Ghostly Goings On Part 1

As we are approaching Halloween I thought I'd run a special series of spooky posts.  Looking back I have had a few interesting, potentially supernatural experiences so I thought I'd share.

The School Ghost

When I was around 9 I think I saw a ghost, I was out riding my bike with a friend, Glen and we saw a man on a horse.  We both stopped and stared for a while because the man had no head. I started to say something about it but Glen interrupted and said "don't say anything."   It wasn't a frightening experience, maybe a bit creepy but the horse and rider passed us just as a normal man on horseback would. 

The Headless Horseman" by Veronica Smith

I know now that near to where I grew up there is a old house, Beamish Hall that supposedly has a number of ghostly residents.  I have stayed there twice and it is a pretty atmospheric place.  I have heard stories that there is a headless horseman as well as the most famous grey lady.

Although Glen didn't want to talk about it I couldn't resist telling my friends at school the following week.  Even at the age I was a story teller! This first story lead to a new game of telling scary stories during break time.  At that age you would be surprised how many horror stories you know, we had ghosts, possessed dolls and mysterious moving objects.  The whole school was sharing ghost stories after a few days.  Even one of the teachers joined in with her ghost story:

Two of the older teachers Miss Bell and Mrs Elwood had been away on a residential teachers training course.  During the night Mrs Elwood told us she woke to see a woman standing by her bed.  She was wearing a nuns habit and Mrs Elwood said she knew it was a ghost although the woman looked real.  She lay watching until the woman left.  The next day she mentioned it to Miss Bell and turned out she had seen it too.  Both were quite scared by the experience.

It seemed that there were ghosts everywhere, the temptation was too much for my young creative mind.

A small group of us decided that the school needed a ghost, so we made one up (I say we, it was my idea).  It wasn't an old school, built in the 70s but for reasons I don't remember we decided that our ghost was a student who killed herself in the toilets at one end of the school.  I'm sure the story wasn't very well thought out but as we were only trying to convince 7 to 10 year olds before the days of Google it didn't need to be.  The story was rolled out one lunchtime and by the following afternoon it had taken on a life of its own.  New details were added, names and reasons for the suicide.  A teacher bullying the student who wasn't very clever. 

The following week two of the girls from the lower class heard something in the toilets.  Another saw a strange girl in the corridor.  Soon the girls were to frightened to use the toilets and the boys from the top class were daring each other to go in alone.  One girl actually fainted in the toilets she was so scared after hearing a noise.

Eventually an assembly was called and the head teacher explained to us all that no one had died in the school and that there was no ghost.  Did anyone believe them, no chance.  This taught me the power of whispered rumours and the weakness of official statements.  The stories continued in to the next year when we were the top class. 

A few years after I'd left school, in my late teens I went to a reunion at my junior school.  I heard some children talking about the ghost, fortunately at some stage the story had evolved and apparently the ghost is just lonely and wants to be friends. 

I guess I should really apologise to the school and teachers for causing lots of problems with my story.  I never meant any harm and it taught me a lot but I suspect it was a bit of a nightmare for the school at the time.

Asbo Cavaliers

For those that don't know here in the UK if you are really naughty but not quite a criminal you can get an ASBO - Anti Social Behaviour Order.  The wealth of knowledge that is Wikipedia gives the following information:

"An Anti-Social Behaviour Order or ASBO is a civil order made against a person who has been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. The orders were designed to be imposed after minor incidents that would not ordinarily warrant prosecution. The orders restrict behaviour in some way, by prohibiting a return to a certain area or shop, or by restricting public behaviour such as swearing or drinking. In the UK, there has been criticism that an ASBO is sometimes viewed as a badge of honour by youth. Many see the ASBO as connected with young delinquents."

