- Joined
- Aug 23, 2003
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- 876
Not so much "happened to me" as "happened to my Dad." Which is even weirder since the guy is as straight thinking as they come, atheist and logic obsessive previous Bank Manager. This story, to my utter delight, was first hinted at over the Christmas dinner. My Dad was scoffing at my website (paranormalcamping*com -[Mod Edit: No current URL found so the link has been updated via the Wayback Machine to here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150201090009/http://www.paranormalcamping.com/] blatant plug, but it's true) when my Mum piped up with "Why you don't you tell him about the cottage?" At which point he got all quiet, evasive and downright weird. I couldn't get a response out of him and my Mum seemed reluctant to push it. I let it drop...
...until Sunday night when my parents came over for dinner. We decided on take out and Dad and I went into town, ordered an Indian and then waited in the pub next door. I plied him with alcohol and he finally told the story.
Back in 1983 I was five. My parents had just had an offer accepted on a house, an old pile in Messing, Essex. It was December and my grandparents came over, everyone was talking about when we would move. My Dad, although not yet completing on the house, had a set of keys and the house was being sold as empty. He decided we should all go over to the house to show my grandparents. So we did. When we arrived, to my mothers absolute horror the place had been badly damaged by burst pipes and ice expanding hadbust the valves on the taps, letting water cascade out and then freeze. Basins and sinks were full of frozen water, the floor like an ice rink. Part of the ceiling had collapsed in the living room. It was actually uninhabitable. My Dad paniced, phoned his solicitor and put the purchase on hold. He phoned the estate agent and they organised for a plumber to meet him their the next morning to assess the damage and see what needed to be done by the owners to make it acceptable for the sale to go through. Both my Mum and Dad were thinking the damage was such that they might pull out.
The next day the plumber came round, picked up my Dad and they went off together. Within the hour they were back. My Dad apparently just went straight to his favourite chair and sat down in silence. My Mother couldn't get anything out of him. In the evening my Mum put us kids to bed and begged him to say what had happened, how bad was the house? He replied that he and the plumber had gone to the house, opened the front door and to his astonishment there was no ice, no water, no collapsed ceiling, no broken taps, nothing. The plumber seemed confused and then said "to be honest, I was wondering how anything could have frozen cause it was 12 degrees yesterday.
What makes this interesting is that four adults entered the house and all saw the same thing. My brother, apparently slipped on the frozen ice that covered the kitchen floor. My Grandmother broke a "stalagtite" off the kitchen tap etc etc. My father picked up a piece of plaster that had fallen in and his leather gloves in the car glove box still had white powder on them afterwards.
They bought the house, and a few other random things happened but nothing as mad as that.
Just thought I'd share it, as it's a pretty cool story. Not sure I'm allowed to identify the house on street view...am I?
...until Sunday night when my parents came over for dinner. We decided on take out and Dad and I went into town, ordered an Indian and then waited in the pub next door. I plied him with alcohol and he finally told the story.
Back in 1983 I was five. My parents had just had an offer accepted on a house, an old pile in Messing, Essex. It was December and my grandparents came over, everyone was talking about when we would move. My Dad, although not yet completing on the house, had a set of keys and the house was being sold as empty. He decided we should all go over to the house to show my grandparents. So we did. When we arrived, to my mothers absolute horror the place had been badly damaged by burst pipes and ice expanding hadbust the valves on the taps, letting water cascade out and then freeze. Basins and sinks were full of frozen water, the floor like an ice rink. Part of the ceiling had collapsed in the living room. It was actually uninhabitable. My Dad paniced, phoned his solicitor and put the purchase on hold. He phoned the estate agent and they organised for a plumber to meet him their the next morning to assess the damage and see what needed to be done by the owners to make it acceptable for the sale to go through. Both my Mum and Dad were thinking the damage was such that they might pull out.
The next day the plumber came round, picked up my Dad and they went off together. Within the hour they were back. My Dad apparently just went straight to his favourite chair and sat down in silence. My Mother couldn't get anything out of him. In the evening my Mum put us kids to bed and begged him to say what had happened, how bad was the house? He replied that he and the plumber had gone to the house, opened the front door and to his astonishment there was no ice, no water, no collapsed ceiling, no broken taps, nothing. The plumber seemed confused and then said "to be honest, I was wondering how anything could have frozen cause it was 12 degrees yesterday.
What makes this interesting is that four adults entered the house and all saw the same thing. My brother, apparently slipped on the frozen ice that covered the kitchen floor. My Grandmother broke a "stalagtite" off the kitchen tap etc etc. My father picked up a piece of plaster that had fallen in and his leather gloves in the car glove box still had white powder on them afterwards.
They bought the house, and a few other random things happened but nothing as mad as that.
Just thought I'd share it, as it's a pretty cool story. Not sure I'm allowed to identify the house on street view...am I?
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