Monstrous
Ghosts, Poltergeists & Apparitions => Ghost hunters => Topic started by: Loki on August 29, 2004, 04:19:10 AM
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The house-for-sale ad in Saturday's paper starts out like many others - bedrooms, bathrooms, formal dining room - but then it lists a unique feature: resident ghost.
"We haven't seen anything, we mainly hear noises," said owner Charlotte Brady, who lived in the two-story, 80-year-old house on Fillmore Street for about 30 years until moving to a modern home in southeast Eugene a couple of months ago. "We often hear a ball bouncing - it sounds like a hard rubber ball - and it starts at the top of the stairs and seems to hit every step on the way down."
At first, she tried to dismiss the noise as apples or nuts dropping from trees outside and bouncing on the roof as they fell, but that just didn't jibe with what everyone - including family members, visitors and baby sitters - reported hearing, Brady said.
Charlotte Brady says some people believe that the ghost of a child inhabits the old house on Fillmore Street that she is trying to sell. Brady hasn't seen the ghost, but claims to have heard it many times. Six-year-old Mikey McGillivray, walking behind Brady, is the son of a visitor and isn't the apparition.
Other typically ghostly things happened occasionally, such as lights turning on or off and finding doors or windows opened or closed, but those things might be explained away by the comings and goings of a half-dozen people living in a household, she said.
Real estate broker Ruby Brockett said she's never heard of a house ghost in all her many years of selling homes in Lane County, "but in the East it's very common."
"Usually it's a person who wasn't ready to go or who has an attachment to the place they lived," Brockett said. "There's a whole 'nother dimension out there we haven't run into yet."
The idea of having a house ghost never really bothered Brady, until the knocking episode.
"I was home alone, sitting on the floor of my daughters' room one day when they were much younger, and all of a sudden something started knocking really loudly on the wall right next to me," Brady said. "It made me madder than anything - I didn't have issues with it being here until I thought it might be trying to scare the kids."
At that point, she decided to encourage the ghost to relocate. She knew of a spiritualist - the mother of a friend - and asked the woman to pay a call.
She went through each room, opening the doors and windows and reciting a mantra inviting any stray spirits to leave, Brady said.
Afterward, the noises seemed to stop for a few years, at least until recently. A friend of the family who has been staying in the house since Brady moved has reported hearing strange noises, she said.
In retrospect, she rather regrets trying to drive the ghost away, Brady said.
Through the years, she's run into other people who lived in the house - located originally at 13th and Charnelton and moved in the 1950s to make way for the Eugene Public Library - who also believed the house had a ghost.
"Maybe when my mom moved out, the ghost decided it was OK to move back in," said Brady's daughter, Ariel Birtley, who grew up in the house and has experienced what she considers ghostly episodes.
"Once, I came home sick from school, and I got in bed and the ghost started bouncing the ball all over my room, off the door and the walls and the floors," Birtley said. "Then the sound bounced right through the wall, and I could hear it bouncing to the other end of the house. I was all alone in the house - that scared me."
She wonders if it's smart of her mother to include the ghost among the house's features as she tries to sell it, but longtime real estate broker Jean Tate says it's a good idea.
"Oh, yes, you always disclose that kind of stuff," Tate said. "You don't want someone coming back later and saying, `You knew about that - you should have told me.' "
Some people actually like the idea of a ghost-in-residence. After seeing Brady's ad in the paper, Barbie McGillivray called to ask if she could come over to see the house.
"I love vintage houses, and I'm fascinated by (ghosts) - I read about them and watch all the programs I can," said McGillivray, who stopped by Tuesday morning with her 6-year-old son Mikey and infant daughter Natalie in tow. "When I saw `resident ghost' in the ad, I just had to come over and see this house."
She wishes she could buy it, McGillivray said, ghost and all.
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Interesting ad pitch...I hope the ghost thinks this as a good idea..anybody know who he/she was?
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Its' kind of a thing not to move into a haunted house. Unless you're a ghost nerd who wants to be attacked.
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*raises hand* :banplea: Thats a great article loki. I think any house with a haunt should be advertised as such.
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I will try to get the money and buy it
As long as it is nothing like the "Poltergiest" or "The Haunted"
If it is....asta la vista...I will use guns and salt like Sam and Dean :gun:
Kewl articial Loki