Tag Archives: spooky

A ghostly interruption

  • Informant: AW
  • Nationality: American
  • Primary Language: English
  • Other language(s): n/a
  • Age: 19
  • Occupation: student
  • Residence: Bay Area
  • Performance Date: November 29, 2023

Text

“One time when my dad was a teenager both of his parents were working at like midnight because his mom was taking the nursing shift and his dad was working too. It was the middle of the night, he was home alone, and his door was closed and he was playing video games and then he stopped, and he heard footsteps coming down to his room and then he heard breathing on the other side of his door, and he was really scared he was like ‘Oh my god what the f-’ and then he was just like scared and didn’t know what was happening so he was just like frozen. Then later when his dad came home they looked around and obviously there was nothing there, there was no one there, but my dad thinks it was a ghost”

Context

This story was shared with me by a peer at USC who had mentioned that her dad had some ghost stories from his childhood. The informant’s father told her this story a while ago, and she believes him because it seems to her like this would be a weird thing to lie about. The informant shared that this story took place in a small community in Western New York.

Analysis

This story is a great example of people using ghosts to explain things they can not otherwise explain. While it is possible that the informant’s dad heard both footsteps approaching and breathing outside the door, it is also quite possible that he heard a creak on the stairs and filled in the rest with his imagination. As humans we are all naturally curious about the phenomena of the world and instinctively pair them with whatever explanation brings us the most comfort so as to avoid living in fear or uncertainty. Ghosts and ghost stories often function as a means to that end, as the ghost in this story likely did for the informant’s father. 

Lights in the Wood

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Home Depot Associate
Residence: Enumclaw, Washington
Performance Date: 11/3/2021
Primary Language: English

Background: It was me and my friends enjoying one last night with the homies. Around 2 AM in the morning, very muddy and rainy. CK was talking with his friends.

Me: When and where were you informed about this incident that occurred?

CK: I was in the woods with my friends when I noticed two eye like lights looking at our directions. I get rid of the fire as soon as possible, but when I turn back around the lights weren’t there but got closer. Remember it was raining a lot and the ground was muddy. The object bolted off to the creek which was right next to my camping spot and heard a huge splashing noise. So I wake up the next morning and go back to the place where I saw the eye like lights, but there weren’t any tracks or footprints. I was sooooo scared and terrified. I went to the creek and saw a very big boulder in it. A normal person or animal wouldn’t be able to move that size of a rock. I asked one of my friends of this incident and they told me it could have been a skin walker.

Me: Why do you remember it?

CK: I remember this because it was traumatizing. We threw rocks and stuff at it but it did not move. It made me not want to be here anymore. It was a first time experience in the woods and I was playing horror video games the week before the campout.

Me: Was it more believable at night?

CK: I believe the late night definitely gave a spooky vibe. It was a very dark night where we were staying up very late.

Context of performance: Discord call

Thoughts: The informant considers this ghost story to be widely experienced especially in his small city. The story the informant told was nothing too out of left field, but still instilled that emotion of fear and shock into me (the audience). I, too, have experienced a similar incident during my boy scout campout in the woods when I was younger. I guess when you are in the woods or forests late in the night, there tends to be weird, spooky activity that may be happening.

Do not be at school alone

Nationality: korean
Age: 46
Occupation: Accoutant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 10/29/2021
Primary Language: Korean

Background: The informant was a young high schooler in Korea. She remembers a story about a janitor who passed away at the high school she attended.

Me: When and where were you informed about this incident that occurred?

JY: Well, I was a junior in high school when I was informed and made aware of an incident involving the school janitor. The janitor was working at night when he suddenly had a heart attack and died. Ever since that, there has been many cases of students seeing a janitor late at school. I thought this was a story to scare the students but no. I was at school finishing up work when I heard a noise outside the room. Thinking that I was just hearing things ignored it until the noise got and closer. I was so bothered by it that my friends and I went outside the room to see what was in the halls. I sawed the ghost of the janitor and ran to the front of the school.

Me: Why do you remember it?

JY: I remember this very clearly because I was very shocked that I saw a ghost because I didn’t believe in them. I especially remember this incident because it was the time when I recently found out that the previous janitor died at school.

Me: Was it more believable at night?

JY: Yes it was!

Me: What do you make of it?

JY: This was when I realized that my belief in ghosts was wrong. Ghosts are real. Don’t look at me like that. Ghosts are real! I was like you, someone who didn’t believe in ghosts; however, that is not the case anymore. I wish you were there to experience what I had.

Context of the performance: This was told to me over a Zoom call.

