Some Ghostly Tales

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Welcome, ghosts and ghouls, to our spooktacular episode number five of Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia.

Muh-huh-huh-huh-huh. I do want to throw out that I have a little cold. It is just cold. It is not the COVID.

Don't worry, you guys are safe. Even though we're a podcast, you just by listening, you are not getting COVID. You are OK. Yes, we are socially distancing while recording this.

That's right. She's in the chair halfway across the room. Yep. That's like, let me stay at least 10 feet away from you.

Exactly. Currently. Exactly. Even though I got her food from oligardinid.

And then I coughed on it. Today, we are going to tell some ghost stories, some personal ghost stories, and some haunted tales that will leave you shivering in the night. Currently, Haley and I are surrounded by things of the occult. Are we?

No. I don't want to say a word. Oh, I don't say. Is that a Ouija board?

It's not. Oh, that's like, I don't mess with Ouija boards. No. I gotta go.

It's a little bino. No, no, no. I have to go, man. So no.

I was going to say cauldron, but no. I mean, it looks just more like a pot on the stove. It's cool. I wanted to give you guys that Halloween feel.

So strap in, turn on some monster mash and get ready to have your spine tingle. I'm just impressed that you can keep that voice up for that long. I'm impressed that I didn't start coughing just ridiculously. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. So Haley, are you ready to hear a personal experience of a ghost story? As ready as I will ever be.

Yes. Let's begin. This one is my own personal ghost story that starts back in the early 2000s. That's a spooky time.

It was. Really? I mean, for everyone, it was dating Justin Timberlake. They were popular.

It was a weird time. Yeah. Lowrider pans. I never pulled that off.

Anyway, so we're talking early 2000s. I was a freshman in college. And our last episode, we actually talked about the college that Haley and I attended, which was Mars Hill for me college, University for her. I lived in the women's freshman dorm.

So to give you a little bit of contact, a little bit of history, the Endomore Women's Dorm was first built in 1937 on campus. Beautiful brick structure that sits atop a hill. Well, more and more women started coming to the college. So they realized quickly that they needed to build another dormitory.

So right next to it, well built. It's like attached to it. It's attached to it by stairs, basically. They built another beautiful brick building, which they named Stroop Dormitory or Strap Dormitory, depending on how you pronounce it.

This was built in 1941. So both of these structures, by the time I came there in the early 2000s, pretty old. I remember moving in and coming in the front and they said, OK, so you're on the fourth floor. And I was like, OK, cool.

Where's the elevator? Oh, guess what? There is no stairs. So you march up all these stairs and then they told me once I got to the top, oh, yeah, you better go move your car.

And I said, why? And they were like, oh, yeah, freshman can't park on the hill. When I tell you, I lost the freshman 15. I didn't gain an ounce.

I, let me tell you, killed myself, walking up the hill, up the stairs. Anyway. It's called Mars Hill for a reason. That is right.

And at that point, it felt like Mars Hill. That was tough. That was killing myself. So my roommate, who was from Florida, we got along really well, we decorated our room and we did all those things that you do and we settled in.

It was an old building. I was a little taken aback at first. They had apparently remodeled in 1989. They had done some basic remodels, but essentially it was the same as it was in 1941 when it was built.

So my roommate and I, like I said, we had a little happy room. We went out and decorated it. So I used to have a hard time sleeping. I was thinking about school and I'd be up late at night working on papers.

And so sometimes I would just get out of the room and take a break. This one particular night, I decided I was going to walk through the halls. So I walked through the halls of Straptorm and I went through the breezeway, through the stairwell and into the Edna Moore section, which is the oldest building. And I was walking through and I got to the point where the community bathrooms and I swear to you, without a doubt in my mind, I heard something say, oh, that's freaking.

I thought, no, no, I, no. So I went into the bathroom and I heard and I looked around and I thought, is somebody playing a prank on me? I was like, that's what it is. Some, one of my friends is in here playing a prank on me.

So I'm like looking around every stall and every day, who is that? You know, there's no one there. But I kept hearing. Holly.

And I thought, shit, I'm going crazy. I'm slapped and I am delirious and this will work is killing me and this is what it is. I've lost my mind. So for some reason I keep walking around the bathroom like a zombie and I hear it again.

Holly. And that was it. It was breathy, it was almost mony and there was no one there. And I ran my ass out of that bathroom so fast and my heart was just, I felt like someone was present.

You know how you can feel the energy in the room. Yeah, yeah. There was someone there. I ran back to my room and I was like, my roommate was asleep and I was like, you're fine, you're fine.

You're fine. You're fine. Nothing's wrong. You're fine.

And I also tried to convince myself, this is an old building. You know, you're just thinking it's haunted because it's an old building. You haven't heard anything. You're fine.

