Around this time of year, everyone starts talking about witches, goblins and ghosts. I don't really like the creepy stuff. We decorate it up around here, but the rule is it has to be cute. Cute ghosts and witches and little black cats. Nothing creepy. No ugly, leering or scowling creatures.
I don't really like to be frightened, and I don't really like to talk about ghosts. I know they exist. I have seen them.
My mother has always been intuitive, I think I'm saying that right. She senses things before they happen a lot. I do, too, but not as much as she does.
Anyway, when I was a kid, I lived in a historic Colorado mining town. The town was and is full of Victorian houses and other old buildings. You can't walk a block without seeing a historical building.
Anyway, when I was little, we lived in an old house. It wasn't Victorian. It wasn't much at all, except old. With a wood burning stove in both the living room and an old-fahioned cook stove in the kitchen.
I hated to go to bed.
Because that's when they came out. To play. To frighten me.
I don't like to talk about them because people discount me, but I know what I saw. After lights out, and my sisters were asleep, filmy, white people, always dressed from another century, would roam that house. A confederate soldier. A man in a top hat. A woman in a bonnet and a long coat.
They seemed not to want to do me any harm.
They terrified me.
I would cower under my covers until exhaustion overtook me.
This went on for four long years, until we moved. The house was condemned and torn down. There's an empty lot there, and has been for over 40 years.
If I close my eyes, I can still bring those images back. I know they were real. I don't like to talk about them because I don't want them to ever return.
I don't really like to be frightened, and I don't really like to talk about ghosts. I know they exist. I have seen them.
My mother has always been intuitive, I think I'm saying that right. She senses things before they happen a lot. I do, too, but not as much as she does.
Anyway, when I was a kid, I lived in a historic Colorado mining town. The town was and is full of Victorian houses and other old buildings. You can't walk a block without seeing a historical building.
Anyway, when I was little, we lived in an old house. It wasn't Victorian. It wasn't much at all, except old. With a wood burning stove in both the living room and an old-fahioned cook stove in the kitchen.
I hated to go to bed.
Because that's when they came out. To play. To frighten me.
I don't like to talk about them because people discount me, but I know what I saw. After lights out, and my sisters were asleep, filmy, white people, always dressed from another century, would roam that house. A confederate soldier. A man in a top hat. A woman in a bonnet and a long coat.
They seemed not to want to do me any harm.
They terrified me.
I would cower under my covers until exhaustion overtook me.
This went on for four long years, until we moved. The house was condemned and torn down. There's an empty lot there, and has been for over 40 years.
If I close my eyes, I can still bring those images back. I know they were real. I don't like to talk about them because I don't want them to ever return.
As a kid, I'm sure that was frightening! Just reading it gave me the heebie jeebies.
ReplyDeleteI was very young, 2nd-6th grade!
DeleteWow! Thanks for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteOkay. You totally gave me chills. Wow!
ReplyDeleteIt was *so* scary!
DeleteThanks for sharing your story. Just reading about it gives me the shivers.
ReplyDeleteIt was very scary, Cher!
DeleteThat's wild, I can just imagine how scared you must have been...
ReplyDeleteTERRIFIED!!!
DeleteI know this will sound crazy but you I wish I could see ghosts. We had a ghost in the house I grew up in but I never saw her. We just heard her. She would talk to us. Wake us up out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Steal makeup. Bang away on the electronic typewriter. I always felt comforted when I was home alone because I knew I wasn't really alone. I missed her when we moved. I missed her so much I put her in my current WIP as a match-making ghost. :)
ReplyDeleteIf I ever see a ghost again, I will send them your way!!!
DeleteOh wow. Yeah, even an adult would be prob more than terrified. I would say so. Thank you fro sharing!
ReplyDeleteI was scared stiff!
DeleteI am sorry people have discounted your experience. No matter what anyone believes, the sensible reality is that there are things beyond our understanding. For anyone who has had their own unexplainable experiences, the mocking disbelief is often the hardest part to swollow. I believe D'Ann, and don't blame you for sticking to the cute side of Halloween.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Those people will stick with me forever.
DeleteI've never seen a ghost, but absolutely believe in them. What a scary thing for you as a child.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ella. I have never forgotten those ghosts.
