Remember back in ’83, when that couple that had bought a new home in Crosby’s Newport subdivision came across a couple of graves from what appeared to be an old slave cemetery as they dug a new swimming pool in their backyard? Okay, how about that Patty Duke TV movie they made out of the story? Remember that?
Well, it looks like those ghosts are . . . still hanging around!
Just look at all the orbs that show up in these photos by a newly minted actual probationary Houston firefighter! Blogger Marissa in Houston recently joined a few fire-station buddies for a little nighttime ghosthunting adventure around Poppets Way:
We found a church that seemed to have no one there and butted up right against that creepy forest. We drove back and right up to the wooded area. This time, I did NOT get out of the car. I couldn’t. I felt so much around me just sitting in the seat that there was no way I could even fathom of being out there. As I sat there and snapped pictures from my Jeep fortress, I kept watching the three others out in front of the car. Once, I saw a pair of legs standing next to the guy on the end. Just the legs, nothing else. Another time, I was looking at something that Mitchell had on the laptop screen ( he was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was leaning through the middle), and the illuminated shadow of someone walking in front of the drivers side head light caught my eye. I thought it was one of our people and turned to say something, but there was no one there. I vividly remember the motion of someone walking and the shape of a person. It was undeniable to me.
Creepy! What else is going on in the neighborhood?
***
We decided to end our adventure with two bridges that are actually about 10 mins from my apartment. It’s supposedly an area where civil war soldiers marched through, and if you sit on the bridge for a bit and are very quiet, you can hear tapping on the ground.
We didn’t hear any tapping on the bridge, but sure as heck heard it just off of the bridge.
Again, I didn’t get out. I physically couldn’t make myself leave the car. I am not sure if I let my mind trick myself into things, but I could feel pressure around me. It’s like when I walk outside of my office building in the summer and it’s humid. After being in the AC and then walking into the wet air, you feel the moisture. That’s what it felt like-but just not wet. The air around me was dense. And the temperature would vary. I would feel a chill, then normal. Then another little chilly breeze, then normal.
- Storytime! [Marissa in Houston]
- Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive (1992) [IMDB]
- Major events occurred creating a favorable scenario for the success of the Newport Subdivisions [Silvestri Investments]
- Man with grave worries sues firms over cemetery in back yard [Houston Chronicle]
- `Nothing but hell there,’ says man who fled `haunted’ home [Houston Chronicle]
- Testimony details eerie occurrences [Houston Chronicle]
- Horror tales murder on sales/Realtors find homes with violent histories are difficult to market [Houston Chronicle]
Photos: Marissa in Houston
This is the kind of stuff I used to do with friends in high school. Except we played hide-and-go-seek in graveyards in south Louisiana. You can freak yourself out when your find out the concrete box you are hiding behind was that of civil war soldiers or a supposed voodoo priestess.
It’s scarier in sugarcane field near old plantation locations. The slaves and plantation owners often buried family on the plantation. Today, since a majority of the homes are gone, all you have is a sugarcane field and randomly placed groups of trees that weren’t mowed down to make room for more cane plantings. The reason, they are old burial sites. Many are know, but little has been done to take care of them. So you have really old oak trees with Spanish moss hanging creating a spooky area that is pretty much shut off from the outside world.
Orbs are an interesting subject. When I first learned of them I went back to look at my digital photo files and found many orbs at family get-togethers. A couple of years ago we were posing take after take for a holiday family photo, and a bright orb showed up on my lap on one take. No other orbs anywhere else in that group of photos. I asked it to get off my lap, and it didn’t show up again. Other similar things have happened. My family disagrees with my view, but I hold strongly to the possibility that there is something to it. Thanks for the interesting blog, Marissa.
Try dusting off your camera lens…
HY: Tell it to someone who hasn’t heard that a thousand times. I’ve dusted like you wouldn’t believe.
The photos with the “orbs” reminds me of photos I took at Christmas Eve a few years back when Houston had snow. My photos had the same kind of “orbs”. I attributed it to the snowflakes melting on the lens. Not often I agree with a yankee but I think but I think Houston Yankee called it right.
I took a picture very much like that one Saturday night. The orbs were raindrops. Which at the time, I had not seen in a very long time — more scarce than UFOs.
Whether you agree or disagree is okay, but there are many web sites on the subject that make for interesting reading. And yes, the dust/raindrop arguments are there too. Just sayin’…:)
This is exactly what a picture looks like when there is moisture on the lens. We’ve had some pretty humid nights lately. The air is practically wet. Why anyone would think this is anything other than moisture is beyond me.
Stay away from the brown acid. . . .
I’ve got a 20-year background in professional photography. I’ve looked at a LOT of ghost photographs. The one creepy thing that they all have in common – the people that catch “ghosts” on camera ALL have something wrong with their camera/film processing.
Orbs are not dust particles on the lens. They are dust particles in the air reflecting the camera flash.
That was all on my family’s property. The stories are fabulous. When I feel like typing, I will elaborate.
Emme,
I live in the Newport neighborhood and I have just finsished reading the Black Hope Horror book. I am very interested in the history of this area. Please share any info you have.
Thanks..
Hey.. they look like the real deal to me. Just today while browsing the real estate section of CL I found an amazing orb photo taken in a house during the day.. more than one orb was floating in the photo. None of the other photos of the same house had these phenomena. Needless to say.. we won’t be looking at that home! Thanks for the photo.