And also up to this point, no one had shared any information about, hey, this building's haunted. Right. So I go on. What weird things start happening in my dorm room.

So one weird thing that happened is we had these old school blinds that you pull down. Like the ones in the movies that go like, yeah, yeah. Around and around and around and around. Yes, that you, it takes a lot of strength to pull them down.

Yeah. So there are those like really heavy shades, you know. And so we would have to and to pull them down. Well, it makes sense that when you have to have that much tension to pull something down that sometimes they'll just go up like that.

So that is totally normal. What is not normal is when they're up and they pull down by themselves. I hate that. I'll never forget one day they were up.

It was nice and bright and sunny. And my roommate and I are talking in the room. And suddenly the shade starts to go down. And we turn.

I'm not doing it. She's not doing it. Who the hell is doing it? Oh my gosh.

We looked at each other and I was like, did you see that? Yeah, I see that. She's like, why did you do that? And I said, I'm freaking seeing him.

I'm freaking out. I'm doing it. We hug for a minute because we're scared. And then we realized, oh shit.

We're not alone. And I was like, it got through the door. That one of that thing is an Edna Moore that was calling my name got through the door. They know where I live.

Oh my God. And that was just about getting. Oh God, it gets worse. The toilet started fleshing by itself.

In the middle of the night, you just choo. And I was like, oh, my sweet maids in the bathroom. No, there was no one in there. It would do that a lot.

And in the bathroom, talk about old school. The sink, most things you kind of, this was so old and probably broken that you would take your right hand and you would turn the faucet, but you had to hold the faucet. You'd have to hold the knob and stick one hand in to wash it and then hold the knob with the other hand and stick the other hand in to wash. So not COVID friendly.

Correct. And it just wouldn't hold. It wouldn't stay. So you had to hold it.

One day, you know, I think it was brushing my teeth and all of a sudden I hear and the faucet turns and the waters is shooting out. I wasn't holding it. No one else was in there with me. Holy shit.

The ghost can turn on the water. I'm going to tell you what, this ghost has some strength because it was hard to hold that faucet over, you know, hold that. So that scared me. But the P.S.

D resistance was the night that my roommate and I, we were chatting and you got to remember it's an old building, we didn't have air conditioning. So we had fans constantly going. So you constantly go, that shh. And ours, we always had full blast oscillating, you know, because it was hot as hell in there.

You get a little chilly and I said, you know, hey, why don't we turn off the fan? She's like, yeah, that's good. I go. So maybe in a minute or two later, I said, I thought you were going to turn off the fan.

And it is oscillating going back and forth just at full blast. And she said, I'll never forget. She holds up the cord in her hand and she said, I did. I was like, oh no, and so we run out of the room and we're like standing in the hallway because you know, the ghost isn't going to find us.

Right, right. It just felt polished to your room because I can't go through. It's weird, you know, the hall isn't pinagible. Just like we thought our dorm room was.

Right. And we realize, oh my gosh, not only are we, we not alone, but you know, does this intend as harm? Like what is this ghost one? Who is this ghost?

So we started sleeping with Bibles underneath our pillows. That was her idea. She's like, no, I'm just a small production. She's like, I think, I think we need to sleep with Bibles underneath our pillows.

And I said, let's do it. I'm game. Well, we started to realize in maybe engaging with this spirit a little bit, which I don't always recommend engaging with spirits. Yeah, maybe just don't.

Yeah, yeah. I just want to be co-exist. What I realized was we did. I referred to her as her.

And it didn't seem like she truly meant as harm. I think she just wanted to say, hey, I just want to let you know. I have strength in these ghostly arms. And I will tell you that I felt a little crazy at first.

Like, is this really happening? Like you second guessed or something? Yeah. Is someone gaslighting me?

Like, what's going on? And I was telling the RA and she said, oh, didn't you know? And I said, no, what? And she goes, oh, this place is totally haunted.

Oh my gosh. And I said, yeah, that would have been nice to know. And she said, yeah, she was like, a couple of people to hide here. And she was like, one in particular.

She was like, we think that she's the one who haunts it. Yeah, well, good luck. Yeah. I feel like on move-in day, they should have been like, OK, here's your keys.

Here's your cafeteria. Here's the ghost on the building. Any questions? You're not alone.

That would have been nice. Like an info card that's like, welcome to Marsil. Exactly. And something even after you settled in, so then that way you don't run screaming for the hills.

Right. After that time when you can cancel your class or get out of your classes when you're stuck. Yeah, yeah. You're locked in.

You're locked in. You're locked in. You're locked in. You know, your tuition's paid.

There's a ghost here. Yeah, just FYI. You know, just so you know. So that definitely freaked me out for sure.

