Monthly Archives: November 2013

Ghost Story- Native American Territory

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 23
Occupation: Teacher

“My cousin’s friend, Daniel, was asked to house sit a new house while his friend’s family moved their belongings into the house. As the family drove down the coast, Daniel went to the house and it was very empty. Only a few boxes and furniture and an old piano were in the front room. He went upstairs and most of the bedrooms were empty except there was a small woven red ball in one of the empty rooms. He went over and as soon as he picked it up, he heard a women screaming. So he put it down, and as soon as he did, the screaming stopped. He went downstairs to the basement where there was a couch set up. As he stayed down there, he heard footsteps throughout the house and faint piano playing. He went upstairs to find no one had come to the house. In the kitchen, he opened the new refrigerator and suddenly felt someone watching him. He shut the refrigerator and in the reflection he saw a Native American man in full traditional clothing and head dress. He turned around and the man was no longer there. Scared, he returned to one of the furnished bedrooms and tried to sleep. In the middle of the night, he woke up to the feeling of hands tucking him tightly into the blanket all the way up from his legs to the rest of his body. He kept his eyes shut in fear for what he would see. He felt someone pick up his arms and cross them in front of his chest. He didn’t sleep at all that night. The next morning when the family came, Daniel told the family he’d never come back to the house because of what had happened. The family learned that the house had been built on Native American buried grounds and that the tribe traditionally buried their dead by tightly tucking coverings around the body and arms folded flat across the chest.”

This story is a classic example of the problems that arise when disturbing Native American territory. After being forced off their land and treated poorly, the Native Americans have continued to haunt certain areas that they once claimed. The fact that the house was covering burial grounds and not respecting the territory led to the haunting. Some motifs are the footsteps of the ghosts upstairs and the sounds heard. Another is how he saw the reflection of the ghost, but it vanished once he tried to get a proper look. This story exemplifies traditional motifs in ghost stories and the consequences of disturbing Native American territory.

Cold Surroundings

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: University Housing - Dorm
Performance Date: November 12th, 2013
Primary Language: English

So my friend goes to college in the southwest and there is a girl on her floor who is convinced her dorm room is haunted. Apparently, a girl died there a few years ago, I don’t know if it was suicide or just a mysterious event. Well, they know for sure that it happened on her specific floor but no one knows the room it happened in. But as I said before, my friend knows a girl who is certain she has the room. She says she feels like she always is being watched and the biggest thing is how cold her room always is. Like apparently no other room on their floor is like it. She can have no fans on and the room is always freezing. If fact, my friend said she and a bunch of other girls would hang out a lot in the room when the days got hot because there isn’t any air conditioning in their dorms and yet this girl’s room was always so cold.

I heard this story in a USC cafeteria around 3:30pm during a late lunch. The informant is a good friend of mine. He heard this story from a friend of his, who lived on a college dorm floor where one of her classmates claimed to have a haunted dorm room. My friend mentioned how thankful he was that he did not have the same situation in his dorm room.

I found a multitude of ghostly motifs in my informant’s tale. These motifs include suicide, college life, and cold rooms/sensations. Suicide, or otherwise a mysterious death, is common in ghostly tales because a popular cause of hauntings is when an individual does not receive a proper, natural death. When there is murder, suicide, or an event that cuts someone’s life short than naturally intended, the victim’s spirit is known to roam in this world for some time afterwards. Also, college is considered a liminal period in everyone’s lives. One is neither an adult nor child. It is the transition in between two worlds. Because ghosts are and manifest around liminal objects, locations, and events, it is no surprise ghosts haunt college settings. And finally, the mentioning of cold sensations felt inside the girl’s dorm room. Yet another ghostly motif, as cold temperatures are often associated with cold, dead bodies.

 

The Previous Resident

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: University Housing - Dorm
Performance Date: November 12th, 2013
Primary Language: English

My friend once told me about his dad experiencing some spooky stuff when he was just out of college. He was in his early 20s. He didn’t have too much money at the time. I forget which town he lived in, but he was desperately trying to find a place to rent. Eventually, he realized that it would be financially wise to rent just one room in a house. So he found a location that allowed him to pay for just a bedroom. The seller though had to disclose information that the previous resident who rented the room was a criminal. In fact, this guy apparently was a brutal murderer. I don’t know if he did it in the house, the room, or whatever. But supposedly no one was renting out the other rooms at the time. This guy had the entire house to himself when he lived there. Well, my friend’s dad was pretty curious and would often meander around the house looking for history or clues as to what exactly happened. I guess he started lifting up the carpets and found some sort of satanic markings on the floorboards. After that, my friend’s dad said he always felt some sort of presence in the house. Especially when walking up the staircase. He always felt like someone or something was accompanying him from the first to last step.

 

I heard this story in a USC cafeteria around 3:30pm during a late lunch. The informant is a good friend of mine. He heard this story from a friend of his, who heard it from their father. The father directly experienced this event. My friend thinks it’s creepy, “especially the satanic markings part.”

I found a multitude of ghostly motifs in my informant’s tale. These motifs include satanic markings, murder, and the renting of property with abnormal history. Though the motif that stands out to me most would be the staircase. Ghosts are liminal beings and tie themselves to liminal times, events, and locations. Staircases are arguably liminal locations because they are neither the bottom or top floor of a house. I find it interesting then, that my informant explicitly states that his friend’s father felt the most discomfort on the staircase than in any other part of the house.

The Red Keyhole

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: North Carolina
Performance Date: 10/31
Primary Language: English

[Told at breakfast]

So, um, this guy is going to stay in a hotel for a night because he’s in town for a business trip.  And, um, so he goes to the cheapest hotel he can find, and he goes to the manager and says, “Hi, I need one room, just give me the cheapest room.”

And the manager says, “Oh, we don’t have any rooms open.”

And he [the guy] is like, “ Really? Surely you have some rooms open.”

And the manager looks really cagey and he’s like, “Well, okay, I guess if—if really, like, ANY room…”

And he [the guy] is like, “Yeah, just give me a freaking room.”

And so the manager’s like, “Okay.” And so he takes him to this, um, to this room, and, uh, and the guy’s like bringing up—lugging up his suitcase and he gets the key in the lock and, like, and it won’t open. Like the door just won’t open. So he’s like pounding on the door and trying to open it and everything, and it won’t open. And so he like looks into the keyhole, because it’s like one of those old-fashioned ones, to see if there’s like anything blocking it or whatever. When he looks in all he sees is read, just like plain red, as if someone is holding up a sheet of red paper to the other side of the keyhole. So he’s like, oh my god, okay, what is happening. So he goes and finds a maid and the maid has like the master key and, um, when he asks, “Hey, this is my room, can you let me in? The key’s not working for some reason,” she looks really, really terrified. So he’s like, whaaaaat’s the problem…

And so the maid tells him that exactly a year ago two people were murdered in that room. Like the guy just like came in and stabbed them to death. And so ever since then there’s been a legend that their spirits haunt this room, right? And so she says the most terrifying part about these spirits is that they have completely red eyes.

 

Listener’s comments: the ending is a real BAM twist. I like that there was no “ghostly figure,” just red eyes.