The Imperfect Community

momof3_MOD · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:40 am Post subject: Contest! FREE IP T-shirt!!!

I am so excited to announce our first monthly contest! This will be so much fun! Each month we will have a contest and the winner will receive an Imperfect Parent T-shirt of their choice! Click below to see options but please be advised that it is *only* for a T-shirt, no hoodies, sweat shirts or long sleeved shirts.

http://www.cafepress.com/imperfectparent/889667

So since it is October the contest will be for the scariest, most believable Halloween or ghost story. Or you can post your worst/fave Halloween and explain why. At the end of the month I will post a poll and everyone can choose who they think should be the winner. Have fun and happy posting!

So who is going to go first? C'mon...this will be fun...and scary! *insert creepy music* Shocked

*Note: Site owners and moderators are not able to win!*

momof3_MOD · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:16 pm Post subject:

Well even though I cannot win I'm going to post some of my scary events that are completely true, believe them or not.

When I was about 11 my parents bought a new house. It was only 3 years old at the time but it was built on an old farm where there were lots of homes that belonged to the same family. So when we first moved in there wasn't anything weird or out of the ordinary but after a while I started noticing things. First it was small stuff, things missing and then reappearing, weird noises and voices and the dog going nuts. But the scariest thing was when I went to bed one night and pretended to be asleep since I didn't want to talk with my mom (ya know, teenage attitude! Yep, I had it! lol). So when I heard my bedroom door open I pretended to be asleep. "My mom" came into the room, tucked in my sheets and kissed me goodnight. Hmm...weird I thought, since she hadn't done that since I was about 6! So the next morning I asked her why after all the years she did that. She replied, "I didn't go into your room last night. I thought you went right to bed?" So I asked her if my dad had come into my room. "No, he didn't get home from work until midnight." she said. Well what about my sister? "No, she's still at school." she was staying in her college dorm. So needless to say that totally freaked me out. Shocked

Another time, right before I got married, I came home really late one night from my, now hubs', apartment to find my mom waiting for me in the kitchen. I went to the basement to take out the dog before I went to bed and she followed me downstairs. Weird, but I just thought, 'oh well she's being mom and trying to find out if I've been drinking or smoking or something'. Later on after we were getting ready to get into bed she finally told me why she went downstairs with me. Keep in mind that NOBODY in my family EVER believed me on what I thought was going on in the house b/c none of them had ever had any weird experience. She told me that she had been laying in bed reading a book and heard footsteps on the hardwood floor in the foyer. When she called out my dad's name the footsteps stopped. So she thought it was her imagination and went back to reading. A couple minutes later she heard them again and called out my sister's name, again the footsteps stopped. So when I got home she was really worried that someone was in the house somewhere. She never heard the footsteps again, that night. But she did say that night that she did finally believe me that something was going on. Every now and then still you can hear footsteps upstairs when nobody is up there.

A couple years later when the the subdivision went to build some nice apartments they found some unmarked graves and had to leave the spot alone. They put some stones to mark the graves and put a fense around them so they would not be disturbed. How many more are there in and around the subdivision that we don't know about? Shocked

There are so many weird things that happened in that house and still are happening but I'll save those for another time. There are also many more things that I have experienced in my past two apartments and my house that I live in now, but again I'll save those for later. So who is next?

mammaX3_MOD · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:16 pm Post subject:

OK, I know I'm not eligible to win, but I thought I'd share anyway.

After HS graduation, my hub's brother moved back to the town they grew up in, got a job and stayed with their Grandma. Which was great because she was lonely and loved having someone to take care of again.

Well 7 years later, she passed away. Which left him alone in the house. He was too sad to ever do anything with the house, so for a long time he just left it the way it was, and continued to sleep on the couch. He had told us that he heard what sounded like walking upstairs, but we just chalked it up to being a really old house.

So after visiting him one weekend, Hubs and I were on our long 5 hour drive back to our house when his brother called.
He said that the lamp in the living room kept turning on and off. Hubs is an electrician, so he asked all kinds of Q's to troubleshoot the problem.

J: "No you don't understand. I heard that noise upstairs again. I got freaked out and said 'Grandma?' and that's when the lamp turned on. I said it again, and the lamp turned off."

While he was talking to him, Hubs asked him to do it again while we were on the phone.

J:"Look. It did it again!"
B:"Say Grandma again." (waits)
J: "Now it went off. Grandma? Now it went on again!"

I felt so bad because he was lonely anyway, and now he was freaked out. The only way to calm him down was for Hubs to tell him that if it was a ghost, it could only be Grandma or Grandpa, and they would never harm him.

So about a year later, J had to go on a business trip, and he asked me to house-sit because he had dogs. While I was there, I heard the noise upstairs. I looked over at J, but he was already looking at me like he knew that I heard it. I bet he felt a little bit better, that he wasn't imagining things.

momof3_MOD · Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 9:14 pm Post subject:

Hmm...well Mamma, I guess you and I are the only ones that want a t-shirt! Too bad we're not allowed to win! lol Where are the scary stories ladies??? C'mon....

