Monthly Archives: November 2011

New Orleans, Louisiana- Ghost Story

Nationality: caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: 530 West 27th Street Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 1 November 2011
Primary Language: English

This story is from my roommate Lindsay who is from New Orleans, Louisiana.  She is always causally telling me about how her house is haunted so I decided to ask her about one specific story that makes her think that.  This story is from two years ago, about six months after she and her family moved into her new house.

“Ok, so one night I was the last one up at my house, it was a school night and I was downstairs alone watching TV and I decided to go upstairs to go asleep.  Before I was like going in every room and turning off the lights.  Then I went to the hallway, it’s like the big hallway in the front of our house.  Um, and I turned off those lights.  There’s a big stairwell in that hallway, and I was standing right by the stairwell and I turned off the lights.  And I felt something grab my arm, like right on my shoulder.  It was like a quick but very strong grab.   And for a second I thought I was going crazy but then I thought there’s no way, I actually felt that.   But anyway, I decided not to tell anyone because, um, I don’t know, they wouldn’t believe me obviously.  So then the next week my house was on a historical house tour for New Orleans.  And the people we bought our house from were going through the house cause we had just renovated it and what not.  And they asked me, well has anything weird happened.  And I said yah we have had a couple of things here and there, some lights turning on and weird sounds but I didn’t mention my experience by the stairwell.  So anyway the woman asked if anyone had been grabbed.  I was like what are you talking about.  And she said that she had been grabbed in the same spot on occasion when she had lived there, right by the stairwell in the front hall or whatever.  I of course freaked out because I hadn’t told anyone about what happened and so I told her that it happened to me.  She wasn’t shocked at all or even freaked out, which was weird but I was definitely scared.  So yah, it hasn’t happened again but other weird stuff like the lights and sounds still happens all the time. “

The family who used to own Lindsay’s house had lived there for generations.  Apparently numerous family members had lived in the house their whole life and passed away there as well.  Also, over the generations two of the family members had committed suicide in the house, one was murdered after being followed in by a robber and two children died in their bedrooms from mysterious illnesses.  When Lindsay’s family bought the home the previous owners told them it was haunted and suggested they get an exorcism because the spirits of their dead relatives would not be happy a new family was moving in.  Lindsay’s dad is very Catholic and took this to heart, having his family priest perform not one, but two exorcisms on the house prior to move in.

Along with the supposed spirits from the previous owners dead family members Lindsay’s house was a hospital during the civil war.  Many soldiers died in the house during the war.  Due to slavery and being a central spot for the Civil War, New Orleans is said to be a haunted city to begin with.  When you add in a Civil War hospital and numerous deaths on the grounds, the spooky nature of the house grows immensely.  It is common for ghosts to appear when there has been some kind of injustice or unfinished business.  For this reason, it makes sense that ghosts would linger around an old hospital or house where many family members died.

I believe that this story is true because the old owners validated it even though Lindsay had not said a word to anyone about being grabbed.  She is not a superstitious person and to this day does not fully understand how to explain what she felt that night at the staircase.  However, the supposed ghostly happenings with lights and doors slamming that happened after Lindsay was grabbed may just be her imagination or an easy way to describe phenomena that would would have otherwise dismissed.

 

 

Grandma Visits

Nationality: Shanghainese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California, United States
Performance Date: November 2th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“I heard this story last week and it was my friends story. And she said that her grandparents, um, her grandma in particular, told her that if she ever passed away, she would let them know that… she would communicate with them through the lights in the house. and her grandma passed away like recently, like a couple months ago. And her parents told her, like, ‘remember, grandma told us that when she passes away and if she’s in somewhere safe, she’ll communicate with us by flickering the lights, on and off’. And the first time that happened, she was taking a bath, and the bathroom lights started flickering for no reason. The light bulbs were fine, everything’s fine, and the bathroom lights started flickering on and off. And first she was like… she was really really scared. But her mom told her that that’s the way that grandma’s trying to talk to you, trying to communicate with you. And it got so frequent, that the grandma would flicker the lights.. or ‘the spirit’, would flicker the lights on and off, while the parents were eating dinner or something, and they would be like ‘oh, you stop it!’ and, but it happens all the time. It’s happened multiple times, and its not the light issue. So they think that spirits are real and it’s the grandma. And that like, you can interact with human things even after you’ve passed away. It’s scary but I bet its comforting – to know that there is an afterlife and that their grandma still exists, and still loves them, and watches over them.”

 

 

Wendy Chuong described this story as “the most realistic ghost story” she has ever heard. She says her friend truly believes that her grandmother is trying to communicate with her and also that she is there to spend time with the family. When I asked Wendy why she thought her friend’s grandmother would choose an inconvenient time such as bath time to communicate with her granddaughter, she immediately said “because that was the only time she was alone, and she wanted to reach out to her.” In classic ghost stories, it is very uncommon for ghosts to a multitude of people, and this story follows that tradition in that the ghost in the situation wanted to reach out to a human on an individual basis.

