This is the first of many stories / experiences that I have had in my life up until this point.
I will give a little background information which, I promise is relevant to this story. I am half Native American and half Norwegian.
About 9 years ago my mom, who is also Native American, made a raw-hide drum. My mom moved in with me and my family in a brand new house just a few months before. We hung her drum on the wall in the living room. She had her cousin make a drum stick for it and we hung that just above the drum. All summer long the drum kept making a popping, ticking noise, as if a grasshopper was in the drum and kept jumping and making the drum sound. We heard this noise so much that we just put it out of our minds, at first we just thought the drum face, which was rawhide was still drying.
The summer was hot and dry and the temperature started to cool off as we headed into fall. We continued to hear the drum make it's weird ticking noise until I got sick of it and picked it up off the wall to examine it, as it was no longer hot outside and the material on the drum should have dried over the hot summer. There was no grasshopper in the drum, I squeezed it and tried to make it tick thinking that maybe the wooden frame had twisted while it was drying. But, I could not re-create that sound. I put the drum back on its hook and didn't think twice about it. The next day was a Saturday and me and my daughter were lying on the floor in front of the couch watching her morning cartoons when all of a sudden the drum stick came flying and yes I said flying off of the wall and flew about 6 or 7 feet and hit me in the head. Even if it just fell off of the hook's it was mounted on because of me moving the drum the day before, it would have just fallen on the floor as the couch was sitting kitty-corner to the drum and stick and we were about 3 feet in front of the couch on the floor. There was no wind to blow it off the wall. This made me wonder what the heck was going on. I grabbed the drum and the stick and put it in a trash bag and made my mom put it in her closet.
We called my mom's cousin who is a medicine man and told him what happened; he said the drum was calling to be played. We brought the drum to him with its stick and he kept it for a couple of days and than gave it back. We never had a problem with the drum or stick sense that time.
About 3 years ago our neighbors down the street gave my husband a rawhide drum. This drum is quite old and was used in a lot of ceremonies. The individual who gave us the drum is also a medicine man and come from a family that is greatly respected in our Native American community / culture.
We hung this drum up on the wall and never had a problem with it until about 2 months ago. Guess what started happening? The drum started making a noise similar to the last drum, a ticking, bumping noise. I have not called my mom's cousin to see what is going on and if he can help us.
But, I plan on making the call very soon. I have a lot of stories that I will be submitting as time goes on.
I hope that you have enjoyed this one and hope that you will enjoy future stories also. Thank you for reading and any comments that you may post.
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