Tag Archives: ghost

Grandma’s Ghost

Nationality: Hispanic-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

                Well basically, my grandma used to live in my house and she had a dog that would sit with her on the couch every, single day and followed her around and literally did like everything with her.  It was like he was like her baby.  And then my grandma ended up passing away.  She had a seizure in our house and was rushed to the hospital and ended up dying in the hospital but we still feel like her spirit is still in our house cus’ she lived there so long before she passed away.  Then, um, one day when I was like really sad and thinking about my grandma I was like sitting in my room and I was literally looking at a picture of my .. and my dog came, uh that dog came up stairs who he never like comes up stairs with me.  He always stays downstairs with my like parents and he came up stairs and all of a sudden just started like barking at the corner of my room.  And um I sleep now in, well when I was at my house, I would sleep in the room where my grandma used to sleep and he just started barking at the corner of the room for like ten minutes and wouldn’t stop barking at the corner of the room.  Then started to do his little cry thing and just ended up laying down and staring at the corner of the room and there was nothing there and he stayed there for like thirty minutes and just ended up leaving, but I don’t know.  I felt like she was like in the room and he was like seeing her there and it was really weird, but ya…that’s it.

                This ghost story was told in a ghost story telling session, but the orator was unsure whether or not to call it a ghost story, but she truly believed that the spirit of her grandma was there.  She did not mention the word “ghost” when talking about the occurrence, but instead used “spirit”.  This story lines up perfectly with the fact that most of the ghosts people see are of family members that recently died.  Also the ghost of the grandma was experienced in the bedroom where she used to sleep, a common motif found in ghost stories.  Another interesting motif shown in the ghost story was that the dog was barking and sensing the ghost and possibly saw the ghost, while she was not able to see the ghost.  I do believe that the ghost of the grandma was in the room with her that night.

Dad’s Haunted House

My dad, Andrew Nunes, was able to share with me his experience inside his childhood home.

Andrew: “Well, um, I was home at my house in Ferndale. And…uh nobody else was there. It was a big old Victorian house and it was always making weird noises and you can hear wind blow through it and all kinds of crazy stuff. But one night, I’m lying there on the couch, and I know nobody’s home. And uh you know I’m from big family. And so I hear the front door, plain as day, open up. Someone comes in, slams the door and I hear someone run up the stairs. And it was so clear that I just figured it had to be, you know, one of our brothers and sisters that had run up the stairs. But I’m waiting for them to come back down, usually they’d run upstairs and then come back down, so I’m sitting there and had been a while like… So then I started yelling, ‘Whose here?!’, you know, cause I know somebody’s been in. And so I’m like, ‘Ah dang it’. So I go up the stairs, and I go through every room and nobody (strong emphasis on “nobody”) is up there. Nobody had come in. And then I’m like…I could feel the hairs on my arm stand up and on the back of my neck. And I’m like, “it’s that ghost in the house again”. And I’m like freaking out man.  So I’m like, I go back down and turn the TV. up really loud and I sit on the couch like, ‘What are they going to do to me next time?’ (chuckles during this sentence).  And, you know, everybody has a ghost story about that house about something happening. Um, you know, somebody creaking the floor, somebody slamming a door. It happened so often, and there was so many people living in the house, that you would think it was somebody else and then you’d figure out, ‘Hey that happened to me too’. But nobody was there. So I’d heard about the guy who used to lived there and that he had, uh, went for a walk on the beach, and no one ever saw him again. So we always figured it must be him haunting the house. But he never really did anything mean or anything so (starts laughing) so we went on with our little ghost and you know, ‘Hey it’s the ghost again’. And uh nobody worried too much about it.”

 

What was striking to me was the way in which my dad told the story. He seemed to be telling as though it was a joke or an anecdote rather than something that caused him fear. It was also amusing to hear that everyone in his household new about the ghost but just accepted its presence as almost a mundane occurrence. He even began to chuckle and laugh during his explanation of the story, almost as though if it were only a silly memory rather than a traumatizing event. His family even had their own legend of why the house was haunted with the story of the previous owner going to the beach only to never return.

In his story, I picked up on some motifs that occur in many ghost stories. For example, the story takes place in his Victorian house, which immediately brings to mind a house that is gothic in architecture and is something that has been around for many generations. There was also the fact that the previous owner mysteriously vanished. With this fact in mind, my dad’s family believed that old owner was the cause of the paranormal activity occurring throughout the house. This seems to be motif that occurs in most ghost stories, the man who does not die a, so called, “good” death and, as a result, wanders the earth in the form of an apparition. The motif of the ghosts making noises was also present, as he heard the door open and the floor creaking, almost as if there was someone actually present, even though the house was empty.

