Tag Archives: memorate

The Most Haunted House In Oregon

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Age: 25

Occupation: Self-Employed

Residence: Jupiter, FL

Performance Date: November 11, 2023

Text:

“After I left Florida, I started just driving all over the country, reconnecting with all my old friends that I hadn’t seen in so long. I was actually all the way up in Canada at one point, before heading back down into the States through to Seattle for a bit. Anyways, I ended up with one of my friends from high school in Oregon. I let her book the AirBnB that we were going to stay at that night, and for whatever reason, she only looked at the availability without checking any of the reviews before she booked it. Definitely a mistake, will not be doing that again. So she books it, we’re driving, it’s super late at night, we’re both exhausted, get to the house, and immediately vibes are just off. The whole time we were driving up there the area was just weird, something just did not feel right at all. The house itself was this really big old timey inn, straight out of the colonial era. We walk in and this place is just deserted, like nobody there at all, no one working the front desk for check in. After ringing the bell a couple of times the guy comes and checks us in or whatever, and starts leading us up towards our room down this super long hallway. Super weird thing, there were all of these tables in the hallways that were just lined with these big containers of candy, and all kinds too. Naturally we just start munching on some sour strings, and the guy turns back at us, telling us not to eat any of the candy, that it’s there to appease the spirits. Jokingly, my friend asks him if the house was haunted or something, cause she thought he was trying to mess with us or something. He gave her the biggest ‘are you stupid’ look I’ve ever seen, and said ‘Only the most haunted house in Oregon’, then kept walking down the hallway. We both kind of looked at each other, looked back at him, and immediately started looking this place up on our phones. Sure enough, it was literally the most haunted AirBnB in all of Oregon according to all these reviews we read. It’s too late to try and find somewhere else to stay for the night, so we just decide to stick it out and hope that whatever ghosts might be there just leave us alone. I think I slept maybe like two hours that whole night. The whole time there were all of these banging and groaning sounds coming from all over the place like people were fighting, but we were literally the only guests there that night. And I could feel the floorboards all around the bend like bending, there were all these footstep noises throughout the whole thing, I even felt a hand running up and down my leg at one point. Same thing happened to my friend except it was on her face. It never really felt dangerous or malicious, but definitely weird. Super creepy, we ended up checking out as early as possible that next morning, haven’t been back to Oregon since.”

Context:

CM is a 25 year old woman who has recently embarked upon a continental road trip to explore and reconnect with old friends. While believing in the supernatural and the powers that they may (or may not) hold, CM has held a decidedly wary stance against haunting ghosts, preferring to hear or read about them rather than experience them firsthand. This story was told only a handful of weeks after the initial events transpired, allowing for a fresh telling undisturbed by the passing of time.

Analysis:

Part of me is curious as to whether or not there was really a ghost there at all, if it was a trick the CM’s mind played on her. There were no ghosts or paranormal activities before she learned that the house was haunted, yet suddenly after learning about all of the spirits said to linger around the house, she began experiencing some of the classic tropes of a haunted house. There were certainly a significant amount of classic motifs of traditional ghost stories in CM’s retelling, namely the sharp noises in the middle of the night and the creaking of the floorboards around the bed, which may help alleviate some of my suspicions. What I found to be particularly interesting was the feeling of being in actual contact with a paranormal entity, that whatever it may have been broke the physical barrier. While in some cultures the spirits of the restless dead (or undead) are ethereal, in a significant amount of others the ghosts of those who have passed can most certainly maintain a sense of corporealness that is absence in most modern day ideologies of ghosts. While a significant amount of ghost stories may involve spirits interacting with the physical plain by moving objects or perhaps a piece of furniture, there are perhaps only a select few where the spirit will make physical contact with a person.

A Call from Screaming Jenny

  • Informant: HB
  • Nationality: American
  • Primary Language: English
  • Other language(s): n/a
  • Age: 51
  • Occupation: Author
  • Residence: Wilmington, Delaware, United States
  • Performance Date: November 22, 2023

Text

“In 1995, I was living in Charlestown West Virginia, going to Shepherd University and taking a photography class with an actual camera- so you would develop pictures in the blackroom.

I vaguely knew a ghost story about Jenny on the train tracks, but I ignored it because I didn’t believe in these things. 

I went to take photographs around West Virginia and at one point I went to one of the train stations along the train tracks in between Charlestown and Shepherdstown, and I parked my car at what used to be the train station, but this train station had been closed for years. I walked across the street and there was this really cool old fashioned telephone booth- the kind that had like an ear handle and then you spoke into the actual box- but I was nowhere near the phone, at least twenty feet away, and I hadn’t gone near it. I was taking pictures of it just because it was a great photography project picture: this phone booth in the middle of nowhere.

And then the phone started ringing, which I thought was very strange because I was in the middle of nowhere, with no one around me, and it was late at night too.

