Long, long ago, there was a house called--are you ready for it?--the "Creepy, Crawly House".
But you won't find this house in any Google search. Well, maybe you'll find something matching "creepy crawly house", but it's not the house I'm talking about.
First, let's hop back in time to when I was a wee lad. Yeah, come on, let's hop. I was older than 6, younger than 10...couldn't tell you exactly. The area was in northern Michigan, where our family would vacation in one of two cabins (either ours or our grandparents' place) near Roscommon. Now, a bit down the road from our cabin stood an abandoned house on a hill. And, yes...it was actually on a hill. Y'know, just like every creepy house in every lame haunted house movie you've ever seen. "But this here's REAL!"
What made this house memorable wasn't so much that it was abandoned, although that in itself would give you a mild case of the "creepers" if you had to walk through it. No, it still had stuff in it. Stuff that you wouldn't expect to find if the family had simply moved out. Personal effects like record albums, photographs, books, clothes, dishes, etc.
You may well say "Well, geez, William, how do you know the family had abandoned it if there was still stuff in there? Maybe it was a vacation home and you were a trespassing tot!"
But to that accusation, I answer: "Look. I know it was abandoned because the place was falling apart. The steps were caving in, and the floorboards had large sections missing--if you were on the upper floor, you actually had to be careful where you walked for fear of falling into the ground level below."
See, that shushed you the hell up.
But to continue...I remember we took a few items with us. One item was an old "Candid Camera" record album and another was a "Happiness is..." Charlie Brown book. There might've been other things, but I can't remember. My sister Sandi's usually better at remembering that trivial stuff. Come on, Sandi, fill in the blanks. I know I'm missing some stuff, here!
But I have to say, even as a kid, there was something unsettling about listening to the very album that I knew had been heard by a family that had vanished under circumstances that couldn't have been merry. If the "me" of then had been the "me" of today, I would've avoided that or any items from the "creepy crawly house" like the plague. It would be as if their bad karma could transfer to me simply by hearing what they'd heard or reading the same pages that they'd read. I don't believe in superstition, but COME ON...that's just freaky.
And here's my last question...the one that I ponder most. One that will probably never be answered. Namely, what the DEUCE had happened to the people who owned that house? If they simply moved away, they wouldn't have left their personal effects behind. They either would've taken the stuff with them or thrown them out. The worst case scenario that my mind keeps drifting back to is, of course, that the family had met a bad end--in that VERY house. But if so, you'd think some surviving or distant relatives would've sold the place or at the very least would've claimed the personal effects.
In the years that followed, the house decayed further. The last I heard, it was just a foundation-sized hole in the ground, judging from the video my sister shot with her husband and kids when they ventured to the site. (Really, Sandi? You want to pass that unanswered, haunting question to your youngins?)
Answers! I want 'em!
But you won't find this house in any Google search. Well, maybe you'll find something matching "creepy crawly house", but it's not the house I'm talking about.
First, let's hop back in time to when I was a wee lad. Yeah, come on, let's hop. I was older than 6, younger than 10...couldn't tell you exactly. The area was in northern Michigan, where our family would vacation in one of two cabins (either ours or our grandparents' place) near Roscommon. Now, a bit down the road from our cabin stood an abandoned house on a hill. And, yes...it was actually on a hill. Y'know, just like every creepy house in every lame haunted house movie you've ever seen. "But this here's REAL!"
What made this house memorable wasn't so much that it was abandoned, although that in itself would give you a mild case of the "creepers" if you had to walk through it. No, it still had stuff in it. Stuff that you wouldn't expect to find if the family had simply moved out. Personal effects like record albums, photographs, books, clothes, dishes, etc.
You may well say "Well, geez, William, how do you know the family had abandoned it if there was still stuff in there? Maybe it was a vacation home and you were a trespassing tot!"
But to that accusation, I answer: "Look. I know it was abandoned because the place was falling apart. The steps were caving in, and the floorboards had large sections missing--if you were on the upper floor, you actually had to be careful where you walked for fear of falling into the ground level below."
See, that shushed you the hell up.
But to continue...I remember we took a few items with us. One item was an old "Candid Camera" record album and another was a "Happiness is..." Charlie Brown book. There might've been other things, but I can't remember. My sister Sandi's usually better at remembering that trivial stuff. Come on, Sandi, fill in the blanks. I know I'm missing some stuff, here!
But I have to say, even as a kid, there was something unsettling about listening to the very album that I knew had been heard by a family that had vanished under circumstances that couldn't have been merry. If the "me" of then had been the "me" of today, I would've avoided that or any items from the "creepy crawly house" like the plague. It would be as if their bad karma could transfer to me simply by hearing what they'd heard or reading the same pages that they'd read. I don't believe in superstition, but COME ON...that's just freaky.
And here's my last question...the one that I ponder most. One that will probably never be answered. Namely, what the DEUCE had happened to the people who owned that house? If they simply moved away, they wouldn't have left their personal effects behind. They either would've taken the stuff with them or thrown them out. The worst case scenario that my mind keeps drifting back to is, of course, that the family had met a bad end--in that VERY house. But if so, you'd think some surviving or distant relatives would've sold the place or at the very least would've claimed the personal effects.
In the years that followed, the house decayed further. The last I heard, it was just a foundation-sized hole in the ground, judging from the video my sister shot with her husband and kids when they ventured to the site. (Really, Sandi? You want to pass that unanswered, haunting question to your youngins?)
Answers! I want 'em!
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