my pop's ghosts

yesterday was a really nice day. although i'd told myself on friday that i would board up my windows and doors, unplug the phones and disconnect from society altogether so that i could get some jewelry finished for a gallery's holiday shop, i did no such thing. instead i saw two aunts, two cousins, and then finished the evening off with dinner at my pop's house. so, although i may not have made any jewelry, at least i had quality family time, right? after dinner we started a conversation that i want to share, but just to put you on edge and give you a little scary visual stimulation, check out a ghoulish awkward family photo...

monster teeth suckers courtesy of auntie amy! okay, now begins the story. when i used to live with pop and tricia, it wasn't unusual to find lights turned on, or turned off, to hear the stereo turn itself on, to hear footsteps when no one else was home, etc. it got to be that we were used to getting up in the night, knowing we'd turned a lamp off, only to find it, and maybe a radio, turned on at 3am. all of us at some point went looking for the person creating the loud walking noises, only to find that no one else was home. that went on for years, and pop would always tell me that he knew, as we all did, that there was some sort of spirit, ghost, whatever you'd like to call it, in the house. i told him several times that i wanted to come over with a recorder and try to record some white noise, but of course i was always too scared. lately though, it's gone from things turning on and off, and hearing "people" walking, to these spirits making themselves known even more.

several times now my dad has seen these smoky silhouettes; once standing in the doorway when he was watching TV, another time when he got out of the shower, and the only time it really scared him - when he was outside in his shed. he's also had them say things to him. when tricia was telling him one evening that she wakes up at night with her arms numb, a woman's voice said in his ear, "oh my!" he's been greeted with a "hey!" when he's gotten home from work, and he's heard distant voices going up the steps. i asked him if he was scared at all, and he said it wasn't fear he felt, but more of an anxiety. the one time though he was scared was when he saw the figure outside twice within a few minutes. about that one he said, "it scared the hell out me!" when i asked him why that one scared him but not the others, he said he figured it was because he was used to it in the house, but he wasn't prepared for it outside!

in conversation at work one day, one of my stepmom's co-workers mentioned this lady she knew that was a psychic or medium (i'm not sure what term she uses). dad and tricia met her one evening, and when she shook my dad's hand, she said she could tell that it was him they were connected to, because he was a free spirit with an open mind, and that he wasn't scared. she also said they were most likely just trying to make some sort of contact and that she would really like to visit their house one day to see what she can find out.

i don't know if you believe in this sort of thing, but i can tell you that I DO. i've always believed that spirits, or ghosts, are right here with us, and some of us (not me, because i'm too scared) are perceptive enough to be able to communicate with or see them. i also believe in these things because i lived in that house long enough to know that there were other people there besides my dad, stepmom and siblings! so let me ask you, have you ever had a paranormal experience? if so, i'm curious, tell me about it!

8 comments:

  1. First off...that shirt...Bazinga!

    Okay, so my dad's mom has this house in San Diego that was passed down to her from her own parents. This house has a basement & in the basement, a dirt room on either end behind the closets. So you go through the closet to a dirt room. Creepy, right? Well somehow, when I lived there when I was 3 I dreamed of this room without knowing it existed till about 3 years ago. My aunt & I have both seen stuff there & my aunt is convinced that it's her grandma, the one who gave my grandma the house. One night when I was 11 I was spending the light with my cousins & I felt creepy in the room by myself & could tell they were still awake so I went to go hang with them. Well, we left the room door cracked & after a while, I saw an old lady pass by the door heading to a dead end who was NOT my grandma. I kept a firm eye on this door till my grandma came...from that same direction. There was no way anyone could pass by that way without me seeing them. So I knew it wasn't her. Anyway...it was creepy. & when I explained the old lady to my aunt she said it was her grandma. I'd go into more detail but this is getting long. Basically, her place is occupied by more than just herself & the whole family knows this. *shivers*

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  3. Too many typos for me to bear...
    here's the edit
    ZOIYKZ!
    That picture made me climb up a tree;)
    Hehe.
    I go back and forth on this topic.
    It's hard to disprove that which we cannot perceive, and perception is based mostly on sensual experience. Considering that we use a small percentage of our brains and we have the gift of only five senses, I am sure there is more around us than we know.
    E.g. The ant who only sees the world in two dimensions could never fully understand the human world.

    So, yes, if there is something more out there, the intuitive mind can perceive it.
    A month after my grandma died, I was crying in the shower. I asked her, "if you're there, let me know." When I got out, I went to turn the light on in my closet and it turned on before I could push the switch. I stood there in front of the light switch for like a minute...and it made me feel warm inside. <3

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  4. I definitely believe in that sort of thing. 100%. I wouldn't necessarily call mine a paranormal experience, but after my dad died, every so often, I could smell his cologne. Not always and not now -- now that I'm no longer able to go to that house -- but here and there. Once in a while. Some memories for me are really rooted in smell and I just have to think of them to smell them again so at the time, I didn't know if I was imagining it or not. But maybe I wasn't now that it doesn't happen anymore. That's weird. (I like the word verification on this one: "intation" it fits somehow.)

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  5. Love that photo, excellent!

    I have never had a paranormal experience personally. But Rob's dad grew up in upstate New York, in a house that used to be a doctor's office. In the '20s the doctor was hit by a car, walked into the house and died. Growing up my father-in-law had a ton of paranormal experiences (he actually saw/heard some sort of party, and his sister saw it independently and they talked about it later...we don't know much because he won't talk about it), and Rob and his brother said they've heard a ton of things in the house as well. It's funny because if it were something that they weren't serious about, his dad and grandfather are the type that would be constantly joking about it, but as it is you have to actually work to get it out of them. It's clearly something that makes them uncomfortable.

    I stayed at the house and heard/saw nothing. It was funny though, we got a choice of which room to sleep in --the one with the door to the attic or one further down the hall, and when I asked my combat vet husband which room he wanted to sleep in he said "NO F**king way am I sleeping in the room with the attic door!" So I generally think it's pretty legit :)

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  6. I was totally reading this at work and I was like "oh girl...I so believe this too!"!!! I have a ghost. It threw a glass oil lamp cover across a hallway that I was entering, and sometimes locks a door upstairs. This makes us have to run through the house to the other side on the first floor to get to the other side of the upstairs. I suppose that is when the ghost wants us to give it more attention. I don't know who it is but its definitely connected to the house. I am soooo wanting to do the white noise dealio and make contact! Make sure your dad takes care! Hearts, janna lynn

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  7. wow, it's so neat hearing about your experiences! even though i'm such a big sissy, i always love hearing these types of stories!

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  8. i've personally never had one (although i did tour the edinburgh dungeons once, which are apparently the most haunted place in the world and it was really scary) but my dad's father passed away when he was only 8, and his sister (my aunt) never got the chance to say goodbye. it was a really sudden death, he died of a heart attack. but one day when my aunt came home from school she saw her father standing in front of the garage door. he waved, and then vanished. and she never saw him again. ♥ but i think it gave her closure. my mom also felt my grandmas presence for a week after she died, and i know many people have similar experiences. she said it changed her mind about life in many ways.

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I'd love to hear what you think!