by Sharon | Oct 8, 2018
You always have to be careful buying previously owned products.
Jerry and Kathy’s daughter and son-in-law were going abroad on a working vacation. Their two young granddaughters wanted to visit their grandparents. Kathy was delighted to have her granddaughters visit, but she wasn’t sure how to keep them busy and occupied.
Jerry was looking through the ads and saw a children’s playhouse for sale. He called about it, got the address and he and Kathy went out to take a look. The man who was selling it gave them a great deal with all custom furnishings included. He had a flatbed trailer he used to deliver it to them.
They should have realized something was wrong when the man was so eager to load it up on his flatbed and follow them home and set it up for them. Jerry only thought about how much fun his granddaughters would have.
The men set it up under the shade of the old oak tree as Jerry instructed.
It looked lovely there. Jerry set a paving stone walkway to the playhouse from the patio. He also set up an intercom system from the playhouse into the kitchen.
The playhouse was quite large. It had furniture in it so his granddaughters could have tea parties at the table and chairs and there was also floor space with a rug and a miniature sofa and stuffed chairs. There was a built-in window seat under one window where Kathy put some toys, books, coloring books and crayons. They also set up some chairs and planted some flowers around the little playhouse. It was a labor of love.
Jerry and Kathy were quite happy with what they had set up until . . .
The intercom was making screeching sounds. Jerry thought some animal got into the playhouse. He went out to investigate, but found nothing. When he returned to the house, settled in his easy chair to read a good book, he heard moaning coming through the intercom. Once again, he went out to investigate. Nothing.
Before their granddaughters arrived, Kathy smudged the playhouse and all the furnishings. She also invited a psychic friend to check it out.
During the day, the intercom was quiet, but at night there were noises that Kathy and Jerry couldn’t explain. There were what they thought were animal sounds, but they also heard whispering. When Kathy looked out and saw the playhouse glowing from the inside, she was ready to call the people who sold it to them and have them take it back.
After all the work they’d done and the cute playhouse she knew her granddaughters would love, Kathy called in a priest to bless it.
On the day of the blessing, she heard screams, growls and eerie music coming from the playhouse. The priest suggested they get rid of it before the grandchildren came.
Jerry and Kathy were disappointed. Jerry called the man he bought it from and asked if they would take it back. The man was reluctant to do so. Jerry asked if they would take it to the dump for him — he’d pay them.
The men came. The playhouse let out its disapproval, but the men finally got it loaded on the flatbed.
Kathy didn’t remove the toys and other items she put in the window box. She was afraid they were tainted by whatever was in the playhouse.
Jerry left the intercom he set up in the kitchen with the other unit still in the playhouse. They heard what they could only describe as sinister laughing. Now Kathy wondered if their house was haunted by whatever was in the playhouse. She called the priest.
Jerry removed the intercom from the kitchen and put it out in the trash. The priest came to bless their house.
Their daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters came to visit. They had the most frightening night anyone had ever experienced.
After dinner, while Kathy and her daughter were cleaning up, the girls went out in the backyard to play on the patio. Jerry and his son-in-law watched a ball game on television. The girls came running in screaming that something mean was out there.
Once the girls were settled down and put to bed. Jerry told his daughter and son-in-law about the playhouse they bought and the creepy sounds they heard from it.
The son-in-law was a skeptic, but after the nightmares he experienced and upon waking what he saw and heard, he was a believer. There were nonhuman and human-type entities in the bedroom. He was dragged out of bed and flung around the room. He had no idea what was happening. He just knew he was scared and beat up quite badly.
As he sat on the floor, he could feel and hear these entities sniffing him. He tried to call out to his wife, but nothing came out. There was a knock on the bedroom door and a sinister voice shouted, “Keep Out!”
Jerry couldn’t open the door. He started pounding on it waking up the whole household.
Kathy took the granddaughters into the kitchen and fixed them some hot chocolate.
The smoke alarms went off. There was a fire in the bedroom where the son-in-law and daughter were trapped. They managed to get out a window. Jerry, Kathy and the children were out in the front yard waiting for the fire truck. They were relieved when their daughter and son-in-law joined them.
They lost their house and all their possessions that night. Needless to say Jerry and Kathy didn’t get to have an extended visit with their granddaughters. They went to Europe with their parents.
Years later, the family discussed that night. The girls didn’t remember much about it other than the hot chocolate and the fire. Their father still had nightmares about that night.
All of this chaos, caused by a haunted playhouse.
