Nashville House

I spent the first ten years of my life in Louisiana. But just before my actual 10th birthday my family moved to Nashville, TN. For my Father's work. He works in the music industry as a sound engineer and song writer. While my mother got a job as a nurse in the nearby hospital. It was a tough move for all of us as we had spent years living with my grandparents Joshua and Marlena. But we were also happy in a way to have our first own home. That our parents could decorate as they saw fit and us kids could finally have our own space. And best of all a swimming pool. We also got our first dogs at that time Danny (Collie) and Schultz (German Shephard).

We moved into the house in June of 1975. It was a lovely 2 story wood and brick house built in the 1950's and we were its third family. It had an attic, a finished basement, a 4 car garage and a carport and the beloved swimming pool. The yard was large with lots of trees that were of good climbing size (much to my joy and my parents horror still). The house too was fairly good sized it had 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms spread over 2 floors (parents downstairs and kids upstairs) which meant my brothers (Luke and Justis) and I had our own rooms. And the twins shared (Elisha and Eloise always shared). And our parents had their room and own bathroom.

The house had an odd layout. And I'll let you know so you get an idea. Ground floor as soon as you go in the front door you were in the lounge room and through the lounge was the dining room turn left and through the door was the kitchen and another door to out side. If you went back to the lounge and went straight ahead there was a hall that lead to my parents rooms, A sitting/music room (where our piano was), the laundry and the stairs. Upstairs a long hall that all our bedrooms lead off and at the end of the hall a staircase that lead to the attic. To get to the basement you had to go outside in the yard and open the big double storm doors and go down the steps. There was no inside stairs to it.

Now for the ghosts I guess:

1. A lady in her 50's in a long dress very 60's style with hair in a pony tail would often be seen walking from the kitchen to the front door and then back again, then she would just vanish into thin air. The first time my mom saw her she thought it was my dad's aunt Sylvia who was due to arrive for a visit. But when she spoke to her the lady didn't even look up and vanished. Needless to say my mom waited out the front for us kids to get back from summer vacation activities at the local YMCA. We soon got used to her though and named the ghost Nellie.

2. An old man who was seen often in the car garage and shed. Mostly seen by my dad who often worked on his cars in there. The guy thought to be the first owner was seen watching us and my father working from various locations in the shed and carport. He never did anything but watched. He supposedly died in the house in the late 50's from a heart attack and was fond of working in the garage.

3. Two boys in their late teens would be seen working on what looked like some kind of project in the basement. Sometimes they would be talking to each other. Other times you would just hear the tools they were using. My father kept all his tools in the garage so there was no tools to be used in the basement. We have no idea who they were or why they were there.

4. Our dogs, both boys would often watch and sometimes chase objects that we couldn't see. One time Schultz was running up the hall towards the music room after something none of us could see and the door to the music room shut suddenly making him run head on into it. No-one was around close enough to shut the door. But it shut and poor Schultz got a hard knock to the head and required 6 stitches to close the wound. After that the dogs were more reluctant to chase whatever it was they had been chasing.

I lived in the house until I went to college at University Of Tennessee. After I spent a year in Europe before getting my own place back in Nashville (1 bed apartment). My brothers and sisters lived there until they went away for school. My parents lived there until my dad died in 1998 from a heart attack at work. And my mom sold the place in 1999. By then I was living in Hendersonville, TN so my mom moved to a house just down the road from me.

We have no idea who lives in that house now. The family who bought it from Mom were called Fenning but they moved out after a year. Its had a few owners since. Pity really that it seems to scare people off. It would make a good family home for someone, like it did for us. But I guess some people really do get frightened by the extra people in the house.

JACQUIE.