char *(null)=" granpas.footsteps

granpas.footsteps

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: shamus@eskimo.com (Jay Mottern)
Subject: "Grandpa"
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 1994 12:21:12 GMT


This is my fisrt time posting here after ages of lurking. I wanted to share
my one experience with a ghost with you. It's kind of a long post- sorry
about that. Here goes:


A guy I knew in high school was living with his girlfriend and another couple 
in an old farmhouse a few miles south of Poulsbo, WA. (It was quite near the 
old main gate of the Bangor navy facility, now the home of the Trident 
submarine base- for any locals who might see this).


I guess I should mention that I have a kind of sixth sense- sometimes I know 
things for no reason, like what someone else is thinking or what's about to
happen. It's not really developed nor is it at all controllable- it just 
happens sometimes.


The other couple moved out, and my roommate and I needed a new place to live 
so we moved in with John and Sharon. After we'd been there about a week, we 
were sitting around in the living room after dinner, just talking.  Sharon 
asked me how I liked living there so far. I said it was great- the place had 
fields, a good barn, outbuildings, and was far enough away from everything to 
be nice and quiet. It reminded me of the hobby-farm I grew up on. I said that 
it was a pretty neat place to live, in spite of the fact that the house was 
haunted . 


Sharon turned as white as a sheet and was even shaking. She asked me in a 
scared tone of voice what I'd seen or heard that told me the place was 
haunted. I said it was just a feeling I had. I hadn't heard or seen a thing. 
She started telling me about the wierd goings-on there, usually when she was 
alone. Once she was in the basement doing some laundry. The kitchen door to 
the basement stairs was open, the stairs were completely exposed (unfinished 
basement) and it was the middle of the afternoon so there was plenty of light 
coming in the windows. She heard footsteps coming down those basement stairs. 
She turned and looked, but saw no one. Still, the footsteps kept coming! She 
dropped her laundry basket and ran from the house through the outside basement 
door!


Her boyfriend John just pooh-poohed the whole thing, calling it "super-
stition". That was his label for anything that didn't fit into his world-
view. He wasn't very open-minded. I laughed a little bit too, because I 
didn't sense any feeling of evil or danger or anything. It was just one more
person not-living :) there. Not paying rent, either!


A year or two later,  my old roommate went off to college in Bellingham WA. 
on his G.I. bill. John, Sharon and I took another roommate to help share 
expenses. It turned out that the old farm used to belong to Ken's grand-
parents. They had emmigrated from Norway in the early part of the century, and 
Grandpa started up a small dairy farm. He'd built the house himself (with 
the help of a travelling journeyman carpenter). Grandpa had died a few years 
ago, and Grandma was still alive in a nursing home. When Ken heard about the 
ghost stories, he just laughed and said it was only Grandpa. (I guess either 
Grandpa didn't like Sharon or he just got a kick out of spooking her!)


One Saturday, I had slept in and got up at around 9. I went into the bathroom 
to do my business. The bathroom was upstairs, and had a regular transparent 
window that looked out over the driveway/parking area. I knew that John was 
gone for a couple of days, and saw that Sharon's and Ken's vehicles were both 
gone. Sharon always takes her dog with her, and I could see the cat wandering 
around in the yard. I was the only living sole in the house.


While I was standing there peeing I heard footsteps coming slowly up the 
stairs, then along the hallway. I heard the footfalls clearly, and the 
floorboards squeaking and everything. They sounded just like an old man's 
footsteps- kind of slow, stiff and sore. They stopped right outside the 
bathroom door. I looked, and saw the knob slowly start to turn. I just yelled 
"I'm in here right now, Grandpa, but I'll be out in a minute." That ended the 
manifestation, `cause I didn't hear or see anything else. (Funny thing, I 
never saw the knob go back to its original position like it would have if you 
turned it then let go. It just stopped moving where it was when I spoke).


After I was through in the bathroom I went all through the house and around 
outside just to make sure there was no one else there. There wasn't- except 
me and Grandpa!


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    shamus@eskimo.com 	      Jay Mottern       #include 
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