Ghost or Paranormal

[flasherr]

Have any of you ever had an unexplained incident while out searching for treasures? I was just watching a program on ghost and it brought the idea that someone may have had an experience while out looking or digging for bottles. The places most of you dig is full of history. I personally have never had an experience so im not sure what my stand is on the subject. I figured this might make an interesting topic to discuss
Brian

 

[batfish]

I’m no believer in ghosts, but events in my old house in Francestown, NH almost changed my opinion! The house was built in 1874. For you locals, it is the third house on the right off of Oak Hill Road, which itself is off of main street in the village. Francestown is a postcard perfect New England village – complete with two meeting houses, a white steepled church, and a main street lined with 18th century colonials, capes, and farmhouses. Our house, the ‘Reed Ordway House’, was a Victorian Farmhouse, a simple villager, but a beauty. It was being sold as part of an estate.

Weird things happened even before we bought the house. When we first entered the room that would become my son’s, my son, who was seven months old at the time, began flapping his arms and kicking his legs and giggling hysterically at… the wall. This went on for some time. We joked about it amongst ourselves. He was seeing something that wasn’t there, and was amused by whatever it was.

The first night we spent in the house we were awoken at about 2:00am by a loud crashing downstairs. It turned out to be the storm door. I latched it, and went back upstairs, to bed. Minutes later, after I’d settled back into bed, the crashing began again. Again, I went downstairs and latched the door. This happened a total of three times. Each time, the door would come unlatched as soon as I was settled back into bed. It was eerie!

Several months later, my wife and our neighbor were going out for something or other. They were going to take my wife's car (a nearly new Honda civic), but when they were leaving, they discovered that my wife’s car’s battery had died at some point during the day – the car wouldn’t start. They ended up taking the neighbor's car (a late model minivan). They returned several hours later.

The neighbor walked my wife to the front door and the three of us chatted for a few minutes before the neighbor returned to her car, to head home. She tried to start her car, but it wouldn’t turn over – dead battery. When the neighbor’s husband came to jumpstart the car, we pushed it out into the road before jumping it! I chalk that one up to coincidence, but what are the odds, seriously… any engineers out there who could explain how this could happen?

One night, I was home by myself, futzing about the kitchen. We had a drape in the kitchen, depending from one of those spring-loaded rods that you squeeze into the window frame. The drape fell down. No big deal, I put it back up. It fell down, again. I put it back up again. I left the room. From the other room, I heard the drape fall again… I went to put the drape back up. This time, as I was gathering the drape from the floor, I noticed in a corner of one of the window’s lower panes, an etching. It read, “Reed Ordway, 1874â€, etched in script. Could someone or something have been trying to identify itself? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have noticed the etching had I not been eye level with it. After making this little discovery, the drape did not fall down again.

Last, I have some pictures. We took the pictures outside. They were of my son, playing in the yard. In front of my son’s face is a faint, fuzzy apparition of a woman in a dress. It is a convincing image []. In the upper corner of the picture is the upstairs window of the house. Looking closely at the upstairs window, three figures are visible, looking out over the scene – a man, a young girl, and between them, a dog. It’s a great picture – it was actually hosted on a website for the paranormal for a while, but it is no longer there. I’ll try to dig it up if anyone would like to see it. Let me know.

We only lived in the house for a year. It was full of lead paint and asbestos, and I feared for the safety of my young son. The market was favorable, so we sold and moved on. Like I said, I’m not a believer in such things as ghosts… but I do like to dig out that old picture from time to time and look at our former friends…

 

[Oldtimer]

No boogymen yet while digging.

But...

In 1979, when I was 11, I and my two brothers were visiting with Dad over the weekend. While we were out playing on Saturday evening, we all three saw a bright orange ball of light floating very near us...It looked about 3' across and seemed to writhe within itself..We ran and screamed and took on...My father (now 81 years old!), learning what we saw, said: "That is an omen...Something bad is going to happen."...

My Mother was killed 12 hours later.

It happened just like I have told, no lies or bull.. take it for what it is worth.

OT.

 

[Pontiled]

Keep posting! Tomorrow, if I can build up enough courage, I'll tell you about Uncle John's rocking chair.

