Main Piece:

“My grandma lives in Maryland and she once bought a mattress from a friend that was old and worn out, obviously had been well lived in. So the first night that she was sleeping on the new “old” mattress she at first thought she was dreaming but then believed she saw a little girl crawl out from beneath the bed and into her room. After that, she dragged the mattress out of her house and never looked back.” 

Background:

This story comes from a classmate’s grandmother she’s 70 and lives in Maryland. It is a true story, or at least a story her grandma believes is true. 

Context:

I learned of this story from a classmate, AO. AO shared her grandmother’s story with me in a breakout session when we decided to trade family ghost stories. 

Thoughts:

This story was very spooky. It could have been a great horror movie scene. This story is going to make me rethink buying a used mattress in the future. A ghost story like this is an oral tradition and is unique to Ms. O and something she had shared with family members until Alison was nice enough to share it with me.

Main piece:

“ So this story is about the goat man back in the 18/1900s [1930’s] who was an African American Goat farmer who uh produced dairy products and gained pretty large recognition. He apparently was doing very well for himself and it caught the attention of the Klu Klan Klan once he had started advertising around town. So one night they grabbed him from his bed, dragged him to the bridge [Old Alton Bridge], tried to lynch him by throwing him over the side of the bridge. When they went to confirm his death he was nowhere to be found and the noose was empty. It is now called “goat bridge” and they say when you go to the bridge his spirit still lingers.” 

Background:

My informant is a 20-year-old college student who attends USC and is actually in the same folklore class! We came to this discussion after trading ghost stories early on in the semester during a breakout session. He knows this story because it takes place in his hometown.

Context:

This story was brought to my attention after I had told BS a ghost story that has been passed down through my family. He thought this one was very fitting and knew the story well. 

Thoughts:

I had never heard of this ghost story before so it was very interesting to hear about. I was so intrigued I had to dig deeper and find other recounts of the story. I found this one particularly interesting because I had not heard many ghost stories that stemmed from racist acts, specifically from the KKK. It not only saddened me, but I could see why the goat-man hung around for years attempting revenge if the story is true. I am very interested to learn more about stories that have to do with murders stemming from racist acts of violence as these would make more sense as to why the murdered would stay around and seek vengeance on the murderers.