Things That Go Bump in the Night

I have never been one to base my beliefs on popular opinion, rumors, or superstition. My beliefs regarding the supernatural or paranormal come solely from my personal experiences, as well the trustworthy accounts of my immediate family. So, if I tell you there are indeed ‘things that go bump in the night,’ you can be sure that I am speaking of personal experience.

When I was a little girl, for example, my father was the first person to bring the supernatural to my attention with a story of his own paranormal experience back in 1946. His story was the first to whet my appetite for investigating the paranormal and the mystical.

The Second World War had just ended, and my dad was only 20 years old at the time. The United Kingdom was still recovering from the horrendous aftermath. As a result, people were seldom out and about after dark. In fact, from what my father told me, there was not much socializing in those days and at night the streets were mostly deserted.

One night, after my dad had walked my mom (his future wife) back to her house, he decided to take a shortcut to his grandmother’s place, where he was living at the time. It was around 11pm and the short route took him past the graveyard on a street called Columbus Ravine. It was here that he saw the strange sight of a lady walking up the road in what appeared to be a Victorian costume.

“That is odd,” he thought. “A woman out alone at this time of night and dressed like that? Maybe she attended a fancy-dress party?”

He did not want to alarm her. After all, she was all by herself, it was dark out, and there was no one else around. To put her mind at ease, he therefore thought it polite to greet her.

They haunt the places of the dark, where there are were-wolves and goblins and ‘things that go bump in the night’ ~ W. M. Letts

So, he called out, “Good evening to you ma’am.”

But there was no reply. He tried again, but still received no response. And when he turned around to see why she was not reacting, she was no longer there. She had vanished into thin air!

Now, my father was a level-headed and no-nonsense kind of guy. He did after all grow up in a very challenging time in modern human history. He may also have had his shortcomings due to his wartime experiences, but one thing I know for sure: he always spoke the truth. And my father insisted that what he had seen that night was a ghost or a paranormal apparition.

In 1971, when I was eleven years old, our family had gone camping in the County of Devon. As the baby of the family, I had to sleep with my parents on one side of the caravan, while my two sisters shared the other room.

I was fast asleep one night, when ‘something’ bumped against the side of the caravan with immense force. Then the caravan gently began to rock from side to side, like someone rocking a baby to sleep in its cradle. I did not feel fearful or threatened, rather a sense of awe and wonder.

The peculiar thing was that we had two of the keenest, most alert dogs in those days. But Mick and Tiger never made a peep! Afterwards, once the rocking had stopped and my father went outside, the two dogs suddenly went berserk and did not stop barking for quite some time.

From Ghoulies and Ghoosties, long-leggety Beasties, and Things that go Bump in the Night, Good Lord, deliver us! ~ Alfred Noyes

Initially, my dad suspected a giant stag might have rammed the caravan, but given the size of the vehicle, this was not much of a possibility. There were also no other people around at the time, as we were the only campers in a remote area.

There was simply no rational explanation for, nor any evidence of what may have caused the caravan to rock that night. There was however one possibility that I still wonder about to this day. The incident may have had something to do with a UFO that was spotted a few nights earlier in the area.

Another relative who had many experiences with the spirit realm was my late Uncle Billy. He, like my father, was a straight-talking man who called it as he saw it. I remember him telling me how he had personally witnessed the “laying” of three spirits off the coast of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England.

It is said that in the early 19th century three young sisters went ‘winkling’ on the rocks. If you have not heard of it, winkling is to collect small, snail-like looking fish that live on rocks in the coastal regions. Sadly, as the girls were busy winkling, they did not notice the tide coming in. They were soon swept away and drowned.

The earthbound souls of the girls continued winkling on the rocks for almost two centuries, until the early 1960s, when three priests were called in by the local community to lay their spirits to rest. My uncle Billy witnessed this remarkable event, as did several other friends and acquaintances at the time. Thankfully they managed to help them cross over successfully and to this day their restless spirits have never been seen again.