How Weird Are You?

by | Apr 12, 2019

Many of us have superstitions. But do they prevent us from doing as we please?

There are the well-known superstitions we’re all familiar with:

  • An apple a day, keeps the doctor away
  • Opening an umbrella in the house is bad luck
  • Friday the 13th
  • Black cat crossing your path
  • Walking on a crack in the sidewalk
  • Throwing spilt salt over your shoulder
  • Walking under a ladder
  • Bewitching hours 9PM to 6AM (times do vary)
  • Wishing on a star
  • Breaking a mirror — 7 years bad luck
  • A rabbit’s foot and a horseshoe are good luck as is finding a four leaf clover
  • Garlic protects you from evil and vampires
  • You can break a curse by turning 7 times in a clockwise circle
  • There’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow
  • An itchy palm means money, an itchy foot means travel

Of course I’ve only scratched the surface here when it comes to superstitions. Many people from different cultures have different ones. Some people have made up their own, associating something they’ve done with an event they either want or don’t want to happen. There are even family traditions that could be placed in this superstition category, although they wouldn’t claim it to be.

My point is that we all have strong beliefs about something based on what we’ve learned, heard or done.

I truly love hearing the beliefs of others. They may seem strange, but I respect them.

Carrie’s story concerns her family’s belief that has been passed down through generations.

“Our elders always told us not to be out past midnight, because there were things out in the night between midnight and 5 in the morning that claimed the streets.” Carrie paused.

I don’t know if she wanted a reaction, but I thought it logical that she had a curfew, we all did at one time. I encouraged her to continue.

“If we did enter the house during those hours, we were told to enter the house facing the street, with our backs to the door. That way nothing could follow us into the house.”

Carrie’s generation accepted it, not that they liked it. They saw it practiced by their parents and grandparents. It was just what they did.

Carrie’s children accepted it as a strange house rule, but her nieces and nephews didn’t give it much thought.

One night her niece came home after midnight. She didn’t think about turning around before entering her apartment. She lived alone. She opened the door and locked it, turned off the porch light, turned on the television, went into the kitchen, washed her hands and grabbed a bag of chips, a few cookies and a soda out of the refrigerator.

She settled in front of the television with her snack and watched the end of a program that was playing.

After turning off the television, she returned to the kitchen to wash her dinner dishes and tidy up. Then went to the bathroom, washed her hands and face and settled in front of her computer to check email and her social networks.

By 3 in the morning, her niece decided to go to bed.

While laying in bed, she heard footsteps in the entry. She heard the click of the locks on the door, the click of the switch on the porch light. The television turned on. She heard footsteps in the kitchen, the faucet turn on and the refrigerator door open.

She heard the creek of her favorite chair as the intruder reclined in her chair as she had earlier.

She was sure she had an intruder in the house. She didn’t know why the television was on. If she was going to rob a place, she’d want to be as quiet as possible. And why sit and watch television. This didn’t make any sense.

She didn’t feel brave enough to confront the intruder in her house. She didn’t call 9-1-1, because the behavior seemed so odd.

As she thought about it, the intruder was following her actions a few hours earlier.

She heard the television turn off. The footsteps returned to the kitchen, then to the bathroom. She heard her computer chair roll, the click of the computer turning on. She could see by the glow of the screen (it was in her bedroom), but no one was sitting in front of the computer screen.

Her fear subsided, replaced by curiosity. She turned on her bedside lamp, got out of bed, checked throughout the house, but found nothing disturbed and no intruder. She also checked the locks on the doors and windows.

Puzzled, the next morning she called her mother to tell her of her experience.

The first thing her mother asked was, “Did you walk into your house backwards?”

She admitted she had not.

Her mother’s response was only, “Uh hum.”

Carrie’s niece got the message load and clear. From that moment forward she entered her house back first so nothing from the street could follow her into her apartment, just as her parents and grandparents taught her.

I’m always curious to know just a little bit more about the stories I hear.

What about the “thing” she heard, was it still in the apartment?

Carrie said it was gone. She believed it had a window from midnight to 5 in the morning, then it returned to the street.

She gave me the impression it was like a vampire who had to return to its coffin before dawn, but was it that tidy?

I always have unresolved questions, but I accept what I’m told as fact, since this was not my experience.

My experience, however, has been once something gets into the house, it finds a cozy place to stay during the day and comes out when it wants to interact and cause trouble, but this “thing” must be entirely different.

I hope you enjoyed this Real Ghost Story.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

Dolls Creep Me Out

by | Apr 11, 2019

I may not be alone — dolls creep me out.

I felt this way before Chucky! There has always been something creepy about them.

But a Raggedy Ann doll?  What could be creepy about it?

