The first time I encountered the hat man, I was driving down an old country two-lane road on my way home to my parent’s house. It was night and there aren’t many lights out there. Along side, the road is a lake with cypress trees, and to the other side an old plantation land that was just crops at this time.
I saw a very large man about 6 foot tall at least seemed to be wearing a Stove-Pipe hat and trench coat walking across the street. By the time I noticed him I had to slam on my brakes and skidded. I thought for sure I just ran this man over! I got out of my truck in a panic and there was nothing there. Got back in my truck figured I was tired and hallucinating, and joked about it for years saying I hit Abe Lincoln’s ghost on the backroads. Little did know this wouldn’t be the last time we met.
I saw him years later and mentioned it to very few people because they would think I was crazy. My then-girlfriend and I were living together in our second apartment together, weird stuff happened there a lot. She’d say she saw me in the laundry room when I had been editing video in my office the whole time. We had friends over and the DVDs got visibly knocked off the tv stand by apparently nothing and that freaked everyone out, for me it was exciting because now they could believe me if even a little bit because they saw something happen! Then one night as she and I were laying in bed with no tv or lights on he appeared at the foot of our bed just standing there. She saw him too! This is the only time someone else saw him while I did! We both got scared and held the covers over our heads and waited for him to leave. He eventually did. I don’t know if we were in danger or not but we were scared because we didn’t understand. Our relationship never recovered after his visit and we eventually ended a 10-year relationship during planning our wedding. A psychic had told me shortly after the hat man’s visit that we wouldn’t make it. I didn’t go to the psychic she approached me in a Walmart parking lot. I haven’t seen the hat man since then. I’ve only had these memories to tell and mostly keep them to myself as people just don’t believe me.