“Ok so I’m from a suburban town in Northern California named Pleasanton, because it is quite pleasant. The other Bay Area people call it ‘p’ town. I don’t know it’s just the nickname. So um contrary to the name, we have some ghost stories. And so there are tunnels below our downtown area on the main street. And these were from a long time ago. I don’t really know whey they are there. Um and so the story really come out during Halloween time. Um and so during Halloween in October, you can get a hour and an half tour of the haunted sights of the downtown. And you get, like they try to freak you out, you get paranormal activity. They take you in some of the tunnels but you can’t obviously walk all of the way through.”

“Main Street used to be home to brothels, gambling, and bandits in the 1800s. The tunnels were constructed to move goods from store to store. There is one of our restaurants, called Blue Agave, and like one of the myths, if you have a margarita there, then a ghost will ease drop on your conversation. There is also like, the famous oldest hotel in the town the, Rose Hotel, um and that is supposed to be a good place to find the ghosts. That so there is a pizza place called Gay 90s and that is also supposed to be haunted. There is a window in the upstairs that you are apparently supposed to see a woman in it. They call her the Lady in Blue. Some believed that she used to be a prostitute when it used to be a brothel. If you look in the mirror in the bathroom, you can sometimes see a ghost. The pizza place used to be a brothel but now it’s a pizza place.”

Who tells this story?

“Um I mean most of the locals hear it, they’re family friends, older kids will try to freak out the younger kids. The scheduled tours go through every October that are through the museum. You volunteer to give the tours and learn all of the stories. I think I heard it from a family friend who did one of the tours.”

What does this story mean to you?

“I think they just kind of they represent our history, like it’s the people that used to live there that are still in the downtown. Now it’s just a fun way to get the town together on these ghost tours.”

Analysis:

I think this ghost story is one of the ways in which the people of Pleasanton remember their history and the roots of their town. As the informant mentioned, it is an interesting way to bring the town together during Halloween, increase tourism, and keep the spirit of the area alive. I think it is interesting how different generations in the town view this story in different ways. The children use the story to scare one another for fun. The adults believe this story just represents their past and they view it more as a silly historical thing.