Tag Archives: ghosts

Haunted Middle School

Nationality: Mexican, Scandinavian, French Canadian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Beaumont, California
Performance Date: March 28, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: “I know in the town next to us, there is a middle school and there is a legend that this boy fell into a hole in like the thirties or something and they were pouring cement and he got trapped under the cement and there was like somehow an air passage that he was able to breathe through, through the cement that they poured on top of him. But then he died there, and so now this ghost haunts the school and if you knock on the principal’s door three times, he’ll knock back.”

 

The informant comes from a small town in California. The informant states “there is nothing to do there, it is just a small town and the biggest thing we have is a Walmart.” She said that because the town is small “everybody knows each other, and we kind of grew up together.”

The middle school from the tale is located in Redlands. The informant learned this tale as a child from her mother. The informant’s mother used to live in Redlands and attended this middle school. The informant remembers this tale because “Its just one of things you’re told that you remember when you are a little kid just because it is interesting.”

The informant does believe in ghosts and has had a personal experience with a ghost. When asked, the informant recalled that “the house I grew up in until I was seven was definitely haunted, I saw his ghost multiple times, and it wasn’t just me, my parents saw him. We would go to bed with all of the windows and doors shut and we would wake up and they would all be wide open, you would hear banging on the pipes and whatnot. We found out that the person who lived there before us died in the house. So the ghost was of the guy that died there.” Thus, ghosts are very real to the informant.

According to the informant, some kids will try to knock on the principal’s door to see if they can get the ghost to knock back. Thus, some kids use this legend to go on a legend quest. The story is also rather morbid and represents a fear of death, especially a slow painful death.

Great-Grandfather’s Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Nashville, TN
Performance Date: 3/23/2013
Primary Language: English

“My grandmother’s father died when she was 18 months old which left my mom’s mother’s mother widowed with nine children in the Great Depression. He died of a heart attack suddenly and was found by his son in the barn.  Grammy (her great-grandmother) didn’t know what to do or how she was going to live.  One day, she woke up and saw her grandfather standing at the edge of the bed and his ghost said ‘Lilly, don’t worry.’  It gave her the strength to do it.  I don’t know how you would raise nine kids without money.

My aunt Martha, Grammy’s sister, had kids when she was already 40.  People would tease her daughter that her parents would die before she became an adult.  One night the daughter had a dream where she thought she saw Jesus.  Jesus said that he was going to take care of her and that her parents wouldn’t die before she became an adult.

A little while ago, the family was going through a photo album.  The girl who had had the dream pointed to a picture and said, ‘That’s Jesus.  I saw him in my dream.'”

The picture was of the same great-grandfather who had visited his wife.  The little girl had heard the story of the ghost but had never seen a picture before.

The informant had heard the story from her mother and grandmother and Aunt Martha.  They tend to tell the story when a large group of their family is around.  It is a story that she has been told many time.  The informant believes in the story strongly, and she says that it influenced her belief in angels and ghosts.  Once she was asked if she believed in ghosts and because of the story, she immediately replied yes.

This family legend is believable because of her close connection and trust in the storyteller, and the legend itself fosters belief in ghosts and spirits that protect rather than haunt.  The legend gives hope to those within the story and those who are merely the audience.  It is nice to have something to believe in, which is why I think this legend has held its credibility in her family through the generations.

Belmont Ghost Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Nashvile, TN
Performance Date: 3/23/2013
Primary Language: English

At Belmont University, in the 1960s out in front of Wright Hall (the girls side of building that I lived in), there’s a small field out in front where you can have a picnic.  It was kind of like a quad.  One night, a girl was coming home alone, and it was dark.  She was a resident of Wright though they don’t remember what floor or room she lived in.  These two guys came up to her.  One approached her from the front to make her back up, and the other shot her.  It was the only confirmed violence on campus.  It happened around December or November, during finals time.  The girl who had been killed was very studious.

The whole legend was that around that time you would see the girl wandering through the halls.  She would come up behind you and poke you or do something to you because she had been devoting herself to school and was taken away.

“One night, my roommate and I were in our room on the third floor.  My roommate and I were asleep probably around …I tell the time later.  I was laying down and my eyes burst open.  I had felt something in my ear like heard someone say hey. I felt something like breath in my ear.  I checked if the air was on. (waves hands around showing what she did)  Then I got up and checked.  There was no air conditioning, and my roommate was dead to the world, snoring.  She checked in the hall and saw no one.  It was about  2 in the morning.”

Her roommate had experienced something similar, but they didn’t remember the legend until they were talking.  They realized it had happened right around the time finals were starting.

“It was weird. I told it to my mom and my grandma.  I was literally sitting on the edge of the bed so confused.  I thought it was a waking dream at first then I remembered I felt breath, like someone blowing in your ear.”

