Close enough.....

So being that the first full day of Fall is Wednesday, I think it is close enough to be able to start telling ghost stories!! As I have mentioned , I have had experiences most of my life . Everything from strange feelings, to actual sitings. I guess I was just always open to it. As a child, teen and young adult it happend more than I cared for in my life. As I grew older, those " feelings" happened less and less, even at haunted, or supposedly haunted places....but my fascination has not changed. I love books, movies, and ghost hunts and every TV show that does anything dealing with ghosts. And of course being fascinated with history, I love visiting places and seeing if anything happens. Sometimes it has, most times , well guessing it is at the wrong time of day for an experience, or "they" just are not in the mood to come out and play.

When I was a young girl , I dated a young man who lived in a very haunted house, it was written up in the local paper many times, and had been known to be quite active for years. That was one of my first major experiences. I was once locked in a room that had no lock on the door. The light was turned off, when it would take me pulling the string to do so , and well I did not...and there was nothing wrong with the bulb...we tested it over and over. He had many more frightening encounters than I did....I refused to go back after being locked in that room.

We also lived close to a swamp area when we lived on our family property on the Central Coast of Ca. I used to walk down into the swamp , loved the trails. It was not 100% spooky down there, often I felt at peace. BUT on a few occasions that feeling would change. I would see shadows out of the corner of my eye, once seeing a man hanging, more of a black shadow hanging from a tree, and yet once closer to the tree it was not there....BUT, never saw it happen again...so how could it just be a trick of the shadows?? Another time my cousin and I were taking a walk down in the swamp and we saw a pink station wagon that though an older car, and down the side of a hill, was in good shape. We walked down , took a look and decided that we would bring back the tool chest and see what we could take from the car ( yeah I was a tiny bit delinquent) . We went back, with my other cousins and the car was covered in vines, windows broken, rusted, and the engine was missing and the inside was a wreck....NOT what we had seen just an hour prior!!

The end of the cross street that we lived on had a ghost story attached. The White Lady ( yeah classic name for a lady ghost) who was rumored to have died in the 1800's in stage coach crash, on the way to the roads namesake town that then existed. It was said that her children died and were lost to the swamp and she spent all of time looking for them. She would hitchhike at the corner, if picked up would just tell you to keep eye on the road, and once you passed the corner would disappear, leaving swamp water in the seat. If you did not pick her up , you would crash. This story only changed with the times from wagons to cars. But past that, was one that still remains to this day. They have sense re-routed the corner , it no longer exists...even though the story does.

Another incident was when a friend owned a house , that a certain room always gave me the creeps, yet I was drawn to it, in a way. I always felt sad in that room...out of touch with things. It was a room that was used for storage only....no one could sleep in there for the feelings of foreboding.

Still another time of an actual "sighting" of something was at a local H.S. theater. It had a story of a female ghost that was once a student and actress there who had died and made appearances at plays from right after her death, before anyone knew she was gone and through current day. My husband, then BF had many experiences there. Stories to raise the hair on your arms and make you shiver. So I went with that knowledge to help him and some friends put on a play. During practice once, there was a bright orb light, like a light reflected on a small mirror or a flash light, on the cat walk.  We used the walkie talkie to ask the student at the light board if it was him, cause we could not see anyone up there and there was no way a light would be up there without a human, it was not a place to have reflections...no windows, no source of light. He said he was still at the light board and no one had come up the ladder ( the only way up or down) ...he walked over to check it out..we could see him come to the cat walk and start out on it the whole way....the light disappeared...the minute he was gone, it came back briefly and then was gone. There was always an eerie feeling here, even with a load of people milling about.

Still another experience was the house we lived in as a young family. Doors would shut and then open on their own, door knobs would turn, foot steps would be heard, and our babies would be covered ( in a mummy sort of way) in their cribs when we never did so. There was not a scary feeling with all this. More of a watched over feeling. BUT there was a dark shadow of a man in a Fedora that I would often see at night , outside my window. I would peer out the curtains, NOTHING was there, nothing to cast this distinct shadow and the feeling of fear would quickly creep up on me and my goose bumps would pop up...I was very happy when we moved out of this home!

