Welcome to Mysteries over Martinis! This blog is a mix of unexplained phenomena and personal encounters served up with a mystery-themed cocktail. It’s a recipe for intrigue!

Church Lady Martini

Ingredients:

1.5 oz vanilla vodka

1.5 oz hazelnut liqueur

1.5 oz coffee liqueur

Directions:

Pour the vodka, hazelnut liqueur and coffee liqueur together in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until the outside of the container is frosty, about 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass and praise Jesus! Now, isn’t that special?

 

Something to Sing About

One of the most incredible stories of synchronicity occurred in Beatrice, NE in 1950. It was a bitterly cold March evening. The members of the West Side Baptist Church choir were scheduled to meet for their weekly practice. They were required to be prompt and ready to sing by 7:25pm. Marilyn Paul Mitchell was the choir accompanist and her mother was the choir director. “Mother expected all of us to be punctual,” Mitchell said. “Most often, everyone was there on time. I can’t remember a time where anybody came late.” It would seem there was something much different in store for the 17 people planning to attend that frigid night. Ordinary events unfolded which resulted in an extraordinary outcome.

Around 4:30 in afternoon, Reverend Walter Klempel went to the church to light the furnace so that it would be warm in time for choir practice. He went home to eat dinner and planned to return with his wife and infant daughter at their regularly scheduled time. However, his daughter stained her dress and his wife had to iron another one before leaving. This mishap delayed their arrival. They would later discover their fellow choir members were experiencing obstacles of their own.

The Estes sisters were ready to leave for practice but when they tried to start the car, it was dead.

Fifteen year-old Ladona Vandergrift wanted to finish her homework before leaving. She was struggling to solve a geometry problem which caused her to run late.

Eighteen year-old Lucille Jones had a few minutes to spare before leaving for practice. She turned on the radio and listened to the program “This Is Your Life.” “I don’t know why I turned it on that night, but I turned it on and they said this was going to be Edgar Bergen’s life and I just decided I was going to listen to it.” Lucille’s neighbor Dorothy Wood normally rode to practice with her. Because of Lucille’s disregard for the time, both girls were delinquent.

Mrs. Schuster and her young daughter Susan always arrived early for practice. But on this particular evening, Mrs. Schuster had gone to her mother’s house to help her tend to a matter. Needless to say, they were tardy as well.

Herbert Kipf was writing a letter to the denominational headquarters. He felt the matter was more pressing than his punctuality. “The fact of the matter is, my mother was hounding me to get going because the time was late already, but I felt it was more important to get it in the mail and drop it on the way to church.” He said.

Harvey Ahl’s wife was out of town, so he was left to care for his two young boys. He planned to bring his sons with him but he became caught up in the commotion at home and realized the time had gotten away from him.

Marilyn Paul Mitchell had fallen asleep after dinner that evening. “I was very tired and I wanted to rest for a very short period of time before going to the church to practice. So, I decided that maybe a 15 minute nap wouldn’t hurt and it ended up being a little longer, probably a half hour.” Her mother tried to wake her at 7:15pm but Marilyn had a difficult time getting up. Mrs. Paul had to wait for her daughter to tidy up before leaving so they were both late due to Marilyn’s sluggishness.

Joyce Black lived directly across the street from the church. She was ready for practice but couldn’t seem to get herself motivated to go. “I was late because I was just plain lazy and I just didn’t want to get out in the cold. And so I kept putting off going out the door. At last, I couldn’t put it off any longer so I put my coat on and when I opened up the door and stepped out, our church just disintegrated.”

At 7:27pm the West Side Baptist Church exploded. The thunderous blast shook the town and knocked out power. Joyce Black watched in awe as sheet music rained from the sky. “A real nice choir book fell right near me and it was in pretty good condition so I picked it up. I didn’t think anybody would care because I wanted to keep it.”

Within minutes, the choir members began to arrive. They were panic-stricken thinking that their fellow singers had perished in the fire. A frenzy ensued as they searched the debris for any survivors. As they showed up one by one, they soon realized that no one had been inside the church when it erupted into a fiery inferno. They began hugging one another. “When we found out that everyone was safe and that no one was in the explosion, we were standing there holding each others hands. And one of the members said, “Let’s give thanks to God” and we offered a prayer of thanksgiving that we were indeed spared and that no one lost their life in this explosion.” Marilyn Paul described the scene.

The blast was caused by a gas leak from an underground pipeline which seeped into the church and was ignited by the fire in the furnace. Although the church’s demise can be explained, many wonder if the welfare of the choir was the result of a string of strange coincidences or due to divine intervention. The members of the church believe it was nothing short of a miracle.

“If this had been a bus load of people stopped by a flat tire or any such occurrence it might be considered a coincidence. But where you have 10, 12, 15 people scattered throughout the entire city and each of them detained by some trivial little thing…it can’t be.” Explained Herbert Kipf.

It certainly makes you wonder what the chances are for 17 people to run late simultaneously for various reasons. Perhaps the West Side Baptist Church’s choir was part of a phenomenal event that surpasses all known human or natural powers. Or, maybe it was just the combination of circumstances operating by chance. It has been argued that statistically an event like this will occur every 300-400 years. Yes, I actually came across someone who has attempted to find the probability of this event using mathematics and a survey found on Google regarding tardiness. I’m all for logic, but this seems like a rather flawed method. Anyway, who am I to say whether it was chance or the act of a higher power? Regardless, it’s an amazing story which sheds some much needed light onto a very dark world.

If you’ve had a mysterious encounter you’d like to share, please e-mail me and be sure to like the Mysteries over Martinis Facebook page. Weirdness is always welcome!

 

Reference:

“Lucky Choir.” Unsolved Mysteries: The Ultimate Collection. Cosgrove/Meurer Productions. Lifetime Television, 2006. DVD.