Tag Archives: ghost story

Graffiti Ghost Story

Context:

J is an 18 year old from Canada who has parents from the Philippines. 

This conversation took place over a zoom call after I asked her if she had any ghost stories that she knew of. The story is from her cousin and was told to her at a family party. 

Text:

J: I remember parts of it, but there’s not a lot of details.

Me: That’s okay!

J: Let me think from the start, I first heard this story like a couple of years ago, when I was younger cause my uncle was like do you wanna go visit a haunted park. And it’s not like a forestry park it like by the, because they have lakes, it’s this nice park area around a lake. And um… I was curious because I had never heard of this. And he was like Oh, here I’ll tell you the story um, it’s from one of my Kuya’s friends, and my Kuya is my cousin. They go driving places, so obviously his friend was with his other friend and their girlfriends. So they were like, it was like late night, probably in the summer time, around the time I heard it. What happened was, they were just there for the evening but obviously it got dark really quickly and the girlfriend, the main guy’s girlfriend had been picking flowers so she had like a few in her hand and she was sitting passenger seat. And they were about to go. But like, it was really weird because their cards weren’t starting. And obviously you know when you get that vibe that something feels really off… but you can’t really tell what’s up?

Me: Yeah.

J: It’s- it’s summer, it’s warm and foggy and for some reason the car headlights are on but the car isn’t starting. So they’re on a call with the people in the car beside them, trying to start, and theirs isn’t starting either. And then um, what made this even weirder is that before they had been going to their cars, there’s like this warehouse for like government supplies or something by the lake. And this is like the most important part of the- the second most important part of the story because on the outside there’s graffiti on those walls of like… you know like… a stencil?

Me: yeah!

J: It was graffiti stencils of like, there was an AR gun, like a rifle type, and at the end there’s a flower symbol beside it. And then, so there’s just a flower and the gun. That’s what they saw the time before. And while they were starting up, their lights flicker from one of their cars and then, apparently they said they saw a figure. Like someone standing there. They didn’t really describe if it was like, in heavy details, but like I think it was a woman like type. But all they said was they saw someone vaguely shaped like a person in those shadows.. Which is kinda like.. Sus. 

Me: uugh.

J: So like obviously, you’re really scared. And like apparently the girlfriend’s flowers had wilted like.. A lot when they saw the figure. And they were freaking the heck out. But they managed to start the cars and they left-they left. They’re fine. But obviously you have a scare if you see a person at night.

Me: is this in Canada?

J: yea, this is in Canada, sorry my bad.

Me: it’s okay

J: I don’t remember the specific park name because I don’t really go there. It gets worse, cause like, see I wish I could show you the picture but I can’t find it. But it was kinda black, and kinda smudged. And creepy vibes. In an abandoned warehouse. And apparently, I was talking, we were talking to the same friend recently, like the guy, like this year at my cousin’s party and um, he said that you know, there was graffiti beside it when they went back, and you know what it said?

Me: uuuuhhhhh

J: It said- it said, have you seen him. 

Me: STOPP

J: In big fucking like jagged letters, it’s like UGH.

Me: I would never go back.

J: I would go back at night.. Just to like.. See it. 

Reflection:

Like many, this informant was more likely to trust the ghost story because it came from a familial source and because it came with a recent follow-up that was accompanied by a photo. Photographic evidence as well as something being persistent or consistent across multiple occasions makes ghost stories much more believable. This may be due to the fact that it appears to be less likely to be an isolated incidence but rather one that may have a common source to a couple of incidents. Graffiti and abandoned locations tend to have a reputation of being haunted, possibly because people are expecting that other people are inside of the location. After its abandoned, your mind and your senses are hyperaware of the fact that it used to be inhabited and may use this against you to cause you to think that you see someone or a shadowy figure. The wilting flower was also an interesting piece of symbolism towards a ghost, something that is no longer alive much like a wilted flower. I also think that it was very interesting that my initial response was that I would no longer visit that park, while my informant seems intrigued and wanted to find more proof for themself of the ghost. 

Boots

Context: C.O. learned about this story on a ghost tour in Old Williamsburg, Virginia.

