Cold Chills and First Impressions

About 10 years ago, I started building a new house a few miles outside of Farmington. This house sits off the beaten path in the woods by itself. During the construction of the house, I witnessed some events that happened that at the time I didn’t want to believe were happening! The first event happened one night when I was working to the wee hours of the night. I was putting laminate flooring down in the living room and finished up about 5:00 AM in the morning. I thought before I left I would take a seat, grab a cold drink and admire the job that I did. As I was sitting there I noticed a box of Corn Pops sitting on a painter’s scaffold in an adjacent room. Early that box of cereal was sitting on a work table located beside the scaffold, I know this because it was close to the edge of the table and I was concerned that it might fall off, so I moved it towards the center of the table.

At that point, I got the feeling that I wasn’t alone and probably had a ghost in my new house. Now hang with me for a minute and I want to give you a little background about myself and the experiences growing up with a ghost in an old Victorian style house. This house was built around the turn of the 19th century in Mannington and we moved into it around 1965. I believe my first experience with this ghost occurred in 1965 and I didn’t realize it for several years, it was only after I got older and had other experience with this ghost that I believe this ghost was my hero! My ghost encounters started in 1965 when I was 5 years old. One day my mother had taken me to this house before we had moved into it. As I remember I was upstairs playing by myself in one of the bedrooms. This bedroom had 2 closets that flanked either side of a fireplace. Now I have no idea why; but, I was checking out the doorknob on the inside of one of those closets. It was the size of one of those cheap plastic water bottles caps, the real small ones. For some dumb reason, I got inside of that closet and closed the door to see if I could get out. I’m sure that the reason the architect designed that door with a bottle cap doorknob on the inside was to challenge little fellows like me! Well let me tell you, it got real dark real fast after I closed that door. I searched around for that knob and when I found it I put a death grip on it and turned with everything that I had. Tried a few times both directions and to no avail I was stuck. Who knows where my mom was at, I sure didn’t! I started to panic a little bit then all of a sudden that door popped open.

Years later I had many experiences with a ghost; which, I believe to be my Guardian Angel. I use to lay in bed and sometimes I would hear the sound of someone walking up the stairs. Each one of those stairs had its own signature squeaky sound. I would hear each step until it hit the landing than I would hear the footsteps across the landing than on up the last 5 stairs to the top, then it would stop outside my bedroom door. Other experiences that I had were, banging on the walls and ceiling around my bed, the sound of doors opening and closing, plus I even saw this ghost twice over the years.

The first time that I saw it I was downstairs in one of the living rooms. When you come into this home you are in a foyer that is flanked by huge double french doors that open to a living room on the right and a family room on the left. Anyway one Friday night I choose to stay home and watch the new color TV instead of going out with the gang to the local watering hole. As I remember it, I was watching TV and wasn’t tired; but, the next thing I know the sound of the big heavy oak front door awoke me to a dark house. I thought one of the gang had come home from the watering hole. I could see a silhouette of a body standing in the opening of the french door that was open. They were looking into the living room. I started calling out, is that you Joe? No answer! Is that you Brenda? How about you John? No answer! I turned my back and reached around to turn on the lamp so I could see who was there. After I turned the lamp on and turned back around they were gone. No big deal, I figured whomever probably headed for the kitchen for some chow. I got up and headed for the kitchen and when I stepped into that foyer I experienced cold chills like I have never had. After I passed through the foyer into the family room the chills were gone. I went from the family room into the dining room turning on lights and finally made it into the kitchen. Nobody was in the kitchen so I worked my way back through the house. When I got in the foyer those cold chills had come back. I checked the deadbolt on that big oak door and it was locked, it was at that moment that I realized what had happened! I saw that ghost for the first time.

I’ll save the second sighting for another day, let’s get back to that box of Corn Pops setting on the painter’s scaffold. I didn’t want to believe I had a ghost in my new house. Heck, it’s a new house, no history there, no way this is happening. I thought I must have moved that box of cereal and just forgot about it. Finished my drink and I left. Later on, I had a towel ring in one of the bathrooms that were sticking out 90 degrees from the wall instead of hanging straight down like it should be. Again I’m not going to let my mind play tricks on me I must have moved it to that position! It wasn’t until one morning when my son was coming to visit that I realized that it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. It was around 10:30 AM and me and my German Shepherd, Angel, were laying on the bed in the back bedroom watching TV. All of a sudden it sounded like the back door opened and someone walked into the house. I figured it was my son, Angel figured it was an intruder and sprung up in attack mode. She raced through the house towards that door caring on like she was going to eat somebody. This went on for a little while, I thought it was my son messing with the dog. I got up and walked into that part of the house. Much to my surprise, I got those old familiar cold chills and nobody was there plus the deadbolt was still locked. Since then I have had a lot of experiences with this ghost. I heard banging on the walls and ceiling, it scratched along the wall beside the bed one night. It messes with my electronics. Turns the ceiling fan off and on. Turns the fan lights off and on. Turns the TV off and on, and changes the channel. It has touched me twice.

The dog always alerts to it before I know it’s there and she always goes after it to try and attack it. I have gotten her to settle down and quit going after it. Myself I’m not as good as the dog sensing it, but I don’t do too bad. When I get a feeling like something isn’t right, or I get cold chills, I learned to trust these first impressions! And Yes I still live in the house with Angel and the ghost or ghosts!