Ouija Board

If you have children chances are your vacuum is clogged with Legos and Polly Pockets. Your kids have accumulated so many toys they can't shut their closet doors or shove another thing under their bed. You've also probably developed a hatred of stuffed animals. At first they're cute and snugly, but then the kids start to accumulate so many that they turn into these rabid little beasts that may creep out from under the bed and gnaw on your ankles. That's how I feel anyway.  I can't stand clutter.

Twice a year I'd insist that we donate some of their toys. Before their birthday and before Christmas. At first I had a hard time getting the kids on board. I'd explain that there are less fortunate children that never go to McDonald's and would treasure that Happy Meal toy you got three years ago. When that didn't work I'd tell them we had to make room for all the new toys they were going to get. I'd box everything up and take it to Goodwill.

Then I started shopping at Goodwill and realized I need to make some extra money. So I started selling their stuff instead of donating it. Consignment shops and sales, Flea Markets, eBay, I was amazed at how much money I was making on used clothes and unwanted toys. Except for stuffed animals. No one would buy those horrid creatures, not even for $.25 at the flea market. 


Now selling is my primary source of income. Once word got out that I was selling friends and family started bringing me their unwanted items to sell for them. And now I'm buying to sell.


Yard sales, flea markets, estate sales this is where I find great deals and there's nothing I love more than a deal.


The kids are a little older now and more reluctant to part with their belongings. But the door to the game closet was getting difficult to close. So I decided to clean it out. 

Mind you, we call it a "game closet," but I'm pretty sure in the original blue prints of the house it was labeled "linen closet." My daughter is 10 now, she's definitely outgrown Disney Princesses, yet somehow we still have a princess checker board. Thomas The Tank Engine? Why do we still have these. I did learn to hang on to the boxes, but even though my son never played with them, he doesn't want to part with them. But surely we can get rid of the Easy Bake Oven? Only used once still in the box. Nope. Gotta keep it. 

Now they're away at camp. I'm determined to clean out this closet. As I carefully opened the door for fear that something may fall on my head, the first thing to spill off the shelf was the Ouija Board. Something I purchased at a garage sale for a dollar five years ago. It had some age to it, so I thought I'd check out how much it was worth.

When I purchased this mystifying oracle, I used it as a Halloween decoration and left it on the coffee table. Unfortunately, someone spilled a drink on it. The box was in rough shape when I got it, but I never paid any attention to this game. 

After Halloween I shoved it in the closet and never thought of it again. Until now. Despite the condition, it's over 40 years old. And now with technology advancing so rapidly we may have to use a Ouija Board App and actual Ouija boards will become extinct. (At least that will help with my clutter issues.) 
So, I googled it and got really excited thinking I had something extremely valuable because of the picture on the cover of the box. 


They were selling for over $200 regardless of condition. But then I noticed all the highly valuable boards said Baltimore, MD. Mine was from Salem, Mass. Surely a Ouija board from the home of witch trials would be more valuable than one from Baltimore, right? Nope. 


Mine was made by Parker Brothers, Inc. The highly sought after Ouija boards were made by  William Fuld.  William Fuld purchased the patent for the Ouija board in 1898. He spent a great deal of time  and money trademarking the name and any name that might have been associated with Ouija. His company was passed down to his children after his death in 1927 until 1966 when his youngest child retired and sold the company to Parker Brothers.

"Call it a game if you like-laugh at the weird, uncanny messages it brings you if you dare, but you'll have to admit that the Mystifying Oracle Ouija gives you the most intensely interestingly, unexplainable entertainment you've ever experienced."-William Fuld. 

Even though he didn't invent the Mystifying Oracle Ouija, William Fuld did make it the pop icon it is today.

