Tag Archives: ghost

Family Haunted House

Text:

“Gee [grandma]’s house is lowkey haunted, it’s messed up. The man who Gee got the deed to their land from, we call him Old Man Hattfield. When my mom and my aunt were growing up they would come home from basketball games really late at night, and one night they came from the back door. They came around the corner and my mom swears that she saw a man at the top of the stairs, and then by the time that my aunt and Gee got over there the man was gone, they didn’t see him. Obviously my mom was freaking out, she was scared to death. So they all went upstairs, there was nobody up there, the windows weren’t open, there was no way anyone could’ve gotten there. They think it was Old Man Hattfield, my friends still refuse to go upstairs at Gee’s house because they think it’s haunted by Old Man Hattfield. . That’s one story. Gee has another story about this dress. So when they bought the land it was from debt, so I think with the deed to the land came other things like this pocket watch and this wedding dress. It’s this white wedding dress, and I don’t know who’s it was, but Gee had this dress up until maybe 10 years ago until she finally got rid of it. She’d wake up in the middle of the night and swear she saw a woman wearing this dress at the foot of her bed. So eventually she was like, “I’m tired of this, I’m gonna burn this dress.” So she sets it out in the burn pile. But then she’s going through their stuff at least five years later, and the dreams had not stopped. So she didn’t know what happened, she thought the dress had been burned. Then she found the dress inside the house in a drawer, and she’s like “what is this? How is this dress here?” And she asked Papa and he said “Yeah I saw you put it in the burn pile but I put it back in the house.” They burned it after that and the dreams stopped. 

Context:

GR is a 19-year-old college student from a small town in Arkansas. His grandma, Gee, has told him this story, and many members of the family believe that Gee’s house is haunted. 

Analysis: 

The figure of a ghost woman in a wedding dress is a pretty common one. She’s seen in La Llorona, a ghost women who walks around in a white dress, and there are many other versions of the “White Lady,” female ghosts in white dresses. The white dress is commonly associated with wedding dresses, and in this story the ghost is in a wedding dress. The wedding is a huge important ritual for a community, and it’s a large moment of shifting identity for women. They go from being part of one family to another, from being in the pre-reproduction phase of their life to being ready for reproduction. From a maiden to a wife, soon to be a mother. Weddings are a moment of liminality, where magic often happens. Ghosts are another figure of liminality, where they’re not quite alive and not quite dead. They’re not in this world, but they’re not in the next. The ghost bride can represent anxieties of when the marriage ritual goes wrong, just like how the ghost comes about from the death rituals going wrong. The wedding ritual is very important to a community, because it brings about new members of the community, but it’s also very anxiety inducing for the bride, because a lot can go wrong in this new identity and in the moment between the two identities. It’s also frightening for people to see these ghost brides because weddings are often supposed to be a large celebration of happiness, and people don’t like to acknowledge when they are not. However, oftentimes throughout different cultures weddings are not a moment of happiness for the bride. They could be just an economic situation, they could’ve been forced into the marriage, they could be a child, the marriage could tie them potentially forever to a bad person. There are a lot of negative things that can be associated with marriages, but people like to turn away from those. That’s why the ghost bride comes out, as a representation of all the anxieties that moment of liminality can bring. Studying a specific ghost bride figure can also tell you a lot about women’s place in that specific culture. 