It’s not the doll, but what’s in the doll.

Ed and Lorraine Warren renowned demonologists and paranormal investigators have Annabelle locked up in their private creepy Occult Museum in their house in Monroe, Connecticut.  Ed Warren passed in 2006, but Lorraine Warren continues with paranormal investigations.

The story of Annabelle is well known, but for those who may not know I’ll give a brief history. In the 1970’s a woman bought a Raggedy Ann doll at a hobby shop for her daughter’s birthday. Her daughter was an adult and a nursing student. It seemed lots of young girls liked having dolls and stuffed toys on their beds — perhaps a connection to their childhood and home. And, I remember how popular these dolls were to make in all sizes.

As you can see from the picture above, Annabelle was a fairly large Raggedy Ann doll.

As the story goes, two nursing students shared an apartment and the Raggedy Ann doll was a prominent figure in the house. As long as it was a doll and behaved as a doll, everything was all right, but it didn’t.  There were “messages” written on parchment paper — which the girls did not have in their apartment. The doll would move from one bedroom to the living room . . . and was seen standing on her own.

Of course, this frightened the girls and they consulted a psychic.  They were told how a little girl, Annabelle, died on the property and her soul was in the doll. They were also told that the little girl wanted to stay and live with the young nursing students. They agreed and were very sympathetic to the story.

As time passed, the doll’s behavior got more erratic and violent until the Warren’s were called in and the doll had to be removed. The doll had a demon inside, not a child. This demon was biding its time until it would eventually possess one of the nursing students.

This possession thing is what creeps me out. I try not to think about demons, but they are very much a part of the paranormal as angels. And, too, often they are encountered in antiques.

We, as collectors, have a kind of romantic attachment to stories and wanting to preserve the old, but we do, at times, encounter things that we can’t handle or don’t want to handle.

I’ve never really liked puppets or marionettes.  I thought they were just creepy.

My brother got a Howdy Doody Marionette for Christmas one year and I stayed away from it.  Gary got good at manipulating the strings and having him walk around and up and down the stairs and even do a little dance, but I wasn’t amused, I was afraid of it — it just wasn’t natural.

I’m not claiming it was possessed, I’m just saying I didn’t like it. Howdy Doody was fine on television, but not in the same room with me. And it was fine for my brother to have as long as he kept it in his room.

Well, it seemed this toy would be in other parts of the house. Maybe my brother was trying to scare me, but he claimed he left it in his room.  I guess one day, this little marionette got in my mother’s way and it was put out in the trash.

As my mother admitted decades later when I asked her what happened to Howdy Doody, she admitted to throwing it out. “That thing kept staring at me. I swear it moved, crossing its legs and folding its arms.”

Throughout the day she kept hearing something in Gary’s room. She thought maybe there was a mouse in the house, but all she saw was that marionette.  She studied it as it seemed to study her each time she went into the room.  She moved it in the closet and it returned to the desk.

She got a paper bag out of the drawer and put Howdy Doody in it and put it in the trash. When my brother and I came home from school, she had some cookies for us.  We did go out to play for awhile, but after dinner when we were doing our homework, nothing was said about the missing Howdy Doody doll.

I asked my brother about it and he just shrugged and said, “One day it was gone. I was glad to see it go.”  Then he leaned closer and said, “You were right, that thing was creepy.”

Sometimes there are real demons possessing items and sometimes things are just creepy with the help of our imaginations . . . or . . . not.

I hope you liked this post about creepy dolls — maybe you have a story or two of your own. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below or you can email me: admin@twocansonastring.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

Whispered Message

by | Apr 9, 2019

We’ve all shared whispered thoughts, but have you heard a whispered warning and no one was around?

When I was in high school, I was waiting in the car while a friend was knocking on the door of another friend. We were going to the homecoming football game.

I heard someone whisper, get out, now.

It was a suggestion, not a command.

I opened the car door, got out, closed the door and walked toward the front of the car, but a few feet away.

I heard a loud “crack,” then a “crash” as the limb of the tree fell on the car, crushing the roof, breaking out the windshield and the passenger side window and crushing the passenger door.

Without a doubt, I would have been killed.

Since the wind is blowing outside, I thought I’d share with you a few “whisper” stories you may enjoy — maybe you have one of your own you’d like to share with us in the comments below — or send to us: admin@twocansonastring.com

Sarah received such a warning when she was out walking her dog.

When Sarah was twelve years old, she lived with her parents in a new housing track where new construction was actively taking place. All the workers had gone for the day and she and her dog, Henry, liked exploring the development. Occasionally, she would take a wagon on her walk to pick up wood scraps for their fireplace.

Sarah and Henry walked a couple of blocks away. It was now time for them to return home before dark.

