Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Our Heart-Pounding New Years'



To celebrate the squeaky-clean beginning of yet another year, I'm going to regale you with the tale of our New Year's Eve.
It's a heart-stopper. 
Really . . .
We spent the evening, much like millions of other people, happily celebrating with friends.
Eating wonderful food that someone else prepared. (My personal favourite.)
Playing games: Charades. Word scramble. Card contests.
And visiting.
Sometime after midnight, we senior citizens called it a successful, wonderful night and left for our respective homes.
Husby and I were safely in bed by 2:00 AM.
All was well.
All was not to remain well.
Just as we were both deeply asleep, someone pounded on our front door.
Pounded.
In my half-awakened state, it sounded frantic to me.
Frightened.
Panicky.
“Grant! Something's wrong!” I screamed, leaping from bed and switching on lights as I sped down the hall.
Mentally, as I ran, I tallied where my kids and grandkids were. Who had stayed in for the evening and who might still be out.
One family, I knew, had taken their little girls to a friends' party.
They could conceivably still be out.
What's wrong? What's wrong?
I reached the front door, heart racing and breathing heavily.
I peeked out.
No one.
I opened the door.
The front step was echoingly empty.
I stepped out and peered around.
No one.
The night was quiet.
The street deserted.
Nothing moved.
I came back inside and shut the door.
Then I peeked out again.
What on earth . . .?
By this time, my Husby was also up.
Doing a circuit of the windows and doors.
No one.
We looked at each other.
Did another circuit.
Still no one.
Puzzled, I headed back to bed while Husby locked up again.
He soon joined me and almost immediately dropped back to sleep.
I didn't.
For the next two hours, heart still racing, my mind spun through every terrible, horrible thing that could ever befall a family that now numbered twenty-five.
It was a long night.
We survived it.
None of the terrible, awful things happened.
I know, because this crazy mom/grandma phoned everyone as soon as it was light this morning.
Two facts remain.
  1. Someone pounded on our door last night. The reasons remain obscure.
  2. Somewhere in our bed is my Husby's liver, scared out of him when I screamed.
Happy New Year.

24 comments:

  1. That's living in a small town. It's either a pleasant surprise with gifts left behind or a prankster trying to scare you. Glad you both survived:-) That New Years party WAS fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It had been such a perfect evening! Good friends. Good food. Tons of fun. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Diane, you did it again! You made me laugh!

    Love,
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  4. We had an exciting evening! Played Scrabble, then watched a video in bed, where I fell asleep in the middle, and didn't even hear the neighbours when they performed their annual ritual of the banging of pots on their back porch.
    How's that for exciting!?
    Love,
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. Another Senior's New Years. We know how to party!!!

      Delete
  5. We had an exciting New Year's celebration too. We went to our friends' place in Lethbridge and ate, and visited, ad nauseum, and everything went just fine. Then Kenz just simply ran out of gas and needed to go home (this constant 4 hours of sleep/night is catching up with her). We were in bed by 10:00, Kenz was asleep by 10:01 and here I was, eyes wide open and wondering what to do. Well, I plugged in a DVD of Hawaii Five-O, the First Season, and brought in the New Year watching what we used to think was terrific acting. But it could've been worse. Happy New Year!

    P.S. Back in another life, a lifetime ago, I got accustomed to the phone ringing or someone at the door. It was merely one of the boys in trouble again. I eventually just told the powers that be to provide 'lodging' for the night and I MIGHT be down sometime in the (later) AM to bail them out... I left one in stir for the whole weekend...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On, man, I can only imagine what that must have been like! I'd have been tempted to leave them there forever!
      Oh, and tell Kenz from me that she needs to get at least 7 hours of beauty sleep per night! There. I said it!!!

      Delete
  6. Good luck finding that liver. I'm afraid I've lost mine a few times over, usually when my husband is out of town and I'm home alone with the kids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ugh! My imagination always set itself on high when my Husby was out of town and I was home alone with the kids! Every creak. Every whisper of sound. I was a nervous wreck by the time he got back!
      Here's to a liver-less life!

      Delete
  7. Oh Gosh! That happened to my grand mother the day her husband died. He pounded on the door very hard but they looked and looked and no one was there.

    It must have been the New Year saying hello or maybe the old year saying good bye.
    Weird.

    Happy New Year anyway !!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow! That must have been some experience for your grandmother! I like the thought of the New Year saying hello! Maybe it has good things in store for me!!!

      Delete
  8. How scary was that, my heart was pounding while I was reading it, I am glad everyone was okay.. Happy New Year Diane, I wish the best for you and your family:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Launna! We are well and fine! And Happy New Year to you and your family!

      Delete
  9. A few nights ago I hit the ceiling in a cold sweat because I could have sworn sometime tried the side door knob. Ran around, turned on the outside ligths, stared out of every window..finally went back to bed and laid there awake all night. Sheesh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't believe how much alike we are!!! That's exactly the thing I would do!
      My eldest son's wife has nick-named him 'Captain Panic'. He's definitely my son.
      Maybe the three of us could start a club or something . . .

      Delete
  10. It's possible the door pounding was a vivid dream that woke you and sent you to answer the door.
    I hope you found that liver.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm . . . I always say that my imagination is my fortune . . . And yes. the liver is back, doing it's job!

      Delete
  11. Ah! anytime there is something sudden, unexpected, out of the ordinary...I too 'startle', sometimes 'worry' and sometimes why that happened is revealed and sometimes not. I'm thankful that this posting helped me feel so 'not alone' about these events. Your friend, @grammakaye on twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Another great story; I love your writings.
    Happy New Year to you and many blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Diane! I'm now following you on GFC. I thought that I was already following you. Thanks for linking on Amanda's Books and More!

    I can only imagine that it was a prankster. We've experienced that before, two nights in a row during a holiday. After ringing the doorbell, a car could be heard speeding away. Hubby decided to stay up on the third night to try and catch them (because he was the annoyed by it), but they never returned.

    At least you didn't have anything go really wrong like flooding (as in England) or a twister (as in the States). I was expecting a natural disaster of some kind when I began reading your post. Well, I'm thankful that it wasn't and I'm sorry that it ended your good night's sleep.

    I wish you a very empowered 2013. :)

    Tina - American mom raising 4 kids in South Africa
    http://abooksandmore.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're so right. It really wasn't anything alarming. Once I realized that it wasn't one of my kids with some sort of emergency! :)

      Delete
  14. Hi,

    Love your post! I am visiting you through No Ordinary Blog Hop and now following your blog via GFC.

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    ReplyDelete

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