Bay Area Catholic School Ghost Story

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“My all girls Catholic school was founded by these nuns in the 1950s but before it was a school it was a mansion called the Cole mansion, built in like 1916 or something. It was owned by this guy, Frederick Cole, we call him Freddy. He was a young wealthy dude who’s dad made money in steel production. He’s basically a trust fund baby, so he builds a nice mansion in the Burlingame hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay. And so Freddy built his beautiful mansion, it’s pretty big with a working elevator, bunch of servants, big bedroom. He’s living there with his wife. At the time, it’s all the rage to have a maid from France. And so his wife is like, a huge entertainer at their house, and she’s like “I need to have a French maid for my parties.” And so she sends a letter to her aunt in France who’s visiting, and she’s like “While you’re in France, can you pick me up a french maid?” So when her aunt comes back she brings an 18 year old girl named Annette. Annette speaks no English, like very very little, and she works at the house. While she’s there, Freddy, the little pervert, is all creepy on her. He’s like harassing her and will not stop bugging her. She’s like not having it, but the wife of Freddy is like “Oh my god my husband is jealous of this 18 year old I brought into the house, I’m going to get her fired. And not only am I going to get her fired, I’m going to tell all the other people in the Bay Area, all the other rich people, that she had sex with my husband and she’s an adulterer.” And so the wife went around telling everyone that Annette had sex with her husband and was all like, not holy or whatever. So she fires Annette, Annette can’t get hired anywhere, so you know what she does? She files a wrongful termination lawsuit in the San Francisco court in like, early 1900s, and she wins! Which is so rare. Then Freddy takes her to court to try and overturn it, and he’s going down the elevator to the courtroom and when the elevator opens, he sees Annette. And Annette just looks at him and tells him he lied, pulls out a pistol, and shoots him in the stomach. So this man is rushed to the hospital and they stich him up, but they leave the lead bullet in him, and Annette gets deported back to France. Freddy is recovering, but the bullets’ still inside him. So he tells people that he’s started receiving these postcards, and each one says “I will see you soon, from Annette.” And each one gets closer and closer, so it starts in France, then there’s one from England, then there’s one from New York, then she goes through Canada down to Washington, then to Portland. She books herself a boat from Portland to China, but there’s a stop in San Francisco. She gets out there, and the postcards stop. And the next day Freddy is found hanging in his mansion. And so people don’t know if he killed himself because he was worried Annette was gonna get him or if she got to him or if she even was there, because he still had the lead bullet in him and lead makes you go insane. And so people think he imagined it all, it’s like totally up to interpretation, people don’t know. Anyways, Freddy is now a ghost in the mansion and my ceramics teacher has seen him multiple times, people believe he still exists in the mansion on campus. My ceramics teacher had to go to the kiln on the bottom floor right by the servants’ stairs. Freddy was renowned for hanging out in the servants chambers and hitting on them. So she was in the basement unloading the kiln for pottery class, and she was bending over the kiln and she feels someone grab her waist. She turns around and no ones there. So she thinks it was him hitting on her, cause he’s a creep.” 

Context:

B is an 18-year-old college student from the Bay Area, California. She used to go to a Catholic all girls school, where she says teachers would tell this ghost story about the campus. She doesn’t know which facts are certifiably true, but she says she was first told this story while on a campus tour by an old nun who she trusts to be reliable. Teachers share this story with the students around the school. 

Analysis:

This story is a legend about Freddy’s ghost. It’s told to me as a “friend of a friend” story, so the speaker has never actually had an interaction with this supposed ghost. It’s clearly a legend because it could possibly be true, or it could not. No one really knows why Freddy died. This uncertainty about his death could be the reason for his haunting. Ghost stories tend to follow people who weren’t properly buried or their death wasn’t settled, because it’s very important for communities that their community members get the proper burial and death rituals. If the ritual is done wrong, it leads to haunting. It’s particularly interesting that this story is spread around a Catholic school, as in the Christian religion killing oneself is a sin. If Freddy really did hang himself, that’s a hard conversation for Christians to have because it means he went to hell. Ghosts probably form around these figures that die in ways that Christians don’t see to be natural to serve both as a warning to others against sinning, and as a way of understanding and reconciling what happens to someone who dies in a sinful manner. Another aspect of this ghost story is the way in which it is performed. When this story was told to me it was told by a girl the same age as Annette, and the school is an all-girls school so almost everyone who tells and knows this story is a girl. By looking at the social context of the story, we see how it takes a very feminist lean. It’s almost a satisfying revenge story for women, as they watch the lying creep suffer for his actions against the young girl. If this were told by someone else, Annette may be the villain. But both the speaker and the audience receive the story as a triumph for Annette. This bias can be seen in the vocabulary the speaker uses, calling him a “little pervert” and “creep.” It makes sense that this story would circulate amongst a group of young women as a victory for them against this creepy man. It reminds me of murder ballads, which is a type of legend that often details the murder of a young woman and paints the male killer in a positive light as opposed to a condemning one. In an environment filled with young women, the same plot instead is inverted to declare Annette as the victorious hero. Looking again at the social context, the audience was a group of young women the same age as the speaker, and she was often interrupted by expletives denouncing Freddy as a pervert as well.

The Faceless Ghost

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“This happened back in 2021 and it was when me and my friend were having our own dorming experience up in Santa Barbara. One night my friend woke to a man-like voice. We had curtains in the room dividing the room, and she saw a hand grabbing a curtain. At first, she thought it was me but she looked over and I was asleep. She called my name to wake me up and told me that she saw someone’s hand on the curtain. I said I didn’t see anything and I went back to sleep. She later said that the ghost showed his face and it didn’t even look like a person. It was a really tall figure, almost like monster-ish. It looked at her and it said one word and the one word it said was “shoe.” We didn’t know if that meant a real shoe or shoo, get away. This freaked her out and she started crying and woke me up again. The next day she was so scared and she said that we needed to sage the house. I got an incense-type stick and I lit it and walked through the house and asked any ghosts to leave the house. She didn’t see anything after this.”

