a little back story

I think I would be remiss if I didn't explain the history of our home. As I mentioned previously, our home had three owners. Samuel Hooper and his wife Helen built this house in 1941. They had an adopted daughter named Samuela J. Hooper. That is all I had known about the previous owners when we had bought the house. The only other information I had was that Helen had been in a freak accident at some point in time in the 60's. We used to have a hardware store in the shopping plaza at the end our street. Helen was walking on the sidewalk in front of the hardware store, when a person in a vehicle accidentally put their car in reverse instead of drive and plowed her through the plate glass window of the hardware store. She died a couple of years later. I was always under the impression that she had died at home.

Jim's mother bought the house from theHooper estate when Jim was in high school. Grace had owned a maternity store named, Mary Grace Maternity Togs. She worked long and hard, and in it's day it was the place to buy maternity clothes. We were married almost two years when Grace got ill passing away several months later. She died of a heart attack at home in her bed. This is the same room that Jim and I moved into when we bought the house. The bedroom is on the first floor at the front of the house, with two windows that bring in tons of sunshine. Jim and I took this room for our bedroom when we moved in because it was the most practical room to take. The second bedroom on the first floor was being used as a den. The second floor had a dressing room, full bathroom, and a master bedroom. This was Jim's space when he lived at home with his mom, mostly because his mom's bedroom suite wouldn't fit up the stairs. We chose not to use the upstairs when we moved in because it was dark. The house is a cape cod, and typically the second floor rooms have "sloped" ceilings. We have since remedied the problem of light by putting in sky lights, and have since made it our master bedroom. And, yes, the first floor front bedroom is now Gracie's. :) Trust me, she wouldn't have it any other way.

So, for many years we lived mainly on the first floor, which is where so many strange things would occur. The volumn on our stereo would soar to an ear piercing volumn. The lights in the house would blink. The knocking on the doors just about drove me crazy. I had also noticed sudden temperature drops in the living room when I would watch tv or read. I am talking theeth chattering cold. And, yes, I would keep getting mail from Met Life addressed to Samuela J. Hooper twice a year.

As we went on with our lives the spooky stuff didn't get any worse, at least for Jim and myself. One of my brothers had moved in with us to get back on his feet and took the upstairs bedroom. It was a matter of days before he moved his bed into the dressing room next to the stairs. He said he kept hearing balls rolling across the floor at night. Scared the life out of him. Didn't take him long to get back on his feet and find a new place to live. :) All in all we all fell into a comfortable routine. Oh, I must add, that "we" all lived happily, unless I critized how the Hoopers built the house. I mean, come on, who builds a house and then decides to put a basement in? Ok, I better quit while I am ahead. :) After some 22 years of just Jim and I, the twins arrived. And, that is when all hell broke loose.