BY SKYLER, DEB & TIM SMITH
We closed last week with Wendy Kuhn from A Touch of Gold sharing with me the first of a number of haunting Halloween hijinks and hobgoblins harrowing the hamlet. As the additional stories began to pile up, I decided it would be appropriate to collect them in this Halloween anthology I call “The Hauntings of Mendon”. Next let’s hear Wendy’s story.
The last thing I asked Wendy was if she could share one unique story related to her business. She told me a story about a young girl who once came in and asked if her jewelry store was haunted. Wendy told her no, to which the girl responded, “My house is haunted.” At that point Wendy spontaneously went and prayed over the girl, spiritually removing the haunting of her home.
I thought this put A Touch of Gold in a pretty unique category. I think they should bill themselves as the only business in western New York that sells jewelry and performs exorcisms under the same roof.
The Hauntings of Mendon ~ So now let’s leave A Touch of Gold and hurriedly hike the haunted hamlet to hear more harrowing Halloween stories. We’ll head to Scheifen Plaza where Lauren awaits us.
Lauren Scheifen-Naramore, the owner of Flowers and Fountains, has a dawn-to-dusk light on the back side of her building. When she has contemplative issues arise at work, she sometimes walks out back to reflect upon them. In particularly spiritual moments her outside light will start flickering on and off, flashing her messages in Morse code.
At Clemenza’s Pizzeria, Mike Yodice experiences a recurring phenomenon whereby while working on food preparation he’s certain he notices a customer in his peripheral vision. When he turns to assist the customer, nobody is there. At the Mendon Dairy Shack, Cindy Pedeville says every time she scoops some heavenly hash, she is reminded of the feeling she has that supernatural energy roams Scheifen Plaza.
When Chris Brush bought the old cobblestone building just north of the St. Catherine’s church, which was originally built as the Mendon Academy, the structure needed significant renovations. Her brother temporarily moved into the building to do some work for her. Anytime other people were there he never noticed this, but whenever he was alone he would hear footsteps walking across the upstairs floor.
The current Mendon recycling center called Cash Cans is located just beyond the 4-corners headed north on Pittsford Mendon Road. Owner Trevor Kennedy agreed that the oldest Mendon buildings seemed to be the most haunted and his building falls into that category. Many local residents will recall the decades when his building delighted gift shoppers as Onni’s Closet. Since Cash Cans has been in business they’ve experienced the unusual phenomenon where occasionally bags of recycled materials have inexplicably tipped over on the second floor. After hearing the crash and trudging upstairs, whoever is on duty almost always discovers the spillage shaped in the form of an “O”. Anyone seen Onni lately?
While several of these haunting Mendon tales should be enough to send a shiver down your spine, I’m saving the best for last. There is no doubt whatsoever that the most haunted building in town is Ye Mendon Tavern. Please come back next week to hear why.
