Most people I meet want some sort of proof that they are having a ghostly experience and not simply imagining things. This past summer a woman who was living in Houston presently, but had been in different cities in the US shared a ghost story from her French Canadian grandparents.
Her grandfather died when she was born and her mother kept a set of family photos on a table near her crib. The photos were arranged in a certain order and one day, after putting the baby to bed, the mother came back to check on the baby and found all the photos rearranged. Thinking that she must have been confused, she arranged them again, as she wanted them to be. The baby was still asleep so she left. When she came back again later the photos were again rearranged. She took this to be a sign from the deceased grandfather.
Years later after the woman had reached adulthood her grandmother got breast cancer. The grandmother had remarried and seen her grandchildren grow up and move away. When she got sick and it seemed she wouldn't make it, they all came to see her. A big family, everyone came to express their love and say their goodbyes. The grandmother made a point of telling them that if they couldn't make it to her funeral that was okay, she had seen them while she was still alive.
After the grandmother passed the woman had been in a partially asleep, partially awake state and saw her grandmother. They talked, her grandmother was there with her grandfather and told her that her step-grandfather would be joining them soon. But the woman wasn't convinced this wasn't just a dream, so she told her grandmother, "if this isn't a dream squeeze my hand." At that point a numb feeling started in her fingers and moved up her arm.
When she told her mother this, she found out that one of her sisters had a similar visit from the grandmother, and a numb arm. A cousin had also seen her, all of them around the same time, in completely different parts of the country.
A few months later their step-grandfather died.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Fisherman in Millbury, Mass
Most of the ghost stories I hear are attention getting, but not really scary. But some are in fact flat out scary. The other night a woman from Rode Island shared such a story with me.
Years back she lived in an apartment in Millbury Massachusetts. A florist was below her and an old lady lived across the hall. It was a cheap two bedroom, so she and her fiance were excited to have the space and the extra pocket change. It wasn't long before she noticed something was strange. One of the bedrooms was cold all the time and she just couldn't be in it. It felt like doom. Her fiance dismissed her reaction at first, but soon found he too couldn't stand to be in the room. At night she began to hear stamping footsteps in the hall outside her apartment. Like someone was stamping the mud off their boots, then banging at her front door. The old lad across the hall heard it too, and the florist downstairs. They had been hearing it since before the lady form Rode Island moved in. One night she, or fiance and some guests were up late playing cards and the banging started. She told the guests that it was just the ghost. Her guests didn't believe her and insisted on going to the door, thinking he could open it really quick and catch whoever was making the noise. He did act quickly, but just as she told him, there was no one in the hall.
The noise and the cold room were frightening. But they adjusted at first. Then she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a man in a rain coat and hat standing at the foot of her bed. The vision went away, but then she started having vivid dreams where she was being grabbed and held down. She would wake up with bruises. Her doctor recognized them as bruises from being grabbed and tried to get her to admit that she was being abused. The doctor had seen this before, it was classic and the more the woman denied it the more insistent the doctor became. The night terrors continued, until they finally had to give up their cheap apartment and move.
No more bruises.
During her time living in that place she had gone to a garage sale in her neighborhood. The woman having the sale asked where she lived. Apparently the locals were very familiar with the building-- years ago a frustrated fisherman had abused his wife there. As the fishing dried up he became more and more frustrated until finally he beat her to death. This was sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Afterward he drank himself to death in the apartment.
The landlord couldn't keep a tenant, most especially not a female tenant. A few months after the woman and her fiance moved, she went back to check on her elderly neighbor. The woman was afraid to come to the door at first. She said that since they had left the banging had moved from the hallway outside her apartment, into her apartment. When she was in bed at night it was at her door and she was terrified to get out of bed. She was unable to move.
Shortly after the visit the old woman passed away.
Years back she lived in an apartment in Millbury Massachusetts. A florist was below her and an old lady lived across the hall. It was a cheap two bedroom, so she and her fiance were excited to have the space and the extra pocket change. It wasn't long before she noticed something was strange. One of the bedrooms was cold all the time and she just couldn't be in it. It felt like doom. Her fiance dismissed her reaction at first, but soon found he too couldn't stand to be in the room. At night she began to hear stamping footsteps in the hall outside her apartment. Like someone was stamping the mud off their boots, then banging at her front door. The old lad across the hall heard it too, and the florist downstairs. They had been hearing it since before the lady form Rode Island moved in. One night she, or fiance and some guests were up late playing cards and the banging started. She told the guests that it was just the ghost. Her guests didn't believe her and insisted on going to the door, thinking he could open it really quick and catch whoever was making the noise. He did act quickly, but just as she told him, there was no one in the hall.
The noise and the cold room were frightening. But they adjusted at first. Then she woke up in the middle of the night and saw a man in a rain coat and hat standing at the foot of her bed. The vision went away, but then she started having vivid dreams where she was being grabbed and held down. She would wake up with bruises. Her doctor recognized them as bruises from being grabbed and tried to get her to admit that she was being abused. The doctor had seen this before, it was classic and the more the woman denied it the more insistent the doctor became. The night terrors continued, until they finally had to give up their cheap apartment and move.
No more bruises.
During her time living in that place she had gone to a garage sale in her neighborhood. The woman having the sale asked where she lived. Apparently the locals were very familiar with the building-- years ago a frustrated fisherman had abused his wife there. As the fishing dried up he became more and more frustrated until finally he beat her to death. This was sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Afterward he drank himself to death in the apartment.
The landlord couldn't keep a tenant, most especially not a female tenant. A few months after the woman and her fiance moved, she went back to check on her elderly neighbor. The woman was afraid to come to the door at first. She said that since they had left the banging had moved from the hallway outside her apartment, into her apartment. When she was in bed at night it was at her door and she was terrified to get out of bed. She was unable to move.
