Last Saturday night we were at my parents house. It was after twelve, we were licking down our ice cream "drumsticks" when the conversation drifted into things that have happened to us that have either freaked us out, made us stop and think, or made us scream out loud. Under the right light, these stories can be fun to tell. I want to share with you a few of the stories that were shared that night.
* My Dad grew up in a very small mining town in Eureka, UT. For all of his teenage years he was the "paper boy." He would get up early every morning to deliver the news before the sun came up. One dark wintery morning, snow was lightly falling, the crunching of my dad's tire wheels could be heard on the side walk as he passed the houses along the street. It was just him, the papers, and the snow. He had been delivering papers for about 1/2 hr. When he noticed a figure coming toward him down the street. As the figure passed under a street light he noticed it was a young boy and he looked weary and his clothes were all torn. The boy approached my dad, obviously hurt, and in a very ragged and muffled voice he asked for help, "help me,.... help me. My family.....They are hurt." My dad told the boy to stay put and then he ran down the street to Sheriff Bernini's house to get help.
About 2 hours earlier, in the wee of the morning a small passenger plane carrying a family of four had crashed in the mountains above Eureka. Unfortunately this boy was the only survivor. He had climbed out of the pit of the mangled plane, and walked down toward the town lights trying to find help for his family.
*My mom also grew up in the small mining town of Eureka. (obviously strange things can happen in small towns) When my mom was also a teenager she loved to sneak out of her room during the summer months. She would usually go up about 5 houses to visit her friend Donna. On her normal nightly route she would pass by a small catholic church nestled in between the 3rd and 4th home. On this one particular night, she quietly crept out her window and dashed out behind the homes where she couldn't be seen. It was rather warm for a summer night and she was taking her time as she passed by the dark homes. As she approached the bell tower that stood a little off kilter behind the catholic church, the air around her seemed to get a little cooler, and to her right, bounding from the bell tower came an old pale man with his arms stretched out towards her. At that moment she heard a blood curdling scream from her friend Donna who was watching from her room window. My mom took off, heart pounding out of her chest, towards Donna's window. While Donna and her sister were madly pulling my mom in through the room window, sobbing, they watched the old man disappear into the field that slopped toward the mountain.
The next day, my mom found out that a funeral was to be held in the catholic church that day, and that the body of an older gentleman had been kept there over night ready for his funeral!
* My sister Kristy, while living at home, would often stay up reading on the weekends and fall asleep on the couch.
One paticular reading night, she was engrossed in a fantasy fiction book. She had dozed off to sleep for a few hours and was awoken by a faint thud. As she strained to adjust her eyes to the darkness she noticed a hooded figure sitting across from her on the other couch. The couch was against the window so her view of the hooded figure was silhouetted and very menacing. She lay there not breathing, trying to rationalize what she was really seeing. Finally, as she gained the courage to get up and go toward the "hooded figure", It peered up toward her with glowing eyes. (not really, but that was a fun sentence to throw in there)
The hooded figure was really a pile of blankets, and the faint thud was her book falling from her hands.
*One late night, as Scott and I lay in bed, my mind was going wild with all the small noises and non-noises that were around me. Usually, after I here the noises I start making up horrible scenarios to go with the noises. (the things that TV and movies can do to our minds) Sometimes it really freaks me out and I wake Scott up to help bring me back to reality, or I'll just think of lovely things. This one night, my mind had really gone too far. I moved toward Scott and realized that he to was awake and couldn't sleep. He couldn't sleep because he was too hot, not because his mind had gone wild.
As we lay there together I explained to him what I had been thinking.
Me:"Wouldn't it be freaky if you noticed the shape of a man standing in the adjoining room just staring out at you."
Scott:"Yeah! But let's not think about that."
Me: "Sorry if I woke you, and I'm sorry that you are hot."
Scott: "No problem, let's just get back to sleep."
Me: "Goodniiiii.......Snnnooorrrr."( and I was off to sleep)
For the next hour or so, Scott laid awake waiting to see if the man in the other room WOULD appear. In his mind his only protection from this man was the blankets he had on him, the very blankets that were making him hot. The next morning I chuckled at the fact that I had REALLY scared Scott with the idea of a man in the other room. And here I had slept like a baby!
*Having a dog can be great enjoyment, or pure terror! Scott was downstairs playing the x-box, I was upstairs snoozing off to bed. It had been a full week and I welcomed that fact that we had no plans for a Friday night and retired early. Sam, our dog, had joined me. She was nestled next to my arm, warm, and fast asleep. I could hear the very faint sounds of the TV downstairs and was having trouble falling asleep. As I laid there thinking of ways to relax more, Sam shot up from her dead sleep and started growling toward our walk-in closet. Then she started to bark. She was stiff as a board, baring her teeth and staring feverishly toward the closet.
"What the H#@@ is in there!!"
immediately I text Scott (that's the quickest way to communicate with him) and told him to come get Sam out of the room. Scott came and got her, and I left the lamp light on until Scott finally joined me later that night. Whatever was in the closet could stay, I wasn't going to go look!
Happy Halloween!
To Ichabod's dismay, he was chased off by the headless horseman, and never to be seen again!! The headless horse man was a real treat and if it hadn't of been too dark, we would have loved to have taken a picture. We saw him galloping through the hollow toward Ichabod. It was great fun. It snowed while we were up there, but it really set the mood!
We really had a great time, and everyone left with there bellies full of spiced cider, good food, and a carved pumpkin ready for Halloween night!
Happy Halloween everyone!
Since we've been in our home we've been doing nothing but upgrades, improving, and changing! For the most part we have enjoyed every moment. The feeling that we can do anything, change anything, and just call this place we live in our own is a wonderful feeling. All of you who own a home can attest to this. There's a lot of pride that goes into doing these great projects that help make our homes unique.
