A listener writes “My family owned a cabin in Missouri, south east of AVA. Think of the schoolhouse on Little house on the Prairie but about 4x the size. My grandfather actually went to school there and would swim in the creek at recess. I bring that up only to say that it close family ties for a very long time.
In the 1980’s my uncles witnessed a “ball of light” between 1 & 3 am. It was pale blue in color and about the size of a volleyball. It came in at the west end of the cabin, floated like a balloon on a string roughly 10ft off the floor and disappeared into the east wall. They described it as having a very faint sizzle sound, produced no heat and glowed just bright enough to produce shadows of the furniture on the floor.
We talked to the local families and met a few people at the Souder General Store who called it Ball Lightning or St Elmo’s Fire. It was more frequent in the spring and fall if I remember correctly. It was so prominent that some of the locals thought the schoolhouse was haunted and wouldn’t go inside even if we were there. The light was bright enough that it could be seen through the windows while passing on the road.
The area under and around the cabin has many tiny caves and cracks in the bedrock and we were told the ball lighting was the result of a static discharge from the caves. True or not, I don’t know.”