I was just entering my teens, my father had lung cancer and was struggling with it, and at the same time he and my mother were divorcing.
My mother had taken us to live with her in a small gulf side town, and my father had remained on the farm he had built up from nothing. My mother was so uncooperative and vindictive at the time we barely got to see our father and if we did she would throw tyrannical rages when we would return.
My father ended up taking a turn for the worse and was taken to Galveston Texas for care were he gave up his struggle and passed away. My older sister had to come to my junior high to pick me up and to break the tragic news to me and my younger brother. We were devastated and blamed my mother for missing out on time we could have spent with him before his passing. She ranted and raved and berated us for speaking to her in such a manner and tensions were stretched to their limits, everything set us to arguing.
It was during one of those arguments that I had stomped off to my room and slammed my door. I threw myself on my bed and was crying, when I got this whiff of my fathers aftershave lotion and I sat up and looked around expecting to see him standing there.
That evening we all went to sit with the body at the funeral home, and told stories of our time spent with my father. Two days later we buried my father and my brother and me just laid on the casket not wanting him to be gone and had to be pried loose. The burial continued and afterward we went to my cousins to visit.
The grown-ups went to the living room and all the kids went to the family room to horse around. Someone decided we should have a séance to call my fathers spirit to see if he was ok, and if he was happy. We all sat around this long table, with the lights off and a candle shining was our only light except the moon shining through the two windows facing me and my brother.
We said a prayer and asked that my fathers spirit join us, everyone waited for a sign. We were all breathing hard and more than a little scared when my brother and me looked straight ahead and saw the image of my father smiling through the window pane and nodding his head to let us know he was ok. My cousins looked at the window and at all at once there was screaming and chairs being thrown back and kids running to get away from the image of my father in the window pane.
As my brother and me started to join them my fathers image nodded at us once again and smiled as he faded and was gone. I have asked for him to return many times since I became and adult but he has never shown himself again.
Sent in by Elizabeth
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Fawn Hoof Mummy - Egyptian Influence In Ancient America?
Almost 200 years ago a very unusual mummy was discovered in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. A few things about the mummy challenge what we have been taught to believe about our history, particularly the extent of travel or influence of the ancient Egyptians. The mummy is known as the Fawn Hoof Mummy and it was what was largely responsible for making Mammoth Cave famous.
The photograph of the Fawn Hoof Mummy was taken in Washington, D.C. sometime before 1896.
Somewhere between 1811 and 1813 (different authors vary on the date) a group of miners were working in the Kentucky Caves, particularly in Short Cave. A worker was digging into the clay when he hit upon a large flat rock. When the rock was removed a crypt containing a mummy was discovered.
In 1816 Nahum Ward, of Ohio, visited Mammoth Cave and bought the Fawn Hoof Mummy. Ward also purchased several other mummies and sets of artifacts, some of them as old as 2,400 years at the time. Over the next few years much of Ward's collection was put on display to the public in traveling oddities shows. The Fawn Hoof Mummy was taken first to Lexington, Kentucky and later moved to the American Antiquarian Society.
In Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, editor Angelo I. George wrote that the mummy was discovered during September 1811. He also wrote that the name "Fawn Hoof" was given to the mummy in 1853. Thousands of people saw the mummy when it was put on display at two World Fairs.
Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society, finally transferred the Fawn Hoof Mummy the Smithsonian Institution in 1876. By that time it had suffered some damage from being moved around and improperly stored. Researchers at the museum examined and dissected it, filling out their reports and findings. At some point later they completely lost the body, so unfortunately, we are not able to learn any more about this enigma.
It was determined that the mummy had been a woman, nearly six foot tall. The woman had been wrapped in two deer skins that were decorated with leaf and vine patterns. The body was in nearly perfect condition even though researchers didn't see it until over 60 years after its discovery. The mummy had red hair in an unusual hair style. The hair was cut to about an eighth of an inch long, except on the back of the head, near the neck, where the hair was about two inches long.
