Day 53

7/4/22

Over the years, our dogs have destroyed MANY treasures, daily items and parts of our house! One of the destruction sites, where Sweet Gus was the foreman, was our dining room carpet! It was probably time for it to go, so Gus was simply doing his part!

When our dear friend Tom came to rip what was left of the carpet out, he uncovered a piece of history. We knew of its existence, but it had not been seen for at least 50 years or so.

The small circle in front of our boy held the mechanism for our resident ghost (Colonel Giddings) to beckon the servers when a dinner party was in session. A small light would flicker in the kitchen and "the help" would appear to fulfill the Colonel's every need.

We discovered the light in the year 2014...New Year's Eve to be exact. I was walking through the kitchen when I noticed a glow in the wall over the stove. I gathered the family and we decided we better investigate. Tearing the wallpaper off and digging a bit deeper, we discovered a small light glowing dimly. We quickly unscrewed the lightbulb and decided to wait for our son-in-law (Master Electrician) to stop by for a look.

Matt arrived the next morning and disconnected the wiring. He made a few references to the squarish bulb and antique wires as being antiques in their own right. We had already gathered that the light was none other than the servant light used by Colonel Giddings.

When Matt took the small fixture out, he told us the date on the box. 1914! Exactly 100 years after it had been placed there!

We had no way of knowing where the disk was in the floor as it was covered with carpet and padding. There was no explanation for the light to flip on at that point, since nobody had been near the dining room. Strange? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Colonel Giddings? Perhaps!

We all decided that the Colonel simply wanted to wish us all a very Happy New Year after 100 years. The family all liked that explanation, so we are sticking to it! Thanks to Colonel Giddings, there was a new story for the Historical Society to share as they take hundreds of visitors on the City Ghost Tour!

Thanks to Gus (Tom too!), we now are having the light reattached to the mechanism in the floor. We love our old "Money Pit" and I plan to share more Colonel Giddings stories in the future...Anoka IS the Halloween Capital of the World, right?