HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mtchris@lenin.srv.PacBell.COM (Mitch Christensen)
Subject: Red Bluff Experience
Reply-To: mtchris@lenin.srv.PacBell.COM
Organization: Pacific Bel
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:41:05 GMT


After marrying my wife twelve years ago, we moved to a small town in northern California called Red Bluff.
The downtown area of Red Bluff is about 150 years old and filled with victorian style homes from the original
township.  We ended up renting a single room "condominium" which was actually one of these old victorians
which had been remodeled and split into two condos.  The Landlords, whom we became very close friends with,
lived in the victorian next door.  One night I was awakened by a sound from the front room of the house.  I went to check 
it out but found nothing.  As is stood in the dark hallway I was startled by a person I assumed to be my wife standing behind me.  As I jumped, the person  immediately ducked to a low posture and ran down the hall and into the bedroom where my wife was sleeping.

I returned to bed and stated rather stearnly that I didn't think that was at all funny.  She didn't respond.  I shook her
and she awoke from a sound sleep and asked what the problem was.  Neither of us slept soundly that night.

Accurances such as this happened several times over the next few months.  For instance, as we would watch TV, the
door to the hallway would swing slowly open.  My wife, nursing our newborn daughter in the night, often saw a 
small shadow standing in the hall doorway which would dissappear into the hallway when she turned to looked.

One night we were standing in the kitchen talking with our arms folded when there came a loud raucus from under the sink.
The only thing I could figure is that somehow a cat must have gotten in the cupboard.  With my wife behind me I opened
the cupboard door to find everything that had been under the sink a complete mess.  No cat, just spilled garbage, a few
scattered empty bottles and dish soap spread all over the cupboard.

The next day my wife and I were talking with Niel and Terry (the landlords) and happened to mention the previous
nights kitchen episode.  Their eyes popped open and thier jaws dropped as they looked at each other in disbelief.
As it turns out, before they had bought the property, there was a house fire in which a young child had crawled under the
kitchen sink to escape the flames and died of smoke inhalation.  Niel took be into the attick to witness first hand black and charred rafters.

We moved shortly thereafter but have kept distant contact with Niel and Terry.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: enw2049@rigel.tamu.edu (WALKE, ERIK N)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: answering the phone before it rings
Date: 21 Aug 1992 22:43:00 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Aug20.143107.28542@hubcap.clemson.edu>, jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght) writes...
>I used to think I was the only one this ever happened to but I have
>found other people that sya it has happend to them and I saw a roomate
>do it once...
> 
>Hav eany of you answered the phone before it rings?  You are sitting
>there and the feeling hits you just as if the phone is ringing and you
>pick it up and say hello and there is a call but the phone had not rung
>yet. 

I am no expert at all on modern phone operation, but it seems to me that 
only a very small "window" of time exists for this to occur.  The 
interval between an incoming call's connection with your phone and the 
instant that the phone begins to ring cannot be very great, can it?

It seems to me that you would have to have quick reflexes and/or 
supernatural ( ;-> ) timing to pull this off.  Any electrical engineers 
out there who can settle this point?

>This is a little weird, but I have seen it happen to others as
>well as myself.  Any of you have simlar experience?
> 
>Jim

Ahem. . . 

I think I understand the point of the above post, and I add this note 
only to clarify.

Many times in the past few years I have answered the phone after only 
one ring; that is, the phone at the reciever's end rings only once.  
When this happens, the caller very often expresses suprise that I could 
have, quoting, "answered the phone before it rang."  The point is, of 
course, that it *has* rung, at least at my end, the one that matters.

Apparently-and this may not be true for all phone circuits, at all times 
or in all areas-the first ring of a call is heard by the reciever but 
not caller.  I have had the converse experience-calling someone and then 
hearing them answer without first hearing their phone ring-and it is a 
bit startling.  

Whether this is relevant to the above thread, I leave up to the .net.
Comments? 

***************************************************************************
  All opinions expressed by this user are well-reasoned and insightful. 
  Needless to say, they are not those of his advisor or university.

       Maybe you can argue that Americans are a bit lazy . . . 

       But at least we're not so lazy that we don't cook our fish. 

**************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: drmax@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Marianna Max)
Subject: Re: pet hauntings
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 15:55:04 GMT


This isn't about a ghost pet but it is a pretty weird coincidence. Many
years ago, my friend's dog was picked up by the pound for being suspected
of harrassing livestock. My friend was pretty sure that his dog hadn't done
it but had no way to prove this against the word of the farmer who
positively identified the dog. The pound was holding the dog and had plans
to kill it. My friend climbed the fence into the pound and rescued his dog.
(I think this was long enough ago to have exceeded the statute of
limitations :-). Anyway in the event that the police came looking for the
dog my friend asked me to care for it for awhile, which I did. Funny thing
was that no one came looking for the dog at all. 

