I love a good ghost story and being that it's Halloween I figured I'd tell you my own personal ghost story. Believe it or not, I have a knack for attracting the spirits beyond. It's kind of a joke with my family now because it's been going on since I was a kid. I know that you're thinking I am a total whackadoo and I am totally okay with that, because I know what I know and trust me there are such things as ghosts.Just the other day when I stopped by to see my dad he said to me, "You brought the poltergeist back with you. I can't find a damn thing around here." He refers to "her" as the poltergeist--this is from a man who never ever would have believed in ghosts in a million years until he lived in the house that I grew up in. I refer to her as the little pixie because she never does anything mean. She's more of a prankster--moving shoes around (I know you're thinking--no you do that and just forget because you're a human. No--I am talking about moving shoes and placing them in obscure places like underneath avocado tress on the back forty not to be found for two months later.), she has slammed hallway cupboards in the middle of the night (the entire family can attest to this), radios go off at odd hours, and the best one was when I was home for a weekend from college many, many, many years ago (I am feeling old suddenly. It wasn't many, many, many--just many) and being a Sunday afternoon it was time for me to make the two hour drive back up to school. My dad was out of town and no sooner do I get back to my apartment does my mom call me and she's freaking out. I mean really feaking out. She asks me if I (get this) poured coffee on the stacked dishes in the cupboard and then set a full cup of coffee on top of those dishes. So there were something like 8 dishes and there was coffee on each one as if someone had poured a small amount on to each dish. "Um no. Why would I do that?" I didn't even start drinking coffee until after I had children. On top of that she said that she had turned on some lights in the house before going out to feed the horses that evening, and when she came back in different lights were on and others that she'd turned on were off. I told her that she should get out of the house. But instead, my very sweet and usually intelligent mother, took it upon herself to walk around the house with a butcher knife as if she were in a horror flick. No one was there (except the pixie).
When did these ghostly things begin happening? Not long after we moved into the house. I was five-years-old and the neighborhood was all brand new--small and rural. The houses all sat on at least an acre so there was some land around us. The first thing that started happening was that lights would flicker on and off. My dad did the logical thing and called an electrician who thoroughly checked this out and to no avail. A second electrician came out and also claimed there was no issue. The lights flickered like that in the house for the entire fifteen years that we lived there.
As I mentioned before--radios would come on and off, things would be moved around. One time my dad couldn't find a pair of his boots (his favorite boots). He looked everywhere for them for days. High and low. Then one day, they turned up at the front door--perfect and neat. When the first remote phones came out, one of the phones went missing--found underneath a bed a week later. Crazy stuff--never mean but just aggravating.
So my dad (the non-believer) started doing some actual research into "poltergeists." He discovered that they like to be around small children and in particular girls. That they do some of the things I mentioned--lights, etc--and this is the kicker. Dad discovered that our property (the neighborhood) was on old Indian grounds and possibly even burial grounds.
Well, as time would go on, my parents decided to buy a new house with more property for the horses. They did not disclose the fact that there was soemone or something else who lived in the house. My folks became kind of friendly with the family who bought it though. One day, the lady who moved into our old house called my mom up and asked her, "Hey this might sound strange but did anything weird ever happen in the house?" My mom knew what she was asking and proceeded with caution. It turned out the little pixie was up to her same old shenanigans and had begun hiding all sorts of things from the new family. Fortunately, they--like us, were not too freaked out about it and just went on about life. I'm not sure if she is still there or if she has moved on, but I can assure you she was very, very real.
How about you? Anyone with a good ghost story to tell? I'd live to hear it.
Happy Halloween,
Michele
Comments
I didn't have one until a couple of years ago. My husband, dog, and I went on vacation and we stayed in a private home in Utah....between Zion and Bryce.(found off of rental vacations by owner) It was off the beaten path and kind of out there all by itself. It was a two story house. The top story had a great room, kitchen, bathroom...bottom story had a living room and all the bedrooms.
The top story was bright and very comfortable. The bottom floor was very dark, had an extremely warped floor in the living room area, and it was totally cold. WAY, WAY colder than the top floor. It was spooky down there.
So, we were fine up on the top floor. There was no central heating, so we decided to try and start a fire in the free standing fireplace that was located in the hallway downstairs, directly outside the door to the master bedroom. We had wood, but only a couple meager little matches, and we never got a fire going. A few hours later, we decided to go to bed.
Twenty minutes after getting into bed, there was a raging fire in the fireplace. Okay, so we had tried a few hours before with NO success at all, so maybe perhaps it could have been a delayed reaction to our attempt, but it seriously was like raging. Like as if Hagrid in Harry Potter used his umbrella (or whatever it is) and in a few seconds a fire appeared. We thought perhaps someone had actually come in the house and maybe started it....odd, yes, but we just could not figure it out. My husband went back to sleep and I laid awake for a while and then heard a long BANG, from what sounded like the upstairs. Nothing was there. Again a few hours later, BANG! Never found out what the noises where.
Also, our dog. The downstairs had 3 bedrooms. She travels with us, and usually will go seek out a bed to sleep on, and then goes back and forth between the bed and her travel pillow (which I put by my side of wherever we are sleeping). At this house (we actually stayed 3 nights!), she never once left her travel pillow in the night. I am very aware of her movements at night, and I know she did not leave to go to any of the beds across the hall. This was very unusual behavior from her. I believe she sensed something too.
I tell you, the downstairs had a completely different feel than the upstairs. And the warped floor was creepy. My husband said it looked to him like it had been caused by some type of water damage. Whatever, it was, it added to the creepiness factor of that place.