To The Poconos

We lived in Levittown for a year and then decided to make yet another move, although not as far this time.  Terry and her son, Shawn, moved back to California and Mike had decided to stay in Levittown, so they wouldn’t be making this move with the rest of us.  Our parents found a piece of property in Sky View Lake, a small development in the Poconos, about a hundred miles north of Levittown.  Sky View Lake is in a town called Greentown, which borders another called Promised Land.  This is a beautiful area of the Poconos and a place we would call home for the next eleven years. During this time our ghosts were still with us, just not as active as they had been in the past, but that didn’t mean and end to the unusual events.  There is one particular incident I remember quite clearly.

When we were young our parents had a unique sense of humor, they would tell us that they were from outer space and that their space ship was stored in our attic.  I think they thought it was funny to watch us sneak up to the attic looking for the ship.  Also aliens and space travel seemed to be a hit topic for television shows starting with “My Favorite Martian,” “Lost In Space,” and eventually, “Star Trek.”  So it was no wonder that Donna was fascinated by the idea of aliens and, when “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was released in theaters, the fascination was magnified!

It was during that time that this particular incident took place.  Having just seen Close Encounters, Donna thought it would be really cool to go away in a space ship with aliens just like the ones in the movie.  Donna, Diana, and my daughter and I were the only ones in the house while our parents were up the street visiting with our aunt and uncle.  We were sitting in the living room when all of a sudden we heard a loud, humming noise and then bright lights shining in the front window.  Then the next thing we knew, the lights were in the back of the house.  Then they were in the front of the house.  They went back and forth from front to back a few times and then just disappeared.  When we first saw the light in the front window we thought it might have been a car, although the car would have had to levitate to get that close to the front window.  However, when it went around the house to the back window and then quickly came around front again, we knew it wasn’t a car.  We had no idea what it was but for a time afterwards, Donna kind of gave up the idea of thinking that aliens and space ships were cool!

During our time in the Sky View Lake house, between 1976 and 1987, our parents would find their family growing up and moving away, and at times moving back for a while.  Terry was single again by this time and although she made another attempt at relocating to the east coast, she was always drawn back to California.  Mike, still in Levittown, was married and had two children, a son and a daughter.  Diana was also married and had Matthew, the first of her three sons.  Diana had moved to Virginia where her husband David who was in the Navy, was stationed at the time.  Over the course of these years I was married and then divorced and I moved back home with my two children, my daughter Nicole and my son Ryan.  Donna moved in and out of the house during this time as well.

Early in 1987 Donna and I and my two children were the only ones left at home with my parents.  I had just started a new job working with Donna in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and we decided we should move closer to work since we were commuting about sixty miles a day.  Donna eventually bought a townhouse in East Stroudsburg and I rented a house just a few streets away. 

By the end of 1987 our parents were the only two left in the Sky View Lake house so they decided to sell it and move to Scranton.  Our father was working with MRI’s at the time and the move to Scranton took him closer to the sites he had to service.  And with Scranton less than an hours’ drive from East Stroudsburg, Donna and I were close enough that we could visit our parents often.  Alone for the first time in thirty-six years our parents had the house to themselves, almost. 

Even with everyone scattered about and living on their own, the visits from the ghosts did not stop.  Instead of having one house to visit, they would make their way back and forth across the country.  They would drop in on Terry out in California, stop in at my parent’s house in Scranton, cause some mischief in East Stroudsburg, and then move on to Virginia to visit Diana.  There were even a few occasions when they would do all this in one night!  And along the way, more “friends” would be added to the entourage.

Donna had several visits to her townhouse in East Stroudsburg and there were many times when she would come into work and tell me what had happened the previous night.  Eventually it came to the point where she had to sleep with a nightlight.

She would often hear someone up in the attic, moving her boxes across the floor or she would feel a presence her bedroom and she actually saw someone moving about the room one night.  It was more like a shadow than a solid figure but it was enough to scare her and keep her from falling asleep for a while.

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