Sanity may not be my best asset. I will rely on the fact that those who read this post are already well aware of my short comings.
Sometimes I get a little carried away, on other peoples' blogs in their comment section. I am a nuisance more often than not. Admitting this is the first step to recovery, I know you all hope so anyway.
I should write a post, or ten, on the subject of living in a haunted house. So the following is the comment that I clogged a blog with today at http://above-the-norm.blogspot.com/. The post itself dealt with the misgivings that some people harbor. Since I, myself, had fallen into this category I took it as a golden opportunity to confess my sins of "haint" stupidity and beg for absolution.
Here for the most part, is my comment:
We lived in a huge house that was built as a horse farm up in the mountains. It was six years old and had been lived in for less than 3 years. The family who built it, then two doctors bought it. One lived there for 6 months, his wife refused to live in it at all. Needless to say, as working class slobs..we got quite a deal.
I grew up in a gigantic old Victorian with a resident ghost who was very very active and never shy or scary. Scary was one of the basements that had been the morgue when the original house was the first county hospital. Stay out of that part of the basement and everything was good.
Therefore I had two misconceptions;
1. A new house isn't haunted.
2. Ghosts readily make themselves known.
The listing real estate agent refused to step foot on the property. The excuse was it was so isolated it scared her. It didn't "feel" right, but it was sooo beautiful and unusual and the price..oh my.
I would need my kids to chronicle the happenings, all of it frightening and or creepy.
We lived there for nine years, as we were packing to move, one of the residents did a two week fan fare good bye, as if our "coexistence" was going to be missed. A melancholy detailed dark shadow on the wall as if he were going up the stairs. My older daughter and I tried everything then took pictures etc...even did some humorous good bye posing..it was there 24 hours a day for two weeks. On the morning we left it was gone, taking with him the camera and film.
Fourteen years ago we moved into a house over a hundred years old where many people have passed. It is not haunted in any way shape or form. I had forgotten what bliss it can be to have a "house to yourself".
By the way, finances caused us to leave the mountain house, or we would still be living there.
Anyone out there ever had to actually "live" in a house "with problems"?
Go ahead, tell me how disgusting this is and how I shouldn't be allowed to Bloggerfy anymore.
In the gallery
53 minutes ago
21 Moon me HERE:
I lived in a haunted trailer once. I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye. I was constantly turning around expecting to see someone and there was no one there. Along with the eerie sense of someone constantly outside my field of vision was a feeling that I was crowding the place and I was not welcome.
One night I had a sit down at the kitchen table and explained to who ever it was that I wasn't going anywhere, but I certainly bore it no ill will. I pointed out that, while we both seemed to be in the trailer, we didn't seem to exist on the same physical plane, so it wasn't that hard to stay out of each other's way. So, ya know, do you mind?
After that, I stopped seeing things out of the corner of my eye.
I've had two friends who lived in really creepy haunted houses here in California. One house was almost brand new. The owner, a well known local businessman had built the place and never moved in. He rented it for cheap, but no one stayed for long. I felt a distinct and very alarming cold spot in one room there, it was on a very hot day. My friend moved in there a little weird, but moved out completely crazy.
He came to California to be a hippy and play indian. He met up with some local Pomos. He told them that he was living on the side of a hill under the beautiful redwoods in a fabulous house. The Pomos told him to leave that hill immediately. "Don't spend another night there. You wanna play Indian? Then play like this, no Indian will set foot on that hill. Leave."
He didn't like that, so he decided that Indians weren't as cool as he'd thought. When I last saw him, he was falling down drunk and explaining to me that if he wanted to, he could walk across a swimming pool as a demonstration of his faith. Although he admitted that the last time he tried, he fell in the water.
For many years the hill was known as heroin hill because of a nest of dope fiends that lived there. This was in a tiny little town, one store, one bar, a fire station and a bus stop, out in the woods. Time was, you could buy a bag of heroin in the parking lot next to the fire station any time you wanted. 24/7. Creepy place. I have a friend that lives on the flat, near the hill, he swears that it isn't bad there anymore. He calls the hill "Hairdresser's hill" because so many men who understand the value of thread count have moved into town.
Hey, @eloh, if I post my email will you delete the comment and write me?
Oh great you've creeped me out. I don't believe in ghosts - till I hear strange noises in the night.
I've never lived in a haunted house, but my uncle's house always gave me the creeps - to the point that when I was a kid, I would refuse point blank t go up the stairs on my own.
One night, while everyone else was sleeping, I was lying in bed, making sure my feet weren't sticking out of the covers and just generaly feeling unnerved and too scared to sleep, when I heard the strangest noise.
It sounded like a kind of scream, but hoarser somehow. I thouth it was maybe a fox (foxes make the weirdest noises) and went to the window to investigate.
There, in the garden, was a young girl with long blonde hair, staring up at me. I stared back at her and she disappeared right in front of my eyes.
I tried investigation the history of the house when I was older, but I never found anything to explain it.
