September 25, 2009
Ghosts of Yonkers
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Donna - Yonkers, New York - 1940s
I grew up in downtown Yonkers, on the site of Dr. Phillips's Barn, which was
his hospital. Prior and during the Revolutionary War there was an epidemic
in New York due to bad water. People would escape to Yonkers, which at that
time went all the way down to 225th street. There, between Wells Avenue and
5 Larkin Plaza at Yonkers Savings and Loan's old building not far from the
main house stood a barn which he probably added an upper loft to. Later
someone would raise a barn next to the garage across the street which would
become an apartment building then a church.
I grew up with only women in the house. But even now, looking back 60 years,
I still can see an elderly heavy-set, bald man with old pinch-nose glasses
pulling the covers up over me. Only once did I see a young girl about my age
when I had poison ivy so badly it blinded me. Sandy, our dog, always
followed someone or something. We also had a table -- a very sturdy table --
that walked when my mother came up from the bus stop in a bad mood.
Many years later I asked my mother if she believed in ghosts after I had an
incident while in the Army. I have only had two incidents in adulthood --
one at Fort Monroe, Virginia, in 1968, and one in Williamsburg, Virginia, in
1996, each one was less vivid. These are mine.
Grandfather was a cop in Yonkers after they took the police boats off the
Hudson River. They put him on horseback out by Woodlawn Cemetery. Someone
called asking for police to chase a ghost out of the Cemetery. So they sent
the brass, young guy. He sat all night, all the next night, and the next.
Finely through the cemetery comes this film of gossamer, it kneels down at a
grave, then stands up and curses in some foreign language waving its arms.
My grandfather follows the person back to a nearby house. In the early
morning he knocks on the door and tells the woman who answers, "If your
mother is going to visit the cemetery in the middle of the night make sure
she wears her drawers." The woman's husband had died and at the wake she
found out he had a mistress and another family. She would sleep walk and
pull her night gown up over her head showing her bare butt.
People have seen the Sullivan kids up on Overlook Terrace playing with a
kite and a gas light -- all four had been killed by electrocution and the
gas blowing up. Sometimes in the fog you can see the light poles which have
been removed long ago. Yes there are ghosts in Yonkers, and some are related
to my family.
