Rocking The Table

When I was a child, we lived in a large, 2-story house on Indian Mountain, just above the park (the house is still there by the way). Every Friday my father would invite neighborhood families to the house for the evening. Mama would fix a huge dinner and then the adults would sit on the front porch talking while us kids ran around the yard playing hide-n-seek. Sometimes we'd all go inside and play a game.

Where other families would just play games like cards or board games, my father came up with the idea of "rocking the table" just to have something different to do. Us kids found it to be very boring but the adults really enjoyed it.

The night that I remember most clearly was when I was about 7 years old. It was decided that I would rock the table with my father. The table that we would use was the dinning room table. This table was a very large, heavy cherry wood table that would seat 12 people. I still own this table and I do not like it to this day because of what happened that night.

That night we put all the chairs back against the wall to have them out of the way and then moved the table to the middle of the room. I was standing at one end of the table with my palms about elbow length from the end of the table with my body not touching it. My father stood at the other end and also put his hands on the table at elbows length . He in no way touched the table other than just the palms of his hands. I had watched the adults play this game every Friday night and I still couldn't figure out why they enjoyed it so much.

It was quite in the room as everyone gathered around the table to watch. My dad told me to clear my mind and to only think over and over again "if there is someone here rock the table" that's what I did. It was slow at first but the table kind of moved just a little bit like some one was pushing against it as if they were getting up from a chair. Then the table started raising up off the floor from my father's side of the room. I might add that there was no way that I could have done this and make it tip towards me. With him only having his palms on the table there was no way that he could do it either...

"The adults had been playing a "ghost" game similar to using an Ouija Board only instead, they was using my mama's dining room table."

He started to ask questions that would be yes and no answers. He said "if it's No, rock one time, if it's Yes, rock two times." The question and answers went on for some time. The goal was to keep asking questions until he could persuade the spirit to tip the table up on one leg and make it spin around. He asked if they would do that for us tonight... The answer to that question was a bone jarring, "Yes". The more that the table moved, the more fun and entertaining the adults found it to be. Even my mama was standing in the corner gasping with excitement.

The table started rocking back and forth very hard for just a few seconds. It was suddenly tipped up on the two legs which was on my side and stayed that way for all of 2-3 seconds. Then it tipped to only one of those legs and stood that way for a second or two. Then started to turn slowly. We had to walk around with it to keep our hands on it. At first it was just walking, then I had to run to keep up with it! All of a sudden the women started pointing at mama's kitchen hutch. Not one of them spoke a word but the look on their faces still haunts me today. Mama was still standing in the corner with her hands over her mouth. For some reason this game didn't seem so fun for them anymore and then I caught a small glimpse of why.

There was a small, religious statue that mama kept displayed on the hutch. I tried to turn to see what everyone was so afraid of but my father rushed us kids out of the room. He ordered us out to the front porch and told us not to come back inside. But I caught a glimpse of it. I wish I hadn't seen it because I have never, in all of these years been able to un-see it. There was what appeared to be tears of blood running down the statues face.

Needless to say the neighbors that had come to the house were terrified of what they were seeing. This game that they had enjoyed playing every week wasn't a joke anymore. Never once did my father want to play "rock the table" anymore. One of the men took the statue with him when he left. My mama didn't want it to be in the house anymore. I never knew what he done with it. I suppose he destroyed it.

It was a good while before everyone gathered at our house again and even then nobody sat around the table. That table stayed in our home until my mama passed away in the late 1980's. Because it was a antique, heirloom I brought it home with me. It sits in my dining room now but we do not use it. To be honest, I'm rather afraid to lay my hands on it.

I am now in my 60's and I still have nightmares about what happened that night. The table has never moved again however every time I walk past it in the night time I can still see it in my head, spinning and that statue crying. I don't know if that old house is haunted. Several families have came and gone from it over the years but something sure did visit us that night when my father decided to play "rock the table."