And interestingly enough, remember Hayley the Tale that I told last week about the murder at Marsil? Yeah. Well, in just a second, I'm going to tie in that murder to some ghostly happenings that have occurred. But first, I would like to hear some of your ghost stories.

Mwahaha! I guess I can do that. I can tell. Sorry.

OK, so you want to hear my speaking story? Totally. My ghost story. I was a student at Marsil University when I was there.

And this story happened in McConnell, which is not like, it's not a residence hall. It's mainly known as being the clogging studio. And for those of you who don't know what clogging is, just Google or like YouTube search the Bailey Mountain cloggers because that's the team that I was on. There's a ton of other like really awesome teams out there.

But that was a team that I was on some a little impartial, just a little bit. But so that was a studio that I pretty much lived in when I was in college because we were there all the freaking time. And side note, I took Polycie and elementary ed classes in that building. That's crazy.

So this building, I don't know the year it was built because I'm not as good of a researcher as Ollie, but it's an old building. And before it was the clogging studio, there was actually a pool underneath it. Or like it was kind of a community pool and they built the studio floor over it. And I've actually been down into the pool when you can't do it anymore.

So if you're a student now, don't try to go do it because it's locked now. But back in the day, when I was there, it was not locked. And it was just like a wooden door and you could scale some pipes and things and get down in there. And it was, I mean, dirty and disgusting.

And we probably inhaled all kinds of things we shouldn't have. But it was a pool. So kind of the legend is, and I don't know if it's 100% true because I haven't been able to find the records of it. But there's a story that a little boy drowned in the pool when it was a community pool.

And his name was Timmy. So that was kind of the running joke at the studio. And if he was a real person, it's not a joke. I'm so sorry for your loss, Timmy.

Absolutely. And Timmy's family. But all the weird things that happened in the studio, we would just kind of blame on Timmy. So like if the speaker blew or something fell off a shelf and be like, oh, it's just Timmy.

You missed a step. Yeah, I missed a step. And I'm like, oh, it's Timmy. It was our coach.

But for me, I never really believed that Timmy was there. I mean, I heard all these stories, but I'm like, oh, it's just people kind of messing with you. Like you don't believe it's a thing until it happens to you. But for anyone who has been a clogger, and I know there's some of you listening to this, so hello.

Thank you for listening. We love you. Yeah, there's a week before the big concert they put on that is just this crazy week of rehearsals. And it's all hours of the night, you're trying to get everything done.

So we were in between rehearsals. And I decided to go to the studio and take a nap between classes. So I'm laying there on the couch in the studio, taking a nap. Little lights are off.

And there's this ramp that kind of goes up to the back door. And it's kind of built over something. So you can hear if someone's walking on it, like it's really loud. You can hear there's no way to sneak into this building.

You're going to be heard. So I'm laying there on the couch. And I hear somebody on the ramp. And I'm like, oh, somebody's coming in.

No, we do. So I kind of set up and I'm waiting to see who's coming in because I figured it was another clogger. And nobody came in. And I was like, last week or maybe they went into the second studio or the costume room or something and they just didn't come all the way down.

But then I never heard them again. And I was like, oh, that's weird. I was also delirious and tired because I've been practicing for 12 hours straight. So I was like, well, forget, I'm going to sleep.

So I laid back down. And then I heard someone running on the ramp. And I'm like, what the heck is that? So I get up off the couch and look around the corner and there's nobody there.

There's nobody on this ramp. And I like jokingly said, like, ha ha, it's going to be very funny. And I laid back down. And as soon as I sat back down on the couch, it sounded like seven people were running up and down that hallway.

And I was like, this is freaky. And then he brought his ghost. Yeah, Timmy brought his buddies to come and hang out in studio. And I was like, well, that's weird.

I should have like, noped out of there and just left. But I was tired. And I was like, you know what, Timmy? Not today.

I'm going to take my nap. So I'm like, bantering with this ghost that is not there. Like can't banter back with me. So I sound like a crazy person.

So I laid back down on the couch. And all of a sudden, there was a huge poster from old concerts, like pictures and posters on the wall. And all of a sudden, all of them fall off the wall. I was saying, nope.

So I got up and grabbed my bag and I was out of there. But it was so freaky. And as I stood up, I swear the room got 20 degrees colder. And it was silent.

Like all the posters fell off the wall and it was silent. You pissed Timmy off. I made Timmy very angry. You did.

So I then left very quickly and did not return to the rest of the day. But there are a ton of other stories I've heard. And I will leave them untold and hope that some cloggers who have had some experiences of Timmy write in and let us know. And I'll share their stories because there's been some crazy ones from other folks that, I mean, honestly, I wouldn't have believed unless I had experienced something there.

I would love to hear it. And we also, I have friends who had mentioned in other buildings that are on campus, they've experienced some ghostly activity. Yeah, there's some super cool stuff. So we'd love to do an episode of just more ghostly happenings that have happened to you guys.