Whoa — Creepy enough for you? I was saving this Real Ghost Story for predicted Thunder Showers that did not materialize. I guess there’s no predicting the weather. So, I’m letting this be a lesson not to schedule my ghost stories around the weather … yet I thought that would be a lovely background …
Anyway, this isn’t about me … but that creepy playhouse. I remember when I was looking for a house to purchase, there was a children’s playhouse in the backyard. It was cute and the upkeep on it was beautiful … but I noticed the little girls who lived in the house with their parents did not once go inside of it … I then remembered this story about Kathy and Jerry …
I didn’t ask the realtor about it nor inquire with the homeowners … I just left without looking through the entire house … they may have thought it rude of me, but I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t want to purchase a paranormal nightmare.
We do need to be careful when purchasing previously owned furniture, toys, etc. as well as homes — just saying …
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
by Sharon | Oct 2, 2018
College kids and ghost hunting seem to go together — especially with a media assignment.
I was at my local coffee shop when some college kids came in all excited about an assignment they had to film something. They could have done a political ad or some documentary about just about anything. They decided to go on a ghost hunt to a local elementary school. People have said that at night the swings are swinging and some claim to have seen ghostly children at play. They decided it was better than being in a spooky cemetery or in some other known haunted area.
My friend Barbara and I were invited to go along, but we passed. We thought the kids should enjoy the experience on their own. They were a little nervous about it, but they possessed that youthful enthusiasm I had to admire. I did encourage them to tell me about their experience the next morning.
The next morning they came in tired and a bit down.
They recorded or tried to record the swings swinging, but the cameras wouldn’t work. I looked at one of the cameras they offered and noticed that they did get something.
“Look, off to the side,” I pointed out. “It looks like a ghostly teacher on yard duty supervising the ghostly children.”
“Oh, I see it!” One girl squealed. “Let’s go again tonight and see if we get anything else.”
They were off to class to share what they found with their instructor.
Once again a tired group of college students came to share their ghost hunting experience.
The children on the swings didn’t appear, but the swings were swinging. They captured a little boy with a bat resting on his shoulder as he walked out in the field. They also captured girls jumping rope.
It seemed like a success for their first ghost hunting experience, but they were going out again to get the kids on the swings.
Barbara and I didn’t see the kids the next morning. As a matter of fact we didn’t see them again for about a week.
These students were so determined to capture ghostly children on the swings that they got a bit carried away and decided to have a séance in the playground near the swings. They did this on their own without having a psychic or someone who knew about holding a séance. They believed they could do it on their own from all the movies they’ve seen. They did want to capture it all on tape for their media assignment.
Once they got their candles in place and got themselves seated they began. It didn’t take long for the swings to start swinging. They needed to move out of the way, but they remained where they were not to disturb the spirits and what the camera was capturing.
It didn’t take long for the swings to begin attacking the students and they went running off leaving their candles and cameras behind.
They began seeing spirits wherever they went. They felt as though they were being watched. They decided to stay away from each other and places where they usually went. The problem was going to class and also going into the dorms.
They came in the coffee shop with their personal experiences to share.
“We opened up something,” one remarked.
“How do we make it go away?” was the question on their minds.
“I can’t sleep,” another explained. “There’s something at the foot of my bed watching me.”
Barbara told them to seek professional help and gave them a list of people to call.
One of the college students was sitting off by himself at another table. He had vacant eyes. He was carrying on a conversation with something we couldn’t see.
It wasn’t long after the college students left that something fell in the back room. Several coffee shop personnel ran outside. Barbara and I decided to join them. When we inquired what happened, one young woman remarked that something was in there. “It kept touching me,” she said.
Great, now my favorite coffee shop was haunted.
There are spirits around us all the time. We have been warned about Ouija Boards and calling on spirits when we don’t know what we’re doing. Ghost hunting looks like fun when we’re in the comfort of our own homes watching it on television or YouTube. The big difference is that these programs are documenting events as they happen, not calling out spirits.
That, initially, was what these college students were doing, but as they admitted they got carried away. They wanted to see the ghosts of children on the swings. That was the purpose of the media assignment. They discounted the ghostly apparitions they did capture on film.
The thing is, ghosts don’t appear on demand. They may be there, but it doesn’t mean we’ll see them, hear them, or be able to record them. We should be grateful for what they allow us to capture and not demand more — it could cause trouble as the college students admitted to experiencing.
I didn’t see that college kid who was sitting off by himself and conversing with something we couldn’t see in the coffee shop again. Hopefully, he got some professional help.
I haven’t been by that elementary school where the kids were recording in years — it’s a bit out of town and admittedly creepy to go out there. I remember hearing about the place and going out there when I was in high school.
The swings did swing for us … we did hear faint sounds of running feet and children laughing. At the time I didn’t know if it was real or my imagination kicking in … but when I did see the marks in the dirt of where a jump rope had been turned and small shoe prints, I became a believer. And also a bit sad to realize the number of small children who died young … At least they have this old playground …
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this Real Ghost Story.
Sharon
by Sharon | Sep 29, 2018
Our local library has a colorful history of being haunted.
