Camp Ouija

From: Grimm (grimm@chelsea.ios.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Camp Beisler, NJ
Source: Form Submission

Okay, it's only because of reading other people's stories, that I've decded to enter my own brush with paranormal activity. Mind you, I'm usually a skeptic by nature, although I do believe in the existence of 'something else'; makes for a dangerous combination.

My father is a minister, and I've always grown up with the belief of 'something else', even, at one point, wishing to become a paranormal investigator; but knowing that my interest in the occult would upset my strictly religious family, I instead went to school for philosophy, turning my interest from one of 'instinct' to one of 'intellect'.

Anyway, I won't go on to say that I've always had some sort of 'gift' that makes me special. I have, however, sometimes felt stuff that I'm sure we all have; wanting to hear a particular song on the radio, I turn it on and there it is. Wishing to speak to a certain person, the phone rings and guess who? I'm sure we all have this ability.

Anyway, I was about 13 (the time is sketchy, as well as the fine points -- this was close to 15 years ago), and I went to camp for the summer at Camp Beisler in NJ (which would be worth looking into; I remember a very indepth story about a haunted chapel around there with a ghost called "The Purple Bishop"). Well, we had a dorky kid in our cabin nicknamed Duck, and, on a trip into town we came upon a garage sale selling a beat up Oujia board. Two of us decided to buy it and take it back to the cabin and scare Duck with it. We did, pretending the board flew across the room. After the sideshow, though, four of us took it out to the woods to really use it. I was one of the people touching the planchette (sp?), and half the board was on my lap. Once we had begun I put my head back and stared at the trees because I 'knew' what it was spelling out before it did and I wanted to make sure I wasn't pushing it. I remember some of the questions past "Are you here?". We asked the spirit's name and it spelled out "Fonda". We asked it's first name and it spelled out "Henry". "Henry Fonda the actor?" we asked and it said yes. Now, we all looked at each other because we knew that Henry Fonda wasn't dead! So, we started joking around asking silly questions like "What's your daughtor Jane's middle initial?" and it spelled out either 'S' or 'B'. "How did you like filming 'On Golden Pond'?" "I didn't". So on....finally we asked if we would get a sign as to whether we spoke to him or not. He said yes. We said goodbye, packed up the 'game' and went back to the cabins. Now, this is the part I remember distinctly. We went inside our cabin saying "You'll never believe what happened!" and we told the other guys and had a good laugh. The radio was on and I remember it being the Police's "Roxanne". As soon as it was over, the announcer made a broadcast that Henry Fonda had died the night before, exactly the way the board had described it. I know, it seems like all those camp stories about the 'one armed, hooked hitchhiker'; but this was the way it happened.