Foster Road

There is an old legend, that a man once drove down Foster road in the early hours of the morning. When he looked in his rear view mirror there was a woman in white staring at him in his backseat laughing. It is said, that if you drive down Foster road around midnight the woman will appear in your backseat, too.

Ouija-They're Coming For You

There was a woman who lived across the street from my Tía Jenine on Western. After her parents died, she started playing the ouija board. It told her to board up all of the doors and windows, because people were coming to take her away. After awhile her neighbors noticed that the yard was looking really overgrown, and the windows were boarded up. They also hadn't seen their neighbor in quite some time, so they called the police. A few days later, the woman was take to an insane asylum. She had been driven insane by the ouija board.

The Ghost of Walt Disney?

My Tía Jenine and her friends tried to do a seance to talk to the ghost of Walt Disney. they sat around in the dark with a candle, but nothing was really happening. At one point, the candle blew itself out and then re-lit a few minutes later. At that point, everyone ran out of the room. Probably not Walt Disney, but still pretty creepy. This occurred at her old house on Western in Santa Maria.

The House on Tyler Drive

Our house was formerly owned by an elderly couple who had lived here a long time. When my parents bought the house, the woman's husband had died, which is why his wife was moving out. Although we were not told that he died in the house, sometimes people return to familiar places after death.
A friend of mine once saw someone walk past the door of my room late at night when everyone else was in their rooms asleep.
My sister believes her room is haunted. She said that on a few occasions, she heard footsteps on the carpet around midnight. They sounded like they were coming towards her bed from the door. Too afraid to look, she put her headphones on to block out the sound and turned on the light, but no one was there.
She has also heard her door knob shake violently on various occasions. She thought that it was just a joke by one of us, but when she looked out of her room no one was there. She looked through the house, but noticed that we were all outside.
On another occasion, a toy went off in the middle of the night. Our dad had bought us these monkey sling shots, and when you pressed them or threw them, they made monkey noises. Jackie's hadn't worked shortly after she'd gotten it and it had been in her closet on the floor. In the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep, it went off really loudly. My brother heard it and it woke me up, too. My sister was terrified and came into our room, because she was too afraid to sleep in hers after that. In the morning, we found the toy on the floor where it had always been and there was nothing next to it that could have set it off. We tried pressing it and throwing it, but it didn't seem to be making any noise. Upon closer inspection, we realized that we could hear a low screech coming from the monkey, but it was inaudible from far away and it sounded like the battery was close to dead.
In the living room, there is a clear view of the hallway. One night while we were watching a movie, my sister saw a man wearing a hat staring at all of us from the hallway. After a short while, he disappeared.

I've never had any personal experiences in this house, and no one else in the family has mentioned anything, but a few of my friends who are sensitive to ghosts have told me that they thought something was here. I'm glad I haven't seen anything; I like being able to sleep at night.

The Return of the Ouija

My Tía Jenine used to have a ouija board, but eventually her brother told her to get rid of it. He thought it was evil and didn't want it in the house anymore. His sister gave in and threw the board away. The next day, he saw the board in the table and asked my Tía why she hadn't gotten rid of the board. She told him that she had and was shocked to see that it had somehow returned. No one else in the house would have removed it from the trash or even wanted to keep it. In my family, most of us are Catholic, so we are taught at an early age that ouija boards are instruments of the devil and not to play with them. Needless to say, my Tía's parents wouldn't have rescued the board from the trash either. Eventually they burned the board and it didn't come back again.

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.

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.