Judging upon what was known by the artifacts found in the crypt, the woman is assumed to have been someone of importance. The miners also found a large sheet that was described as being either knitted or woven. The fact that this was the only mummy of this type ever to be found in America also hints at her importance.
The most astounding fact about the Fawn Hoof Mummy was that it had been prepared and embalmed in much the same way as used by the Egyptians. The hands, ears, fingers and much of the rest of the body was dried, but had been preserved very well.
So how, or why, did the Smithsonian Institution lose this precious find? Could it be that new information provided the mummy challenged their ideas about our pre-history and any interactions the ancient Egyptians may have had with the Americas?
Written by David Slone and Copyright © 2008 all rights reserved. No part of this story may be used without permission.
References:
History of the American Antiquarian Society, Clifford K. Shipton
Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, edited by Angelo I. George
Somewhere between 1811 and 1813 (different authors vary on the date) a group of miners were working in the Kentucky Caves, particularly in Short Cave. A worker was digging into the clay when he hit upon a large flat rock. When the rock was removed a crypt containing a mummy was discovered.
In 1816 Nahum Ward, of Ohio, visited Mammoth Cave and bought the Fawn Hoof Mummy. Ward also purchased several other mummies and sets of artifacts, some of them as old as 2,400 years at the time. Over the next few years much of Ward's collection was put on display to the public in traveling oddities shows. The Fawn Hoof Mummy was taken first to Lexington, Kentucky and later moved to the American Antiquarian Society.
In Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, editor Angelo I. George wrote that the mummy was discovered during September 1811. He also wrote that the name "Fawn Hoof" was given to the mummy in 1853. Thousands of people saw the mummy when it was put on display at two World Fairs.
Isaiah Thomas, founder of the American Antiquarian Society, finally transferred the Fawn Hoof Mummy the Smithsonian Institution in 1876. By that time it had suffered some damage from being moved around and improperly stored. Researchers at the museum examined and dissected it, filling out their reports and findings. At some point later they completely lost the body, so unfortunately, we are not able to learn any more about this enigma.
It was determined that the mummy had been a woman, nearly six foot tall. The woman had been wrapped in two deer skins that were decorated with leaf and vine patterns. The body was in nearly perfect condition even though researchers didn't see it until over 60 years after its discovery. The mummy had red hair in an unusual hair style. The hair was cut to about an eighth of an inch long, except on the back of the head, near the neck, where the hair was about two inches long.
Judging upon what was known by the artifacts found in the crypt, the woman is assumed to have been someone of importance. The miners also found a large sheet that was described as being either knitted or woven. The fact that this was the only mummy of this type ever to be found in America also hints at her importance.
The most astounding fact about the Fawn Hoof Mummy was that it had been prepared and embalmed in much the same way as used by the Egyptians. The hands, ears, fingers and much of the rest of the body was dried, but had been preserved very well.
So how, or why, did the Smithsonian Institution lose this precious find? Could it be that new information provided the mummy challenged their ideas about our pre-history and any interactions the ancient Egyptians may have had with the Americas?
Written by David Slone and Copyright © 2008 all rights reserved. No part of this story may be used without permission.
References:
History of the American Antiquarian Society, Clifford K. Shipton
Prehistoric Mummies from the Mammoth Cave Area, edited by Angelo I. George
Haunted House For Sale in Eastern Kentucky
I once lived, for a very short time, in a house haunted by ghosts. This house had been empty for a very long time. I don’t know for sure how long the house had been empty, but I do know that no one had lived in it for quite a few years.
It was a very beautiful three story house with a two room guest house and a big barn. It was located on the side of hill on a sparsely populated country road in south-eastern Kentucky. I had been living a few miles up the road and so I passed this house almost every day. For years there was a “For Sale” sign out front, but there never seemed to be a buyer.
