Thursday, October 22, 2009

I Used to Live in a Haunted House


So, zibbsy asked me for more details on my haunted house experience, and since it's all too big to leave in his comment section, here it goes:

Cute Hubby and I moved into a house in Lambertville, New Jersey, when our kids were all still in school. The house was on Swan St., on a little hill two roads over from the cemetery. It was not an old house, built in the 60's mostly of wood, backing up to some trees and Swan Creek.
As I was unpacking alone in the house (CH at work, kids in school), I would hear little girls voices whispering/laughing from other parts of the house. I assumed that since it was a town house, I was simply hearing neighbors through the walls. No one else in my family ever heard the voices, and I found out that there were no children living on either side of us. Then I started hearing them on the phone line. My family said it was just the lines getting "crossed" and that they had all heard other people on the lines too. Eventually, the voices stopped.
Then Hurricane Andrew came through our area and left a muddy mess in it's wake. We had muddy water coming through the basement wall on one side of the house and running out of the sliding doors on the other side of the house. It was a nightmare. After we got all of that cleaned up was when the fun started. The following examples are unrelated to each other and took place over the few years that we stayed in the house:
Oldest daughter came out of the kitchen and her friend who was watching her from the living room said "I thought there was someone in the kitchen following you around".
Youngest daughter ran up the stairs and said "Don't you just hate it when it sounds like someone is running up right behind you?".
High school aged son demands that I buy him a "big" night light, ever since he saw a "white" man come down the stairs to his room.
CH and friend distinctly hear a woman laugh in the living room. I love this one, because up until then, CH didn't believe that there was anything strange going on.
I woke up one night to see a blurry image standing at the end of the bed. CH said he didn't see anything, but by that time the image had moved along my side of the bed. I had asked "What do you want?" and I think it was coming over to tell me, but CH put the light on and it disappeared.
I used to always feel like someone was standing by my right shoulder whenever I was putting on my makeup in the master bathroom, of all places.
There were lots of other little instances: things being moved from one place to another, hearing loud "thuds" from other parts of the house, ect. We moved after 3 years, to a house that was built in 1925, and never had one weird instance in the 5 years that we lived there. Now we live in a house that was also built in 1925, and have had only one weird instance: Babyzilla watches the corner ceiling of the living room sometimes, and laughs. She hasn't done that for a few months though. The last time she did it, she watched something go along the ceiling from the kitchen through the middle room and to the spot on the living room ceiling. I asked her if her little friend was back, and she just ignored me.
Since living in the house on Swan St., I have found out that the Lambertville-New Hope area (the Delaware River divides them) is one of the most "haunted" areas in the United States. No joke. My theory is: the dirt from the cemetery gets washed down hill to the town. Oh yeah, it's a silly theory, but that's all I got. I have a theory about our little "ceiling" visitor, too. We live in an old mining town, and birds were not uncommon pets back "in the day". They were used to detect poisonous gas leaking from the mines. I think our little visitor might be a bird.

If anybody else has a story to share, please leave it in the comment section.

16 comments:

Dr Zibbs said...

That is pretty creepy.

Thanks for the post.

erin said...

CREEPY!!!

I've never had any weird experiences like this before, now would I like to. I have a hard enough time freaking myself out over nothing.

diane said...

zibbsy: Anytime.

erin: Weird does not necessarily mean fun, it was a royal drag.

drollgirl said...

you are freaking me out!!! ay yi yi. i have never experienced anything like this. i have seen many a horror flick, but never witnessed any ghost activity. but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist! oh my lord, i would have a heart attack if i lived in a place like this!!!

diane said...

Drolly: I know this sounds strange, but we sort of got used to it. We didn't like the creepy happenings, but nothing actually bad ever happened.

Isabel said...

Oh man, reading this gave me chills. Ghost stuff like this just freaks me out.

Green-Eyed Momster said...

Goosebumps! I've never felt alone. Ever. Even when I'm alone, I feel like I'm being watched. Ever since I cleaned up my act, I feel eyes watching me.
Tuesday night was pretty scary for me. Have you seen the movie Signs? Well, if you have and you remember the sound that the aliens's make in that movie. That's what I heard at the foot of our bed the other night. It scared me so bad, I couldn't get back to sleep.
It used to scare me when the kids got a bit older and would come up to me while I was sleeping in bed for a drink of water or something. It reminded me of the kid in Pet Cemetery.

I'm glad that you were safe in the haunted house. I think most kids can see things that we can't.
Great post!
Thanks and hugs!!

diane said...

Isa: When I was your age, zombie stuff used to freak me out. I used to weigh the shower curtain down with shampoo & conditioner bottles so I would hear them fall into the tub if I was washing my hair.

Tracey: I remember really liking J.P. in Signs, great flick. Pet Cemetery was way creepier. Dawn of the Dead had me freaked out for years.
Now I have to ask you: Is your family supportive of you in your "fear" or do they make fun of you? Because C.H. never takes stuff like that seriously.
Oh, almost forgot, I agree with you about kids seeing things grown-ups block out. Animals can too.

Joanna Jenkins said...

Yikes! I would LOVE to live in house on Swan Street! It owuld freak me out but i'd like to get to know "whoever" what there.

xo

Green-Eyed Momster said...

I'm sure I've startled Hubby awake on a few occasions. Mostly because of my dreams of alien spiders dropping down on me from the ceiling. (I haven't had one since blogging about them.)
I didn't tell Hubby about hearing the sounds the other night. I was just too scared to go back to sleep. I don't think that they know that I always feel like I'm being watched. It could just be my guides but I have mixed feelings on all of it. I think my animals who've passed on are still with us in spirit and that goes against everything that I "believe."
Love ya!
Hugs!!

Vic said...

I have had a couple of experiences, in one house we lived in in particular. Not fun.

I also thought my mother was a vampire (seriously) for at least a week after reading Stephen King's "Salem's Lot". She has sharp eye teeth. I read up on vampire-repelling techniques, and made sure not to let her in my room at night.
This was back before everyone wanted to know a vampire.

diane said...

Joanna: Trust me, it gets old really fast.

Tracey: Wow, alien spiders, that's a new one! Regarding being watched: It's like being paranoid. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. hehe.

Vic: Aha. See, now you're doing to me what I did to zibbsy. So I'm going to ask you for details on those "couple of experiences".

You're not half off about the eye teeth. People with prominent eye teeth are usually big meat eaters. It's funny that you thought your mom was a vampire. So making alien hats and stuff like that goes way back then?

Baybay Mama said...

I love these kinds of stories. I am such a nerd because I love Sylvia Brown who is into all this stuff. She says to do exactly what you did with the ghost, ask 'what do you want?' because they are there to reenact something. I used to live in a haunted house in high school. I hated it when things would be hidden like a remote control or hair brush but usually children do that kind of thing apparently.
Oh, of course call me dooder.

diane said...

Dooder, hehe: I had forgotten about "kids" hiding things. That would actually make sense with the little girls voices. You had "weirdness" in high school? Did anyone else in your family notice stuff like that? I'm taking a census, apparently.

miriam said...

i just had my first goosebumps!

diane said...

miriam: That is soooo cute!