It was in the mid '80's when we moved to Lancaster Texas. It is a small town just outside of Dallas. We moved from Bakersfield Ca. We left Ca. because we had some one who was stalking the people who lived in our apartment complex. That is a different story, and I don't beleive it had anything to do with what we found in our new home in Texas. I remember we moved in our new house in the Fall. It was an old house, 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. The house was fairly small with a two car garage that was not attached to the house. It was not untill Spring that things started to happen. The first thing was simple. My sister had planned to go visit a freind in Ca. Mom had been getting things together for her to take on the trip. I remember that mom asked my brother and I why we took our sisters toothpaste and hid it. We did not know what she was talking about. Our sister continued to blame us for taking her toothpaste. That day mom did laundry, she washed all the clothes including the bed sheets, and mom was the one who made the beds when she was finished with laundry. That night when we went to bed, my sister found the toothpaste in her bed. We did not think anything of it. Things started to happen. It was almost 20 years ago so what happend next may not be in the exact order that they happend. I remember we started seeing someone, not really a person, but it was a shadow. We would not see it all the time. I remember seeing it a couple times. Our sister said we were crazy. She did not beleive us. This was the first time we had ever experienced a spirit. We called it a spirit because of what we could see of it. It was a simple shadow, no features, only a shadow. The first time our sister finally experienced it was about a year later. The garage was not attached to the house. My sister was cleaning the car one day and she did not see it, but she heard it. We had an old Buick, it was a big car. We only used one side of the garage. She was in the back seat sweeping the floor of the car when she heard someone come into the garage. The floor was concrete, she heard someone walk in. It was like they were sliding their feet accross the floor so they could be heard. My brother and I were not home that day. She looked up to see who was there, and there was no one. She never did see it, only that one time she heard it. My brother and I shared our bedroom. We had a big king size bed we shared. There was no air conditioning in the house. In the summer we would leave the windows open and run fans to try to keep cool. I slept on the side of the bed by the window. We had a large yard that was fenced in. I was laying in bed one night and I heard a dog growl, it sounded as if it was right next to me. We did not have a dog and I knew it was not at the window, it was right next to me. I was laying on my back, I froze, I could not move or anything. I wanted to scream, but I was froze stiff. I have never had that kind of fear before that or had it since. When I finally did scream mom came in and I told her what happened. She really did not believe me. That was the only time it made any noise. I really don't know why it did that. I often wonder if it was protecting us in some way. Summer was when we would see it most. Two of the bedrooms had two doorways to them. The third bedroom was a small room just off the kitchen. We mostly used it for storage. My mom and sister shared a room most of the time. I remember we would be in the living room and would hear something in the kitchen. We would go into the kitchen and the bedroom door would be shut, and we knew it was open before. Mom would grab the door knob to open the door and something would have a hold of the other side. I remember the fear of mom letting go of the door and something coming out. When mom would let go, nothing would happen. It never did touch us or hurt us in any way. Well, it did hurt me once. It is a funny story. My brother and I had a lot of Hot Wheels. We played with them all the time. We had a pile of them by the bed. On the wall opposite the bed, we had a dresser in the corner facing the bed. My brother and I would see this thing standing in front of the dresser facing us. My brother got the bright idea to throw Hotwheels at it to make it leave, it did not work. One night when this happened, it threw one back and it hit me. There was no way my brother could have done it because he was right next to me and this came from accross the room. We quit throwing the toys at it. My brother seemed to see it the most. It seems as if the more you believed in it, the more you would see of it. We were afraid of it because we did not really know what it was, except that it was a shadow. I looked at books about ghosts, but none ever seemed to talk about the kind that was in our house. Another incident that happened to me was around the same time the Hotwheels thing happened because I remember the bedroom was the same. We lived in the house for almost 4 years and over time we changed the room around and eventually we got our own beds. The bedroom had two doorways, one that came in from the hall, that had a door, and one that went into the living room, that did not have a door. The laundry basket was kept in our room, right by the door going into the hall. Our bed was against the wall opposite the door going into the livingroom. We could see right into the livingroom by looking down towards the foot of the bed. Well, any how, my sister had opened the door to put laundry into the basket and I saw what I thought was her, kneel down at the foot of the bed and go over to the door going into the livingroom. It then went into the livingroom and my moms stereo came on, but you could not hear it. The stereo's back then was really bright when they were on, they did not have the LED lights in them like they do now. The door had shut, I looked at my brother and we both thought the same thing, it must be Cheryl. I called out to her, she did not answer. I crawled to the foot of the bed to try to see her better, and called again. Still no answer. I started walking into the livingroom, calling her name. She did not answer. When I got right