ghost stories

A few ghost stories: Brownie died on Halloween

Brownie the Town Dog of Daytona Beach died on Halloween 1954.
Brownie the Town Dog of Daytona Beach died on Halloween 1954.

With Halloween coming up, I thought I would share a few “scary” Brownie stories that I recently posted on the popular website Haunted Places.

Story 1.
As you may or may not know, Brownie died on Halloween 1954. That’s kinda scary in itself! Boo!

Story 2.
A few weeks after we opened Brownie’s Dog Boutique in Daytona Beach, FL, a homeless man entered the shop and shouted “I just saw Brownie get hit by a car!” I told him that Brownie died in 1954, so it was highly unlikely that he saw the actual Brownie get hit by a car.

I found out later that Brownie actually was hit by a car in the late 40s and it happened right in front of our shop. Maybe Brownie was communicating with this homeless man? We will never know, but I still find the event very freaky.

Story 3.
On our store’s opening night, we had a big party and a woman came by herself and hung out alone all night. I think I said hello to her, but she didn’t interact very much with the folks who attended.

The next day, she showed up again at our shop. She told us that her mother had recently passed and that she hadn’t entered her mother’s room since she died.

She had to come to the opening of Brownie’s Dog Boutique the night before because her mother loved Brownie so much and had told her many stories about playing with him in Riverfront Park when she was a child.

When she got home, after the party, she went into her mother’s room, sat on her mother’s bed, and opened a book sitting on the bedside table. It was the book her mother had been reading when she died. In the book was a newspaper article from 1954 about Brownie’s funeral.

She couldn’t believe the coincidence and decided to give us the article since it was obvious to her that her mother wanted us to have it.

If you visit our shop today, that article hangs behind our sales counter.

Story 4.
I found out that Brownie was covered in a book called Haunted Daytona Beach by Dusty Smith. I rushed out to pick up a copy and was reading it at our store counter when a woman walked in.

I said our usual “Welcome to Brownie’s!” and kept reading the Brownie part of the book. I was particularly struck by the part where Dusty said she ate her lunch at the bench near Brownie’s grave every day. She said she always felt better after sitting with Brownie. I immediately wanted to meet this fellow Brownie lover.

The woman in the shop came to the register to pay for her merchandise and she noticed the book. She told me she knew Dusty and that Dusty had died recently.

Not super scary, but a very strange coincidence. Even stranger, I think about Dusty every time I visit Brownie’s grave, which is every few days. Sometimes I sit on the bench and think about the lunch hours she spent with Brownie.

This Halloween, take a few moments and think of Brownie. He made quite a big impact on many people in life and in death.