OTing the OT: They did print some hardcore stuff in the 20's. My wife and I have just finished Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927. It takes up several events from that summer--Lindbergh, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Ford Model A, Ruth's home run record, the Mississippi River Flood, etc.--and ties them together. One of the stories is Ruth Brown Snyder's murder of her husband, the original "crime of the century." The press attention rivals anything you'd see on Nancy Grace today, and was really the birth of that kind of gruesome interest in crime. Great book.(guess they printed some hardcore stuff back in the 20's)
It wasn't that long ago... few years maybe. I used to take my camera out at night on the Trace and around the Riverbend area of the Pear to get some long exposure night shots that would look creepy and cool. I had turned off of 43 onto that stretch of 471 and I something was on the road in the distance. Figured it was a deer since I had seen about 15 on the Trace that night, slowed down because it was just standing there in the middle of the road... but as I got closer... It was almost like lit up and sort of billowing. Couldn't really make out any detail but it sort of looked like a woman in a loose white dress. Then it was like she turned, looked at my car, and just sort of shot off and vanished toward the field. I chalked it up as just seeing some **** since it was late and pushed it out of mind until I saw what you just wrote. Holy crap!My last year at State, winter of 1996 I was home for the holidays and riding around with my girlfriend just looking at Christmas lights and visiting friends. We had been over in Madison and decided to take the long way home to the Rankin side of the reservoir where both our parents lived. Crossed the Reservoir on Highway 43 and turned south on 471 running parallel to HWY 25. Before we reach the Fannin area a woman dressed in white comes running out of an open field to the left of the Highway. At first I thought I was seeing things but my girlfriend saw it too and gasped "Oh my God". This woman was moving so fast it looked unnatural and I thought she was going to run out in front of us. She's wearing a plain white dress, almost like a simple wedding dress. She has long black hair and is waving her arms over her head as she runs like she wants us to stop. She runs into the left lane about 5 feet from my door just as we pass by. I can still remember her face was so pale I could still see it even as she passed out of the shine of the headlights. I locked the brakes up and skidded about 75 feet. Rolled the window down and yelled at the back of the truck if she needed help. No answer. I did NOT want to get out and my girlfriend was begging me to just go - something did not seem right about the way the woman looked. The highway was deserted so I pulled a U-turn and eased back to where she ran out. Nothing. Stopped the truck, stepped out and made one last yell to see if anyone was there and I never heard a peep. I also remember that the temperature seemed to have dropped below freezing at that moment when it had been in the 50s that night. Got back in the truck, called a buddy that was a sheriff's deputy just to let him know what we saw and in case there had been an accident or anything reported about a woman in distress. He said they never got a call about anything that night. While you could try and explain this away as someone out there messing with us, I can tell you it just didn't feel like that and there weren't many houses in that area back then. No alcohol consumed that night either - so we weren't seeing things.The creepiest thing was I told this story to a friend a few years later and his face went white. He had the same experience on the Natchez Trace just north of Hwy 43. Woman in white, running out of the woods trying to flag him down, and when he stopped no one was there.
I nominate this thread for SPS Remembers. Lots of good stuff in here.
I was a junior at Millsaps in 2005 and in the summer went on a study abroad program to London.
My birthday happened to be the same day as the London subway and bus bombings that summer. We were in class at the London school of economics when boom. The building shakes to the sound of this unexplainable explosion. I was hungover and had the window open resting my head on the window frame. The explosion slammed the window shut. My professor thought it was a bus backfire but a couple of us new it was more serious. We start to see people running around and realize within about a minute that something bad was going on. Turned out, the bus that the ******* blew up was one block down on the corner of the building we were in. We walked around the corner to go back to our dorm and the bus looked liked a canoe. First time I've ever seen dead people outside of a funeral. I'll never forget the true feeling of helplessness and having no control of your own fate. It's something you can't understand if it has happened to you.
second
i was in the car with my a buddy on 82 going to Tuscaloosa. It was raining and we hydroplaned. Spun around 3 times and ended up in the ditch. We got out of the ditch and kept going but didn't say a word to each other until we got to Columbus to get the car looked at. I remember actually feeling a rush but not fear until it was over with.
was an atheist to the core. The kind of guy that would get downright ugly and mean about religion, Christianity in particular. Despite his intolerance, he had a kind heart. One Sunday I stopped by his place to watch baseball and he was sitting in his spot on the couch motionless, didn't say a word. After about 5 minutes of unusual silence, he turned to me and said he had been "visited" during the night. I waited patiently for him to continue and finally he did. He said he woke up in the middle of the night and his room was full of light. There was a being sitting in a chair in the corner. He didn't know if it was a man or woman but it had a spectacular glow all around it. He told me they stared at each other and it finally spoke, "Time to get it together, because you're going to die soon." And then it was gone. I didn't know exactly what to say other than it was dream and not to worry about it. He said you're probably right and sat there in silence. The next day he developed a sore throat. Day after that he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He lasted about 9 months.
