20 years in the making - Part One

Hello ATS, my name is Jonathan and I have a story to tell. It spans from before my birth until the day I die. I don't know quite yet how many parts it will take for me to finish or even how long. My story will be spread throughout the forums as different pieces of my tale fit better in the various sections. So, without further adieu....

My mother's side has always seem to attract strange things, from my great-grandmother who at the age of 7 predicted the murder of a close friend by his own mother to my now deceased uncle who claimed to have seen Sasquatch. A rather odd family, claiming descent from European Royalty and even the mythical King Arthur himself, though I have my doubts. Anyway... let's continue.

I won't bore you with every detail of every story my family has to share, only the ones that I feel are the most interesting. I will also more than likely only post a few every day or so as the memories of those involved are hard for me.

My Great-Grandfather and the Tunnels.
On a trip home from Dodge City, Kansas. Making a bathroom stop my Great-Grandfather, Great-Grandmother, her brother and his wife stopped at an old derelict shack in the middle of nowhere. Upon relieving themselves, the boys decided to explore the shack while they waited for the girls. Nothing out of the ordinary, old tools, magazines, barrels, etc. Then they heard a sound only described to me as "bones snappin' and crackin'". His curiosity aroused my great-grandfather followed the sound to one of the barrels. Opening it he found it empty, so he decided to move it and what follows he swore on God and his children was real. Finding a tunnel around 4ft round he kept hearing the sound, so arming himself with one of the old hatchets and a lantern he began climbing in, with his brother-in-law holding his ankles. Making his deeper into the tunnel he noticed a growing amount of side-tunnels, each big enough for a man to go through. Growing increasingly frightened he signaled from his brother-in-law to pull him out. Then he heard a scream from the tunnels all around him, as he quoted "like a thousan lil screamin' demons" and as he tried to make his way back out even faster he felt what he said were "hundreds of hands, grabbin' and pullin' at me.". Struggling and squirming he finally broke free and was pulled to safety. Running back to the car he found the girls staring in shock at him. As he looked at himself he saw he was covered in what looked like hundreds of child-sized hand prints marked in what looked like blood. They then got into the car and didn't look back.
This story has been vouched for by every present and they were very religious people, they never swore to God unless they were telling the truth.

I am welcome to any thoughts or theories about this incident and as I said, I will post more stories of this kind from my family in this thread..


Thank you for your time.

Great story OP.... Im wondering what bones snappin and crackin would sound like and why that was his first instinct?

Then they heard a sound only described to me as "bones snappin' and crackin'". His curiosity aroused my great-grandfather followed the sound to one of the barrels. Opening it he found it empty, so he decided to move it and what follows he swore on God and his children was real.

reply to post by Glycon


Did he say what the workers were doing or saying about these tunnels? Why I wonder did he decide to take stuff from the "shack" and go venturing while stopping for a bathroom break?

Do you think they were just telling you this story to scare you and get a laugh?

Wow. That story sent shivers down my spine.
Like the post above stated, they could've just been messin' around.
True or not it's definitely a spooky story and one for the camp fire.

reply to post by SilentE


Nice, and that's a story that would fit well into one of the newer "horror" films. Stephen King is probably reading this and kicking himself for not thinking of it (or, I may be Stephen King and, ow, that hurts).

Maybe there were a family of raccoons or something in the tunnel. It's not the smartest thing in the world to crawl into a tunnel where bones are cracking and snapping, but the folly of youth will get your shirt dirty.

Originally posted by Aleister
reply to post by SilentE

 

Nice, and that's a story that would fit well into one of the newer "horror" films. Stephen King is probably reading this and kicking himself for not thinking of it (or, I may be Stephen King and, ow, that hurts).

Maybe there were a family of raccoons or something in the tunnel. It's not the smartest thing in the world to crawl into a tunnel where bones are cracking and snapping, but the folly of youth will get your shirt dirty.

Stephen, you heard it here first. Always give credit where credit is due.

see 1st she should have saved the shirt that would have the best way to prove it & he should have handed it down so you could have gotten it , i love the story , some of the best stuff comes from our relatives. i take it you never tried to find out where this shack was ??

Creepy.. for a sec.

Seeing as how you said your family was a little bizarre, I will agree in that, I see alot of holes around my parts out in the sticks. Sinkholes, sinkholes with the sides caved in, caverns everywhere (which are usually about 4 foot entrances), small caves, all kinds of holes.

