🚀 go-pugleaf

Several years ago I was hanging around with a friend whose home
was situated on a lonely rural road here in Springfield, Illinois.
He and other members of his family had told me of several strange
incidents that had occurred there. BTW, not that I believe it has
anything to do with it, but they had a black cat with only three
legs and six toes on each of the remaining ones. :)
It seems they believe that the husband/father of their family who
died some years before was still there, watching over them..
They would often hear piano music drifting through the house exactly
as he used to play it. Also, some of the usual things reported in
hauntings such as hearing footsteps and doors being opened or closed.
One particularly strange incident they related to me was where they
decided to try contacting the presence through a seance. Nothing
happened for some time, then suddenly they noticed that the chandelier
was slowly moving as if being pushed by an unseen hand! It moved to
a 45 degree angle, stayed there for a moment, then slowly returned to
normal.

They also told me a story of an old, abandoned shack about one half
mile from their house way back from the road. We went there once(during
the day) to explore but it was extremely rickety so we couldn't do much
more than look inside through the door and windows. Legend had it that
someone kept a bunch of dogs there in cages and treated them very badly.
In fact, they were finally just completely abandoned, left to starve to
death; but not before howling horribly for many days. Now, some area
residents can sometimes hear terrible howling that seems to come from
back there, but no one wants to investigate.

I have one personal experience at this house that is rather spooky.
One night, my friend and I were outside playing badmitton and I truly
believe that no one else was home. Suddenly, the little dog set up a
terrific barking from inside the house. Now, I had been visiting this
home for many months and I had _never_ heard that dog bark. My friend
verified that it really wasn't a noisy dog at all, so we were both a
bit taken aback by this. We went up to the front door and tried to get
in, but it was locked. My buddy went around to the back door, but it
wouldn't open either! He came back to the front and we listened to the
dog and wondered what to do next. Just as suddenly as it started, the
dog stopped his excited barking. When we again tried the door, it came
right open! We looked all through that house, but found nothing unusual.

     "An argument isn't just saying 'no it isn't'".
     "Yes it is". "No it ISN'T!" - Monty Python
 
      Stan Warman: Microcomputer Specialist
           Sangamon State University