Special Edweina and Electrified Earl
Back in the gold rush days of the 1890s, Hill City, South Dakota, was a bustling little town full of miners and misfits. Among them were Earl and Edweina, who now today, are the town’s two most dedicated ghosts. The hard-of-hearing pair never headed into the here-after, mainly because neither had heard the call to move along.
Like many folks, I had heard of Earl and Edweina the Special Ghost but never saw them in ghostly interaction for myself until one day when Mild Bill drove up and yelled, “Hop in, Earl and Edweina are acting up in Hill City again.”
We entered a saloon and sat down. Bill asked, “Hear that?”
“What, the wind moaning through those two windows?”
“There is no wind outside. That ain’t the wind.”
“What is it then?”
“It’s Edweina and Earl, having ‘relations‘.”
“What?”
“Yes, you know, they’re kissing… and such.”
“Why are they moaning like that then?”
“Because that’s how deaf ghosts make love.”
“Oh … OK, now I get it!” I tried not to laugh out loud too much, but I was roaring on the inside. “At least these ghosts don’t scream ‘GO CHINA BOY GO’ and try to drag you down into a cursed pit.”
Quite dryly, Mild Bill added, “Well, don’t ask Earl. That could be a redundant description, but yeah.”
Clearly fed up with the moaning, the bartender bellowed, “Hey, Special Ed the Ghost! You’ve got visitors!”
That did it. Suddenly, the room shook. A cold breeze went over the bar, napkins blew around and a woman’s voice screamed at us. “SPECIAL ED THE GHOST?!”
She rattled the windows of the old saloon. “MY NAME IS EDWEINA, AND I AIN’T SPECIAL! I’M JUST HARD OF HEARING!” And in a huff, she was gone.
Edweina has a reputation. Not for being sinister, nothing like that. She just has a spooky, hot-headed temper! It all came out one night many years ago when someone called Edweina, ‘Spectral Ed, the Ghost.’ She didn’t like it one bit! She was not Special Ed!
Earl, on the other hand, was a hoot! He was electrified and vibrated with boundless, happy ghost energy. He was the busiest spirit you ever saw. He spent much of his afterlife hustling about, banging on doors, blowing out lanterns, emptying whiskey bottles, and ensuring that any rocking chair within his reach mysteriously rocked.
The thing about Earl was that he thought he was always right. And because he never heard anyone tell him otherwise, that was all the hard evidence he needed.
“You see that tourist’s hat fly off his head?” Earl would happily declare after a gust of wind. “It was me! I told ya Hill City’s got itself a haunted draft! Been sayin’ it for years!”
“That was the wind, Earl,” Edweina would huff.
“Well, that’s what I said, ain’t it?” he’d holler back.
They were a harmonious match, not because they got along, but because they never quite heard each other’s complaints. If Edweina grumbled about Earl’s constant energy, he’d nod along, assuming she was complimenting him. If Earl went on one of his long-winded tales of ghostly fun, Edweina would shake her head and mumble, “Sure, Earl. Sure,” while rolling her spectral eyes.
The Hill City townsfolk don’t mind the haunting pair; they find the two ghosts more fun to follow than any social media account. Some of the bars even keep running scorecards where the locals make bets about when and where the pair will appear next.
In Hill City bars and taverns, people often blurt out, ‘Special Ed, the Ghost,’ just to see if they can provoke a spectral reaction, but she really is quite deaf and often never hears the taunt. Still, fair warning, if she’s around, she can be provoked!
And that’s how Hill City earned its reputation, not as the most haunted town in the Black Hills, but as the most hard-of-hearing, haunted town in the Black Hills. And if you hunker down and listen real close, assuming you’re not also deaf, you can hear Edweina’s ghostly grumble, ‘I‘m not Special Ed, I’m just hard of hearing!‘ and Earl’s ever-confident, ‘That was me!‘ declarations.
Earl and Edweina are still there in Hill City. If you happen to spend the night there and hear moaning sounds from your window, challenge Edweina to show herself. Yell out (very loudly), ‘SPECIAL ED, THE GHOST!’ and you just might have a Black Hills ghostly encounter for yourself!