I have other instances that have happened since, could go on and on! I even went on a tour in New Mexico in Old town Albuquerque, that was really fascinating, a great way to learn the history of the city you are in....all ghost stories after all, are linked to history.   But the one I really wanted to share was our tour through haunted Houston TX! I have photos. Loads of "orbs" !! I know, I know they could be moisture , bugs or dust...but where we all had digital cameras and we would check our camera after each shot and the orbs would not be there, and then when we used provoking and asking "permission" they would, then the next , they would not. Not sure how to explain that!

We toured several places , part of a large group. We started our tour and had our education period at The Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Houston. We were told the history of the building and of the apparition of a woman that would appear nightly on the pull down shade, and had been tested many times, no one could figure out how the shadow was made and no one could debunk it. We witnessed this. It had not been there, then the sun went down and it was there, clear as day and you could not see how any city lights made this shadow. There is other stories connected to it as well. Here is a link to a story that appeared in a newspaper from 2009. Another link, naming it the 6th most haunted....there are many more if you just type in Spaghetti Warehouse , Houston TX. Oh and here is a great link with stories of most of the places we went.

After we left the SW, we headed through town on our tour bus and pulled up beside The Olivewood Cemetery. It was an old African American Cemetery circa 1877. The first black cemetery within the city limits of Houston. Here is a great link with the history and stories !  We were told to ask permission and tell the "residents" we meant no disrespect....here is a few photos we snapped off ...my daughter and several friends got wonderful orb filled photos, other people got no orbs at all even with photos taken at the same time! Here is just a couple....promise as soon as I can scan in the photos that my daughter took ( she recently sent me the prints) I will share those as well....they are very impressive! Now remember, it was not raining. It was not even humid at that time, being late October, and as I said photos taken at same time , either had them, or did not...same spot, same time .  

Then, after the cemetery , we headed to a haunted pub in the down town area, The Brewery Tap . I remember it was rumored to be haunted by an older gentleman that was supposedly killed in the 20's by the mob during prohibition . Another theory and the one that sticks the most was of William, a man from the 40's, and he is the one most reported. Here is the photos we took and again my daughter has some wonderful ones she sent me that I shall share at some point.....again, no massive amounts of dust, no bugs, no mist, and some photos had orbs and others did not.   After we left the Brewery , we headed towards the Library , the Julia Ideson Building . Reportedly haunted by a black man, a Mr. Cramer, who worked as the janitor. He loved to play the violin and could read.  He died in 1936, in the

building's basement.  His body was taken to Kansas, but because ghostly
violin music is now heard, the story is that Cramer has returned to haunt
the place.  We were unable to go inside, but outside there is a tree that
Mr. Cramer supposedly planted.  I snapped quite a few pics as did our daughter and friends.....hers are once again better, and will be sure to scan them in and get them up for you all to see...but here is the one that I took to tide you over...... Her's is really far more incredible. Her photos have an orb as big as the moon, but the moon was not over the library , the orb appears to be so!!

Then it was time to move on to the last stop, and the one with the creepiest of history attached to it....the Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital.Driving up upon this destination alone will send your hair on end and raise goose bumps, especially at night. The history alone is very sad and foreboding!   This hospital has
some of the most interesting history in Houston.  Sadly, it has been mostly
a crack house and in total disrepair for years.  Nevertheless, it originally
was a 30 acre cemetery and mass burial ground for the diseased in the 1800s
and many civil war veterans.  In the 1920s, the City of Houston paid off the
City Council to have the ground approved to build a hospital.  We were told that
110 different spirits have been seen there.  The hospital closed in the late
80s or 1990, and it was moved to another location.  It has recently been
bought by a private foundation that intends to restore it and turn it into
artists' lofts, there was even several occupants watching us through the windows. So here is the photos that we took.....A friend actually circled a few things that are suspicious and curious. The "ghosts" on the second floor , well there is no more stair case to the second floor and no floor...yet we all saw this "face" in window and we were not the only ones who captured what looked like faces in the windows....and sometimes the face was there, and other times it was not!!!

I can not 100% confirm that the images are that of ghosts , and spirits...all I know is what I believe, and what I witnessed and others that were with me...and well , I tend to believe.....Tomorrow check in day and Wednesday hopefully wrap this post up with the photos that my daughter too.