#20 BOO!

Eric and I grew up in an old house, so of course, we always knew it was haunted. Aren’t all old houses?

We had a spooky unfinished 3rd floor play room and we used to dare each other to be the first up there to turn the light on. If this sounds like a simple task, it wasn’t. Eric’s advice about light switches did not apply here as there was no switch, just a string hanging from the light bulb in the middle of the landing. We’d have to go up the stairs, leave the relative safety of the hall light and venture into the dark unknown. Once in there we had to reach our hands up blindly to find the string and pull to turn on the light. If you caught the string on the first try you were lucky. More often you would only brush up against it and send it swinging. Then you had to figure out when it would come back towards you and try and catch it. If you judged it incorrectly and it happened to brush your arm, or back or head when you didn’t expect it, well that fright might send you downstairs for the rest of the day. There would definitely be a scream involved. Of course, once the lights were on, it was totally innocuous and a great place to play.

We also had a spooky unfinished basement. This was huge and full of things left behind by previous owners. There was a long room with different panes of glass, some of them mirrored. One room had a raised platform along half the floor that we used as a stage. The whole thing had that mildewy, basement smell, perfect for exploring.

There was also a bullet hole in the living room. The living room was a dark wood paneled room with built in bookshelves and a fireplace. It always reminded me of an English library. The story goes that a woman shot at her psychiatrist in there.

We just knew there had to be a ghost, or at least a secret passage!

One night, to try and get us out from underfoot, my parents sent us searching for the secret passage. Eric and I knocked on walls all over the house, trying to find a hollow spot or a hidden entrance. Just as we were about to give up, somebody knocked back.

And then knocked again.

As were about to dissolve with fright we realized it was our neighbor at the front door, and dissolved with laughter instead.