JUST JUNIORS JOURNAL

Exploring....Investigating....Learning.

Fall Special Edition #3
Series 2
November 2003

"She was deprived of a mother's watchful care and guidance at the time of her life when she needed it most...."
-The Lock Haven Express, August 23, 1905



The Ghost On The Hill



IDA

Lou moved into a new house in the Hill section of Lock Haven in late September. During October, he did some research, and found out that in 1905, a seventeen-year-old girl lived in the house with her father and siblings. Her mother was deceased. Her name was Ida Yost.
Ida had some problems. On August 19, 1905, she stood on the back porch and killed herself by drinking an ounce of Carbolic acid. Her father found her and took her inside, and she died in the house.
Lou and his wife have heard unexplainable noises in the house, and have had doors slam, and lights turn on, with no reason. Lou suspects that Ida is still there, haunting the house.
He explained this to Debbie Benfield and Staci Wyland at a meeting one night, and suggested that a seventeen-year-old with problems would not be the worst choice to be with the LS Kids.
"Lou, she's dead," said Staci.
"We all have our problems," said Lou.
On November 2, 2003, the night this article was written, a clock fell off the wall above the sink, for no explainable reason. Lou, Staci, Debbie, and Cris Miller were in the kitchen working, none of them near the clock. The nail it hung on was still secure, painted into the wall.
"The truth is out there," said Cris.
"Yeah," agreed Lou. "Cool, isn't it?"
There are no plans to try to remove Ida, or do anything other than accept her. "She's the newest one of the LS Kids," said Staci. "A new member who will never age out."
-Staci Wyland, AGA
-Lou, Editor

LOCAL


THE LONG JOURNEY HOME
Over the weekend of September 27th and 28th, the LS Kids had a big project to do. They helped Lou and Michelle move out of their apartment and into the house they had just bought. They also helped Staci Wyland move into Lou and Michelle's old apartment.
Krystle Welch, Staci Wyland, Lou, and Michelle all packed boxes and loaded them into the Kidmobile and took them to Lou and Michelle's house. There, they unloaded, ate some pizza, and went back to packing and transporting boxes. Lou's father came in for the final day of moving.
Finally, Sunday, they were done.
Staci moved all in one day with the help of Krystle Welch, Debbie Benfield, and a few other friends.
"None of us will be moving anywhere for a very long time," said Staci.
-Staci Wyland
-AGA

THE ATTIC
On Saturday, November first, Debbie Benfield, Lou, and Cris Miller went exploring in Lou's new house. Well, actually, the attic.
We started out by knocking out a shelving unit, which had been blocking access. Staci Wyland, Krystle Welch, and Ginger White remained down below as Debbie, Lou, and Cris went up through a narrow trap door. "It was kinda heart-stopping," said Debbie.
The three of them crawled across the attic, finding a small doorway in a wooden wall. They went through it.
Cris discovered another trap door in the attic floor, under the insulation, and almost fell through into a secret room. It may have once been used as a dumbwaiter, and was similar to that. They shined their flashlights down, and looked into the secret room.
They decided not to explore any more, because of the near-fall Cris had almost taken. They postponed more exploration for a later time.
-Debbie Benfield
-President

NATIONAL


TALES FROM FLORIDA
Where I'm from, in Florida, there are a couple of local cemeteries, and if you've lived around here long enough, I'm pretty sure you'll see a FoxFire. I haven't, but both of my parents and grandparents have seen one. A FoxFire is a flame about the size of a softball that will fly or hover over the ground, then make it's way to a cemetery. Where it hovered is where someone will die, and in the cemetery it goes to. it hovers over a spot, and that's where the person will be buried.
My house is haunted, too. Nothing big, it's my grandmother. She's awesome, and you have to pass through the room she died in to get to my room or my mom's room. People that spend the night with me usually get cold chills when they pass through the room. Then I have to tell them why they get them.
My grandmother was phsycic. Well, I don't think she was, but she told my mom how my aunt and uncle were going to die, and that my sister was going to have a blonde baby girl. She told me that I would be great with my music and writing, even though I was only in the fourth grade at the time.
She died while I was on my fourth grade field trip. I started crying, and I didn't know why. But when my brother picked me up he told me that she had died. She died the same time I started crying.
-Regina Spence
-DCS Bureau

