6.09.2011

Seance At Dusk

This little story is from one Pete's neices, Marie (with some help from her sister, me):




Although my grandparents were religious and would sprinkle us with holy water, or have the house blessed, or take us to a healing priest, they also had an interest in the afterlife and ghosts. 

Every couple of years we'd witness the family get together with a psychic who would come and "read" the house and it's dwellers. To us, it was fun and scary at the same time. But, mostly fun because it was explained to us that this was just entertainment. We'd watch through the windows from the stoop as the lights would be dimmed and candles lit. We'd hear the psychics talk about a Captain that lived in the basement or about these spirits that roamed through the house.

We'd mimic this with our friends by bringing out the Ouiji Board and play around a little. But then, Peter got a great idea to make our "seances" a little more exciting.

He told us to invite our friends from the block (Tuggy, Heather, John, Christine, Janet, Howie, Brian, Linda, Joseph) to the basement one Wednesday evening when our grandparents went out and left Peter in care of us. (Marie was about 8 yo, Peter about 17 yo) Sitting on the stoop one evening, told our friends tales about how the basement was haunted (and it was ... sort of).

That afternoon, Peter showed us how to "rig" the basement. We got fishing wire (clear) wrapped it around the cross that was hanging on the wall and down to the door handle. We painted glow in the dark footprints on the ceiling. Filled a spray bottle with hot water with a little red coloring in it. He set up the Ouiji board and instructed us on how to prepare for our seance.

We piled our friends into the basement, lit the candles, turned out the lights and everyone put their hands on the Ouiji board. We asked the board to give us a sign that the spirit we called "The Captain" was in the room with us. From behind a doorway, Peter pulled on the wires and the Cross moved back and forth.

While our friends were all screaming and running for the front exit door, it suddenly SLAMMED. Everyone screamed again, and ran in the other direction to get up the stairs. In the confusion, no one noticed (except us) that Peter came out of the doorway and sprayed the hot red water on  the neck of one of our friends. He screamed and said that something had bitten him and when he looked at his fingers, they appeared to have reddish liquid on them.

We couldn't contain our laughter as our friends went running to their homes screaming about the ghost in our basement. Of course, our GHOST was Peter, but we never told anyone.

This was one of my best memories with Pete. He loved to scare the shit out of people, and now I learned from the best !

Sorry this is only audio. But enjoy:

16 comments:

  1. Holy flipping flapping heck! what an hilarious story!!!! I would have been scared and thrilled out of my skin if I had been there. What a cool uncle you girls had and what lovely memories you have of him. Thanks for sharing

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  2. Awwww, that is good stuff right there, thanks for the laugh ;) so early in the morning ladies, I needed that

    Amy Wigle, Newark, Ohio

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  3. Great story!!! You guys must have ruled your neighborhood!! I wonder if any of them will read this and learn who the "ghost" was? Love the story and this blog! Thank you!

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  4. LOL.....I love this story it's awesome!! Thank you for sharing:)

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  5. now THAT is entertainment! funny pranks and good times.i wish i could have witnessed that lol so far,one of my favorite stories! thanks for the early morning laughs!
    -erik hernandez-

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  6. Too cool! That kind of stuff always fascinated me as a teen. You had really cool grandparents.

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  7. Too darn funny. How could you not love this man?

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  8. Gr8 story !!! Thanks for the stories girls!!
    Scott Tulsa Oklahoma

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  9. Great story!, very funny. I can imagine children's faces when they saw Peter as a ghost lol

    Hugs from the krypt.

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  10. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!LOVE IT LADIES!!

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  11. I had never heard 'Suspended in Dusk'. It's amazing, thank you!
    Basement rigging is an art-form in itself, one my brothers & sisters & I enjoyed as well in my tornado-prone home-city, waiting until weather advisories forced family and neighbors into the probably already haunted basement. Visual elements suspended from fishing line and blocked exits are always key. We hadn't thought of red-dyed hot water. That's ingenious!
    Glad Nettie & Pete Sr. enjoyed & embraced entertainment involving psychics and the world of ghosts and hauntings. It's nice to know Pete's macabre sense of humor came so naturally. Thanks for sharing this story and yet again prompting another fond childhood memory.

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  12. Again, what a cool family. So open minded about a lot of things. You all sound like you were the Brooklyn version of the Addams Family, lots of fun, love and craziness. I think a half hour sitcom about the Ratajczyk family would be worth doing....directed by Wes Craven or Quentin Tarantino !!! Having such a large extended family and friends like Peters had, would have made everything much more fun. More people to play pranks on and I love scary fun. I would have loved to have the Ratajczyks as friends. Never a dull moment.

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  13. NEVER a dull moment with that boy!!! ROFL!!

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  14. I love this story! :D

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  15. AMAZING STORY!!! Reading this just makes listening to his music that much more enjoyable. TON will endure the test of time, just wait and see! Love this blog, thank you so much. :-)

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  16. hello,my name is Stacia.I have listened ro type o since i was turned on to them when i was16.I am now 35.Peter has been to me,a very beautiful person,never got to meet him or c him in concert.But his music and words have touched my soul.he was awesome and will live on.love u peter,and ur family for doing this blog.STACIA

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