Music Loving Ghost

From: Kim Welsh 
Subject: Ghost story
Location:

After reading everyone else's stories, I decided to share my own. I'm not sure that I was dealing with a true ghost, but I can't explain anything that happened. Here goes:

MUSIC-LOVING GHOST

From 1992-1993, my roommate and I lived in a six-flat apartment building in the Bucktown area of Chicago, probably built sometime in the early 1900's. We lived on the third floor, and there was an attic above that the owner used for storage. From the time that we moved in, we would hear "footsteps" and other strange noises from the attic above, always assuming the owner was up there. The noises, however, were often heard very late at night. Also, the entrance to the attic was on the landing just outside our kitchen door; we would have heard if someone were using that door.

At first, we really didn't think much about the attic noises. Then one night, I was awakened by my alarm/radio at about 2:00 a.m. Half dazed (as one might be at that time of the morning) I reached over and turned the radio off, only to hear my CD player in the living room BLARING. I got up and found my roommate standing in the living room looking VERY confused about the loud music. I might add that my alarm was not set to go off at 2:00. We went back to our rooms and went to sleep.

A couple of weeks later, I was coming home from work, and my roommate was not home yet (we worked together at the time). As I was coming up to my door, my neighbor from across the hall came out and asked me if I wanted their old turntable; they were moving and needed to get rid of some stuff. It was up in the attic, and she wanted to know if I wanted to go up with her. I hesitated before answering, and out of the blue she said "Why, have you heard things?" This was strange, since I had only barely said "hello" to her before, let alone talk to her about "hearing" things. I told her about the footsteps and the radio/CD incident. She confirmed that they heard things too. She also wanted to tell me more, but I needed to drop my stuff off in my apartment before going upstairs, so I told her I'd meet her in the hall in a minute. I unlocked my apartment door, and guess what? My alarm and my CD player were both on!

I went back out and told my neighbor, and she took me up to the attic. She had lived in the building for a while, and had rented one of the first floor units at the beginning. It was a studio/loft type apartment, meaning that it was very open with very few walls. She said that she had seen a "figure" more than once when she lived there. Apparently, there was a man murdered in the other first floor apartment not long before she moved in; she didn't know if that had anything to do with it.

The attic was just an attic -- nothing particularly creepy. My neighbor said that the building was once housing for nuns. The basement of the building, which housed the laundry area, was very, very creepy and dark, but I'm afraid of ALL basements.

Aside from the fact that these incidents were strange, I never felt threatened or overly frightened. I never saw anything, and my cats never refused to go into any rooms. I suspect something supernatural only because my neighbor made those comments. Otherwise, I would have been more likely to blame my imagination. Also, I'm no electrical expert, but I don't think that anything in the wiring would cause my radio AND my CD player (in another room) to turn on, especially at unscheduled times. No other electronic equipment was affected, even though the TV was plugged into the same outlet as the CD player. My roommate's alarm never went off at odd times. I guess my ghost just liked music!

Kim Welsh