CharlesPurvis Thread

I was thirteen years old, and home sick from school. We lived in a 3-bedroom ranch house, in Middle Georgia, small town named Milledgeville. My brother and I had our bedrooms in the back of the house, and our parents had a larger bedroom they had added on to the back. Since their bedroom closets used sliding doors, my dad kept his tie rack in the coat closet in the den, and this closet door sat right next to the door that closed off the back of the house (believe it or not, this becomes relevant shortly).

All morning, I pretty much stayed in my bedroom in the back, with the door between this part of the house and front closed. Our town was small enough that both my Mom and Dad always came home for lunch. So, I wasn’t that surprised when, around 11:15/11:30 I heard what sounded like the front door opening, and some mild rustling around up in the front of the house.

A couple of minutes went by, and I realized that I hadn’t heard anything else. Nor had my Mom or Dad come back to check on me, which would have been normal and expected. So I called out, something like, “Hello? I’m back here.”

Flurry of noise, then nothing.

Getting a little spooked now, so I walked up the hall, opened the door into the front of the house, and continued on thru the open family room towards the kitchen. I could see the front door by now, which was closed, and then I turned around to face the back of the house.

Where I noticed the closet door which held my dad’s tie rack. At least 8-10 of his ties were hanging outside of the door.

As if the closet door had been suddenly closed from within and the centrifugal force had swung them out and the door had slammed before they could drop back down.

That was enough for me. I ran out the front door and sat on the front stoop, which was where I was sitting when my Dad pulled up for lunch about 15 minutes later. He of course wanted to know what the heck I was doing outside, so I told him. He listened carefully, and told me to follow him while he checked it out.

We walked in the front door and into the kitchen, where I immediately noticed two things--the ties were no longer hanging outside of the closet door, and the back door to the house was wide open.

My Dad took a quick look outside, quietly closed the back door and asked me what I wanted for lunch.