The Ghost on the Stairs

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

                In the house where I lived there used to be a family that lived there and they moved to the city while we were still there because their oldest daughter was still in high school and there were two brothers.  One was a senior in high school and the other was a sophomore in college and they were at a party one night and they were drunk and they had an argument because one of the brothers was going to join the army and the other one was like, “That’s really stupid, don’t do that.”, and so it got so heated that the younger one was like, “Fine.  I’ll just walk home. Don’t give me a ride.”  So, he decided he was going to walk across the freeway and he didn’t make it home and he got hit by a car.  So like in my house.. so his bedroom was right next to my bedroom and we’ve had people come over to our house who don’t like believe in ghosts and spirits and they’ve sworn that when they are coming up the stairs that they’ll like see something at the top of it or they feel a presence there and we assume that it’s the ghost of the boy.

                This story was the first story told in a ghost story telling session.  She was perfectly calm and was eager to tell the story and while she told the story a friend made sounds effects such as screaming during the car crash and a ghostly moan with the mention of seeing the ghost at the top of the stairs.  She truly believes that her house is haunted by the boy who wanted to join the army, but they find that he isn’t a bad ghost, but rather just haunts the house.  The boy’s death was a bad death, because he died young and after a heated argument, which is probably the reason why he became a ghost and haunts this house.  The popular stair motif is exhibited in this story, since at the the top of the stairs is usually the location in which people see the ghost of the boy.  I believe her when she says that her house is haunted by the ghost of the son of the family that previously lived there.

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.

“Nightmarchers”

Nationality: Caucasian, Filipino, Puerto-Rican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hawaii Kai (O'ahu)
Performance Date: April 12th, 2013
Primary Language: English

And the way he (my uncle) tells it is,

When he was a little boy, he was hanging out with his cousins (late one night), and was kind of a story night—like, not quite raining, but windy and the clouds were rolling in, sort of thing—and… from a distance, like on a ridge, he just starts seeing these lights popping up. And he’s asking all of his older cousins, why all of these lights are over there—there’s more and more of them coming down the mountain, so he asked “what’s going on?”

So his cousins start freaking out, telling him: “we need to go home NOW. And we need to go home in the OPPOSITE direction of that ridge!”

… Meanwhile, they start to hear the faint sounds of drum beats, like very faint but constant drum beats (pats out a beat)…

So my uncle, freaking out, because they were freaking out, goes along with them but has to ask what was going on back there…

So they explain to him that those were the nightmarchers, which are ancient Hawaiian spirits, and they’re participating in one of their ancient rituals… and you are NOT to break the line of nightmarchers by either walking through it or making a noise to distract form the sound of the drum beats… They march in a line at night, usually down mountains, but they could really be/go anywhere. You can see their torches in the dark, and hear their drum beats… You can’t look at them, don’t make noises, don’t do anything to disrespect them or make fun. If you happen to see it or can’t leave and are stuck in the middle of their path, you’re supposed to just keep your head down to the ground and let it happen until they pass you and you keep minding your own business… oh, and don’t talk about it… because if they look at you, or you do any of these things, you DIE.

Literally, a death stare…

 

Nightmarchers are an interesting folk belief, that simultaneously introduce an opportunity to reconnect with the dead, and yet tabooize the interaction between the living and the dead. Nightmarchers not only make a distinction between the two groups of living and dead, but also between Hawaiian and foreign, because “Others” would not know to protect themselves and might even make the mistake of deliberately investigating, following, or contacting the nightmarchers, which would then result in death (as opposed to a relatively harmless outcome otherwise). There are ways to protect yourself, but only someone from the islands would know them. Similar to the fairies in Ireland, it also doesn’t matter whether you believe in nightmarchers, you will in certain contexts and most people would say they’re there, regardless.

How did you come across this folklore: “I was told by uncle during childhood.”

Other information: “this uncle is from Molokai…”

* When you’re from Hawai`i, saying someone is from Molokai is like saying someone is the most legitimate kind of “country”/”native”/”authentic” Hawaiian. If someone has a Hawaiian story and you find out he’s from Molokai, you are about a thousand times more likely to believe it.