He died a Christian.
was an atheist to the core. The kind of guy that would get downright ugly and mean about religion, Christianity in particular. Despite his intolerance, he had a kind heart. One Sunday I stopped by his place to watch baseball and he was sitting in his spot on the couch motionless, didn't say a word. After about 5 minutes of unusual silence, he turned to me and said he had been "visited" during the night. I waited patiently for him to continue and finally he did. He said he woke up in the middle of the night and his room was full of light. There was a being sitting in a chair in the corner. He didn't know if it was a man or woman but it had a spectacular glow all around it. He told me they stared at each other and it finally spoke, "Time to get it together, because you're going to die soon." And then it was gone. I didn't know exactly what to say other than it was dream and not to worry about it. He said you're probably right and sat there in silence. The next day he developed a sore throat. Day after that he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He lasted about 9 months.
He died a Christian.
In high school I was a civil war reenactor and i had heard many ghost encounters from the other members in the unit. Before I tell my story I will say that this is the only such instance that I have been present for. My friends have always enjoyed hearing me tell this encounter, because theyfeel it must be real since I start getting chills and sweating every time I tell it.
The unit I was apart of would every so often stay weekends at this old plantation which was a museum. Well this one night around midnight or 1 we began a "ghost march" which was us marching in our uniforms and butting our rifles on the ground with every step. The lead man had a lantern and that was our only light of the night. After about 45 minutes of the ghost march some members of the unit and myself decided to go into the main house which was 2 story with 2 rooms upstairs and 2 downstairs.
(Now the story goes that during the Vicksburg Campaign union soldiers raided this plantation and found the buried silver the owners had on the property. Just so happens that on this certain night we wearing our union blues.)
As several of us entered the house 4 of us began to walk up the stairs. In front was a heavy set man and behind him were his daughters and I was the last one. I hear the man begin to whisper to his daughters as he entered a room with the lantern. Afterwards I was told he saw a woman in mid 19th century dress brushing her hair in front of the mirror. I turn the corner and see a glimpse of a figure but not able to make out any details. As soon as I turn that corner I hear a women scream "GET OUT!"
The older man runs out of the room followed by his oldest daughter almost knocking me down. His youngest was standing there in shock, so I grabbed her arm and we quickly followed everyone out of the house.
On the back sidewalk about 15 yards from the house all of us saw the curtains move back as if someone was looking out. Then on the back porch one of the members of our group said he was freezing and wasn't bothered by any mosquitoes at all, not unusual but this was the middle of JULY while 15 yards away the rest of us were sweating from the humidity and swatting at mosquitoes.
Now ever since then I have been interesting in things of this nature even use to check local hauntings with friends from time to time while at state, never anything that may be demonic though. I haven't experienced anything like that since and hope I don't.
Which plantation were y'all having the ghost march?
Okay, so I read these comments until 10:30 last night beng intrigued. I have a monitor set up in my son's (a 2yo) room. My FIL was staying with us one night and he and I retire at 10pm. He went upstairs and I'm closing down shop. I look on the video monitor and notice he went in to look on my son. The boy had the croop the previous week. The next morning I ask if the boy had woken up in the night. He said no, and I explained that I saw him checking on him and just assumed he did. He then said he never went in his room.
4am this morning I wake up on the dot. Go pee. Hear the wife walk down our hall and up the stairs to check on the boy. Go to bed. She walks in with the boy. She explains he was fighting her and crazy upset. She holds him as she rocks him in the chair in his room. He stares at a corner, points and says "dat!". Does this 10x she said. Freaked her out. Takes him out of the room and he immediately calms down. Brings him down and thats when I see them. So she lays down with him. As usual, he never sleeps, but wants to play when she brings him to our bed. He sits up and points to the bedroom door. Stops. Does it aGAIN but this time he moves his finger across the room to the opposite corner of the room to my wife's side. THEN he moves his finger up to the ceiling. Being a real man, I look at her and shake my head, close my eyes and start praying. I open my eyes to see what my son is doing. He's actually laying down trying to sleep. He's never done that in our bed. I go back to praying until I pray myself to sleep.
Turns out my wife too has seen images in our monitor. We don't live near another family with kids young enough to warrant a monitor so there isn't any overlay of signals. I don't know if any of your stories are true (they're surely good ones if anything) but with God as my witness, these things have transpired. Freaked out I am. I've been trying to rationalize this all day. Can't seem to though. What a way to start Halloween.
Opening day of deer season years ago, I arrive at the deer cabin and all the hunters are talking about where they are sitting that morning. I state that I am going to a ladder stand on a creek crossing. Another hunter says that he had bow hunted that stand a few weeks before and had moved it about 50 yds toward a ridge that runs parallel to the creek. I decide to go anyway since it was open timber and should be easy to find but as I start walking I realize it is pitch black. As I reach the ridge line I lean against a tree to wait for a little daylight to try to find the stand. After a few minutes and a little more light, I catch a movement to my right. There is a tree blown over, the base is on top of the ridge and the top is snagged on a tree in the creek bottom in front of me. The trunk is parallel with the ground but about 10 feet off the ground. I see something hanging below the trunk swinging back and forth. My first thought was a snake but it's to cool for a snake. I wait for more light and finally see a cat laying on the trunk and the movement was its tail twitching back and forth. When I say cat, I mean 100lbs, jet black, and a 3 foot tail. I finally licks itself, stands up, stretches, jumps off the tree, and runs away from me down the ridge line. I'm still standing leaned against a tree, gun on my shoulder, hands in my pocket. It never occurred to me to unsling my gun. They say there is no such thing as panthers in Ms but I saw what I saw!