“Did you know the Cunningham’s are haunted?”people keep asking me with a hint of excited glee in their faces. If I didn’t know before, then I certainly do now, as ghostly rumours and stories of the old resident hall spring from mouth to mouth, trying to get everyone worked up. The stories are the usual spooky happenings, such as lights turning on and off randomly, weird noises when no-one is there, and objects seemingly moving to different positions of their own accord.
Whether these stories are genuine or cooked up to scare the gullible freshmen and foreign exchange students like myself, is anyone’s guess. What is a known fact is that a section of the Cunningham’s are built over an old Indian burial site, which in American culture is usually considered a guaranteed cause for supernatural activity. One thing that I can certainly pull from all this is that you Americans do love your ghost stories.
Back in Britain there are certainly a wealth of ghost stories around the country, as we have an abundance of old buildings and castles that date several hundred years back, making them perfect locations for old spirits to haunt. However us Brits, being the cynical lot that we are, don’t really believe in ghosts – except for my grandmother.
However, in America, you seem to be far more accepting of the idea of ghosts prowling the corridors at night. When I talked to my RA across the hall from me in Main Cunningham’s about the ghostly rumours swirling the place, I half expected him to calmly say “don’t believe in it man,” but instead he pulled up a website about all the ghost stories that surround Longwood, such as a woman who haunts the Stevens building, ghost dogs that can be heard barking near the dining hall at night, and of course the Cunningham’s, which reportedly has a fanged spectre that can move through walls to terrify students and a grisly suicide in room 333 which still haunts the room even to this day.
The RA told all this to me with genuine fascination, as if he believed or at least wanted to believe all this was true. I admit I was partly unsettled by everyone’s belief in the ghost stories, as I thought they were just pulling my leg, but they seem to genuinely believe in it. I certainly had trouble sleeping that night, dreading that some horrid spectre would appear to me in the middle of the night.
Halloween in my country isn’t that big of a deal; we mildly celebrate it with some pumpkins and wine, but nothing overly extravagant. In this country, however, everyone loves to dress up, with ghost stories being told in abundance. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes up with a story of an encounter with a ghost in the Cunningham’s on Halloween.
However, where does the American fascination with the supernatural come from? Popularity of the supernatural in modern pop culture, which is a cornerstone of American society? Or the hope that there is something more after life; another journey to undertake which could resonate with the American pioneering mentality.
Whatever it is, it is still another difference between my culture and yours that I have discovered during my time here, and it truly fascinates me. Whether they are true or not, I will now be very wary of any ghostly happenings that may be occurring across the campus – perhaps even as I sit here typing this!
