Growing up (and truthfully even now) basements creep me out. 

Granted, none of the basements I was familiar with were “finished” basements – you know those beautiful basements with carpeting and places to sit and relax.  Nope none of that folderol in our houses. 

On the other hand, all of the basements in our houses had creepy little side rooms. 

Here’s a suggestion to architects – if you don’t want to scare the ever loving crap out of little kids don’t put creepy little side rooms in basements. 

I know they’re handy for storage but they are just …. Creepy.

Our house on Elm had a little room with a hole in it – I have no idea what it was for.  I have no idea where that hole went – nor did I want to know – it was just creepy AF.  Also, there was a little room at the far end of the basement where it seemed our old toys went to die.  I don’t remember ever putting anything in that room and yet it was always full of our old toys.  And maybe, just maybe, I could hear them moving around in there …

My Grandma Harris’ house has a steep staircase that goes by an opening to a crawlspace.  The opening was screened – so you could kind of sort of see in there; and I was convinced someday something was going to reach out from there and grab me.  The other two little rooms in my Grandma Harris’ house were not creepy at all.  One held seasonal decorations and the other was her pantry with a bunch of home canned goods.  Like the rest of Grandma Harris’ house, they were pleasant. But that crawlspace – yikes!

I never went down to the basement in my Grandma Cotter’s house – the upstairs in that house was creepy enough – there was no way I was facing the horrors below ground level.

And then there was the Midland Road house.  Again, creepy AF upstairs, but the basement was a whole world unto itself.  It had three creepy rooms – none of which had light switches on the outside.  You had to go in and pull the cord to turn on the light – the whole time waiting for that cold clammy hand to touch you! 

First one room was the pantry.  Then it ceased to be the pantry – I don’t know why.  Maybe it was too creepy even for the adults.  Or maybe it was just because we got a big ass freezer and it wouldn’t fit in that room.  So then another room became the pantry and freezer room. 

Then there was a little side room near the washer and dryer next to where we stored the wood for the fireplace.  Nobody ever used this room for anything.  It was damp – as in mushrooms grew in it damp.  Nowhere else in the basement was damp.  Just this one room. 

Most of the houses mentioned above had a big open (mostly empty) space; but while the Midland house had what could have been a big open (mostly empty) space, it was filled with lots of shadowy shelves and tables and just “stuff”.  So even the big room was creepy.  Not surprising, since the rest of the house was also creepy AF (what with chairs rocking by themselves and locked attic doors opening up during the night, and something not my sister climbing into bed with me one night, etc.). 

Hey, it’s October, time for some spooky creepy memories, don’t you think?