Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Regulatory bodies of Schools
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Regulatory bodies of Schools
Ghost Sightings in Monroe, New Jersey
The following story was told to me by a nineteen year old man in his dorm room at College on a Saturday afternoon in March. He is from Monroe, New Jersey, and lives with his two parents, his younger brother, his dog Cougar, and his cat affectionately known as Hellspawn. His father works as a contractor, a security guard, and a fire extinguisher inspector, and his mother works at a local garden center.
The story was told to him by the main subject, his gym teacher. His teacher told the story to his health class one day as a firsthand account, although he never specified when it occurred. This is the version told to me:
Alright. So I was telling you about that gym teacher I had who was a substitute teacher, and he always claimed that he… would get in the “zone” and be able to, like, see ghosts and stuff and communicate with them. He was at a Wawa one time, and he stepped outside and there was an old man out there, and he was like, “Excuse me, sir. . . I just need your help for a second.” He was like, “Yea, sure… whatta ya need?” And the old man was like, “Could you go into this store… and ya see that lady over there?” She’s like an elderly lady. “So could you like go over there and tell her that I love her?” And then he told him his name, ya know, whatever it was, and my gym teacher was like, “Yea, sure.”… So he went in there, and… he went up to the lady and he was like, “Hey, I had a message from John,” whatever the hell his name was, “And he wanted me to tell you that he loves you.” And she told him that John had been dead for a couple of years… He described what he looked like to her, and she was like, “Yea, that’s definitely John, and he’d definitely do something like that.” Umm, yea. So, I mean, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but, he told stories like that all the time.
When asked, the storyteller elaborated that the old man was no longer outside the Wawa when his gym teacher went back outside. The teller had slight pauses in several places in his story, most notably before explaining that his gym teacher could see ghosts and after the elderly woman confirming it was her late husband.
The storyteller is a 65 year old Hispanic woman from Riverhead, New York. I collected the story over the phone on April 2, 2006. She started off by telling me that the story took place in 1988 on Long Island. Her landlord had told her about a wonderful restaurant that she just had to go to, so on a Friday night the storyteller and her husband decided to try it out. When stepping up to the Jamesport Manor Inn she had a creepy feeling just from looking at the old mansion. She claimed that it had an eerie sort of feel to it and obviously did not look like a typical restaurant.
The sparsely populated towns and countryside of the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey have often been the ideal setting of various ghost stories, including the infamous tale of the Jersey Devil, that are told in the more heavily populated Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia metropolitan regions. One of those “Piney” towns is home to a lesser-known, but equally interesting, tale of a street that is haunted by the ghost of a young boy. The story is set in the town of Atco, within Waterford Township, and is located approximately half-way between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, right in the heart of the Wharton State Forest section of the Pine Barrens National Reserve.
The grandmother always would tell the grandson different stories about the land, the people, pretty much everything in the world. But one day she told him about the Deer Woman, because she thinks that he is becoming a fine hunter. She told him that his grandfather told her the story of the Deer Woman, how she would appear to lone hunter and welcome them into her lodge which would be alone lodge with warm furs and robes and a fire going. They would go in there and she would take their souls, some would have families that they forget about because they go looking for the Deer Woman but they never find her, because the Deer Woman took their souls they forget who they are forgetting about their families. The grandmother tells him not to go into the lodge that he was to turn back from where he came from and keep walking away. One day the Young Hunter was out with a couple other hunter they were hunting for the tribe, well he was out by himself and he ran into the Deer woman. She welcomed him, the hunters almost went into the lodge, but he remembers what his grandmother
The storyteller told me the story of the Goatman in a mutual friend’s dorm room at night. I had come to the dorm room to ask my friend if he knew any urban legends of ghost stories from around campus or the state of Maryland. The storyteller, a 21-year-old biology major, shouted excitedly from the couch that she knew one. She is from Beltsville, Maryland. Her mother is a lawyer and her father is a math professor. My friend and I sat down on the couch and listened intently as she told the story: The Goatman from Beltsville.
I was told a story about one of Cloudcroft's more famous ghosts when casually lounging in the undergraduate student physics lounge at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a group of students during a lunch break before class. This occurred during early April, 2005. I inquired whether anyone knew any ghost stories or folklore. A friend of mine volunteered that she knew several ghost stories from her travels. The storyteller was a 23-year-old Caucasian female from an upper-middle class family in Baltimore. She currently lives in Crofton, MD, and is a physics and astronomy major.
