Ghost Stories

Supposedly San Diego is a very haunted town. Last Fall I availed myself of a fun book, San Diego Specters, and went on a quick two-day tour around town to see if I could see any ghosts for myself. Among the notable spots: the old Whalley House in Old Town, of course, which apparently is listed by the U. S. Depart of Commerce as an "authenticated" haunted house (they authenticate these things?); a row of antique shops in downtown Carlsbad, and, of the most interest to me, the Hunter Steakhouse and the entire block of houses next to it. This is the restaurant in Carlsbad--the one overlooking the lagoon, that you can see from the I-5 as you go whizzing by.

Apparently that site is seriously haunted: employees hear their names called when there is no one in the building; wine and beer bottles get up-ended in the storeroom and mysteriously crash to the floor; there are loud knocking sounds, and even one or two sightings. And the families who have the misfortune of living along the same block are, according to this author, constantly calling the Oceanside Police in dire terror, having been spooked out of their homes by unidentifiable crashing sounds and other unexplainable events. Lamb claims that the restaurant and development are planted squarely on top of the old Buena Vista Cemetery. The bodies were exhumed when they decided to put the development in, but still, pretty creepy.

I've never seen a ghost myself, much as I'd like to have. But I've heard some pretty nifty stories from friends and even collagues who've had the honor. One, who owns a B&B in upstate New York, claims her inn is haunted. She's had guests arrive for a weekend visit, only to head right out the door again, informing her that the place had something not right about it. Some of her guests claimed even to have seen the specter, though she herself had never seen anything. She'd witnessed only the lights mysteriously going on and off, as well as footsteps periodically walking across floorboards of empty rooms.

And once I had a student who was house-sitting a creepy place that ultimately spooked him and his friends right out of it. He said they'd be sitting in the kitchen, enjoying dinner, when suddenly the windows would begin to rattle and pound out of nowhere. Lights would go on and off in various rooms of the house. One time, as he sat alone watching TV, the lights began to go out, in one room after another, consecutively. Finally they went out in the room he was sitting, leaving him in complete darkness--and then the TV went out, too.

Then he heard the front door opening--on its own.

My student hurled his textbook at the front door (the Malory we happened to be reading for my class at the time, incidentally), charged out of the house, and swore he'd never return alone again. (Subsequent ouija board consultations informed him and his friends that the ghosts were annoyed with, er, some of the redecorating they'd done in the house. I saw the place myself, and am of the opinion that quite possibly it was the nudie posters and the Christmas lights that offended them.)

But back to my story. A colleague from another university, a very credible chap, told me he'd lived in an old brownstone in Boston that was haunted. He and his wife had actually seen the ghost--a 19th century woman--several times.

So I'm in intrigued. And I'm still looking...I think I'd like to share the experience myself.