SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Now that all the kids have quit knocking on the door and the only candy left is the kind I eat. Is there anything left to scare you after Halloween? If you are in the Old Brooke Army Medical Center building, there just might be.
San Antonio is a very old city. Being a local, I might have some insight on why BAMC could be so scary.
"You'll never get me to go in that basement again. I saw some things there that make me shiver," said Richard Davila, a retired San Antonio Emergency Medical Technician.
People hear stories of ghosts in the workplace. Is it because BAMC is such an old building? Just down the road on New Braunfels Avenue, there is a little catholic high school named St. Gerard's.
It was built on a cemetery. The football field has an extra player on defense. There is a hand that will grab someone near the twenty yard line. Ask any graduate. If a football player is running on the field, he will mysteriously be tripped and save St. Gerard's a touchdown.
Or there is the story of La Llorona, the crying woman. Just head out I-10 and you will see a creek by the name of Women Hollering Creek. I was told as a kid that a poor woman was in love with a Spanish noble. She had three children with him, and one day he had left never to return. When she discovered that he was marrying another of nobility she went crazy and drowned her kids in that creek. Once she died, she was returned to earth to roam the creek looking for her children.
Of course, there are the more famous stories. The Menger hotel in downtown San Antonio is one of the most haunted places in the country according to the Discovery Channel. It is also the place were Teddy Roosevelt came up with his famous Rough Riders.
Then there are "the tracks" on the southwest side of town. According to the legend, a school bus had become stuck on the railroad tracks when a train was on its way. The driver was not able to move the bus in time. So when someone parks on the tracks and puts their car in neutral, the children will push your car to safety. It has been said that if you put flower on your bumper, you will see their handprints.
"I was sitting here one afternoon, and I thought someone was sitting at their desk typing when I first heard it. So I said hello, and no one answered. I heard the typing again, so I got up to check and no one was there. As I was going back to sit down I heard the typing a third time. So I grabbed my purse and left," said Diana Norton, who works on the 5th floor.
Is this all true? Is it a ghost? I don't know, but if you are sitting at your desk in the old BAMC building and no one is around, you might think twice.