Local Legends

[Ed Hocken]

Speaking of local legends, this just came out today.

The remains of two infants were found in a steamer trunk in the oldest part of town. Inside the trunk was a ticket to the 1932 olympics.

[Lisa]

Speaking of local legends, this just came out today.

The remains of two infants were found in a steamer trunk in the oldest part of town. Inside the trunk was a ticket to the 1932 olympics.

Woah, creeeepy!

Actually, I have a ghost story that happened to me when I was visiting a friend in Williamsburg, VA.

My college buddy Robb moved immediately to Williamsburg VA after we graduated from college, and got a job as a historical actor, guide, manager, and basic jack-of-all-trades over there (he's also been their steady "Thomas Jefferson" for over 15 years now). He works at a historical off-shoot called Carter's Grove.

One of the things that's cool about historical Williamsburg and Carter's Grove is that, all those beautiful colonial houses you see when you tour the grounds? Actual HW or CG employees live in them. They've been modified on the inside with plumbing and electricity, and they're rented to the historical employees for nearly nothing. You get on a housing list, and that's actually where they live. So when you're standing there snapping pictures at some great colonial house at HW, you're likely taking the picture of the current home of a HW employee.

So pretty much all through the '90s, Robb lived next door to a huge house called The John Blair House. Robb lived in this cute, smaller little cottage right next door called The John Blair Kitchen - it was basically servant's quarters back in colonial times. For what was technically the kitchen, it was small, but two stories, and plenty roomy for one or two people.

On new years day of '97, I went out to visit him for about a week. He had told me about a ghost that had been living at The Kitchen - and the problem was, she didn't like him very much. He'd never seen her, but he'd felt her. She tried to push him down the stairs a couple of times - he could actually, physically feel a pair of hands on the middle of his back, pushing him down the stairs, and shoving him pretty hard too - she almost really hurt him. I should add that he lived there alone for most his time at The Kitchen, so there wasn't anyone else in the house.

Another time, he was sitting there in the living room at Christmas, and without warning, the Christmas tree started to wobble back and forth - lightly at first, and then faster, and then, CRASH! Totally trashed his grandmother's antique ornaments.

Other times, he'd go out, and come back, only to find every single piece of furniture re-arranged and on the other side of the room. The door was locked, the windows locked, and no sign that anyone had gotten in - and he had the only key.

Anyway, when I came to visit him, he told me about her, because he also knew I was totally into this stuff. He added that he'd never seen her, but his ex-girlfriend Susan did. She's the only one this ghost made herself visible for. They were sleeping one night, and around 3 AM, Susan woke up, and saw a young girl floating over the bed looking down at them. She was heavily pregnant, about 17 yrs. old, and dressed in colonial clothing - not wealthy, she looked like she was in poorer clothing. So our guess is that she was probably a cook or a cleaning girl who lived in the kitchen, and with the way colonial women dropped like flies giving birth, she probably died in childbirth at that time. One of the theories about ghosts is that the reason they haunt is that their souls aren't at rest - if they died in pain, or very young, or with any kind of unfinished business or conflict, they likely haunt their last significant place. Anyway, Susan never spent another night at Robb's place after that.

So on the day after New Years when I arrived - he'd already told me about the ghost - he had to go into work to help take down the Christmas decorations around CW. He said he'd be home around 2 PM, which was fine. I figured I'd sleep in and do touristy stuff on my own till he got back. One of the things he'd told me about was that if I needed to dry my hair, that the outlet in the bathroom didn't work. He said to unplug the light in the bedroom and use that outlet.

So after he left for work, I went in and took a shower, got dressed, and went into the bedroom. I unplugged the lamp (it was one of those single outlets), blew my hair dry, and went back into the bathroom to do my makeup.

I did my face, and if you had both the bathroom door and the bedroom door open, you could see straight into the bedroom from the reflection in the bathroom mirror. So as I'm finishing up my face, I glance in the mirror, look into the bedroom, and saw that I'd forgotten to plug the lamp back in, and the plug was laying on the floor. I stuffed my makeup back into the bag, turned around and walked back into the bedroom - and the lamp was plugged in. Swear to god on my life.

Robb said later on that she seems to have most of her issues with men - he used to have a roommate named Steve who she was equally horrible to, but she was never threatening to Susan the one time she saw her. And as for me, hell, she did me a little favor - I considered it her way of saying, "Hey."

[IggytheBorg]

(*Poltergeistfistbump*)

Did you do that trhu the TV? Or the glowing circle in the living room ceiling?

[IggytheBorg]

I'm very disappointed in the rest of you; Rob & Lesley: is the Midwest's lore as barren & uninteresting as its topography? And I refuse to believe there's no haunted pub or some such up by Bobby Bear. And Martin has no story to tell of a deceased Canuck doomed to haunt some stretch of the Great White North (even if he did kill the guy himself with his fantastic Kung Fu Skillz)? Fos shame, BDR's. For Shame!

[BillyG]

I will return with stories for you Ig. Fret not.

[Abraham Smashington]

I don't know of any local ghost stories here.