I was working for a retired couple doing odd jobs. One day the old man made me an offer on the house. Until then I didn’t even know that he was the one who owned it. He said that if I would clear the weeds on the hillside behind it and keep all the grass cut, wash the windows and do some repairs that I could live in it rent free. Naturally I was excited about the idea and so within a few days my wife, my daughter, and I were moving into the house. I did think that it was a little strange that he and his wife lived in their small house next to the road instead of that nice big house on the hill, but I didn’t give it too much thought.
We couldn’t believe our luck. The house was really nice inside and out and the property it was on was beautiful. There was a huge yard and the mountain spread out behind it with trees every where you looked. The nearest neighbors were almost half a mile away.
After only a couple of nights strange things started to happen. One night we were laying in bed in the third story bedroom when I began to hear music. It reminded me of the Big Band groups like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. The music sounded far off at first, but it grew louder and louder until it sounded like it was coming from downstairs. Next I could hear what sounded like a large group of people talking. I couldn’t make out what was being said, it was like a bunch of voices all mixed together. Suddenly a man and woman started yelling and arguing. I still couldn’t make out what was being said, but I knew for sure that it was a man and a woman who were fighting.
At this point I turned to my wife and asked her if she could hear anything. She looked at me and I saw that her eyes were wide and she was afraid. She told me that she did hear something downstairs. I asked her what it was that she was hearing. She described to me exactly what I myself had been hearing! She said she heard a lot of people talking and then a man and a woman arguing and some old fashioned music playing. When she told me all that it was like the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. For some reason I had felt no fear until that moment, but suddenly I was afraid. Were there ghosts just downstairs from us?
We got up from the bed and slowly walked toward the stairs and turned on the lights. The music and the voices started getting quieter. We went down the first flight of stairs and turned on the next set of lights and the ghostly sounds stopped. Soon we were in the main living room and were looking all around for any signs of what we had heard. Suddenly the ghostly noises started up again, except this time they were upstairs! We ran upstairs and brought our daughter down to the first floor. We made pallets in the floor and spent the rest of the night listening for ghosts with most every light in the house turned on.
Several nights later the whole thing started happening again. This time I was home alone. My wife and daughter were visiting relatives for the weekend. I was bound and determined not to let the ghosts get to me and even yelled out to them to leave me alone and to go away. It seemed to work at first. The noises would stop and everything would be quiet, but as soon as I laid back down and began to get comfortable it would all start up again!
The next day I went to see a man I knew who I had rented our previous residence from. I told him about everything that had happened and asked him if he knew anything about the history of the house or had ever heard anything about it being haunted by ghosts. He told me that sometime back in the 1920′s there was a murder during a big family gathering, but didn’t know any details about what had happened or who had been murdered.
That really got me to feeling eerie! I knew without any doubt that the house was haunted because my wife and I had both heard the sounds on more than one occasion and now I had learned a little bit about the history of the house.
The very next day the owner of the house came by and told us that we had to move out right away. I asked him why, but he would give no explanation. He just said that he didn’t want anyone living in the house. I am certain that my ex-landlord had told him about what I had said about the ghosts and that was the reason he wanted us out as well as the reason why he wasn’t living there himself. So, not long afterwards we would be driving past the old house and see that “For Sale” sign and wonder if anyone would ever live there.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2008
It was a very beautiful three story house with a two room guest house and a big barn. It was located on the side of hill on a sparsely populated country road in south-eastern Kentucky. I had been living a few miles up the road and so I passed this house almost every day. For years there was a “For Sale” sign out front, but there never seemed to be a buyer.
I was working for a retired couple doing odd jobs. One day the old man made me an offer on the house. Until then I didn’t even know that he was the one who owned it. He said that if I would clear the weeds on the hillside behind it and keep all the grass cut, wash the windows and do some repairs that I could live in it rent free. Naturally I was excited about the idea and so within a few days my wife, my daughter, and I were moving into the house. I did think that it was a little strange that he and his wife lived in their small house next to the road instead of that nice big house on the hill, but I didn’t give it too much thought.
