CHANNING

Julie Hunt

I grew up in Channing. The main part of our house was originally very close to the old LJS that was on Pierce and Amarillo Boulevard. (my 6 year old memory wants to say it was right next door, or at least VERY CLOSE to next door.) Dad bought it and it was moved to Channing in 1980.

He built an addition to that house from reclaimed lumber from an old army barracks.

Throughout my childhood, weird things always happened in that house. The radio on Mom's hi-fi would randomly come on. Sometimes it would come on and a record would start playing. Every once in a while a light would switch on. Random weird things, like one of my sisters feeling something sitting on the edge of their bed. Or bath water running itself. Or, my sisters and I would feel something was staring at us in the dark, and it had glowing red eyes. I was petrified of the dark and my sister just older than me was as well. All of us saw it. My aunt refused to sleep in my room because it made her uneasy, and she didn't know our stories about the house.

We all grew up and eventually moved out, got married and had families of our own.

The red eyes aren't something we talked about, people would have thought we were were crazy. Time goes by, memories fade.

My son and niece were playing in the giant closet that connected 2 back bedrooms, when they came tearing down the hallway, genuinely terrified and screaming. My niece is crying and shouts that a monster with red eyes was staring at them in the closet. Mind you we had never discussed this or even talked to our kids about it! You can't fake the kind of terror they had just experienced.

Just yesterday when we drove though my hometown, my son, who at the time was 5 years old (and he just turned 30) asked me about the red eyes in Momm and PaPaw's house in Channing. He hasn't forgotten it either.

Sadly, it is gone now. Daddy sold it and moved to Amarillo in 2003.

Whoever bought it tore it down I think and moved a mobile home on the property.

I would imagine it was pretty run down after sitting empty for years. It wasn't in the best shape when Dad sold it anyway. But despite the red eyes, that home held every wonderful childhood memory I had. It was old, but it was home and I miss it!

Btw, it was 505 Alabama Ave, not 508 like Google maps says.