Two librarians died in the library under unusual circumstances. One hung herself from the attic rafters and another was battered to death by a book cart. Spend a little time there and you’ll hear footsteps, feel as though you’re being watched, see ghostly apparitions browsing the stacks or sitting and reading, see runaway book carts and ghostly children sitting with young children during story time.
It’s a lively place with a history that very few people discuss. On overcast rainy days it’s not a place where you want to be — yet it is ideal for relaxing with a good gothic tale — especially with what is going on in the library. Seriously, I prefer being home on such days in my comfortable chair with a lap robe and my Kindle, but I digress.
I was at my local coffee shop on such an overcast rainy day and I met Graham who had a story to tell about his college library.
He and four of his friends worked at the library. They were given the task one evening after closing to clean the third floor, which was believed to be the most haunted area of the library. They did split up to cover the area.
Immediately Graham felt a kind of static electricity surrounding him. He was uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to alert his friends.
When the lights started blinking, Graham and his friends became concerned.
“Maybe we should leave,” one of his friends said. “I don’t want to be stuck up here in the dark.”
He was teased a bit about being afraid of the dark, but they all felt the cold air that blew throughout the area. Graham looked around and saw a middle aged man dressed in a dark suit carrying a couple of books and looking in the stacks.
When he first started working in the library, the librarian told him about an English professor who haunted the library. At the time Graham accepted it, but didn’t think much of it. He believed in the paranormal, but he didn’t think it odd that college professors wouldn’t be haunting the library from time to time or the lecture halls or classrooms. So when he saw the gentleman ghost, he assumed it was the English prof.
As the spirit moved around, the lights blinked. The elevator chimed and the doors opened. Graham and his friends stood still watching and listening. No one came out of the elevator and no one went in, but the doors closed and the elevator moved down.
Books were falling from the shelves from various areas. Graham wondered if a group of spirits got off the elevator to mess with them. A book cart slowly rolled towards them. When Graham reached out to stop it, it picked up speed with Graham taking a ride on this runaway cart. It headed for the elevator. When Graham thought he would crash into it, the door opened. On the ride up and then down he could hear soft laughter. He wondered if this was an reenactment of a fraternity hazing that happened a number of decades previous.
He tried to remember this particular incident. Did it happen in the library? He remembered that it did involve books, but a book cart . . . Graham closed his eyes to think. He took a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes he had a vision of a young man blindfolded with hands and feet bound with a rope. He was on a book cart, bumping along a path pushed by young men in long coats. Each one yelling insults at the one on the cart.
Up ahead near a tall tree was another man making a noose from a coil of rope.
“What do we have here, boys?” he said.
“A horse thief,” was the reply.
“Well now, you know what we do with horse thieves, don’t you?”
The noose was put over the young blindfolded man’s head. He was removed from the book cart and raised just a few inches in the air. If he stretched out, his feet would have touched the ground, but he was so scared . . .
The cause of death was not hanging, but . . . could one die from being scared to death? That seemed to be what happened.
From the research Graham did, he found that each of the young men involved in this hazing incident all died within a year. Was this revenge . . . or guilt?
Of the six fraternity brothers involved, two fell down the elevator shaft, three hung themselves on the third floor, and one was crushed to death under the weight of fallen bookshelves.
They were destined, so it seemed, to play out their deed for eternity.
Residual hauntings can’t harm the living, but they can be frightening. I’d rather see the old English Professor than these frat boys any day.
I hope you enjoyed this Real Ghost Story.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
by Sharon | Sep 26, 2018
There are plenty of old houses where I live. I sometimes get a weird feeling from houses, just passing by them.
Some are inviting and others feel creepy and I don’t even want to look at them. Has this happened to you?
I believe every house has the potential of being haunted. Not scary haunted, just having a previous owner who has passed still living there. It starts out with a feeling of being watched. Then you may feel cold or increasingly uncomfortable. Depending upon the spirit, you can either feel welcome or unwelcome. I have walked into houses and immediately wanted to leave. It’s awkward when you’re invited to dinner and just don’t want to stay another second. You truly believe something horrible will happen to you if you do stay. Sometimes you see something out of the corner of your eye. You know you’re not imagining it, but you do shrug it off. You don’t want to say anything, not everyone shares your belief in the paranormal. And, honestly, how do you tell a friend that their house is creepy?
The interesting thing is when you do make contact with a ghost, who doesn’t know he or she is dead.
There have been times when I’ve talked with a ghost and didn’t know it was a ghost. It thought I was a ghost.
I was looking to buy a house a number of years ago. There was a great open house that served food and allowed potential buyers to look around and get a “feel” of the house. I suppose it was a way of imagining how it would feel to live there as opposed to most open houses where they invite you in, quickly show you around and out the door you entered.
