HAUNTED HOUSE

     I was 6 or 7 when we moved into that house in St Louis.  Too young to watch the scary movies or even much television.  I didn't read scary books or even comic books very often.  We weren't poor but we were making every penny count and comics were a not a priority.  So there were no outside influences to prejudice me towards the supernatural.  

Basement or Dungeon?

     Anyone who has live in tornado country knows how important a storm shelter or basement can be.  Getting a house that had a good sized basement area was considered a plus.  This was not a FULL basement.  You could stand up in it but it had not been dug all the way to the exterior walls. In all, it probably was half or less of the footprint of the house.  

     The first time I went into that basement was while we were moving in.  We were storing some things in the crawlspace areas of the basement.  When I first went in, I felt the musty and damp air.  Like most basements, this one was not well lit, only a single bulb hanging down and casting shadows everywhere. I went a little further back and looked over a retaining wall that was just about as tall as I was and saw a single shoe, a loafer, and from the way it was on the dirt it looked like it was LAUGHING at me.  I could almost HEAR the laughter.  I felt that bad things had happened in the basement.  I was not sure WHAT.  The feeling of dread and doom in that basement was so great that I would not go into the basement unless forced to.  My folks seemed to have the same feeling.  Anytime we went in they seemed to talk very soft and hurry out as soon as possible.  I was not a fearful child nor do I have a lot of fears as an adult, but that basement.......