close to who I thaught was Cheryl, it disappeared, and the stereo went off. I ran back and jumped in bed and we both started screaming. Mom and Cheryl both came to see what was wrong. We told them what happened. It was not Cheryl. I remember my mom told our Grandparents, they recommended that mom go see a doctor. I am sorry, but we were not crazy. Grandpa died 2 years ago, he never believed us. Grandma and Grandpa were from Kansas. They went up to visit every year. They took us with them, but only one at a time. It was great, a vacation I'll never forget. I remember being so excited I could not sleep the night before we left. I was the last one to get to go with them. They went to their class reunion every year. This year Grandma flew out to Kansas, and me and Grandpa drove. The morning we were to leave I was laying in bed not able to sleep because I was too excited. My brother and I now had our own beds. Moms stereo was in the livingroom by the doorway that separates the bedroom and livingroom. My brothers bed blocked the doorway, so we did not use it. Mom had her stereo in front of it. I had noticed that the stereo was on, but no sound. It had a turntable that could play more than one record. You could load maybe 5 or 6 records on it, and when one was done, the next would drop in position to play. I heard a record drop down to be played, but still no sound. I saw the kitchen light come on, it was mom. She called for me to get up so I could get ready to go. When she called for me, the stereo went off. I ran into the kitchen and told mom. She did not believe me. But, I left that day for Kansas and never thought of it again. Mom told us that sometimes at night the stereo would come on, full blast. she would jump up out of bed, she said she thought is was us playing around. When she would go into the livingroom, we would all be asleep. She said this happened several times over the years we lived there. My sister never had any problems with it since the time in the garage.Over the years we have moved around a lot. I can't tell you how many times we moved back and forth from California to Texas. We left Lancaster and moved to a town called, Grandprarie. We lived there for a few months and then moved back out to Ca. My dad did not live with us in Texas, but when we moved back out to Ca. we got a place with him. The first couple years in Ca. we moved 3 times. During this time we did not see or hear anything from the spirit. We actually kind of forgot about it. We had moved into a small apartment complex in Oildale Ca. Dad did not live with us here, he had moved in with my Uncle. The first year or so here, we did not really have any problems. The apartment had three bedrooms, and my sister had stayed in Texas when we had moved out to Ca. So it was only my mom, brother and I living here. My brother moved back to Texas with a friend. I moved into his bedroom because it was bigger than mine and you could see the street from the window. Mom would not let me keep the door closed because I had seizers, so she wanted to be able to hear if I had one in the night. I did not stay in that room long. I would lay in bed and get an eerie feeling that some one was watching me through the door. I kept the door cracked just a small amount, I still wanted my privacy. I did not like the feeling of some one watching me through the door, so I moved back into my old room. I knew it was not mom watching me. By this time I had realized that the spirit had found us. While we lived in Lancaster we had met some people who also believed that ghosts existed. We had talked with them a lot about it and even went to the old cemetary to see what we could find. Never found any thing. But anyhow, when we moved to Ca. my dad introduced my bother and I to our other sisters and brother. We found out we had a bigger family then we knew. One of our half sisters had moved in with mom and I, and not too long after that my brother came back from Texas. Oildale is just outside of Bakersfield, just across the Kern river. Those that know about Bakersfield, it is Buck Owens country. Well, my half sisters boyfreind eventually moved in with us. We had told my half sister and her boyfriend about our experiences. They believed us. Nothing really happened much as far as the spirit. I remember one summer, it was just a couple weeks before school was to start, we had really bad storms. The electric would go off and it would stay off from around noon until the next morning. It was really strange, I don't know what it was, but things just did not feel right. Cal. gets really hot in the summer, the sky looked green, and we did not do much. The first night this happened, we were all home, but my half sister was not living with us at this time and her boyfriend did. I had since moved into the room I did not like before, and my brother had my old room. One night we were sitting at the table playing cards, by candle light because the electric was out, we heard something in my room. It sounded like something fell on the floor. Tim (my sisters old boyfriend) my brother and I went into my room together, there was a bottle on the floor. It was a glass 16oz RC bottle. We knew what did it, but what could we do? We went back into the living room, and a few minutes later we heard something again. We went back in and the bottle was on the other side of the room. Needless to say, that night we all slept in the livingroom. Over the years we all talked about the spirit and we had our own beliefs about it. We even feared it. We had come to just accept the reality that this was real and it was just a part of our lives. We had noticed that when we would move, it followed us. It would take it some time to find us and I believe that since at times our family was split up, it was harder to find us. I now believe that there is more than just the one, because my brother has had his own experiences and I've had mine. I do not know if they are evil, but I try to keep it away, I will explain that later. After the first couple nights of the electric being off, we got used to it and started sleeping in our own rooms. Nothing else happened for a few days, but