ask grandma j

Things That Go Bump In The Night........part 2

Even though I wasn't aware of any Native American (commonly referred to as Indian) burial grounds directly adjacent to my new home, I knew several existed along the California coast. There is quite a bit of Indian culture as well as Spanish in California, and most people have a basic knowledge of the Spanish language because half the streets, towns and businesses have Spanish names.

Grandma J loved to walk her dog, Charlie up to the park on the Mesa to run and play. It was a very nice park with a great vista of the ocean that was about a mile away. Another nice feature was the fact that hardly anyone was ever there. Without any facilities, it wasn't very popular.

Another element of life along the Southern California coast is liquefaction. The soil is unstable and sandy. There are also a plethora of fault lines running through the area....so a bit of creaking is normal and just stuff settling all the time. Believe me, trying to scare people about earthquakes never worked because they still crowd there sweet arses into the State of CA. Except me of course who moved to Texas....which is a whole multi-part blog in itself.

A little creaking at night.....we're used to it. Hearing a kitchen cupboard close not so normal. But then, maybe I really just imagined it. One morning, I get up, go downstairs and three cupboards are open. Now, I never ever leave cupboards or drawers open...EVER. My cupboard doors were the type that didn't have knobs, and were self closing with a nudge. So, I'm feeling a little nervous and I check all the doors, and they are still locked. OK, I tell myself that maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing, and just because I never leave the doors open, I might have accidentally forgot.

For a few weeks I hear and see nothing. Then one night I'm watching TV and hear what sounds like footsteps upstairs. I turn the volume down on the TV.....hold my breath as I listen, and listen.....

Nothing! I turn the TV volume back up and forget about the noise...until I get up to fix some tea. I walk past the stairs on my way to the kitchen and hear the upstairs bathroom door shut. I freeze in my tracks for a moment. At the same time Charlie lets out a growl. I grab his leash, put it on him and take him out front.....now I'm afraid to go back in!

I walk Charlie around the neighborhood, and realize I'm being silly. No one could have gotten in the house without me seeing them or Charlie barking. I shake it off and go back inside, and fix my tea.

Later, as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard some noises downstairs....I hold my breath, as usual. The noises continue, but I freeze, lying there with Charlie, holding my breath, facing the opened bedroom door. My thinking was this, if someone was down stairs, so be it. Just don't come upstairs and we will all be fine. Take what you want, just leave me alone....I eventually drift off to sleep.

I become sleep deprived....as this continues off and on.

No one gets much rest anymore. Then one day, I had company over, and one of my friends, who was a planner with the city, remarks about how surprised he was when the city of Huntington Beach approved the permits to build on this tract of land. I asked him why he was surprised. He said the parcel wasn't large enough for most builders to consider developing, and the easement requirements were stricter too.

I'm like "huh?"

He said, With the Indian burial ground up on the mesa, most builders were reluctant to take on the additional cost of having an archaeologist analyse the perimeter to determine the burial grounds boundaries, so the city waved the requirement as long as they agreed to add a flood control easement between the hill and construction.

Now that I knew about the Indian burial ground up on the mesa, it made sense that over time, with erosion due to the soil conditions in the area, some of the relics had no doubt made their way down below. I was probably living on someones grave.

This was a relief to me. Honestly? I decided to have a little pow wow with my Indian friend. If you could have been there, you would have had me committed.

With Charlie on my lap, I told my boarder that we had to co-exist with respect for each other. She just couldn't go around scaring me. Guess what? It worked. Every so often I would hear a door or cupboard...then I would quickly remind my friend that it wasn't nice to try and scare me because it didn't work anymore!

**I've added a new gift idea below. It's a new infomercial by Vince the Shamwow guy....remember? You'll say WOW everytime. Thanks to my boyfriend Michael K. at dlisted, I borrowed it from his site....take a trip over, he's the funniest evah!