The informant heard the legend on a campus tour when the tour guide was showing them the dorm that they would be living in.  She thought, “Great, we are going to be living in a murder house.”  The informant believes that the legend is told half to scare people who are easy to scare, but it is also just one of the ten stories that have really stuck with the campus through the years.

The informant’s story is a good example of a memorate.  She had heard the legend previously so when the experience happened she connected the dots.  The informant  believes the legend more than before she had had the experience because she formed a personal connection with it.  Perhaps if she had never heard the legend, the breath in her ear would still be a mystery.  The legend also seems like a cautionary tale, telling students to be aware of their surroundings so that they do not end up like the girl who was murdered.

The Ghosts of Happy Valley Cemetery

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 51
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Arcadia, CA
Performance Date: 4/27/2013
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

My mother told me that there is a folk belief among tram drivers in Hong Kong.  Whenever a tram driver passes along the Happy Valley cemetery on their route at night, they stop their tram regardless of whether or not they see people waiting on the sidewalk.  This is because of a fire that occurred in the area:

“Many years ago, in Hong Kong’s Happy Valley, there’s a horse racing track.  Back then Hong Kong didn’t officially build stands at the race track, so they’d often make stands out of bamboo.  So every time there’s horse racing people would watch in the stands as others race horses.  One time there was a fire, and there were too many people who couldn’t escape.  Many people burned to death.  Now, across the horse racing track, they’ve built a Happy Valley Cemetery, you’ve passed it before, haven’t you?”

[“Yeah, I’ve passed it before.”]

“The victims of the fire are buried there.”

The Cantonese name for Happy Valley is 跑馬地 (Pao ma dei), which literally means “horse racing grounds.”  It’s interesting to hear about the story in English – the name “Happy Valley” makes the story of the tragedy and the existence of ghosts even more eerie.

My mother emphasizes that the fire itself took place a long, long time ago.  It surprises me that these legends of ghosts still remain.  The cemetery has contained many people not related to the disaster since then, but the circumstances surrounding its construction continue to haunt it.  My mother noted that she would hear a lot of colleagues talk about these ghosts along the cemetery; the tragedy still resonates with many Hong Kong residents, even if it’s been decades since the accident.

Trams are considered relics of the past in Hong Kong (they’re kept running for their penchant to attract tourists and retain a sense of nostalgia), so I also find it interesting that it is the tram drivers who keep this tradition alive the strongest.  Perhaps trams are the primary vehicle that still remain from that era, and the belief is that ghosts would recognize it.  It’s really interesting that my mother made sure to point out it was tram drivers, not taxi or bus drivers (who operate more modern modes of public transportation).

Keeping Ghosts out of Houses

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/12/2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin Chinese

Click here for video.

“So when I was younger, my mom told me stories about why Chinese people decorate their houses in a certain way. Chinese people believe in ghosts, so some people will put mirrors above the doorway of their house because the mirror will reflect ghosts from coming in. Also, they would have a step in front of the doorway because ghosts walk in a very flat-footed manner, so it would prevent them from stepping into the house. The last thing was that some houses were built with two walls that were not perfectly parallel with the front door because that would mean that the ghost would have to walk and then turn and then walk into the doorway, so I guess the ghosts were confused and couldn’t get in that way.”

The informant’s mother is Taiwanese. According to what I’ve heard from Professor Thompson and my Taiwanese parents, almost everyone in Taiwan believes in ghosts, so dealing with ghosts is very important. Knowing that the dead roam your house is eerie and uncomfortable. This discomfort apparently transcends cultures as “haunted houses” are not desirable in the United States and many other cultures.

It seems like the Taiwanese see ghosts as very similar to us. Perhaps even a little less capable than we are as ghosts are repelled by simple mirrors and misaligned walls. There is an element of trickery in these house design traditions, which illustrates the different attitude held by the Taiwanese and a lot of the western world. In lore from United States, ghosts are often tricksters, causing mischief in the houses they haunt. In contrast, it seems as though there is a role reversal with Taiwanese lore. Ghosts are easily fooled and the living are the tricksters, giving us power over the dead. Perhaps the Taiwanese that believe strongly in ghosts find comfort in the thought of being able to thwart the dead.

It seems like a core concept or an inspiration for these traditions is “feng shui”, which is practice of placing of objects to redirect chi, which many Taoist and traditional Chinese call the life-force of the universe. Feng shui for houses is very popular among Asian Americans. I’ve heard of a friend of a friend that spent a considerable sum getting his room redesigned to optimize his chances of getting into an Ivy League. I have not heard of the practice of putting a mirror above the doorway or adding a step, but I have heard of a variation of having non-parallel walls. The idea is that by skewing the walls a bit, good luck enters through the front door, but doesn’t have a direct path to leave and ends up being reflected around the household. It is more than likely that the tradition my informant told me was an oicotype of the tradition I heard about.