Context

The informant was a person in the story. The informant wasn’t the one who saw the ghost but she helped participate in preventing the ghost from coming back by sageing the room. The informant was in the same room as the ghost and the informant’s friend originally thought that the ghost’s hand was the informant’s hand. The informant stated that she felt uneasy being in the same room as a ghost. The informant says that her friend is susceptible to paranormal activity and that’s why the ghost was there. The informant noted that it was just her and her friend in the house.

Analysis

I didn’t know what to make of this story so I started by researching what a ghost pulling back a curtain could mean. This action is open to interpretation but one of the most popular ways to interpret this is that it’s a way that ghosts are saying they want to make contact with the living. The other thing to note is that the ghost didn’t have a face. Faceless ghosts may represent a fear of the unknown or a sense of loss/disconnect from oneself or others. A faceless ghost may also mean that the person died without receiving justice. The faceless appearance is a sign of their anger. This appearance is usually associated with fear and dread of the unknown. 

The informant stated that this happened in 2021, which was still the COVID-19 time. A lot of people were feeling uneasy leaving the period of quarantine and starting to get back to life as we knew it. There were a lot of unknowns at this point. I’m not sure if this is related to what the informant and her friend were feeling at the time but it could be a possibility. Maybe this is why the ghost was faceless. 

The informant’s friend described the ghost as monstrous and tall. This may tie into how sometimes a faceless appearance may be a sign of anger. If I saw this ghost I would probably think of either anger or fear. Maybe the friend was fearful because she was away from home. It’s hard to say what the ghost meant but the ghost’s appearance is very intriguing. 

Ghost from the 1800s

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“My mom and dad went to Santa Barbara and they stayed at this old hotel, it wasn’t really known for having ghosts but my mom is super susceptible to ghosts. They checked into this room and my mom already got pretty bad vibes from it. She felt uneasy. When she went to sleep she kept having nightmares and then she woke up and on top of her there was this man with a hat and glasses and a suit. She started screaming and my dad woke up and he couldn’t see him. And she kept telling the ghost “Go away you’re not wanted here” and he did go away. And then the next night she saw him again but he was standing in the corner watching her. She told him to go away and he finally went away for good. She says that the ghost was dressed like he was from the 1800s.”

Context

The informant heard this story from her mom right after her parents came back from the trip. The informant trusts her mom and is very close with her mom so she believes she’s telling the truth. The informant made a point to talk about the clothes that the ghost was wearing. The ghost was dressed like he was in the 1800s. That could have some significance. 

Analysis

I don’t know why a man from the 1800s would haunt the informant’s mom. The first thing that comes to my mind is the Gold Rush that happened in the 1800s. Gold was discovered in California in 1848 and this spurred a lot of development in areas, including Santa Barbara. Maybe the ghost was a businessman who had moved to the area and passed away. Maybe the ghost was looking for the gold and he’s haunting the area because he still wants the gold. It’s interesting that the informant’s mom felt uneasy from the beginning because it was as if she could sense something. Maybe the informant’s mom had some sort of unknown connection to the ghost.

After further research, there are a few spots in Santa Barbara that are prone to paranormal activity. Some of these locations are the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, the Lobero Theatre, the Santa Barbara Inn, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. I don’t know if any of these locations have anything to do with the informant’s story, but there is proof of paranormal activity in the city. 

Grandma the Ghost

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“Near my house, there’s this really creepy entrance by the street. A lot of cars get into car crashes on that specific road. My best friend’s grandma passed away in a car crash near that entrance and every time she drives by she swears she sees her grandma as a ghost.”

Context

The informant heard about this story from her friend and trusts what her friend said. The informant is familiar with this entrance because it’s close to her house, but she has never personally experienced paranormal activity in the street. The informant interprets this as maybe a place where the deceased can watch over their loved ones since it’s on a road with a lot of crashes. 

Analysis

I think this story is about how the grandma watches over her granddaughter. She wants her granddaughter to be safe on the same road that she died on. She’s almost like a guardian angel. I honestly find this story comforting. I know that it’s considered a ghost story but to me, the grandma is peacefully watching over the granddaughter. I know that I would love to see my grandma again, even as a ghost. I hope that my grandma is watching over me, but I would like to see it happen. However, we could also view this story in a darker tone. Maybe the grandma is haunting the street entrance. Maybe she’s trying to warn people. Maybe she’s trying to send a message about something.