Guest Author - Jaide Norman
Most everyone from the Midwest and the Ohio Valley has heard of Bobby Mackey’s. Driving past the place you would never suspect that it is a country music bar. It is an old building with no distinctive markings. It sits on a wooded lot along the Ohio River in Wilder, Kentucky, just across the river from downtown Cincinnati. If you go in there on any weekend night, there is the typical crowd gathered inside. In the middle of the main room is a two-sided bar where you will find 3 or 4 friendly bartenders constantly walking up and down the length of the bar serving those sitting on the high stools or making drinks for the barmaids who walk table to table bringing you more drinks. Karaoke is extremely popular throughout the night before the band comes on for their set. There is even a working mechanical bull in an area paralleled to the stage area. The crowd is always friendly, lots of people just sitting around talking to old friends and new.
When you first enter the front doors, there is usually a line of people waiting to pay the cover charge to get in. The night I went for the first time, I was waiting my turn to pay when a short lady came to the doorway and yelled, “Ghost tour will be leaving in 15 minutes! Pay the lady here in the front if you haven’t already for the tour then meet me outside.” I was puzzled. Ghost Tour? What was that? My cousins and I asked the lady about it and we were all a little excited so we signed up. We all agreed not to drink until after the tour. I went to the bathroom before the tour and that is where the fun started.
No one else was in the bathroom with me. The toilets in the stalls next to me each flushed twice before I was even done. I left my stall to wash up. As I approached the sink area, all 3 of the sinks started turning off and on rhythmically. I said out loud, “I just want to wash my hands and go, ok?” The one in the middle stayed on so I took this as an invitation to use it. I left to meet my cousins who were waiting outside the door. “What took you so long?” one of them asked.
“Oh, I had to get the ghosts to leave the faucets alone so I could wash my hands.” I laughed.
We all huddled back together to go meet the tour group outside. As we were walking back down the hallway to go outside, the lady announced once again that she was getting ready to take everyone on the ghost tour. The lights flickered slowly, then quickly. Was someone messing with us before we went or were the spirits of the place teasing us for what was about to happen?
Check back next week, when I go into more detail about our encounter and also a history of what happened at this bar to cause such hauntings and poltergeist type happenings.
