It seems that we never truly leave school. For all the diplomas collected and a deep disinterest in teaching, still, I find myself in school. Well, at least, I’m staying in an Inn that was converted from a school house.
Yes, we are back on the road. As we wind our way to the east coast, we stopped over for a night in Benham, a historic coal mining town in Kentucky. While the area was originally flourishing coal mining towns, the increased mechanization and decreased demand for coal has left this area with an aging demographic and little to do.
In the 90s, there was an attempt to revive the town as a tourist destination with a large mining museum and tours of one of the retired coal mines. While it did draw us, apparently coal history hasn’t been the fiscal panacea anticipated.
In fact, given the first page of google results for “Benham School House Inn” I wouldn’t be surprised that a sizable percentage of the few visitors to the inn come to experience the reported paranormal experiences. Unsurprisingly, reports revolve around children’s laughing, footstep, and other school related activities. So far, none of my pictures have manifest ghostly images in the background. (Though, tell me if you notice anything suspicious.) I supposed I wasn’t every really cut out to be a ghost hunter. One thing I think I can be quite good at, though, is falling asleep in class.
PS As an amusing addendum, we met a man at the local hoagie shack who was both a student and later a teacher at this very school. We chatted with him through dinner. Or maybe we thought we were talking with someone and he was really a ghost! Do ghosts like hoagies? But if he was a ghost, what is this paper he gave to me? See what you can make of it:
STUDY HALL TEST
- A farmer had 17 sheep. ALL but nine died. How many did he have left?
- If you take two apples from three apples, how many apples do you have?
- Divide 30 by 1/2 and add 10. What is the answer?
- Some months have 30 days; some have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
- You have two U.S. coins which total 30 cents in value. One of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins?
- How many outs are there in one inning of baseball?
- How many birthdays does the average man have?
- If a doctor gave you three pills and told to to take on every one-half hour, how long would it take for the three pills?
- How far can a dog run into the woods?
- How many ducks?
- A duck in front of two ducks
- A duck behind two ducks
- A duck between two ducks
After working the above 10 problems.
- Make change for a dollar, using 50 coins (there are two ways. Find both of them.)
- A man bought 100 pieces of fruit for $8. If apples cost five cents, peaches cost seven cents, and pears cost nine cents, how many of each kind of fruit did he buy?
