Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Ghosts on the coast and great balls of fire

For many years, Wilmington's official welcome center was also one of the coastal city's most famous haunted houses. Today, the Price-Gause House is now the home of an architectural firm but residents say it is still inhabited by the spirits of men who were hanged long ago.
Located in Wilmington's historic district at 514 Market St., the Price-Gause House has been considered by locals to be haunted ever since it was built in 1843. The reason is the house was built on the site of Gallows Hill, the place of countless hangings. For decades, condemned men met their fate on this site. It was also customary that they be buried there if no one stepped forward to claim the body. Some would say that this place was cursed and not a proper place for a house.
But in 1843, Dr. William Price decided to build his house and doctor's office at the site. He built a large enough house to accommodate his office and his living space. Soon after he and his family moved into their new home, they noticed some strange things happening almost immediately. They heard phantom footsteps on the stairs and noticed an eerie tapping sound that could be heard coming from inside the walls.
The Price family never could identify just who was haunting their house but it was assumed that it was the ghost or ghosts of all those condemned men who had met their Maker there. The family just decided to try to live with it. Other families who lived there did the same thing, according to a Web site.
In October 1967, paranormal investigators arrived to check out the old house. They managed to capture the image of a ghost on film. The photograph reportedly shows a misty human form walking down the stairs.
From 1969 to 1990, the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce made its headquarters at the historic house. People reported the sounds of footsteps, the smell of tobacco and the opening and closing of doors.
It is believed that the most active room in the Price-Gause House is located upstairs. For many years, it had been a bathroom. During hot summer nights, the window from this room would often frost up and the word "help" could be seen on the window. People could easily see this phenomenon outside the house and no one could explain it.
Paranormal investigators have also detected the presence of orbs and a ghost that seems to be looking outside a window. People have described feeling a kind of pressure on them as they stand in the yard.
According to one Web site, the Price-Gause House is now the home of an architectural firm and the ghostly activity is still going on there.
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Last weekend, many folks living in the South experienced some great balls of fire. And we are not talking about the Jerry Lee Lewis classic song.
Sunday night, residents across the Southeast called emergency and weather officials to report mysterious lights in the night sky. People in Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia reported brilliant, streaking lights followed by a thunderous sound about 9:45 p.m. Sunday. The National Weather Service officials said they have no explanation for the sky lighting up in shades of yellow, white, orange and blue, according to the story by the Associated Press.
The unusual sky prompted hundreds of calls to law enforcement authorities, with some saying they saw "great balls of fire."
The weather service says no damage has been reported.
But rather than UFOs, the fireballs in the sky could have been caused by a Russian booster rocket falling toward earth, according to a Media General News Service report.
"It's perfectly consistent with what everybody's been describing," said Geoff Chester, a public relations officer with the U.S. Naval Observatory.
The booster, basically a big steel cylinder, was part of the Soyuz spacecraft that launched Thursday on a mission to the International Space Station, Chester said in the Media General story.
The booster was expected to fall toward earth on a path across the Chesapeake Bay region, headed east.
Other experts have suggested the light and an explosion-like sound were caused by a meteor burning up and breaking apart in the atmosphere.
Whatever it was, it shaked the nerves and rattled the brains of whoever saw those great balls of fire.