Her friend’s entire family takes a lot of comfort in knowing that their grandmother is in a safe place and is able to come down and spend time with her family. In this case, the encounter with the ghost is very welcomed and is also a psychological way to cushion the death of a loved one. The idea that their grandmother is both still around and safe, even if it is through the flickering of lights, is infinitely better than the thought of their grandmother being in an ambiguous place, or simply stopping to exist after death. In some ways, stories of family members returning may be due to the expectance of their presence after so many years and to push them along the grieving process. The comfort of being watched over from the afterlife brings up the idea that when one becomes a ghost, they are seen to adopt a new supernatural library of knowledge that able to ultimately help or guide the family. Additionally, a new set of moral rules would be set in place – the family members would hesitate to act in ways their grandmother would particularly dislike. Moral actions would increase due to the perception of being watched.

Furthermore, I wonder if there is a reason behind why her grandmother would chose such a trivial act of flickering lights. Do ghosts have differing ways of showing affection, or other emotions? Ghost stories similar to this one incorporate the concept of the transcendence of emotions and memories in the afterlife. This idea, however, contrasts to that of the traditional concept of the ghost that comes to Earth because something in their life was not fulfilled. In this sense, the grandmother’s ghost returns to spend time with her family and show her love. I would describe this ghost story as very sweet, and that every encounter with flickering lights within that household immediately becomes a memorate for the story of the grandmother’s encounters within that family.

José the Alien Mexican Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 21/21
Occupation: Student/Student
Residence: Park City, Utah/Park City, Utah
Performance Date: 11/10/11
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

 

11/10/11

 

José the Alien Mexican Ghost

Interviewing:  Jacob Grodnik and Gill Williams

Context:

Jacob and Gill are in my apartment. Jacob is wearing a long, brunette wig.  Why?  I don’t know.

 

Transcript begins:

Jacob:  “Hey, uh, Gill…let’s tell this jabroni about José, the Alien Mexican Ghost”

Gill:  “Yeah, bro. He ain’t never heard nothin’ like this before.”

Me:  “Are you gangsters in this story?”

Jacob:  “Thug life. Listen up, kid. So it’s our friend’s birthday, and we decide to drive up to the Redwood forest and camp there.”

Gill:  “Originally we were going to sleep and then leave at 6, but it ended up being 4 a.m., so we just said screw it and started driving.”

Jacob:  “It was terrible, Gill was driving – swerving all over the place like a madman.  Took about 8 hours, but we got there.  By the time we got there and napped, it was like 5 p.m., and we decided to embark on our adventure.  Now we were joking around, having a wild time, the sun was setting through the trees, and all was well.  But it wasn’t fated to stay like that.  All of a sudden, as though he sprouted from a tree, a small Mexican man popped into the road.”

Gill:  “He couldn’t have been taller than 4’9”.  It was kind of amusing…until he started talking.”

Jacob:  “Oh…my…God…it was straight out of an acid trip.  Half of his words were in Spanish, half of them were in English, but all of it was completely incoherent.”

Gill:  “We really couldn’t understand a goddamn thing.  However, he seemed like a nice guy.  He seemed like he wanted to give us something…or tell us something.  Unfortunately, the latter was definitely not an option.  There was more saliva than actual words.”

Jacob:  “I think he told us that we were ‘his children’ and that we should ‘be careful when feeding the chickens’.  Then all of a sudden he was gone.  All of us looked at each other, and looked around, and he was nowhere to be found.”

Gill:  “Then…all of a sudden, this weird Swiss Alps trumpet music started playing from somewhere in the forest.  It kept getting louder and louder.  I think we all felt that this was what José was trying to show us.  So we followed the music, and found ourselves in this strange, off-the-path bar or inn place.  We all walked in and sat down at a table.”

Jacob:  “Yeah, so we order a round of brews, and then I hear this gibberish, high-pitched voice from over near the bar.  It’s goddamn José, raising a toast to us.  I turn to Gill to ask him who the Hell this guy is.”

Gill:  “Yeah, I feel Jacob tapping me on the shoulder and he points to the bar.  I look over, and there is no one unusual to be found.  Let alone a 4’9” Mexican alien ghost midget man.”

Jacob:  “I ask the bartender if he saw José, and the bartender doesn’t know him.  I described José, and the bartender DEFINITELY doesn’t know him.”

Gill:  “And so goes the story of José, the Mexican alien ghost.”

 

Jacob/Gill Analysis:

He was completely incoherent, but he definitely wanted to tell us something.  Somehow the music from the inn became audible right when he disappeared, so we know it has to be connected.  His appearance and disappearance were too sudden.  There was nowhere he could have been hiding; he must have just been utilizing his “invisible ghost form” before we saw him.