We couldn’t believe our luck. The house was really nice inside and out and the property it was on was beautiful. There was a huge yard and the mountain spread out behind it with trees every where you looked. The nearest neighbors were almost half a mile away.
After only a couple of nights strange things started to happen. One night we were laying in bed in the third story bedroom when I began to hear music. It reminded me of the Big Band groups like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. The music sounded far off at first, but it grew louder and louder until it sounded like it was coming from downstairs. Next I could hear what sounded like a large group of people talking. I couldn’t make out what was being said, it was like a bunch of voices all mixed together. Suddenly a man and woman started yelling and arguing. I still couldn’t make out what was being said, but I knew for sure that it was a man and a woman who were fighting.
At this point I turned to my wife and asked her if she could hear anything. She looked at me and I saw that her eyes were wide and she was afraid. She told me that she did hear something downstairs. I asked her what it was that she was hearing. She described to me exactly what I myself had been hearing! She said she heard a lot of people talking and then a man and a woman arguing and some old fashioned music playing. When she told me all that it was like the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. For some reason I had felt no fear until that moment, but suddenly I was afraid. Were there ghosts just downstairs from us?
We got up from the bed and slowly walked toward the stairs and turned on the lights. The music and the voices started getting quieter. We went down the first flight of stairs and turned on the next set of lights and the ghostly sounds stopped. Soon we were in the main living room and were looking all around for any signs of what we had heard. Suddenly the ghostly noises started up again, except this time they were upstairs! We ran upstairs and brought our daughter down to the first floor. We made pallets in the floor and spent the rest of the night listening for ghosts with most every light in the house turned on.
Several nights later the whole thing started happening again. This time I was home alone. My wife and daughter were visiting relatives for the weekend. I was bound and determined not to let the ghosts get to me and even yelled out to them to leave me alone and to go away. It seemed to work at first. The noises would stop and everything would be quiet, but as soon as I laid back down and began to get comfortable it would all start up again!
The next day I went to see a man I knew who I had rented our previous residence from. I told him about everything that had happened and asked him if he knew anything about the history of the house or had ever heard anything about it being haunted by ghosts. He told me that sometime back in the 1920′s there was a murder during a big family gathering, but didn’t know any details about what had happened or who had been murdered.
That really got me to feeling eerie! I knew without any doubt that the house was haunted because my wife and I had both heard the sounds on more than one occasion and now I had learned a little bit about the history of the house.
The very next day the owner of the house came by and told us that we had to move out right away. I asked him why, but he would give no explanation. He just said that he didn’t want anyone living in the house. I am certain that my ex-landlord had told him about what I had said about the ghosts and that was the reason he wanted us out as well as the reason why he wasn’t living there himself. So, not long afterwards we would be driving past the old house and see that “For Sale” sign and wonder if anyone would ever live there.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2008
Was this Terrifying Experience Just Sleep Paralysis?
About 12 years ago I had an experience with sleep paralysis. As far as I can recall it is the one and only time I have ever went through it.
I was in bed asleep and I woke up feeling a very heavy sense of terror. I mean I was freaked out, I felt so scared. I felt as though I had had a really bad nightmare but I could not remember anything about it. I know without any doubts whatsoever that I was completely awake. I lay there thinking, trying to figure out what my dream had been about when I noticed that some ‘thing’ was in the room with me. I somehow knew that it was over in the corner of the room but I couldn’t make it out. There was some light coming in form the window so I could see around the room but I couldn’t see what “it” was, all I could really see was a darkness. It wasn’t like a shadow with a certain shape, it was just darkness. When I say that I felt a very evil presence in that darkness I cannot exaggerate, it was bad.
Up until this time I was just laying there. I hadn’t tried to get up or move. But when I tried to raise my head up to look closer at the corner of the room I discovered that I could not move anything except for my eyes! There was a huge weight that started pressing down on me and it was getting difficult to even breathe. At that moment I became even more terrified. I struggled and pushed and then I thought if I could just speak the name of Jesus it would all go away. It took a lot of effort to get the word out. At first it was like I was yelling as loud as I could but no sound would come out. Finally I stuttered the name “Jesus” aloud and instantly the weight vanished and the entire room felt lighter. Just like that the ‘thing’ was over.