 

[flasherr]

Looks like this might turn out to be an interesting topic after all. I would like to see that picture batfish. The next question is what kind of treasures did you find in the house? Dig any Privies cisterns or anything else there? I cant wait to hear about uncle John. keep the stories coming of all those that make this hobby what it is today. If it wasnt for trash what would we be collecting lol.
Brian

 

[deepwoods]

O.T - Im sorry about your mom-I hope that wasnt too traumatic for you. Sounds like it was one of those"meant to be"things.No wonder some Indian tribes call it"the Great Mystery". My story is alot more commonplace but it seems kind of paranormal to me. Seems like everytime Ive found a really good bottle,I wasnt looking for it-in the sence that everytime I start getting greedy and thinking Ive gotta find something good,seems like I never do and then just when I start thinking Im not going to find anything,I do. In other words,it always seems to be unexpected-and the second I start expecting again I have another dry spell. Its almost"as if" theyre just hiding and waiting for the ideal suprise moment to pop out. I know that probobly sounds crazy but Ive had it happen quite a few times. What would you call it? The zen of bottle digging?"Dont push the river it flows"I guess.

 

[leebran20]

OK Batfish, if you don't believe in such things as ghosts, what is it you exactly believe about that house and especially the photo? Not disparaging your belief; just wondering how you reconcile the occurences in your mind. I would, too, definitely like to see that photo if you can find it.

I'm sure there are many similar stories no matter where you're from, but with Hawaiian history and then also the active superstitions of all the different immigrants that came way back to the islands I call home, this kind of stuff is rampant here. My Portuguese fisherman grandfather was particularly fond of scaring the living daylights out of me with his ability to see things, and as I'm especially fond of him -- even though he's since passed -- you know where my beliefs lie on the subject, even without ever actually technically seeing something myself.

Many of my digging friends have stories -- from things as seemingly benign as the hair rising on the back of their necks and the feeling of a presence, to actually seeing apparitions while digging. Just last week, I was talking with someone I work with about a bandmate of his that works for a private archaeological firm here. Besides bottles (which I'm trying to get a chance to see), this guy routinely finds ancient Hawaiian burial sites, and even though I feel they're doing good work by protecting the bones from destruction by developers and documenting the finds, maybe the spirits don't necessarily view it the same way. Among many things this guy has supposedly experienced: When they had a Hawaiian blessing at the firm's new office, as the priest was chanting, all four doors on separate sides of the structure slammed loudly shut at the same time. Now we do have regular tradewinds in the Islands that can blow from different directions seemingly at the same time, but with power enough to cause this to happen and at exactly the time the priest is trying to do a blessing?... I can answer the first part: Hard if not impossible, as far as I know, to explain how such strong gusts from all four directions would come simultaneously at the building like that.

 

[undercovercajun]

[:-]Shhh...if I don't believe...it ain't there!!!

 

[IRISH]

I don't believe in the paranormal but I don't say it's impossible either, I just tend not to believe what can't yet be proven or disproven by science, too many intelligent people claim to have seen "things" for anyone else to claim it can't happen.
That said though, I often know what we will find the morning of a creek dig [] , I'll say to Chris or Travis "we will get a torp today" or "we'll get a Codd" and we very often find what I say, all I need to do now is "know" exactly where they are hiding [] .

 

[Bluebelle]

Goosebumps! I have a true story too, in which it seems that "something" left a bottle for me to find. Long ago when my kids were little, we rented sight unseen, a lakeside house for a month. It was an old farmhouse, fully furnished, lots of stuff in the attic under the eaves on the second floor. I had 2 cats with us, and they used to sit and stare at "something". One day it was raining, the kids were napping, and I decided to look over the stuff stored in the attic. There was a big old suitbox full of old letters, papers, etc, and among the things was a picture of a young man lying in his coffin. There were letters with some interesting old stamps, and I took them out and put them on my dresser to look at later. That night at midnight, all the upstairs hall doors started to bang and slam, the windows were open, but there was no wind, the cats ran wildly up and down the hall - the kids slept through it. I was scared witless, but the only thing I could think of was that "something" was mad because I took out the letters. I shouted out, "I'll put them back!" and everything got quiet. As soon as I got up the next morning, I took the letters, opened the attic door and threw them in. Later that same day, I was out walking around the yard, and there by a fence post was a fine embossed White House Vinegar bottle, just lying on the ground. I know it wasn't there the day before, because I had been over that ground mowing and edging, and nobody else was around. About a week or so later, I was sitting alone watching the sun set over the lake, kids were in bed, and I saw the faint shapes of an old woman and little girl climbing up the stairs.