Having talked to some people since then, we're not convinced it was a ghost. One friend has decided it was a dimensional slip, and that we briefly overlapped with another "universe" which is otherwise identical to our own in most ways. She said in an amused tone that she'd love to hear what that kids' parents had to say about the strangers on the porch next door.[/spoiler]
I've had some other unusual experiences, but most of them could be explained away one way or another.
Hmm, I'm not so sure. I had a VERY similar experience.
My cousin and I were at my grandparent's ranch up in Tehachipi. My grandparents used to own the main houses and grounds that made up the "Old West Ranch" (Old Town) up there. We were like 11/12. The main house is old (there was addition built later, but the original main part of the house was built in the 1880s). It was a cattle ranch. The place has ALWAYS felt REALLY spooky.
My cousin and I were playing cards when we heard my dad out in the kitchen trying to gather all the kids to go pick rocks out of the field. It was hot that day and picking rocks did NOT sound like fun to me- so I talked my cousin in to running into the back/old part of the house- there are a series of three adjoined bedrooms leading from a greatroom) and we hid behind a bed in one of the rooms.
About 2 minutes later I felt guilty about being such a lazy brat, so I told my cousin we should rejoin the others. We exited through the back of the house, the door that opened onto the old porch. The light seemed really bright- and I'm not sure anymore, but I think the trees looked kinda different. A lady was dressed in a long old fashioned looking dress- complete with parasol, was walking along under the line of apple trees. She didn't look up at us. I asked my cousin "who is that?" He said "maybe grandma's sister."
The thing is, my grandma's sister was expected to drop by that day, and we had never met her before. But my GRANDMA was a super weird lady, so it make some kind of sense to us that her sister would dress up in old fashioned clothes.
I swear to you she was dressed JUST LIKE THIS
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loginBut... she did NOT look nice- and I was a really shy kid. So we backed through the door and shut and locked it. We then ran all the way back through the house to the kitchen where I think my mom and aunt and grandma were making lunch. We announced "Grandma's sister is here!!!" Everyone rushed outside to greet her.
But there was nobody there. We looked in the parking lot over by the barn, and there were no new cars. By this time, I was more than a little freaked out. I told the adults the lady was dressed in SUPER old fashioned looking clothes- with a hat and parasol- and concluded she must have been a ghost.
Of course that's ALL the adults needed to hear to conclude that I was full of poohhickey. They decided we had tried to trick them, and ha ha, good one.
I was so furious about not being believed insisting repeatedly what we had seen. My mom (probably to shut me up) tried to come up with alternate explanations- maybe one of the weird neighbors playing dress up.
But no. The neighbors were weird yes, but the closest lived a mile or two away, and this is NOT the kind of area where people just wonder onto another person's land unannounced.
I know what I saw. WAY later my mom admitted that she DID believe me but that the story had creeped her out and she "didn't want to scare us." Adults are such cowards.
My cousin NOW totally denies that he "saw" anything.
He had for years corroborated what I had seen, but now if you ask him, he would say I was a very convincing kid and he's not so sure I hadn't planted the idea/image in his head.
The lengths people go to to explain away the unexplainable.
I'd almost believe I hallucinated the entire thing too - but now that I'm an attorney, I actually believe my child self a little more now! It is unlikely I just "hallucinated" something so random (and so unexciting honestly). And the clothing did look like it would have fit in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Also, the fact that after seeing the woman I ran immediately to the adults to tell them that grandma's sister had arrived and was dressed old fashioned-like, makes it more credible. My memory a few seconds after the event was better than it is now after all.
I also saw two other things that I think were "ghosts" at the ranch. But they were more vague- and one could have been a trick of the light. Also, the wall of text is getting long