You Know They're Here

My first hub on Hubpages, The-Paranormal-Side-of-Life. offers one the information about the infamous house nestled in the hills of Hinsdale, New York which was depicted on The Discovery Channel's, A Haunting - Dark Forest, as well as attracting numerous world renowned psychics. I'd like to share with you some excerpts from my book. I trust you will find it interesting reading as I found it interesting to be a part of this troubled house.

This was my first ever visit to the house, August of 1973.

This is the drive down the road from the haunted house after my and my ex-wife's first visit.

The night was black, pitch black. Looking out the window, you couldn‘t see ten feet in any direction. We both rolled our windows up and I locked my door the same time Debbie was reaching in the back to lock the rear doors. “I don’t like this one bit.” I said as I turned the key in the ignition.
The battery didn’t even click as a battery usually does even when totally drained.
“I saw something!” Debbie shrieked.
“Oh, you did not; don’t you lose it. There’s nothing there, hear me? It’s probably just an animal. We’re in the country.” I said.
“Animals aren’t ten feet in the air! Dammit, I saw something in the tree above us!”
I turned the keys several more times. Nothing.
“It’s probably just a loose wire in the ignition or something.” I said.
“That’s not going to make the headlights go out, or the dash lights!”
She was right.
“There’s something outside the car, I’m telling you, there’s something outside!!”
“Shut up, Debbie. Goddamn it, there’s nothing outside. It’s your imagination. Just please calm down and help me figure out what the hell is wrong!”
I snapped. Imagination or not, I was scared out of my wits. Looking across Wagner Hill road, I could see lights in the house no more than an eighth of a mile up their driveway. The thought of leaving the car and walking in pitch black was out of the question in my state of mind. There is no way Debbie would allow me to leave her alone, and she sure as hell wouldn’t have trekked the distance with me. There was something! I couldn’t see it or hear it, but I could feel it. My mind was playing against me, and I tried my best to make it right, yet there was something or someone outside the car. I told myself it was my imagination, but the feeling was getting stronger and I dared not look up from the steering wheel, because if I saw what I felt, I would freak. All the while, I was twisting the key so hard in the ignition I expected it to break at any moment. All the windows in the car were closed and the air was heavy, hard to breathe. Was this shock? Time wasn’t moving, at least not from my perspective. Too many thoughts were crossing my psyche and I wasn’t thinking rational.
“Do something!” Debbie shouted. “Get us off this fucking road, NOW!”
I couldn’t move, I refused to look out the window; there’s nothing there. Our imaginations were running rampant and I had to somehow take control of a situation we had no right being in.
“We’re ok, Deb. I’m sure the engine’s going to turn over in a minute and we’ll be on our way home.” I said calmly, yet my mind was screaming at her to not say another word.
“Oh, God, what was that? WHAT WAS THAT!!?” She screamed so loud, every nerve became frazzled, and every hair on my body stood at attention.

A random evening guarding the property.

My friend Tim and I spent many nights at the house, guarding the grounds from trespassers. Lines of cars would drive the back country roads, people searching for the house, hoping for a chance to see a ghost. This excerpt is from one of our late nights.

I handed Tim the towels and he wiped the flashlight off. We began walking back toward the car when we heard what sounded like someone walking through the tall grass along the shore of the pond behind us. I quickly turned and scanned my light across the length of the pond pathway. I saw nothing. When I turned back, Tim was already at the car and getting in, but he got in the passenger side. As I started to laugh the sound came again, as did the feeling. I had turned to stone, I didn’t turn around and I didn’t run to the car, I stood frozen in place when I was suddenly blinded by Tim who was shining his light directly into my face. I prayed he wasn’t, at any moment going to yell, “RUN” when the light which was trained on me found its beam reflecting on something I dared not imagine. Every hair on my body was a prickle, and every sense heightened to their limits. My mind told my feet to ’do their stuff’ but they were set in fast drying cement. Every imaginable scene from every ghost story Warner Bros. ever produced flew through my thoughts. It felt like I was drifting, being carried on the cool breeze that was at my back. Was it the breeze, or was it the tip of the arctic freeze that slapped my face the night Phil took me on my first journey into this haunted land? As I stood there, the air began to get much cooler; cold, and the feeling began to intensify with lightning speed. I was expecting to hear a voice once again.
You know they’re here too, don’t you?
Oh baby, do I, and right here, right NOW! I wasn’t alone, I knew that. There was a presence with me, but the feeling of fear was subsiding and the feeling of sadness overcame me. Was it sadness for myself because I was standing here like a rooted tree, that I really wanted to run my ass off to the safety of the car, or was I being given a psychic connection from the presence that was nearby? I believed the latter, because it was extremely strong as was the initial feeling, and the only feeling of my own I was aware of was fear. The air was very cold, too cold.

This was undoubtedly one of my most frightening visits.

