November 27, 2011

Trippy Tales #44..."Thanksgiving Ghost Stories"

Hello and welcome to the playhouse!
It seems that ghosts don't appear at just Halloween, and in honor of the Thanksgiving holidays, I've included some Thanksgiving ghost stories, taken from "about.com". I hope you'll gobble 'em up!;) 


"Great-Grandpa's Thanksgiving Visit"
"This took place November 25th, 1982, Thanksgiving night. My entire extended family was over for the holiday. I was 12. We all sat down in the dining room to eat our big dinner. My Dad had led the prayer. My Grandma started to cry and said we need to pray for Mom, meaning her mother, my Great Grandma. Her name was Bertha. She was now 100 years old and in a care home. She was about to turn 101 years old, and her quality of life was not very good. My Grandma asked God to take her, she's tired. The entire family bowed their heads and agreed.
I gobbled my dinner down and snuck away from the table to play with a toy my Grandma had given me earlier in the day. I went and sat at the top of our basement steps, while everyone continued to eat. I was sitting there when I heard this shuffling noise. I looked to the bottom of the stairs, and this elderly man with a hunch back wearing a black suit and using a cane walked up to the bottom of the stairs. I froze. He turned his head and looked at me and shuffled off, out of my view.
I jumped up and ran to tell people at the table what I just saw. I got the old Shoo! We are talking. I was scared this person was not a guest that night.
The next morning the phone rang. My Dad turned and told everyone Great Gran died this morning. I never ever forgot what I saw, but never understood who it was until 2005 when my Mom passed and I received a huge box of old family photos. I saw the old man in one of the photos. On the back it said Otto. That was Great Gran's husband. He passed well before I was born; I had never seen him. I knew then that there is definitely life after death. I saw my Great Grandpa in the basement. I think he was there for the holiday, and to take his wife Bertha to Heaven the following morning."

"Thanksgiving Shadow Giant"

"This incident happened to me when I was very young, and it still chills me to the bone to this very day. My parents, my brother and I went down to Virginia to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins for Thanksgiving. Since my cousins' house was full of relatives, my family got the basement to sleep in. My brother and I both got cots to sleep on and my parents on the roll-out couch. The basement was located on the lower level of the house and there were twin double-glass doors (covered by a thin white curtain) at the back of the basement that led into the backyard. My brother's cot was closest to these doors.
One night I awoke and rolled over, wondering what had awakened me. For some reason, the backyard light was on and I distinctly remembered hearing my aunt say that they would turn it off so we could sleep. So why was it on? I glanced at my sleeping parents and then back at the the light shining through the white curtain.
That's when I saw it: an enormous dark shadow was standing outside. I could only see the outline of it since the curtain was drawn. It had to of been at least 9 feet tall and its "arms" (or were they wings?) were stretched out on either side, reaching at least 5 feet in length. And it just STOOD there! Didn't move. Didn't do anything.
Terrified, I squeaked out, "Dad!" to no avail. I looked at my father sleeping soundly on the bed next to me and then my brother sleeping close to the double doors and the thing on the other side. Deciding to awake my brother instead, I scrambled out of the cot and went to move toward him when I heard a strange, scratching voice say, "They can't hear you, Lindsay."
I remember almost jumping completely out of my skin! To be addressed directly by an unknown enitity is the scariest thing to happen to you, believe me! I quickly crawled back into my cot, tossed the covers over my head, and began sobbing and shaking uncontrollably until I finally fell back to sleep. (The thing was still outside in the light when I fell asleep.)
The next morning, I told my parents what happened and they just laughed, saying it was probably just a nightmare. I know what I saw though. I can still remember what it felt like to touch the freezing cold basement floor with my bare feet.
Later in the day, something weird happened. I overheard my grandmother on the phone with someone. I didn't catch everything she was saying, but I did catch a certain sentence which was: "Well maybe that is what Lindsay saw outside the double doors last night." I ran upstairs and asked my parents why they told everyone what I saw, and they both looked at me and insisted they didn't tell anyone because they were certain I just had a dream. So I confronted my grandmother and asked her about what she said on the phone and she looked at me blankly and said that she hadn't been talking to anyone on the phone, that she had been in the kitchen the entire day, helping with the preparation of the turkey. My Aunt even vouched for her.
To this day, I am mystified about what happened to me that Thanksgiving all those years ago. I know it wasn't a dream. And what would've happened had I thrown back the curtain to reveal what the shadow creature was on the other side?"


"Thanksgiving TV Apparition"
 "I was the only one awake at about 6 a.m. after an all-night stint of cooking to prepare for the Thanksgiving dinner I was preparing (gotta love that English/American background, twice as many holidays). Anyway, I was watching a children's show called "The Hoobs" on channel four which was about to end in favor of some American sitcoms. The adverts came on and in the midst of an advertisement for some upcoming awards show, I had an urge to take a photo of the TV and did..."

To read the rest of the story, click the link below: 

 ~Queenie~