Tag Archives: street

The Haunted Routes of Rehoboth

Age: 71

 MC: “I live in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, which, of course, is in New England.

And there are a lot of old ghost stories that center around the region we live in.

And many years ago, well, probably about 20 or 30 years ago, um, an author from the town that I live in, Rehoboth, um, decided to investigate some of the stories he had heard about.

And one of the stories was the redheaded hitchhiker of Route 44.

And as the story goes, this is first traced back, I think, to the late 60s.

Someone was driving down Route 44 from Seekonk into Rehoboth.

And all of a sudden, a face appeared on the right outside the passenger window, and it was obviously really scary.

It was nighttime.

And the thing was, the car wasn’t stopped, it was going.

And the face was, like, pressed up against the window, and he stayed there for a while and just disappeared.

Now, many years later, there were several other sightings of this red headed hitchhiker, who always had on a red plaid shirt.

And in one of the stories, he was on Route 44 again, traveling the same stretch through Rehoboth.

And he was in the middle of the road, and he just appeared as this woman was driving through, and she didn’t have enough time to break, but she tried to break, and she knew she was gonna hit him, and when she looked through her rear view mirror, she had gone right through him.

Like, he wasn’t, like, dead on the side of the road or anything.

So she was freaked out about that.

And then there was another couple, too, where something very, very similar happened, all on this one stretch of road, and nobody could, they reported this, and nobody could really attribute it to anything.

But many years go by, and I think there were a total of, like, five or six cases where people had seen this red headed hitchhiker with big, bushy, red hair, and the same type of red plaid shirt.

Sometimes, they noticed he was in jeans, and there was a couple from Swansea going down that same road, and they saw him as well.

And this was between many years.

In fact, I think the last official sighting was in the 1980s.

So within, like, a 15 year period, um, it was reported, like, five or six times that somebody had seen him, and he always had this evil laugh. That they could hear.

And for some of them, the laugh would get, like, really, like, loud, and for others, it would kind of, like, drift off into the woods.

And for one of the incidents, he actually, someone stopped to pick him up, because they thought, obviously, he was real, and he got into the car, but didn’t say anything, just kind of nodded when he was spoken to, or made a face when he was spoken to.

And when it was time for him to get out of the car, he didn’t open the door.

He just went through the door.

And, of course, that was scary.

That’s the end of the hitchhiker story, as I know it.”

Interviewer: “Okay, so, have you ever heard of anybody you know actually, like, seeing or experiencing the hitchhiker?”

MC: “Um, If I remember right, back, um, no, I don’t know anyone who was actually seeing that particular apparition, but there was something. You know who JC. is, right?”

Interviewer: “Yeah.”

MC: “I vaguely remember, and you’d have to check with JP on this to know if I’m remembering it.

It was someone, one of her friends, and I think it was JC, who was driving home late at night, and it wasn’t on Route 44.

But it was on the corner of 118 in Fairview Avenue.

Do you know which one that is?”

Interviewer: “Yeah, I think so.”

MC: “Yeah, but so it’s, like, two kind of major roads, well major for Rehoboth anyway.

And it was pretty, pretty late, and there was someone just standing there near a stone wall.

And I vaguely remember JC telling us about it.

That’s the only thing, but it was…”

Interviewer: “Was it a redheaded figure or anything like that?”

MC: “Um, I can’t remember the details on that.

And I don’t know if she had heard that story and was kind of imagining things, but she definitely thought it was some kind of an apparition.

Not just a person.

But they were standing near the stone wall, on the corner of 118 in Fairview Avenue.

So there’s a stop sign there.

So, JC, if it was JC, had stopped there, and looked over, and it was, like, the middle of the night.

Like, it was late, late, late, and she just, it freaked her out, too.

That’s the only thing I know.

So I don’t know about the roads in Rehoboth, they’re a little bit haunted, you know?”

Interviewer: “Do you believe that apparitions continue to haunt these roads, or it is more simply a story for you?”

MC: “To me, it’s more like a story.

It’s more like a story, but, you know, you never know.

Yeah.

You never know.

I mean, I think it happened enough, there were enough years in between sightings, that’s no coincidence.

I’ve yet to see him myself. But, you never know.”

Context: This story was told to the informant by her grandmother several times throughout their life. It is a local legend rooted in the history of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, where they are both from. This widespread tale is known throughout surrounding areas and has been the inspiration behind a short film, a podcast and many articles about ghosts of the region.


Analysis: In this rural legend, sightings of a distinctly red-headed, plaid-adorned ghost are reported along a stretch of a local main road. Throughout the story many common motifs are present, such as the unnerving laugh, spectral face in the window, and passing through material objects. With reports spanning from the 1960s to 1980s, this tale continues to be well-circulated throughout the region, drawing the attention of inhabitants and inspiring various media interpretations. The subject reporting the story seems skeptical as to the actual presence of the ghost, yet is unwilling to entirely dismiss the notion. Recognizing the eeriness of the town’s streets at nights, the subject admits to a slight ‘haunting’ feeling present as one drives through a small town without streetlights. In the spectrum between belief and disbelief, the subject recognizes the legend as more of a story than reality for them, yet acknowledges how the history of reportings seems beyond just coincidence.

Street of the Kiss

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 21
Occupation: USC Student
Performance Date: May 8, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

So, in Guanajuato, Mexico there’s a place called Calle de los Besos. Um, and it’s just translated to Street of the Kiss, where this couple lived on opposite ends of the sleep. The woman lived with her family, and the man was a traveler. And every night they would talk and then kiss good-night, and then one night the woman’s father came home from work late and saw that they kissed, and he was furious and he said :If you ever kiss him again, I’m gonna make sure he’s dead and he just freaked out, and so she promised to never kiss him again, And then some weeks passed and she didn’t keep her promise, and then again one night the dad came home late and saw that they had kissed and so he goes up to the guy’s room and kills him, and she freaks out, and she’s really depressed. And then she kills herself. And then now today whenever you cross that street, visitors or anybody, you kiss each other on the 7th step, because there’s like steps on the street. On the seventh step you kiss your significant other, otherwise it’s like 7 years of bad luck for you. But if you’re single nothing happens to you.

This legend tells the story of the town, and tells how the custom of kissing when crossing this certian street came to be. The story also tells us about the culture of the town. For instance, one might infer from the story that it comes from a culture where fathers have a lot of control over their daughter’s love lives, and the father’s extreme reaction, while drastically over the top, is considered within the realm of possibility. It also tells us that the town culture may identify as romantic and passionate.

T Intersection

Nationality: half Thai half Malaysian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20, 2012
Primary Language: English

The informant is talking about folk beliefs she learned from her mother about houses in China:

“You shouldn’t buy a house that’s at the end of a T-street, cuz then all the bad spirits will go into your house.”

This reminds me of a similar practice I have heard of, I believe in Feng Shui.
This could also come from the fact that houses at the end of T streets are more likely to be run into by automobiles. It could also just be due to the fact that a house in this position may just be more visible.