I am not scared to go climbing down some creepy looking hole, kk.

The only holes I really WILL NOT check out are ones that I hear stuff coming out of.

Idc if its just a squirrel or a raccoon, might be a snake, might be a coyote.. Either way, I'm not about to back an animal that I cant see into a corner, nope.

So bloody child hand prints aside (unless the shirt turns up), I do not believe this happened.

reply to post by Glycon


why post such an interesting tale and then leave?
you've left us all in the lurch here
you should answer any questions, you should stay and answer them not log out and leave us all hanging
that said, can you tell us where this shack is
im sure someone in your family knows.
maybe we can get someone over there for an ATS investigation

When does the book come out? Did you get the reaction you were hoping for?

I apologize for taking so long to reply, I've been at work. My great-grandfather was a courageous man, not much scared him due to growing up in what was back then still mostly untamed. I know it sounds like a rather pathetic excuse but though the shirt is still around, it's in my grandmother's possession who due to age and the number of loved ones she has lost in unexpected ways has become a bit of a hoarder. I do plan to go down to Kansas and help her clean though, for her health and to find the journals I've heard my great-grandmother kept, which may hold more information and stories I've not been told. As for location, the best I can gather at this point is around Dodge City, Kansas but this was so long ago, the place could be a McDonald's by now. I will keep looking for information on this story and in the mean time, I will share another story with you.

The Polaroid House;
My mother grew up in a small town, tucked between the Flint Hills and Dodge City. Now there are numerous tales of panther sightings and strange noises at night but this isn't one of those. On the outskirts of this town was a house, older than most of the others. The stories of this house state that some time in the 1800's a doctor lived there, a rather unscrupulous doctor. They say he had gotten a young girl pregnant and attempted an abortion in the ditch behind said house, only to disappear before the body was found. Fast forward to the 1970's. Feeling bored with the small town my uncle, my mother and their cousin Carl (who has a story all his own I will share at the end) decided to explore the house so many were afraid of. Upon entering the boys first ventured to the basement, due to my mother being young and afraid. The boys claimed to have found old operating tables and preservation jars and quickly made their way back up the stairs. Heading toward the kitchen area they found a table, set like someone had just up and left, rotting food on the plates and in the pots on the stove, all of which they said were old styles. They carried on into the living room area, finding nothing but a mattress with a lone doll sitting on it. Following the hallway they ascended the stairs to the top floor, finding another hallway my uncle felt a strong urge to enter one of the rooms, his cousin and my mother right behind him. A closet in the back of the room was opened, with multiple brooms and mops thrown across the floor as if someone had began cleaning and fled. Noticing the closet seemed to have no back they devised a plan to use the brooms and mops as life-lines of sorts. With one between each of them and one in front of my uncle, they never felt a back wall, around 15ft or so into this closet they gave up. Leaving the room they made their way to a crawlspace next, not to enter, just to look inside. As soon as the door was opened hundreds of photo's poured out, as they ran from the building they saw photo's strewn everywhere they had previously been. Reaching the living room they found the mattress which had previously been on the floor, leaned against the doorway with the doll against it. Climbing out of a window they made their way home and told my great-grandfather. The adults said it must have been a vagrant trying to scare the kids, as the house was empty when they entered. Though everyone who knows of the story agrees, when my uncle, mother and their cousin were asked they would go pale and silent.

My uncle died of a gunshot at the age of 20, their cousin Carl followed not long after with his wife in a suspicious trucking accident that to this day is avoided by the company they worked for, Covenant Express.

As always, thank you for your time.

Originally posted by SecretKnowledge
reply to post by Glycon

 

why post such an interesting tale and then leave?
you've left us all in the lurch here
you should answer any questions, you should stay and answer them not log out and leave us all hanging
that said, can you tell us where this shack is
im sure someone in your family knows.
maybe we can get someone over there for an ATS investigation

edit on 5/2/13 by SecretKnowledge because: (no reason given)

I quite agree.
Plus, OP great post please continue

I have a little bit of free time if anyone has any questions. I apologize again for the abrupt leaving but I had reached the required post count and figured giving it the time to be seen and commented on seemed like a good idea.

This is a great story, although I am wondering, How does this relate to the 20 years you say in the title?

reply to post by Edgar806


Because it's part of my story, and it has been a little over 20 years since my conception. It's all connected.