There are few things (2 very particular ones I will NEVER forget) that has happened to me in my life that was very scary. Things that absolutely still to this day sends my skin to crawling and my hair standing on end...because i EXPERIENCED it. Those I am NOT discussing here at this time.

there are some other things...not as scary that has occurred or should I say that "happens" (present tense) that is ghostly and mysterious but it doesn't usually scare me. it makes me stop dead in my tracks sometimes and realize...whoa, that really happened.

My house is super old.
I was built around 1890. That date is not certain but it was in existance at that time.
It's a 2 story farm house. It was a bit more "rich" than what my direct line ancestors and family lived in (they lived in 2 or 3 room houses with paper on the walls as insulation) but it is not like the fine homes the doctors or merchants in town built in the same time frame either. No big 5 or 6 feet wide hallways, no parlors, foyers or even closets.

Ever since I have lived here (about 10 years now) I have said that I see and hear things. The folks we bought the place from says that nothing ever happened here that they know of to cause it to be haunted...but yet, they couldn't even tell me who lived in it prior to 1950.

anyway...
the hallway is short and narrow.
Out living room is all the way to the front of the little hallway right next to where the stairs are. The room where I sit now ("my" computer room LOL) is at the other side and other end of the hallway. In the living room, where I sit to watch TV, the doorway to the hall area is just in the corner of my left eye's vision. I am always "seeing" something there. It's just a glimpse, or a blur, or maybe it's a movement. It's never still there when I turn to look. The kids have seen it a few times that I know of.

when i sit in my room here at the computer...the door to the hallway is again to my side. Many, many, many times I see the blur or brief glimpse of something move at the door. It's just like someone going past but it being too quick for that. I have had times when i see someone walk by and i speak, thinking it's one of the family and then remember...I'm alone. Everyone else has gone fishing etc.

I used to work graveyard shift.
One day i was trying to get some sleep. The kids were romping around upstairs and making noise that was keeping me half awake. I started yelling out to them...asking them to get quiet or go to another room (not directly above me in my son's room)...when I sat straight up...realizing... No one else was home.

Sometimes I think "Rufus" (my dog) sees something or someone. He sits with ears perked up watching something move about as if he was watching one of us.

My son has been spooked upstairs before. My kids are not what my mom and granny always called "sceery" or "skeerdy" ...meaning they do not spook or are not easily afraid. My kids deal with this place very well and much better than some of their sleep overs have. The old floors creak, it's cold in winter and the wind howls through the old windows if the wind is coming from the north. The kids never complained except one night that really stands out in my memory...was the night my son came down shivering, saying he needed to sleep downstairs. he went on later to tell me how he was almost asleep when a voice spoke to him directly against his ear. "Right in my ear, Momma!! I felt the breath." He had then opened his eyes to pitch black darkness. The thing is...the room is never pitch dark. There is always light that comes in from the window. The darkness was a shadow that moved away from him when he startled.
He saw it.

writing this post has my skin crawling..but only because of that episode. I have never been afraid here. Even though the kitchen door has opened and closed before without the help of anything "seen". The rocker on the front porch has rocked for 2 or 3 minutes alone...but I figure those things can be caused by the wind.

the movement I and my dog sees in the hallway...not the wind.
*shakes head*

Dixie

oh...
just thinking about the time...

I was taking photos one night of the old floors, because we had hopes of redoing them and we wanted to document the condition etc. I took like 3 photos of the hallway. I was kinda "buffaloed" by what I saw in them. There was this glowing ball or light...that moved closer in each shot but got smaller and then gone. This was the first photos I ever took with "orbs"...I have taken many since. Not so much as in this house but other places with spooky tales etc.

if I have the old photo and didn't lose it during the time I had to wipe out my hard drive...i will post it. I do have back-ups of most of my old pics but I have noticed lately that there are some I can't seem to locate.
*fingers crossed*

dixie
imagining how many AQers are shaking their heads at me and my ghosts...
LOL

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My house is super old.
I was built around 1890.

So what would you call houses up here in New England? Some of them date back much farther than that. Many of the homes in the area that I live in are circa 1860. When I was in Salem, Mass. earlier this year, I had breakfast in a building that dates back to the 1700's.

FG

I still remember bringing a Swedish exchange student to see some of the older houses in the Hudson River area. She was courteous but didn't seem all that impressed when we oohed and ahhed about their early origins. Later she told me that she and her family lived in a house built around 1100 AD. whoa

LW

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So what would you call houses up here in New England? Some of them date back much farther than that. Many of the homes in the area that I live in are circa 1860. When I was in Salem, Mass. earlier this year, I had breakfast in a building that dates back to the 1700's.

Oh, I know...and I envy you guys for that.
everything around here that was built back then was hand hewn log cabins...one room cabins usually. This was a wild frontier still in 1830s. This was rugged land deemed unfit for living by much of the white population until around that time or just prior.

for this area...1880s homes are super old.
there are very few of them.

