Tag Archives: ghosts

Ghost Story – Altadena, California

Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 7, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ghost Stories- Gravity Hill in Altadena, California

So, like, I have this crazy ghost story from my hometown.  Back in Altadena, like right by Pasadena area kinda, there was this school bus going home from school late one afternoon.  I am not totally sure how old these kids were that were on the bus, but I know they weren’t passed elementary school age.  The bus driver was a bit tired and wanted to drop the kids off quickly so he could head home. He was driving fast down this mini hill that had trees at the bottom of it.  As the bus got close to the bottom of this hill, he kinda swerved because he was so tired.  The bus, like, tipped over and slammed against the trees.  The bus was unrecognizable and all the kids died.  Now, when you are on that hill and put your car into neutral, it is said the kids’ ghosts will push you back up the hill.  This is why it is known as Gravity Hill.

Miles was very eager to tell me this story as you could tell he connected it with his hometown.   He said he first learned it when he started driving a couple years ago.  He was driving down the hill one night when his friend urged him to put his car in neutral to see what happens.  From what he continued to say, it actually works.   It seemed to bring back memories with friends and family also.  When I asked Miles what he thought of the story, he had this to say: “I’m not really sure what to think of it all.  The story itself seems so cool that the ghosts would push you up the hill because the kids don’t want something terrible to happen again.  But at the same time, the fact that it’s true creeps me out.  It kind of defies the laws of gravity and I don’t like that.”  He did have one other thing to say about the story and that is the lesson he thinks it should teach everyone.  He said it teaches everyone to not take other peoples lives for granted, because even children can make a huge difference in the world.

Miles analysis of the story was very creative in my opinion.  The lesson he thought the story taught was one that I wouldn’t have imagined.  However, I do not think he realizes why the story “creeps him out”.  He says Gravity Hill defies the very law it is named after and that scares him.  My perception is that he is spooked by what the story challenges.  The story challenges his belief in the supernatural and he is not sure what to think.  If something in his small hometown can challenge a major belief like that, there might be something outside California or North America that challenges other strong beliefs.

When listening to this story, one other theory came to mind as to why this story is told.  It is normally learned when people start driving.  Other than the fact that it could be used as a warning not to speed down hills without caution, I think it is told to remind these mid teenagers of the innocence they still have inside them.  Although there are certain freedoms associated with having a car, it should be noted that there are also many responsibilities. This story connects the innocence of children with the prospect of adulthood.

The last thing about this ghost story is the giant sense of identity that comes from knowing it.  Being able to recite the story alone brings the people of Altadena together.  However, there is one thing about this story that makes it even more special to actually live or visit in the community.  I know Miles was supposed to be honest with me in his telling of this lore, but I will never know whether his car actually was pushed up the hill when he put it into neutral.  The only way to find out would be to drive down Gravity Hill myself.  This fact gives Miles and the people of Altadena a huge sense of identity.

This can also be found in the following:

Jones, Diana. Gravity Hill Takes Drivers for A Ride. Pittsburgh Post Gazette. November, 2002.

Ghost Story – San Antonio, Texas

Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 6, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ghost Story- The Donkey Lady

Well, this is really creepy, but uh, ok.  So back in San Antonio, there was this lady who had three donkeys.  She was a nice lady, I heard, and never really bothered anyone.  Her donkeys were really loud though.  One day her neighbor got pissed at her about the noise the donkeys were making.  The next day, she took her donkeys to the river. When she parked the truck, she realized her neighbor was behind her blinking his lights.  He got out and torched her car on fire with her and the donkeys trapped inside.  Uh, so, they were all burned to death, but supposedly, the ladies face burned in a way that looked like a donkey.  Now, especially on Halloween, if you blink your lights at anyone, the ghost of the Donkey Lady will get in your car and kill you.

I collected this story from my roommate Andy.  He told me Donkey Lady is very popular in San Antonio and he thought it was real when he first heard it as a youngster.  It was told to him by a friend around Halloween time.  I asked him what he thought of it now and he said, “ I think it’s a pretty clever story, but uh, I don’t know, I definitely don’t think it’s true.  I mean who would own three donkeys.  That’s kind of ridiculous.  It is funny though that people sometimes don’t even turn their car lights on Halloween anymore.  It has gotten a little bit out of hand”.

This story was tough to analyze.  At first, I thought Donkey Lady was only performed for entertainment because it is such a random story.  Then I noticed two more things.  Andy said people are afraid to turn on their lights during Halloween because of this story.  Halloween is a night that’s meant to be dark, so this story acts as an advocate to that concept.  Also, this story serves a reminder that you are a San Antonian.  I have never heard Donkey Lady before, so it makes the people of San Antonio have a sense of pride and identity.

This can also be found in the following:

San Antonio Express News. October 25, 2006.  Donkey Lady Travels Around Area.

McCollough, Chuck.

