I had an interesting thought the other day: Where do ghosts go when we bulldoze their haunted farmhouses, when we pave purgatory and put up a parking lot? If you ask me, it’s an issue that rarely gets the attention it deserves.
Our old farmhouse was built in 1897. You can tell Kendricks built it. Kendricks, my in-laws, have a tendency to build on the fly and verbalize all their decision-making processes at the moment of cognitive conception. They decide in milliseconds what to do and move forward, no second thoughts, no regrets, hammer to the nail, then another nail, another nail, and so on, till they have a house with as confusing a floor plan as a house of mirrors. It may seem impractical to have three front doors, a bathroom as a hallway, and a fireplace in the closet, but, as I said, Kendricks built my house and there are no regrets.
These three front-doors doors make it easy to flee the premises from Kendrick ghosts who are equally vocal and decisive in the afterlife. Don’t get me wrong, decisiveness has its place, like the Battle of King’s Mountain, when my wife’s ancestors fought with the Overmountain Men to whip the British. (If the battle had depended on the Bishops, my ancestors, we would have surely lost for fear of hurting the British’s feelings. Or, we would have starved to death, unable to choose which campfire to eat at and insisting someone else choose. My wife has studied my genealogy and says I have a French ancestor, which explains a lot).
But self-assured and outspoken Kendricks are not who you want haunting your farmhouse. Kendrick ghosts have no qualms about terrifying an in-law now inhabiting their old domicile with disembodied utterances and footless footsteps. I’m certain it’s Kendrick ghosts because no other ghosts could navigate our house without getting lost and asking for help. Plus, a Kendrick ghost would never ask for help as a point of pride.
Furthermore, I did see a real Kendrick ghost once, no joke. It was a grayish apparition in the shape of granny from the Beverly Hillbillies. I saw it on the same night my wife was laughing in her sleep with a strange, childlike giggle. When I rolled over to investigate the cause of her laughter, my wife was still clearly asleep, yet still clearly giggling. And standing beside the bed, beside her, was this grey granny. I rolled back over, put the sheet over my head, and tried to convince myself I was dreaming. The next morning, I told my wife about the giggling and asked her what she was dreaming about. I had yet to mention anything about the ghost. She said she had been dreaming about her great-grandma, at which point I nearly created a fourth front-door in our house.
I lived in an old farmhouse, loaded with ghosts. Mostly, they were benign, with an occasional sense of humor. Once or twice “Amy” was more than wonderful. We counted at least four different ghosts–glad that they were friendly. Word got out that we’d had ghostly encounters, and my landlord interrogated me about it. I described the woman I’d seen and he got out the family albums. Turned out that my ghost was his mother–(Amy) but as she appeared in the late 1950s. When I identified her from a photo–the landlord was duly impressed. It almost made me family…so long as I paid the rent.
Wow, that’s pretty neat. It’s good to be part of the family, even if you have to pay into it. I think my in-law ghosts have finally accepted me into the family cause I haven’t seen or heard from them in many years. Merry Christmas!
Kinda glad our house isn’t older. The only thing that haunts us is the squirrels and mice trying to find their way in. The granny experience would have left me afraid to go to bed. 😳
Yes, it was frightening in a surreal kind of way. I’m always worried about squirrels and mice too chewing on wire. I think that scares me more than ghosts. Seems like every year I can hear one scurrying in our wall. Probably out to go ahead and put out the traps.
My husband wages a constant battle against rodents in the house. And I’m very grateful he’s taken on the duty.
All I can think about is the show Supernatural.
Yes, my wife really likes that showed. I just started watching Ghosted on CBS this year. It’s pretty funny. Merry Christmas!