Hauntings?

Every place I've lived in has never really been "normal". Here are the three stories that stand out most in my mind:

Chipplegate

I lived in this house from the time I was 3 months old until I moved out when I was 20. We had a half-finished basement. When you came down the stairs, the "front" part had thin outdoor carpeting, like on a patio, two couches, TV, VCR, my stereo, and all my games (board games and cards). The "back" part had a concrete floor and held extra storage room for stuff that didn't fit in the attic, plus a washer, dryer and extra freezer. The finished part of that basement was my getaway. All my sleepovers were held down there. If I wanted to be alone, I'd go down and close the kitchen door. My best friend and I practically grew up down there. It was our retreat during the winter months and whenever it was too rainy to play outside.

Nothing extrodinary happened there until I was around 7. My uncle had built me a huge shelf to put all my games on. Being young, I have no idea what wood was used, but even without being bolted to the wall, it was extremely heavy, taking my dad, a few uncles and a couple cousins to carry it in. Being a skinny, scrawny little thing, it was purposely made so I'd be able to climb it - to get to the top shelves - without it falling over on top of me.
One night we went out to dinner with a bunch of other familys from the neighborhood. Upon our return, early enough to play before bedtime, my friend and I went down there. One look was all it took. We both ran back up the stairs screaming. This big, heavy shelf had tipped over, games were strewn everywhere, parts, pieces and pegs littered most of the floor.

Dad, and the male neighbors who came over for a drink, told the rest of us to get out while they investigated. Thinking it was a robber, they searched for an hour. It was a two-story home, plus the basement, but it wasn't really all that big. They searched every nook and cranny, but came up empty. Later on, when I was around 12, I brought it up, telling my parents I had always felt it was supernatural. My mom tried to deny it, saying it was just a robber who probably got scared and escaped somehow when he heard us pulling up. I asked my mom, "Well, then why didn't he or she start upstairs?" Nothing else in the house was touched...even then, to me, it didn't make sense that someone trying to rob our home would start with a child's board games. There was never any explination for it. I don't know why it happened only once.

Though we did discover that 1 piece from each of three games were never found again. When my parents were finally ready to move out for good, I did my own little search for the missing pieces, even checking in a closet-like section under the stairs, in which the door was always kept closed. We ripped up the carpeting and replaced it with new. Tore down all the wooden storage compartments and rebuilt those...empty as could be, and those pieces never resurfaced.

Pine Place

With the birth of my first child, my husband and I decided, after years of my living with his brother and sister-in-law and some other friends, that it was time to get our own place for our growing family. We got a good deal on a 2-bedroom apartment and jumped at it.
We moved in when our son was only 11 days old. He often "talked" to the upper corner of one of his walls. Constantly staring at it when he was still an infant, gibbering "to it" as he got older, and when he finally started talking, he would hold conversations with this corner.

I did feel something in the building (not just our apartment)...but again, I didn't feel scared, just that "not alone" feeling. I mostly got the feeling at night, when my husband was working the night shift. I figured it was just because I had our son...so I wasn't "really" alone. However, the more my son talked to his corner, the more I felt that "something".

Finally, when our son was around 2 yrs. old, we decided to investigate. A friend and I asked if the spirit would show him- or her-self to us in the living room. We saw nothing, but my son, on our lap, kept talking about the "blue man". We asked him to describe the man. "What color is his hair?" and the like. In the end, our son, asked what was on his belt. He'd never even seen them before, even water/toy models...but he told us "The man has a gun on his belt, and a weird black stick, too." We asked how he knew it was a gun, being as he'd never seen or heard of one before. He told us "That's what the Blue Man said it was."

After doing some research, we did learn that a police officer was killed in the apartment, trying to stop a burgalry in progress, only a few months before we moved in. I've always known children are more sensitive, but being as young as he was and he wasn't scared of the presence either, we never really felt threatened.

Our New Home

Once my husband and I discovered we were going to have another child (our 3rd, then...we have 5 now), we decided it was tijme to stop renting and get a home of our own. We moved in to this home in late Feb. of 2001 and from the beginning, things have been weird. Thankfully, again, nothing scary or anything we want to get rid of, but it has been, I feel, the "most haunted" of all the places I've lived in.

The home used to be a boarding house for college kids before we bought it. It stood empty for years and many of the previous owners left items behind after the original owner passed on (and 5 years later, we're STILL getting some of their mail!) so we're sure that at least one of these students had a child.

I can't even really pinpoint exactly when things started happening. I just remember the kids coming down shortly after we moved in to tell me of the old man they kept seeing. Sometimes they'd see him standing in their bedroom doorways, other times they'd catch a glimpse of him going past their rooms. All of them (now that even the baby is talking) have said they're not scared, just "surprised" when they see him. They feel he is protecting them.
We've all also seen two dogs. Upstairs, the kids claim to see a little white dog. After much searching in books and online, they describe it was a West Highland White Terrier, but more the size of a German Sheppard. Downstairs, I myself have seen a small, black, very shaggy dog, usually walking from the front door down the hallway into our kitchen. There is never any noise associated with the sightings (no claws on the hardwood from the dogs, no footsteps from the old man, etc.), just that "glimpse out of the corner of you eye" thing, but when focusing on them, they don't disappear...just continue on their way to...wherever it is they're going.

As recently as a few weeks ago, I was thrilled to finally see something more. The kids had a slumber party (just my own) downstairs, trying to watch all of the Harry Potter movies. Not wanting to wake them when a friend called late at night, I went upstairs to my husband's bedroom (I sleep in the living room, even on nights that he's off, the hard surface of the floors are better on my aching back). While chatting, I noticed a white mist eminating from a little room off of the bedroom (we believe it to be an added-on nursery for whatever student had the child there) and going out the door. I opened the door and it was gone, but a few minutes later, it came back, hovering close to me. Again, I wasn't scared, but I was surprised to finally see something myself!

I simply said "They're sleeping downstairs tonight, can you watch over them until I get back down there?" The mist floated toward the stairs, but due to the angle of the door, I don't know if it actually went down or not. My friend freaked out asking me who I was talking to, so I explained everything to her. She's a state away and planned on staying here this summer for a visit...unfortunately, now she's not too sure if she wants to stay overnight in this house, even after I've told her the man usually stays upstairs.

Doing research on this home is hard, due to so many tennants. The owner never had kids, and everyone else who has lived here has been younger, either those moving on within a few years or so of owning it before him, or the various college kids who've rented rooms while he owned it. There is no one else we can think of who it would be, but it is said that the man always wanted children. No idea on why he didn't have any. We feel he may be looking over our children as "the ones he never had". The neighbors have all also said that he never owned any pets (dogs, cats, not even a fish) and didn't allow them. For the dogs, the only thing we can think of is that one (or two) of the college kids snuck their pets in and the dogs either loved this home so much they didn't want to leave or they may have died in the home somehow.

By: UGotFlava@aol.com