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We just moved from an old farmhouse here in the north Georgia mountains. It is a little over one hundred years old. We witnessed quite a few things there the three years we lived in it. Some were downright frightful, others merely disturbing.

The house sits up on a hill about fifty yards from the road, with neighbors about one hundred yards to either side. So it's pretty quiet most times. There seems to be a couple of different types of occurrences. The first seems to be a replay of events that happened before, and the second is one of interaction.

One of the things that would replay at times is the sound of a vehicle pulling up the drive, with the accompanying car door. It usually happens after dark. Being far enough from neighbors to be relatively quiet, this stands out as neighbors arriving home is inaudible from inside the house. Every time we've gone to the door expecting visitors just to find out that no one is there, nor is there traffic on the road or neighbors moving about. It's odd, and at times a bit unsettling, but nothing we couldn't live with.

There were a few occasions when headlights accompanied the phantom vehicle. The drive goes up the side of the property and turns in front of the house, so when a car pulls up the drive at night, the headlights always shine upon the living room windows. As we said, a few times when we heard the vehicle, we saw lights play across the closed blinds. We were just sure those were real vehicles only to find nothing out there.

Then there were the occasional knocks on the front door. Once in a while we would get a knock at the front door to find no one there. Other times my wife and I caught glimpses of a man in overalls on one of the porches, and upon turning to find out who was calling would see that no one was there.

Other things, more disturbing things happened in the house. When we first moved in, we would see a small shadow dart around corners. My wife and I both thought we were just imagining things and for the longest time, never told each other. Then one evening while we were both in the same room, saw a shadow dart around a corner. Both of us reacted at the same time and knew we both had seen it. It was always small, sort of cat-like in size and movement, but formless. It stayed mainly in one side of the house. It was disturbing as it always accompanied an uneasy feeling.

The kitchen was bad, especially at night and even more so at three in the morning. You couldn't stand there at the sink with your back to the room as it felt as if someone were staring a hole in your back. One room just off the kitchen was used as mainly a storage room, as it always felt oppressive in there.

We loved that house and intended on being there for good, but things didn't work out for us in order to buy it. So our lease ran out and we found another place to buy instead. It seems to have worked out for the better as we know don't know how we put up with some of the things that went on.

As promised, here's one from back in my college days. I've told it before and as in all my ghost stories is true.

I had a poltergiest in my dorm room. In the beginning of my college years, I was assigned the oddest assortment of roommates until I learned I could pay an extra $7 (!) and get a room by myself. But with or without roomies, strange things occurred. Actually, the roommates were weirder than the subject of this story - one would coo like a dove 24/7, another was into drugs and porn so I kicked her out in a matter of days, one on full valdictorian scholarship dropped out after 2 weeks of crying for her highschool boyfriend, and the final was a boyfriend stealer. The only roomie that stayed was the poltergiest.

Anyway, things you'd just sat down would be missing and later turn up right back where you'd first put it and all sorts of little funny tricks. The one I liked the best was he'd (I always thought of "it" as a "he") leave me money! About twice a week I'd find two $1 bills folded in forths in my pants or jacket pocket. I swear, I never caught anyone doing it. My friends were broke and couldn't keep a secret if they'd done it and besides none were there every year. Then there was the door that would open on it's own. We had those door knobs that required a key to open the bolt so it couldn't have just blown open. At first, I run to see who was playing tricks but no one was ever in the long dorm hallway, there were no close outside doors, and long tile floor echoed so you'd know if anyone had run down the hallway or into another room. After a while, we'd just smile and say hello to him.

The only time I wasn't bothered with him was when I got fed up with the boyfriend stealer roomie and moved to another floor. The next semester, I moved back to my original room and he was still there, but was ticked because I'd left. One day, I was standing in the room and heard a bang. The top closet storage door was on the floor right where I'd been standing. But here's the zinger, I felt the door *go through me*. Even rationalizing, there's no way that door could have fallen out of it's track and landed on the floor that far from the closet. Everyone knows how small dorm rooms are so I know exactly where I was standing and I jumped before the bang when it hit the floor. I first felt something go through me, jumped, and then heard the bang. In that order. It's the weirdest thing but I was more angry than scared. I think he got the message how angry I was with him and he never did anything mean again.

My dormitory was newer, but was an annex of older dorms so it could be our building was built on the site of another dorm. In the turn of the century era dorms, there was the usual story of the girl who committed suicide (ha, I played her in our haunted house), but there wasn't a story about my room. I've wondered if anyone else had experiences but never went back to ask.

Shortly after my grandmother died, we were going through her belongings. Since I'm the family genealogist, when mother pulled granny's briefcase out of the closet she handed it to me. Neither of us opened it because we already knew it just contained some newspaper articles on cousin Jesse James.

A couple months later, I decided it was time to file the Jesse James stuff and toss the briefcase. I opened it and there was an envelope laying face down. As I reached to pick it up, I started laughing. I was laughing so hard, Mr. M heard me in the other room and asked what was so funny. I told him it was granny's letter. I'd never seen it before but somehow I knew what it said. When I turned it over, I saw it was addressed to granny's sister and had a cancelled post mark dated back when I was little. Since the sisters only saw each other once a decade, I have no idea how granny got the letter back or why she kept it all these years. It was just a nothing little short note about me getting into trouble and mother grounding me over a joke grandpa had played.

When granny died, none of the family felt like she'd gone, if you know what I mean. It still seemed like she was around and was waiting for grandpa. A few months later, she and grandpa left together. I think she was just sending me the letter for a good chuckle and to let me know everything would be alright.

Ruth and Johnny side by side

Went out for an auto ride

The car hit a bump

Ruth hit a tree

And John kept going... ruth-lessly.