Thoughts: The informant considers this ghost story to be widely experienced especially in Korea. The story the informant told was nothing too out of left field, but still instilled that emotion of fear and shock into me (the audience). For some reason, the high school students, who reported similar cases to the one my informant told, tended to be more from the female population. This left me questioning if females experience more ghost stories and if so why.

Abandoned Nunnery in Oklahoma

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2nd February 2019
Primary Language: English

Text:

KM: “Apparently there’s this like abandoned nunnery out somewhere in Tulsa, and I had a couple of my friends who got there, obviously trespassing to this place. But it was like, I don’t know, but there were rumors that there were like tapes that were still there even though the place was like abandoned that like showed like really bad things I think that happened there. So they go out there at like night, and they say – there were like 6 of them I think, 4 or 6 or them, and they were like okay we’re going to split up and we’re going to search for these tapes. And so, the person who told me this, he and this other guy, they went up like upstairs, and they were like searching for stuff. But um, my other friend, he went in the basement and they actually found the tape. And when they like picked it up, the like lights flickered in the building. And so, they had to like get out of there and apparently the tape is supposed to be like super creepy and stuff and my friend was just like keeping it in his car for the longest time.”

MS: “Did you ever play the tape, to see what was on it?”

KM: “No I don’t think so – it was a VHS tape so I don’t know. I never really followed up. I’m pretty sure the tape is just in my friend’s car still.”

…

KM: “But for the longest time, I felt like I was haunted by the nuns after hearing this story because like weird stuff would happen with like my phone and I was like “the nuns are haunting me” so I was convinced… My Twitter AV, this is like stupid, but my Twitter AV, which is like your profile picture on Twitter, I would upload it and it would always just turn to black, just like a black picture and I could never like change it back, and I was like I’m really being haunted by these nuns for listening to this story. Because I think part of the legend was that once you hear the story, or once you know about the tapes, they would target you too so I just remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable knowing this.”

 

Context:

The informant is a Chinese-American college student from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This conversation was part of a discussion among a group of similarly aged people about their high school experiences growing up in various parts of America. The content has been lightly edited, and the removed content is indicated by ellipses.

 

Interpretation:

Even though this is not a first-person account of visiting this apparently haunted nunnery, it still provides us with information because this is how legends typically spread – the informant believes she was haunted by the nuns even though she never took a part in directing interacting with the legend herself. She may have experienced the same “haunting” things even if she hadn’t heard the legend but having heard it, she automatically used its mysterious nature as a way to justify inexplicable things in her life. Also interesting is how the mysterious nature of the tapes gives them their value and so even though they were taken from the original site, they were never actually played to verify the legend one way or the other. This may be an instance of the fear of the “other”. For the modern generation, VHS tapes are not something familiar and have this spooky quality because of that.

 

 

Larry and the Dog

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Gabriel, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/2014
Primary Language: English

Larry and the Dog

informant: Okay so there was this guy and his dog and they were out in the middle of the woods with this house that they were going to redo for his own personal use. Anyways . . . so he decided to just move into the house so he didn’t have to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then at about 2 a.m the dog starts like freaking out. . . oh his name is Larry. Anyways so [a voice] is like,

“Laaaaaaary, I can see you” and Larry’s like,

“whhhhhhaaaaaat?????”. And he was all freaked out and then the voice was like, “Larry, I’m 10 feet away” and then it disappeared. And then the next night, at the exact same time, the dog started like freaking out and the voice was like,

“Laaarry, I’m on your porch”.  And then the next night the dog flipped out again at the same time and was like,

“Laaaaaarrry, I’m outside your bedroom door”. And then the next night, the dog didn’t bark, so he opened his bedroom door and there was the dog . . . . DEAD. And then he heard a voice that said,

“Larry, I’m behind you” and then he turned around and then he died.

Interviewer: Where did you hear this story?

Informant: My friend told it to me at school

Interviewer: Do you know where she heard the story?

Informant: I have no idea

Interviewer: Who do you typically tell the story to?

Informant: I haven’t told the story since like, 5th grade

  Interviewer’s notes:

The informant’s tale is in accordance with Olrik’s Epic Laws of Folk Narrative, specifically and prominently, the law of repetition. The repetition effectively divides the story into discernible narrative parts and the builds suspense for the audience, which is especially important as the story was told orally. Also the age of the informants when she first heard the tale is possibly significant. The informant, in fifth grade, was on the cusp of puberty, as children are trying the sort out childhood fears and anxieties with that of adult expectations. Stories like this bring fears to the forefront so that they may be expelled by the time the children reach adulthood.