FEATURES



ABOUT SUICIDE
Did you know statistics show the suicide is the third leading cause of death for fifteen to twenty-four year olds? They also show that suicide is the sixth leading cause of death for five to fourteen year olds. On November 3, 2003, I almost became another statistic.
Statistics taken in 2000 about suicide in the US show the following facts: 29,350 people sucessfully commited suicide. Suicides outnumbered homicides five to three. Fifty-seven percent of all suicides in 2000 used firearms. For every female suicide there are four male suicides. Seventy-three percent of all suicide deaths are white males.
If you are suicidal, or know someone who is, and you want to find out what you can do to help them or how to get help for yourself, here are some web sites that can help you. They are http://www.suicidehotlines.com, http://www.teenhelpline.org, http://www.contacthelpline.org, http://www.theopendoor.org, http://www.newhopeonline.org, or http://www.teenhelp.org.
If you don't have access to a computer, then here are some phone numbers you can call. 1-800-SUICIDE, 1-888-747-TEEN, 1-800-448-3000, or 1-800-850-8078.
Here are other ways to find out who to call....Call 411 and ask for: suicide prevention, crisis intervention, hotlines- crisis or suicide, community crisis center, county mental health center, hospital mental health clinic....
-OR dial 0 and ask for the same things....
-OR check the FRONT pages of the phone book for those things....
-OR call 911 and tell them that you are in suicidal danger.
If you, like me, think that you can't stand life any more, just please don't become another number or statistic. Go somewhere and try to get help. Trust me, killing yourself is not the right answer. After all, if you kill yourself, you'll never know what might have been.
-Cris Miller
-Staff


RHYME AND REASON
By Regina
Flat Line
Laying on this bed.
My world lay spinning.
The line of sleep
is quickly thinning.

My eyes slowly
begin to close.
Will sleep overcome,
Not even I know.

Falling slowly
to an endless sleep.
Lost to a sound
Of a flatline's beep.
-Regina Spence
-DCS Bureau

The Just Juniors Journal Is:
Editor: Lou
Assistant: Staci Wyland
National Advisor: Vesta Jones
President: Debbie Benfield
Hard News VP: Marjorie Shelley
Features VP: Mia Shelley
Secretary: Krystle Welch
Quartermaster: Hilaire Reese
Staff: Cris Miller, Meghan Rockey, Ginger White, Ida Yost, Nickole Vincent, Kendra Koch
Renovo Bureau: Sarah Wilson, Meghan Wilson
Distant Correspondents: Kazlynn Otto, Amber Fleming, Rachel Wykry, Regina Spence


ENDNOTE
By Lou
Call her life-challenged. Call her breathing-impaired. Call her Afterlife-American.
Whatever you want to call her, the newest member of the LS Kids has proven to be pretty interesting.
It started innocently enough---One of my co-workers, who happens to be into geneaology, mentioned to me that her ancestors had lived in my new house. A little research dug up the fact that one of them, seventeen-year-old Ida Yost, had died tragically, a victim of suicide. This explained all the noises and odd things that had been happening in the house---I'd noticed doors slamming, noises, and things being moved around, but I'd mostly been blaming that on the dogs.
It's amazing how casual you can get about these things. One night, I heard footsteps downstairs. So I went down and investigated, assuming it to be a burglar. Nobody was in the house, all the doors and windows were locked. So I apologized and said goodnight to Ida, and went to bed. The absurdity of that only later occurred to me. ("Oh, it's just the ghost. Here I thought it was something unusual.")
I was tempted to run an obituary on Ida, but I decided that would be ridiculous, some ninety-eight years after the fact. We will be featuring Ida in the JJJ, though---Keep an eye out for her in the future. We already have a group of teenagers, an ex-teacher, and a dancing beagle---How much more original can it get?
There is some speculation as to why Ida killed herself. The records remaining today don't show the reason. Stories suggest that she may have been abused, been rejected by a boyfriend, been pregnant, or simply unable to take the responsibility she was given. I may never know, and it doesn't matter.
What does matter is that, after almost a century, she is accepted. That's what Lost Solace is for: to accept and welcome people who need comforting. And the teens? They come to me. Always, the teens who need comfort come to me. Alive or dead---Lost Solace doesn't discriminate.
Ida is now part of a family. A warm, welcoming family who care about her. And now, finally, perhaps, she can receive the comfort she's been denied for so long.
-Lou
-I see dead people