A strange thing about all this, and it could very well just be a coincidence, is that just a few days (or maybe it was a couple weeks I can recall for certain but it was definitely no longer than that) before this I was involved in the digging of a grave and we accidentally dug into an old grave that was unmarked.
I posted more about this experience here – We Accidentally Dug Into Someone’s Grave!
As odd as it may seem I never really made the connection that my bout with sleep paralysis happened so soon after the cemetery thing until just recently. As I have said it could just be a coincidence, but I think it was more.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2009
I was in bed asleep and I woke up feeling a very heavy sense of terror. I mean I was freaked out, I felt so scared. I felt as though I had had a really bad nightmare but I could not remember anything about it. I know without any doubts whatsoever that I was completely awake. I lay there thinking, trying to figure out what my dream had been about when I noticed that some ‘thing’ was in the room with me. I somehow knew that it was over in the corner of the room but I couldn’t make it out. There was some light coming in form the window so I could see around the room but I couldn’t see what “it” was, all I could really see was a darkness. It wasn’t like a shadow with a certain shape, it was just darkness. When I say that I felt a very evil presence in that darkness I cannot exaggerate, it was bad.
Up until this time I was just laying there. I hadn’t tried to get up or move. But when I tried to raise my head up to look closer at the corner of the room I discovered that I could not move anything except for my eyes! There was a huge weight that started pressing down on me and it was getting difficult to even breathe. At that moment I became even more terrified. I struggled and pushed and then I thought if I could just speak the name of Jesus it would all go away. It took a lot of effort to get the word out. At first it was like I was yelling as loud as I could but no sound would come out. Finally I stuttered the name “Jesus” aloud and instantly the weight vanished and the entire room felt lighter. Just like that the ‘thing’ was over.
A strange thing about all this, and it could very well just be a coincidence, is that just a few days (or maybe it was a couple weeks I can recall for certain but it was definitely no longer than that) before this I was involved in the digging of a grave and we accidentally dug into an old grave that was unmarked.
I posted more about this experience here – We Accidentally Dug Into Someone’s Grave!
As odd as it may seem I never really made the connection that my bout with sleep paralysis happened so soon after the cemetery thing until just recently. As I have said it could just be a coincidence, but I think it was more.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2009
Ghost in an Eastern Kentucky Mountain Cemetery
A long while back me and a good friend were out riding around in my 1974 VW Beetle. It was sometime around 2 or 3 AM when we drove up this dirt road which went up to the top of the hill where there was an old cemetery.
We parked just below the main entrance to the cemetery and I was rolling a cigarette. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and I raised my head and looked to my right. Outside the window on the passenger side there was a man standing there, bent over and peering into the car. At about the same time my friend looked too and then suddenly there was no one there. Both of us were looking all around but we could see no one anywhere. There just wasn’t any way that a person could have moved that fast.
I asked my buddy if he had seen “that” and he nodded and said that he did. I asked him what he saw and he described a man with long red hair and a mustache and beard wearing a cap and cover-alls. That was exactly the same thing I had seen! I started up the car and we headed down off that hill really quickly. We talked about going back up there and looking around but we were too freaked out.
This happened in a cemetery in Auxier, Kentucky around 1980 or 81 (I don’t recall the exact date). An interesting point about the cemetery is that it contains a lot of graves that were moved from another cemetery.
NOTE: The relocation project was started in the 1940s but the cemetery itself has been there much longer, since the 1800s. There are a lot of stones that are not readable and some very old graves had no stones; you could discern them by the depressions in the ground.
The photo on the right is of a stone that was laying flat on the ground -with the date of death being 1902
These photos were taken by me in August of 2009. I was in the area and went up to take a look at the old place.