We have a spooky problem in our house too and I don't believe in ghosts.
GG
Wow, interesting story (and what an interesting life!).
I've never lived in a properly haunted house of the sort you describe but there are segments of London into which I will not venture (there's a spot near Alexandra Park that I hate, because every single time I'm there I see the vision of a woman hanging from a tree).
On the other hand, there's the collection of family ghosts (human and animal) that frequently drops by for a visit and ever since I was little I can remember seeing the people (other children, usually) moving out of the corner of my eye, moving through the shafts of light. I knew they weren't real, but I assumed everyone saw them and they were in no way frightening. They were just there, like my world and theirs was two photographic images superimosed on each other.
I don't see them often anymore, but I usually know it's a ghost dropping by because I become envoloped in smell that person loved and wore in life (my father's aftershave, my grandmother's perfume, the scent of old books for my uncle) and often I will suddenly hear music and my father singing (it sounds as clear as if it was a CD in the room, but I'm the only one who can hear it).
On the other hand, my little boy (year and a half old) will occasionally seem to have elaborate exchanges with no one I can see (offering his toy to the empty air and saying 'who are you' and waving and blowing kisses, so goodness knows what he sees).
Wow, thats kind of cool actually. As long as they were all cool with you being there, and you them.... I've never lived in a place that I shared with creepy beings.
Well, no dead ones anyway
tracy
One of our toilets has a timid flush. Does that count?
my daughter slept over at your niece's house and swore it was haunted. she asked how old it was. i said, "it's brand new, pipe down and go to sleep."
a few weeks ago, the niece mentions seeing her middle boy's imaginary friend. i said, "wait a minute. if you are seeing him, he can't be imaginary, right?"
seems her 100+ year old tobacco barn floors had a stowaway.
my daughter happily did the 'i told you so' dance right in my face.
husband, brother and i toured houses all day looking for one to buy ... one of them made me feel extremely creepy, and when i mentioned it later in the day my brother had also felt that way. later found out the last residents had lived there for 50+ years and raised 7 children there. perhaps the house was holding on to its own terror, of being too small to house so many people.
my family and i used to live on the top floor of this old mansion, in what was called the "ballroom." it did not in any way look like the fancy ballroom you may be imagining. it was creepy and old, and you had to walk under some hanging plastic and go past a dark stairwell, piles of stuff that wasn't ours, a long hallway, to get to the bathroom. not fun at night. one time my mom distinctly heard someone come in the door at the bottom of the stairs and come up ... but there was no one there.
now it's the middle of the day and i'm alone in the house ... starting to creep myself out!
By extraordinary coincidence, I was going to write a blog post today about haunted houses I've lived in, and ask readers for their ghost stories. Then yours is the first blog I check and SNAP. Brilliant.
(I've just had to wait TWELVE HOURS to read this post, too, because Esme was around me all day and I wanted to wait until she was in bed so I could enjoy this post in peace. Worth every hour of the wait.)
I'm not very sensitive to the paranormal and in a way I envy those who are, although it would absolutely shit me up to witness a ghost. And it has done, in the past.
I'll go ahead and do the blog post I planned, and maybe squeeze some more good stories out of other people.
I love your blog.
@Jon; I'll have to write a post one each of the two houses. My second one with the mean spirits was handled similar to how you did it.
I'd be happy to write, but I don't know how to delete a comment yet. My e-mail address is on my profile, from there I transfer correspondence over to my other e-mail.
@Anna; Hey, I creep myself out ALL the time. Not many people have actually seen a ghost, I wonder if that is considered lucky?
@Not waving: I'd love to hear about it. How about a blog post.
@The Crazy Sub: I know the feeling, I creep my kids out all the time.
@Housewife: Second house (mean ones) even the toilets got in on the act.
@melly: She spent a good while as a little girl in the Victorian, her crib was in the most active room so I'm sure she was "tucked in" on a regular basis.
@Candice: Always follow those "gut feelings".
@Antonia: I have had similar things happen in my short time here. I'll read a blog and it will remind me of several stories, or one on just the subject I was scratching on. Then I think, well, that will have to wait, can't write about it now.
But what it really means..you have blogs you read because there is something in common, it would then follow that you have had similar experiences and for what ever reason something has brought itself to the front of your mind...and why not at the same time...makes sense to me. I am waiting for your blog with a fluttering heart.
Blog on, my bloggy friend.
I've never lived in a haunted house, but this has reminded me of a situation I really should write about.
When I was 18, there was a neighbor in his late 30s who had a crush on me. I never noticed, not until years later, but at the time it worked in my favor, as he had a '67 Camaro Convertible, a fabulous car that he let me drive. :-) One day, we were cruising the Lakes area of Mpls, an area known for gorgeous houses and cars that drive ever-so-slowly around the lakes. We met up with another great car that I cannot recall, and they desparately wanted us to go home with them and "get high".
OK. Why not?
