“Now it’s recording”
“So last summer, I was in Iowa, in a, in the University of Iowa, for a summer program, and there were a bunch of kids who I was among in this huge dormitory , and we were the only people there. On the third floor. And apparently there had been ghost stories just circulating around that place, there had been some shady characters there in the past, and after a while a few people started complaining about noises and things, just shutting doors and the usual things, but then, well what is interesting is when people went in the shower, this happened to me as well, they start…they heard somebody sing , then when they came out there was no one there, so everyone was just freaked put because of that, because it happened , separately on a few occasions, when there was no one else in the building. And that was basically it. “
“Alright, do you remember what they were singing?”
“It was just a tune, I didn’t recognize it. It was just regular shower noises. I didn’t really pay attention until I realized that there was nobody there. So that was fun.”
“Is there a specific death or story that goes with that?”
“There was, I don’t, I don’t remember it specifically but there was somebody in that dormitory who either got murdered or committed suicide around the place that we were. Ah, and yeah that was there. But that was a hundred years ago, I think 1910 or something. It was an old building too. So yeah, nothing too exciting.”
A simple Google search for “University of Iowa Ghost Stories” brings up 136,000 results. This particular story falls in the pattern of many other college related ghost stories. A dormitory, a suicide or murder victim in the dormitory, and old school, and a student legend base around it. The reoccurrence of the shower incident, and the multiple witnesses, add credibility to the story. The story isn’t very long but it is traditional and seems that it could be true.
Category Archives: Folk Beliefs
The House on Hodgsen Road
“Alright, It’s recording”
“Ok, so when I was a young man we lived in a house. The address was 5900 Hodgsen Rd. (St. Paul, Minnesota). And we were pretty sure from when we moved in that the house was haunted and probably had some kind of spirit or some kind of soul there was something in the house. And we weren’t sure exactly what it was but there were different things that happened that made us think that something was, probably indicating that there was spirit in the house. So, a couple of things that happened to my family members, not necessarily me, but family members. One thing was my sister Debbie, she was home alone one day and she had gone upstairs to take a shower and when she was in the shower she heard something from the wall like a scratching on the wall and she wasn’t sure what it was and the bathroom was right next door to her bedroom, her bedroom was right at the end of the hall and that’s where the bathroom was. So, she took a shower, and she got out of the shower and when she went into her bedroom, she looked in her closet and all of her hangers which were originally spaced throughout the entire closet were now all pushed to one side of the closet. So, of course at this point, she thought that someone was in the house, but, so she freaked out and didn’t know what was going on in the house and got scared and then realized that there was nobody in the house. She was there by herself, still alone, and nobody was in the house, none of us had come home, we’re all out of town. So that was her experience.
Now the experience of my brother was, he was not necessarily the best kid in the family, and he would sleep in the basement because that gave him the opportunity to sneak out, there was a window he could open and he could sneak out at night. So one day he was at the house, and he snuck out in the middle of the night and then he came home, and he went a laid down on the bed that he was sleeping in that was on floor because it was a mattress on the floor it wasn’t anything specific in the basement it was just a place to sleep. So, he snuck back in, laid down and closed his eyes, and it was dark in the basement and the next thing he knew he heard footsteps coming up to him and of course he’s petrified because he’s sure that it is my dad coming to say something to him about why he snuck out and he thought that he was busted for sure and so his heart’s racing and he’s nervous and thinking that he’s going to get busted for sneaking out of the house. So he’s laying in bed and all of the sudden footsteps are approaching him sneaking up on him step by step, step by step, all the way to the side of his bed, and then they stopped, and he keeps his eyes closed pretending like he’s sleeping pretending like he’s been there the whole time and he waits about 20 seconds and he opens his eyes, there’s nobody there. And at that point he thought my dad was down there, but he wasn’t down there, he was no where to be found, all there was was the footsteps with nothing in front of him. Of course at this point he freaked out, much like my sister did, and ran upstairs. I think that was the last time he slept in the basement.
Personally, my only real feeling that there was something wrong in the house was being a young man that always felt like when I was walking down a hall or being in the basement or going up the stairs from the basement there always felt like there was someone behind me, or something behind me. So I, it was kind of an eerie feeling and I spent most of my childhood running down halls quickly and making sure lights were turned on when I was walking down halls because I always felt like there was somebody, somebody behind me. And there never was, I never had any personal experience, just besides and eerie creepy feeling that I was being followed or watched or there was a presence that was there, but there wasn’t anything so…”
“Do you think there was a ghost in your house?”
“Well, from all the indications that we experienced and everyone’s experiences with it, I’d say yes, there was. And I think my parents, spoke with the people that live in the house now at some point and they said that there was some strange occurrences, that they experienced too so…It was an older house, it was built in 1910, it was an old farmhouse, so I’m not sure exactly what the spirit was, but we were pretty sure that there was some kind of a spirit there.”
That was the account of my father, Major Kevin Grant Heinonen. I’d heard this story once or twice before growing up. The setting in which we recorded it in was appropriately strange. A diner in Santa Monica, terribly filthy, rundown, with some of the oldest wait staff I’ve ever encountered, also, apparently the site where one of the scenes in the movie Zodiac was filmed. The atmosphere of the diner was unsettling and it provided a good backdrop.