It was a friendly crowd who were sitting around enjoying the buffet. I wasn’t sure how many realtors were there and how many were potential buyers. It didn’t matter to me. I was enjoying the setting and was curious about other homes in the area they may have seen. For me, it seemed to be a way of comparing notes of different houses in different price ranges.
I noticed an elderly woman standing off to the side with an unpleasant expression on her face. She seemed to be upset about something. Being a curious person, I walked by her and stood close by, but not too close.
She immediately said, “Why are all these people here?”
I told her it was an open house.
She said there must be some mistake, she wasn’t selling her house. She also explained that no one would listen to her. “These people came early and started setting things up and snooping all over the house. They woke me up at the crack of dawn.”
Then she got a really frightened expression on her face. She was sure her house was haunted by these “party makers.”
Well, I’m not one to tell her they were real. At the moment I didn’t know I was talking to a ghost.
Later, my realtor was asking me why I was standing there talking to myself.
Fortunately, she shared my belief in ghost so I told her I was talking to the previous owner who didn’t know she was dead and didn’t want to sell her house.
She left to talk with the realtor who was hosting this open house. We did make a hasty retreat. He was probably afraid I would tell his potential buyers the place was haunted.
I can only imagine how the family that moves into that house are going to feel to have a resident ghost who doesn’t want them there.
Well, I’m usually at my local coffee shop, if they wish to talk . . . I wonder how the dear old woman is coping . . .
Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you liked this real ghost story and it got you thinking about the paranormal.
Sharon
by Sharon | Sep 24, 2018
There’s an old park in town with a sinister history.
I avoid it as much as possible. There is an open theatre there and during the summer they put on family plays. They are held in the afternoon so the park is empty well before dark. This is also a popular place for Easter Egg Hunts and activities for children on Easter Sunday.
Many have seen apparitions on stage and there have been reports of seeing robed men carrying lanterns and chanting while they walked throughout the park. It is believed to be a satanic group that has taken over the park and also responsible for the attacks that many claim to have occurred over the years. Some believe their are demons hiding in the bushes keeping an eye on the park.
Actually, there are conflicting stories. There are those who want people to stay away from the park and there are those who say the park is safe and nothing has happened there. I believe what I have personally experienced and what I’ve heard from reliable sources. And, as I said earlier, I avoid the place.
Early one Saturday morning I heard the insistent ringing of my doorbell.
I couldn’t imagine who it could be and I was going to ignore it when I heard my name being called. I knew it was my friend Barbara. Her husband, Harry was in the car with their nephew, Joel and his girlfriend.
“Grab your coat and come with us.” Barbara ordered.
“Where are we going?”
“Pioneer Park.”
She must have sensed my hesitation. She grabbed my arm and led me to their car.
“Last night I couldn’t sleep and I heard chanting out in front of the house,” she began. “I didn’t want to look out front so I looked out the side upstairs window and I saw a long procession of dark robed people carrying candles. It was the largest group I’d ever seen gathered. The chant was almost like a growl that rumbled down the street. I was scared.”
“Julie and I were coming home from a movie when we saw flickering lights up in the hills near the park,” Joel added. “We decided to investigate, but the wind started blowing and we were being peppered by hail. It stopped after we turned towards Julie’s house.”
“This morning my sister and I went jogging up near the park,” Julie said. “We could hear something in the hedge, like it was stalking us. We cut across the street and that’s when we saw candle wax on a rock formation shaped like a pentagram.”
Evidently, Julie and her sister ran home, called Joel, who called his Aunt Barbara, who came to get me . . .
“Now, we’ll have proof of satanic activities going on at the park,” said Barbara.
Quite frankly, I didn’t care. I’m content to allow people to do as they please as long as they don’t involve me in their activities. I didn’t really want to see the pentagram or be anywhere near that park, but I held my tongue.
Harry parked the car and we got out with Julie leading the way. Yes, there was evidence of a pentagram with candle wax melted on it. It gave me a chill. The wind picked up and before we got back to the car, it started to hail.
Something strange was definitely going on and we didn’t need to be out there. Harry couldn’t get the car started. There was panic in the car. The windows were all steamed up and at various places the message “Get Out” was scrawled on the windows.
Harry got the car started and we darted down the street away from the park and the pentagram.
We went to Barbara and Harry’s house. That was all right with me, I wasn’t ready to go home just yet. We sat at the kitchen table while Harry made a fresh pot of coffee. Barbara started cooking pancakes, she cooked when she was upset. It was fine with me, not that I wanted breakfast, but it was comforting to watch “normal” morning behavior.
Then Barbara said, “I didn’t get one picture!” Then started laughing. “Do you want to go back!”
We all shouted, “No!”
We knew what we saw and what we experienced. We didn’t need a picture, the memory was freshly imprinted on our minds. It wasn’t an experience we would soon forget.
We settled down to eating our pancakes and discussed everything except the incident we just experienced. We didn’t want to open the door to going back to take a picture or do a video.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
