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Haunted house narrative
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Ghostly Dreams of Owners Passed The following ghost story was told to me by a friend when I had a small group of friends over to my house in Massachusetts during spring break. He is a 20-year-old white male. The story was told at night after we had finished watching the show Lost on television, so the atmosphere was a little bit tense. It did not simply come up in context; I prompted all of my friends to tell any ghost stories or urban legends that they knew. I wrote the story down a few hours later after my friends left. This is as close to the story he told as I could remember at that time: My friend’s house is wicked old. Built in the 1700s, there’s a lot of really old stuff there. It may have been involved in the Underground Railroad. It has secret passageways and windows for servants to look in and talk to their masters. They originally lived in Springfield, Mass. and he [his friend’s Dad] knew the two people in the house in Agawam, Massachusetts previously. When he found out it was going on the market he decided to go buy it. Before they managed to complete the sale one of the two ladies died. And the other lady either died or left. At least one of them died in a room in the house. So after that they still decided to take the house. There were a few times when he tried to find things. And one time in particular he was looking for a ladder. He looked everywhere around the house including inside, outside, and in the shed. That night he had a dream and the dead previous owner came to him in the dream and told him to look in the shed again. The next day when he looked in the shed, the ladder was sitting right directly in the middle of it just like she had said in his dream. There was no way he could have missed it the day before. This happened on a couple different occasions with other items as well. As he told the story he used small hand motions to emphasize main points of the story and he paused after important points to allow the information to sink in; he did not sound nervous while telling the story, but he did try to convey a spooky atmosphere in an attempt to scare the audience.
When one usually thinks of a hearing a ghost story, the setting is dark with flickering light (such as around a campfire or in a basement with bad lighting) and, of course, it is nighttime. Needless to say, when I heard this story during the middle of the day on a Friday, I was a little taken aback. When prompted for any urban legends or ghost stories a white, female friend of mine immediately responded with, “Have you ever heard of de Sales Academy?” With my negative response, the nineteen year old student jumped into her story:
The story was told to me by one of my high-school classmates, who is a resident of the town of Atco. The nineteen year old young man is currently a sophomore at Clemson University and describes himself as being a Roman Catholic of half Italian-American and half Irish-American decent. The young man also noted that he is normally very socially conservative and a staunch Republican. His father is employed as a general contractor and his mother runs her own catering company. He describes himself as a “self proclaimed expert of all things related to the Atco Ghost.” He cannot remember the specific date when he first heard the story, but stated that he can remember knowing most of the details to the story for most of his life. He also claims to have attempted to see the ghost on only one occasion and after what he saw, he refuses to ever go back to that area of town at night. The following is an almost word for word account, which he checked to ensure its accuracy, of the lengthy story as he retold it to me ...
Since I come from the Eastern Shore of this state, I was surprised to hear a ghost story I was previously unaware of. The story takes place in a park in Salisbury. The person who told me the story is a 19-year-old sophomore at the University, and we spoke about it one evening after dinner. He believes it to be true, because one of his friend’s siblings has apparently experienced the ghost firsthand. I tape-recorded his narrative:
friend that his ghost usually appeared when there were tourists in the building. She wasn’t sure
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 telling of a ghost story entails more than the text itself. Lighting, environment, tone of voice, and many other factors affect how well a ghost story is told. As one can see by reading the following story, simply reading a ghost story on paper does not have the same effect as hearing it performed by the teller in a fitting atmosphere. The following story was told one night in a dark, shadowy room filled with five or six college guys. The teller used long pauses, emphasis on certain words, and body gestures to make the story all the more believable and chilling.
I have lived in Baltimore for quite some time now, and it is impossible to live in the area and not know that there is a ghost story associated with the Admiral Fell Inn at Fell Point (a section of Baltimore located right on the harbor). The man who told me this story is a very well educated, 61 year old credit union CEO. He told me the story over dinner, with me trying to shush the rest of the guests because they all wanted to tell their own versions. I have included his version of the Ghost of Admiral Fell below, excluding only names and comments from others:
While telling the story the storyteller used very specific details to produce an effective presentation. He paused several times for dramatic effect, indicating that something important was going to happen. Also, he told the story confidently, rarely stuttering in a short of words. The storyteller appeared to be extremely knowledgeable on the subject because the incident happened to his older brother and due to the bridge's close proximity to his home. While listening to the story I noticed several details that seemed to be exaggerated for effect, such as the three male bodies hanging from the rafters. When reaching the climax of the story the teller did a great job in portraying the frightened expressions of the driver and passengers.
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.
[During the telling of the story there were no meaningful gestures, just pauses when the storyteller couldn't remember certain details, or when she wanted to take more sips of her macchiato. The storyteller did not relate the story with intonation or pitch changes, nor did her rate change. It was more like the stating of facts she knew.]
As previously mentioned, the stranger had a limp, and when he shook the parents hand he felt cold due to the cold weather. When he was in the house he began to sweat, he spoke, and unloosened his tie, so we know he is not a ghost. He is however emotionally a ghost, the toll abuse takes on a person is indescribable. To be able to visit the scene of the crime and still retain your composure is difficult. In the story there were multiple scenes when it appeared that the stranger was going to break down but he didn’t. This reveals a lot about his
I’ve always believed in ghosts and spirits. Perhaps it was because it amused me, or perhaps it was because I’ve been stuffed with ghost stories ever since I was old enough to comprehend them. I’ve been around a lot of people who grew up in remote areas of the world. You know, the place where electricity doesn’t exist, and running house water is just a myth. Well, anyway, I’ve heard many ghost stories from them, mostly drawn from their actual encounters and experiences. These stories were pass on to me on many different occasions. Like say… around a campfire, a mid-night drive across towns, or just under the dim candlelight of my friends’ basements.
Ghosts have been around for many years and the root of the whole idea comes because it is “based on the ancient idea that a person's spirit exists separately from his or her body, and may continue to exist after that person dies” (“History of Ghost Stories”). Ghost stories have been told through centuries and because of this it is not known where the first spirit could have appeared or why, but one of the first actually recorded experience happened within the first century A.D. A man named Pliney recorded that he had seen a man and heard objects moving around and he could not explain what what happening (“History of Ghost Stories”). Even though the first supernatural experiences are not known, they created worldwide talk to present time about spirits and hauntings.
The person from whom I heard the story is one of the students who lives across the hall from me on the 7th floor in La Plata. His family comes from India, but he lived in many places since birth, one of them being Singapore, and now his family lives in New Jersey. Also, he is nineteen years old. I collected the story on the afternoon of October 14th, it was right after we had all finished classes. When I asked the storyteller if he knew any ghost stories or urban legends and myths, he first attempted to respond with, “Casper”, but I told him no I need real things you have heard. After that he jumped right into the story from Singapore about Pulau Ubin:
“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf is a short story about a ghostly couple that are wandering around the home they lived in before they died, searching for something they lost. They move round the house as quietly as they can without waking the new owners. The owner does not awaken, but subconsciously begins to wander and get confused along with the ghost. they enter the drawing room the word “safe” is chanted multiple times, allowing the couple to feel at ease and know that their search was not in vain and what they yearn for is safe. The story ends with the ghost being described about how they were before their deaths. The wife passed away first and her death leads her husband to travel and he eventually returned to their home. the story