2 Instances

I live in Bredbury, in the United Kingdom. I have two instances of strange occurrences to send you, both of which, I suppose, could be explained in perfectly natural terms, but have always struck me as paranormal.

The first happened when I was around eight or nine. My friends and I had erected a rope swing in the local woodland park at Tandle Hills in Oldham, Lancashire. We used to convene there most days in the early summer evenings. We did a lot of rope-swinging, but mainly just 'hung out'.

One particular day (it must have been a Saturday as my father and I had just been to see Liverpool beat Manchester City at soccer) I set off for the park a little early as I had eaten a meal whilst out. I can remember that I felt very strange on that walk to the park; there seemed to be very few people around on what was usually a busy suburb
and it was one of those hot orangey evenings that I now find quite evocative.

When I reached the site of the rope swing, I was mildly surprised to find nobody there. I put this down to my early start and mounted the swing. As I idly dangled on the stick we had tied on the end to sit on and the minutes ticked by, I must now confess that I began to feel more and more uneasy. The swing was set in the classic position: the tree to which it was attached was on a slope with the pathway I had used on a ridge at the top. I was about half a mile into the wood with a deserted path visible about 100 yards away at the bottom of the slope and I literally could not hear a thing.

The floor of the wood was perpetually covered in old leaves, the drifts of which were around a foot deep. What happened next, I can't explain satisfactorily. I was staring at the path at the bottom of the slope when I was grabbed very violently from behind at the waist. Then there was a distinct feeling of a person sliding down my legs as the rope swung with the force, then the sound of someone hitting the floor. I was turned round by this time and couldn't see anybody at the top of the slope.

As I was spun around by the rope, I could then see that the area at the front of the swing was also deserted. I didn't feel scared for a while, as the whole event had lasted about one second and had felt quite natural, like a friend
creeping up and putting the 'shits' up me. Then reality struck: there was no way anybody could have done this without me seeing their departure, or hearing the approach on dead leaves. I even wondered whether it had happened at all, but I was still swinging gently from the force of it. It actually took a while for me to pluck up the
courage to let go of the rope, but once I did, by Christ I got home quick!

Tandle Hill Country Park was originally a hunting lodge for a local Lancashire baron. The woodland area was planted to discourage meetings of disgruntled local serfs shortly before the Peterloo Massacre in the eighteenth century.

The second event is much shorter in the telling. My friend Ian and I started a band in 1992 and spent a long time in my room that summer recording ourselves on a four-track reel-to-reel machine, and also dolby cassettes on a standard player.During one afternoon of recording, Ian and I were listening back over the tapes, when we both stopped what we were doing and immediately rewound the tape (dolby). We had both heard a voice (not either of
ours) shouting loudly and aggressively, with the sound of a door slamming hard in the background. When we played it, it came again.

It appeared to be shouting 'I'VE NOT GOT IT!' followed by the slamming door. When we cross-checked the same recording on the four-track, there was no shout, but a very high-pitched whistling when the door slammed.
Needless to say, we were both a little freaked out and there was much nervous chuckling, as there was no question of any such sound being made live.

I suppose I may still have the original recordings somewhere at my parents' house, but since seeing a trailer for the film 'White Noise' I have been thinking about the impossible task of verifying the genuine nature of the recordings. I remember there being a sarcastic reaction from friends when Ian and I told them of the event and have since
realised that there is no way to prove whether our tale is true or not. It could simply have been a faulty dolby tape, but then why the whistling on the four- track?

Hope you find these interesting.

By: shuffer@mac.com