C.O. : And then the ghost story I heard when I was, oh gosh, eleven?
P.Z. : Eleven?
C.O. : And I was in Old Williamsburg in, just outside DC.
P.Z. : Okay
C.O. : On a trip with my parents and we went on a walking ghost tour of the town, uh, at night and one of the stories they told us outside the old inn was about two sisters who I guess back in the early eighteen hundreds were staying there and it was late at night they were asleep in their beds and one of the sisters woke up because she heard something outside the window
P.Z. : Okay
C.O. : That sounded like bootprints, or footprints. Or, I can’t, footprints. Boot noises. And she went to go look at the window, pulled back the curtains and there was nothing there so she went back to bed
P.Z. : Okay
C.O. : And then she heard it again so he went back to the window, opened the window, looked outside the window, still can’t see anything, asked your sister if she heard it, she didn’t, so both of them went back to bed. And then about five minutes later she heard the, the bootstomps outside her door. And there was light but she couldn’t see any shadows, so she opens the door and nobody’s out there. So now she’s freaking out. She doesn’t know where the noise is coming from, if someone’s messing with her so she goes back to bed. And then a little whiles later, maybe about an hour, she hears the bootprints or footprints even closer. In the room. So she throws the light on, there’s nobody standing there, so she goes to sleep again, turns the light out and like not 10 seconds later she starts feeling someone pushing up on the side of her bed for her feet
P.Z. : Ohh
C.O. : Slowly pushing up. And she feels like the indentation of someone sitting like right next to her head on her bed and she freaks out turns the light on and there’s nobody there
P.Z. : No, I hate that
C.O. : And that is the last time it happens that night and that’s the end of the story. And they called it Boots. And that scared the shit out of me as a kid, I didn’t sleep for two days
P.Z. : Oh yeah I can imagine that
C.O. : But the kicker is like a week later when we got home and I was in my bedroom, going to sleep. And I felt the same thing on my bed like at the foot of my bed as if someone had sat on the edge of it and I turned the light on and there was nothing there. My cat wasn’t in the room, my pillow didn’t fall off my bed, my parents and my brother were both asleep, and it was just, and my door was closed, and it was the weirdest feeling and it was just too much of a coincidence for me.
P.Z. : I hate that
C.O. : Yeah. So that’s my one ghost story.

Thoughts: This seemed a fairly standard ghost story or legend. I’ve heard many ghost stories that similarly focus on past tragedies, colonial-era ghosts, and unexplained footsteps. I thought that the truly interesting part of this story was the personal story. As a child, I also would be terrified by these sort of stories that people told me, so I understood the concept. I thought that it was interesting to hear the first hand experience of an otherwise general story.

The House on Florentine Street

Background information: My mom is a second-generation Filipino-American, meaning she was born here in the US. Her parents immigrated from the Philippines when they were both relatively young, and my mom’s family grew up with a lot of relatives in San Francisco, CA. 

Mom: At my lola’s house in the city, on Florentine Street, they always told me that sometimes there would be an old man sitting in this one specific arm chair in their living room.

Me: Who was the old man?

Mom: No one knows who the old man was…but the house was very, very old, maybe he lived there before my lola and our family. He wasn’t ever harmful but they would just see him sitting there all the time. She told me he must have just stayed in the house after he passed, because it was still his. But he was never scary or bad, or anything like that.

Me: Did you ever see the old man yourself?

Mom: I don’t remember ever seeing him. But maybe sometimes I would feel his, like, presence or something similar. But nothing was ever bad about it.

In Filipino culture, many people are very respectful of the supernatural, and of spirits of the past that they may be intruding on. While, of course, the idea of ghosts is often very scary and unnerving in Western culture, my mom’s family and many other Filipinos/Filipino-Americans have more of a neutral view of ghosts from the past co-existing in the same space as living people. This mentality is seen in the way my family still showed respect and gave the old man his own space, while accepting the fact that he would continue to stay in the house.

The Floating Lady

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arizona
Performance Date: 4/10/22
Primary Language: English

Background: My informant is a 19 year old girl with Mexican heritage. She describes this paranormal experience that happened to her great grandmother in the 1970’s and again years later. When her grandmother tells this story to the family, everyone becomes a little uncomfortable. 

