This was my first, and only, experience with a Ouija board...
It was the week after Christmas, 1969, and I'd just returned to Boy's Village, a juvenile institution in Ohio, after Christmas vacation at home. I'd turned fourteen two days before Christmas, and enjoyed spending time with my mother and brothers.
At the time, Boy's Village had sixty boys in residence, divided up between five cottages. I lived in Eagles, the newest and largest, with eleven other guys, and an older married couple who served as surrogate parents. Only two other boys had returned at that point; everyone else was due back the next day.
We built a fire in the fireplace, built sandwiches from leftovers in the fridge, and hung out in the dining room, talking about our holidays. We'd each brought back presents from home, radios, toys, and such, and one of the guys brought out a Ouija board he'd gotten. I'd heard of them, although I'd never seen one before-nor had the other two-so we decided to try it out.
The three of us set it up, and sat there at the dining room table, our fingers touching the planchette lightly, as the instructions said. We asked the board, and who (?) ever was connected with it ordinary questions, will I pass the English exam, that sort of thing, and got simple answers. The planchette moved, but, other than to affirm to myself that I wasn't moving it, I really didn't give it much thought-it was just interesting.
One of the guys accused the other, the one who owned the board, of moving the planchette, which he summarily denied. They went back and forth for a bit, and finally the accuser said, "F#$^ this! I'll prove you're moving it!"
Then he said, in a loud voice, his hands still on the planchette,
"HEY! YOU! I don't believe you're real! If you are, SHOW US!"
I mentioned we'd lit a fire in the fireplace; as we'd gotten involved with eating, the board, we'd let it burn down to almost nothing.
No sooner did the fellow challenge the board, than a sheet of blue flame leapt up from the ashes, and up the flue, with a loud, WOOSHING hiss.
We put the board back in its box, and put the box on the top shelf in the hall closet.
For all I know, it's STILL there.
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