Nothing too Bad

It's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend (think American Thanksgiving without "Saying Grace" before eating, but with adding syrup to the turkey). My family sat down together this Friday, since Saturday will be devoted to my cousin's engagement party and Sunday will be Thanksgiving with my extended family. Clearly an entire weekend of family-oriented activities will be...interesting. If I happen to never add a new post over the next week, assume I've lost my mind and dived in front of an oncoming truck.

It was a nice little evening. Both my brothers' girlfriends ate with us, along with one of their parents. They're all super cool folk. Conversation was the typical stuff people would talk about. Weather, traffic, how work is going, politics (upcoming Canadian and American elections, woo!), funny/embarrassing family stories... For some reason the conversation shifted to the house, behind my parents' backyard. It seems that the new owners got the paperwork approved by the town to knock it down soon. They'll probably replace it with an ugly monstrosity.

Our family has a lot of memories attached to that old building:

Older brother: "When we were little kids, we used to think it was haunted since no one had lived there since we were alive."

Me: "I remember on Halloween, we would dare each other to run up the walkway, up to the dark front door and ring the doorbell. We thought it was haunted."

Middle brother: "I was sure a monster lived in there. I remember every once in a while, at night, we used to think we'd see red eyes staring out at us."

Me: "The house was always abandoned and yet someone would always be payed to cut the grass."

Mom: "One day a few years ago, I'm guessing whoever owned the place passed away and the deed was passed onto the next member of the family. At that point, the family realized the house still existed and decided to sell it."

I'd say my Mom's opinion is a pretty good guess why the derelict house didn't stay abandoned. Of course, I know the real reason. I don't think it's a big deal, but I definitely wouldn't have opened my mouth to fill them in on the actual series of events that led to the home being sold.

As it turns out, one day some workers doing a repair job on the house next door walked into the backyard of the abandoned house and found a window that had been pried open. Some kids had broken the frame and gone exploring into the house. I even saw the workers make the initial discovery, from the view of my old bedroom window. Those guys ended up calling the town security to let them know. After some phone calls, the news got to the deed's owner's ears. With kids breaking into homes, they probably chose to empty out the abandoned house and sell it.

You should probably be thinking right now: Why would I be telling you this not-so particularly eventful story? Well, the hoodlums that broke into that house were myself and my friend.

Nope, I don't have remorse over it. The building was empty all my life. I thought it would be a fun idea to take a crowbar (I find it weird my Dad has a crowbar) and pry the window open. We broke the frame to get in, but closed the window to make it seem as if nothing was touched. I guess we didn't do a very good job.

I was pretty surprised at what we found inside. You know those stereotypical abandoned homes in movies? Filled with antiques, old war-time photos and furniture, covered in white blankets? That's exactly how it was. Very eerie and interesting. We walked all over the house, although we didn't want to stay long since our flashlights would attract attention. The upstairs had a bunch of things packed into boxes. It's as if the person had just given up packing midway-through.

The owners are lucky it was me who decided to break the law. If I was the type of person who wanted to make some money at the direct expense of others, I could have easily stolen so much valuable stuff from there. They left jewelery and fine china. There was even a grandfather-clock in the living room. Not an easy to steal? Just open the back door and put it in a car at night and it's easily sold to an antique dealer's for $1500. Lucky for whoever the owners were, I just wanted to explore my childhood's haunted house and have a small glimpse into the life/lives of a stranger(s).

Just because I break into neighbor's homes doesn't make me a bad person though. Right? Wouldn't you want to trust me with your valuables?

Hehehe.