Sandy J. Hartwick

All the latest from author, Sandy J. Hartwick

The Man in the Red Flannel Shirt

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Photo by Ryan Hafey on Unsplash

The Man in the Red Flannel Shirt

This story was given to me by a childhood friend. I’d heard bits of this story when I was growing up–it is satisfying to present you with the complete version. Names have been changed in this story. The second story belongs to my friend as well. It is a short one, but it gave me chills. The following words belong to my friend.
This story was told to me by my childhood friend. I believe it, because my friend is not prone to telling fantastic stories. He considers most ghost and paranormal stories as pure BS. This is a person who never reads or watches ghost stories, because it does not interest him. He is not religious. I am not sure if he believes in God and religion is probably also filed under BS in his mind. So, coming from him this story is all the more amazing.
This story has several parts as it has evolved over time. My friend, Craig, grew up in Smith Valley with his father Glenn, his mother Madeline, and his old siblings Roger and Jennifer. Craig was about 5 years younger than his sister and probably 6 or 7 years younger than his brother. The family lived in a ranch style house on the south side of the West Walker River that bisects Smith Valley.
The first part of the story was told to Craig by his father. One night Glenn woke up to find a man standing over his wife who was lying next to him in bed. Glenn was a large and muscular sort of fellow who had been captain of the football team in high school. So he jumped up and dove across the bed to tackle the intruder. Instead, he passed right through the man and slammed against the wall with a terrific crash. His wife woke up and wanted to know what the hell was going on. He told her he had seen a man leaning over the bed and that he was sure of it. Glenn described the man as wearing a red flannel shirt and a billed hunting style cap.
Some years later Craig was out playing with his brother and sister out by the horse corral behind their family home. Their father Glenn was a roper and kept his roping horse in the corral–there was also an old caboose that was used as a storage shed and tack room. (A caboose seems out of place in Smith Valley, but there was actually a railroad line. The Nevada Copper Belt Railroad operated sporadically from 1911 to 1947, hauling copper ore from mines in the Smith and Mason valleys to the smelter at Thomson. So, I would assume this caboose was a remnant of that railroad.) I had been in the caboose several times before when I had been over visiting Craig. The exterior of the caboose was faded from the sun and the inside was painted white. I remember there was a heavy wooden door on the side of the caboose, the hinges had sagged and the bottom door latch had dug a deep gouge in the floor. The door was very difficult for a small child to open. Inside there were saddles, horse tack, feed and assorted stored items.
On this day, the kids wandered into the caboose and came upon one of the family cats so they decided to place the cat in the old bird cage located inside the caboose. After securing the latch on the cage the kids went out of the caboose and closed the door. They went on with their game and had almost forgotten about the cat when the door of the caboose suddenly swung open and the cat came flying out of the caboose like it was thrown out. Craig said the cat was all puffed up and very scared and there was no way it could have gotten out of the cage, let alone move the heavy door. None of the kids would go near the caboose for quite some time after this incident.
Many years later, Craig was visiting his mother at the house with his wife and family. During the night Craig’s wife Kayla heard their son John crying and went to find him, since he was not in his bed. John who was about 3 or 4  at the time, was crying at the sliding glass door that led out to the backyard pool. Kayla asked him why he was crying and he said, because he could not open the door. When she asked why he wanted to open the door, he said because the man wanted him to come outside with him. Upon further questioning John told her that the man had a red flannel shirt and a hunting cap. Craig was quite shocked because he had never told Kayla or the kids about the man in the red flannel shirt. Why was the man trying to get John out by the pool?
The family is not sure, but they don’t believe the man in the red flannel shirt is a good spirit. They believe he was associated with the caboose, but it was burned down to make room for a new garage. The house is now vacant.

One of the other stories was told to me by Coy Pepper, who actually lived in Smith Valley when he was quite young ,until his parents moved to Idaho and bought a farm near Hagerman.  The story takes place in Idaho, but I am not sure the exact location. 

