Urban Legends

Last night, after watching American Idol and just before CSI started, wifey was hanging out the laundry in the spare room downstairs. She usually does the daily laundry at nights and hangs it in the spare room for the night and normally puts it out to dry in the morning. Who knows it just might rain at night and we don't wanna have to wake up running out in the still of the night just to take the clothes in again.

By this time the boys are already sent up to bed and as usual I'll be in the hall watching TV while waiting for her to hang the laundry. Yesterday after she finished, she sat on the couch next to me and said she thinks there was 'something' in the room with her cos all her hairs stood on end for no reason. And 'something' in my vocabulary refers to the supernatural! Ok, that got me freaking out. I'm a coward when it comes to the supernatural and no, I'm not shy to admit that ... LOL!


I asked her if she was sure cos for as long as I've lived here in this house and that's a mighty long time, nothing spooky has happened at all. She says yes, she's was quite sure of what she felt. I'm sure there could have probably been a million other explanations for the goosebumps she had but I was brought up believing that if you for no apparent reason feel all the hairs on your body stand on end, that means there's something supernatural happening next to you. Maybe a spirit was passing by or something sinister and evil followed you, etc, etc.

Hey, that's what my grandma use to tell us when we were young, okay. I mean, back then my grandma had loads of stuff about the supernatural and its effects on the living. And we lived in a house that was spooky with its own tales to tell. In fact I'm sure half of the stuff she told us were probably to frighten us into behaving ourselves but I'm sure some of them had some truth in it. Like what happened to wifey last night. I've had on occasions felt that way too. I can be alright one minute and then the very next, I'll feel every hair on my body stand on end for no reason. And most of the time its happened in places that had some history so I do believe it's caused by something supernatural.

Anyway, that scared the daylights out of me to the point that after watching CSI, I told wifey to wait for me while I switch off the lights and all that before heading up to bed ... LOL! Told you I was a coward, didn't I? Yes, the supernatural does scare me. God knows I've had some spooky stuff happen to me in the past before. I've even posted about them before and you can read about them here and here and also here if you want. Yes, I've had a lot of experience with the spirit world to not believe in it. So like my good old dearly departed Grandma would say:

'When you feel like that children, something is there with you.'

She'd tell us all as we huddled up together listening to her. I lived and grew up with my cousins in an old and spooky by night neighbourhood and after dinner, the family would all gather in the front porch to chit chat and sometimes things turned towards the supernatural and that was when we'd hear all kind of urban legends, for want of a better word. Grandma would tell us all the things that we're not supposed to do for fear of invoking the wrath of the spirit world. Man, we'd, well me really, have sleepless nights after her tales. I would be so frightened out of my wits that I'd cover myself from head to toe with my blanket, and have pillows propped up all around me to protect me from whatever it was out there. I was your regular Shaggy without his Scooby ... LOL!

And looking back at her stories I was amazed I believe all of them. She'd tell us that we couldn't whistle after 6pm cos that the Devil would come, you can't cut your fingernails at night cos the Virgin Mary will shed tears, don't point at rainbows or your fingers will fall off, don't play hide and seek at night cos you might never be found (Nessa did a post on all this sometime back called The Old Wives Tales), don't hang your laundry out to dry at nights cos the devil might come and mess with your clothes and you'd end up with bruises the next morning (Emelda posted something about spirits pinching her), don't play outside after 6pm or the spirits will follow you home, don't answer back if someone calls your name out at night, the list goes on ...

Notice how everything happens after 6pm or at night? Don't tell me there are no ghosts in the morning? And why is that? They all work or what in the daytime? LOL! Anyway, with a list of taboos like that, it's no wonder I ended up being a great big coward in all things concerning the supernatural! I don't believe half the things I was told though cos I do whistle late at nights, I do cut my nails at nights, I've even answered when I heard my name being called once at night (and there was no one there but that's a story for another day). But I do believe in a lot of other stuff I was told, like the hair standing on ends for no reason part. That has to definitely mean there's something sinister there with you!

Well, I seriously hope it was a one off thing cos I don't want wifey to feel that way again tonight (oh and btw, wifey isn't a coward like me ... LOL). I've lived in that house for a long time and have never once felt anything sinister happening there and I don't want it to start now. I can't deal with it! Hmmm, maybe it's the spirits of the mango tree I disfigured the other day come to take revenge on me. And that's also another of grandma's stories about spirits living in trees and stuff.

*sudden realization*

Oh man, maybe it is the spirit of that darn mango tree! I knew I should have just left that tree alone. Maybe I'll go make up a sacrificial alter to appease the darn old tree when I get home, capture one of those squirrels that runs around the place and offer it as a sacrifice to the tree or something. LOL! Or better yet, I could just get one of those alarm system monitoring units set on infra red or something that will give me enough warning to bolt out of my house the next time a spirit decides to drop by for a visit ... LOL!