Shortly after the visit the old woman passed away.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Skeleton, Canyon
In Skeleton Canyon, California, there are (were) two oaks that grew on either side of a road and over time their branches touched and grew together into one, creating an arch over the road. One of our tour guests was there forty years ago with a couple of friends, three seventeen-year-old boys out one night, looking for ghosts. They were checking out the oak trees when one of them said, "Hey guys, um, I can't move." He was standing right between the oaks. They tried to move him, but no amount of force could do it. Then they saw head lights coming down the road toward them. Now they were desperate to get him out of there, but still they couldn't. The headlights came straight at them then the lights were on the other side, moving away. Once the lights had passed their friend could move again.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Lansing, Illinois
A house doesn't have to be old to be haunted. A young lady and her family came on my tour recently and they used to live in a house about fifty years old in Lansing, Illinois. A few times when the mother was in the kitchen she would hear, in the next room, "Mom! Mom!" Assuming it was her son she would peek into the room and find it empty. Another time the daughter saw a little boy in her house wearing bib overalls and a Baker Boy cap; she was five or six at the time. She'd once lost a necklace in her room. Both mother and daughter searched and searched for the necklace, twice taking out a drawer and emptying the entire contents out. After pouring over the entire room a few times, they opened up the same drawer a third time, and the box with the necklace was sitting there on top of all the other contents.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Government Buildings
Unfortunately, we've had a lot of mass shootings recently. They used to be rare. The other night a couple from Maryland joined me. He worked in a government office building, the sight of a tragic shooting a long time ago. A man had been laid off just before his retirement and he took a shotgun into the building and killed a lot of people. The man said everyone who worked there had seen or experienced something. At one point his department was having a dispute with another department over copies. The people in his department were convinced people from other departments were using up their copies. One day he was walking down the hall and saw a man in grey pants and a white shirt go into the copy room. Cornered. He got up his courage and walked into the room--there was no one. Convinced one of his co-workers at a nearby desk must have seen something, he asked. Sure enough, the co-worker had seen the same figure. A few months before one of the co-workers had died; he always wore grey pants and a white shirt to work.
Delivering Babies
Common wisdom says that children and old people are the most sensitive to ghosts. A couple from Pensacola had a few stories for me the other day, but the stories weren't the most interesting part.
The husband didn't really much believe in all this stuff, although he did once see a human shadow in his house --when it was struck by lightening--he got out his gun. But his wife did believe. Once she saw a man she thought was her husband. They were sitting at the table and he was down the hall, so she opened her mouth to call to him when she realized her husband was sitting across from her. Apparently his uncle had died years before and the two looked exactly alike. The husband's mother saw him too. Shortly after the wife saw the man down the hall they got a phone call from the husband's mother; her long dead brother had just tucked her into bed.
The wife had many such experiences, but only in the last three years. She was an OB-GYN and I asked when she had started delivering babies. The question got an odd look-- three years ago, she said.
I don't remember where I heard it, but somewhere in South America, if you take a new born baby on a picnic to the seashore, the forest, the woods, before leaving you call to the child. You yell the name all around. The belief is that the spirit isn't fully attached to the body yet, and it likes to be free so you have to call it back to remind it that it belongs in the body.
The husband didn't really much believe in all this stuff, although he did once see a human shadow in his house --when it was struck by lightening--he got out his gun. But his wife did believe. Once she saw a man she thought was her husband. They were sitting at the table and he was down the hall, so she opened her mouth to call to him when she realized her husband was sitting across from her. Apparently his uncle had died years before and the two looked exactly alike. The husband's mother saw him too. Shortly after the wife saw the man down the hall they got a phone call from the husband's mother; her long dead brother had just tucked her into bed.
The wife had many such experiences, but only in the last three years. She was an OB-GYN and I asked when she had started delivering babies. The question got an odd look-- three years ago, she said.
I don't remember where I heard it, but somewhere in South America, if you take a new born baby on a picnic to the seashore, the forest, the woods, before leaving you call to the child. You yell the name all around. The belief is that the spirit isn't fully attached to the body yet, and it likes to be free so you have to call it back to remind it that it belongs in the body.
Gulfport, Mississippi
When I first began talking to people about their experiences with ghosts, I was surprised by how many stories involve smells. A lot. This spring a woman from Gulfport came on an evening tour. She was very familiar with New Orleans, as her nephew used to live here and she would come all the time to stay with him and party in the French Quarter. He was very fond of Patchouli, and after he died she would sometimes go into a room in her house, where he always staid when he visited Gulfport, and she would smell patchouli in the room. She would walk out of the room, close the door and walk back in and the sent would be gone.
At another time she and her family were sitting at her dinning room table talking. Across the room was a sofa and behind it a table with lots of family pictures. The conversation moved along until it came to her nephew. They heard a slapping sound and looked across the room. His picture had fallen over on the table.
At another time she'd come home from work and found a picture of the two of them, having a good time together, on the floor. No one had been in her house that day, but that morning the photo had been sitting high on a shelf with a mug in front of it. The mug was in the exact same place.
At another time she and her family were sitting at her dinning room table talking. Across the room was a sofa and behind it a table with lots of family pictures. The conversation moved along until it came to her nephew. They heard a slapping sound and looked across the room. His picture had fallen over on the table.
At another time she'd come home from work and found a picture of the two of them, having a good time together, on the floor. No one had been in her house that day, but that morning the photo had been sitting high on a shelf with a mug in front of it. The mug was in the exact same place.
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