The Inherited Car and Great-Grandma

Through all my years, as much as I can recall, I've never had a truly 'paranormal’ experience.. except perhaps once. It could have been an odd coincidence, it’s strangeness magnified by the excitement of the evening (as you'll read), but at the time it happened it CERTAINLY seemed spooky and unexplainable!

My great-grandmother passed away on Halloween night (really!) 1983. She was a sweet and dear woman to us all and her death was somewhat of a surprise as she was not ill at the time. We lived in suburban Illinois and she had died in Florida, so when it came time to sort through grandma’s things and sell her house, my family and I flew to Florida, knowing we'd be driving her car back to keep for ourselves.. each relative having picked certain items they wanted and our choice being the car!

A little over a year later I obtained my driver’s license and became the official heir of that car: a 1966 Chevrolet Impala.. a really cool ride. The car was operationally sound but had a few small kinks, like a non-functional dome-light, etc. It was huge, and I often drove on weekend nights when I'd get together with friends and go out to have fun, party, raise mischief, etc. Being 16 and single, it was usually 4 or 5 guys - causing trouble and trying to avoid the consequences. I wouldn't say we were headed for a lifetime of prison or anything, but we were definitely enchanted by the more mischievous side of life.

One particular night we drove around and decided to tee-pee a school acquaintance’s house (tee-pee = toss huge amounts of toilet paper into trees and shrubs, making said property a forest of white!). The tee-pee job went smoothly enough, by this time we were all quite experienced and very efficient in our duties, but while we were finishing up our friend’s father came out of the house and started yelling and chasing us! This was great!! We grouped together and ran down the street heading for the Chevy. We hadn't locked the doors in order to make a smooth and fast getaway, but we had definitely shut them (who leaves their car doors open?) Running towards the car with maybe 30 feet to go it happened: The driver’s side door slowly creaked open and that pesky non-functional dome light turned on!! It had NEVER worked and it’s fuse had been removed and substituted for the stereo fuse that had blown months ago! The shock of it all registered immediately but there was no time to stop. We piled into the car and zoomed away.

Later on after the excitement wore off we talked about the door opening and the dome light coming on, and of course jokes were made about grandma watching out for me’. Maybe it was her way of reminding me to be good or something.. who knows. It’s just unbelievable that that dome light never worked before and hasn't worked since! And the creaking door opening itself ? and the timing of it all We got rid of the car in 1990 maybe the new owners have fixed it. Or maybe it’s fixed them!