Folklore of Enid's Performing Past:

"Spirited" Stories Surrounding the Places and People of Enid's Oldest Theatres.

A Project for Mythology & Folklore, by Brady Henderson

 Stories of the EHS Auditorium: What Really Happened that Night

After hearing the story told by Shawn Mathis and Chris Trojan, both new students to Enid High School my senior year, I was both very surprised and a little amused.  As both of them stated, the story was supposed to be about me, and was supposed to have happened my Junior year.  In truth a small incident did happen that year that trapped me for a time in a dangerous situation, but it happened a bit differently.

 

First, it was actually day, not night.  About 5:00 PM, in fact, that I found myself alone with Ms. Johnston in our old auditorium.  I did in fact go up to focus the lights, and Ms. Johnston did then leave, just as they said, but the spirits never showed up.  Enter, instead, the custodial staff, who peeked into the auditorium on rounds and, seeing no one there and the lights burning brightly, assumed they had been left on by mistake.  And so they went to the main consol in the back of the hall and switched all the lights off, quickly locking the deadbolt on the door upon leaving.  It all happened so quickly that I didn't even realize someone was in the auditorium until I heard the door lock and was trapped in pitch-black darkness.  There were never in ghostly noises, though the beating of my heart was unusually authoritative. I did call for help, but of course no one was around to hear.  And so I had no choice but to risk the adventure of getting down in the dark.  It was then I thanked heavens for the gift of a cool head and dozens of hours spent up there in the heat.  I knew the paths well enough to get to the door without too much trouble, but I found the swing out to the ladder was definitely a leap of faith.  Again I convinced myself that it would be exactly where it had always been in all my experience there, and it was.

Enid High School in Winter.

Upon getting down to the stage, I tripped over just about every object in the auditorium, finally getting to a rear door that I always left unlocked so that I could get in or out when I needed to.  As I emerged from the darkness, Ms. Johnston emerged from her room and said, "I though you'd left."  She could see by the look on my face that I had a story to tell, one that apparently made it far beyond the two of us and became embellished with the supernatural.

There is one other serious exaggeration in Shawn and Chris's story.  The supposed height of the ceiling "fifty feet above the floor" is a gross overestimate, clearly intended to heighten the feeling of danger in the story, as the measured height is actually known to be a mere forty-two feet above the floor.

[From personal experience of Brady Henderson]