Ghosts

[Wineslob]

This subject is probably triggered by the up coming 6th anniversary of my BIL's death at the hands of a drunk driver, but thats a different story.
So on to the question at hand, do you have ghosts in your home? (if you believe in that sort of thing)
In our home we have at least 3. The first is an old lady that smokes. She first showed up when our home was storm damaged in 2001. Through insurance we got a new roof, carpets, and paint. The roof job required sheathing the house for asphalt roofing, requiring alot of work. At this time we would notice a STRONG smell of stale cigarette smoke. Really nasty smelling. It would show up at night, during the day, whenever. But it would only last a few minutes at most. Because of the nighttime occurances we ruled out the roofers.
 We later found out the wife of one of the previous owners was an elderly woman who smoked (she has passed). We think she was/is pissed about changes to the home, as she "showed up" again when we did the addition in 2005, but she woulden't go into the new room. Odd. She also liked cats................
 Leading to #2. The "invisible" cat that jumps on our bed sometimes at night. You can actually a cat jump on the bed, while we are in it, and walk across the foot of the bed, then it stops. I think the cat goes to a corner of the bed and lies down. No biggie, but kinda interesting. And yes, I have looked to see if it's one of ours. Nope, nuttin there.
#3. My BIL. At times, out of the corner of my eye, I will catch the shadowy image of a man about the size and shape of Jim. He's usually standing in a doorway. Sometimes crossing it. It doesen't bother me, or my wife (she see him too), but being someone who diden't really "believe" in ghosts, it's kinda changed my mind.
Any other experiences out there?




*edit* I hope the mods don't mind, but here's the link to Jims site: http://www.jimbridgesjr.com/

If this is a no-no, mod as necessary.

[jendf]

I don't have any ghost experiences myself but my mom claims she was near one at a hotel in northern Arizona. I don't remember the specifics except that there is a story of a woman who killed herself in that hotel the night before her wedding (or something like that--she died somehow in that hotel). Mom said that while she was strolling through the old hotel, she got a very strong whiff of a rose perfume and a chill went up her spine. She said there was no one else in the hallway, and she looked around for flower arrangements that she might have smelled. She couldn't find any. She was adamant that she had encountered a spirit, even just briefly.

My mom doesn't really believe in ghosts so when she told me this story, I was inclined to believe her story.

[mamacags]

None in this house.  I used to live with a roommate in college.  She actually owned the house (mobile home) that sat right where her deceased mother's house used to sit.  We had the strangest things happen when I lived there.  One night it felt like someone jumped on the end of my water bed, it just started going like the ocean out of nowhere.  Doors would open and close by themselves.  You could hear someone walking in the living room late at night when no one was up. 

The worst was when I had moved out but came back for a week to dog sit her dog.  I kept a little can of mace beside the bed by my water mug.  I woke up that morning and the mace was wedged in the handle of the water mug so if I would have grabbed it I would have maced myself.   The weird thing was that we figured it was just her mom so we were never actually scared of it.

[Lord Undies]

I am not a believer, or at least I am not sold on the classic ghost.

We did have a "man" and a "dog" walk down the middle hall of our house in April 1987.  It got very weird around here for a while.  I did not see the man and dog, but two of my kids did at the same time and I saw their simultaneous reaction.  My view was blocked by the book I was reading.  I could see the kids out of the corner of my eye.

My daughter, who was 10 at the time, was inconsolable afterwards.  She had to stay with her grandmother for a while.  

I did get four antique watches out of the deal.  They appeared on our dresser one morning.  Neither my wife or myself had ever seen them before.

This "thing" hated remote controls.  We couldn't keep one.  When the control to the bedroom set went missing for about the third time I said out loud, "I want my remote back dammit!".  The remote was on the foot of our bed the next morning.

I went so far as to actually call a paranormal expert who happened to be advertising for research material at the time.  The first thing the guy told me was that I needed to find out who lived in our home before us.  After I explained to him that we built the house in 1986 and that no one else had lived here, he lost interest, or maybe he ran out of explainations.

There are other things to tell from that time, but it gets redundant.  I can say in all honesty that no matter how alone you are in my house, you aren't really alone, and you know it.