This was an experience where I was not alone and I was not the only one to see it. People try to tell me that we saw a “regular” human being who just happened to be walking through the cemetery that night. The people who say that were not there and do not understand that it was impossible for a “regular” person to just vanish into thin air like that.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
We parked just below the main entrance to the cemetery and I was rolling a cigarette. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and I raised my head and looked to my right. Outside the window on the passenger side there was a man standing there, bent over and peering into the car. At about the same time my friend looked too and then suddenly there was no one there. Both of us were looking all around but we could see no one anywhere. There just wasn’t any way that a person could have moved that fast.
I asked my buddy if he had seen “that” and he nodded and said that he did. I asked him what he saw and he described a man with long red hair and a mustache and beard wearing a cap and cover-alls. That was exactly the same thing I had seen! I started up the car and we headed down off that hill really quickly. We talked about going back up there and looking around but we were too freaked out.
This happened in a cemetery in Auxier, Kentucky around 1980 or 81 (I don’t recall the exact date). An interesting point about the cemetery is that it contains a lot of graves that were moved from another cemetery.
NOTE: The relocation project was started in the 1940s but the cemetery itself has been there much longer, since the 1800s. There are a lot of stones that are not readable and some very old graves had no stones; you could discern them by the depressions in the ground.
 |
| Auxier Cemetery Stone dated 1902 Auxier Relocation Cemetery in Auxier Ky |
These photos were taken by me in August of 2009. I was in the area and went up to take a look at the old place.
This was an experience where I was not alone and I was not the only one to see it. People try to tell me that we saw a “regular” human being who just happened to be walking through the cemetery that night. The people who say that were not there and do not understand that it was impossible for a “regular” person to just vanish into thin air like that.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
My Childhood Home Was Haunted
In 1973 my parents bought an old house that had been sitting empty for a long time. The house was at the end of a hollow (“Holler”) and you actually had to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle to even get to it. (When the weather was bad you couldn’t even get a 4-wheel drive up to it!)
This house was fairly big and included an above ground basement which made it two stories high plus a huge attic. The house had been vandalized in that most of the windows were busted, ceiling tiles and walls torn up and lots of garbage and junk. My father was a mason and carpenter, he built homes for a living so he went to work on the remodeling. It took a while before he had the house ready for us to move into and even then at first we stayed in an area down stairs until the rest of the house was ready. Eventually the house was very nice with new paneling, ceiling tiles, windows and even a wall to wall Bedford stone fireplace.
When we first moved into that house I was around 10 years old. I had two younger sisters (and one older sister, but she didn’t live with us at the time) and all three of us thought that the house was haunted. We heard strange noises many times. One thing in particular was the dishes rattling in the kitchen. Mom explained it away as the dishes “settling” but we never believed that. They made too much noise and it would happen several different times in one night sometimes! In all the years since those days I have never heard dishes settle like that anywhere else I have lived.
Not long after living there we found out about the previous residents. That is my sisters and I found out about it, I am sure my parents already knew. Anyway, the people who lived there before us had a 14 year old boy who got himself electrocuted to death trying to gather old copper wiring (It is supposed that he thought the wires weren’t live). The family couldn’t bear to live there any longer so they moved leaving the house empty for a long time until we came along. We also learned that the family who had lived there before them had also had a death in the household but we didn’t know any of the details.
I want to try to keep this short so I will just add that while we owned that place my father was killed, also just down the road from the house. Once again the house was to sit empty for a period of years. During that time it was vandalized and soon it was in just as bad a shape as it was when we had bought it.
Eventually a local man obtained the house and property and began working to clean it up and get it ready for his family to move in. While he was clearing and burning brush an ember must have made it onto the roof of the house because it caught fire and burned to the ground.
We lived in that house for four years and in fact that was the longest stretch of time I had ever lived in one place in my life at that time. A lot of things happened in that house and on the property around it. I will write more about that very soon.
(The first picture above was taken in 1973 when we first bought the house and property and before my father remodeled it – The second photo was taken 1 year later, the remodeling was in progress but still not (complete).