 

Personal Analysis:

The sudden, unexplained nature of José’s appearance suggests an ethereal, inhuman nature.  He had nothing on him and no reason to be in the forest.  And the signs they got from him seemed to be leading them to a certain location.  Maybe he was a lonely traveler in life and was accosted by a robber in the Redwood forest.  Perhaps the robber beat him very badly in the process, and José had suffered major brain trauma before succumbing to his injuries.  Thus, his ghostly spirit came back, embodying the state he had been in right before death.  His damaged, ghostly self would stay in the mortal realm and try to warn travelers away from dangerous paths.  He would forever try, despite his communication difficulties, to lead travelers instead to the safety of the inn he often frequented.

Stanley

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Murrieta, CA
Performance Date: 11/10/11
Primary Language: English
Language: French

 

11/10/11

 

Stanley

Interviewing:  Holly Schmidt

Context:

Sitting together in my apartment.

 

Transcript begins:

Holly:  “I was about twelve, which means my sister was nine or ten. We thought it was kind of funny at first; the way the window opened itself.  A constant breeze came through that same window, and a scratching noise, even though there was no tree or bush outside to create such a noise. We both thought the other was pulling a prank, until we noticed more weird shit.

We loved Guitar Hero; so did Stanley. That’s what we named him. We would set our guitar controllers down with the game on pause and walk away. When we returned, a song of Stanley’s choice would be scrolling across the TV screen; he wasn’t very good: missed most notes, but occasionally scored petty points.

As we got a bit older we stopped believing Stanley was a real presence, but continued to reference and joke about him. In an eerie sort of way, he was an old friend. He must’ve realized he was missed and returned.

We heard a humming in the empty bedroom. How the hell is the air conditioner on? It was off, unplugged and behind a locked door.

Our dad looked to us but we knew…  STANLEY.”

 

Holly’s/Personal Analysis:

The house itself was ghostly: curtains, walls, carpet, tile, shutters- all white.  It was a blank slate because the family before us absolutely destroyed this house. We don’t know why, but it was fixed up before we moved in. The audacity of the ghost implies it was there long before we were.

I think my sister and I noticed him because he was all we really had. We were rather young and the divorce started right when we got this house. I may be taking the easy way out by “blaming the divorce” but it really makes sense. Madison and I both felt sort of estranged in the middle of a tense environment; Stanley became our escape. We never feared him; he was like a secret we had that kept us together as our family ripped apart. He kept our spirits young and playful when they so easily could’ve become cynical and corrupted by the destruction of our family.

Stanley was off the radar during the three years my sister and I lived apart, but came back once we were together again.

That house is no longer ours, but I hope whatever family inhabits it now, or in the future, will have the pleasure of meeting our ghost.

Collection 2: The House Built on a Indian Reservation

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: November 2, 2011
Primary Language: English

For the purpose of this assignment, I will conceal the name of the interviewee and replace it with Sarah.

I asked good friend Sarah to tell me a ghost story. At first she said she didn’t know any. But she gave it some taught and remembered her mom telling her stories of her childhood. She warned me that these stories were true, and she can confirm it by having me call her mom. Her story goes as follows:

When my mother was born, her mother (Sarah’s grandmother) passed away giving birth to her. She was sent from Mexico to live with her grandmother (Sarah’s great grandmother) and her cousins in Fresno, California. Nevertheless did she know she was going to live in a house where an old Indian Reservation used to exist. My mother told me when she was growing up in that house, her and her cousins would always be scared at night because they would often see white figures walking in and out of their rooms. She said she can vaguely remember her childhood, but one thing was clear, she knew that house was haunted. When she was in her teens, she actively took on roles as a mother because her grandmother was getting ill. She can recall cooking dinner one night and seeing a white figure walking behind her while she made dinner. She said that her grandmother would not allow anyone to sleep with her because she did not want the female ghost who lived in her room to haunt her or her cousins. According to my mother, in the room where my great grandmother lived, there lived a female ghost who would sleep and cuddle with her each night. My mother never questioned her grandmother, because she knew better than to stay quiet, if not the ghost would follow her. My mother knew she had to leave that house, so that’s when she met my father and she decided to leave out the house and live with him. Once my mother left the house, my great grandmother grew sicker and sicker, to the point my mother had to make frequent visits after work and check on her. Couple months passed and her grandmother passed away.

            To this day, her cousins still live in this house, and they seem to have a mental illness. She believes that the ghost have messed with their minds, and have made them sick.

Sarah has never walked inside the house, but she has driven passed it. She refuses to go inside because she fears the ghosts might follow her home.

When Sarah was telling me this story, I felt so engaged by it.  I felt as if I was her mother in the story. After learning about the different motifs in ghost stories, I feel this story is true ghost story. Knowing the fact that this house was built on top of an Indian Reservation already goes to show there will be ghostly activities in this house. As discussed, most Native American ghost stories consist of ghost haunting because of burial removals and an unfinished business. We know that Native Americans treasure their burials, and having a house built on top of this location, leaves for ghost hauntings.