I attended college at Troy State University, in Troy, AL. A small school in a small town in SE Alabama. My brother was in a fraternity, and their house was in an old Civil War era mansion off campus. The house was haunted by a ghost that was affectionately known as "George." Many of the alumni had stories to tell, and I had several experiences there, myself.

Ahh, where to start? Let me give the lay-out, as it helps to illustrate the stories. (Any names I use here - with the exception of George - are fake, but the people are real.) The house had two "living" floors, as well as an attic and a basement. When you entered the front door, you stepped into a large, open room, much more than just a foyer. Up ahead, a gorgeous spiral staircase greeted you. To the right of the staircase was a short hallway leading back to the kitchen.

Off the "foyer" to the right was the "TV room," which had a wall of glass-front cabinets, couches on two the the three remaining walls, and a big-screen TV in the corner. Off the "foyer" to the left was a room called the "Composite Room." It held all the fraternity pictures from at least the 70s. If you walked into the small hallway, you would find a small, dark, narrow staircase to your right - the "Servant's Stairs." This staircase was kind of in the wall, if that makes sense, so it was very close, dark, and terribly creepy - I never used it if I didn't have to.

The Servant's Stairs went up to the second floor, and was the only way to access the attic on the third floor. Ascending up the grand, spiral staircase, there would be a wall of windows to your left, where you could look into one of the bedrooms. At the top of the stairs, there was a room to the left, one straight ahead, and one to the right.

My first experience wasn't really with the ghost, but with a story one of the fraternity brothers told. My freshman year I was dating Mike, whose mother was full-blooded Cherokee. I have heard that those of Native American descent are sensitive to spirits. Mike told me that the first time his mother walked in the house, she put her hand on one of the columns in the foyer, and said that there was a spirit in the house, and it was a spirit that watched over the house. She also said the spirit was female, which I didn't find out until MUCH, MUCH, later.

The first thing that actually happened occured in the TV room. About 10 of us were sitting in there one night, telling ghost stories. We were all sitting on the couches, facing the cabinets. Dave was sitting on top of the TV, facing the rest of us. I think he was telling about "The Face in the Window." Suddenly, slowly, every cabinet door opened, one by one. We all just sat and watched this. One interesting note: one of the cabinets held memorabilia of a brother who had died back in the 70s. The cabinet was always locked, and no one had the key. After a few moments of silence, Dave got up and shut the doors. We changed the subject.

One night, we had an "Old South" party in this house. There were tons of people there, all dressed up like "Gone With the Wind". I was sitting on a couch in the TV room, and saw a women in a white dress standing in the doorway. She was dressed pretty much like everyone else, so she didn't look out of place. I didn't recognize her, which was weird, because I spent a lot of time there, and knew everyone who came over. I didn't think anything much about it, really. Later on, I saw her going through the hallway, and followed her, meaning to introduce myself. She disappeared. I looked in the kitchen, and the bathroom, which were the only two rooms she could have been in. Then, I went back and asked if anyone knew who the girl in the white dress was. They looked at me, and said there was no one there in a white dress. I noticed one of the guys had a strange look on his face, sort of shocked. Later on, he came up to me and told me he had seen her, too. Also later, I found out that Mike's mother had said the spirit was female.

One of the creepiest stories didn't happen to me. One of the rooms on the second floor had beds built on "lofts". There was a platform up high were one guy slept, then another bed underneath. Also in this room they had a marathon game of "Risk" going on. (For those who don't know, Risk is a war strategy game, and at the time, had little tiny I-shaped plastic pieces to represent armies. I think they're now shaped like cannons, etc., but I'm not sure.) One of the guys was up on the loft bed, and heard the door open, and close. Then, he heard the "plink! plink!" sound of the game pieces being dropped on the board. Thinking it was his roommate trying to cheat, he quickly turned on the reading light, and sat up. All he saw were pieces drop from mid-air onto the board.

The following stories were told to me by an acquaintance (I'll call him Chris) who had several experiences with ghosts. Chris grew up in a rather poor town. However, there was one family that was much poorer than the rest. They had a boy who was in Chris's class at school Because the family was poor, the boy was often teased by the other children, and occasionally beat up.

