Coast to Coast Ghosts

When we were up in Portland last week, I bought this book at Barnes and Noble.

As you may know, they have a whole section dedicated to October and all October has to offer.

This one caught my eye. There were tons of scary stories and the likes, but these are "true" stories of hauntings across America. I think I saw a ghost once in an old, decrepit, vacant house window on a back country road up in Washington State once and I swear I've heard my name called before when no one else is around. Probably just my imagination, but if I have to be open and honest, I'll always keep an open mind about such stuff.

I don't think our current house is haunted, but I swear, sometimes, I hear talking. Sometimes, I hear music. OK. Really, I do. Most times, it's Wonka talking in his sleep. It sounds like mumbling teenagers in the basement. Other times, it's the birds, Hooligan or Scallywag, our parrots, talking. They have a whole vocabulary. BUT, other times...well, sometimes I wonder.

I'm probably just getting old and have voices in my head.

BUT, and this is NO JOKE, in 2001 we lived in Gold Hill, Oregon in a very old house on the Rogue River. The property has the main house, that we were renting, and several small cottages. The main house, which had been vacant for some time, used to be the "lodge" where all the cottage dwellers would come to for dinners and parties. The house had 3-stories with creaky hardwood floors and knotty pine walls. We joked with the boys, that the knots were "eyes" watching us.

Well, the day after we moved in, we had just returned from grocery shopping. All five of us walked into the living room and then into the dining room on our way to the kitchen. Once in the dining room, we all stopped in our tracks. There was the most god-awful rotten meat smell. It was so strong! We went into the kitchen and put down the groceries. There was no smell. There was no smell in the living room.

We went outside onto the little deck off the dining room. There was no smell. Outside. No smell. Into the basement. No smell.

Dining room. Rotten meat!

This was a bit freaky. The smell lingered.

That afternoon, as the cable had not yet been hooked up, we put in the Ghostbusters DVD, as a joke to counter our recent experience.

The smell disappeared. The whole time we lived there, there was NEVER a smell again.

BUT, there was another weird occurence. The boys and I were sitting at the table in the dining room playing Scrabble. Off the kitchen, there was wooden door at the top of the stairs that led down to the basement. We heard it creak open. As a joke, Ty yelled to our "visitor", "Shut the door!" AND IT CLOSED! Now, keep in mind you had to turn the old knob in order to open and close the door. You couldn't just slam it shut and have it latch! We never liked the basement, but it housed the washer and dryer. The laundry was never so backed up!

So there it is. I am a border-line believer... I highly recommend Coast to Coast Ghosts by Leslie Rule. It's an interesting read.....it might just make you a believer.