Got ghosts? N.Y.C. ghost stories

I have a professional reputation to protect here, but I also have a ghost story. And since Halloween is just around the corner I'll share.

West 22nd Street(9th & 10th) 1982: Sleeping on the floor of my girlfriends very old brownstone, her Mom was a bit eccentric and had saved all her steamer trunks from travel, mostly from the 50's-60's, I was sleeping in a maze of about 15 of them- just to set the scene for you. Around 3am I feel a strong presence pushing into my body over and over again. I finally stop resisting it, though I thought I shouldn't and then I felt a rush into my body. My eyes opened and I had no feeling in my body, like I was totally paralyzed. A wave of fear rushed through me and as quick as it came in...it left.

Nice, KeithB !

Your fear was of the unknown. Her mom was just letting you know that she was still there, with her trunks full of memories.

KeithB:
Check out "GhostHunters" and "GhostHunters International" on SYFY channel.

The Biography channel has "Celebrity Ghost Stories" and "My Ghost Story".

Lol. My wife always watches those shows. But it's like night vision photography for an hour and nothing ever happens. OK maybe an occasional noise or blip on one of their gadgets and then they scare themselves.Lol.

Not that I don't believe in other dimensions, but more in a quantum Physics vein.

It would be cool to hear some more ghost stories, SteveF....? Riversider......? Boo!

Every apartment I've ever lived in has been haunted; they've all been in old buildings.

Oddly, the two houses I grew up in were brand-new.

ghost stories or soul stories? i have two. neither happened in nyc, but both are great and heartwarming to me.

1) I was 6 years old and my grandmother had just recently passed away. i was playing on the stairs to the basement at my grandfathers house (i spent LOTS of time there, with them). I heard her music box playing in the basement and quickly ran to my grandfather to tell him that grandma was downstairs. he just kept saying, "ok, ok honey". then he took me upstairs to their bedroom to show me that her music box was still on her dresser, where it had always been. of course it was. i swear on my children that i heard that music box in the basement that day :)

2) fast-forward 24 years later. it's my wedding day and i'm just about ready to walk up the stairs of the church where my grandfather is waiting to walk me down the aisle. i pause for just a moment, look down to take my first step and see my "something old, borrowed, and blue" on the ground - a Mother Mary charm the size of my pinky fingernail that belonged to my grandmother. It had fallen out of my bouquet? Coincidence that it happened THE moment i was walking to meet my grandfather before walking down the aisle AND that i noticed it? not to me :)

oh, and b/c it had fallen out just as i was ready to walk, i had to carry it in my hand down the aisle (even better :)

Aw, that's a sweet story!

NOT NYC BUT . . . I had a quickie getaway from Los Angeles to Santa Paula, California, the prettiest little small town, where there was a big, sprawling, clapboard, turn-of-the-last-century hotel rumored to be haunted. That, of course, is where I HAD to stay. One morning I was in bed (did the movement wake me? maybe) on my belly when I felt something shaking the foot of the bed. I wasn't exactly freaked out but I also didn't look to investigate. Later I did look to be sure there were no Disney special effects; I had a lovely stay & certainly got my money's worth.

KeithB: I think that the whole life-after-death thing has to do with String Theory, so I'm with you on that. GhostHunters goes to interesting locations and they give you some history of each place.

The EVP's are really cool, and they get some good footage: Things moving, shadow figures, mists -- oh I love that stuff! Celebrity Ghost Stories is a fave. They have some A-list celebs,who don't need to go on that show but they do. Alice Cooper segment was excellent. I have a friend/ client who may do the show if he gets some time.

My Ghost Story is a new addition to the line-up. Amazing things those people catch on their cameras!

uwsmom: Oh that is a nice story! I had experiences with a music box. I still have it, for almost 32 years. It plays that tune from the old Coke commercial:
"I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,
I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company..."
Except: I haven't wound it up in 20 years.

It plays at different times. It's very comforting.

NYCMatt: share some experiences with us.

drdrd: Good one!

"NYCMatt: share some experiences with us."

