Every town has its haunted house. Here in my area, we have ourselves a haunted town. Summerland. A cute little town on a hill, between Carpinteria, where I live, and Santa Barbara. If you’ve seen my photos of the view from my balcony, you’ve seen my view of Summerland. And won’t bore you with how quaint it is; you can find that here.

The interesting thing about Summerland is that some people say the whole town is haunted. It was founded in the late 1800s by a man named Williams, as a Spiritualist colony. Lots of people with time on their hands were into seances and such back then. And I’ve heard that because of all their paranormal parties, the whole hillside is a little twisted. I think that twist comes more from ganga than ghosts, but that’s me.

The most haunted place in town is Williams’ own house. It’s big. It became a restaurant back in the 70s, was painted yellow and called — wait for it — the Big Yellow House.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about the activity in this place. A guy my Dad worked with lived in the house when he was a kid – before the restaurant – and he said it was haunted. A friend worked there as a dishwasher in the early 1980s, and he said it was too. There’s a ghostly lady in the dining rooms. The ghost of a very large black man conducts rituals beyond the range of human sight. And back in the day, I heard there’s a ghost of one of Williams’ own sons in the wine cellar, locked up down there in life because he was mentally deranged.

Well, right now the place is closed. After driving by several times and noticing it was dark, I called. A disembodied voice explained there are new owners, new management, and sale of the property is pending. They expect to reopen this summer. I wonder how the ghosts are doing, in there all alone. Maybe they’re lonely, weakened and pining for living energy to to help them manifest. Or maybe they’re having a hell of a time, so to speak.

Come to think of it, who are these new owners anyway? The staff says tips have been disappearing from the tables for years. And that’s a costly piece of property, but with interest compounding in eternity … you think?