So reach out to us. So before we conclude, I would like to share one last story as we trickle back to the strap dormitory in the early 2000s. Again, I'd just like to do that. So a college pal of mine, Rachel, I had asked on Facebook for some folks who had attended the school to reach out to me and share some of their ghostly experiences.

So Rachel had explained that she had a room on the first floor of strap. So strap was four floors plus a basement. So she was on the first floor. And she said that one day she was in her room, she was reading a book, and she said she just glanced over towards the window and there was a woman looking through the window at her.

She said the woman had dark hair appeared to be around her age. She said absolutely freaked her out. Yeah. So she said, if somebody played a trick on me, kind of like I thought.

So she runs outside and this is on the ground level. So she runs outside, faces the back to see who's out here, who's out there? No one's out there. There's no one around.

It's very quiet. And Rachel said I just got these like tingles. So she's talking to RD, the resident director, a resident advisor, and she's telling her of this experience. And of course the RDRA says, oh yeah, well didn't you know you're in her room?

And she said, what do you mean her room? And she said, oh yeah, the girl that died here on campus, you know, she haunts it. What? She haunts this building.

So, Haley, remember the story I told about Sally Bell Moffatt last week, the young lady who was killed and then dragged and thrown down in a bankman? It is said that she haunts Strapped dormitory, which was the last place that she was seen. Now some legends have it that she was actually killed in Strapped. But the evidence really doesn't support that.

We don't know that for certain. She actually was seen leaving the building. So we don't really know in between the times she left what all happened and where it happened. But she was told that she had Sally's room.

Oh, that's freaky. Isn't it? That's freaky. Rachel decided, I'm done.

I think I can't do this because she also mentioned that things in her room would suddenly go missing and then reappear. And she wasn't doing it. She said she was the only person in that room. She had her own room.

And she said it was like someone just like screwing with her. So she said she decided, okay, I can't do this anymore. So she decided to switch rooms. So she was going to go to the room across the hall.

Well, on the day that she's moving her things, the room above her, the bathroom above her floods. Now, the way that the dorm room is set up is you have a dorm room and then a bathroom and then another dorm room. So you have what's called a sweetmate. So you share a bathroom with the people in the other dorm.

So when the water from above dripped down, it only dripped down into her room and it ruined all of her stuff. Oh. The day she was moving out. And I even said, whoo, sounds like you made Sally angry.

And she said, oh, yeah, she said it was clear that I was the target. Yeah. So. So.

So just pissing off a ghost. No kidding. And I mean, for the most part, my experience, if it was Sally, she did seem like she was kind of a jokester in a way. I just wanted you to know that she was there just letting you know like, hey, I'm kind of messing with you a little bit just to let you know, keep you on edge.

So it was kind of refreshing to hear that other people had experiences too, even though living there was hard because it was kind of scary. Yeah. I mean, I would probably if I was stuck there in the afterlife and strapped over, I'd be pretty mad. Yeah.

I mean, you know, it's an older dorm. It's, you know, when you think about where do I want to be if I'm kind of stuck in that place? I don't know. I'm thinking like a YE maybe.

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So maybe somebody can help her cross over. Maybe. Yeah. She just wants to hang.

I want to hang out with us. Maybe. But thank you so much, Rachel, for sharing that and allowing me to share your story. And I want to thank each and every one of you for joining us for our book, Tackular Halloween episode.

Please share your ghost stories with us. Please send us some emails. Hit us up, right? Yes.

Yes. Send your, I'm not going to do a scary voice because I can't. I shouldn't. But yes, definitely send us some emails at mountaindistories.applelachian at gmail.com.

You can follow us on Facebook at mountaindistories. We have a lot of mountain history tales from Appalachia. And give us a follow on Instagram at mountaindistories.applelachia. We love to hear from you.

Yes, just, I mean, even just to say hi. So we are wishing you all a safe and happy Halloween. A socially distance. A socially distance Halloween.

You know, get yourself a bag of candy from Sam's and just stay in your house and go to town. Yeah, if you've got kids and are taking trick or treating, most costumes already have a built in mask. Exactly. How cool is that?

That is so handy. Where that mask. Exactly. And remember, just because it sounds like it's COVID.

Right? It may not be. It may not be COVID. But Halloween is actually the last day of early voting.

So go vote. Exactly. You want your voice heard. Yes.

Get out there and vote. Yep. Early voting started on the 15th. So you have until the 31st early vote.

I'm going to get there and do it. Yeah, I've already done it. So I've cast my vote. Good job.

I'm done. I'm going to get there. Me and Gray did it. Good job.

I'm going to get there. I swear I'm going to do it. So have a very safe and spooktacular Halloween. Bye.

Bye.