Haunted Restaurant?

[Antisocial_Worker]

hauntedheadnc, my children and I attract spirits, it's like we are a beacon to them. So, even if we did move into a house with no spirits or ghosts, we would eventually have one or two decide to move in with us.

Here in my case it may be a little that my family tends to draw these sorts of occurrences, but mostly I just think there's such a critical mass of ghosts in the Asheville/WNC area that you can't help but run into things. If you go looking back into this city's history, there's a lot of weirdness, plus a shocking amount of pain and horror and misery.

I never gave it much thought before, but when you add it all up, we can't help but be haunted. First, you had the legacy of slavery, which was not widely practiced in this part of the state (the lay of the land was not and is not conducive to plantation farming), but which was practiced widely enough to stain the land. Then, you had the Trail of Tears, the forced death march of the Cherokee from their homeland here to Oklahoma. Supposedly, that's the era that the curse on the city of Asheville dates from.

Following that, you had the era where we boomed as a health resort, when thousands of wealthy and not-so-wealthy people suffering from tuberculosis would come to breathe the healthy air... which did nothing to cure the disease. Which meant they were still dying. Which meant that we made our money off the dying and the sick.

Then came the era when we were one of the resorts of choice for the wealthy from up North, the Midwest, and from all over the South. Naturally, this led to the establishment of insane asylums all over town, in which these wealthy families could deposit the relatives they wished to forget about.

Then, during World War II, the federal government seized all the grand hotels and used them as prisons and hospitals. Some reverted back to their original use afterward. Some became apartment buildings. One became another insane asylum.

And so on, plus the occasional epidemic, such as the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak that resulted in entire blocks of graves in Riverside Cemetery, the city's largest, all bearing the same dates. Asheville was hit especially hard then. Then add in the occasional serial murderer (we had three operating in or near the city between 1960 and 1990), the occasional spree killer (a man screaming that he was the devil and didn't care if he got sent back to hell walked through downtown shooting one December day in 1906 and ended up killing six before he was lynched), and our general tendency toward morbidity and if you come to Asheville you can almost sense a black cloud hanging over the city. And sometimes thing reach out from that black cloud to touch you. In fact, they do so frequently.

[Misanthropical]

Aww thanks, Bella_Vixen

Last night, I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom off the master bedroom (yes, again when I was brushing my teeth) and no where near the shower when I heard what sounded like someone hit the shower doors HARD! I nearly jumped out of my skin, since I was the only one awake and wasn't expecting it.

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Ethan likes to pace in the hallway upstairs usually when I'm downstairs. I thought I was the only one who heard it, but my daughter (who also suffers from insomnia) hears it too. He paces between her bedroom door and ours, back and forth, back and forth.

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I have heard him on the stairs, so I turn around (my back is to the stairs when I'm on my computer) to see if it's one of the children, but no one I can see is there.

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No matter where we live, we hear (all of us hear it) distinct mysterious knocks on the door and no one is ever there and there is no way someone could have knocked and hidden fast enough for us not to catch them. I just ignore those distinct weird knocks now, but my family insists on checking anyway. when they find that no one is there I tell them that I told them there wouldn't be.

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The first year we were here, I was in the kitchen and I saw what I thought was the little guy crawl under the dining room table (something he use to do) and start playing around under there. So, I went to tell him to get out of there and get ready for dinner, but he wasn't under there, he had been upstairs the whole time with the big guy. I KNOW I saw a child under the table, even if it wasn't my child.

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I used to drive by a cemetery when I went to and from work. When I was going to work I never saw anything, but on the way back after it had gotten dark I would always see something.

I was driving by and saw that I was coming up on a guy riding his bike and thought it was a bit weird that the guy was out at 1 AM on his bike. I went to pass him and he and his bike disappeared into thin air.

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I have seen bright orbs bouncing around in the cemetery, but I had the feeling I wasn't suppose to see that and raced home.

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There is a store called "Unclaimed Freight" nearby that I try not to go in for any reason. The fight or flight reflex kicks in as soon as I walk in the door. I haven't seen anything or heard anything in there. I just get the feeling that something evil does not want me in there. I get feelings of hopelessness, dread and fear while I'm in there.

My husband knew I abhorred the place, but didn't know why and finally said to me "You really do have an aversion to that place, don't you? I told him that he was correct, but haven't told him why. He gets a tad freaked out by these things.

