OK I confess - I believe in Ghosts. That is a subject that I carefully choose to discuss because there are some people who think that having a belief in the supernatural or the paranormal automatically puts one into the category of "Loony bin". So be it. I lived in a haunted house once and that is as real as it gets.
Garden City, Kansas. Late 60's. I spent my 9th and 10th grades in that town living in this house. I remember walking to the A&W to buy my Mom deep fried dill pickles, my sisters' band the LSD's (latest sound dimension) practicing on our porch to a yard full of kids, my very first and last girl fight and I do mean ruff and tumble girl fight, sneaking out of the upstairs windows to push the VW 2 blocks away from the house before starting it so Mom and Dad wouldn't hear and we wouldn't get busted (Now being a parent myself, I bet they knew), but what I remember the most - is the paranormal activity that filled this house.Doors opening and slamming shut when no one was near and the wind was still. Our dog, Princess, barking insanely in the night and then getting up to find the doors unlocked and standing open. Kitchen cupboards opening and slamming shut...........but the foot steps, those were the most unnerving. The footsteps. One night I thought my sister, Peggi, was in the kitchen fixing herself a snack. The kitchen lights were on, the cupboards were opening and someone was walking around. I hid behind the living room couch so I could jump out and scare her but when the lights turned off and the footsteps came towards me ... noone was there! (I found out later, Peg was already asleep in her room!) After that incident, if I was ever left alone in the house, I would turn on music so loud the walls would shake and I would huddle against a corner in a room with all the lights on!! I was terrified!!
It was my Mom and my sisters and I who would experience our Ghost. (At first we thought it might be because we Westlund gals seem to be a bit clairvoyant.) We would tell our Father and he, naturally, would not believe us. UNTIL.............Dad found himself alone in the house for an entire weekend. One of those nights he heard a prowler in the house! This prowler was walking all around the downstairs, opening cupboards and what not, and then he started up the stairs to the 2nd floor where our bedrooms were. Dad loaded his shotgun and stood silent as a mouse in the hallway, ready to blow the S.O.B. away! Of course, when the footsteps stopped at the top step and my Dad flipped on the hall light with his gun in the ready........there was no one there.
He never doubted us again.
We moved away from Garden City and our house sold to another family. It was some time later that Peggi was talking to one of the new owners and they asked her "If by chance anything STRANGE occurred while we were living there!" LOL The house has been put on the national register of historic places and is for sale once again. I wish I had the money to buy it and the desire to live in Garden City - but I don't. I have no doubt the house is still haunted.
So yes, I believe. And next Saturday there is a tour of all the haunted places in and around Pocatello. Myself and 29 other people (the tour is limited to 30) will set off in a bus for a three hour tour!
(I am hopeful that the Skipper, the Professor, Mary Ann and Gilligan will be along, just in case!)
Until next time......................................
Omg!! that is so scary. I can't imagine that really happening in my own home. Have you ever looked into the history of the house to see if someone had died there or something? It would be fun to find out who was messing around in the kitchen, huh?
ReplyDeleteMy heart isn't strong enough to handle that!! Can't wait to hear how the tour goes!!
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