We tend to think of Ghosts, Hauntings, Poltergeists et al as sinister, but sometimes, some locations, they manifest in almost purely benign ways. Some of these repetitive phenomena may go on and on without even a "trickster" element in them the majority of the time. In a way, it's as if "they" [whatever "they" are] are merely going about their "lives" in some poltergeisty way, rather indifferent to our own. Such a poltergeist manifests in my brother and sister-in-law's house, and another incident worth mentioning occurred recently, so I'll tell you about it. It was a pretty neat one as you'll read.
Although I am quite ready to subscribe to the hypothesis stated above, and although two cats prowl this particular house, this event wasn't their doing. [Sometimes, admittedly, one begins to wonder if certain cats aren't deliberately doing mischief themselves however ... but that is another "mystery" that I will never solve.]
So, no. The cats weren't up to this one. Here's the background for the event:
The house is a historical Victorian rowhouse built in the 1880s. It is the best preserved in Wheeling and is on the national historical registry, and is quite attractive and "interesting". I can see why a ghost might want to hang around in it, if it had nothing better to do. There have been a string of incidents ever since my brother and sister-in-law bought it and fixed it up --- hmmmm... eight or so? years ago. Most of these things are apparently-human-induced sound patterns, equipment shutting on or off at "inappropriate" times with no one in the vicinity, the occasional spectacular object movement, and a variety of less bulk-categorizable incidents, but also including several apparitions. Occasionally more than one person is present to experience whatever this is.
On this day, the house was occupied by my sister-in-law, two grandchildren, two grandchildren-in-law, and of course two cats. To set something aside right off, all these people like each other [and the cats], and none of the kids is experiencing any "bad times" or unusual stresses. They are good and happy kids. The kids are also very "conservative" straight-shooter types, who really like their grandma. William Roll's "stressed pre-puberty teen-ager" hypothesis is right out the window.
My sister-in-law was on the ground floor when she heard and felt vibrations directly through the ceiling above [the main bedroom], as if someone was jumping on the bed. And that's what she thought [even though that's not kosher in the house, and the kids don't do it]. At that time, the three girls were on the second floor and so could be the culprits. The older boy had escaped the girls to the third floor and was losing himself in video games.
The girls wandered downstairs, and were asked one by one if they'd been jumping on the bed. All said no. Well, OK, but they're still the leading hypothesis, correct? They said that they weren't in the bedroom, and while in another room didn't even hear the "jumping" sound.
Then the jumping started again with all four of them in the first floor room. And again it was directly overhead. The girls said: " Kenny's here", and in unison agreed that that this is "who" it was.
A short back-step: veteran readers of this blog [with good memories] will remember that "Kenny" is/was an old family member from the early twentieth century era, who died young. "He" has for several years manifested apparitionally to one of my sister-in-law's grandchildren, who visits her grandma frequently. These manifestations have particularly large evidentiary "punch", because "he" identified himself by name to the grandchild at a time when no such "kenny" was known to the family --- this young boy NOT being formally named "Kenny", but the fact that he had been called that as a nickname only was discovered later. Very peculiar and interesting element of this situation.
Well, back to this recent moment: as the jumping continued, the grand-daughter who had the long term "relationship" with Kenny, looked up at the ceiling and shouted: "Kenny!! Quit jumping on the bed!!".
.... and "he" did. That particular manifestation stopped and did not resume.
Kenny seems a happy ghost, indeed. The best kind really if you have to have one around the house.
And who/what is Kenny?? You're on your own on that one. I satisfy myself with the [to me] FACT, that he/it is real, and is not any common physically-reducible phenomenon, but rather some element of the spirit or psychic aspect of our world.
