knock, knock, who is in the basement?

When we moved into this house, we moved in with Hershie, our german Shepard, and Kisses, our cat. Neither of the animals seemed upset or disturbed by the happenings in the house. I busied myself with turning our new house into our home. Jim was working at Copperweld Specialty Steel and I worked at the Brown Derby restaurant as a hostess. Neither of us were home much due to our busy schedules. But, my employment came to an end when Kenley Players theater went out of business. The shows were the bread and butter to the restaurant and without the theater the business didn't survive. So, I became a full time homemaker. Which I always loved. Cooking has always been a passion of mine.

I was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Jim was still at work at the mill. Hershie, as usual was at my side. :) I was stirring something on the stove, when we heard someone or something knocking loudly on the basement door. Hershie immediately ran to the basement door barking wildly. I personally was freaking out. My hands were trembling as I reached out to grasp the door nob to the basement door. My heart was pounding fiercely. I remember holding my breath as I slowly turned the knob and opened the door. And, of course.......there was nobody there. This became almost a ritual. If it wasn't the basement door, it was the utility room door leading to the garage, or even the utility room door from the kitchen.



I still wasn't sold on the idea of anything "super natural" living among us. Even when I came down the stairs from the second floor and suddenly felt 6 ft tall. Seriously, that was weird. You see, my mother-in-law was 6 ft. tall. And, I felt like she had taken over my body, cause I was tall and I was skinny and I held my head just like she did. Yet, oddly enough that seemed ok to me at the time. To me it was like the lessor of all evils. After all, I knew my mother-in-law. Granted, she didn't like me in the beginning, but I grew on her. And, no, not like a fungus. :) She made my wedding vale. She pricked herself with the needle and a drop of blood dropped onto the edge of my vale, and we left it there. We really grew to love each other. :) I really miss her. :( Ok, I have to tell you this really quick story about Jim's mom. This was the Thanksgiving before she died. Jim and I had a really cute apartment not far from here. I was making Thanksgiving dinner for us and his mom. For the life of me, I couldn't find the giblets in the turkey when I was preparing it for the oven. I called my mother, I called his mother. They told me where to look, and I looked, and they were not in the darn bird! So, we sit down to dinner. Jim had watched a cable show on how to carve a turkey. He proceeds to carve the bird, and when he slices the breast meat off the bird, low and behold!!! There are my damn giblets!!! Sorry, I had to tell ya my first cooking boo boo. :)

The happenings in house were sporadic after a while. Did they stop? No, not at all. I think I just started getting used to them. Until I started hearing voices. Then I really started to pay attention. The voices were more mumblings, like a gathering of sorts. I could never make out what they were saying. And, why there seemed to be so many of them. That mystery wasn't solved until a few years ago. But, I am getting ahead of myself.