Vanishing Hitchhiking Flapper Traditional Cache
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Vanishing Hitchhiking Flapper
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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Beware of muggles. This area can get pretty busy.
The story of the Flapper Girl is one of a handful of ghost stories about "Vanishing Hitchhikers" that have been told around the Chicago area for years. Personally, I've never really believed in ghosts but only because, like UFO's, I've never actually personally seen proof of them. So I don't dispute their existence, I simply just don't know either way.
The father of a childhood friend/classmate (at A.F. Ames Elementary School nearby) was a police officer with the North Riverside Police Department for years. I hadn't thought of him in quite some time, but when I read the Flapper Girl story while paging through a book on ghosts in Chicago a couple years back, I recognized his name and later confirmed the story with his daughter.
As a kid in grammar school, I remember Sgt. O'Rourke embodying what friends of mine who work in law enforcement would consider a policeman's policeman. The kind of guy that younger cops probably wanted to emulate. A private, soft spoken, gentleman yet if push came to shove, you'd want him in your corner. And certainly not the kind of guy to risk his name and reputation on a silly ghost story if he himself did not believe it. So, despite my typical cynicism, I have to say that this is the ghost story I believe more than any other.
As the story goes, a strikingly beautiful young, brunette woman dressed in "Roaring 20's Flapper" attire with bobbed hair was often seen dancing with young men at the Melody Mill Ballroom until it went out of business in the late 1970's. She was the object of desire for just about any man who made her acquaintance on the dance floor. Often, she'd ask men for a lift home at the end of the night, directing them to drop her off at an apartment building on the east side of Harlem Avenue, about two blocks south of 16th Street (~1800 S. Harlem) in Berwyn, directly across the street from the entrance to the Jewish Waldheim Cemetary in Forest Park.
The Flapper Girl ghost has been spotted over the years in or around the vicinity between where Melody Mill Ballroom once stood on Des Plaines Road in North Riverside and Jewish Waldheim Cemetary. As the crow flies, the two points are maybe one mile apart.
In one particular account, told to the author of this particular book (the title and author's name escape me), Sgt O'Rourke, now retired, explained that he was on patrol in his squad car late one night/early one morning in a torrential downpour. I believe it was 1978 or 1979. He noticed a lone woman walking in the rain along the street, pulled over and offered her a lift. He asked where she lived and said he'd drop her off. As was the case with the men with whom she'd dance, she hopped in the car and off they went for the short drive.
Upon arrival, the mysterious girl politely thanked Sgt O'Rourke for the lift, stepped out of the police car, walked towards an apartment building and under an awning at the entrance. Then she vanished. Astonished, Sgt. O'Rourke got out to see what happened and there was no sign of her. Not even wet footprints on the dry pavement beneath the awning.
Others who told a similar story were led to the cemetary caretaker's residence which used to sit right near the entrance. The girl would get out of the car and run towards the building then in an instant, vanish. Others who saw her during the day would watch her and notice her walk into a specific mausoleum on the cemetary grounds and disappear into the locked doorway of the mausoleum.
This cache is located on property where Melody Mill Ballroom once stood. The property is now owned by the Village of North Riverside.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zntargvp xrl ubyqre.
Qrqvpngrq gb bar jub syncf. Ohg ABG gb bar jub F.Y.N.C.f.
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