From: Jeff
Subject: At My Window
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 23:13:21 -0700 (PDT)
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
Hello! My name is Jeff, and I had a series of shadow experiences when I was a kid. For many years I never came across anyone who had seen a shadow figure until about a year ago. A customer at the video store I use to work at started to tell me about a few shadow experiences he had (he didn't call them shadow people, but just shadows) when he was a kid, and that got me thinking about my past with the one I saw over the course of my youth. I am 21 now, and attend college in Texas.
When I was about four years old, I had a room on the second floor of my house. One morning, I woke up and turned my head to the window and saw a shadow of a man wearing a hat (now I can identify it as a Stetson type hat), riding a horseless wagon. He passed by my window quickly as if he was just on a ride, and disappeared on the other side. I didn't even move until my mom came in the room soon after to wake me up for breakfast. That experience was quite weird because I know if I saw something like that happen now, I would freak!
We moved out of that house a few years later, and moved into another neighborhood a few miles away. One of the things that was on my mind was that shadow. I didn't want him to come back. When we moved into that house, I would dream about the shadow coming to my window in the middle of the night, and banging on my window laughing. Before he would come, I would hear horse hooves in the distance which signaled his approach and I would hide on the side of my bed as he would come and start banging on the window laughing. Unlike my 4 year old experience, I began to fear him now. These dreams became frequent nightmares, and the hot water heater which was in the attic near my room made noises, which didn't help the matter.
One day, my mom was baby-sitting my neighbor's daughter and I was home too. My mother kept us busy by playing "Go Fish" with us. During the game, my mom said she heard a noise and we all stopped concentrating on the game and listened. It was a banging sound coming from upstairs! The funny thing about that instance was: my mother just said it was nothing and continued to play the game! My mom is not like that. If she heard something nowadays, she would investigate it. My neighbor's daughter didn't seem concerned about the noise either but I was. After a few minutes, the banging went away, and I was relieved. Later that year, I started to tell my parents about the shadow I saw and the dreams that I was experiencing but they didn't take much notice to it, and my brothers didn't either. To them, I was a kid just making up stories. After that, I never talked to them about it still to this day.
After second grade was over, I was still having these dreams of that shadow man and his wagon. I was scared of going up stairs by myself because I thought he was going to be at one of the windows, especially my window. I was outside playing in the backyard, and I don't know exactly what I was doing because it was a long time ago, and I looked up at my window from where I was standing and saw it shake. It banged three times! I ran to my Dad who was in the garage for safety. I didn't know what to do.
The most bizarre experience I had with the shadow was when I was sick one day. I believe I was in the 3rd grade (Sorry, I'm trying to put this experience in order and I don't remember the grades I was in when these things happened), and I had the flu. It was bed time, and my Mom told me to wait in bed while she went and got my medicine from downstairs. When she left, I was just laying there and heard those hooves coming from a distance! I jump out of bed and ran into the hall taking refuge from my room next to my door. The hooves stopped and I heard three bangs come from my window. I called for my brothers, but they didn't hear me or the bangs and their rooms were down the hall! At that moment, I saw my Mom coming up the stairs from the banister and she asked what I was doing out of my room. I peaked in my room and saw that the shadow was not there. I had a hard time sleeping that night. Gradually the dreams went away.
We moved overseas after the 3rd grade, and I have never had anymore dreams of the shadow but on one occasion when we moved back to the United States. I have also never had any more experiences with the shadow man either. I am very thankful for that too.
I have told my friends about these experiences, but I know inside they are laughing. It is a hard story to tell because it is odd. Usually you hear people talking about seeing ghosts, but I have never seen a ghost. But I have seen a shadow at my window. I know this story may sound weird, but it happened. Thanks for listening.