Well recently doggie ASBOs have been introduced - See here


Follows will remembers that my evil demon dogs have been terrorising the local children.  You remember the evil doggies:

Well following last weeks excitement we had a further doggie incident.  Having kept the little monsters on their leads all week and walked them away from the house as much as possible I thought it would all blow over.  Not likely.  On Sunday scared boy was playing outside my house.  Clearly I have to take the dogs out so every time I took them out he ran away down the street.  My neighbours invited me to join them outside but I couldn't because of the dogs so we went out in the car instead.

Later in the day I took the dogs out and scared boy wasn't there.  My neighbours grandsons were there and wanted to play with the dogs.  The youngest (about 2 to 3?) wanted to take Sasha for a walk on her lead so off they went up and down the path because he isn't allowed past the end of the buildings.  Yes, I let a 3 year old walk my scary dog!  The others children were picking Star up and cuddling her (lucky she didn't go savage and tear their wee faces off)  so I took her lead off so I could go with Sasha in case she pulled the toddler type child.

Of course you see where this is going, scared child turns up on his bike, sees the dogs and peddles away at high speed.  Star takes off after the bike running a long way behind him for about 20 metres before she got bored and went to see one of the other neighbours.

I came back in the house and there was a knock on the door.  Scared boys mother telling me that my dogs are out of control.  The children had followed her upstairs and were listening.  She said that my dogs had terrified her son and he had cycled so fast into the block entrance that he has broken the door, she is going to tell the council and they will bill me because its my fault.  Not sure thats going to happen?

She then said those dogs are huge to a child.  The 3 year old behind her said "no they're not, they're tiny".  I had to bite my cheeks not to laugh.  I told her I would keep them on their leads but pointed out that he still runs away when they are on their leads.  She wasn't really happy with that and said if I'm not going to do anything she would get an anti-social behaviour order.  I'm not really sure what she hopes to achieve by that?  The children behind her were saying that they like playing with the dogs and that the dogs are nice.  She said her son doesn't think so, the children's response, "well he's stupid".  More cheek biting.

So now I'm waiting to receive some sort of letter from the council about my anti social behaviour for not controlling my dogs. 

I did call the council to ask what I should do.  They asked the following questions:

Are your dogs aggressive?  No, possibly the most submissive dogs ever.

Have they ever bitten this boy? No.

Have they ever bitten anyone? No

Do they growl at children? No

Have they knocked anyone over or caused damage to property? No and just mine.

Someone from the anti social behaviour department is going to call me back to discuss the situation.  I would quite like them to come out and meet my out of control scary dogs.  I suspect there would be some laughter.

Anyway, because I won't take any risks with my sweet, furry, demon dogs I have enrolled them in new intensive doggie training.  My logic is that if this family starts screaming about out of control dogs I need to make sure there are no opportunities for them to get evidence.  My dogs are pretty good but are excitable and do sometimes go deaf.  I spoke to a guy who does intensive 1to1 and group training and he squeezed us in by starting earlier than normal.  We are going to classes at 6am Monday to Thursday with a group class on a Friday night.  He agrees with my theory that if my dogs are really well trained then I can't be open to criticism.  Plus he thinks that Star needs to gain confidence when out because she is very nervous.   Two days in and we have improved walking to heel and Star has mastered stay (as in sitting where I put her for 5 minutes not 1 second) so I guess it's worth the massive amount of cash.  The 5am alarm is not pleasant though.

I must really love my dogs.

Chocolate man

I was waiting at the bus stop with a friend who originates from Guyana in South America.  There was a little girl standing near us with her mum, I'm guessing she was about 2.  She caught sight of my friend and was staring so he smiled and waved at her.  She grabbed her mum's arm to get her attention and said

"look mum, a chocolate man"

Her mum was mortified and stuttered out an apology, I was killing myself laughing and my friend just replied

"that's OK, I am the colour of Cadbury's chocolate!"

On the bus we could hear the mum trying to explain about racism to a 2 year old.  Pretty much pointless to me, there was no intent to offend in her comment, she just said what she saw.