Hometown Ghost Stories
October 31, 2003 8:26 AM   Subscribe

The night the devil went dancing Growing up in San Antonio, I heard the story of the devil at El Camaroncito from my dad. We kids had our own spook stories, from the haunted railroad tracks to midget mansion. Here in Austin, we have our own share of ghosts, including the legendary Driskill hotel ghost. What local spook stories did you grow up with?
posted by Gilbert (15 comments total)
 
I was the front desk manager of the Driskill for a year, and I can verify that spooky shit went down in that place. (though some of the facts on that Driskill link are incorrect, I was -in fact- the front desk agent who was asked about a woman walking the hallways with her shopping bags. The room number is room 420...laugh it up, dopers.)
posted by ColdChef at 8:40 AM on October 31, 2003


When we were kids, my friend always used to say this girl was somewhere in the woods behind his house. Small towns have a lot of strange legends and spook stories floating around in them. A little fear makes the days and nights more exciting, considering there's absolutely nothing to do... until you start getting drunk in corn fields and forests, of course.
posted by BirdD0g at 8:43 AM on October 31, 2003


Old Green Eyes. The very definition of "spooky" for kids raised in the Chattanooga area.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:46 AM on October 31, 2003


What local spook stories did you grow up with?

Reagan.
posted by jpoulos at 8:49 AM on October 31, 2003


I grew up in Pensacola. There were local spooks supposedly, most of them of a Spanish colonial nature. They only seemed vaguely frightening and more cartoonish in a Disney "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" sort of way.

When I went to Huntingdon College they had the local ghost story of the Red Lady. It seemed spooky at first, until I realized that: a. the student who supposedly offed herself probably didn't exist; and b. it was primarily an excuse for sororities to do the "Red Lady Walk" where they dressed as the Red Lady and her minions and screamed as they wandered the halls and campus.

The Ghost of the Green at Huntingdon (see above Red Lady link further down the page) is a different story all together. I graduated HC in 1990 and over the next years lived near the school and still hung out with a lot of students. A guy I knew real well had a little brother in our fraternity (yeah yeah I know) who apparently battled depression. One night he sent all his friends an email that read something like "Bang! I'm dead" and went to the wooden stage on the green (the campus commons) and put a pistol in his mouth. He was unnoticed all evening and discovered by security at dawn. He has become the Ghost on the Green at least as far as Urban Legend has it. It is strange to watch as someone you have known and spoke to (even though I will be the first to admit I merely knew his name face and name and not much beyond that) become a ghost story. The Ghost on the Green seems real to me, though it may be my familiarity with the story and history.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 9:04 AM on October 31, 2003


local spooks?

I met a guy not too long ago who said his grandpa was in the OSS. After the old man died, they found whole rooms in his house no one ever knew about.

On preview: fake blood is a vegetable, jpoulos.
posted by trondant at 9:04 AM on October 31, 2003


I guess I -must- buy an house in El Camaroncito :)
posted by elpapacito at 10:05 AM on October 31, 2003


fake blood is a vegetable, jpoulos.

trondant: I've been looking at your comment for an hour and I don't follow. hope me!

posted by jpoulos at 10:19 AM on October 31, 2003


I have stolen "Fake Blood is a Vegetable" for the tagline on my own blog. It was irresistible.
posted by kindall at 10:30 AM on October 31, 2003


jpo, Reagan once said that ketchup was a suitable vegetable to round out kids' school lunches.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you La Llorona.
posted by whatnot at 10:33 AM on October 31, 2003


HA! Yes. I remember that. Thanks.
posted by jpoulos at 10:39 AM on October 31, 2003


I grew up in Texas, and everyone I knew had "tried" the railroad tracks thing. Everyone I know swears it's 100% true.

Another Texas ghost story I grew up with, of course, were the Marfa Lights. A number of years ago--says who? everyone knows--two teenagers jumped in a pickup truck to chase the Marfa Lights on the horizon. They were never seen again; their pickup truck, however, was found just off the highway, upside-down, and charred.
posted by jennanemone at 11:22 AM on October 31, 2003


I've stayed in the Driskill a lot...and I too will verify that it is indeed, a spooky place.
posted by dejah420 at 11:26 AM on October 31, 2003


Many, many nights, I would be walking around the old part of the Driskill (built in 1886) and I would hear children whispering directly in front of me. Just as I would walk into a cold spot.

One night, I actually said, "Yipe!"

I am not a proud man.

(Dejah...wouldn't it be odd if we actually met each other sometime ago? I'm just sayin'...Wait! Are you the woman who stumbled off of Sixth Street and tried to pee in one of my potted plants?)
posted by ColdChef at 11:39 AM on October 31, 2003


No...I've been housebroken for years. ;) And Austin is such an incestuous town...I'm sure we've been at the same parties, clubs, leather fantasy nights...I mean, er...Emos.... ;)
posted by dejah420 at 2:18 PM on October 31, 2003


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