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Do you believe in ghosts? For the past few years, I've shared some of my spooky experiences in vintage hunting. While washing dishes last night after dinner, Pj and I reminisced about our ghost stories and he reminded me of one I couldn't believe I had almost forgotten!

Last year I shared the story of a choking feeling on the 3rd floor of an Alton, IL antique store
In 2012 I shared the story of bringing home an unwanted guest from an estate sale


A few years ago, when Rhys was just a few months old, we took the kids for an afternoon at one of our favorite local antique malls. They know us by name and ask about the kids when we don't bring them with us. We've been enough times to almost know the booth numbers by heart!

In the middle of this mall is a fabulous booth loaded to the brim with vintage buttons, costume jewelry, greeting cards, vintage baby clothes, linens and all sorts of wonderful things, all very affordably priced. I usually make myself comfy on the floor while I rummage through small plastic totes for at least 45 minutes and Pj takes one or both of the kids for a walk around on their own while I dig.



It was a November afternoon and the antique Christmas decor was out. I could hear the kids and Pj tinkering with some Christmas music boxes in the next aisle over. After a while, they came back and I had stashed my small haul in the shopping basket on my arm. Pj had a funny look on his face and he said "Hey, come check out this booth over here".

I didn't think anything of it. It was a small booth, just a few down from my "button booth" as I call it. It was full of Christmas stuff. A few trees, lots of boxes of Shiney Brite ornaments, a few of those kistchy plastic snowmen and Santas for the lawn. I stepped in to look at things and as soon as my foot crossed the line into the booth, I felt sick. Pj described it last night as cabin pressure changing in an airplane. My head was tingling and hot. Like -really- hot, painful. I had that "get the hell out of there" feeling. I stepped out and felt perfectly normal.  I looked at him and he said "right?!"



 I stepped in again and immediately was hit by that terrible feeling. I felt dizzy and my vision blurred. I moved around the space, slowly to see if it went away or got worse.  There was a wooden carved angel plaque about 3 feet across. It was hand painted and looked like you might hang it over your door or set it on a fireplace mantle. Its wings spread out across the length of the plaque with a pretty face in the middle and as I moved closer, my face burned hotter and my cheeks got red. I had enough and we left.

We continues pushing the stroller around, talking about it. About a month later, we went back to the antique mall and the booth was empty. It has been several years and there hasn't been a merchant in that space since. It feels just as normal as any other space now. We don't know if it was the angel, something else or just some strange coincidence but it was enough to give us the creeps years later!

Please share your ghost stories in the comments and for more vintage creepiness, see my pin board, Strange, Creepy and Vintage