On this particular day, Sarah was collecting wood scraps. The wagon was full, overflowing full. Henry was pulling at his leash, but Sarah had to walk slowly with her wagon.

They stopping for the few cars that were passing by before crossing the street.

Sarah heard, “Wait. A strange car without headlights is coming.”

She backed up her wagon into the driveway of the unoccupied house.

A car without headlights appeared, stopped at the curb, the passenger door and a man shouted, “Come here!”

Sarah left her wagon and she and Henry ran for help. They ran toward a porch light. Sarah breathlessly rang the doorbell and cried out, “Help!”

The door was opened. She just pointed at the car at the curb. The husband and wife who answered the door, immediately went into action. The man walked towards the car at the curb yelling at the man inside. He told him in no uncertain terms to get out. The man’s wife wrote down the license plate number and called the police.

Sarah never told anyone about the “warning” she heard, but she was grateful for it.

The police apprehended the man in his car a few blocks away just as he was grabbing a young girl and pulling her into his car.

Sarah’s warning helped two potential victims that late afternoon/early evening.

Residual Haunting, Perhaps.

I find this story interesting because of the possible historical implications.

Leslie was visiting her cousins one summer. She knew their house was haunted, but nothing scary ever happened to her there.

Her aunt set a mattress on the floor in the living room for Leslie and her sister to sleep on.

She felt warm and kicked off the covers. She tried to get back to sleep, but decided to get a glass of water. As she approached the kitchen, she heard a man say, “They can’t hide here.”  Then a woman answered, “They’re here and they’re staying.”

The kitchen light was off and neither voice sounded like her aunt or uncle.

She slowly backed away. She felt suddenly cold and wanted to get back to bed.

What really scared her was when the man said, “She heard us.”

She heard footsteps behind her and felt breathing down her neck.

Leslie’s screams awoke the whole household.

She learned that the house was part of the underground railway system for negro slaves who were seeking freedom. In the morning, her aunt showed her where the tunnel was blocked off, but she believed the house was still active with the spirits of those who lived there previously and those who passed through.

Whispers Coming From The Vents In The Condo.

Jon and Betty were hearing whispering voices from the vents in their condo. They became a little paranoid thinking that if they could hear others, others could hear them.

Jon went to talk to the on-site realtor and voice his concerns. He was basically told he was imagining things, because the vents were not connected to any of the other condos. Plus, each one was specifically built for privacy with sound proofing between all common walls ceiling and flooring.

The annoying thing was that neither Jon nor Betty could understand what was being said or if the whispers were male or female.

One evening, while watching a television program, Jon heard tapping on the vent. He muted the television and listened. There was a pattern. Three tap, tap, taps in quick progression. Then tap, pause, tap, pause, tap, pause. Followed by tap, tap, tap. Then the pattern repeated. He knew it was the universal code for “Help.”

Jon immediately called the association to have someone come immediately to check out the problem he was experiencing.

Albert, the man who answered Jon’s call walked in.

“I don’t hear anything,” he said curtly and turned around for the door.

Then he heard the tapping. A flush came to his face and beads of sweat formed on his forehead and upper lip. He ran out of the condo.

Jon found him outside, leaning on a lamp post, muttering to himself. “It’s impossible. Impossible.”

Albert placed a call on his cell phone. Jon couldn’t hear what was being said, but Albert was gesturing wilding with his free hand. “Get over here, now!”

Upon seeing Jon, Albert straightened himself up and said, “I’ve called an exterminator, it could be a rodent in the vent. Is there a place you and your wife can stay for a few days?”

Jon knew Albert wasn’t being straight with him and had no intention of vacating his home.

As it turned out, Albert, “the exterminator ” and another man were all partners in financing the building of the condo complex. The other man was causing problems for Albert and his friend and found himself pushed down an open shaft and left for dead. It is unknown if the man died immediately or if he tried in vain to be rescued.

Eventually, he did die and the whispering and tapping was his way of getting attention in his afterlife of what had happened to him.

The remains of the unfortunate partner were recovered from the vent and Albert and “the exterminator” were sentenced for their crime.

As for Jon and Betty, they sold the condo and moved out of state to settle into a lovely house by a lake.

Whispered messages could be a blessing.

I hope you enjoyed these Real Ghost Stories.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

My House Is Haunted

by | Apr 8, 2019

That’s right!!

It’s not something I like to admit . . . some of you may think I’m nutz!!

I may be . . . but I know what I know . . . and something strange is going on in my house!!

I have an antique music box . . . one of those with the metal disks.

It has been in our family for as long as I can remember . . . but it was previously owned by my great-aunt . . . who would always go to estate sales looking for bargains . . .

And along with some of her bargains she may have picked up a spirit or two and then passed it on to us . . .

