I believe it was in the year of our Lord 1947. The County Health Board personnel had just nailed up the pink quarantine placard onto the front door. During this place and time, Scarlet Fever was prevalent in and around Canton Ohio. Being the only one within our neighborhood to be afflicted with this malady, I was really feeling sorry for myself. I was told to stay in a darkened room and to do nothing but stay in bed. To me, that was the same as waiting for the Hang-man to pay a visit. The incarceration of which had befallen me was to last but for only 30 days. For me, the duration of my entombment seemed to extend into years. The only respite offered me was my frequent trips to the bathroom and the more than welcomed visits of my friends through the glass of my bedroom.
With 1,377 miles between Canton and Denver, it made communication betwixt Dad and us difficult. Dad was working in Denver at the time, when I was placed in isolation lock-up. My folks would correspond on a daily basis, numbering each letter as to keep them in progressive order. Dad said that he would only telephone in the event of some difficulty. Well, as soon as I was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever and quarantined, Dad called home wanting to know what was wrong. This was the first time that I became aware that some things are beyond reasoning or explanation. Weird things always happened to Dad, as I was to find out later
Some years later, one of Dad’s strangest events happened. This particular occurrence took place in the middle of the night. Dad sat bolt up in bed and was talking to Aunt Mable. Mable was assuring Dad that everything would be alright and not to worry. This occurred at the time of Aunt Mable’s passing. Is this strange enough for you or what?
Here’s another; This happened while visiting my folks back in Dalton over the 4th of July. After going to bed one evening, I kept hearing a screen door banging shut. Pat heard it too. There would be a pause of maybe five minutes or so, then it would start banging again. The banging came from the house next door, which was the only other house on the street. Finally, I had had enough and went over to investigate. I could not figure it out for the house next door was unoccupied at the time. The two spinsters who lived there had died and the house had laid empty for a while. Anyway, when I reached the back door, I checked the screen door and found it to be well secured and locked tight. Standing there looking things over, the door started banging again but without moving. Now, that’s the kind of thing that will make your hair stand on end. And believe me, it did.
Pat and I purchased our home in 1971 late July. We had no history of the previous owners, but for the fact that the house had laid empty for a few years. Everything was in disrepair and it had been vandalized. This house really had a history, but the price was the determining factor of our procurement. After months and many hours of hard work we finally made it livable. One evening while sitting back relaxing in front of the TV, I saw her. She, being a diaphanous, wispy apparition that appeared drifting down the hallway in my direction. As soon as I looked directly across the room, she vanished. This specter would always show up in the later hours of evening. She appeared many times in the succeeding weeks and always just drifting along the hallway. I had never commented or mentioned to Pat of my experiencing this abhorrent phantom, until one morning while at the breakfast table. “Pat have you ever seen……….She stopped me in my tracks and said……..a white lady in the hallway.” Pat had never said anything either for fear of me thinking her nutzoid. I made up my mind that we needed to evict this unwanted sojourner resident infesting our comfort zone. Later on when she next appeared, I loosened my tongue and spoke at that puff of smoke. “You can just leave now, you don’t live here anymore, we do.” She was gone. We never saw her again.
This next installment happened early one morning as Pat was preparing for work. Pat had just opened the back door to place some trash into the garbage can when Ann called out Pat’s name. There, in the cover of the carport next door, stood Ann and her husband. As Pat was eager to reply to the greeting, both individuals faded from view. The only problem with that was, Ann had just passed away recently and her husband had passed many years before. We guessed they just wanted to say goodbye and take a last look around the house they had built together so long ago?
The sixthly entry for this composition of strange, unusual, bewailed and unexplained incidences, which should have left everyone questioning and or paralyzed, follows next.
After rebuilding the carport and the adjacent wall on the West side of the house, it was time to paint. Incidentally, painting is one of my least favorite things to do. I’m good at it, but I just hate doing it. Anyway, I was bent down painting the bottom lap boards of the afore mentioned wall, when I got a cold chill. A shadow passed over the wall from left to right at ground level. I turned around to see who was watching me paint or whatever. There stood Mr. Nobody. Not a soul,car or black helicopter to cast a shadow. So, I shrugged it off and went back to the job at hand, painting. Progressing up the wall, I was making good time, and yes, I know that one is supposed to paint from top to bottom not bottom up, but I’ve always done stuff my own way. Standing there with brush in hand and a slack jaw, it happened again. This time the shadow was of an out-of-focus figure of a man. The arms, legs and head were clearly recognizable on that projection on the newly painted surface. When I turned, of course there was nothing to be seen, but the shadow remained still. I quit painting that day.
The impetus for this thesis occurred last evening at 8:30 pm 5 May 2013. I was walking from the kitchen back to the living room when I noticed a black dog at my feet. It was traversing down the hallway to my left. The black dog made headway along the hallway of about 6 feet before vanishing. He just wasn’t there anymore. The only thing remaining was the hair standing upright on my forearms and neck.
I make no claims of knowing what this all means. It’s just one of those weird, odd and unexplainable things that happens. By-the-way……..weird, odd and unexplainable, kinda describes me. Hahahaha !