The House of My Youth

Part 8 - What We Saw

It can be fun talking about The Old House. Sometimes I find I miss it. Most of the pictures of it are gone now. Lost in the fire. I have two. One of the house burning. That's from the front page of a local newspaper. The reporter happened to be driving nearby and saw the smoke. The other is this one, given to me by my mother a good many years ago. Mother's note indicates this was taken in the winter of 1964-65. Pictured from left to right are: Helvie, Bevie, Judayl, Lynahr. Don't know why Gayanne wasn't in the picture. Maybe she took it. I don't remember.

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There's a hint of one of the big pine trees to the left. There is also a ladder propped against the house. Not sure what that was about.

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Looks like my memory was off regarding window placement. I had them further apart. But seeing this picture I now remember. Oh, well. That isn't a door to the right. It's another window. There is a door in the corner, but it's been sealed up. In 1964-65 we didn't use that door. One of the two "scarey" rooms is above on the near corner. The other scarey room was opposite. That was Lynahr's room when this picture was taken. My room may have been the other scary room. Don't quite remember.

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While at the clinic with Mother last week I mentioned I had written about The Old House on one of my blogs. She became quite animated about that. Mother just loves to talk about The Old House being haunted. What she does not like is me telling her I may have found scientific answers to explain everything that happened there. Mother wants to believe in ghosts. The truth is, I can't prove her wrong any more than she can prove herself right. But while we talked she brought up one of the more disconcerting things that happened. Creepy, actually. I had forgotten about them.

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Actually, it was not a one-time occurrence, and it didn't happen to just one person. There were at least four instances in which this occurred, and it happened to at least four different people. I was one of them. Twice.

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What I'm talking about is that four people actually saw our ghost. I saw him twice. What I had forgotten was that Helvie had been with me once, and saw exactly what I saw. I also forgot about Mother seeing him, and Cousin June, who was Alfred's wife.

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Helvie and I were the first to see him. We saw him outside, actually. He was a tall man. Taller than either Daddy or Mickey. He was walking by the cars, which would be about where the picture taker from above would have been standing. Just walking easy as though out for a morning stroll. Then he turned white, like a new sheet of typing paper, and dissolved. That was probably the only time Helvie and I ran inside when we were afraid.

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Of course, no one believed us. We were just kids, and no one believes anything kids say.

Some time after that Mother had her turn. She was between jobs and had come home from the unemployment office. She had sat in the dining room (to the right in the picture, can't see the windows) and was drinking a cup of coffee when she heard someone walking around upstairs. Knowing Judayl and Lynahr had a penchant for skipping school, she got angry and stormed upstairs to confront them. She searched every room and every closet. Nobody there. So she started back down the steps. About halfway down she remembers having the feeling someone was watching her from behind. She turned. There, standing with his hands on his hips, laughing at her, was a very large man. I think she decided now was a good time to leave and get groceries.

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After that, it was June's turn. Alfred was out of work. The mines up north would shut down most of their operations in the winter, thus laying off large portions of their workforce, to which Alfred belonged. So they had come down to stay with us while Alfred looked for part-time work. The morning they were to leave June said she had to go upstairs to the big room (in the picture, upstairs and left) and finish packing. A couple of minutes later she came running down the stairs. As she passed Alfred she just said, "Come on! We're leaving." It would be several weeks before she told my mother why she had been in such a hurry to leave. Just as she had finished the packing and was closing the suitcase, she turned to see a man standing there with hands on hips looking at her. It was the same man Mother had seen.

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The last of the four sightings I recall right now was made by me. I was alone. I was in the scary room upstairs in the near corner. I woke in the middle of the night (something I still do to this day). Movement caught my attention and I looked to the door. There, practically filling the entire space, was a heavy set man with hands on hips. He was staring at me. I would have screamed had I not believed that would have brought him into the room. So I did the next best thing: I ducked under the covers. I made one peek. He was still there. I was sure he thought I was funny. I didn't think he was funny. The rest of the evening was agonizing. When I heard others up and about I dared to come out of my cocoon. He was gone.

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I'm thinking others saw him, but I can't remember for sure. I would have to ask, and some of those I would need ask aren't even around to be asked. It doesn't matter anyway.

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Seeing him was quite terrifying, for all of us, despite the fact that he appeared to be quite harmless. Happy, in fact. Laughing. Amused. The problem was, he wasn't supposed to be there. That he was, was terrifying because our brains didn't want to accept what our eyes were telling us.

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According to what I have learned over the past year, our brains were probably quite right to doubt the message. But that's a different story. If it was real, I have a couple of thoughts on that, too, which, if true, would make the whole thing quite comical. Which means I kind of wish the whole thing was real and not just scientific phenomenon.

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A different story yet is how terrifying it is when he actually climbed in bed with me. He did that with Judayl, too. I thought I was going to throw up.

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What is significant is that all of the visual and audio manifestations ceased when The Old House burned. That more than anything, I think, supports the scientific explainations over the supernatural. But we will never know for certain. And it doesn't matter anymore. Still, it makes for some awfully creepy memories.

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You have a good day. Hope you didn't read this at night. [smiles] [standing with hands on hips, laughing]