I have shared this story before but have since lost the post. It is one of the scariest things I have experienced.
It was sometime in the early 80s when I was working part-time as an Avon Representative. At the time, I lived in Bangor and typically walked to my customer’s homes in the late afternoon or evening after getting home from my day job.
One of my customers lived on French Street. It was a quiet little neighborhood. One day in late fall, I set out to deliver an order to a customer. It was approximately dinner time and already dark out.
I approached the home and rang the bell. There was no answer. I was a bit puzzled as the lady of the home knew I was delivering her order that evening.
I looked through the window and noticed that a group of people appeared to be standing around in candlelight. I hesitated for a moment, thinking they were dinner guests and wondered if I should interrupt them.
Because I had already made arrangements to deliver the order, I decided to ring the bell again. As I was about to give up and come back another day, a man (whom I assume was the husband) came to the door.
I gave him the order and as I did I noticed they had put a new plaque with the house number up. To make conversation, I commented about the new sign.
He laughed and told me that they needed to put the new sign up because having a house without a number would attract ghosts, and the sign would keep the ghosts away.
Thinking he was joking, I laughed and commented that my house didn’t have a sign and that maybe I should be worried about a ghost.
He laughed a deep, hardy laugh and told me I’d better put the number on the house.
As I turned t walk away, a sudden onset of wind swooped through the yard and down the street. Leaves and debris swirled, flying high in the air. Long, dark shadows appeared to come out of nowhere. The quiet little street transformed into something out of a horror movie.
I turned and ran down the street and didn’t stop running until I got home and was safely inside.
To this day, I’m not sure what happened, but the image of people standing around in candlelight, the comments about ghosts, and the horrendous winds and menacing shadows that seemed to come out of nowhere have lingered with me for 40 years.
Did I interrupt a seance? Was there something otherworldly behind the sudden change in weather? I will never know for sure.
Note: I had never heard stories about house numbers keeping ghosts away before and haven’t found any references to it in any of my research. Have you ever encountered this belief before?
In Due Time.... 