January 21, 2003
Irwin County-- Life is full of mysteries, and one mystery has bothered and scared families for the past several months. Some might think they live in haunted houses.
You expect peaceful living in the country and so does Hugh Roberts, who likes to sit and think in the peace and quiet of his own home. But peace and quiet have been harder to come by.
"One of these things you don't say anything about because you scared somebody will say you are going crazy."
Especially, when you hear the story about the time he took a shower. "The night I was in the shower, it sounded like I had a stereo in there." A stereo playing gospel music. He would often hear the music without a radio, without a CD player, without a tape player, just out of the thin air.
Some of his neighbors heard it, too. "They claim it's so loud they can't sleep at night,"said Hugh Roberts. They had lived in the community for years, and have much the same question: What causes the music? Could the music somehow come through lightening rods, through electrical lines that bring power into their homes? "We're not sure," said David Martin of Irwin EMC.
Was it just neighbors who could hear it? "They are hearing something, and one of our linemen has heard something inside," said Martin.
The power company drove long rods, some 54 feet into the ground, to try to stop the music. "They still heard it and the lineman did, too," Martin says. The neighbors didn't know for sure, but wonder if somehow a local radio station that plays gospel music could somehow come through their homes' wiring.
Or somehow a nearby satellite tracking station might cause it. Nobody knows for sure. "We have never seen this at all," Martin said.
As it turned out, something else mysterious happened at Hugh Roberts' home. "The music disappeared when it turned cold," said Hugh Roberts. The music suddenly stopped, but the mystery and its explanation remain up in the air somewhere.
Hugh Roberts loves gospel music and really didn't mind it. In fact, he said he got use to it after a while.
He has a tape recorder ready if the music returns in hopes of tracking down its source, proving that he isn't crazy.
posted at 1:40PM by dave.miller@walb.com
^ Hugh Roberts
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