The particular story I collected takes place in Philadelphia, where ghost stories are plentiful. Philadelphia is an old city with a rich cultural heritage, and our founding fathers made history in the place that was once our nation’s capital (Eidmann). Many believe that their spirits and spirits of those from colonial times still lurk around. It is easy to feel like spirits are around when in a place where many people have lived and died before, and in a place that is filled with old buildings and landmarks. All of these factors make this city a perfect place for a ghost story.
his story from his childhood. He tells us that when he was ten, he had
There was this rundown, old split-level on the edge of the town owned and inhabited by a young couple. This young couple did not have much money so they had to rent out the basement. The tenant that lived in the basement was a short, old man by the name of Louis. Louis lived there for about a year, but he NEVER came out of the basement. He NEVER answered the door during rent collection but just slid it through the mail slot. After a year, the couple was considering evicting Louis, mostly because they had a fear of Louis and his shady activities in the basement. Also, the couple was due for a baby in the upcoming year and they felt it was best for Louis to go. Louis did not respond well to the eviction however. So, when the couple was cleaning out the apartment, for another tenant, a skeleton fell out of the closet and landed on the floor with a loud CRASH! The couple ran out and called the police. After the whole thing with the police was sorted out, the couple moved out. More families would move in, but on the anniversary of the eviction, the Ghost of Louis would appear and haunt the inhabitants of the house, causing them to move out. The cycle continues today, and no one has seen Louis ever again, but rumor is he died after that eviction.
The storyteller was an eighteen-year old male attending the University. Currently a sophomore, he was raised as a Catholic in Maryland. Upon visiting me a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night, we relaxed over some calzones in my dorm as we began to watch television and listen to music. Flipping through the channels, we came across the Sci-Fi network, sparking a sudden interest in both of us to talk about scary stories. We began to discuss the local urban legends, myths, and horror stories that we knew, and he began to tell a story that he heard from a friend down in South Carolina during his freshman year. It went like this.
I searched until I heard a story that gave me the chills. It comes from right around the block from where I live on campus, at one of the sorority houses at the University of Maryland. I collected this story the weekend of April 2nd, at my fraternity house. I asked my friend, a junior from Pikesville, if she knows any ghost stories. Her face lit up as if she was dying to tell me this story since the first time we ever met. She asked “you never heard the story of the ghost in the sorority house?” I replied no. The normally quiet woman demanded my attention away from the TV and went into her story.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father is intended to be seen as a real ghost. Around 1600, when the play Hamlet was written, many people believed in mystical creatures like witches, monsters, and most importantly: ghosts. With so many people believing in these characters, it makes sense that Shakespeare portrays the ghost of Hamlet’s father as a real figure. Many examples support this, such as when the guards in Act I scene i see the ghost, which proves it’s not just in Hamlet’s imagination. But some people can not see the ghost, such as Hamlet’s mother in Act III scene iiiii. Hamlet sees the ghost but she can not. This could be used as evidence to say the ghost is not real though. Shakespeare shows us though this information, the high complications oh having ghosts in a story.
The Nelly Butler hauntings is referred to as the first recorded ghost story in American history (LiBrizzi 5), and possibly the most exciting hauntings to date as there are still many unsolved mysteries. The apparition appeared on more than 30 separate occasions to over 100 witnesses in Sullivan, Maine, just over fifteen years after the American Revolution (5-6). Although the Nelly Butler apparition is one of the most convincing ghosts of all time, it was subject to suspicions of fraud. These claims turn out to be groundless as the evidence reveals the ghost to be genuine.
In the town of Sebewaing not much goes on, and not much will. but recently, in the past few years, things in Sebewaing has been seaming to change that. But, back to my story, my grandfather and I just finished installing the new support beam when, now our immediate family started to show up, as they usually do. “Jesus, don’t they ever stay home?” Grandpa said. You see, my Grandpa is a crotchety old man, but for good reason. I seen my sister and her now fiance walking up too go inside the house but, this time it seemed very peculiar; prior to me going in the house, I seen my sisters fiance look at me with an estranged look. My grandpa instructed me to go take out the trash for him which I did happily, about 5 minutes later I came into the house and looked around, “What the hell is up with everyone?” I asked myself. I discovered while looking around that everyone had an eerie look on their faces, as if someone just died. I sat down and
The teller is 24 years old, and works for the state department of education. Originally, he was from the Baltimore area where he attended an elementary Catholic school. He moved to Bell Air in second grade and grew up there. After his parents separated, he moved back to Baltimore to live with his grandparents, and has remained in Baltimore ever since. The sister he mentions in the story moved away to China years ago. A weekend or two ago, he, I, and a few other friends spent the evening in one of our favorite hang-out spots in Columbia, Pub Dog. It was there, sitting in our dimly lit booth, over some beers that I heard him tell this story from his childhood. He spoke in a strangely matter-of-fact tone, considering the weirdness of the story he was telling, and in a smooth, comfortable manner that seemed to indicate he had told the story many times before. Here is the story he told:
For many years, people have debated whether or not spirits are real. Some people get scared at the fact that there might be something unknown lurking in their house in the middle of the night making their footsteps known to everyone in it. Maybe that person feels watched upon or feel some kind of presence in their home, or even sees shadows moving their way through rooms. Different people around the world have their own opinions based on religion and experiences when talking about angels, demons, and the spirits that have life after death. New technology is getting closer to detecting these energies happening in the world today. The history of haunting dates back many years, and more people want to get involved because of the new technology.