I actually thought I was on.. what was that show called? Oh! candid camera, where they prank people and put it on TV. I thought this had to be a joke. 

So, I walked up to the phone booth to pick it up and when I picked it up, I realized that the handle was no longer attached to anything and, actually, the phone itself was attached to nothing – there were no wires going in or out of this phone booth, it was just ringing, and it actually terrified me and I ran to my car and drove away as fast as I could.

So, the story I researched later- because that had freaked me out so badly – was that, this girl Jenny – and this is true actually – she caught on fire and died on the train tracks, and then people who ride the train say they hear her screaming at night – which I did not hear her screaming, but I had the weird phone booth thing right on the train tracks by the train station”

Context

The original legend referenced in this collection, The Tale of Screaming Jenny, is a common folklore story throughout West Virginia that took place in the town of Harpers Ferry. In order to contextualize the encounter of the informant, I familiarized myself with a few versions of the legend that have been shared online. According to the legend, there was a woman named Jenny who lived in one of the storage sheds that were abandoned after the construction of the B&O railroad. Jenny had no friends or family to look after her, forcing her to inhabit one of the small sheds. Although no specific date is provided, all recountings of the story indicate that it was on a cold autumn night when Jenny went outside to warm herself by a fire that a spark landed on her skirt and quickly engulfed her in flames. Jenny began screaming for help, running towards the train station, and blindly stumbled onto the train tracks. A train approached the woman, now appearing more as a “ball of flames”, but Jenny was unable to detect the train in the midst of her panic, and there was not enough time for the engineer to stop before running her over. Although recountings vary, many indicate that Jenny’s screams are heard by train passengers when passing through the area of Harpers Ferry and that train engineers have repeatedly encountered the same “ball of flames” at the very spot where Jenny died.

Everyone at Shepherd University had heard the story of Screaming Jenny, and HB had heard about it from a classmate. The informant shared that, before this encounter, she had never given the legend of Screaming Jenny much thought because she did not believe in ghosts or anything of that nature. However, following the strange occurrence she experienced by the train tracks, her opinion shifted. As the informant mentioned, the encounter terrified her and provoked her to further research what happened to Jenny and encounters which people had associated with her spirit. The encounter was able to shift HB’s thoughts on the story, as her initial disbelief gave way to some semblance of plausibility. 

Analysis

This encounter paired with HB’s explanation for the occurrence can be viewed as a memorate, or an oral narrative told from memory recounting a personal experience that is interpreted in the context of an existing legend or folklore belief. In my opinion, what caused the experience to be so memorable to HB was not the paranormal aspect of the experience, but more so the availability of known legend to which she could attribute this occurrence. If the informant had not been familiar with the tale of Screaming Jenny, she likely would have ignored the ringing phone on the train tracks, or at least would have forgotten about it after some time. However, because the tale of Screaming Jenny instantly came to mind when she encountered the phone ringing without any wires, she remembers it as a supernatural encounter with a legendary ghost. 

Arkansas Legend Quest

Text:

“There’s this light, it’s in this town like thirty minutes north of us, it’s in the middle of nowhere on a field. The story is that there was a conductor on a train and this railroad goes along the side of this road, and apparently a conductor fell off and his head got cut off and he looks for his head every night, and that’s why you see a light on the railroad. If you drive out there you’ll see a light floating above the road, and apparently if it touches your car then your car will turn off. So all of our parents have stories about it, like how they’ve gone and seen the light. I don’t know if they’re actually true. But my friends went one time, I didn’t go cause it was during Covid, but they went and I was on facetime with them when it happened. And my friend N, they were on the road and she just started crying like sobbing, and she like never cries. Cause she swore that she saw it, and then they all started screaming because apparently it was coming towards the car, and that’s when they pulled out and left. I’ve been before and nothing happened.” 

Context:

GR is a 19-year-old college student from a small town in northern Arkansas. He was in high school when this story was told, and he’d been hearing the stories about the railroad since he was a little kid. His parents and adults in his town would tell him their experiences of seeing the light, and he doesn’t know if they were making it up to scare him or not. Research shows that this legend is a popular one that can be found online, called the Gurdon Lights in Gurdon Arkansas. He says that his town and a lot of northern Akansas have a lot of hauntings and ghost stories, supposedly because the granite rocks in the ground are a conductor for spirits according to legend. 

