In 2024, Vermont will recognize the 300th anniversary of the first continuous European settlement that was built in what would eventually become Vermont.*
During those 300 intervening years, many houses have been built with generations living and dying— sometimes dying within those actual houses. It is quite uncommon in Vermont for your home to only have two digits in its age. Saying your home is 100 years old makes your home the youngster on the block. When my wife and I bought our first home, long before deciding on a military life, we chose a two-story 125-year-old duplex. It was located in a small village, and many years previously had been a restaurant as well as an apothecary, among other things.
Oh, the history this home could tell if it could talk.
And would I want to hear all that it said?
As children, we grow up on ghost stories told to us by our parents, told around campfires, told through early cartoons like Casper, then told to us again through movies, such as Poltergeist. For some of us, we hope a ghost story stumbles upon us in our home in some personal way. Of course, we only hope for an encounter with a Casper-type ghost, not the Poltergeist type. We are looking for ghost stories to share at dinner parties, not to be frightened to death in our home and possibly bed.
As I made my way through life, there were a few incidents here and there that stand out. There was my first rental in college…..to hear the rest of that story, visit the full piece at ArmyWifeNetwork here.
