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Leni
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Until a few years ago, I lived in a 90-year old house on the outskirts of Baltimore City.
My next-door neighbor’s house was built in 1837. A lovely old stone house, it had a tunnel in the cellar that went back into the hillside behind for quite some distance until a collapse made it impossible to tell how far back it really went. There was another house on the street above and up the hill that was of a similar age. We didn’t know if the tunnel connected the two houses or not but the theories we concocted were intriguing; a tunnel that connected two clandestine lovers or a stop on the Underground Railroad…
In any case my neighbors were sure their house was haunted. The lights in attic would go off and on without warning and the kitchen cabinets would swing wide open and shut without warning or reason. The husband was a home improvement contractor and a practical guy and would have figured out the usual earthly causes for such things; faulty wiring, misaligned cabinets or bad hinges but he never could figure it out. The wife was a well-educated English teacher. They also often heard unexplained footsteps and saw shadows of human shapes that were not there in the flesh. They were freaked out a first but then just accepted they were not alone and whatever it was, it was not harmful and they accepted it.
The front room of my house I used as an office. Many times I’d be working at the computer and I’d hear voices. It sounded a bit like voices on a radio, like on an AM station not quite tuned in or like voices talking on the street outside. When I’d hear it, I’d get up to investigate but as soon as I’d leave the room the voices would stop. I’d even turn off the computer thinking I was picking interference or radio waves but the same thing would happen. I couldn’t make out what was being said but they were definitely human voices. The funny thing is when ever I’d hear them my dog and cat would get up and look around, leave the room and not come back in for the remainder of the evening.
But my real “ghost” story happened right after my father died. He had been living with me and the front room I’d been using as my office was his bedroom when he passed away.
Dad had a cat named Zelda. My father was very close to Zelda, especially after my mother died. I swear Zelda kept my father going and he doted on her like a child.
After he died, for weeks on end, every evening after my husband and I went to bed, we’d hear Zelda running around downstairs and around that front room. Then we’d hear her “talk”. It wasn’t’ like a regular cat’s meow, it really did sound like she was looking for and talking to someone. After a few weeks it stopped. Zelda is still living with me and she hasn’t repeated the “talking”.
I don’t believe in ghosts or the supernatural but…..
I've not ever seen a ghost. But I've felt a spirit a number of times. The church I used to work at had an older member who had been very active in the church for years. Chief financial officer, deacon etc. He was a tall, spare man. You couldn't hear him walk most times. After he passed away, there were days that both I and the office manager "knew" he was in the building checking on things! It happened more often in the very tense period of time before I resigned my job there.
My motherinlaw has told the story of going in to check on my husband one night when he was a teen and seeing his guardian angel standing at the foot of his bed. He was very ill and she supposes that the angel was making sure he made it through the night.
When do ghosts like to drink their coffee?
When it's been freshly booed!
(ok, well the 7 year old likes it).
Well, OK, no long story, but a very real one.
I was a student in a Catholic Seminary. One night I was in a half sleep, about to drop off when I felt "wings" flapping in my face.
It was close and quite violent and distinct; real wings, flapping strongly, immediately in front of my face. I brought my arms down instinctively from over my head on the pillow to capture the thing that was attacking me.
I thought a bird had gotten in my room and was landing on my chest, but when I flipped on the light, nothing. No bird, nothing. My roommate was snoring soundly through the whole thing, so I know it wasn't a joke or anything.
I thought latter about legends about the wings of death and such, and learned that other seminarians had had other strange experiences in the dorms.
It really makes you think about good and evil and the unseen.
This happened just outside of Spooner, a little town in the northwoods of Wisconsin, and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale... it's real!
This out-of-state traveler was on the side of the road, hitch hiking on a very dark night in the middle of a thunderstorm. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. It was raining so hard he could hardly see his hand in front of his face.
Suddenly he saw a car moving slowly, approaching and appearing ghostlike in the rain. It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped. Wanting a ride really bad, the guy jumped in the car and closed the door; only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel, and no sound of an engine to be heard over the rain!
Again the car crept slowly forward and the guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running. The guy saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and began begging for his life; he was sure the ghost car would go off the road and into a nearby lake and he would drown!
But just before the curve, a shadowy figure appeared at the driver's window and a hand reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend.
Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and the hitchhiker was alone again!
Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. Finally the guy, scared to near death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran as fast as he could into town.
Wet and in shock, he went into a bar and, with a quivering voice, ordered two shots of whiskey, then told everybody about his supernatural experience.
A silence enveloped and everybody got goose bumps when they realized the guy was telling the truth.
About half an hour, later two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other, "Look Ole, ders dat idiot dat rode in our car when ve vuz pushin it in da rain."
Before I read, I have a pet peeve to dislodge from my craw.
Why does everyone all of a sudden call this coming Tuesday "Hollow-ween" instead of "Hal (howl) - o - ween"?
Boopingy
LISTEN TO GHOSTS!
Here are some recordings the Utah Ghost Hunters have made of "ghosts" in allegedly haunted sites. They couldn't hear any of these at the time, but the voices popped up on the audio tape later (think "Sixth Sense").
Enjoy!
http://www.ghostwave.com/kathy2.wav “I’ll be right back” (child)
http://www.ghostwave.com/ffield1.wav “Muchas Gracias”
http://www.ghostwave.com/9699-6.wav “hello” whisper
http://www.ghostwave.com/91998-9.wav “Elizabeth”
http://www.ghostwave.com/25may5.wav “Let me help you”
http://www.ghostwave.com/25may9.wav “Watch what you say”
http://www.ghostwave.com/Mc3.wav “Busted!” (after police car passes cemetery)
http://www.ghostwave.com/Imsad.wav “Oh, I’m sad”
http://www.ghostwave.com/Salem1.wav “Hey, you little b---h”
http://www.ghostwave.com/bedead.wav “I’m supposed, supposed to be dead”
bump for later
Do you remember the haunted library story?
If ghosts were real I can assure you the spirit of Mary Jo Kopechne would be seen nightly screaming for help in Chappaquiddick!
bttt