333 East Third

From: Anonymous
Story type: Ghost
Location: Maryville, Missouri
Source: Form Submission

This occurred over a period of years, since I lived at 333 East Third, in Maryville, Missouri, twice.

In the summer of 1979, Several of my college buddies and I took over every apartment in a run-down apartment building, address 333 East Third. Everybody who lived there had various forms of paranormal experience. It was a common tie between us, and we had formed our own sort of family.

I first remember hints about the old lady when ever the dishes would pile up in the apartment that was Lucy's. This dishes would start rattling of their own volition. We'd chuckle about it, while we all had had paranormal encounters, we weren't going to jump at every little creek and groan in an old house. Then there was the time we had a party in the building, and had nearly 75 guests. One of the guests was heard talking to herself in the bathroom. This was odd, but it was odder when she came and asked who the old woman was that barged in on her in the bathroom. We passed that off too, but a little less quickly. Perhaps she'd had a little too much of the home brew that some one had brought.

One afternoon, we were all gathered in Lucy's apartment, and all of a sudden her 4' tall pink and black teddy bear flipped from a reclining position in an overstuffed chair, up and face forward onto the floor. We all stared at this, and this prompted a discussion about poltergeists.

I was a little bit groggy, and was lying back with my eyes closed, listening to the conversation. I suddenly got this vision of an elderly lady, in a faded calico print shirt dress, hair in a bun, wearing the '50's style pixie glasses with sparkles in the corners. As the conversation progressed about the poltergeist theories, she kept shaking her head "no". When the theory came up that the poltergeists know exactly what is going on, where things are, and are simply trying to send a message, the image of the elderly lady made a gesture with a boney index finger and started to shake her head "yes". At that point I opened my eyes and said "O.k.". Then I reported to the others what I had just seen.

In 1984, I attempted to go back to college, and finish my degree. As it so happened, the only apartment available in town was the very same apartment that had been Lucy's. I took it. Nothing outstanding happened, and I figured that the happenings of young twenty year olds had produced some sort of mass hallucination. A few weeks later, I was half drowsing, going to sleep, when I heard a noise in the hall. It was an odd noise, and I went to investigate. I opened the door to a staircase that was engulfed in flames, I could feel the heat, and hear my hair crisping up. I slammed the door and ran for my backdoor. I tripped, fell face first onto the floor. I must have passed out, woke up with a start.

Then I doubted what I had seen, heard no fire noises, so I went back to the front door to check it out. No fire. Wow, what a vivid dream! Didn't sleep too well the rest of the night.

Two days later, I was talking with my landlord. The back stairs were rather rickety, and I expressed so concern if there was indeed a fire. He told me then that it was funny that I had said something about that. The apartment building used to have a peaked roof, rather than a flat one. There was a fire in the stair well, it acted just like a chimney, went right up to the roof. An elderly lady had been killed in the center room of the apartment that I was living in. (Where I had "tripped") "Gee, thanks Bob, I really needed to hear that."