The Bryan Hall Wine Incident
It happened at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. The year was 1998. I was a lowly sophomore, or “wise fool” if you prefer the Latin translation. I knew very little of the world and even less about wine. The first thing I knew about wine was that it was something my father made in our basement. The second thing I knew was that the romanticism of a bottle was enough to get a co-ed horizontal (even more than with a twelve pack of Old Milwaukee Ice).
At the beginning of each academic quarter, my father was sure to stock me with almost enough of the fruit of the vine to last until I ran out of my monthly supply of undies and had to come home for laundry. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t of legal drinking age. He knew that the taste of an uncorked bottle transported me to a dinner table back home. He also knew that it helped with my studies in gender relations.
Some strange occurrences happened that year in Bryan Hall.
I was fast asleep one night, not under the influence of any substance legal or otherwise, when what sounded like a wind tunnel woke me. In the desk chair next to my bed the apparition of a man was reaching towards me.
I rubbed up eyes and sat upright. He was still there. Not trying to hurt me. Just touch me. I went back to sleep and figured that I was just dreaming, yet the vividness of the image lurked in the back of my mind.
Later that fall semester, I attended a Haunted Athens Tour with a friend and his parents. Athens just happened to be one of America’s top 10 most haunted cities. From the pentagram of cemeteries that surround the city to the abandoned lunatic asylum that overlooks campus, there are enough spirits lurking to scare any student sober.
One of the stops was outside of Bryan Hall. The tour guide told of a student who hung himself years earlier. The room number was unknown other than it was in the southeast corner of the second floor – the exact corner in which I was living.
Was it his ghost I encountered weeks earlier?
A few weeks later I was awoke again in the middle of the night. This time, there was a pounding at my door. Remembering my visitor earlier that semester, I was reluctant to answer it. Through the cobwebs of some of Dad’s hooch, I recognized the voice of Sam, the Japanese exchange student who lived in one of the other rooms in my corner.
I opened the door, and he stood there shifting weight from one side to the other yelling, “Stop it! Just stop it!”
The commotion woke his roommate.
Unable to stir Sam from his trance, we wrestled him back to his bed. His roommate mentioned that earlier in the week Sam complained about hearing voices.
Was it the ghost that was speaking to Sam?
Halloween I had a friend visiting from home for the weekend of debauchery Athens is famous for. We began the party on Thursday night, but I still had to wake the next morning for a Spanish exam. Not wanting to bother my friend, I gathered my books for some last-minute studying in our floor’s lobby that separated the men’s from the women’s side. Sam kept walking past staring at me and saying that he wanted to go to the gym.
I was uneasy but had nowhere else to finish studying. I stopped a friend, and she agreed to sit with me for a while.
Sam stopped his intrusions.
After some time we agreed the situation was over. My friend left to return a CD to one of the men on our floor. She walked down the men’s hallway and returned moments later to report that Sam was roaming the hallway.
Naked.
With an erection.
I thought she was joking and continued my studies.
An hour later it was time to ready myself for the day. I stood in front of a bathroom sink half-shaven when Sam entered.
Naked.
And still with an erection.
I gathered my belongings and found the RA on duty who contacted the police. Sam was arrested an hour later and spent the rest of the year locked up in a mental hospital for schizophrenia.
Had Sam gone crazy or was he possessed by the ghost? If he was possessed by the ghost, I was beginning to think that at least the ghost had a sense of humor.
After that, all was quiet in Bryan Hall. At least until the Great Wine Incident.
It was February and the old steam pipes in the century building were cranking out ghastly heat. I slept most nights with the window open to the blistering winter snow and the fan blowing.
One afternoon, as I entered the sauna that was my room, I sat down at the desk and noticed a liquid on the keyboard. It was also spilled onto other parts of my desk. A quick sniff test revealed white wine. The last of my stash sat opened on a dresser across the room.
It was unopened when I left. A quarter of the bottle remained while the rest covered my desk and bed. The cork was found a good five feet across the room from the bottle wedged between my mattress and the wall.
To this day, that bottle of wine remains a mystery. What opened the bottle and spilled it all over my room? Was it a corked bottle? Did the heat of the room cause it to explode? Or did the ghost of Bryan Hall perform yet another haunting? But most importantly, what was I going to do with the last of my stash now gone? Surely, my studies in gender relations would suffer.
That is a hysterical story. Anyone ever know what happened to Sam? That picture of you in college is awesome!! You’re so small!! haaa!
The mystery was supposed to be about the wine, not Sam… Oh, and soon I’ll be that small again.
Reblogged this on mwwcblog.
Bring me lots of votes!
Can’t wait till your mother reads this one.
Cute story. U R GOOD!
Ooh, you had me a bit freaked out there! Great story! Also curious about what happened to Sam!
Everybody wants to know about Sam! We visited Sam a few times while he was locked up. After that, we occasionally saw him in the school gym lifting weights. He was growing quite strong and we were all still a bit freaked out by him so we kind of kept distance. He could womp on any of us.
Nice post! I also added the Drunken Cyclist to my read list… bikes and wine, I like it already.
You’ll like his blog. Very entertaining. Restaurant week starts next week… I take it you two aren’t making it?
Great story. I also included some spook in my MWWC story. Cheers!
Thank you! I look forward to reading yours!
great story Bryan…Very creepy!
I think a lot of the dads on Rhodes Avenue made wine in the basement. I served a bottle of my dads Zin to my beautiful bride on our 2nd date, she still claims that is one of the best bottles of wine she has ever had!
Once again, the homemade wine helps with gender relations. It’s a sure thing! Most of the neighborhood still makes wine. My dad included.
Cool, entertaining story! What happens in Athens… 😉
And a lot happened in Athens… Do you have any ties to Athens?
Ha! I can only imagine! 😉 No, no ties for me with either Athens (Greece or Ohio): my roots are Italian 🙂
Holy smokes! That is creepy!!
I often look back to just how strange events were that yet. Really unexplainable.
Night-time wanderings? 🙂
But the naked wandering happened during the day.
Just wondering, what was your room number. My niece just vacated her room on the second floor in Bryan hall, it just so happened to be in the corner (I’m directionly challenged so I don’t know north from south in buildings). She had issues with her door opening on its own after it was shut tightly, when she would try to close it, sometimes there was some resistance and others it was almost difficult to shut like someone has pushing back.
It could be the same room. I don’t recall the room number, but it was the back corner facing Tupper Hall. Back when I was there 15 years ago, that side of the building was the men’s side. Let me know if it’s the same room!
I remember Bryan Hall and the hot rooms! We had to crack the window even when it was below freezing outside! I was there my sophomore year in the late Seventies (in the south part of the Hall). I remember the old heaters that thudded loudly. Lots of shadows in the poorly lit bathrooms. Your story brings back memories of the Hall but I never had any interactions (and knew it!!)