I grew up in a haunted house. There was only one (apparent) apparition ever seen, by me. The house during the day was quiet, but at night it made sounds like people walking down the upstairs hallway, and there were two closets that were really freaky. One of them, in my brother's bedroom, had a gap behind it of nearly two feet between the inside dimension and the outside dimension at the end of the hall at the staircase. we never did find out if the space contained anything.
It was really creepy in that closet. It was always cold in there, even in the summer time. The other closet, in my room, had a door that wouldn't stay closed. It had a secure latch, but at night it would open itself. The only way to keep it closed was to put a chair against it.
There was also a gap on the outside where a stone was missing from the front Northeast corner, and behind it, nothing visible. There was a space there that, when the basement light was on, no light shone out. Again, we never knew if anything was in there.
The apparition I saw at twilight one evening from the West. We had a small apple orchard, and just after a rainstorm I was standing at the end of the lot looking at the West upstairs bedroom window, and saw what appeared to be a very pale person looking back at me, a child size shape. At the time the house was only occupied by me and my mother, so it was pretty scary.
And other stuff happened, including "visitations" my mother had in her dreams. My brother got in trouble in France on his mission- long story- and she had a visitation by a spirit, supposedly, informing her that he was ok- this before we knew there was a problem. She claimed that the spirits in the house were benign, so for the most part it wasn't unsettling living there.
There was also lots of creepy shit in the house like an old steamer trunk. It turned out the builder of the home was a polygamist, and had a "hidden" family within the home, so there may have been hiding places in the house we never found. the house, when it was built (about 1890) was almost a mansion- 2 stories and a full basement with an out building behind it.
I always thought of it as an old house that was simply loosening up from age.
I don't believe in ghosts per se, but I keep an open mind.