Analysis: 

This story is an example of legend questing, where a group of people go out to look for a legend and try to insert themselves into it. It’s also an example of a memorate, where someone’s existing experience fits into the pre established legend. Legend questing is especially popular amongst young people. There might be a multitude of reasons for that. Young people are still figuring themselves out, figuring out what the story of their life is going to be, so it can be compelling to insert themselves into a legendary story that already exists. Since they’re young, they’re supposedly further away from death, so seeking out ghosts and graphic stories about death can both be them putting to use the immortality they feel they have, and also interacting with the concept of death that is both scary and unfamiliar. In certain cultures and in older people, ghost stories are often comforting and warm, such as a visit from a family member. The ghost stories young people tell though, at least in America, are often graphic and tragic and scary, because that’s how they view death to be. They’re both interested in this concept that is so far away, and terrified of this concept that is actually so near, and this fear and interest manifests into young people seeking out ghosts. I also believe that young people seek out legend quests more often because children are raised on fairy tales and magical figures like the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Santa. They are raised being told that magic is, in some ways, real. As teenagers and young adults they’re expected to separate themselves from the childish idea that magic is real, but there’s a small part of everyone that still wishes that the mystical might be real. 

I also think that Arkansas might be a large hub for supernatural stories because it’s still quite a rural area, there aren’t as many large and prominent cities as there are in other states. While Christianity began spreading around cities, rural areas continued worshiping their own pagan gods. Christianity then decided to paint rural areas as places where the Devil lives, and declare the people who live there as Devil worshipers. This idea has made us see nature and the wild as areas prone to the influence of the devil, so these wide spans of nature secluded from everyone else are seen to be areas more likely to have hauntings and ghosts. Rural town populations in Arkansas have a largely Christian population now, so they might be more inclined to look at the isolated, wild areas near them (such as abandoned train tracks) as scary places of the Devil.

Ghost Uncle Visit

Text:

Late one night in 1966 in Santa Ana, California, my grandma heard a knock at the front door. She opened the door and saw her Uncle Udono, who lived in Japan at the time and felt shocked to see him in the United States. Behind her, my grandpa asked, ”What are you doing at the door?” She turned around to respond that it was her uncle, and when she faced back towards her uncle, he was gone. The next day she found out he had passed away in Japan.


Context:

This is my grandma’s personal experience. After she saw her uncle show up at her house and then disappear, she thought she was hallucinating since she was tired when the experience took place. Later the next day, after hearing about her uncle’s passing, she felt startled but also oddly at peace. Her Uncle had no children and in a way saw my grandma as his child. She interpreted her uncle’s ghostly visit as her Uncle saying goodbye to his favorite niece one last time.


Analysis:

I think her one memorate strengthened her belief in the supernatural because after she described her experience she briefly described another personal paranormal story. Her experience was her smelling an awful stench in her home that only she could smell. About 2 weeks later she found out her brother had died and was rotting for a month in his apartment. She interpreted this as a sign from her deceased brother that he was dead and wanted her to know. I think if she didn’t have her uncle’s ghost experience she may not have correlated the two occasions (the sudden odor and her brother’s death) together.

Sleep paralysis

Text (memorate): 

“My grandmother used to say when I had sleep paralysis that meant that ‘the witches are riding you.’”

Context: 

A is from Texas and comes from a spiritual, religious background. Her grandmother is very superstitious and she recalls this supernatual explaination her grandmother had on sleep paralysis.

My Informants grandmother would say that this means the “witches are riding you” (they are on top of you trying to steal your energy) and you need to start praying to get it so stop. When in the trance like states she describes it as really quiet as if everything in the room had gone silent. Her grandmother, born and raised in Louisiana was very spiritual and believed in both good and bad spirits.

A: “In High school, I would have numerous occasions where they would get into a deep sleep and couldn’t wake up. Sometimes they couldn’t open their eyes, and sometimes they could but they weren’t able to move or speak. After a period of time they would eventually jump up out of the bed. After I’d wake myself up my grandmother would say that this means the “witches are riding you.”

Q: “What does this mean exactly?”

A: “My grandmother said this meant that they are on top of you trying to steal your energy and you need to start praying to get it so stop. When I’m in these trance like states it is really quiet like everything in the room had gone silent.”

Analysis: 

This text exemplifies a blend of a memorate and superstition as a seemingly natural phenomenon such as sleep paralysis is reasoned through the belief in supernatural existence such as witches. As described when “the witches are riding you” this really means the spirits are on top of you trying to drain your energy. This is a form of contagious magic where things that were once in contact can continue to act on one another as described by Frazer. The spirits of witches believed to be on top of my informant during her sleep paralysis were in contact with her and thus saying a prayer would be a valid form of contagious magic to protect oneself against the negative spiritual hold. My informants grandmother had a strong faith in spiritual belief and practices as they are from Louisiana where spiritual practices such as voodoo were common thus this is a common motif with Louisianan and African cultural influences. This is a practice is likely to have originated as a way to explain phenomena such as these before the emergence of modern medicine. This also can be classified as a superstition given it is a belief not based on scientific reasoning but rather myth and cultural tradition. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that just because something is not based on scientific evidence, that doesn’t undermine its truth value as scientific belief is not equivalent to truth.