For a more extensive history of "talking boards" visit: http://www.museumoftalkingboards.com/history.html


Ghost Stories:

It was days before Halloween the year was 1968, you could just feel the creepiness in the air. Being 11 years old, Halloween was still fun, if not more fun the year before because I was allowed to stay out a bit later without the watchful eye of my parents. Besides, back in those days we didn't have to worry too much about strangers and receiving razor blades in apples, basically we had the run of the neighborhood and knew everyone and looked forward to this time all year long.

That Halloween was the creepiest I had ever experienced with the black bat and the Ouija Board. I have never had any desire to play with another one since, and raising my own four children I would never allow them to play with such a dangerous tool letting something happen to them like it to did to us that Spooky Halloween. There were many sleepless night in that house after that occurrence.As adults all us children would bring up that happening and explore the different things we experienced in that house. Like being alone in a room and all of the sudden something overcomes you with such a fright you have to run fast as you can to get away! Or the feeling of being watched. Even my father, years later, who is nothing but a hard nosed skeptic and realist commented on hearing voices and feeling something poke him in his ribs one night while down there in the basement.

The Parker Brothers 70's version.

One Saturday, my daughter, who was 17, said she was bored. She then asked me if I would play the Ouija board with her for fun. I first said oh you want to bring something into our new home. But thought I had never had anything bad ever happen before so I told her I would. We went into my bedroom so it would be quiet. It was only her and I playing and in the room.We had a Ouija board already never really played much, used a shot glass cause we lost the pointer that came with it, we got a ghost named ‘mlk’ would always say ‘mlk’, wouldn’t say what it stood for, (at first), it said it was a female and she lived in the house with a man named ‘stay’ we kept asking if that was his real name, it would say yes, we asked all kinds of questions etc. then after about an hour of playing and we noticed the room got a little cold, and we kinda just looked at each other, never experienced that before, so I decided to record what we were doing. Never done this before out of all the times I ever played.I placed the recorder down next to the board and started asking questions again. I asked if your hear with us, do u like us living here, the shot glass went to yes. I said, can you say my name into the recorder? The shot glass went to yes, I said go ahead and say my name. We heard nothing, my daughter and I were quiet to give it time to do so, I then asked did you say it? and the shot glass went to yes. I then asked a few more questions, found out they were both in there 80′s and found out the mlk, stood for May, that’s all she would say. I asked if they were nice ghosts and she said yes, I said do you make noises in the house to try and let us know your hear, and she said yes but didn’t want to scare us. I then said you do know if I ever see you I would move out. and the shot glass went to yes I know, and then moved to, we don’t want to scare you. I said yes I would be scared.Well we finally quit the game and I went outside to smoke and when I came back my daughter said she was listening to the tape and she said you can hear a woman’s voice on it. I said no way… she said ya, listen, she “May” didn’t answer by voice to all of my questions but when I asked her to say my name, you can hear right after I ask, someone or “her” saying Cindy, perfect as day, and then when I asked, you know I’d move if I ever seen you, you can her a, yes, right after that.At the end when we were closing out I had said if your nice and you don’t scare us, you can stay but I don’t want to see you or we will move out of here, and then you can hear, a yes… it was only me and my daughter in the room and every time we asked a question we were both quiet, you can even hear the glass sliding in the recorder cause we weren’t talking, so that freaked me out that you can hear her voice on the tape.I have never done that before and now that I recorded a Ouija board session, and got that on it, which to this day I still have cause I still cant believe it, I have never touched one again! I don’t let my daughter play with it. I’m a true believer now that there is ghosts out there.

The 2010 girly version...

They like asked the board my middle name which no one in the room knew. It spelled it out perfectly. I was so freaked out. We all got really into the game but then the lights started flickering, by itself. Of course us girls just screamed and hugged each other and the door opened. omg it was so freaky we stopped playing that night.

...and the glow in the dark version being produced today.

I don't have any ghost stories of my own. I believe it is just a game, but I'm intrigued by the creepy factor. So, I was considering making this my next purchase:

Needless to say I never did clean out the closet...