In the bigger cities they become more common.
when I first went up North (to DC) on a school field trip...
I was in awe at the historic buildings.

When I went to Charleston and savanna....
Ooooooo...was I ever jealous of the beauty and age of the homes.
When i went to spain....then I saw stuff thatwas OLD.
I didn't even have a comprehension that a 14th century structure could still be standing.
WOW.

anyway...
like I mentioned the other day on the NC board.
the county officials around here...
tear down anything old, then spend thousands and thousands on trying to make it look historic. *rolls eyes*

Dixie

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I was taking photos one night of the old floors, because we had hopes of redoing them and we wanted to document the condition etc. I took like 3 photos of the hallway. I was kinda "buffaloed" by what I saw in them. There was this glowing ball or light...that moved closer in each shot but got smaller and then gone. This was the first photos I ever took with "orbs"...I have taken many since. Not so much as in this house but other places with spooky tales etc.
if I have the old photo and didn't lose it during the time I had to wipe out my hard drive...i will post it.

instead of adding the photos to my AQ albums...
I place 3 of themat the bottom of the Mountain Event's Blog page...
http://dixie-legend-event.blogspot.com/

dixie

that last photo is of my old house too.

:-)

When you consider that the western NC mountains wasnt really "opened" for non-native settlement until after the French-Indian War in the 1780s, and even then "settlement" was in the forms of huge land grants to the higher ups of the military, and even in 1790 there were less than a 1000 "settlers" (not counting the Cherokee) and in 1840 there were only 4 brick structures in Buncombe County, then a home built in 1890 is indeed old.

Now, over in Bath, NC near the coast, where settlers came in the 1690s, and the town was "established" in 1705... by 1709 there were 12 houses built... and there are homes still standing today that were built in the 1740s-50s. I suppose 1890 wouldnt be so old.

So, it's all relative.

I know what these spots are, but i wont ruin the "mystery' for ya.

have fun, dixie!

now Cam...
i'm not poking fun!

I just got done looking at and posting some older photos...
I am glad I still have them.
:-)

in the early and mid 70's I lived in a cinderblock home, so this was NOT an old structure. There had beeen only a couple of families live in it before we did, I think, though not sure on that. On one end was a bedroom that had been converted from a garage. Across the front of the house was a living room and bedroom, across the back of the house was a dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. There was a wall right down the middle of the house with a fireplace in it, and an open "hall" that ran down the back of the wall, the length of the house. The living room had a door on each end, one went into the dining room, the other went into the hall by the bedroom doors.

Late at night, if you were alone in the living room, you could see a shape moving swiftly "down the hall" past the dining room door; but if you ran to either that door or the one into the other end of the hall, there was nothing there. After he (it always felt like a "he" kind of presence) got bored running down the hall, then he would go up in the attic and walk around between the beams where there was nothing but insulation and wallboard to "support" weight. You could stil hear the footsteps though. After a few minutes of that, he'd go back to running down the hall. You would never se anything if you wer sitting and watching, though, you had to be reading a book, or watching TV, then you'd se it out of the corner of your eye.

night writer

OK, let me add my story. This was just a couple of weeks ago at my parents house which was built in 1978. I was in the sun room( it's the old deck that was enclosed). I was setting at the table with my laptop and somethng brushed my arm. It felt like a strong breeze but the windows were all closed. It's possible that the ceiling fan caused the breeze but that was the only time it happened.

Shiloh

Gee, the really old buildings around here date back to the 1960's!

Okay, there are a few that go back to the 1920's, but mostly we have very young buildings.

And to keep on the thread's topic, I saw a poltergeist once when I was 13 . . . right before it caused the chicken cassarole in the oven to explode!

DebBee

I've never heard or seen a ghost. NEVER. And I was a major skeptic until the following:

I was up late one night putting away laundry and having a little cry. I was newly divorced, now a single mother of children aged 5, 3 and 1 and I had just lost my beloved father-in-law a couple of weeks before. Very suddenly. He was truly a wonderful man, who told me after my divorce, "You and my son may be divorced, but you'll always be family to me."

Something I had heard on the radio reminded me of him so I was having a little sniffle. I had long ago put the children to bed, so I was shocked when I closed the linen closet door to find my 5 year old standing there in her pj's.

'What's the matter, honey? Did you have a nightmare?" I asked, quickly wiping away my tears. My 5 yr old ignored my question and just stood there looking at me with a bewildered expression. The she said, " Why are you crying, Mommy? Papa's here." Well that response freaked me out. "Papa" was my deceased father-in-law...not my ex-husband, and Papa had never lived with us.