things did not feel right. This is very hard to explain if you have not experienced this before. There are more things going on then many believe. My mom loved to play Bingo. She went every night. My sisters ex-boyfriend that was staying with us had a son. His son came to stay with us for a while. I know that this is hard to keep up with, but what happened as far as the spirit is most important. My mom and Tim had gone out to go play Bingo. My brother and I and Tims son were home alone. My brother was in High school and I was in Jr. High, the boy was about in the 4th or 5th grade. Well, the electric was on this night, we were watching t.v. when we saw it. The apartment was upstairs. When we saw the spirit standing in the hall, we ran out screaming. The people down stairs heard us and came out to see what was going on. We told them someone was in the apt. When we saw it, we did not take time to see who it was, we just ran. It looked as if someone was really there. They checked the palce out, and nothing was there. Tim later moved into his Grandparents house on the other side of town. We went to visit one night, he had invited some friends over. I had never met a witch before, It was a mother and daughter, both witches. Some may say they are not real, but they are. They were able to do things you would not believe. T.V. does not always lie. They told us things about spirits, they did not call them shadow people, they are spirits. They explained that people just see them differently. They did not tell us who ours was or what it wanted. I don't remember why, but it may have been possible the things that happened there in Ca. was not the same as the one in Texas. Nothing more happened there. My brother told a couple of wild stories, I did not believe them. With my brother, you have to learn to read between the lines. He liked to get attention, therefore he would tell some really strange stories, they may have been true, I dont know. The next year we moved to the coast with my dad. My brother had moved out and got married and every one else had also moved out. It was just my mom and I when we moved to the coast with my dad. We only lived there about a year. Dad passed away in '88, and I believe it was May or June of '99 we moved to Houston, just mom and I. My sister had moved to Houston from Dallas with her boyfriend. We lived in Houston for almost 4 Years. I had 4 weeks of my Freshman year left when we moved to Houston, and I graduated from that school. I dont remember anything happening there. My brother back in Ca. had some interesting things happen to him, I only believe this story because he never changed the story when he told it to people. This may be why I had no problems. At this point and time I really did not think about those things. Mom had her problems, so that is what I delt with. I left Texas after graduation and went back out to Ca. I stayed with my older half sister. I stayed out there for the summer, went back to Texas for a couple months, then moved here to Pa. I think from all the moving around, I could not be found. I moved around quite a bit here in Pa. before I got married. My wife and I built a house here. It took a couple years, then things slowly started to happen. Since the time in Bakersfield, I never saw anything again, only heard it. I did not want it to bother me, so I believe this is why it left me alone. In the new house only a couple things happened. I was hanging clothes up that I had just taken out of the dryer. I was rewinding a tape on the radio while I was hanging the clothes, I had walked over to the closet and the tape started playing. I knew I did not hit the play button. I told my wife about it, and of course she thought I was crazy. I did not want to deal with it, so I just prayed and asked God to make it leave me a lone, and it did. I believe it just wanted me to know it was there. I still have not seen it, but I know it is close. I have my own place now and have not seen it. I have had some small things happen, so I know it is not far away. I have been back out to the old house in Texas when I went out to visit family. It has not changed much. The garage was made into a small house. The first time I went out was about 3 years ago. I went by the house, I just wanted to see if it was still there. The people who lived there was living in the garage. It was made into a house. I went up the the front door of the place and looked in. It was all the same, even after all these years. I then walked in, I did not go into any of the rooms. I just walked into the kitchen, I did not feel it. I dont believe it is there any more. I have sent a letter to the people who live there now asking if they have seen anything. They have not answered my letter, so I assume they have not. Lancaster has grown up quite a bit. A lot of new homes have been built, except for that street we lived on. Many of the houses are now empty, and others have been torn down. Only a couple new houses have been built on that street. It may be nothing, but along with my brother and sister, we believe that there is something there in that area. Some bad things have happened on that street, when we lived there, our neighbor committed suicide. He shot himself in the head. There was some suspison about what really happened. I will not talk about it because I don't know who will read this, and I don't want to say something that may not be true. My sister knew the family, she went to school with relatives of theirs. The People that moved into the house had some strange things happen. After we had moved out, it was a couple years later, a family down the street was murdered. A mother and daughter lived in the house, they had a lot of dogs. They picked up every stray dog they found and took it home with them. They picked up a hitch hiker once, he cut them up with an axe. Someone found their bodies. I don't remember what all happened, but it was just one of those things. I have kind of gotten out of the ghost thing, but I think that that street had something strange about it. That is all I have for this. I will get the story from my brother when he lived in Ca. It is an interesting story.