Chris never went out of his way to be nice to the boy (you know how kids can be), but was never cruel to him, either. In fact, he would sometimes eat lunch with the boy, or walk home from school part of the way with him. The boy disappeared one day, and several days later they found his body at the bottom of an old well.

Chris's mother would not let him attend the funeral, he still doesn't know why, other than he was quite young, and maybe it would bother him. The night after the funeral, Chris went to bed, making sure his closet door was shut. When he turned out the light and crawled in bed, he was shocked to see his closet door open, and the little boy who died standing there. Chris said the boy seemed kind of fuzzy, but almost real. The boy smiled, and waved to Chris, then disappeared.

Another strange thing happened after Chris was an adult. He went outside to get cigarettes out of his car late at night, and saw a small girl standing across the street. He stopped and looked at her, curious because it was so late, and the people who lived in the house had no children. She was wearing a white dress, and looked right at him. As he moved to get a better view, she disappeared. Chris crossed the street, and looked everywhere, but the girl was gone.

Strange things can happen in dreams. A friend of mine named Bo visited me in three dreams several years ago. In the first, a week or so before Christmas, he stood by my bed while I slept, and said, "You didn't say goodbye." He had moved back to his hometown in Alabama months before, and I was away at the time. I missed him quite a bit, and planned on looking him up when I returned to school (also in Alabama).

On New Year's, I caught up to another friend who told me that Bo had committed suicide a couple of weeks before Christmas. I had missed the funeral. That gave me chills. After I returned to school, me and my roommate (who had met Bo on several occasions) planned to make a trip to visit his grave, but kept putting it off. One night, I had a dream that he sat on the edge of my bed, again saying, "You didn't say goodbye." I woke up in tears, and something brushed my hair. The next day, my roommate and I cut classes to travel to the gravesite. I laid a white rose on his grave. Several nights later, Bo returned in a dream, this time he stood next to me, smiled, help up one hand, and disappeared.

The first experience with ghosts/paranormal I can remember happened when I lived in Kentucky, when I was about 6 years old. The people I've told have chalked it up to imagination, dreaming, or some other event (including hallucinatory drugs - c'mon, I was 6!). However, I was there, and I wasn't imagining or dreaming any of it. A very strange thing happened one night. At the time this happened, I slept in a beautiful 4-poster bed with a cheery yellow canopy. The foot of the bed was in front of the door. Across the room was a small black and white television. I have always been a night person, so one night I was lying in my bed, wide awake. The room was pretty dark, with only a small night light. The TV was off, but you could see the room reflected in the black screen. I was just looking at the screen, picking out my bed, and the dresser, etc.

Suddenly, there was a man reflected in the screen. He was standing at the foot of my bed. I could see him in the TV screen, but not in the room. He was very thin and tall, and wore a black suit and a tall black hat which made him look very much like Abraham Lincoln. I could not see his face, but could see his eyes. He had very evil eyes. In the screen, I saw him place a spider on the top of one of my bed posts, and terrified, I watched it crawling down. The TV was still off, and I still couldn't actually see anything in the room.

Finally, I got up and turned the channel (I don't know why I did this, but I did). I jumped back in bed, and looked at the screen. To my relief, it showed only the reflection of my room. Then, I saw the reflection of three human-like figures at the foot of my bed. They looked people, but were white and filmy looking, with tendrils that looked like smoke drifting around them. They seemed to be holding hands, and dancing. Then, they disappeared, and the man with the hat returned. He scared me, so I ran and jumped in bed with my parents.

That didn't last long, as I could see little imp-like figures climbing up the walls. So, I went into my older brother's room, and got in bed with him. No imps, no man in a black hat, no dancers. I thought I could finally sleep. Then, I saw scenes on the floor, almost like a projector. They were scenes of nursery rhymes and children's stories. Since this didn't scare me, I ended up spending the night in my brother's room. This happened almost 20 years ago. I know it sounds very bizarre, but I swear it happened. I told my boyfriend (the non-believer) about this, and he said that I was dreaming. I was not dreaming. I was awake during the whole episode. I can't understand why I saw the man and the dancers in the TV and not in my room. The TV was off at the time. I still remember all this as if it happened last night. Also in this house, I used to hear my name whispered occasionally, even though no one was there.