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Spooky experience - "Shining" Pre-quel

IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
edited December 2001 in General Discussion
Had a very weird experience tonight. Had a leak in basement I traced, eventually, to a mixing valve gone bad in a shower on the first floor. I live in a house my folks built in 1958. The valve was behind a removable panel which was painted shut when the house was built & hasn't been opened since. When I took the panel off, carved into the wood bracket where the valve is mounted is the phrase 'REDRUM' - and as anyone who has read Steven King's "The Shining" or seen the movie knows, that's 'murder' spelled backwards. I'm not the superstitious type, but I half expected to look up and see Jack Nicholson standing in the doorway. The logical explanation is, of course, that some carpenter or plumber was a wisea$$ and King wasn't the first to reflect on the backwards spelling (hey, he was in grade school at that time!), but man, the hair is still standing up on my neck.
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Comments

  • rodgergliderodgerglide Member Posts: 184 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Really weird!! One of my favorite movies too...I probably wouldn't sleep well...You don't live in the Colorado Rockies by any chance do you?? Here's Johnny!!
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  • gunnutgunnut Member Posts: 724 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    all work and no play makes jack a dull boy
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    No rodgerglide, White Mountains of NH, not the Colorado cousins. Not all that far from 'Castle Rock,' Maine, though . . . . And even though I was up until 0 dark hundred installing a new valve, somehow I didn't sleep too awfully well . . . .
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  • TARZANSEALTARZANSEAL Member Posts: 27 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    43 YEARS FOR A MIXING VALVE, NOT BAD. WE START TO REPLACE THEM NOW AFTER 4 YEARS. I OWN A PLUMBING-HEATING-A/C COMPANY.IT AMAZES ME OF THE QUALITY MATERIALS AND WORKMENSHIP OF THE OLD WETHEADS.
    TRIUMPH IN EVERYTHING WE DO.
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  • alledanalledan Member Posts: 19,541
    edited November -1
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  • .250Savage.250Savage Member Posts: 812 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Smash! SMASH! "Honey! I'm home!"
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  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    Iconoclast,if you had turned around and seen that kid behind you,with his index finger crooked..and him sayin` "REDRUM", in that creaky coice of his...What would you have done??Or those creepy lookin` little girls,that`s what was the worst part of the movie,to me!!Are you certain the panel has not been opened in the last 20 years?Just wondering,.218
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    218 - Absolutely positive . . . . I had just painted that room for the first time since the house was built 18 months ago, and every panel was still painted shut. I had to dig the paint out of the seams to open it. And no doubt in my mind it was the original valve, 'cause I had to replace another one three years ago in the other bathroom and I had very 'fond' memories of that experience. Not quite as vivid as these will be, but still . . . . And if I had looked up to see anything remotely resembling any of the characters in the movie, I'm sure no one on this board would have heard about the episode except in the headline "Strange event of the day: NH man jumps out of his skin before keeling over from heart attack!" [This message has been edited by Iconoclast (edited 12-01-2001).]
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  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    I was just thinking..maybe you painted them shut 18 months ago,and I was wondering if it had not been opened and checked before you painted..in the last 20 years?!?!Just trying to make sense of it all..sounds pretty much like you would know if it had been opened in the last 20 years.Then I was wondering how old you are..and up till when did you live there with your parents..you know,like if you are 33 years old,you would have been about 13 years old 20 years ago,and not a care in the world,like plumbing.But I kinda think you are older than that,and know what you are talking about....just tryin` to figure it out,ya know?I hate weird stuff like this!Did you read my thread a while back about the phone ringing off the hook ..twice in one night??.218
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  • john carrjohn carr Member Posts: 1,717 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Chester Gould in his comic strip "Dick Tracy" had a bad guy by the name of Red Face Redrum in an old Dick TRacy book that goes back to the 30's or 40's. I wonder if anyone living or dead has been christened with that name???
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  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    There ya go,I was hoping someone would remember some charactor by that name.Still weird!.218
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    218 - House was completed '58 / '59. No interior renovation was done until I started working on it room by room after moving in a few years back - when I painted that room, it was over the original, undisturbed, paint, but after repairing the valve in the other shower - and I remember thinking to myself when I was working on that section that I would likely need to replace that valve sometime soon if the first had failed. Which is why I had one at hand (bought both at the same time). The Dick Tracy reference may be the key, but this is still one of the more unusual experiences of my life.
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  • 218Beekeep218Beekeep Member Posts: 3,033
    edited November -1
    I believe what you`re sayin`...I guess it was your turn..218
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  • timberbeasttimberbeast Member Posts: 1,738 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    My mom's house was built in '57, still has the original mixing valve in the tub/shower. No access panel, though. One of these days I'll get a call from Mom. "uh, the shower doesn't work". That should be a fun job! Anyone who ever re-does anything in this house, or my previous house will find lots of stuff, like notes saying: "Why did you take this apart? Do you have any idea how long it took me to do this?" with my signature, also baby food jars full of pennies, newspapers in ziploc bags, the date, and the names and birthdates of my family, etc. Nice to leave something for posterity. Maybe when I finish the upstairs bath, I'll write "Jack Torrance, Overlook Hotel" on the access panel!
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I hear ya, beast. My wife wouldn't let me glue an antique coin to the floor after I re-finished the living room floors. I figured it would make a nice conversation piece and bring a few chuckles. And after the time I spent on my knees sanding / staining / urethaning, any humor would have been welcome. Some folks just don't get it. Hadn't thought of burying notes in the walls, but that's a thought!
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  • twinstwins Member Posts: 647 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Reminds me of a story I heard when I was young. A friends dad was at his grandma's house in the attic. His cousin told him to look in a knot hole in the closet. When he did, he saw an eye looking back at him. Scared the hell out of him. Of course you have to imagine the horror stories that were told before, during and after.To make a long story short. One of his uncles when he was growing up, had put a mirror in the wall before it was finished. He made sure he put a board in front of the mirror with a hole in it.
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  • Judge DreadJudge Dread Member Posts: 2,372 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    all work and no play , all work and no play,all work and no play , all work and no play. Is it what apears in bush war on terror speech if you play the tape backwards ????
    Good , Bad ? Who cares? as long I am the one with the GUN..
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