing, especially when the girls are all racing against the clock to have costumes ready in time for rehearsals. They haven’t named this elusive ghost “because we don’t know whether it is a he, she, or it.”
Jokingly, I asked Lyn if she had ever been to a Spiritualist meeting, and she said that last New Year a few of them had held their own seance with a glass on a table. Round the table edge were placed the letters of the alphabet. “Each person placed a finger lightly on the glass, which moved round the table spelling out names and messages.” “Why don’t we have a session now and ask the ghost its name?” I asked. “Oh, no,” replied Lyn, “I am afraid ever to try it again. It was a peculiar sensation feeling the glass moving round.”
The other girls in the wardrobe who corroborated Lyn’s story, and always have “Sandy,” their charm, present, are Sheila Nicol, 32 Morningside Road; Marilyn Duncan, The Manse, Portlethan; Margaret Milne, 212 Mid Stocket Road; Doreen Paterson, Bisset’s Lane, Laurencekirk; Alison Hendry, 40 Norfolk Road, and Isabel Allan, Crombe Hall. Lyn stays at 12 Seafield Avenue.
If the ghost continues to upset the routine, then perhaps someone will have to be called in to exorcise it!
( A blurry photo fails to show “Sandy, the anti-ghost charm, is given an airing in the hope that it will stop the machine.”)
Aberdeen Evening Express, 1st April 1963.