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
This house was fairly big and included an above ground basement which made it two stories high plus a huge attic. The house had been vandalized in that most of the windows were busted, ceiling tiles and walls torn up and lots of garbage and junk. My father was a mason and carpenter, he built homes for a living so he went to work on the remodeling. It took a while before he had the house ready for us to move into and even then at first we stayed in an area down stairs until the rest of the house was ready. Eventually the house was very nice with new paneling, ceiling tiles, windows and even a wall to wall Bedford stone fireplace.
Not long after living there we found out about the previous residents. That is my sisters and I found out about it, I am sure my parents already knew. Anyway, the people who lived there before us had a 14 year old boy who got himself electrocuted to death trying to gather old copper wiring (It is supposed that he thought the wires weren’t live). The family couldn’t bear to live there any longer so they moved leaving the house empty for a long time until we came along. We also learned that the family who had lived there before them had also had a death in the household but we didn’t know any of the details.
Eventually a local man obtained the house and property and began working to clean it up and get it ready for his family to move in. While he was clearing and burning brush an ember must have made it onto the roof of the house because it caught fire and burned to the ground.
We lived in that house for four years and in fact that was the longest stretch of time I had ever lived in one place in my life at that time. A lot of things happened in that house and on the property around it. I will write more about that very soon.
(The first picture above was taken in 1973 when we first bought the house and property and before my father remodeled it – The second photo was taken 1 year later, the remodeling was in progress but still not (complete).
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
The Evil From the Allen Room
Before I try to explain what happened I need to tell you a little background information. The house was located at the “head of the holler”, in other words it was the last house in the hollow.
Behind and around the house there were two pastures and behind those were the hills full of trees. We found several large piles of stones scattered around in the back pasture and thought they were Indian burials (kids right?). Eventually curiosity got the best of me and I started looking into the stone piles. These were large, heavy rocks and the piles were fairly big. I started finding old marble door knobs. I thought they were cool and antique so I began collecting them. This went on for awhile and then one day I found a jet black door knob. All the other door knobs were white or varying shades of white. Although I did not realize it at the time that was where this particular “story” began. Four days of weirdness.
As far as I know I have only sleep walked one time, I didn’t find out about it until the next day. My mother told me that I came walking downstairs and went into the kitchen. She thought I was going for a drink or something but then she heard the back door open. She got up and walked into the kitchen and asked me where I was going. “I have to save Slone!” I yelled. She was confused and asked me what I was talking about. I repeated it and added that Slone was my horse and I had to go save him. She told me that she would take care of my horse and she led me back to my bed. She said she realized I was sleep walking but my eyes were open and I was talking and looking right at her.
The next night I had a very vivid nightmare. I heard people screaming and yelling and when I went to the back door to look outside there was a huge dark silhouette which appeared to be standing behind the hills with its hands resting upon the hilltops. I could see it from about the waist up, it was wearing a wide brimmed hat with a pointed top. My family rushed out of the house and down the hill. I woke up terrified.
The very next night I had another nightmare. This time I was being chased. I was in my bedroom but the bed was in the middle of the room. I couldn’t see what was chasing me except for its eyes. I would look back for a split second and would see those horrible eyes. I was running around the bed in circles with the thing behind me. Every now and then I would make a jump for this window which was at the top of my door (In reality there was no door to my bedroom). Eventually I made it to the window. I strained to pull myself up so I could escape the room and get away from the thing that was after me.
In the meantime my parents downstairs heard a lot of banging noises. My father came upstairs to check on me and I was not in my room! My window was wide open, he looked out and there I was. I had jumped out of the window and dropped three stories onto a pile of chimney bricks. We had been tearing out an old chimney and tossing the bricks and mortar out that window. Dad ran downstairs, outside and picked me up and brought me back into the house. When he came into the house he literally passed out and dropped me. That was when I awoke – completely unharmed and with no idea I had been outside!