When I lived in that toilet bowl cesspool of a neighborhood called "Williamsburg", I shared a two-bedroom apartment with a really hot guy named Patrick. It wasn't really a proper two-bedroom ... in fact I don't know what the hell it was originally intended; he had carved a "bedroom" out of part of our living room ... we had a large eat-in-kitchen, and a bathroom behind the kitchen. There was a "room" (more like a hallway with two closets) connecting the living room with MY suite of rooms, which included a huge, light-filled 17x17 bedroom, and a smaller 9x10 room with a full-size window that I turned into a fabulous walk-in closet.

Anyway, the door separating the hallway/room from my bedroom was one of those cheap hollow doors that didn't even have a doorknob -- just a handle that you could use to pull it shut (the door opened "out"). Patrick had a foul-tempered cat that I never wanted in my bedroom, so to keep him from opening the door by grabbing it from underneath with his paw, I fashioned a "lock" out of a ball-point pen stuck snugly through the handle and into an existing hole in the doorjamb. Worked like a charm. (When I was not in the room, obviously I couldn't "lock" the door from the inside with the pen, so I just kicked a heavy box of books in front of the door before leaving.)

Since Patrick's "bedroom" wasn't a real bedroom, he didn't have a radiator, and it got cold that fall and winter. My radiator didn't work that well, but I also had a little ceramic space heater that kept my room nice and toasty. Since my "studio" included not just a double bed, wall of bookcases (with my at the time brand-new 25-inch color TV), and a small dining room table used as a desk, but also a dresser and couch-style futon along the far wall, I invited Patrick on particularly freezing night to sleep in my room. He said "Nah, don't worry about it." I said "Are you sure? I'm going to lock the door so the cat doesn't get in then. If you want in, just knock."

That night I felt someone climb into bed next to me. Half-asleep, I remembered thinking that it was awfully forward of him to climb into bed with me, since there was a perfectly good futon not more than 5 feet away. No matter, I snuggled next to his hard muscular body. He grunted. Just before drifting back to sleep I also thought "Fuck, I told him to KNOCK ... he probably just yanked the door right open and broke the pen, and that damn cat is in here too. Whatever .... ZZZZZZ."

The next morning I woke up. Patrick was gone. I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a robe, and stopped dead in front of my bedroom door. Closed. With the pen-lock snugly in place the way I had left it the night before. It would have been utterly impossible for anyone to have (a) opened the door without breaking the pen, and (b) closed the door behind him, replacing the pen *from the other side of the closed door*.

*SHIVER*

Worse, after I carefully pulled out the pen and opened the door, Patrick was just getting HOME. Turns out he'd spent the night at his friend's house.

******

Weeks later, another incident in my bedroom. I had fallen asleep with the space heater on (which I tried not to do, since I know it's not a good idea, but I reasoned that the little thermostat would kick it off if it got too hot).

In the middle of the night ... I was still asleep ... when in my dreams I heard someone calling my name rather urgently. I started drifting out of sleep. "Matt! Matt! Matt!" Just as I was waking up, a pair of hands on my shoulders shaking me. "MATT!"

I sat bolt upright, turned on the light and looked around. No one. Bedroom door closed and locked. I looked over at the space heater, and tiny wisps of smoke were JUST starting to waft from the unit. Caught it JUST in time.

WHOA, Matt, that ghost liked YOU !!!

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Matt: I know of an experience like that one, it was the gas left on in the oven.

AlanHart has nothing of interest to add to this friendly discussion. He is hooked-up to the electrified collar of his master.

Alanhart was once funny, witty. Now he is just a slave.

I knew he was kinky.

Matt: My apologies to you.

I asked you to join us again here, and you did; without any ill-will to any other SE commenter.
No matter what your history may be, here on SE in the past.

We will continue to keep this thread friendly. There is no need to get into arguments with anybody on SE. Unless that is the intention of a person posting a comment. That is what "pollutes" thread discussions.
There is a poster who acts as a hall-monitor, telling people what they think is "polluting" SE threads. Calling for banishments.

We were doing just fine. We will continue to rise above the garbage on SE.

Thanks for a good comment.