When Coy was a young bachelor, he was working as an equipment operator. He and one of his friends  decided to rent a place closer to one of their jobs.  After some searching, they found an old ranch house that had been a stage stop in the old days.  Coy said it was pretty run down, but great for a bachelor pad.  The house had a large kitchen with a door to the dining/living room at one end and a door to the back porch on the other.  Coy said everything was fine at first, but they started to notice that every time they went in the kitchen the cabinet doors would be open.  Initially, they  just assumed the other person had left them open, but when Coy was kidding his roommate about always leaving the doors open he told him he thought Coy left them open.  Neither had, so the next assumption was the house was so out of level that the cabinet doors would just slowly open.  The house was old and swaybacked so being out of level was a distinct possibility, but why would the doors on both sides of the room be open? They soon found that they could close all the doors and go out to the living room to watch TV, come back into the kitchen in 5 minutes to get a beer or snack and all the cabinet doors would be open.  They found it strange that you could sit at the kitchen table and eat your breakfast or lunch and the cabinet doors would stay closed. If you left the room the doors would open.  They tried going out of the room and then peeking through the door, but the cabinets never moved as long as someone was watching.  Coy said it got to be a great gimmick at parties. You could show the guests the cabinets closed and then go outside the kitchen, close the door, count to 5 and open the door and show them all the cabinet doors were open.  According to Coy it happened every time like clockwork and he never saw the cabinet doors actually moving–you just closed them and as soon as you came back they would be open.  Coy said they finally just started leaving them open and he and his roommate only stayed in the house for one summer.  Coy is not a person who believes in ghosts, but he said there was definitely something weird going on in that house.

 

A Las Vegas Haunting

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Photo by Guido Coppa on Unsplash

A Las Vegas Haunting

This spooky story comes from Lynn and Matthew; they shared their first spooky story yesterday, “Sammy Sees It.”

Their second story happened in 2003-2004.  Lynn and Matthew began to attend church in Las Vegas and were randomly grouped together with another couple for Bible study. They drove out to meet and have Bible study with B. and his wife.

B. lived in an old area of Las Vegas in the family home that he had grown up in, in fact the street that he lived on bore his last name. This area of homes featured large lots, with most homes on at least one acre.

The home was old style with a sunken living room, sunken master bedroom and lots of old creepy wallpaper. The house had an odd, very long hallway, shag carpet and looked its vintage of 1960’s–nothing had been updated. Out in the back yard were tennis courts and 4-5 random and odd cement slabs. The property was on a large lot.

The house made Lynn ill at ease. It did not help that the home was decorated in renaissance style with various swords in the living room and in the master bedroom there was a full suit of armor, complete with sword. Lynn kept reminding herself that these were nice people that they had met at church.

They held Bible study in the living room, first watching the assigned video and then having a discussion and prayer.

Lynn continued to feel “creeped out,” the home was in the middle of nowhere and everything felt off. The bad feelings continued to grow and to make matters worse, Lynn felt the urgent need to empty her bladder. She knew she would have to go down the long, dark hallway to use the bathroom.

At last she had to go. She walked down the hallway and found the light okay. She entered the restroom, turned on the light and noticed the old, weird 60’s wallpaper.

As she sat on the toilet she had a horrible feeling that she must not turn her head to the right toward the shower and the closed shower curtain. The feeling poured over that she MUST NOT look to her right.

“At this point, I don’t think I could have forced my head to the right to look.” Lynn finished and wanted to wash her hands.

“I walked as close to the wall on the left as I could. I washed my hands, not daring to look right or worse look into the mirror. I turned the light off and almost ran back to the living room.”

I sat down and tried to act normally. There was a knock at the front door. It was 8:30 on a Tuesday night, we were out in the middle of nowhere and down a long driveway–we should have seen whoever it was drive up. B. got up to answer the door. There was no one there. B. said, “Huh? No one there.”

Lynn said, “Maybe it was a ghost?”

B.’s wife said, “Why do you say that?”

Lynn, ” Why do ask why?”

B’s wife, “No, why, did you see something? Was it in the hallway? Was it in the bathroom?’

Lynn told them everything.

B.’s wife, “Yeah, there’s something here.”

Lynn, “What do you mean?”

B.’s wife, “We think this house is haunted. We’ve already had an exorcism.”

She went on to tell them that the activity happened in the hallway, one of the bedrooms AND the shower that Lynn had been too frightened to look at. There were the usual signs of a haunted house, knocks at the door, unexplained sounds and phenomena. She told Lynn that they hoped holding Bible study in the home would stop the activity.

On the way home Lynn and Matthew talked about how creepy the house was –Lynn wondered why their vehicle felt off. It felt like the bad presence from the house was still with them. Matthew felt it too. They prayed. Remembering their earlier experience from their old apartment, Lynn commanded, “Bad ghost, get out of here! You’re not welcome!” The bad feeling passed.