[Aethian]

Another forum I read has a ghost story thread every so often. One story that they post every time a new thread is the Humper Monkey stories.

Gods Kyree...I'm glad i read those during the early morning hours and not the evening hours like I was originally going to do.

I knew our troops had to re-use buildings but to use one of those ones...one that wasn't ever properly emptied or shut down? *shivers*

[Misanthropical]

I need to let you guys know the background first. When I was a child, my parents moved a lot and I do mean a lot. I have my own ideas about why, but they don't have any bearing on the story.

So, we moved into an old hospital when I was about 7 or 8, which had been turned into a home. It was a big house, but teeny tiny for a hospital. Anyhoo, at this point my parents hired a live in babysitter or nanny, which ever you prefer to call her, because like I said before they drove truck across country. She was a big time Christian and knew my parents for years. I don't remember how old she was but I'm guessing in her 60s or close to it.

I know you guys figured out paranormal things would go on in an old hospital, right? CORRECT! My room was what use to be an office and my babysitter's room was right across the hall from mine in what use to be another office.

I woke up one night because I had a nightmare and went to see if my nanny would let me sleep with her. I walk across the hall and raise my hand to knock on the door, but before I could knock I heard what sounded like a group of people talking, but my nanny and I were the only ones in the house. I couldn't make out what they were saying and I froze on the spot until a man's voice boomed "GO AWAY!" I nearly peed myself and went flying back into my room and hid under my blanket.

There was a chair in my nanny's room that if you sat in it you would get the feeling you were falling. I remember a lot of people coming by to check it out for themselves and agreeing it was weird.

I had a picture that my grandma sent me of the family reunion with all our family members in it. I thought it was pretty cool and had it leaning against the lamp so I could see it when I was lying down in bed. One night, I watched as the people in the picture started changing places. Once again, I hid under my blanket. I threw the picture away the next morning and told my mom I lost it.

In the two rooms that use to be were the patients were kept I would sometimes hear what sounded like a doctor talking to a patient or I would hear what sounded like people in pain.

I use to love playing in the room that use to be the operating room, until I saw a man on a table who disappeared a few seconds later. I didn't play in there alone anymore.

I would have friends come over to play, but they never came over more than once, because of all the paranormal goings on. My best friend at the time would wait outside for me to come play because she was too scared to come inside.

I spent a lot of time under my blanket when we lived there. The place was torn down shortly after we moved out. I do wonder if they built other houses on that spot and if those houses have the same paranormal activity.

[Misanthropical]

i did live in one house as a child that I don't remember anything paranormal going on in, but the idea of ever stepping foot in that house terrifies me to this day. I still have nightmares about being trapped in that house and being chased by something I can't really see but that terrifies me so bad that I wake up either praying or my husband wakes me up because I'm screaming and crying in my sleep.

My husband thinks that I saw things so terrifying that I blocked them from my conscious mind.

Just a few minutes ago, my husband and I were standing in the kitchen talking (the children are all at school) and we heard a LOUD groaning sound and the whole house shook. He went outside to see if he find what caused it, since that has never happened before, but we are still scratching our heads on that one. I'm glad the little guy is in school because he would still be hiding under his blanket (Gee, I wonder where he gets the "hiding under the blanket" thing from?)

[calulu]

Not really a ghost story but something just really odd. Warning, long story

We had a cockatiel for about 11 or 12 years that I'd been called by the local animal rescue to trap. They don't do birds and have a list of us in our area that are birders to go out and do the trapping and fostering until they find homes. The only drag about that is usually no one steps forward and you end up with the bird. Usually what I do is tame and socialize the bird and give it away. Not this guy, nothing I did worked, he refused to tame up. He was maybe five or six years old when we got him.

Eventually he did come around after a couple of years and became rather tame if still a little cranky. He went from a bird that would hiss at me the second I came into the room to someone that rarely stayed in his cage and would beg for table food. He had a routine, every day after caging breakfast off everyone he would fly over to the front window in the living room and take up his vigil on top of a large plant in the window. He was our watch bird, he'd tell me if someone was on the lawn and I could tell by his cries if it was someone we knew or someone we didn't know. He recognized peoples cars, etc. Watch bird. He even knew which bus was the kids school bus and once the kids came home from school he'd beg for their after school snacks and settle down to watch tv with them till supper time. The kids named him Elvis.

The last six months of his life I knew he was suffering from arthritis, he was stiff, moved slowly and his feet had taken on that ancient gnarled look very old exotic birds get. He stopped paying attention to the world outside the house and hung around with me and in his cage. One night I fed him a treat, put him in his cage right behind my desk and turned back to work on a project on the computer. Ten minutes later one of my kids noticed he was dead on the floor of the cage. When I lifted him out of the cage he was still warm, so he couldn't have passed very long before. I remember looking at him and seeing what looked like a birdy smilel and a look of total peace on his face. We shed a few tears and buried him the next morning by the front steps so he could always see the comings and goings that seemed to delight him in life.

Shortly after he died I started hearing clicking noises coming from my desk lamp, which is something he adored doing, sitting on that lamp and trying to chew on the glass shade. This happens a couple of times a day but in the last six months or so it's gotten much less. I like to think he's still around and telling us he's ok.

[Crossbow]

I'm certainly not sick of your stories. Here on my end of the nation, however, I'm a little weirded out because for the first time in my life, I'm living in a place that isn't haunted. On the one hand it's rather refreshing. On the other hand, it's just not normal to come home, look up the stairs, and not see a head floating at the top, which was a not-uncommon occurrence at my old apartment.

You lived in my friend's old apartment in Columbus, Ohio? Actually, in her case, it was the bedroom, not the top of the stairs....

[Misanthropical]

Ethan does not like it when there is fighting going on in the house. It's never a physical fight, since we aren't a violent family, it just means voices are raised which hardly ever happens since we all pretty much get along 99% of the time.

Anyway, my husband had to run some errands and the boys and I got into it about something stupid and we were all yelling at each other.

All of a sudden we heard loud *POP* *POP* type noises that only stopped when we stopped yelling at each other. We never did figure out what caused it or where it was coming from.

Usually, if there a fight going on Ethan will start blowing out the light bulbs to get our attention and will only stop when the fighting stops. At first we just thought it was a weird coincidence, but then we noticed it only happened if there was a fight going on.

We hardly ever fight in my house, but when it does happen Ethan expresses his displeasure about it.

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Yesterday, I was coming out of the bathroom off our bedroom and it felt like someone had poked me firmly in the shoulder, it caused me to step backwards back into the bathroom, but no one I could see was there.

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Last night, after everyone else went to bed (stupid insomnia) I was on my computer and kept hearing things falling on the floor near my husband's computer. I went over to see what fell, but nothing had fallen.

That went on for a few minutes and finally stopped.

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I have heard what I thought was one of the children rummaging about in the kitchen. When I went in to see what they were up to no one was in the kitchen I could see.

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Our laundry room is not that big and I usually have the door open when I'm in there, just because I don't feel like opening and closing it every time I have to go in there.

Anyway, I can see anyone who walks by to get to the kitchen when I'm in the laundry room. I have thought I saw my husband or the big guy walk by, but they are usually upstairs at the time.

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One of the places my family lived in when I was growing up was an old farm complete with a barn. We didn't have any animals so we hardly ever went into the barn. I was still in grade school when we lived there.

Anyway, we as well as other people could hear animal sounds coming from the barn sometimes, but never saw anything in the barn. I would rather take a beating than go into the barn, because it scared the hell out of me even in broad daylight. It always was very dark and stifling in there no matter what the weather or time of day it was outside.

In the house, there was a spot in the living room in front of our couch that was always and I do mean always very cold. I mean see your breath type of cold, but only in that one spot. People would get disorientated when they tried to stand or sit in that spot.

Our driveway was very long and took forever for me to walk down to get to my school bus and forever for me to walk back up to get home after school, especially in the harsh South Dakota winters. Anyway, I would sometimes hear my name being called when I was walking on the driveway, it use to scare me so bad that I would haul ass to get where I was going.

My bedroom was upstairs and my parent's bedroom was on the first floor. I use to beg my mother to let me sleep with them, because the upstairs had the feeling of complete evil, but they never noticed it because they hardly ever went upstairs. I was told if I didn't stop being a big baby I would get a beating. I took my chances with the evil feeling. You think they would come to the conclusion that something was going on, since I was asking to sleep with them every night.

It wasn't till until my mother and step father divorced and I was in high school that my mother admitted to me that there was something very wrong with that farm.