West side brownstone: The owners go out and leave the window(s) open and it rains while they are out. They return home and their friendly house ghost/spirit has closed the windows for them. This has been happening for years.

They also smell the aroma of floral fragrance, and hear a violin playing at night.
After checking with the surrounding neighbors they couldn't find any violin players.

The previous owner was a widow who lived there for many years alone after her husband's death. She played violin. They believe that she is still there, happy to have them living in that home.

East side brownstone: The owners take off their wristwatch at night and leave it on the bedside table.
Wake up in the morning and find it downstairs on the kitchen table.

I recently suggested that they take it off at night and leave it on the kitchen table, just to see where it turns up in the morning. They tried that and it turned up on the living room coffee table.

They decided to try it with a different watch. Same results.
It's not scary, but they can't figure out why that spirit loves to move their wristwatches.

uwsmom: You will like this one:

I know somebody who was given a ring by her grandmother, shortly before grandmother passed away.
She took it off to wash her hands and accidently dropped it down the drain.

She called the building handyman to come up to get it out.
He arrived a half-hour later, and when they went into the bathroom that ring was on the sink next to the soap.

West Village: Single guy living alone. He gets the blanket pulled off him almost every night. He pulls it back up. As he's drifting off to sleep again, it gets pulled back off.
But not when he has company sleeping over.

Truth
...
I know somebody who was given a ring by her grandmother, shortly before grandmother passed away.
She took it off to wash her hands and accidently dropped it down the drain.
She called the building handyman to come up to get it out.
He arrived a half-hour later, and when they went into the bathroom that ring was on the sink next to the soap.

My question: was the soap still wet?

No, it was SoftSoap.

similar to Matt's...
true story...

when i was in high school, my mother was in the kitchen, washing dishes, and felt someone/thing shove her forward (there was no one home). the shove pushed her just far enough for her to immediately notice flames (or smoke) inside our neighbor's house (kitchen maybe?). i think she ran to the door and was able to tell the woman before it did too much damage.

Back to the discussion:

TriBeCa: After closing time at NOBU, spring night:

A young man was asked for a dime to make a phone call, by an older male who was walking by.

He told the older male: "Pay phone costs a quarter." Went to look for a quarter in his pocket change.
Looked back up and the older male was fading away in a wisp of mist.

That older male has been seen for many years before, asking for a dime to make a phone call.

uwsmom: Exactly.
Helpful spirits. Friendly.

Back in the 1980's, I would take a break from touring, and go work for a law firm for a year or so : Answering phones, doing planning for client entertainment/events; holiday parties, summer associates' outings...

A paralegal there got a great deal for an apartment downtown. The landlord asked if he was a smoker. It wasn't prohibited in the lease, but the landlord was an honest man. He said that apartment was "best-suited for non-smokers." The paralegal was a smoker, but he wanted that beautiful apartment for the great price.

After he moved in, whenever he lit up; there would be loud noises and shaking of furniture and household items. He would tell us in the office about it. He stopped smoking because of it.
One obnoxious lawyer teased that paralegal every day. He was a bully.
The landlord told him that apartment's previous tenant had passed away there of lung cancer.

I suggested that he invite that lawyer over to visit one night after work. The lawyer came. He lit up a ciggie. We sat there and watched as the lawyer's chair shook, and he went pale with fear.

That was the end of the teasing , and that bully lawyer had to admit that he was afraid to go back to that apartment.

The paralegal stayed on several years to live there very happily. The lawyer quit smoking. They are both still living in New York today. That paralegal got a law degree. The laywer is now retired. He never smoked again, after his visit to that apartment.

Feel free, all of you who want to post a comment on this thread.

The master and her slaves are powerless against you.

Truth, what is your problem with columbiacounty and julialg?

c-rat: I have no problem with julialg. She no longer has a problem with me. We worked it out and reached a friendly agreement.

I don't know what the content of cc's comments are -- I never read them.
cc is spitting into the wind.

KeithB: There's a good episode of GhostHunters on tonight.

Oh good, I already have a nickname.

yes...you do seem to score with the nut jobs, don't you?

Apparently I do, thank you.