1977: The Haunted House

.
“I bet you five dollars that you won’t go up to the door and knock on it and then wait for ten seconds,” said Bill.

“I bet I will!” I said back, and walked up to the house. All the paint was chipping. The top right window had a big crack in it that made it look like one of its eyes was winking. I could see the tattered curtains moving mysteriously. When I stepped on the stair it made a loud squeak. I walked up the rest of the stairs and looked at the door. I knocked on it -- quietly at first, but then I gave it a loud bang. Then I started to count the seconds. “One… two… three… four…. Baaah!” I yelled as the door swung open. I screamed like a girl and then jumped down the stairs in one giant leap. I looked back up and saw Bill’s brother standing in the doorway laughing. “Ha ha ha! I got you so bad!” he yelled. Then all of a sudden a hand reached out from behind him and grabbed his shoulder. He screamed as he was pulled back into the house, and the door slammed shut.

-- Ronny VanderVeen

* * *

I went to the door and rang the doorbell, but nothing happened. I tried knocking on the door, and my hand smashed through the rotten wood. A flurry of chickens came rushing out through the hole; all of them were decapitated and squawking.

I could see a silhouette in the living room, shuffling slowly to the doorway. My whole body froze. I probably did look like a chicken in my chicken costume. The silhouette stopped three feet from the door. I heard a ‘click’. And the whole house lit up with pink Christmas lights.

-- Josefina Mora




EVIDENCE
 
4344 S. Bennett is listed as vacant in the Polk Directories more than any other house on the block. It was vacant in 1941, 1948, 1959, and from 1971-1977. 

1974: 4350 S. Bennett listed as vacant.
1977: 4425 S. Dawson listed as vacant

(Source: Polk's Directories, Seattle Municipal Archives) 

Between 1969 and 1971, Boeing laid off 60,000 of its 100,000 workers -- at a time when the population of Seattle was only 565,000 to start with. It took Seattle nearly a decade to recover from the economic downturn that resulted. In April 1971, two real estate agents put up a billboard near Sea-Tac Airport that read, "Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights?" (Source: HistoryLink.org)


Note: Jack Osborne's book Makers of Mischief, a memoir about growing up in Columbia City in the 1950s, contains a "dare you to knock on the door of the haunted house" scene that might have influenced our choice of topic in this instance...
.