Flickr

I really liked exploring Flickr. I use Facebook to put my pics on the web but Flickr has some really nice options such as the map application. Also, I liked having the option of turning photos into calendars, art, cards, etc. I have seen this done before using Snapfish and wasn’t sure what Flickr had to offer. I am impressed. Another nice part of this site is the tagging. I was surprised at how many people had tagged images with the same wording I searched with. It was great to stumble across more obscure items in this way.

While exploring I searched for the places I have been that bring back the best memories to see what others have posted. One image that really made me laugh to myself was of a “haunted” Jesus statue from my undergrad college, Mercyhurst in Erie PA. And here is why…

WARNING: PERSONAL REMINISING AHEAD, NO NEED TO CONTINUE UNLESS YOU ARE BORED.

Mercyhurst is an old Catholic College that was founded by the sisters of Mercy and built overlooking Lake Erie. It was constructed during the Great Depression and the story goes that the nuns helped hand construct the buildings brick by brick due to the shortage of funds and workers. During our freshman year my best friend and I were housed on the top floor of one of the oldest buildings on campus, Egan Hall. It used to house the nuns back in the day so it was filled with stories of unrequited love, death, evil spirits, etc. The rooms were built into the rafters and each one was shaped differently and had its own ghost story. We found out that the year before we moved into our room the former residents had come back after break to find all of the furniture pushed against the door from the inside. With no other access to the room it was decided it was done by “ghosts” and maintenance had to come and push the door open so they could move it back. We were Okay with this story…others were much more creepy. Our best friends down the hall thought they were lucky since they had the only dorm room with a fireplace and personal bathroom. In the end that room wasn’t so lucky…but that’s another story. Above the haunted third floor was an attic that no one was allowed to go in. There were abandoned rooms up there and we would hear footsteps at night. This attic leads back to the Flickr image I found.
Egan Hall had stairwells that were locked, and were also the only way to access the attic. At the top of the locked emergency stairwells there were ancient religious statues. Very very creepy. They made you happy that the stairwells were locked. One day a group of my friends decided to go into the attic and explore. We did this for three reasons. First, all of the RAs were at a meeting so we knew we had a time slot where we wouldn’t get caught. Second, we had out of town guests and thought it would be fun to scare them. And lastly, it snows A LOT in Erie and you get really bored. These combined to make this adventure look like a really great idea. Out of a group of 8 girls 6 of us decided to go outside, around the dorm, up the emergency stairs, past this very creepy Jesus and into the attic. The other 2 girls said they were going back to their rooms.
I was feeling brave, leading the way and telling everyone not to be scared. When we reached the top of the stairs and entered the attic we found a small dark room with 3 doors and the prerequisite dust and abandoned creepy debris from days gone by. I made sure that all of my friends had reached the top of the stairs and in my bravest voice announced, “See, there is nothing up here” as I opened the door nearest to me. As soon as the words left my lips large dark objects rushed out the door I had just opened. I couldn’t tell what they were due to the blindingly flashing lights that accompanied them. Needless to say we all ran screaming back down the stairs, past the creepy statue, and outside. We returned to our room petrified. Moments later our 2 friends, the ones that had decided not to go with us, walked in wearing Scream costumes carrying camera. They had gotten us good. The blindingly flashing lights came from the cameras as they captured the look of horror on our faces for year’s worth of blackmail.

Later on we heard conversations around the dorm about the screaming in the attic over the weekend. The ghosts were spreading out…they even heard the screaming on the first floor this time. I am sure that this is how many of the wonderful ghost stories got started.

The point of my story here… is that sites like Flickr allow users to connect in more personal ways. Tags allowed me to find this photo and thus came the wave of memories.

Click hear to view the scary statue