Mt. Vernon

From: Susan Polhemus (Susan_Polhemus@netqm.nichols.com)
Type: Ghost
Location:

Having been raised in a house that had a definate presence as well as experiencing several other strange phenomena over the years has certainly driven my interest in the paranormal to the top of the scale.

My friend and I have toured Mt. Vernon in Virginia and as luck would have it, the illustrator of Mt. Vernon's book of ghost stories just happend to be our tour guide. During the tour, though, it was mandated that she only refer to the antiques and not what Keith and I came there for (to obtain as much information and, perhaps, be fortunate enough to actually experience something "out of the ordinary"). The tour ended and we finally were able to speak to her off-the-record. She spoke of several incidents and they are as follows:

1) Claudia (our tour guide) was closing Mt. Vernon after it had been rented for an evening social function. She was on the top floor blowing out candles and closing (perhaps locking, I really don't remember the specifics, sorry) the doors to the respective bedrooms. Finally, she was finished for the night and closed/locked the main entrance behind her. She walked to her car, got in and turned the ignition. Claudia looked up at the top level of the house to find that in every room, the candles were lit. SHE WAS THE LAST ONE IN THE HOUSE. Needless to say, she high-tailed it out of there.

2) Claudia and several other tour guides/preservationists were starting their day as usual at beautiful Mt. Vernon. They basically arrived at the same time and let themselves in. (Now, for those that haven't been afforded the opportunity to view this beautiful peace of history, the main door faces a winding, center wooden staircase. This is the main hall). Claudia was ascending the stairs in order to open up the top floor for the daily tours, made it about half way up, and encountered a sort of misty spot. This misty spot was extremely cold. She was scared. Several of the other people there were also witness to this event. They were scared too. They all felt a presence, including their boss, whom emphatically (before) did not believe in the paranormal. I think he does, now.

Now, Keith and I have been together for about a year and a half. We live around 30 miles away from each other but are always together on the weekends, and sometimes during the week. This was one of those times. It was still warm out, maybe around August or September. I was driving to his house after a terrible thunderstorm that had knocked out power in over 70% of the homes in my particular development. When I arrived, Keith was laying on the loveseat. I kissed him hello, put my nightie on (he told me I looked like a Victoria Secret's Model - thanks, Keith :) and sat on the couch to watch television. I started dozing (please, forgive my spelling) and then Keith and I just looked at each other and freaked. The reason? His big screen t.v. blasted up to almost maximum volume without help from either one of us. We looked at each other, looked at the remote on the floor and both of us scrambled to turn the volume down.

Both of us are really into computers, in fact, we both met while we were working for the "father of the Internet" at a major US corporation. We are neither stupid people nor illogical and have the tendency to rationalize almost everthing we do or come across, so, this particular event was rather hard for either one of us to digest. At first we thought that maybe it had something to do with an electrical current due to another oncoming storm. But why only would the t.v. be affected? Why the volume and not the picture going haywire? Maybe someone living next door had the same t.v. and remote? No, the houses are spaced too far apart. After many minutes of disbelief and incredulation, seeing WAS believing in this case. Keith will NOT speak of this event and sends me those "don't say a word" vibes whenever I have brought it up. Maybe he thinks that if we don't talk about it, it really didn't happen.

The last incident I will mention happened at my house. I was home alone suffering from a rather nasty bout with Pnemonia. I have a water bed and was in it at the time. A common occurance during this time was for my fever to break around mid afternoon so I knew I wasn't hallucinating. Anyway, my cat came in to my bedroom and common practice dictates she sleeps under my headboard (between the wall and the bed is a small crawl space which is very warm, hence her liking that spot in particular). Ms. Kitty started to snore and this was driving me crazy. I took my hand and slapped the mattress thinking the waves in the bed (and the noise of the water sloshing around )would wake her enough to stop snoring. As I did that, a glass tea-cup was sitting on my dresser. It was near the edge, but NOT ON THE EGE. It did a flip in mid air and landed face up on my carpet! Did I hit the mattress hard enough to send some sort of vibration through the bed, the floor, up to the dresser, through the dresser to the tea cup? But I was still very, very weak!! I wasn't really scared, more amused by the physics of what I witnessed. After caluclating the move over and over again, this was most certainly a one-in-a-million shot. Actually, it was quite impossible. I was left with only one real determination; perhaps I'm not so alone in that house.

There have been other things such as my hearing glass breaking only to find nothing there, door knobs turning frantically (I've only heard this, not seen it) and feelings of being "not really by myself". Are these things just sort of isolated incidents? I know that my daughters have both been scared about various things in the house at different times, especially my little one (she's five and thinks the world is full of monsters - it is really, but not the ones she thinks about).

Have you heard of things like this? I'm sure you have; I guess what I'm really asking for is a little affirmation and support in what I believe to be true.

Thanks for taking the time to read this "book". I would love to hear from you and for you to relate some of your experiences to me.

Again, thanks.

Sincerely,

Susan L. Polhemus

Web Programmer, Graphic Designer, Tired Mommy :)