Jessica · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:06 am Post subject:

I honestly don't have a scary story to share or I would, even though I'm obviously ineligible. LOL.

marybeth+willsMommy · Slightly Flawed Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 108

I want a tee shirt!!! I am trying to think of something... hmmm... let's see. I know my dad told me one time that the house he grew up in is really old and that the people who lived there before them had died in the house. An older couple. The wife died a slow death from cancer and the husband died 2 months after she passed from grief. Apparently, one night Daddy woke up to a really strnge sound and when he sat up in bed he claims he saw the old man crouched over his dead wife's body crying. It was the scariest thing he had ever seen. Now, keep in mind Daddy is 60 now and this was back in the 70's when he was home for a weekend from college SO... I don't know. But, that is my scary story. Are y'all scared yet? Laughing

BTW, momof3 and mammaX3 - those were some scary stories. Too bad y'all can't get the tee shirts! Crying or Very sad

momof3_MOD · Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 11:41 am Post subject:

MB&WsMommy, that is freaky! Shocked

Well you winning the shirt is looking pretty good b/c nobody else wants to play! If we don't get anymore stories you'll be the winner! Smile

marybeth+willsMommy · Slightly Flawed Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 108

Well I would love a shirt but I don't want to win by default... C'mon ladies- let's get our SPOOK on! Laughing

Ephesians 2:10 · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:54 pm Post subject:

My scary story happened on October 31, 1980. I was 24 and I had just been hired as a bank teller at Bank of America. I went to teller school and spent 2 days with an experienced teller and then on Halloween I was given my own teller window.

Back then we were required to dress up for Halloween. My aunt had given me a dress from Austria and I used it to be Little Bo Peep. My grandfather made me a staff and I brought a stuffed lamb and had it at my window. Right after the bank opened a man dressed as a cowboy came in and put a large manilla envelope in front of me. He told me he had a gun and to put all my money in the envelope. I guess I moved too slow for him because he showed me a gun in a shoulder holster. I stuffed the money in the envelope and watched him walk out of the bank. He had a strange walk. I immediately pushed the button that calls the police.

After that I walked away from my window and over to my Operations Officer. She was dressed in a robe with curlers in her hair and a bottle of vodka in her pocket. She knew without me saying a word that I had been robbed. My face was white. The police and FBI questioned me and after a few hours I was sent home. I was deathly afraid to walk to my car. There was no chance he was in the parking lot but I was scared just the same. A friend of mine just happened to be in the parking lot and he walked me to my car. I am thankful to this day that he was there.

A couple of weeks later I had to go to a police
line-up to identify him. He had been caught robbing another bank. I watched all the men walk by and I knew him immediately by his strange walk. A lawyer took my statement and told me I was correct. I didn't have to go to court because they had my statement. I got a call that he was convicted and sent to jail. Only then did I feel safe. That guy really scared me.

I worked for BofA for 8 years and never again did I work as a teller on Halloween. I always took that day off.

mammaX3_MOD · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:21 am Post subject:

How sacry for you Ephesians!!!
I don't blame you for never working on Halloween again! A lot of places won't let people come in with Halloween masks, hats that cover the face in winter, or even sunglasses.
What a weirdo. I'm so glad he was convicted and you felt safe afterward.

Ephesians 2:10 · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:00 am Post subject:

Thanks mammaX3. Back in 1980 no one ever thought of not dressing up in a bank. Things have changed through the years.

I just realized that next Friday will be the 28th anniversary of being robbed. Yikes, I'm getting old.

momof3_MOD · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject:

Holy crap!!! I was waiting for a punchline thinking at first that it was a Halloween joke. I can't believe that happened to you! How scary! So glad you were ok!

Ephesians 2:10 · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:29 pm Post subject:

Nope, no punch line. Now that it's several years in the past, it does make for a good story. I wouldn't have thought that at the time though.

jenna roberts · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:56 pm Post subject:

Stacey S · Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:28 am Post subject:

Okay...I realize no shirt for me…but I thought I would share anyway….

When I was little I grew up in a VERY small town called Shirley in Central Massachusetts.

When you take the Shirley Ext from Rt. 2 there is a huge house on the corner that looks very similar to this one http://www.virginia-beach-family-fun.com/images/shirley.jpg except is was very old & decrepit looking. Every once in awhile you couldn’t help but notice a flickering light through the third floor window. Sometimes the shades would be up, sometimes they would be down. Every time me & my sister would drive by we would say things like ooohhhh the ghosts are having a party tonight, or sometimes she would sing that song from the movie ‘Wuthering Heights‘ “Heathcliff it’s me Catherine…I’m so cold let me in your window”… Anyway, we would have a good time telling stories about it, but we both knew it was more than likely some kids w/ a lantern hanging out drinking beer & smoking pot.

Several years later my mom & I went for one of our “drives”. We would drive all over looking at HUGE homes or old abandon homes & have a look around. This time we decided to stay close to home so we went to investigate the “haunted house” by the highway. I told her about what my sister and I used to say & she thought it was funny.
When we got there we couldn’t go through the front door because there was a huge hornets nest on it…we couldn’t go through the side door because there was a
GI-norrmous spider web on that one…so we went around back to what my mother believed used to be the servants’ entrance. We walked through the back rooms until we got to what would be the main house. Once we were there we saw the house was in really bad shape…the mortar between the bricks had started crumbling away letting in light from the outside , the wood work was all rotted out, in fact the only thing that looked really intact were the fire places. What was most interesting was there were no floors. I mean no floors at all, just rotted beams & a skeleton of a staircase. You could see from basement to attic!
This didn’t happen overnight….so I couldn’t help but wonder how those “kids” got to the 3rd floor for their wild parties?

Fast forward to about 10 years ago….somebody bought the house & completely brought it back to what it once was while maintaining as much of the original house as possible. It really looks great…but I’ve always wondered if the new occupants ever hear things go bump in the night?

On another note….my mother-out-law is crazy about those paranormal shows. Apparently on Friday night there was an episode about the Houghton mansion in Adams Ma. That really intrigued her…so after some investigation he has discovered you can actually spend the night in this creepy place….guess what we’re doing as a family outing? http://houghton-mansion.tripod.com/ Anybody else wanna come? LOL