Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan (Uncle Ben’s House, An Unseen Playmate, Old Faithful: The Tabor Light)

Answer the following questions:

Which reading did you enjoy best (teacher read, classmates read, read to self)? Why?

I enjoyed "The Tabor Light" story the best, the story my teacher, Mr. Nickell read to the class. I liked the story itself the most, and I was able to get more from the story when it was read by one person, a steady, fluent reader. It was difficult to pay attention to the story that was read by my classmates, "An Unseen Playmate" because everyone read differently and it became confusing. The story I read on my own, The scary Uncles house story, I enjoyed the least. There wasn't a very strong, or interesting plot and climax, and It is also difficult for me to read with any noise happening around me, even when I plug my ears.

2. What strategies do you think would help to get more out of the reading methods you didn’t enjoy (ie: classmates read)

For the story I read on my own, if I was in a much quieter environment I could have concentrated and understood the story much better. For the one my classmates read, Everyone could have spoken a little louder and read a little slower so it was more fluent.

For each story:
Attempt to explain the phenomenon through scientific and/or logic reasoning.

"The Tabor Light": This eery glowing light that everyone claimed to see could have been a collection of gases from the dead bodies that floats up from the ground, that would explain why it appeared in, or near the cemetary.
"An Unseen Playmate": This consistent, strong movement of one of the swings could have been caused by the person it running by and hitting the swing accidentally and it could have swung, and being dark they may have thought it swayed by itself, and they may have exauggerated.
The Scary Uncle's house story could be explained by someone walking by on the sidewalk, or the alley behind the house and speaking loudly and the girl heard it and thought the sound came from the porch.

2. Complete your own background story for Old Faithful: The Tabor Light (see the first few for examples, ie: 1923, 1935, etc...)


It was a dark, eerie night and all the kids were terrified because we knew what was going to happen. A few kids all decided we were going to sneak away and see this phenomenon for themselves.They had heard for years that this cemetary was more than a freightful experience to see. They all walked to the cemetary late at night, at about twelve o'clock midnight. When they got there, there was not another person or any movement at the cemetary. All five of the kids were alone, and they all wanted to go back. However, when they were about to leave they saw what they came to see. There was a large glowing orb of bright white light just floating at the entrance of the cemetary.
They tried to run away but every time they looked back the light, it got closer, and closer. They ran away as fast as they could until they got to their homes and slammed the doors. They never talked about the Tabor Light again.