Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

When I was young my mother would put me to sleep by telling me ghost stories that were told to her when she was young. They were all true, as far as she knows, though she says that her grandma may have just imagined them.

Many happened in Jackson County...Pisgah to be exact, but the one I am sharing today happened in Decatur.

Here is the transcript of my mom telling the story last Sunday:


It was a big old pretty house but Grandma would hear sounds. It was a big two story house. It had about four bedrooms up stairs. Rich people used to live there but a lot of them would build big houses out in the country but then move to town . A lawyer owned it and they'd moved back to Decatur.

They were sharecroppers. The owners let them live in the house and farm the land and gave them half of it. Grandma didn't have any furniture to put in the house but it had been beautiful.

Her and grandpa had been over at Grandma Washburn's, her mama's, they were bad all of them to go aback to their mamas.

That night they had been to grandma Washburn's and had to come back home to the big house. They had to walk and there was a big snow on the ground. Her and Grandpa didn't have anything in the house but in two rooms with some rocking chairs and a bed in the living room.Instead of trying to heat the kitchen up, it was so cold they'd just cook on the fire place. Grandma was cooking and they heard somebody "knock knock" on the door and they said well it must be Billy or Reuben, that was grandmas two brothers, they weren't there and they were mean as black snakes. In those days people didn't go to the door so Grandpa said "come in come in."  But no one ever came in.They kept hearing it and so Grandpa went to the door.  He saw the snow was banked up and there wasn't a footprint in the snow and no body was out there.  He said "Melviney come here and look." The snow had already covered their footsteps on the porch and walkway, from when they got there earlier, and there weren't any other tracks anywhere. It scared Grandma. She didn't hardly sleep that night and she wouldn't go back up there after that night, so she went back and stayed with her mama.

The next night, Reuben and Billy said they'd go back with Grandpa and stay and see what happened. So they carried them a little liquor and was drinking, Billy and Reuben was, and after a while they started hearing soft music and they looked and coming floating down the stairs was a beautiful woman in a long white dress and  Uncle Billy said "Come on down here baby, I'll dance with you." And she went "poof" and vanished in the fog. So they grabbed their mules and wouldn't even stay all night there half drunk, they went back home.

Grandma said she always worried that she didn't try to find out what had happened in that house.

Ok, so  perhaps this is not the scariest story on earth, but it was scary enough to put me to sleep when I was younger.  I'm keeping the better stories, like how my great grandmother was warned of all her children's deaths, for another day.  

I share this story because...that's what I am trying to start with this blog...a sharing of local people's stories...because I think all stories are important and worth writing down or recording.