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Village On The Green

Haverstraw, New York

Poltergeist Activity

5/1977

In folklore and parapsychology,, a poltergeist (German for "noisy ghost") is a type of ghost or other supernatural being supposedly responsible for physical disturbances such as loud noises and objects moved around or destroyed. Most accounts of poltergeists describe movement or levitation of objects, such as furniture and cutlery, or noises such as knocking on doors. Poltergeists have also been claimed to be capable of pinching, biting, hitting, and tripping people. The poltergeist has been traditionally described as troublesome spirits who haunt a particular person instead of a specific location.

When I was seven years old, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Some people may think this is a funny story, but I didn't think so at the time. However, many years later looking back, I found humor in it but not until I was in my early twenties I found it truly amazing and unbelievable that this incident happened to me.

My aunt and my three cousins lived in a town house in a condo complex called "Village on the Green", in Haverstraw, New York. I remember the house had two levels. The kitchen, living room, and one small bathroom were located on the first floor. There were three bedrooms upstairs.

My mother would drop me off at my aunt's house so she could baby sit me while my mother went to work. I dreaded going there.

As soon as I walked into the townhouse, I was facing a long, foreboding, dark, stair case. There was something eerie about it but I didn't quite know what it was at the time. When I stepped further into the entryway, I could feel a negative presence. As I closed the door, I could hear a jingle of bells behind me and I would turn around quickly. In that area, I always felt like someone was behind me just staring at me. It was very unnerving. Then I would always smell a scent, first it was like a strong, horrible perfume, then it would get stronger as I walked down the hallway alongside the stairway. It would eventually smell like rotten garbage.

There were also cold breezes throughout the house, voices and whispers. One afternoon, about 3pm, I was sitting at the table in the kitchen, when all of a sudden a rush of cold air and wind came through the entire first floor, rattling the windows and blowing my hair and items on the table everywhere. I ran over to the door to see if it was open but it was closed and locked. Then I walked over to the three small windows in the kitchen. They had wooden shutters covering them that were latched and the windows were closed tightly. I couldn't understand how the air or wind was coming in and traveling throughout the house. There was no way possible.

I just looked at my cousins, and one of them said "Oh no, it's happening again". I said "what's happening". Then he looked at me and said the house is haunted. This always happens every day around the same time. He also said he thought it was a little worse today since I was there. It seems to act up when there are more kids around.

My cousins told me that they all heard voices in the corner of their bedrooms. This usually would happen every night when they tried to fall asleep. It would always be around the same time. Sometimes the voices would be so loud it would wake them up. They would fall back to sleep and the voices would just fade away.

At first I didn't believe him. That day when I went home I told my mother what happened and I begged and pleaded with her not to bring me back the next day. She said she was sorry but she had to take me back because she had to go to work. I wasn't sure if she believed me or not.

The next day after she left, I had the most horrifying experience of my life. My aunt was in the kitchen getting lunch ready for my cousins, who were playing upstairs. She gave me a tray with three glasses of milk and told me to bring these upstairs to my cousins. I was nervous because the tray was heavy and I was afraid I would spill the milk. My aunt was very mean and always yelled at us, so I was afraid to disobey her.

I slowly walked up the stairs. All of a sudden, I felt something hit the bottom of my tray. The glasses suddenly flew off the tray and up in the air, all at once. It was almost as if they levitated for a few seconds. Then the milk poured all over my head. The glasses then landed on the tray perfectly without spilling a drop. However, I was dripping wet and crying at this point.

It was as if something or someone grabbed the glasses off the tray, poured them over my head, and then placed them back on the tray. None of the glasses fell on the floor or spilled on the carpet, only on me. It was very scary.

My aunt was screaming and yelling at me, blaming me for spilling the milk all over on purpose. I told her that I didn't do it, but she didn't believe me.

When my mother came to pick me up, I told her what happened. I think she finally believed me because she never brought me back to my aunt's house again.

Then I wondered to myself, was my mind playing tricks on me or was the house really haunted? I never did find out what actually happened that day.

Years later, one of my cousins said that he had something to tell me. He admitted that my aunt started experiencing similar occurrences that were paranormal in nature. This was shortly after the incident that happened to me. She also encountered weird smells, rattling doors, voices, breezes, and window shutters moving by themselves. She finally had a priest come to the house and bless it in order to get rid of anything evil lurking there. I'm not sure if the blessing worked, because I lost contact with them after my mother passed away. All I know is that they moved out of the house shortly afterwards.

I didn't remember this incident until years later when I was in high school. One day, I just had a memory of it; I could see it so vividly. If it was a product of my imagination I don't think I would recall this so many years later, but probably a lot sooner. I believe now that this did happen to me when I was younger. This could be why I was always fascinated with the supernatural since I was a child.

This experience had such a profound effect on me that when I was in college I decided to do a shocking speech on this topic for my public speaking class.

The speech about my paranormal experience was very successful. I received an A, got many laughs, and a handful of people waiting to talk to me afterwards to ask more questions and share some of their ghostly experiences with the unknown.