After some time the couple divorced, but Lynn and Matthew remained in contact with B. One day they were in B.’s backyard and Lynn asked him about all of the random concrete pads. B. said, “I don’t know if it’s true, but some say that back in the day the mob buried bodies out here and put slabs over them. Then people would put sheds or tables over the slabs to make it look normal.”

“No wonder your house is haunted B.!” said Lynn.

Lynn says she will never go to that house again.

 

 

 

 

Caught on Camera

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Photo by Serge Kutuzov on Unsplash

“The ball of light left the room and then came back again before passing through a wall. “

Caught on Camera

D. had owned Pepper for years. The little black dog was practically a family member. Pepper was a rescue and D. was not sure of her exact age. As the years passed Pepper’s vet marveled that the cute canine was still living. Pepper kept on though. 

Eventually time caught up with Pepper and the sweet girl passed away in the family home on a soft rug in front of the fireplace. Even though D. had known this day was coming, it was hard on her.

She and her husband had to travel to their ranch in California. They set the security system before they left. The system includes cameras they can monitor, which will record activity in the home and send notifications regarding activity to the phone.

One night on the ranch, D. was missing Pepper terribly and she cried herself to sleep. She was awakened in the night by a notification on her phone from their security system.

D. viewed the footage again and again. A ball of light entered the living room where Pepper passed. The light swooped down and around in a dog-like fashion seemingly looking around the rug where her dog had passed and near that area. The ball of light left the room and then came back again before passing through a wall.

D. waited a long time before she showed her husband the footage. He agreed with her; they both believe it was the small dog’s spirit coming home to check on things.

D. showed me the footage and there is definitely something there. It is an impressive video.

 

 

 

Point Arena Spirits

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Point Arena Spirits

Point Arena is a small town in Mendocino County. The last census tallied the population at 449, making it one of the smallest incorporated cities in the country. State Route 1 runs down main street. The place is made up of a diverse group of people, including surfers, pot growers and more and more tourists.

My Aunt Lorie lived in Point Arena for 32 years in the oldest house in the city. The home built in the late 1860’s, was a tear down when she and her husband moved in. It was built of redwood with square nails and unfortunately, no insulation. It was also haunted.

Lorie said, “The activity in the house seemed to vary depending on the visitors. Certain visitors stirred up things.” One of their daughter’s friends, a Native American boy, lived with them for a time and Lorie noted the activity would always amp up when he was there.

Most of the activity was mild and Lorie and her husband believed that it was perhaps the spirit of a child that was in the house. Often when they were downstairs watching TV, they could hear someone walking upstairs. Usually the footsteps would come half way down the stairs and then stop.

Her husband would feel like something was walking by or that something was touching the bed. On occasion there was the sound of someone trying to open the front door. Of course, there was no one there.

There was only one bathroom in the house. One day, Lorie went to the bathroom and the door was sealed tight. This was unusual, because the door like the rest of the house was old and normally rattled and was loose in the door frame. She knocked and asked, “Is anyone in there?” No answer.

Her daughter had a friend over that day.  Lorie went to her daughter’s room and both of the girls were there. She went back and the door had loosened. She tested the door by opening it and then gently closing it. The door slammed shut again as tight and sealed as it was before. This happened several times and Lorie even had the girls come and witness it.

The most impressive incident happened when her sister visited. My other aunt is a practicing Hindu and brings her prayer accessories with her when she travels.

Lorie remembers, “There are some prayers that must not be said in a place where meat has been consumed. I believe she stirred something up.” That night, the rest of the household had gone to bed and the women were enjoying a cup of tea in the kitchen. Lorie had her back to the kitchen sink and her sister exclaimed, “Oh my God! What is that?”

Lorie turned and saw an apparition that ironically resembled one of the green blobs from Ghostbusters. “It was a green mist and when I turned, it rushed out of the room.”

The spirit rushed into the room where her husband was sleeping and knocked over a bookcase.

My aunt and her husband eventually built a new home and moved there some years ago. They sold their old home to the next door neighbors; there has been no news on any further paranormal activity.

             The old house in Point Arena.

“That night, the rest of the household had gone to bed and the women were enjoying a cup of tea in the kitchen. Lorie had her back to the kitchen sink and her sister exclaimed, “Oh my God! What is that?” “