The Legend of Annie's Road
The following ghost story involving a ghost named “Anna” was first told to me by a person who lives near the ghost site. A New Jersey native, this girl was an eighteen-year-old college student. She came from a middle-class, predominantly white, suburban neighborhood. This story about Anna’s ghost was told to a group of other college students and me while eating dinner at the campus diner. The storyteller, I, and our group of friends began to discuss the things we teenagers do to occupy ourselves on weekend nights when we’re bored. Another friend of ours mentioned that she and her friends would trespass into an old, abandoned house in her neighborhood just for thrills. The storyteller then announced that she knew of this road in her hometown of Totowa, New Jersey that is haunted by a teenage ghost named Anna who is dressed in a white gown and was killed by a car while on the road. The storyteller did not know the exact name of this road; she claims that it is now only referred to as Anna’s road. She also did not know when the accident occurred and had not been there herself, but she asserted that a friend of hers had seen the ghost and verified the story for her. She then proceeded to enlighten her audience:
There is a road in Totowa, NJ, that is called Anna’s Road because it is haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl that was killed there. Apparently, the girl was somewhat of an outcast and nobody really liked her. She was never asked to the prom, so the night of the prom she was the only one not there. Anna decided to take a walk on this road, since she was bored and depressed because nobody had asked her to the prom. It was just about the time the prom ended and a car full of her ...
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...self. She was able to hold the attention of her audience and spoke in somewhat of a low, muffled tone. No humor was used when telling the story and the storyteller was able to literally draw her audience closer to her. She emphasized the part of the story when Annie was all alone and when her own classmates killed her while being drunk. Drunk driving is a major problem of teens and is an issue that truly concerns society. The fact that this specific part of the story was emphasized illustrates that the storyteller also realizes the role that society’s fears and anxieties play in the story.
Works Cited
Moran, Mark and Sceurman, Mark. Weird N.J. Mayhem, Murder and Midgetville…The Weird N.J. Tour of “Annie’s Road.” http://www.weirdnj.com/home/index.html
Midnight Society. Annie’s Road. http://www.midnightsociety.com/web/Roads/Ann/ann.html#another
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