Home » My Dad told Stories

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He could also tell stories. His most famous stories were heard by his children and they were his "ghost Stories" As a matte of fact after I had grown up I researched some of the ghost stories which he said were true and by golly I found them written in books. So I know now that my Dad was telling us stories that he had read about in school. When I was growing up I did not know that. But all of the stories he told weren't already in books, some of them were made up in his imagination and were told to us when we were being too noisy, or just too rambunctious for our own good. Are you ready for a good "ghost Story"?

The one that I remember the best was told to us by our Dad usually on a stormy night, or windy night when a storm was coming up. Then he said we would listen better to him. But you know he always had our rapt attention as he talked to us and it seemed like the stories were never made up or read out of a book because my Dad was one of the best storytellers you could ever know.

We never knew whether he was telling us the truth or not because of that, but listen now and I will tell you this story that he told to us on a stormy blowing night with the lightening flashing and the thunder howling in our ears. Did you know that my granddad was looking for a house to live in? He wanted a nice house with an upstairs. (He had 10 children) He wanted as many bedrooms as he could get and he did not care if there was running water or a bathroom in the house. He wanted it shady with nice trees in the yard and lots of room. He also would like to have a house with a front porch, it is always more restful in the evening hours if you can sit in a porch swing on the front porch after a hard day's work.

Well, he was looking everywhere for this special house when he went a quarter of a mile down the road and he saw what he thought was a beautiful sight to see. He had found the house that he wanted. It was everything that he had asked God for. It had an upstairs, with many bedrooms available, it didn't have a bathroom inside of it but there was one out in the back and there was a pump for running water. It was his dreams come true he looked for a long time for this house. So he began looking for the owner of the house by asking questions of the neighbor's.

But they began to tell him, "you don't want that house" "Nobody can live in that house" "You can't stay in that house because it's haunted" Well he'd say to them Do you know who owns the house and they would say no. Well he finally did locate the owner but they assured him that no one had lived in the house for a long time. It was haunted they said and no one had ever lived in it for more than a week at the most. They would come and tell the owners that something had come in every night at nine o'clock and opened the doors and windows of the house. The thing had come through the house moaning and crying and was just unbelievable to hear. No one would stay and go through that every night.

"Well, I will" say Grandpa, "And I believe I will stay a lot more than a week as well." So, the owners gave Grandpa the keys to the house and him and his wife and kids went to clean up the house they wanted to stay in. Grandpa and grandma moved in the house and cleaned it right nice and pretty the house was. But the evening hours came and Nine o'clock was looking at them and grandpa said, "Hold on children, I believe it's a coming." The house was locked up tight waiting for the ghost to come in and say hello. Well Nine o'clock came and the time was on the last beat of the clock when sure enough the ghost came through the door.

She came in the front door of the house moaning and crying something pitiful as she went up the stairs and then went out the upstairs window. When she left every door and window had to be shut back down because she had left every door and window open in the house. "Well" said Grandpa, "You kids go and shut and lock each door and window" and he sat and thought about what had happened to them. Then he surmised an opening for the ghost, for the next time she came through the doors and left all the doors and windows unlocked. For he believed that he could talk to these ghostly persons and he would see what she would say. Well we could hardly wait for the next night to come.

We wanted to see what grandpa would do. And sure enough the night time came and then the evening as we sat waiting on friend ghost to appear. Grandpa sat on an easy chair by the door and as the ghost came through to repeat her nightly tours. He asked her "In the name of Jesus what do you want?" We waited with our breath in hand as the ghost stopped and answered him. "What did you say?" And so he repeated to her his question.

"What in the name of Jesus do you want?" She said to him, "I have died and I have left money for my children in an old jar out under the old oaken tree in the backyard. My children are living with an evil stepfather who beats them within an inch of their life. Will you get the money and take it to my children, so they won't have to live like that?" And my grandpa said, "Yes, I certainly will" She said "if you do this for me, you will never have any trouble living in this house"" But If you don't do it then you will never stay in this house again after tonight" "Give me your promise and I will go and leave you" and the ghost left my grandpa.

Well grandpa immediately went out to the oak tree and dug under it looking for the glass jar with the money. After he had dug for a few hours he came back in with the glass jar under his arms and said now we will wait for our instructions from the ghost. So he went to bed. And the next night directly at nine o'clock she came through the doors and spoke to my grandpa. "Did you find the jar and he said "yes, I did."

Then, she gave him the address of her children and my grandpa left immediately to find her children and give them the money she had provided for them. After he had made sure the children were protected from the evil stepfather my grandpa came back to the house. He met with the ghost one more time but after that he was never bothered anymore with the open doors and windows or the howling and the screaming. Grandpa was glad and lived in the house a long time.