Sunday, April 3, 2011

Ghost Stories

When I was younger I became interested in the paranormal because I loved to read ghost stories. Most of these stories had been past down from one generation to the next. They are all mostly classic legends-some were true hauntings. 

Stories like “The Hitchhiker” the classic about the young women who requests a ride home and then leaves her sweater in a car--when the man who gave her the ride tries to return it to her he is told by her mother that she has been dead for many years. 

I also attribute Girl Scout’ camp outs for my interest in the paranormal. Our leaders told us some wonderful, scary stories while we huddled around those fires.

In college I got hooked on reading the “Haunted America” series, it was like a travel log but with scary chills thrown in. 

It was at this time I also got involved with my first paranormal group. We took pictures with Nikon film cameras, and used old tape recorders. On one of the first investigations we did, out on Lake Mary Road, we were in an old restaurant by the lake. 

I encountered a full-bodied apparition of a lady in an old-fashioned gown that swept the floor. I could see right through her to the brightly colored wallpaper behind. To say the least this experience captured my attention.

But thinking back I now, I know I was doomed long before this. As a young child my mother told me stories of her childhood. Her father passed away when she was four and her mother became the sole support for the family. 

They moved into an old brownstone apartment building with a creepy basement and dark hallways. My mother would come home from school everyday to an empty apartment. 

It was during the second year they lived there that a young girl spirit started appearing out of nowhere. It never frightened my mother and they became playmates. My mother encountered this spirit even when she was in high school. The spirit remained a child as my mother grew up.

So it was a mixture of fictional and real experiences that led me to my interest in the paranormal. Over the years many people have told me about their own encounters with ghosts or spirits. I hope to share some of them here.

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