Now comes the weird part. The dog (young dog, no signs of illness) up and
dies in the middle of the night. Two days later my friend received
notification in the mail from the pound that his dog had been killed 
according to due process. 

Max
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: betsy@access.digex.com (Betsy Marks)
Subject: Re: Late feline companion
Organization: Express Access, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 12:21:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.032236.29882@engage.pko.dec.com> moroney@ramblr.enet.dec.com writes:
>
>This is "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" ghost story/urban legend, described in an
>urban legends book by that name, as well as the "Bringing Mary Home" song,
>and also as a story called "Lavender" in a paperback full of ghost stories,
>strange events, pirate treasure, etc. called "Strangely Enough!" that I had
>as a kid.  Any fan of this group would like this book.  Wish I still had it.

I had a couple of those "True Ghost and Supernatural Stories" books when I was
a kid.  I remember being fascinated by the subject (probably what got me 
interested in ghost stories to begin with), but I can't remember the names of
the books, and they are long gone.

I probably bought them (there were 2 or three as I recall) through the 
Scholastic Book program in my school.  Anyone out there still have them or
know some titles?  I'd love to get a copy.

-Araminta (Goddess of Phonelists)

     <betsy@access.digex.com   h) 202/244-2958   w) 202/554-9066 x262>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: gorton@s35.prime.com (Scott Gorton)
Subject: My Grandmother!
Organization: Prime Computer, Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 17:45:24 GMT

My Grandmother has been ill for quite a few years.  As a result of her illnesses she has been bed ridden for almost as long.  Although she's old in age, physically ill and has lost the will to live, she is still quite lucid and rational.  Ever since I can remember She would always cry out for my Aunt, (whom she also lives with).  "Ronnie, get me this", she'd say or, "Oh Ron, help me!"  etc.  Over the last few months her condition has gotten steadily worse.  Doctors have told my Aunt that she may go at any 



time and that she certainly would not make it to Christmas.  

One day, while attending to her household chores, my Aunt heard my Grandmother quietly talking to someone.  My aunt shouted out, "What Mom?", thinking that my Grandmother needed something.  My grandmother just continued.  Finally my Aunt cried out, "Mom, who are you talking to?", while walking into my Grandmother's room!  "Ronnie", my grandmother cried, "You made Billy go away!"  "What are you talking about?", my Aunt countered.  My Grandmother pointed to a chair in the corner of her room and repeated, "Yo



u made Billy go away!"

Billy was her son and my Dad!  He had passed away seven years earlier!  

Scott
From: chaos@zeus.tamu.edu (Kimberly Diane Faircloth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Animal instincts?
Date: 21 Aug 1992 03:00:00 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Aug20.174049.12067@hubcap.clemson.edu>, jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght) writes...
>> >>                                     There are also many cases of animals
>> >> spontaneously dying within a few days of their masters.  Weird stuff.
>> >
> 
>This one point does not seam all that weird to me.  It is not all that
>uncommon for MANY species of animals to "Die of loneliness" when a close
>friend dies.  I know for a fact that it is very common for rabbits and
>birds to die if they are kept as pairs and one of the pair dies.  I have
>heard that there are many dogs where if you own two and one dies, the
>other will die in short order unless you are able to give it the love it
>needs in the abscence of the mate.  I have lost a few pets this way.  It
>amazes me more, that certain animals know their master is sick or dead
>when they are far removed from that master as in the tale of the dogs
>howling for the lady who died at the hospital.
> 
>Jim
> 
Two months ago, one of the dearest men in my life died...my grandpa.  But the
thing that touched me most when we began gathering back at the farm, just 
after his passing, was that his Barbado sheep just stood and watched 
as if they KNEW something wasn't right(and this had been after a year of 
cancer, which meant that Grandma had become the daily caretaker of the 
animals, so they should have been used to not seeing Grandpa).  We always 
have family gatherings there, so this really shouldn't have been any 
different to suddenly have several people showing up.  Even the dogs, Terry 
and Cubby were moping around, very down and you have to know this dogs, 
that when they behave this way, THERE IS something wrong.


Kimberly Faircloth             |   x045kf@tamvm1.tamu.edu
Users Consultant               |   k1f8236@zeus.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University           |   chaos@zeus.tamu.edu
(409) 845-8956                 |

"But Soft!  What rock through yonder window breaks? It is a brick!              
           and Juliet is out cold..."                                           
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: FURRJK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu
Subject: Strangely Enough
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:10:05 GMT

The book 'Strangely Enough' is by an author whose last name is Colby.
He also wrote another book called 'The Weirdest People In The World' that
was essentially in the same vogue of incredibly spooky (to a 12-year old)
stories.  Don't look for them in the adult card catalog; they're normally
classified as juvenile books.
From: lebaron@INRS-Telecom.UQuebec.CA (Gregory LeBaron)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Teresa Doyle CD
Date: 23 Aug 92 01:24:40 GMT
Organization: INRS Telecommunications


You might enjoy the album "Forerunner" by Teresa Doyle. From the liner
notes:
"Original selections by Teresa Doyle are based on ghost stories
collected by her on Price Edward Island".