DeleteThey won't haunt you D'Ann. Their energy was specific to that house. Once upon a time the probably lived there and their energy remained there. When my son was about 21 or so he crashed at the house I lived in, in Fort Collins. My sister had moved in temporarily for the summer and we were all asleep. Sometime during the night I could hear him calling out my name, but it sounded weird. I sat up in bed and listened again and he called me again. I got up and went downstairs and he had fallen asleep on the floor with the door to the utility room open.
ReplyDeleteThe energy downstairs was unsettling and I asked him what was wrong. He said they were trying to take him with them. I asked who. He said the bad people. Don't let them take me.
I was a wee bit unnerved, but I said out loud, "I don't know who you are, but whatever evil spirit is here, you are not welcomed. You have to leave. Only good spirits are welcomed here." I repeated it twice. After I said this, its like the house let out a deep breath and my daughter and sister came out of their rooms.
The really scary part of this is ... That the whole time he was calling out for me, neither of them could open their bedroom doors, and neither door had licks or locking door handles, but as soon as I told whatever spirits were there to leave, they could open their doors.
I learned a few years later from a very good friend of mine who is a clairvoyant, that Nick had unintentionally let in those spirits because of his drug use. That particular period in my sons life he was using, he has since been drug free for about 8 years.
Holey-Moley, Bat ghost! That is really scary! It made the hair on my arms stand up.
DeleteI'd have been fascinated to live in your house - but as a child I can see that seeing them would be terrifying. Wonder where they live now?
ReplyDeleteI don't know!
DeleteD'Ann, that is a creep story!
ReplyDeleteI too have a story from when I was about 11-13 that I don't talk about. I beleive I was haunted by a poltergeist. It wasn't a bad one, other than it would show up as faces on the walls of my bedroom and scare the living s*th out of me. Now I beleive what left it into my life was my grandfather's death. But this thing wasn't my Pap. My grandma and two family friends, a preacher and his wife, prayed over me and the thing went away.
OM gosh, Sara! What a scary story!
DeleteI have a ghost. She and I get along fine. She doesn't like men sleeping in her bedroom, but since I stopped allowing male guest sleep in that room, all has been well. I often put a ghost in my stories. I'm always surprised when someone declares it paranormal when I do. I leave the werewolves and vampires for paranormal. Ghosts are just remnants of people and they do exists. Some people know this, some don't. I do. So I think its perfectly fine for a character to be a ghost...or a ghost cat. (I've had one of those too... in book and in real life). Maybe those of us who know this should create a group. Ghosts are people too.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever want to see another ghost, human or otherwise!
DeleteI like the cute better than the creepy, too, D'Ann!
ReplyDeleteI don't like scary movies or scary experiences. I've only been scared by a ghost twice. Other times there have just been weird things happening. Like when hubby and I moved into our first house in Georgia. Our bedroom was a mess because of all the boxes of clothes we hadn't put away yet. After dinner we went upstairs to finish unpacking, and laid out on the bed was a black dress with a lace collar size eighteen. At the time I wore a seven, and I'd never seen that dress before in my life. Turned out the woman who lived there before us was a big woman who died of cancer.
ReplyDeleteYikies! Shawn! I would have run screaming out of the house!
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DeleteWhoa, I kind of believe, but I'm like Kristi--give me cute over creepy! And that dress, Shawn! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI know, scared me, too!
DeleteYep, I would be creeped out as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was very scary, chickie!
DeleteD'Ann, I've never seen a ghost--and I don't want to--but I believe 100%. And I believe you did see ghosts.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen one and I'm not sure I want to, but I totally believe.
ReplyDeleteTotally eerie experience for you--thanks for sharing it. Great Halloween story.
It was awful, and thanks for believing!
DeleteI've lived in a haunted house. I never saw a ghost, though my husband saw one. But one talked to me. I would never discount you. Your story makes me wonder if the ghosts left when the house was torn down or if they're still there.
ReplyDeleteGives me the chills just reading this. I always think ghosts don't appear to me because they sense I'd have a heartattack or faint in the least. Sounds like you aren't too far from me in the fear part, lol. Enjoy this Halloween and may they stay away.
ReplyDeleteI hope I don't see another ghost, ever!!
DeleteI hope I *never* live in another haunted house. I don't know. That empty lot seems sterile to me now.
ReplyDelete