While I said I was going to do a ghost story this year -- and I actually got some very interesting suggestions, thanks folks -- it's just not in the cards. So instead I post a few links to some of the ones I've done in years past, as well as give you a link to a site where you can read some good fiction as well.
Probably my favorite ghost story that I've written was one I can't provide a link to. I did it during my first few months at the Freep. It was October 1995 and a friend from college, Jen Meyer, who also worked at the Freep, told me about how this house she lived in was definitely haunted. I checked it out and, luckily for me, the house had a history. The story goes like this: Decades ago, a vacuum cleaner salesman died in the house (I can't recall how he died). Ever since then, most of the people who live there say unusual things happen in the house. The tenants nicknamed the ghost "Hoover" way back when and the name sort of stuck (I've found since then that the guy actually sold Kirby vacuums, which strikes me as odd because Kirby seems like a much less threatening name for a ghost, and if it were me in that house and I thought there was a ghost among us, I'd probably name it something cute like Kirby instead of Hoover, the first syllable of which sounds an awful lot like the sound those kooky ghosts made in the scarier "Scooby Doo" episodes ... I'm just sayin').
That house is on Warren Street, right hand side of the road just as you're about to hit the stop lights before the hill. I believe it's a shade of light blue. It's got a porch. Walk by some night and scare yourself.
Beyond that, I loved writing the story about the ghost that supposedly "goes on panty raids" according to an author who compiled a list of Minnesota ghost stories. That book provided no basis for the story or cited any sources for it, so I set off to find it on my own and had a little fun in the process.
Last year we talked about Lenore, the ghost that supposedly lurks in a residence hall at Bethany Lutheran College. We got to the bottom of that story by tracking down the man responsible for conjuring it many years ago as a student there.
And while this may not be a ghost story, I really enjoyed getting to know South Central College English instructor Amy Magnus a few years ago when I did a story on how Halloween is her obsession. I love Halloween too, but this woman takes it to new levels. She hosts a party every year at her Lake Crystal home and, if you're lucky enough to be invited, it's quite a treat to see the lengths to which she goes to celebrate the holiday.
Oh, and those fake stories ... These come from that phony "official city of Mankato" site that has fooled more than one out of towner. In addition to listing a plethora of impossible Mankato attractions -- submarines? year-round balminess? The Great Mankato Pyramid? -- it has a very creative list of ghost stories from the area, including my favorite:
"Legend has it that in the field behind Gage Tower Dorm at Minnesota State there was once an old cemetery and when it gets dark many co-eds have seen a young girl hanging from a tree on the south side of the clearing. Beneath the girl is the shadow of what appears to be her lover. Many say that they have heard him crying softly. They have also seen dark shadows move from headstone to headstone. The headstones are not visible during the day!"
There are many more on that site, all beginning with, "Legend has it ..."
It's Halloween! Go have some fun! And I'll give a free cup of coffee to anyone who can genuinely scare the pants off Amy Magnus today. Sneak up on her and shout Boo! or something. Let me know how it goes.
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