This happened 22 years ago and it stills spooks me. I was restoring a
mid-18th century stone house in the Hudson Valley. Not only had I been
working on the house for about a year, doing careful investigation,
selective removal, uncovering physical evidence, etc., but I also had been
researching the builder's family. His son, a miller and Revolutionary War
soldier, had made major changes to the house, and I found his will which
listed all his worldly goods, etc.
One night about 11:30 I was on the second floor, whcih had been the attic
loft originally, measuring evidence in the floor boards of the original
stair opening and railing that had been removed long ago. I'd been on my
knees measuring and sketching for some time, when I stood up too fast. As I
blacked out momentarily, I saw in my minds eye the attic as it had
originally been, open, without bedroom/hall walls, And I saw the owner's
loom set up in the corner and piles of his stuff as listed in his inventory.
The vision lasted only a moment, but I quickly went downstairs to the
kitchen and made a cup of tea to calm my nerves before trying to go to
sleep. Was it a latent image floating in the ether awaiting a receptor for
200 years, or was it a manufactured image of my imagination built using the
information I had researched on the house and owner?? I don't know but it
was very real when it happened.
It was a pleasant enough experience, as one who wishes for time travel to
ease my historic building research problems, that in 22 years I have been
waiting, hoping for it to happen again, but nothing.
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: Greta Stone <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
<[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 1998 12:20 PM
Subject: I just have to ask...
>well, it's that time of the year again...Halloween...and I'm wondering if
>anybody out there has had anything really spooky happen to you while
working
>in an old house or building that you can't quite explain...
>
>Greta
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: John Callan [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Monday, October 19, 1998 7:16 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Gravel Road
>>
>> In a message dated 10/19/98 1:08:59 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>
>> <<To think I was so proud of you.
>>
>> I recently met someone of whom was said, "He lives in the 18th century
>> with
>> his buildings." And here you deny such a fine compliment given to a
>> preservationeer. Well, let there be a wealth of glass and steel to haunt
>> you
>> until Halloween!>>
>>
>> I don't want to loose that. And I do not want any more glass and steel
in
>> my
>> life...or concrete, fibreglass and copper arsenate...maybe if we gave me
a
>> time weighted average it would all work out...I do have some 18th century
>> time
>> to balance off the twentieth.
>>
>> -jc
|