My father isn’t given over to flights of fancy. As an officer in the Army he really can’t be. The details of the story, the age of the house, the problems the new residents had, and the details about the experiences that my father’s siblings had sell the story for me. I can agree that there is strong evidence of my father’s childhood home being haunted.
The Haunted Hallways of Kentucky
“One summer my aunt went on a trip with some family friends to their home in Kentucky and the house was around 6500 square ft. On the second floor there are two bedrooms facing each other and each bedroom has two doors leading to the hallways in front of them. Two unwalled hallways/bridges parallel to each other connected the doors at either ends of the bedrooms leading across and they were above the living room. My aunt was in my friend Taylor’s bedroom looking for some of her clothes she had left in there. She then went back to her room across one of the hallways. When she opened the door she heard the other door to the bedroom at the other end open. She heard creaking and footsteps walking down the other hallway. She turned and yelled for her husband, but there was no reply. She then walked down the hallway she had come from and looked to the other hallway across from her. There was a man standing in the hallway with his back to her. She said that she had never felt a more malevolent angry spirit. She never saw his face, but she has seen spirits before and can usually adjust quickly and try to ask what is wrong; however, this time she felt the darkness so much and couldn’t move or talk. She could hear him breathing and his fingers twitching at his side. She really did not know what to do and couldn’t move. Eventually she started yelling, “leave, leave, leave.” She goes into her room and locked both her doors. She then heard his footsteps running down the other hallway into Taylor’s room and the door slamming. Luckily, Taylor wasn’t in the room. She felt that presence for the rest of the trip, but she could not bring herself to say anything to them because she was so afraid of scaring them.”
Window Watching
“My Uncle is a very religious man and has a hard time believing in spirits or anything like that, but through some instances of hauntings he has become more accepting. My Uncle went to NAU, Northern Arizona University, and lived in the bottom floor of a dorm. He would always go out at night through the window in his room. He had requested to live in a single so he wouldn’t have to have a roommate. He would normally come back around or later than midnight. For some reason, he always felt as though he was being followed, but he never saw anybody. One time he came home and while climbing into his window he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and right behind him stood a middle aged man in a full suit pulling him back. He couldn’t fully get into the window back to his room. It freaked him out and he yelled at the man, “what are you doing?” He didn’t immediately assume this person is a spirit, and the man just didn’t answer him back. The man then backed up and my Uncle went through the window, shut it, and locked it. As he was locking the window he looked back up and the man was gone; there was no one on the street. He knew that it was a spirit and that was the first time that he actually saw a spirit. Since he was little he felt presences, but he never saw anything, and that was just the first occurrence.”
Chinese Graveyard Ghost
Intro:
This story, collected on November 11, 2013, comes from my roommate and is an account of his father’s encounter with the supernatural world in his early child hood. My roommate, Wei Dong, has lived in the United States for less than three months and thus speaks very poor English. When collecting the story, and in everyday conversation for that matter, it is clear that a lot of what Wei Dong wishes to communicate is lost in translation. Oftentimes I had difficulty understanding what he was trying to say and as a result the story does not read very smoothly.
Collection:
Okay… so… The time is maybe forty years before and you know my father lives in the China countryside and there is a lot of the mountains and trees and forest things and one day it was… it was… My father was maybe six or seven years old and my father’s mother is my grandmother want my father to cut the trees. Do you know what I mean? To cut the trees? [Me: Cut them down?] Yeah cut them. Cut them down and fire them. [Me: Fire them?] [Wei dong makes some non-transcribable sound of agreement] [Me: What do you mean? Burn them?] Yeah burn them. Bring the trees to home and burn them. [Me: Okay] Alright. And that was a day is almost dark. The sky is almost dark and my father finished his work and he has a lot trees on his back. He just walk along the mountain’s road. It’s not a real road. Its just a road on the mountain. And he saw a light on his right or left… I forgot that. Its just a light. The light is jumping. Like this… jumping… yeah [He makes an up and down motion with his hand.] The light is jumping so my father is so… um… interesting about what’s that. He then follow that light and the light go just jump to the… um… that… that place… uh… that people died… the people in the countryside they always put the died people in that place. [Me: Oh, like a graveyard?] Oh yes, a graveyard. And he saw man in a [incomprehensible.] [Me: In a what?] In a [incomprehensible– sounds like shuttle] [Me: In a shuttle?] Yeah in a shuttle. [Me: What do you mean?] I mean my father can’t saw his face. But this man’s face to my father like I said but he can’t see. [What do you mean he is in a shuttle though?] Just a man stayed face to you… [Me: Yeah…] and my father can’t see his face. [Me: Oh shadow] Yeah [Me: Oh okay] And this man just sit. And my father said he feel this man is look at my father. My father is so scared and then… he go home. He run to home. That’s umm… [Me: That is a ghost story. That’s trippy.] That’s trippy? No its just… I think it’s a ghost story.