"He's here, angel?" I said..and gently turned her back toward her bed. "Yep, he's huggin' you!" she said. And just then I felt a warm sensation run all over my upper body and a squeezing sensation. My knees almost buckled: I was so terrified. Remember, I was a HUGE skeptic! I quickly got my daughter into bed and ran to my room, my heard pounding. Tears were streaming down my face as my mind rolled over and over and over this incident. I finally had to concede that there was a hell of a lot out there that I cannot explain, and I now choose to believe. Since I embraced that notion I have been incredibly comforted and live in my house feeling really loved and protected. Ah, the wisdom of a child and an open mind!

LW

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imagining how many AQers are shaking their heads at me and my ghosts...

Well, I'm not one of them.

My favorite Shakespeare line is "There are stranger things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy!" Hamlet said that when his friends were doubting that he had seen his father's ghost.

I've had a strange experience myself but it was the scare-the-Bejeezus-outta-you variety and I prefer not to remember it!

Knit Wit

Ok, LW, you just made me cry! :-)

My dad passed on eight years ago. He was an auto mechanic and would always make sure I was keeping up with the maintenance on our cars.

Back in January I had a wreck in our minivan that was attributed to slick roads and such. Just couldn't stop the thing in time...

In March I was driving along alone in the van and I heard my dad's voice from the passenger seat say, "Get the brakes checked NOW!" I took it to our mechanic and it turned out the rear brakes weren't working at all to stop the car and the front brake pads were 98% worn. The thing was a rolling death trap!

I've also felt like my dad was around at times when I've really needed him in the past eight years, too, and if I could just turn around fast enough I'd see him there.

Knit Wit

I'm not sure I would call any of my experiences 'ghost' stories, but I seem to be very sensitive to certain places. That's not a very good description, so here's one as an example:

A few years ago I worked at a church whose building was erected in the early 1920's. There was one corner of the sanctuary, just to the left of the chancel, that I just couldn't bear to be in. The only way I can describe the feeling I got when I neared that part of the building was just abject terror--a feeling that I needed to run. In the entire year I served that church, I was never able to shake the feeling. Didn't matter what day of the week, if the sanctuary was empty or full . . . when I would lead worship services I couldn't even use the seat behind the pulpit, which backed up near the "spooky" area; I would sit on the opposite side of the chancel, where the lector is supposed to sit. When asked about it, I just told people that I wanted to be able to see the congregation, and the pulpit obscured my view of them from the traditional worship leader's seat. The sound system's controls were in that area and I used to plead technophobia to get someone else to go back there to fetch the cordless mic and flip the switches to 'on' for me. It wasn't the first time I'd been really uncomfortable in a place but that was the worst time it had happened. I never found out if there was any reason for what I felt, if anything had ever occurred there that would have left some kind of impression. No one else ever seemed to be bothered, so I didn't ask. I mean, I was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the congregation, and here I was having some experience that I can only describe as supernatural.

--Jane
"Daisy" of "Daisy and Onslow"

I think there are many times that family members will "come back" to comfort or help through difficult times. One of the most common supernatural phenomena is the return visit to loved ones. But I really think the one being visited has to be able to accept the visit without fear (because I really doubt that the purpose of the visit is to scare the bejesus out of the family member). And I also firmly believe that children are more likely to experience the supernatural because they haven't yet learned that adult skepticism.

And I want to hear them alllllll when we get to the mtns. in October!

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I was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the congregation, and here I was having some experience that I can only describe as supernatural.

But isn't the spiritual also supernatural? I think those most open to the spiritual are likely to be open to supernatural experiences as well. I have feelings much like what you describe. I just call it a sensitivity. I had experiences as a child that went beyond "a feeling" but now I tend to move away when I have those feelings (unless I'm actually out hunting and don't feel that the encounter will be negative).

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"Yep, he's huggin' you!" she said. And just then I felt a warm sensation run all over my upper body and a squeezing sensation. My knees almost buckled: I was so terrified. Remember, I was a HUGE skeptic!

You are a very lucky person to have had this experience.
Cherish it as you would to most cherished memories of Papa when he was living.
:-)
Thanks for the story.

Dixie

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In March I was driving along alone in the van and I heard my dad's voice from the passenger seat

imo...These things as well as some others that many people just dismiss as their mind working overtime are very real. I think there is more there than we tend to "pick up on" for the most part.

Ever get a whiff of something so familiar and then realize that it smells just like grandma etc??

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I've also felt like my dad was around at times when I've really needed him in the past eight years, too, and if I could just turn around fast enough I'd see him there.

Exactly!!!
:-)


dixie

some people look at me a little strangely when I tell them of the great relationship I have had with my brother...he's 17 months younger than I am, and only lived 14 hours, but he's always been there for me when I needed him, and at the special moments in my life. Even though he's younger, he's always done the "big brother" job, and I look forward to when it's my turn to go to heaven, so we can hug and be together. (note: I'm in no hurry for this day, I just look forward to it.)

night writer