So . . . this antique music box may have had several previous owners . . . 

A psychic friend of mine told me this music box was once owned by a man with a little girl and a very ill wife.

The little girl wanted to play the music box, but it only had one volume — LOUD!!

Since the little girl’s mother was ill, she wanted to play the music box for her, but her father told her not to play it while her mother was sleeping.

To be honest with you, I was all right with the little girl and her father’s spirits hanging out with the music box. It was no big deal to me.

But the other day . . .  

after bringing in my groceries from the car . . . and while in the kitchen putting them away  . . . quite a distance from the music box . . .

It started playing . . . not too loud, perhaps because the lid was down . . . and it played for a good 30 seconds to a full minute.

I was startled!!

In the past there have been random notes . . . but nothing like this!

I thought maybe the little girl turned it on . . . or my great-aunt did . . .  but why?

And why didn’t it play longer?

Maybe the little girl’s father turned it off . . . Residual Energy . . .  But why now . . . and not before?

Well . . . this kind of thinking and analyzing and wondering can make one nutz!!

It was just one of those paranormal experiences . . .

There are some creepy things out there . . . hopefully my music box isn’t one of them . . .

Have you had a paranormal experience you’d like to share? Please leave me a comment below.

And, if you know why my music box played “out of the blue”, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I’m still a bit creeped out by it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon

Are You Followed By A Ghost?

by | Apr 5, 2019

Some people seem to be plagued by a ghost that follows them around for years.

Why is this?

I usually think it could be a relative, but I’ve found it has more to do with the positive or negative energy one gives off that attracts spirits to them.

I feel very fortunate to have family spirits around me. I also have some who just like my energy and stop by from time to time to see what’s going on. They’ll play with the lights by turning them on and off, just to let me know they are there.  Sometimes a door will open and close. Nothing creepy or weird about it, at least not in my house.

Linda had the spirit of her best friend’s father visiting her regularly.

“My friend, Susan, and I were inseparable growing up. When her father died suddenly from a ruptured brain aneurysm he would visit in spirit form regularly at my house.”

Susan lived with her mother, but she didn’t have the same experiences at home as she did at Linda’s house.

Linda’s parents didn’t like the lights, television, computers, microwave, etc. turning on and off at odd hours of the day and night. They consults ghost hunters to assist them in solving their problem.

Yes, it was Susan’s father. They never did figure out why he would be at their house rather than their own.

Linda’s family moved several times, but Susan’s father followed them each time.

When Linda’s father got a promotion to move to another state, he thought this would sever the tie, his daughter had with Susan and her father, but it didn’t.

They consulted a psychic to find out what was going on with Linda’s connection to Susan’s father.

All the polite things were discussed between the psychic and Susan’s father. After that was exhausted and the psychic pressed him for an explanation, he admitted he was in love with Linda’s mother.

This didn’t set well with Linda’s parents. They were both kind to Susan and her father, but Linda’s mother never encouraged him in any way.

The psychic encouraged him to move on and leave Linda and her parents alone.

This worked out well for many years, until Linda went to college. There he was again, messing with electronic devices.

Linda lost touch with Susan after they moved out-of-state and found out her father’s love for Linda’s mother.

It seemed he continued to play out his fantasy of Linda, not Susan being his daughter. It may have been the confusion from his brain aneurysm.

Linda wanted to be kind to the confused ghost, but she also didn’t want to encourage him. She consulted a psychic to get him to move on. This worked for several years until she was expecting her first child.

Linda was afraid that Susan’s father’s spirit would go into her unborn child.

Linda’s husband thought she was crazy, but went along with his wife’s wishes. They had the house blessed and the unborn child blessed. Linda wanted to have a barrier between her family and that of Susan’s father’s spirit.

The birth of Linda’s son, was a spiritual experience.

Priests were present as was a psychic and family members. They were to be a barrier against Susan’s father’s spirit and Linda’s son.

Linda’s fears were proved accurate when the lights flickered in the delivery room. Doors rattled. The prayer group held fast to their task of keeping the unwanted spirit at bay. Many were pushed, hit and kicked, but they continued praying.

When they heard Linda’s son crying, they didn’t stop praying.

“My mother and father heard a loud pop, so did the psychic,” Linda said. “Then they saw a white light that almost blinded them. As they squinted, they saw the silhouette of a man walk into the light.”

Susan’s father finally gave up and went into the light.

Linda and her new family have had no paranormal experiences in their home. She is now the proud mother of three healthy sons.

It’s always nice to have a happy ending to a paranormal experience and it’s fortunate for Linda that it didn’t pass on to another generation.

Well … that was interesting,

What do you think? Please leave me a comment below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharon