All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
If that sounds familiar, then you remember what it felt like watching The Shining for the first time and seeing poor Wendy Torrance discover the pages of her mad husband's novel for the first time. It's an unsettling scene, one of the creepiest ever filmed.
If you've read the novel as well as watched the movie, then you know the hotel––and it's ghostly inhabitants––drove Jack Torrance insane. After Redditor theoriginaltommygirl asked the online community, "People of Reddit who work in 'haunted hotels,' what are your stories?" people from several different professions came forward with the tales that still send chills up their spines.
"The place was starting to show its age..."
My grandmother worked as a night time cleaning lady for an older historic hotel in her hometown for a while in the early 80's.
The place was starting to show its age, and it glory days (1890's-1920's) were certainly behind it. During prohibition there had been a speakeasy in the basement only the movers and shakers in town had been able to get into. No real scary stories in it's past, save for one suicide. It was just a large, old hotel.
Anyway, there was a man that she saw several times. A figure other people had seen as well. The earliest sightings started in at least in the 60's.
Each floor, the elevator was at the end of a long, straight hallway. On the third, there were times when people would come out of a room and see a man in a long coat and hat carrying a small dog under his arm either heading towards the elevator and disappearing, or they would catch a glimpse of him on the elevator as the door closed.
No one really knew who he was supposed to be. It wasn't the suicide. It wasn't the original owner, not one of the staff anyone could remember. No one was really scared of him. It was sort of a right of passage working there to finally see him.
"When he brought it up with his manager..."
My brother did housecleaning at an historic inn downtown. He would see shapes dart out of the corner of his eye when he looked in mirrors, and the beds would untuck themselves after he'd made crisp corners. Some days he heard footsteps up behind him on the narrow stairs, and his hair stood on end.
Add to that his vacuum being constantly unplugged when the cord was completely slack and toilets flushing themselves.
When he brought it up with his manager, she said, "Oh, don't mind that. It's happened since I can remember."
I worked in IT for a guy named Mike Milken and every year he puts on this huge conference that brings world leaders and billionaires together for, uhh, conferencing, called, Global Conference...
https://milkeninstitute.org/events/global-conference-2020
We would rent out pretty much all of the Beverly Hilton for a full 7 days. You can go to this if you like, it just costs thousands of dollars to do so.
I, like OP, also am interested in hotel staff and hauntings so I asked every staff member I could about any other worldly experiences. I heard a couple of people talk about Merv Griffin, the Game Show Creator/Host/Composer. He bought the place in the 80's and loved to hang out there after he retired. After he died, the staff said they would see him, not as a ghostly shape, but as actual Merv, walking down one of the hallways near the kitchens occasionally.
Ultimately though, the cleaning staff was terrified of the 8th floor. It's not a tall hotel, and the 8th floor was a party type room. It was a medium sized banquet type area with a low ceiling. It has a bathroom and a view of Beverly Hills with rounded red leather couches and maroon velour sided walls. There is a curved bar and glass tables with razor blade marks on them from the copious amounts of cocaine that had been chopped up for consumption. I know you see this room in your head skull right now.
The story goes that there was a lady that would go up there and clean the place by herself after the parties were over. One night she was almost done and finishing up in the bathrooms cleaning the sinks. She heard a girl behind her, then something brush across her shoulder. She turned quickly around and no one was there. She turned back to the sink and there was a piece of gum where there had previously been none.
She swore there was no gum in the sink prior as she was cleaning the sink when it happened so that was her focus. After that the cleaning staff would not go up there unless they had to at night, and then they would go in doubles. They also started to clean the floor in the morning, again with two people.
My buddy/co-worker and I had to go up and check this out. We were getting chills listening to the story and had to see for ourselves. So, at about 9pm we went up there as it was vacant for the night and we pretty much had run of the hotel.
Right before we went up though, we saw one of the cleaning staff, and told him we were going up. And he got this look like, "you're an idiot."
We head up, check the whole room out and take it in like I described above. We go over to the little bathroom where the gum incident happened, and we recreated the scene.
I stood at the sink, my buddy brushed my shoulder and I turned around. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. We didn't feel coldness or freakiness, just plain old us on the top floor.
We were a bit disappointed and were saying things like, "What did we expect?" type conversation. We noticed the weird music on the speaker in the elevator that we hadn't noticed coming up. It was a girl kind of singing/laughing, very eclectic stuff.
When we got off we saw the cleaning dude from earlier and told him that we saw nothing. There was no ghost up there.
Then my buddy mentioned the interesting choice of music in the elevator. The cleaning guy said, "What music?" And we replied, "The music in the elevator..."
He then pointed out that there is no speaker in the elevator, never has been.........
We s*** our pants, went back into the elevator, cautiously, because we couldn't believe that what we were hearing was not coming from a speaker. Being "IT experts" we knew how to look for wires and speaker covers and such, and there were none. It was an old elevator that just wasn't wired for that.
We noped the hell outta that elevator and tried to avoid it the rest of the time we worked there.
"One time..."
I work in a haunted house during Halloween time. One time one of the actors had a heart attack and died and everybody thought the body was supposed to be there. We didn't find out what had happened until we were closing for the day.
"I worked in a hotel..."
I worked in a hotel and we used to joke about the 3rd floor being haunted. Then one day I was assigned rooms on the 3rd floor and while cleaning had the TV in one of the rooms turn on by itself.
"There's so many stories I could tell..."
I worked as a housekeeper at a 'haunted hotel' for about a year.
There's many stories I could tell but there was this one room that f*cked me up mentally for months, still have nightmares about it now.
So the hotel is a grade two listed building, a Manor House that was converted into a hotel. It's said that the family who built and lived there had their bedrooms where room 1,2 and 3 now are. The rooms are out of the way and down a dark corridor which gives them an eerie feeling but they're decent rooms. Number 2 is one of the biggest and luxurious rooms to stay in.
However, it's rumoured that when the house was being converted that the builders found a skeleton of a child in the fireplace, the fireplace that's still in that room. The room opens up to a long corridor, the bathroom on the left and a super king bed in a huge living area looking over the gardens.
I never felt right in there, but things got worse a few months in when I started having nightmares that I was being chased down the rooms corridor. I'd never see what was chasing me but I'd be filled with terror. The corridor would just keep going for what seemed like forever but when I'd reach the door, there'd be no handle. I had that dream every night for months, my teeth got damaged from all the grinding and so exhausted that I could barely do the job. In the end the place got me so depressed I was self harming again, something I'd been clean of since I was a teen.
Since quitting the job that dream and my mental health improving, the dream became much less frequent but I still get it from time to time when things are bad. The whole hotel is toxic but that one room still continues to haunt me.
"I noticed all the internals..."
Worked in a "haunted" hotel for about 3 months. I noticed all the internals were from the time the house was built, which is why there's occasionally issues with electrical equipment or a sense of unease, the building itself is generating a small electromagnetic force, but apparently explaining that to people is grounds for getting fired.
"The dog walked all the way down the corridor..."
My aunt lives on the Isle of Arran, a small island in Scotland. She used to work in Brodick castle and everyone who works or has worked there will tell you it's haunted, and you get told all the classics like hearing footsteps and seeing doors slam. One story always stuck out to me about a dog and its owner staying the night.
The owner wakes up realising the dog isn't in the room, so the owner runs out into the hallway to find the dog calming walking down the dark stretch of hallway of the castle, but the dog was looking up at nothing while strolling as if it was side by side with someone and looking up at them. The dog walked all the way down the corridor completely ignoring it's owner. Just seeing your dog walk into pitch black with this invisible entity gets me creeped.
I've been to that castle myself and it's hella spooky.
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Comedy is in a very tricky place right now.
There is so much to NOT laugh about in this world.
In truth, many of us have forgotten how to laugh.
And certain jokes that are told, make people afraid to laugh.
So what do we do?
We tell inappropriate jokes apparently.
Let's hear some...
Redditor CrewCreation wanted to hear some "risky" comedy. So they asked:
"What’s the best morbid joke you know?"
***WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SENSITIVE MATERIAL. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!***
I can't think of anything hilarious at the moment. Make us LOL.
Lady
"I have this friend, love him to bits, but his wife has a tendency of just constantly showing everyone pictures of their son at every social event. At the start it was understandable, but now I'm just like 'Lady, it's been two years; they're not going to find him.'"
UnoriginalUse
at 9am...
"Not the most morbid but I love Anthony Jeselnik’s story about his neighbor who has Alzheimer’s. 'One of my next door neighbors is a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s. And every single morning at 9am he knocks on my door and asks me if I have seen his wife.'"
"'Which means that every single morning at 9am I have to explain to a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s that his wife has been dead for quite some time. Now I’ve thought about moving. I have thought about just not answering my door in the morning. But to be honest, it’s worth it… just to see the smile on his face.”
dreagan021
Comedy?
"Why can't orphans play baseball? They don't know where home is."
GW2RNGR
"Why can't orphans play tennis? They get confused when they hear love."
JayDub506
People who make comedy are evil. LOL.
The Darkness
"Dark humor is like food; not everyone gets it."
storm_the_castle
God Laughs?
"A Holocaust survivor dies and goes to heaven, where she meets God. To break the tension she tells God a joke about the Holocaust, but God doesn’t laugh. The lady shrugs and says 'I guess you had to be there.'"
“'I guess you had to be there' is a common expression used when someone doesn’t laugh at a joke. It means that the comedy may not translate without the context of the situation."
"In this case the Holocaust survivor is saying it, meaning that during the Holocaust God was nowhere to be found. It’s not really a joke about the Holocaust, but the absurdity of belief in a benevolent God. Hilarious right?"
semimillennial
Oh Baby
"How many dead babies does it take to fix a light bulb? More than 3 cause my garage is still dark."
sirnibs3
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Because I don't know what it says about us as people if we laugh. Oye.
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Life can change in an instant.
It can always change for the better.
Just ask any lottery winner.
Sadly, life can also take a turn for the worst and leave people shattered beyond repair.
Watching someone's life fall apart in a short amount of time is difficult.
You have to wonder if there really is such a thing as karma, bad luck, or Voodoo.
Redditor OkImagination5852 wanted to hear about the times we've been witness to personal disaster. They asked:
"People who witness a person's life crumble in a single day, what happened?"
I have lived through a lot of bad days. But thankfully they've been one disaster at a time days. So I guess I'm lucky.
Horror
"A friend of a friend had his entire family killed overnight. He was from my college and was home visiting his family. His parents, siblings, and extended family were all there together. One night, while they were all asleep, his father got up, took out a gun, and went on a shooting spree. He then killed himself."
"Everyone except this guy died on the spot. When my friend visited him at the hospital, the guy was still in shock. He had no idea why his father did that. This was more than a decade ago, and I have no idea how he's doing now."
DeadOnDeparture98
The IRS Called
"Knew a guy who had a nice house, wife, 3 kids. Machine shop in his garage, Snap On tool truck, sign out front, great mechanic. Never incorporated, didn't pay taxes on his business, cash only. Took nice vacations, bought a boat, then a camper. Five years later, the IRS came. I don't know what they estimated he owed but they seized everything. He lives alone in a trailer now."
Nobody_Wins_13
2 at Once
"My mom’s dad and dad’s mom both died on the same day. Completely unrelated. We were pretty messed up for awhile. It was 2010. Mom's dad had emphysema (lifetime smoker) and was pretty sick for a few weeks. I was in college at the time and came home to be with him, because we knew he was about to pass. Dad's mom was in the nursing home, as she had had a stroke and also had dementia (she often thought I was my dad, she thought we were in the 70s, etc.)."
"She took a turn for the worst, and so my dad left the hospice my grandpa was at and went to be with her. The towns they were in were about an hour apart, so I stayed behind with my mom to comfort her when her dad passed. A few hours go by, and he passes peacefully (huge thanks to the hospice workers for their respect and grace during this time)."
"Within an hour or so of his passing, we get a call from my dad saying that his mother had passed as well. It was a terribly dark day in our family, and the next couple years for me in college were pretty much a blur. Thankfully, things got better in time and we are all doing well now."
She lost everything...
"Her husband left her after previously persuading her to remortgage their house to save his business and he's already made her take multiple credit cards out in her name. She lost everything. He did it the week after their youngest turned 18 so he wouldn't have to pay child support. He'd obviously been planning for years."
Ieatclowns
a black sheep...
"My cousin was in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend died. She broke her back. When she was in the hospital she learned she was pregnant. It's been 16 years and we're still trying our best, she took an all too familiar path of drugs, burning bridges and more pregnancies."
"At this point she's fairly stable and clean as far as I know but a bit of a black sheep. Her mother has custody of all one of her kids. She has her youngest and seems to be doing good by her, but who knows. It's been hard on everyone, especially her mother and her brother."
Paradigm6790
Well this is the stuff of nightmares. I'm grateful for every moment I have alive.
Several lawsuits are filed...
"Here is multiple lives ruined in an instant. A friend was over at some other people house, drugs were involved. They had been playing with a gun. My friend points the gun at a girl, pulls the trigger and shoots her in the head. Girl dies, friend gets locked up until he turns 18. Parents at the house get arrested because they knew what the kids were doing. Friends mom goes into a depression and ends up getting evicted from her house. Several lawsuits are filed."
sentondan
Gone Forever
"It was me... got in a car accident and suffered a traumatic spinal and brain injury that I had no chance of surviving... a 7 vertebrae spinal fusion, yrs of physical and mental therapy... 18 yrs later and the pieces, though many forever gone, are finally coming back together."
2boneskuLL
A Bad Night
"He trashed his fathers vacation house with an axe before setting it on fire, stabbed the neighbor nearly to death, stole their car and then crashed it into a cop car so bad the cops were injured. He also got his girl pregnant, so once he is out of prison they're gonna start a family."
Dumbing_It_Down
"dangerous"
"Pregnant friend found out husband (43) was having an affair with young woman (19) who was a volunteer at their ecolodge. Friend had 'dangerous' pregnancy and had to spend a lot of time in bed. This betrayal destroyed their marriage, split the little town where they lived and caused two employees to quit because witnessing the affair going on was just too painful."
"She had a beautiful baby girl (to go with her other two girls, lol) and after the breakup was clinically depressed. Worked hard and got a divorce (she had a great lawyer); got the business back on track; beat her depression and now is planning a great vacation trip with her girls."
"Meantime, Dad has generous visitation but just 'hasn't gotten around to' buying a car seat so he can pick up the baby and for a long time asked my friend, 'Can you drop the girls off at my Mom's?'"
NoBSforGma
Lost it All...
"Recently, I know of a guy that had borrowed all his family’s life savings for the most part to participate in the whole game stop stock thing happening… he lost every penny of his money (credit card advances), and his parents retirement, and every other dime he could get… it makes me sick to even think of it."
Bangbangsmashsmash
Well those are A LOT of bad days. Good luck to all of you.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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Those who are wealthy have the luxury of acquiring the best of the best–whether it's dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant or status-identifying clothing from Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent.
But even the rich have their limits when it comes to frivolous spending before casting judgment on friends or colleagues.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor Sasquatchfl asked:
"Rich people of Reddit, what's the craziest/most unethical thing you've seen people in your circle spend money on?"
Expensive experiences were a priority over prized possessions.
Live Sushi
"An ex worked for Dell in the late 90s/early 2000s. He was pretty high up and there were lots of partiers in his work circle. Went to a party hosted by one of the dellionaires and there was a body sushi girl. I don’t know what was paid to her, but it was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen."
– 5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor
Pissing Contest
"Paid a group of homeless guys to only use the bathroom on a competitors business. Eventually bought that place for a massive discount."
– Haboobalub
Let's Work Out
"My mother woke up one morning and said she felt she was way too fat and she wanted to get a treadmill. The treadmill wouldn’t be a problem, but then she saw where it would be and didn’t like the lighting. Fast forward 2 months later there’s a 40k outdoor gym built and connected to the house. She hasn’t used it once."
– Herrera5449_
Taking A Leap
"Travelled with a bunch of ex 'friends' all fairly wealthy."
"First trip to SE Asia together and as an ex-local I was a de-facto tour guide (despite not being there in over a decade)"
"They somehow found and offered a bunch of kids diving off cliffs to jump for spare change."
"They increasingly challenged each other to land their coins as close to the cliff base and small surrounding rocks for the kids to dive for."
– Satakans
It's about the finer things in life.
Expensive Party Gag
"A 3k ouija board from Gwen Paltrow's store. I didn't even know it was a thing until the dude brought it out. I really wanted to cut it up and see what it was made from. Looked nice don't get me wrong but the thing is basically a party gag. For 3 grand, it better summon a demon that's all I'm saying."
– con_this
Slow Burn
"$600 USD for a candle."
– Jeffranks
It's not always about the things you acquire.
Minor Inconvenience
"I know a guy who went to get a new drivers license and had to pay ~$100k in back parking tickets, then joked about it after."
"Apparently he couldn't get a permit to park in front of his house, so he just did anyway, and accepted like a $200 fine everyday."
– melodyze
For A Successful Election
"Not me, but I know a guy who crowd funded (read: threw a bunch of money into, then solicited more at a flea market) $80,000 toward his friend's DA election campaign. The guy won. So far, this has paid back at least $120K in avoided legal fees. I know some rich people. Most of them are more boring than you think. Hell, most of them drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans."
– KP_Wrath
The Lance Corporal
"I was stationed with a Lance Corporal who was wealthy beyond means after selling some of his patents. He owned and piloted four helicopters. Lived in a palatial waterfront house in Jacksonville, NC."