But when I pulled up to the house, I was absolutely terrified. The dread was incredible. I refused to get out of the car. Al (the guy who owned the car) walked up to the house and the guys who had invited us were confused and appeared angry that I wouldn't get out of the car. But the house was wrong, all wrong, and there was no way that I would go in.
I finally told Al that he could stay if he wanted, but I was leaving, in his car, and that he could find his own way home.
We left.
But I will never forget that house, or how terrified I was of it. They couldn't have dragged me up to that door -- I was quite childish about it.
I think about that every now and then. I will never know what was going to happen -- if anything was going to happen -- but I will never, ever, forget the dread I felt, just looking at the front of that house.
Pearl
I never know whether to believe or to day what a bunch of hooey. Do you ever watch Lisa Williams? She supposedly sees and talks with the dead. Kinda of creepy.
*SQUEALS!* Oh, oh, me! I HAVE! Boy howdy, do I have stories! I also have to get off the computer right this second (god DAMN it!) but you'd better believe I'm coming back to terrorize your comment section tomorrow. I can hardly wait.
Stumbled over from Housewife Savant and was transfixed by the prospect of ghost stories. I like you already!
We have at least 2 spirits in our current house. One, which is mildly unfriendly, seems to be confined to the living room/kitchen area. That is the original part of the house before the remodeling and add on was done in '01. He moves/hides things, knocks pictures off walls (but only one he doesn't like), and when unhappy gives off this "get the f-ck out" vibe. We don't hang out in the living room all that often, especially after dark. I do talk to him periodically and remind him that we have to share the living space. We don't want him to leave, after all he was here first, but we do want him to stop frightening the children. That seems to help for a while, although he is bound and determined that my butterfly clock is NOT going to stay up on his wall! We assume this to be the spirit of a previous owner of the original house, who committed suicide by hanging himself in a corner of what is now our kitchen.
The second, which is a relative newcomer, manifests as a ball of light which randomly streaks up our hall and veers into my older child's bedroom before disappating. There are no windows near the hall and no way that headlights from cars on the street could cause this to happen. There is no emotion attached to this one, I don't think it's an "intelligent haunt" but I'm not sure what it is. 3 of the 4 of us in the house have seen it on separate occasions, so I'm pretty sure it's not just my imagination. It's about the size of a grapefruit, dull white, and very fast.
As I finish typing this I can feel grumpy old man ghost lingering over my shoulder - I don't think he likes what he is reading.
@Pearl; Different times in my working years brought me into the lives of "victims" dead and alive. . .I was always surprised at the number of times victims related "having a feeling" before walking straight into disaster.
I say this a lot.."Follow your gut".
Something was bad was going to happen to you if you had gone into that house.
@Happy Hour; I believe there are people with strange gifts. . .they don't do television or public appearances and are quite rare. That John Edwards..what a douche, but a rich douche, must be a special place in hell for people like that...I hadn't heard of Lisa Williams, she must be his replacement.
@The Girl; ya just gotta stop with the God word, anything but...Ghost stories seem to liven up the place...for a dead subject. Bring 'em on.
@Funny in my mind; Welcome, I went over and read your blog for quite awhile. You're funny in blog too.
@BarbJ; Funny you should mention the limited area haunting. That's what our friendly childhood ghost did. My second set of residents I handled very differently.
I got the creeps (ooOOOOoo) when you said the old codger was reading over your shoulder.
No haunted houses for me, but one strange occurrence while driving through a graveyard...
First-time visitor. Read a whole lot of your stuff. I love your raw honesty. At least it feels honest. :) I'll be back for more.
My sisters house is haunted. Her 4 year old always tells her about "the people" who are standing in his room or by the front door. He sees my mother and talks to her too. And her alarm system flashes as if someone is in a certain room when she is in another and the only one home. I always hear walking in the halls when I sleep on the couch, the floors are wood and everyone is asleep but I have never heard anything, just felt like I was being watched.
I love, love, love a good ghost story. thanks a bunch you guys. I work in a really old building. probably dates back to 1850 or some such. I often hear stuff but yesterday, I saw my very first ghost. The house has been converted into a spa, I work there as a massage therapist. my work space come equipped with one of those therapeutic tubs. lo and behold yesterday, I saw a lady sitting on the edge of the tub. She was wearing one of those long period dresses that button in the back and her hair was pulled into a bun. Isaw her with my eyes but coul also see her inside my mind... I'm not explaining this right, anyways. She mouthed the words " Fais confiance " wich means roughly " Don't worry, trust in the future". So cool...
This stuff scares the shart right outta me! : )
I had some grandparents with a freaky ass house and it really scared me!
Macey
We definitely lived in one house I believe had some kind of spirit - and malevolent. I'd come home late from working (in high school) and hear someone walking around on the second floor landing, even though no one was awake but me. I never saw anything, but felt eyes on me most every night until we moved from there.
I've also had a couple of experiences like Pearl's. I totally agree with you about trusting your gut, even if other people don't feel it.
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