Ghost Story

Occupation: Retired
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 21, 2008
Primary Language: English

“We moved into the house downtown a few years ago.  Before we bought the house the realtor had told us that the previous residents had moved because they claimed a ghosts lived in the house.  This was a concern to me because I didn’t want to move into a haunted house, but my husband, Jeff, convinced me that there was nothing to be worried about.  So, a few months later the family had moved into the house and for the first few weeks they hadn’t experienced anything along the lines of a ghost.  After the family was completely unpacked they began taking their extra storage boxes up to the attic.  It was in the attic that I found an open window.  Thinking nothing of it I closed the window and went on with unpacking the boxes.  The next day I had another load of boxes that I wanted to take to the attic for storage.  After climbing up the stairs I noticed a cool breeze and realized that the window was wide open again.  Suspicious of who was opening the window I closed it again and locked the attic door shut.  The next day I unlocked the attic door to put a box away and for the third straight day the window was open.  This time I noticed a hand print on the glass, but it was very small, as if it were a child’s.  Disturbed by all of this, I decided to call the previous owners of the house and ask them about the supposed ghost.  What I learned from the phone call was very interesting.  Not only had the previous couple had the same experience with the open window, but they also knew something about the houses history that I did not.  The previous owner went on to teller me about a woman who lived in the house right after it was built.   They had found out that the first owner of the house would perform abortions in her attic.  This was back in the day when abortions were illegal, so people would go to doctors who did not practice but worked out of their homes.  I believe that the ghost in the attic was one of the small babies who was aborted in that house long ago.  I immediately started packing up the house and refused to stay there ever again.”

This was one of the most realistic ghost stories I have ever heard in my entire life.  You could tell in Betsy’s body language and voice that she was still very uneasy about what she had experienced in that house.  As a listener the uncomfortable feeling you got when listening to her made the story feel much more real.  It was almost as if I though a ghost was going to pop up behind me while she was telling the story.  That being said I still do not believe in ghost and would have to go to the house to experience the story for myself.

Contemporary Legend

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 33
Residence: Essex Falls, NJ
Performance Date: April 10, 2008
Primary Language: English

Ghost Story/Folk Legend
“When I was a kid, and we were on camping trips for like cub scouts or some crap, the counselors would always tell some story about Hatchet Harry.  It was a pretty long, involved story about this guy who would come out of the woods at night and terrorize campers and chop off their heads by throwing his hatchets at them.  Then you’d go to bed and in the middle of the night the counselors would start throwing Frisbees around and hit the tents with them to scare us.  Pretty lame.”

My older brother told me this story about when he used to go to summer camp or go on brief camping trips when he was a boy.  Chris grew up in Mountain Lakes, a suburb of New York in northern New Jersey.  In this area, where I also grew up, a lot of kids go away for the summer to camps in the Northeast or go camping with their families in the woods, since there are a lot of those in New Jersey.

Something that is traditionally done at these camps is ghost storytelling.  Groups of campers and counselors or parents would often sit around some sort of bonfire and tell legends that they had heard about people in the area in order to scare the younger kids.  A lot of the stories had to do with outcasts or ghosts of people who had been murdered who still hang out in the woods in order to either terrorize or kill people who venture into that area.  The legend of Hatchet Harry is a perfect example of these stories; it revolves around a man who seems to be an outcast of society and who throws hatches to kill anyone who comes near him, and most likely, to seek revenge (Chris didn’t mention this, but most stories such as this have to do with killing in order to seek revenge of others, and it could probably be assumed that it is part of the back story of Hatchet Harry.)

Stories like this are most successful probably because of the settings in which they are told.  As Chris described, they were told at camp, most likely at night and near a wooded area.  This way, the story has a much greater effect and seems a lot scarier and more believable.  Secondly, by putting the setting of the storytelling in the same type of place that the story is about, it scares the listeners into thinking that the subject of the story, Hatchet Harry, could be roaming the area.  Lastly, when these effects are combined, it makes it much easier for the counselors to scare the kids by throwing Frisbees at their tents.  Though Chris said this was “pretty lame,” it is likely that it did still scare kids who did choose to believe the story.

Stories like this are very common and provide entertainment on multiple levels.  First of all, it gives the kids something to do at summer camp that keeps them excited and engaged before bed.  Secondly, it gives the adults who tell the story a rise and a form of entertainment as they gauge the reactions of the listeners.  Lastly, it provides stories that can be told and retold for ages to come as the kids grow older and then pass it down.   Though almost everyone grows up to realize that there is very little truth to these tales, they are still a key part of entertaining kids and outdoor/camping culture in northeast America.

Contemporary Legend – Boise, Idaho

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boise, ID
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English

There’s a legend that is kind of like a ghost story, but it’s kind of like an urban legend, near Boise, kind of up in the mountains there’s this street kind of on a hill and apparently a girl was run over by a school bus or something, like a small girl, so the story goes that if you park on that hill with your car and you take the emergency brake off and you just sit there the car will move up the hill because the girl is pushing the car up the hill.

This is a ghost story and urban legend in one piece of folklore. Here a girl’s ghost is pushing cars up the hill where she was run over by a bus. The urban legend part is that you can experience this by stopping on the hill and not using you emergency brake. Stephanie heard the story from a friend as they were driving past the hill. They were in a hurry, so they were unable to stop and try the legend out for themselves, so the mystery still remains for them. Another part of the ghost story is that if after you get out of your car you can see foot prints behind your car.

Stephanie thought that this legend continues to be popular because people still go out and try to see if they park on the hill and take their emergency brake off, if their car will go up the hill. She believes that it is popular because if give people something to do on the weekends and when they are really bored.

This also means that the audience that is most likely going to keep this legend continuing are going to be teenagers with cars. If you do not have a car, or can not drive I don’t think that this legend is going to be as interesting for you. I would find it interesting to try if I was bored. It seems like it would be really interesting if something like this could happen.