"The cheapest one cost 400K. That's the one he trained on. The most expensive was about 1.2 million. That's 1.2 million 1981 dollars. The two he's got now are about 5 million each."
"Had a floating landing pad out back moored to his dock and another landing pad in the back yard. Kept two helicopters and a Rolls inside his custom-built hangar at Norfolk International Airport."
"He drove a pair of Rolls-Royces. He also toyed with a 900K Miami-Vice type speedboat. He also housed and transported his squad to Camp Lejeune and back in a custom mini-bus."
– ApplicationConnect55
The dude was very giving and lived a very clean life. He'd fly us to Norfolk, pickup the car and we'd do our shopping and eating. Hop in a chopper and return home. He'd fly his fire team down to Miami on weekends. He kept a Limo there and wore a chauffer's outfit and did all the driving.
He bought a full-service and licensed pub in Northern Ireland. He lives there with his wife. Does a lot of charity work there. We still keep in touch."
– ApplicationConnect55
When there's plenty of money going around, there's no need to worry about a single thing.
That peace of mind is a luxury in itself.
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When marriages or relationships fall apart, infidelity is not always the cause.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Liam_Tang asked:
"People who've divorced, aside from adultery, what were the irreconcilable differences that ended the marriage?"

You think you know a person when you walk down the aisle.
These Redditors were in for a rude awakening.
Pet Neglect
"My wife divorced her ex for many reasons, but the final straw was when she went out of town for a few days, and when she got back he had not fed or given water to the dog. The dog lived a long and happy life after that."
– StrangeCrimes
Obsessed With A Crush
"Not me, but I had an old coworker that divorced his wife for spending their entire savings on candy crush and games of the same type."
– Hexis40
Compatibility Musts
"ITT: Intimacy (sex/romance), beliefs (religion/spirituality/politics), kids, and I haven’t seen it yet but it’s coming: finances."
"The big four. You REALLY need to discuss these things in detail BEFORE getting married."
– rabbiskittles
Physical violence is a legit reason for people to peace out of a relationship.
The Flattening
"She threatened to hit me with a hammer."
– michaelrohansmith
Hitting The Bottle
"She became an abusive alcoholic. It was sad but I had to get out."
– diegojones4
Emotional pain is too damaging to recover from.
Truth Hurts
"She told me as we stood in front of the judge ending our 7 year marriage, 'I never loved you, I just wanted kids.'"
– Pinch_Dogs
Can't Fix Angry
"She was beautiful/smart but an angry angry person. I thought I could be sweet to her and 'fix' that. Heh. She kicked the crap out of me emotionally. Wife II has been a walk in the roses for 32 years now :)"
– lowlandr
A change of heart is worthless if comes too late.
"We Could've Had A Nice Marriage
"He could not understand that my wants and needs were as important as his wants and needs. We tried to make it work for 7 years. During that time, for things that were really important to me, I tried explaining logically, asking nicely, begging, crying, yelling, passive aggressiveness... cycled back through all of these options multiple times."
"(If I knew something was important to him, I would do that. For example, he was really into sports, so I went to all his events, even though that is not at all my thing.) When I finally threw up my hands and told him it was time to get a divorce, he suddenly panicked and said 'What can I do? Do you want me to do half the chores? I'll do it! Do you want me to get a job? I'll do it! Do you want me to buy you presents for your birthday? I'll do it!'"
"So, in other words, he could have been doing that all along, but just couldn't be bothered. That made me so angry. We could have had a nice marriage that we both enjoyed, but no, by the time he saw the light, that ship had sailed."
"We are both happily remarried now (to different people) and I joke that his new wife owes me a thank you note. It was his experience with me that taught him to listen to her and take her needs seriously."
– Bluebird-True
"What Can I Do?"
"My ex was exactly like this. I didn't marry him but when I told him let's break up, he went all like, what can I do? Let's get engaged, let's look at houses, etc. Basically all the pre-marriage topics that we should be discussing about after being together for 7 years."
"I got so angry and straight up told him it's too late... I don't need you anymore."
– gudetarako
As much as a couple wants to stay together, unforeseen circumstances can eventually tear people apart.
Very few people can maintain healthy long-distance relationships.
When a new job opportunity takes a significant other away, would you begrudge them for wanting a better position to earn more money? Or is it better for them to reluctantly turn down the opportunity so they could stay with you? Do either scenarios breed resentment?
These were questions I've often asked myself with past relationships, and my answers varied depending on the person I was with.
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