October 16, 2002
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In a past blog, I briefly mentioned living in a haunted house. LuckyStars asked for more details, and also asked if I knew how many different domiciles I’d lived in. Unlike the numbered list of sexual partners I kept for a while in my youth, I never kept a running count of my homes. It took some recollection to work out an answer to her question.
I scribbled a list that extended from my birth all the way up to that haunted house before I ran out of space on front and back of the envelope. Over the course of a few days, as memories came up, I added to the list. The count, up to the haunted stone house in eastern Oregon, was 81 if I only count Granny’s house once. I think I lived there six separate times.
That haunted house was home to me in 1971. I was 27. It was before I got to Alaska and settled down. In the intervening thirty-one years, I’ve added only 23 more homes to the list, for a total of 104.
As ghost stories go, this one isn’t much, but here it is:
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Our little extremely informal commune on the High Plains of Eastern Oregon was mystified that Hazel, who owned the horse-and-goat ranch where we were living, chose to live in a tiny trailer and leave the stone house at the head of the driveway vacant.
She had offered us one of two small unoccupied frame houses of weathered, unpainted clapboard. We gratefully accepted the proffered shelter, but as time went by and we passed that sprawling ranch house on each trip to and from the ranch, we started thinking we’d be more comfortable inside those solid walls, with a few extra rooms to spread out in.
Stony and I were delegated to ask Hazel. After only a moment’s hesitation, she said okay. We moved a few boxes from the big house into one of the small ones, dusted off the furniture, and settled in. I loved the kitchen. It had a wood-burning range, and an old hand-operated water pump over the sink. Hot water came from a reservoir on the range, if we remembered to keep it filled.
The living room had a huge fireplace built of the same native stone as the house. After our first night there, the two single men in our group abandoned their bedroom in favor of sleeping bags on the hearth. I assumed it was only for the added warmth until I had my ghost encounter and told the story. Then they told me their story.
Stony and I slept in a sagging old iron bed that took up most of the space in the front bedroom. I awoke one morning and lay there in the warmth under the covers, just staring off into space waiting until I heard sounds from the others, before getting up to stoke the kitchen stove and make breakfast.
I was just gazing into space toward the blank wall at the foot of the bed, daydreaming. A man appeared, just appeared, in my field of vision. He looked sad, but not at all scary… just sad. As I watched, he aged, going from a young adult to a wrinkled old man. With a little chill, I sat up in bed and he vanished.
Stony awoke and I told him what I had seen. He laughed it off as a dream. Over breakfast, I told the story to the rest of the family, and Rocky cleared his throat as if to speak. He even opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything until one of the others nudged him and encouraged him to go ahead.
Finally, they both told the story of why they moved from the back bedroom onto the hearth in the living room. To begin with, each time they fell asleep their first night there, they were awakened by a sound or a touch. They had assured each other that neither of them was the source of the disturbances. The room was cool, but there was one area in the room that was much colder than the rest. Eventually, they decided to move in by the fireplace and build up the fire for warmth.
Since none of the rest of us objected to their keeping the fire going through the cold nights, no one questioned their move. They kept quiet about the nightly disturbances out of fear of ridicule. Even after the move, there were unexplained noises, and each of them had seen a figure, an apparition, moving from one bedroom to the other. We probably should have asked Hazel about the house’s history, but we didn’t.
See, I tolja it wasn’t much of a ghost story. We had more interesting ghosts in a house where I lived with my biker ol’man, “VW”.
Comments (13)
i think i would have asked the history id wanna know who it was that was messing with me..and if they were docile or really scary types..
Belinda
(0_0) WHAT!?!?! You didn’t ask Hazel? AAUGH! And you fussed at me for not asking what happened to the kid in the parking lot!??!?! Oh for…bah! okay…we’re even now.
104. Wow, Su… I’ve lived in 3. One until I got married at 23. A duplex the first 7 years we were married and then this house.
It’s kind of sad in a way…to me…because I sense in you someone who would be ever so happy in a house with a kitchen, lots of sunshine, bookshelves, a fireplace… Makes ya wonder…
I think that is a pretty good ghost story. Thanks for telling it.
Sorry the pic of BBMan was disappointing for you. Aren’t they all just men though?
That’s a cool ghost story! I’m with LS, even as recent as my acquaintace with you has been, I can imagine that you would be very happy with that kitchen and house set-up.
Very cool. I’ve never seen a ghost before.
my aunt and my mom had some experiences with ghosts..but not me.
i LOVE ghost stories!!!! I saw one once but I ‘felt’ so many before. I really wish one would appear to me and talk to me in person instead of through me or in my head….
I love all ghost stories…thanks for sharing!
That is way cool – I’ve never heard anything like an “aging” ghost before. We lived in a haunted house where the lights came on randomly, and the cats were always “intrigued” by something floating near the ceiling.
Well, if you ever become a ghost, you’ll have a whole shitload of houses to pick from to haunt!
My grandfather died when I was 6 years old. I used to wake up at night and see him standing in the room watching me. It did not scare me – he was my grandpa, I loved him, and he would not hurt me. I know most people would say I was not really awake – that I was dreaming, but I know I was awake. I think children are more open to such experiences.
Hey that’s really a great post and a
wonderful description out here, I really like the way things are being executed
and discussed here.
Roofing Tacoma
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