On the fourth night I was in bed asleep. A chair flew across the room, slammed into my bed and fell into the floor. This was one of those kid sized fold up aluminum lawn chairs. I am absolutely certain that it was sitting in front of my desk when I went to bed. So the sound woke me up and I raised up and looked around the room. The chair was laying in the floor, folded up by my bed! An instant later I noticed a figure standing in my doorway. It was the same one from the dream of a couple nights before but it was smaller. I could never explain why I became so brave all of a sudden but I jumped out of bed and started kicking at the thing. My first kick hit the door facing but then I kicked the shadowy looking figure and it slowly dissolved and appeared to vanish into the floor. At that time my mother came running in and asked me what was wrong. I replied “It’s in the Allen room!” She said, “What?” I repeated it. She asked me what was the Allen room and after I said “It’s in the Allen room!” maybe 5 or 6 times she grabbed me and shook me and asked again “What is the Allen room?!” By that time I replied to her with a simple “I don’t know.”
The next day I was outside and for some reason a thought came into my head as though it were someone or some “thing” else telling me “The black marble door knob.” I cannot explain how I came to think that, or hear that thought, but I was convinced that there was something evil associated with that piece of marble. I went to my room and got it. I took it up into the hills and I threw it as far as I could. I heard it crashing and tumbling through the dried leaves. The nightmares stopped and I never walked in my sleep again. All this happened over 30 years ago but I remember it very clearly. For a long time I asked around and no one I talked to had ever known anyone named Allen who had lived there. But I did learn that where those rock piles were there use to be some houses, but that had been several decades before we moved there.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
Behind and around the house there were two pastures and behind those were the hills full of trees. We found several large piles of stones scattered around in the back pasture and thought they were Indian burials (kids right?). Eventually curiosity got the best of me and I started looking into the stone piles. These were large, heavy rocks and the piles were fairly big. I started finding old marble door knobs. I thought they were cool and antique so I began collecting them. This went on for awhile and then one day I found a jet black door knob. All the other door knobs were white or varying shades of white. Although I did not realize it at the time that was where this particular “story” began. Four days of weirdness.
The next night I had a very vivid nightmare. I heard people screaming and yelling and when I went to the back door to look outside there was a huge dark silhouette which appeared to be standing behind the hills with its hands resting upon the hilltops. I could see it from about the waist up, it was wearing a wide brimmed hat with a pointed top. My family rushed out of the house and down the hill. I woke up terrified.
The very next night I had another nightmare. This time I was being chased. I was in my bedroom but the bed was in the middle of the room. I couldn’t see what was chasing me except for its eyes. I would look back for a split second and would see those horrible eyes. I was running around the bed in circles with the thing behind me. Every now and then I would make a jump for this window which was at the top of my door (In reality there was no door to my bedroom). Eventually I made it to the window. I strained to pull myself up so I could escape the room and get away from the thing that was after me.
In the meantime my parents downstairs heard a lot of banging noises. My father came upstairs to check on me and I was not in my room! My window was wide open, he looked out and there I was. I had jumped out of the window and dropped three stories onto a pile of chimney bricks. We had been tearing out an old chimney and tossing the bricks and mortar out that window. Dad ran downstairs, outside and picked me up and brought me back into the house. When he came into the house he literally passed out and dropped me. That was when I awoke – completely unharmed and with no idea I had been outside!
The next day I was outside and for some reason a thought came into my head as though it were someone or some “thing” else telling me “The black marble door knob.” I cannot explain how I came to think that, or hear that thought, but I was convinced that there was something evil associated with that piece of marble. I went to my room and got it. I took it up into the hills and I threw it as far as I could. I heard it crashing and tumbling through the dried leaves. The nightmares stopped and I never walked in my sleep again. All this happened over 30 years ago but I remember it very clearly. For a long time I asked around and no one I talked to had ever known anyone named Allen who had lived there. But I did learn that where those rock piles were there use to be some houses, but that had been several decades before we moved there.
Written by David Slone, Copyright 2012
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