Around this time of year, thoughts mold to good ghost stories...
When I was in high school, I used to love this time of year. I used to get together with my friends John and Jared and we would create haunted houses in our basements. We even went as far as creating one with a HUGE graveyard and bags and bags and bags of crunchy leaves poured on the floor so the dead bodies (today's zombies) could crawl out of their grave sites. We created a mirror room, using a black light, where a face would appear in the glass and summon all the demons of hell to come and drag you away. All handmade, all amateur, all fun and a good time with best friends.
I moved on to college and the haunted houses turned to discussions of living in the South and the ghosts that haunt the mansions down here. There was stories of the home where at the right time of day, you hear the footsteps come down the stairs, come into the room, the bench of the piano moves out and the piano begins to play on its own. It is the story of a young girl who died in the house who used to play it and continues to do so to this day. Or the blue floating light on the railroad tracks that hovers a few feet into the air and looks like the lantern of a trainman who is searching along the tracks.
As an adult, I have found that I do not enjoy going through haunted houses this time of year anymore. I don't enjoy the idea of people, dressed and covered in blood, reaching out and touching or grabbing me...and blood these days...notsomuch.
What does floor me is the discussion I just heard on the satellite radio concerning today's haunted houses. The gentleman began the discussion about his haunted house that he has created this year. They begin prepping for the set up in MARCH, and begin to build the pieces in July, with move-in around the beginning of September. SEERIOUSLY???? Each room this year has a different well-known serial killer in it, ranging from well known killers like John Wayne Gacy and Dahmer to an unknown murderer who murdered 300 female virgins??? Ok Creepy factor times 100.
Gets worse from there...
Seems there are haunted houses in the US where you check in at home online. Seems once you buy a ticket, they send you a bracelet that you register. Seems that once you check-in at the haunted house, they are so high tech that when you enter certain rooms the computers in the room scan your bracelet and everything in the house customizes to you personally. For example, all the gravestones automatically change the names to family members found on your Facebook page. The pictures in the house become those of your closest friends on your Twitter account. And the CREEPY factor goes up even more times 1000.
I much prefer the safety of my own home, where I can clutch my pillow and be protected. Where I can watch my Ghost Hunters in peace and be mesmerized by the tiny little music box playing on its own...so yes I do believe in ghosts and presences...and believe that we are surrounded by presence all the time...and I feel great solace in this...truthfully...until they begin to move things without explanation and then we MOVE!! :)
What is your ghost stories??