S: In the early 70’s, my great grandmother lived on a lemon tree farm that she had used to provide for her family. She says that the farm was vast, there were certain places on her farm where you could look and see nothing but tall lemon trees. One night when my grandmother was playing outside, she came back inside crying to my great grandmother about a lady standing in the orchard and staring at her. My great grandmother went to the front door of the house and looked out to see what my grandma was talking about. She saw a lady standing outside staring into the house. My grandma says that this would not have been strange usually, as where she was located in Mexico got extremely hot and it was not uncommon for people to go to her orchard and cool off under her trees. But she noticed that this lady had been levitating a couple inches off of the ground and says she became terrified. She saw the same lady many years later a second time when she had immigrated to California. My mother had been very young at the time and was helping my great grandmother babysit her cousins since their parents went out for the night. The babies had all fallen asleep so my mother went to her room to go to sleep herself. My great grandmother was leaving the kitchen to go to her room when she noticed a figure standing over one of the babies. She initially thought it was my mother messing with babies, so she started yelling at her to stop. This yelling made the figure turn around and she saw an old woman staring back at her. My grandmother then says that woman went to the living room window, opened it and crawled out all while my great grandmother was screaming at her. She had thought she was dealing with a kidnapping situation at first, until she reflected on the events and she recalled that the lady had been slightly floating off of the ground just like the lady she had seen many years ago in Mexico. My great grandma, she’s no stranger to paranormal events. She even claims that one night when she was washing dishes, she felt someone roughly tap her shoulder twice, so rough that it made her drop the dish she was holding into the sink. But when she turned around nothing was there. My great grandmother is now in her eighties and tells the story with just as much fear as she did when she was young. 

Me: Is there any reason why she thinks this happened to her?

S: She thinks it could be a bad omen. My grandma, the one who first saw the lady outside when she was a girl, got into a really bad car accident and she’s had schizophrenia ever since. And when she appeared the second time, the cousin she was looking over ended up losing his future baby when it was barely a month old. So my grandma believes that the floating lady’s appearance signals that something bad will happen to them. 

My thoughts: It appears to me that many times, paranormal superstitions and omens, especially ghosts, may be localized to a small folk group, especially the familial level. It’s not uncommon both through the grapevine and in the media that there are cases in which a specific entity follows a person or family around and can latch on to them, sometimes over generations, and sometimes localized to a specific town or house. This speaks to the belief that ghosts may exist outside of time but are made real through their liminal connection to the living world. I believe that stories with ghost attachments are common in cultures that emphasize familial bonds such as Mexico because they are more likely to perceive connection as something important and real that can transcend the boundaries of the living realm, as evidenced by the tradition of El Dia de los Muertos. Even if the supernatural connection is a negative thing, such as in the story above, the paranormal experience still serves as a form of wisdom and warning to those who can perceive it.

The Golden Arm

A is 54 years old. She was born in Ft. Waldon, Florida and moved to Sylvania, Georgia at 2 years old. She’d been there all her life until last year (2021). A has a thick Southern accent that’s very pleasant to listen to. She told me this story, or rather instructions on how to tell the story, in conversation. It’s a ghost story that’s meant to be performed around a campfire.

“There’s one that’s like an old campfire tale, if I can remember how it goes… ok so this woman had a golden arm and this man knew about her right, and he had plotted and planned on how to get that golden arm to sell it and make some money off of it so he went and… he went to try and get it from her while she was asleep and she woke up and he ended up killing her, well as the story goes he killed her, got the golden arm and buried her out in the woods by the swamp and he was… one night out with some friends talking and all of a sudden… after his friends had left… he kept hearing something and it was the woman saying “I want my golden arm…” and remember this is by the campfire and it’s dark so each time you repeat that line “I want my golden arm” you have to say it louder and louder (laughing) and then you pick someone that’s sitting near you and you yell out “you have it!” and grab ‘em! It scared the bejesus out of me every time I heard it! I was probably 13 when I first heard it, you know we went on family trips with friends… on weekend trips out by the river so… I used to tell it too.”

According to John Burrison (see Burrison, John A. (1968). “The Golden Arm” The Folk Tale And Its Literary Use By Mark Twain and Joel C. Harris. Atlanta, Georgia: Georgia State College. pp. 1–23) The Golden Arm or ATU 366 (see http://www.mftd.org/index.php?action=atu&src=atu&id=366) is a very old folktale that has been documented for 200 years but its oral tradition goes back further. The belief underlying the tale is that the dead “can find no rest until its physical remains are intact.” The lesson of the tale may initially have been respect for the dead, but variations have made it a cautionary tale about greed. There are many variations across different cultures where the missing item is not an arm, but some other body part. In media, the tale was told around a campfire by Andy Griffith in a T.V. show. A version similar to the one A told me was a favorite of Mark Twain’s and can be found in How to tell a story and other Essays (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3250/3250-h/3250-h.htm#link2H_4_0003) For more about Mark Twain’s version and a fun but somewhat unrelated story about a ghostly Twain and copyright law please see https://marktwainstudies.com/happy-halloween-twains-favorite-ghost-story-and-twain-speaks-from-the-netherworld/