Production is good. Her singing style reminds me a bit of Kate
Bush. A very Celtic sound.

You won't find this one at your corner record shop, though. Try Bedlam
Records, R.R. No. 3, Belfast, P.E.I., Canada, C0A 1A0  (902) 838-2973
-- 
Gregory LeBaron   lebaron@inrs-telecom.uquebec.ca    (514) 765-7835
INRS Telecommunications, 3 Place du Commerce, Verdun, Quebec, Canada, H3E 1H6
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: cosborn@dante.nmsu.edu (Cecelia Osborn)
Subject: Guardian Angels?
Organization: New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:56:31 GMT

 I am not sure that this is a ghost story but here goes:
My mother in law was very sick and had been in the hospital for
about 5 weeks. She was a normal rational person and not a 
fantisizer. She told me that she had come back from x-ray and
a man was waiting for her. He was dressed in white (not unusual
for a hospital) and had a long beard. He told her that he was 
sorry and that she was going to die and that she was to come
with him then. She said he kept turning up the palms of his 
hands and shrugging his shoulders, kind of like you do when
you can't help someone. She told him that she could not go yet
as she had not forgiven everyone she hated. He left after that.
I questioned her and figured it was a doctor or a tech and let it
go. It wasn't until I got home that I kind of wondered if I had
been right in my assumption of a doctor. My mother in law did die
shortly after seeing the "man in white". Has anyone else heard
of an incident like this one?

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: lori@cs.uchicago.edu (Lori Gullickson)
Subject: Re: Help!
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 19:51:17 GMT



----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Did anyone send you the Rose Hill story?

If so, can you send me a copy?

Thanks

lori@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
From: cogwynn@ducvax.auburn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Ouija and Spooky Occurences
Date: 20 Aug 92 15:05:16 GMT

Wow, cool newsgroup. I have a few stories to tell so here is number 1:

I went through a period in the 7th and 8th grade where I and my friends 
would sit around for hours with a Ouija board (sp?) and freak one another out.
One weekend while on a family trip we stopped at an old antique store and I 
found an old one that I convinced my parents to buy for me. I didn't think
anything of it then, but later I was told never to use a board unless it's
your own and you know who has used it.
I was amazed at how well it worked. My friends and I got pretty deep one night
and started asking some pretty heavy questions about who was controlling the 
board and where he was, etc. It was freaky needless to say.
Now to the fun part. My Dad has a Cross Pen set that he got as a gift from
work one year. I remember him cussing for days about loosing the pen out of the
set. I would say by this point I was 14 or 15 years old. I was sitting in my 
room on the edge of my bed one night when I hear my Mom call me to dinner. I 
jump up to go eat when the pen falls from my lap. This might would be an OK 
thing except for the fact that my Dad lost the pen TWO YEARS before. When I took
it to him he had already forgotten about it.
Around that same time I remember waking up at night to a huge glowing red face
in my bedroom. THis happened several times. I also recall sitting in our living
room and seeing the lights in the back of my house flicker on and off.
I don't know whether or not to blame it on the Ouija Board or not, but it was
some pretty strange stuff for a kid.

Chris O'Gwynn
cogwynn@ducvax.auburn.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: drmax@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Marianna Max)
Subject: Re: answering the phone before it rings
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:11:21 GMT

In article <21AUG199217433028@rigel.tamu.edu> enw2049@rigel.tamu.edu (WALKE, ERIK N) writes:
>In article <1992Aug20.143107.28542@hubcap.clemson.edu>, jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght) writes...
>>I used to think I was the only one this ever happened to but I have
>>found other people that sya it has happend to them and I saw a roomate
>>do it once...
>> 
>>Hav eany of you answered the phone before it rings?  You are sitting
>>there and the feeling hits you just as if the phone is ringing and you
>>pick it up and say hello and there is a call but the phone had not rung
>>yet. 
>
>I am no expert at all on modern phone operation, but it seems to me that 
>only a very small "window" of time exists for this to occur.  The 
>interval between an incoming call's connection with your phone and the 
>instant that the phone begins to ring cannot be very great, can it?
>
>It seems to me that you would have to have quick reflexes and/or 
>supernatural ( ;-> ) timing to pull this off.  Any electrical engineers 
>out there who can settle this point?