Clara walked over to where Beth was sitting, and ever so carefully, placed Joe in Beth’s arms. Beth was all smiles, and began cooing as soon as he was settled against her chest. I was a very proud dad at that moment, and felt a tear attempting to break through, but I knew if it did, many more would come. Before I’d let that happen with all these people in the room, I got off the floor, picking up the glass Laura had brought me, and took it to the kitchen. I walked back into the living room, as Keith, Mike and Randy were coming out.
“Nice job, dad!” Mike said.
“Thanks, Mike, I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, he’s cute, thank God he doesn’t look like you!” Keith exclaimed.
“Piss up a bent rope!” I said, jokingly.
The three of them went back outside, and I sat on the floor next to Debbie.
“One of you girls get up, let Paul sit on the couch!” Clara said, sort of demandingly.
“No, Clara, I’m fine. Let ’em sit, I’m good, really.”
The air seemed uneasy somehow, and I had noticed that the birds weren’t singing as they had been when we first entered the room, and that made me start the feeling process, although, I didn’t actually know how. I waited a minute, turned around, and snuck a quick peek at Laura; she didn’t look back with her beautiful smile, which she always did when we looked at one another. I was sure Clara noticed something, or perhaps she felt it too, because she observed Laura and myself gaze at one another. Clara had that look she often did before, or during one of her ‘umbrella’ nights. Christ, not now! I got up and started lowering the legs on the bassinet, which made Debbie’s expression immediately turned from her typical glowing self, to mud. Lord, going through those simple steps of taking down a babies bassinet felt more like digging in, preparing yourself for incoming; wondering how long until the enemy infiltrated your lines.. I began sweating, and everyone in the room knew what was happening, especially Clara and Laura. Clara’s face was drawn and ashen, as she hurriedly helped Debbie wrap Joe in the protection of his blue and white blanket, decorated in the most popular Disney characters. Where was the ’heat wave’? ‘Don’t you dare assault me, or my family without telling me you’re coming, you son of a bitch!’ I thought.
“Come on, come on, get him to the car, I’m right behind you!” Clara exclaimed.
“Laura, honey, will you grab his little -”
Bam! The energy of the house - like a baseball bat, driving in the wining run, slammed a psychic club directly across my forehead. I dropped the bassinet in the middle of the floor as I fell against the doorframe to catch my balance. I heard Beth yell to Mike and Randy, who I could hear entering the kitchen. This unseen bastard was beyond angry, his loathsome, and beguiled energy stuck harder than in the past, and I imagined myself losing consciousness; falling to the mercy of its force.
“Get him outta here!” Beth screamed.
Mike and Randy helped me, getting me to the car, which had already been started. I began to get into the driver’s seat when I asked Mike to drive for me.
“Keith, follow us down and bring Mike back. I don’t want to drive down McMahon; I can‘t” I said.
“You got it!” He said going to his car.
“Mike, drive, please?” I asked.
“Are you going to be ok after you get to the end of the road?” Clara asked.
“Mike will be there if I’m not, but I’m sure I will be.”
Laura was standing next to the car; I looked at her and thought, ‘thank you,’ which she returned with a smile - it would be ok, soon. Mike, extremely slow and cautiously, drove to the end of McMahon Road and stopped. Keith parked right behind us, and for the first time since we got in the car, I saw that Debbie was in tears. “Son Of A Fucking Bitch.” I muttered, emphasizing each word..
“You ok, Paul?” Keith said, after walking to the driver’s side of the car.
“Yeah, I think, but I’d like you and Mike to stick around for a bit if you don’t mind.”
“Hell no, man. We’ll stay as long as you’d like.” Keith said.
“Well, this is the last time I will ever bring my son up here, and I am going to, once and for all, find a way to drive this fucking house into hell!”
Mike got out of the driver’s seat, as I got out. Mostly now, it was my anger that needed composing, I felt somewhat better. I didn’t break my promise to Debbie. At the first sign, I was up and, all but ripping the bassinet apart, getting it collapsed. Even though there were no sounds for Debbie to hear, I felt miserable because we didn’t simply get up and leave after a very pleasant visit, we ran out of there as if being chased by a crazed madman. Perhaps we had. We sat there for nearly 10 minutes, when we observed Clara and Beth walking down the road toward us. When they arrived at the car, they had concern on their faces. Clara asked, “Would you like Mike to drive you home and have Keith bring him back?”
I didn’t say what I thought after her question, but rather said, “No, I’ll be ok, Clara. I’ll probably take an hour to get home as slow as I plan to drive, but we’ll be fine now.”
“If you really think so, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, would you, Mike?”
“Not at all, mom. You sure you’re good, Paul?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I feel, HA, normal right now.”
We all got a tickle from my response, but I did actually feel ‘normal.’
“As soon as we get home, I’ll call.” I said.
“I’d feel better if you would stop at Crosby’s to at least know you’d made it that far.”
“Ok, I will, thanks, Clara.”
“Debbie, honey, you alright.” Clara asked.
“Yeah, I guess I’m more upset at the way we had to leave. I wish this big dummy didn’t have to feel things up here. You know what’s really weird? Nothing bad happens when he has a feeling, we all just get scared because he does.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say nothing happens, something is definitely happening to his mind, or thoughts.”
“I don’t think he had a mind!” Debbie exclaimed with a refreshing laugh.
“Hey, don’t talk like I’m not here, for Christ’s sake!” I said. “Ok, we’re going to very slowly drive home. I’ll call you from Crosby’s, and then again from home.
“Alright, please be careful!” Clara said.
Debbie and I thanked them and I began driving down Wagner Hill Road. I felt like a little old man, I never went over 5 miles an hour all the way to the Hinsdale highway, and no faster than 30 after reaching it. I called Clara from Crosby’s as I said I would, and again when we got home. I just simply didn’t get it - what was I, on the mental hit list?

Make no mistake, this house was extremely active in the '70s. Several had taken up residence since only to move out in short time. The couple that lives there now have disturbances on occassion but have no intention of leaving. They are elderly, in their late seventies, and have no desire to allow the paranormal activity to disrupt their lives. 

Investigations continue today, and with the new technology of EMF meters, digital photography, and thermal imaging, more data is being recorded. One never knows from one day to the next what type of energy will be displaced in and around the house. But whatever it is, I for one am always looking over my shoulder.