Comments for Gray Mist On An Old Farm In October: Nellie?: Page 1

I enjoyed your story and the way it was written created the atmosphere well. Thanks for sharing. 😊

Oh, sweetie, no one jumped down anyone's throat. I've read your other posts, and I think you like to debunk and diss.

This was just an experiment, and one I won't repeat, I promise you. Although I kind of like some of the people here, including Mountaineer.

Bea... Just forget it. I have no idea why you're assuming anyone is "offended". Again you're being extremely defensive and projecting. I actually have no problem with your story, I complemented you're writing, actually Missy did as well. I was just explaining to you what some of the other comments were referring to and trying to get you to understand what they meant.

I get that you write for a living. But you've missed the entire point Usually the stories here don't read as well as yours, and when they do, a lot of people have found that the stories end up being written solely for entertainment.

I've never seen anyone else on these boards get so emotional when anyone's ever expressed concern over the validity of their post. I think you just jumped the gun a little too quickly on the "old person" comment you invented, and jumped down the throats of some people that didn't deserve it. A simple "my mistake" would have sufficed to be honest with you.

Mountaineer, he was hospitalized in the fall of 1861, send home in January of the following year, and died the following summer. I don't think he saw much action. He left behind young children, in addition to my great-great-grandmother.

[at] BeaW: Oh okay I just assumed that since he was a soldier and died while the war was going on that he died in battle. Well if he didn't die in battle, do you know if he participated in any? I love civil war stuff, its one of my favorite history topics.

Mountainer, my great-great-grandfather died of an illness, not in a battle. I think it was pneumonia or maybe TB.

Dusty, people who write for a living write like that sometimes. I find your response bizarre. I've read a lot of posts here where the grammar is bad and the syntax out of whack.

Sorry if you are offended by the phrases used. Do you think amateur posts make a story more credible?

At one end of the spectrum, there is a bulleted list. At the other, there is a novel. Stories closer to the novel side of things are more pleasant to read, but also run the risk of raising those little red flags other posters are talking about. Your story is very nice, and also well written. If you don't mind me asking, do you know what battle your great-great grandfather died in?

Bea... Wow your responses to readers here on the site was really bizarre and defensive.

I see you clearly have some issues about your age, because even before you had any clarification as to what "O/P" meant, you jumped completely out of left field with this old person hilarity...

And I don't even know what to make of you listing off the random accomplishments you've done in your life. That was completely out of the blue.

Missy was very nice and respectful in her comment to you, and nowhere did I see her taking out a "bad day" on you. Usually on this site when someone takes such poetic license with their prose, and the story reads with such tact as your's did (with phrases like "balmy afternoon" and "prolonged goodbyes"), readers become a bit wary because those are usually red flags for stories written solely for entertainment.

No need to be so unnecessarily defensive and snide to people that are expressing the normal doubt seen on this site. Surely, considering the subject matter, you can understand?

Thank you, Lynrinth.

Nyssa, thanks for clearing that up. I was shocked to see that I was considered a "senior: - but I guess that starts at age 50 these days.

The gray fog was thick and dense when it rolled across the hood of the car. The woodsmoke was typical of an October Sunday back then, when people still had "burn barrels" in their yards or burned piles of leaves, something you don't see much anymore, because of clean air regs. But John and Florence were not burning leaves that day.

I wouldn't consider it a stray wisp of smoke because of the color, density and shape. In fact, I pretty much forgot about it until I started doing genealogical research about 13 years after it happened and ran across the Nellie letters.

I am sorry if my wording was offensive, that was not my intent. I used "flowery" to describe your writing because you said things like "The leaves were crimson, gold, and bronze" then described the smoke as moving like a tumbleweed across the hood of the car. Like I said, I don't think that makes your story untrue, but it is the kind of wording that is used in creative writing, and sadly some people do post stories here just to have their creative writing praised. So sometimes that strikes people as a red flag I understood that to be what MissyM was saying, that she was seeing a little red flag. I do have one question though, you say there was a smell of woodsmoke in the air that day, so why did you find a stray bit of smoke "stunning" and later consider it possibly supernatural?

By the way o/p means original poster. I haven't seen anyone on this site discriminating against mature people.

Well, I enjoyed the story. If you have more, pleased do tell.

Otteer, BeautInside and Geetha50, thank you for responding in such a positive manner. I wasn't sure this story was scary enough to be included here.

MissyM, does O/P mean Old Person. Never thought of myself as old before. Just a Baby Boomer testing the waters here. You must be having a bad day for my story - which is true, by the way - not to "sit well" with you. And Nysa, I would not call the details "flowery" in anyway!

I found your responses amusing. Must be a generational difference, as I have made my living by writing for TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and companies for more than 30 years. The money I earned paid for every cent of my college expenses, two mortgages and three trips abroad. So I must have done alright for an Old Person.

I was curious to see if anyone else had a similar experience. Now that I've read through this site, I can see I am not alone. I also see a lot of bad writing, and too-bizarre to be true stories.

If I had been making this up, I'd have come up with something scarier!

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, positive and negative. I hope your day gets better, Missy!

I understand what you mean MissyM, flowery language & unnecessary details make an account sound like a story not just the sharing of an event. I suppose some people just like to write that way & I don't think it makes it untrue, but it plants a seed of doubt. You can't help but wonder is this a true story, or just a story? Of course in this case it could just be fancy as well, since it boils down to a whirl of smoke with an unseen source & a pile of dusty bunnies that seem out of place. Whether it was literally a spirit or simply things that represent Nellie's spirit to the story teller it's hard to say.

I don't know why but this story just seems too surreal. Like the o/p just felt creative one day and decided to write a good ghost story.
Maybe it's just me...
It's a good story and I very lovely ending but it just doesn't seem real. Which I'm not saying that it isn't but I'm pretty sure the intention of the site is to write real paranormal experience related to ghosts and hauntings. Maybe that's what the o/p did but its just not sitting well with me.

Am I the only one that feels this way about this story?

What a lovely story. It's always nice to know about your family history and even more nice and interesting to interact with a past relative. Since reading your story, I want to start doing my family's genealogy. I just hope that I could get information from back home in Sri Lanka.

Lovely 😁

After so long she had someone caring for her! It's no surprise that she wanted to stick around you for some time and help you cleaning 😁

God Bless ❤

Love this story. You may have something there, maybe Nellie is aware of your affection for her and checks in on you. Thanks so much for sharing this. ❤