So a little bit about me…

My father was born and raised in New Orleans. Pretty cool, huh?  I remember when we were little, my father took my sister and I down to visit his side of the family, and the part that stuck with me the most out of that first visit?

The cemeteries.

With the city being under sea level (as with most of the region), they don’t exactly bury the dead. Can’t do that – the caskets would end up floating back to the surface once more.  They learned this a very long time ago. So instead, they have cemeteries with mausoleums instead. Some for individuals, others large enough to house families so the whole line can rest together.

I remember hearing these stories when I was little, driving through the different cemeteries throughout New Orleans. I had never seen anything like it, and I was fascinated.

Sure, it’s a bit macabre, but the stories that began… They stirred me.

Ever since then, I have had this fascination with death.  Well, not death, per se, but more what comes after. I remember spending countless hours with my sister, wandering through cemeteries to find the oldest graves, read the wars people fought in, see the patterns which would hint at local epidemics.  I visited New York with friends back in high school, and they took me to a cemetery that held people who had fought during the Revolutionary War! Ooooh, what a FIND!!

I was always hopeful that there was something more out there, lurking in the shadows. I was already an avid reader by this point, and I devoured anything I could get my hands on about ghosts.

After graduation, I went to MSU (then ‘SMSU’), and I lived in Kentwood Hall. I got to have the first choice of dorms, and though this one was off-campus, it was still my first pick.  Why?  Well, sure, the single bathroom per room was certainly a bonus, but I’m not gonna lie, the deciding factor?

It was supposed to be haunted.

DUDE.

And you know what?  There are a BUNCH of places in Springfield, MO that are supposed to be haunted.  I devoured these stories, and even made friends with people as fascinated by all of this as I was. I can’t even tell you how much time I spent those first several years driving around to all these spots (often in the dead of night… shhh….), the lot of us just looking for ghosts.

Ghost Light in Seneca

Albino Farm

Haunted girl scout camp

Gillioz

The Battlefield

And a few other places that we stumbled upon by accident…

Ah the stories from those times!!

Now, it’s been a minute since those younger days, and the big difference is I don’t sneak out to places in the middle of the night anymore.  I still love all the ghost stories I can get my hands on, and when there are places that are supposed to be haunted, you better believe I’ll be going there.

So yeah… I am still preoccupied by ghost stories, and I go at every opportunity.

So give me your best local ghost stories. I’d love to hear them.