The Mirror of Yesteryear

The house that held this mirror in, was built in the late 1700's. It was in my grandparent family for many generations. It was a tall white house with some slate on the outside walls. It had a tin roof on it. It was located on a three mile stretch of road. In which was named after the first residents lived there. The generations were from my Pops side of the family.

The whole three mile stretch of this, dirt and gravel road went with the house. There was a huge cherry orchard on this. In which in the summer time for generations, that the Mexican people would come and pick cherries for my grandparents and there parents and etc.

They had a nice big barn that held, cattle, pigs, and horses. An old plow that would harness up to the horses, to do plowing in days that were gone by.

Chicken coup where the chickens laid there eggs and some left to have more baby chicks, could be found every spring.

There was a natural spring on the property, in which water was drawn from for drinking and cooking purposes and, the garden and the cherry orchard. The woods was plentiful for deer to be shot and eaten. It was nice and peaceful place to live. No neighbors around at all. Nice clean and fresh air, unless you were cleaning out the pig pens.

There was a cellar in the basement, where my grandma kept her canning in it. The main level of the floor, had the kitchen, the living room and a tiny bathroom in it, which wasn't added until in the 1950's.

The living room had a huge fire place. In it were two steel rods in it. One swung out of the fire place, the other stayed in it. My grandma would make big pots of soup or stew in the big heavy kettle that cooked all day on the open fire. On the side of the fire place was two long square holes with no doors on them. Grandma baked her bread and cookies in them.

The house was heated with the fire place for many years. When I was about 10, finally they got a coal wood stove for the kitchen that helped heat the house up too. My grandpa cut holes in the ceiling to heat the upstairs.

The upstairs had two bedrooms. One soon as you got off the last step you were in the room, if you turned to the left off the last step you were in a small room with a door on it. If you went to the right of the step was a panel that one could move, into a room of stuff from yesteryear year. My sister and I discovered the hidden panel, when we tripped and fell onto the wall and went into a darken room.

The room had a tall cane back chair with wheels on it, an old butter churn, lots of old clothes, pictures, a trunk with old books in it, and behind all this was the tall mirror that sat into two hinges and when you touched it, it would swing back and forth. Also there was old jewelry in the trunk and pictures of kin folk from long ago.

Once while in that room, my sister and I thought we seen an old woman sitting in a rocking chair that was there, another time in the tall cane back chair watching us. We often look into the mirror and nothing would happen. We just see ourselves in the mirror. But one time we decided to take the old clothes out of the trunk and the jewelry and put them on and see how we looked. My sister and I got these old hats with feathers sticking out of them and put them on. We had long dresses, mostly dark colors and boots that were not to good with high heels on them, and one pair had a zipper on it and another had buttons.

We looked into the mirror. It was broken right across the mirror. We looked at ourselves in these clothes. We laughed, and fell down from the tall boots we had on (actually shoes). We got up and looked into the mirror. We could see an older lady sitting in the big cane back chair with wheels on. She looked like she was about to yell at us. We then seen her in the rocking chair. We looked into the mirror and seen her in the mirror.

For many years we loved to go to that room, when we went up north. Which was in the summer time for cherry picking season and in the winter time for deer hunting season.

My sister and I were near teenage time. We went into the secret room (we called it that). We sat in the chairs looking into the mirror. It captured us into another time of yesteryear. We weren't wearing any old clothes out of the trunk. We were just sitting there looking into the broken mirror. Then we seen ourselves in the long dresses, the hats on. The room we were in, was not the same one we walked into. It was of another era of time. We looked around seen an old sewing machine with the peddle, where a lady was sewing something. We could hear the noise the sewing machine made.

I seen someone churning the butter churn, first was a woman then a little boy. My sister started crying and wanted to get out. Soon as she cried we were just sitting there in the chairs, seeing our own vision in the mirror. She got up and went down stairs.

I sat by myself in the room. Which had one light bulb in it, in the center of the room. I felt cold and odd. The light went out on its own. The mirror came alive. It was like daylight in the room, or maybe it was just the mirror. The mirror was calling for me to enter the mirror. I got to the mirror, but I didn't go into the mirror. It was like I could hear someone calling me from the other side of the mirror. I looked behind the mirror and seen no one. I sat back in my chair.

I was now frighten, trying to find the panel to go out of the room. I got out closed up the panel and was in the bright lit big bedroom, with all the windows around it. My heart stopped pounding in my chest. I felt something was wrong with the mirror.

My sister would never go back in there again. I met one of the Mexican kids told him of the mirror, in which he wanted to see it himself. I took him up stairs and we went through the panel, (slid it across to open first). We sat down in the two chairs, the rocking chair and the one with the wheels on it. We sat there looking at the mirror. I was compelled to touch it. When I did, I swear my hand went right into the mirror and I pulled it out fast. I touched it again, nothing happen. But when I put my hand into the mirror, the broken part of the mirror split open bigger.

It was the Mexican little boy, that first seen something come out of the mirror, he yelled and jumped up out of the chair, trying to find the panel to open the wall up. I tried to keep him in there, but no way he was out and gone. I was alone. I couldn't get up, something held me down.

I could see shadows from the corners of my eyes, come out of the mirror. I was scared, my heart pounding, I felt cold and some thing was in the room with me. It seemed like I was there, in front of the mirror, for a long time. I could see the old woman in the rocking chair, I could see people with old time clothes on. I don't actually remember getting out of the chair, to get into the big bedroom. But next thing I know I am in the big bedroom, with all the windows. I went down the stairs as quickly as I could. My Grandma asked what was wrong. I finally told her that I had been in the secret room, off of the bedroom. And told her all the stuff that happen.

A Mexican lady was sitting with my Grandma. She stood up and said that the house had to have some thing burning to take the evil spirits away. That I opened up when I touched the mirror. Now she has me frighten. My Mom and Grandma are yelling at me. This Mexican lady goes outside and makes, something out of the clay in the ground, she goes around the house and burns this stuff, stinking up the whole house.

The room was sealed up. When we went back to Grandmas house, we couldn't see where the panel was. It was now all new paneling, in that bedroom and the room was sealed off. I banged on the wall to see if I could find it, when I was a bit older. Never did find it again.

Years later I told Mom of it. She said she never was interested in that old room. Mom said she heard of it, but never wanted to see it. She heard to many bad things happen in that room, from a child growing up, in that area. What bad things happen? I don't know, Mom nor Pop would ever talk, about that room again.

All I know after I got older, is that I must of open up a portal, to the other side when I touched the mirror.