One brush with the unexplained

[Captain EllieMae]

All this occurred some years ago, 1991 or 1992, but it's still pretty fresh in my mind. I'm aware of the dangers of false memory, but when two or three people experience the same thing, I think false memory might go on the back burner.

My family moved into an odd-looking little house in another state so that Dad could do some construction work. It was a nice, quiet neighborhood with a lot of old houses. Nothing fancy, but all the houses looked pretty well-kept. Also the rent for the house was amazingly low, something like $350 per month.

The house we lived in was well-kept but you could often get a whiff of a smoking tobacco smell every so often throughout the whole place. None of our family smoke, so it definitely wasn't us. I remember this smoke smell seemed to happen on humid days when it was either raining or about to rain. There was a lot of nice wood paneling throughout the house, so I figured that the smoke from the former resident must have settled in the pores of the wood and was released somewhat by the humidity. That was my theory anyway.

But it wasn't the smell of tobacco that was the mystery.

Now the basement wasn't creepy at all. It was very spacious and pretty well lit because it had windows all around. I didn't feel ill at ease when I was in the basement, which is where the washer and dryer were. So I guess this wouldn't be the typical creepy haunted house basement from the movies. The basement had a garage door and about fifteen feet from that was a small door which opened up to a small parking area next to the house. This parking area was where Dad parked his truck, while Mom parked on the street. She was afraid of parking in the basement because of the possibility of carbon monoxide entering the house.

So when Dad came home, he parked the truck in the little concrete space, opened the small door (which was pretty loud on opening) and he walked up some clattering wooden steps up into the house. (I think there were eleven steps.) It didn't take long for these sounds to become very familiar to the rest of us.

Now this occurred to me on several occasions, not just once. But it always occurred to me when I was alone in the house, so no corroborating witnesses.. Anyway, I was usually in my room watching TV or reading, and I would hear a vehicle door slam and the rattling of the door in the basement as though it was being opened. Then next maybe two or three footsteps on the wooden stairs followed by a pause. The pause made me wonder if something was wrong, so I would go check. But no one was there! I would go down into the basement and look out the window, but there was no truck outside. I wasn't exactly scared by this, but I was bewildered. Could I have imagined this while being absorbed in my book or movie? But how about when it happens on several occasions during the year or so that we spent in that house? And what about when my sister.and Mom experience the same thing, when they also were alone?

Like I say, I wasn't exactly scared by these events, and neither was my sister, but I think my Mom really was. Early one morning, my sister and I were woken up by a loud verbal exchange between my Mom and Dad in the den. That was very disturbing for us because this almost ever happens between them. And I think Mom's exact words were, "I don't intend for us to spend another [bleep] day in this house! I hate it!"

So it wasn't long before we moved to a nice apartment on the other side of the city. All well and good because it was closer to the place where Dad was doing the construction work. Sometime about that time, we started to compare notes about what we experienced in that house. And they tallied to the T. But Dad didn't experience anything and made fun of us when we brought it up before him. Mom, who is a big skeptic, doesn't like to talk about it at all, except to say that there's a rational explanation for most everything. Maybe so, but I still wonder about these events.

[freetoroam]

Hi CA, nice story but I just can't see the ghost truck thing. Could it have been a neighbour, things sound a lot louder in quiet areas?

[Captain EllieMae]

I can't say it was a ghost truck either or even a ghost period. In fact, I hope it wasn't. LOL.

As best I can remember, there was a small garage across the little alleyway that went beside our house. The garage door and the basement door opened out to that alley which was on the other side of the little concrete space where my Dad parked his truck. I believe that garage would have been the only place where any sounds loud enough might come from, but I never saw any wooden stairs because the garage was basically on the ground. I remember these sounds seemed really *close*. Like in or around the house close.

The next time I talk to my Mom and my sister, I'll ask them what they might remember. It's been a while since we've talked about it because so much has happened in the intervening years.

[Crabby Kitten]

Could it be whatever energy left behind, such as sounds from the past, playing back? It's called residual energy sounds.

Look at Stone Tape

[coldethyl]

I'm from down south too! Welcome to UM. I'm pretty skeptical so I am with freetoroam on this one, probably just natural sounds or the house settling with the humidity. But again all taken as my opinion, I wasn't there and I hope you enjoy UM!

[jamesjr191]

Could it be whatever energy left behind, such as sounds from the past, playing back? It's called residual energy sounds.

Look at Stone Tape

wikipedia article says, The Stone Tape theory is a paranormal hypothesis