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 Enid High Auditorium: Paranormal Procreation

One evening after school was out and most had gone home, only a few teachers and the janitors remained.  As one of the custodians, a man named Ted, was walking the halls before going home for the day, something made him stop by the stage door to the Enid High Auditorium.  He looked and realized that the door wasn’t deadbolted as it should have been, and was instead slightly ajar.  “No one should be in there,” he thought, as the after school practice for the All-School musical had been over for a couple of hours and everyone had gone home.  Simple matter, though, they simply forgot to lock the door.  But as he looked inside he heard some faint noises and noticed a pale blue light coming from the slits in the doorframe of one of the prop rooms backstage.  Other than that the place was black and silent.  Ted had heard many times about the “spirits in the Auditorium” from other staff who liked to remind each other that the whole place was built on an old Indian burial ground, and that it was cursed because of it.  

A darkened auditorium can be scary or romantic place.

Ted ventured into the auditorium, but was stopped dead in his tracks when all of the sudden the faint noise from the room grew louder.  He heard what sounded like a woman screaming or moaning as if in pain.  Too frightened to go it alone, he ran outside the door again and found two of his co-workers.  They all approached the room together, armed with flashlights and one with a broom handle “just in case.”  As they traversed the eerie stage toward the slim spine of pale blue light from the doorframe, they heard another yell, then something like a sharp thud against the wall, the door vibrating in response.  Not knowing what to expect, the three finally took a deep breath and flung the door open!  Before them in the dim glow of a blacklight was something none of them had ever seen, or would again; the school chorus teacher and the drama teacher, buck naked in each other’s arms.  To say they looked like deer in headlights would be a vast understatement.  The door was quickly slammed shut, and everyone involved was embarrassed enough to keep silent to the administration about what had happened, lest they get fired.

Ted is still one of the senior custodians at Enid High School, and both teachers still teach there, though supposedly the affair ended soon after their “afternoon delight” in the auditorium.   To this day, though, Ted always checks the auditorium doors, and everyone who gets anything out of that prop room is careful to wash their hands.

[Based on an informal interview with Margorie Velharticky, 45 years of age, formerly of Enid, Oklahoma, conducted by Brady Henderson in October, 1998.]