Well I don't know about the time interval between the "click" and the ring
but I would guess that it varies dependent on the phone. I say this because
my bedroom phone always rings ahead of my living room phone by about a ring
and a half. They must be getting the ring command at the same time no?

Max
From: rsud@sw.stratus.com (Rajiv Sud)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: My "ghost" experience
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:09:51 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.


	This happened when I was 13 or 14 (don't remember when exactly). It
was late evening and I was sitting up in bed and the light was on in the room.
My parents were across the hall in another room watching television which I
was listening to. A figure appeared and I observered it from behind and to
the right (if the figure were in the middle of a watch facing noon I was
at about 4 or 5 oclock). It was a tallish man with longish gray hair and a
beard and was donned in robes holding a candle in front of him. The figure
appeared, glided forward (towards noon) about a step, and then faded away.
The figure was not transparent but solid. I remember sitting there not
knowing what to think and being surprised that I was not at all scared.
I had not hallucinated anything like this before or since.

..Rajiv
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: elee9sv@rosie.uh.edu (92H01722)
Subject: School Ghosts
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 02:33:00 GMT

        My father used to go to school in an old school in Nagodoches Texas.
The school would shake an knock over inkwells! Has anyone ever heard any
school ghost stroies?

-------Huzzuh@! I am STILL Zoltan KING of the gypsies!------
From: matthews_k@cubldr.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Disappearing Houses?
Date: 19 Aug 92 20:48:30 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder

I don't know if this belongs here or on urban folklore,
but it seems more ghostly than folkloric to me, so here goes...

About ten years ago I was housesitting for a friend who was on a
two-week vacation.  Every day I drove the same route to get to her
house from my work.  I noticed a vacant lot with a beautiful park-
like lawn and flowers.  I thought it was really pretty, and also
noticed that I could see the back of another house across the lot.
A few days later, as I drove by, I was stunned to see a house where
the vacant lot usually sat.  A small, white, 1950's style house, that
had _not_ been there the day before.  I braked, and gaped.  No way had
that house been there before!  I wondered if I had inadvertantly turned
on the wrong street, but after checking the street sign found I had not.
There was even a for-sale sign in front of the house.  I drove away, very
puzzled.  I checked the next day, the house was still there.  Ditto the
next day.  On the third day (you guessed it!) it was gone again, replaced
by the vacant lot.  There was no sign that a house had ever been there!
I was completely weirded out (in the vernacular of the day).

I didn't mention it to anyone at the time, because I was afraid they'd think
I was nuts, but about a month later we happened to be talking about strange
phenomena and I looked at the friend I'd been house-sitting for and said:
"You know, there's this house near your place..."
She interrupted me with:  "You mean the one that sometimes isn't there?"
Obviously she had had the same experience!  I was vindicated!  

Has anyone else had experience with this sort of thing?  I later read a book
by Marion Zimmer Bradley called _The House Between the Worlds_ and got to
wondering.... but no, it couldn't be.

BTW:  I have never used hallucenogens, so it wasn't that!

Kellie Matthews-Simmons
internet::matthews_K@cubldr.colorado.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: christin@cae.wisc.edu (Christine Haas)
Subject: Re: answering the phone before it rings
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 20 Aug 92 10:27:12 CDT

In article <1992Aug20.143107.28542@hubcap.clemson.edu> 
jlysagh@hubcap.clemson.edu (james joseph lysaght) writes:
>I used to think I was the only one this ever happened to but I have
>found other people that sya it has happend to them and I saw a roomate
>do it once...
>
>Hav eany of you answered the phone before it rings?  You are sitting
>there and the feeling hits you just as if the phone is ringing and you
>pick it up and say hello and there is a call but the phone had not rung
>yet.  This is a little weird, but I have seen it happen to others as
>well as myself.  Any of you have simlar experience?
>
>Jim

Yes, many times - it freaks my roommates out.  Sad story, I once lived
in a college dorm with a girl that I was placed with.  We had not known
each other previous to college.  We lived together less than a year, but
over this time she began to fear me because I would absent mindedly say
or do things that hadn't happened yet.  The thing is, I wouldn't realize
it half the time.  I thought it was kind of cool.  She didn't.  Oh well.

Chris.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.ghost-stories:67 dc.general:1944
From: pnh@fcsparc6.ncifcrf.gov (Paul N Hengen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories,dc.general
Subject: Ghost of Abe Lincoln
Summary: Anyone know about this?
Date: 21 Aug 92 20:33:44 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

Hello. I've heard that the ghost of Abe Lincoln lives(?) under
or around the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. Does anyone
know more about this? -Paul.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: FURRJK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu
Subject: Help!
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 00:51:14 GMT

We only just now got this newsfeed recognized at Virginia Tech, and I
find people already discussing a Rose Hill story that resulted in a lot
of mail... um, can someone repost it?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories