Treasure in the Attic

When my Uncle Leo was a boy, his family used to live out in Guadalupe on a ranch in Oso Flaco. One day, when his mother was coming home, she saw a man leaving the house. She went inside and asked her husband who he was, but he said that no one had been at the house. She saw that man on more than one occasion, always leaving the house, as if he lived there.

On another occasion, her son was in bed trying to sleep, when he heard someone sit down on his bed; he even felt the bed move. At first, he was too afraid to open his eyes, but when he finally worked up the courage, he saw an old woman sitting at the edge of his bed looking at him. He pulled the covers up over his head and prayed until he fell asleep. This happened another time, but it was even more terrifying than the first, because this time, the old woman shook my uncle, as if she were trying to wake him up and get his attention.

Eventually, they moved to Santa Maria to be closer to the rest of the family. When the house was torn down, the workers found a large sum of money in the attic. Maybe the old woman was trying to tell that to my uncle.

Another Warning

A few years after my great grandfather died, his wife woke up in the middle of the night, because she heard him yell her name, "DOLORES!" When she awoke, she heard people outside breaking into her daughter's car. She knocked on the window and they ran off. She believed that her husband was still looking out for her and was warning her of the carjackers.

The House on Railroad

There is a house on Railroad street in Santa Maria where my great grandparents used to live. My great grandfather had a pool hall, and used to come home around 2 am every night, and my great grandmother stayed home, where she cooked, cleaned and cared for the children. After my great grandparents died, the next occupants of the house claimed they would hear someone open the door and come in the house every night around 2 am. They also claimed to hear pots and pans being moved in the early mornings and sometimes they would smell food when no one was cooking or even in the kitchen.

A Warning

When my great grandfather was a little boy, he used to bring his uncle lunch in the afternoons. His uncle worked in a silver mine on their property, so each day, he would bring it down into the mine. One day, when my great grandfather was bringing lunch, his uncle came out of the mine and told him not to go in. He said okay and left. Later that day, my great grandfather found out that there had been an explosion in the mine, and by the time his uncle had told him not to come in, he was already dead.

Ouija: Rusty

One day, my friends and I were hanging out at my house. Like most high school kids our age, we got bored, and decided to play a rousing game of ouija to enliven out spirits. We encountered a strange character named Rusty. Interestingly enough, one of my friends was wearing a t-shirt with a Rusty logo on it, which seemed to be more than just a coincidence. We tried asking questions, but every time we did, the planchette would move quickly through all the letters and numbers--or at least it would try. Previously, we had learned that when a spirit does that, it is trying to escape the board, so we were careful to remove our hands from the planchette once we realized what was going on. Getting no answers was no fun for any of us, so we bid the spirit adieu and waited a few minutes before trying again. When we asked what the next spirit's name was it said Rusty, again, so we asked if we could talk to someone else. The names it gave us were merely random letter combinations. We asked if it was Rusty and the board said no, but when we asked if it was lying, the response was affirmative. We tried switching rooms, cleansing the board with sage and even went outside, but the spirit wouldn't leave us alone. When we tried to play outside again, the board told us it was the devil and after that we stopped playing altogether.

Thankfully we never encountered that spirit again, but it was strange that it followed us wherever we went. It probably called itself "Rusty", because of my friend's shirt trying to lull us into a false sense of security. He came on a little too strong.

Ouija: Magic Conch, Will I Ever Get Married?

My mom and dad have been married for 21 years, but they didn't know each other in school. In fact they didn't even meet until after they'd both graduated from high school, since my dad went to Santa Maria and my mom went to St.Joseph. When my mom and my Tía Jenine were still in high school, my Tía decided to ask who my mom was going to marry. The planchette moved across the letters E-R-I-C M-O-R-A-, but before it could finish, my mom freaked out and took her hands off of the planchette. They both laughed and thought that the board was talking about some other boy, since neither of them had met my dad. My dad's name is Eric Moran. Seems like more than a coincidence that nearly his entire name was spelled.

Ouija Board: Slumber Party

When I was in the sixth grade, I stayed the night at my friend Kandace's house. It was there that I had my first ouija experience. We decided to play out in the family room, where everyone could gather around. Supposedly the spirits we were talking to were a young boy and his baby brother. The spirit kept misspelling things, but eventually communicated to us that they had both died in a car accident. One of the girls got brave enough to ask if the ghosts were in the room, and to our horror the response was yes. We pressed the ghost further asking where specifically it was in the room. At that point, Angela saw a dark shadow touch Amanda's shoulder, while simultaneously a crawling sound was heard from the other side of the room where something was knocked over under the table. After that, we all ran out of the room. When we all got into Angela and Kandace's room, Amanda told us that she felt something cold touch her shoulder. We reconvened around the board and tried to contact the boys again, but as the planchete started moving, Kandace's cat flew out of her arms and ran out of the room. It was very strange, since her cat is usually very docile. The children spirits were still talking to us and the oldest told us that the baby had been under the table. He also responded yes to touching Amanda's shoulder. We asked a lot of questions, but there wasn't any other activity after that.

She Came With the Antique Trunk

Sometimes ghosts are thought to be attached to objects. This seems to have been the case with an antique trunk that my Tío Larry bought, which ended up being haunted by the ghost of a little girl. After buying the trunk at a garage sale, my Uncle found out that the previous owner had killed his kids.
After he brought the trunk home, my Tío's daughter kept telling him that there was a little girl in her room and that the girl wanted to play with her. This came as no surprise to my Uncle, who didn't think much of it. Kids that age often had imaginary friends; it didn't seem to be too out of the ordinary. Sometimes he would walk by and hear his daughter carrying on conversations with herself. Once when he was alone in the house, my Uncle passed his daughter's room and noticed a rubber ball bouncing out of the corner of his eye. As he turned to look at it, it immediately stopped bouncing and rolled in his direction. On other occasions, he noticed that the porcelain dolls kept in a high cabinet were often taken down or moved. His daughter was too little to have reached them or have even found a way to take the dolls down. On another occasion, my Uncle was shaving and saw a a little girl in the mirror behind him. When he turned around, no one was there. He also claims to have seem her running across the rooms, dancing or playing. She was always wearing white and she moved very quickly. My Tío's girlfriend had also seen the little girl.

Some people are more sensitive to ghosts than others, and my Uncle Larry seemed to be one of them, but apparently he didn't have the charisma to hold on to that little girl. After a period of time, he stopped seeing her. After mentioning this to his girlfriend, she told him that she had seen the little girl in her own house. I guess ghosts can be attached to people, too.

La llorona

When my Tío Larry was a kid, he and his cousin Amos used to play together on his aunt's ranch in Mexico. Like many other kids, he had been told the story of La llorona or "the crier". Also known as the white lady, she was supposed to have drowned her children in a river in an attempt to win back her lover's affections. Unfortunately, she was rejected and drowned herself, too. After that, she roamed the streets forever crying and searching for her dead children. Kids are told not to wander the streets alone at night, because she is said to abduct children. One night, my tío and his cousin were playing hide and seek out on the ranch, and they heard a horrible screeching sound, that sounded like the cry of a cat. My tío turned around and saw La llorona crying and reaching her arms out towards them. He and his cousin looked at each other for a split second before sprinting back to the house at full speed. As they ran up to the door, they saw their aunt standing on the porch and both exclaimed excitedly that they had seen La llorona. Their aunt looked at them, pale in the face and said "I know. I saw her, too."

As a child, this story terrified me. Luckily, I have never encountered La llorona, but my friend's grandmother claims that she haunts the train tracks in Arroyo Grande.

First Post

My friends and I used to go ghost hunting, so I decided to create a blog to document our adventures, as well as to post some of the ghost stories my family members and friends have told me. I would love to hear others' experiences, as well as talk about ghost shows.