While poking around the dark recesses of the internet for other versions of The Ghostly Bus Driver, I stumbled on this appearance by Kojak star, Telly Savalas, on an Australian show about the unexplained.

In it, Telly recounts a mysterious encounter with a helpful motorist late one night when he had run out of gas. I won’t say anything more, since that would steal Telly’s thunder.

Reader Devin P sent in the following email:

I apologize in advance for the vague details; couldn’t find them. Here goes. Supposedly transit riders of (area unknown) have reported that after having missed a late night bus, a friendly little old man in an "old fashioned bus in need of repairs" has suddenly arrived to take them where they are going. The old man is reported to make warm, friendly conversation, as he takes the rider to their stop. Later it is inevitably discovered that such a driver and bus are not running any route on (line unknown). This seems to be an inversion of the "Ghostly Hitchhiker" legend, with the "spirit" offering a ride to the living.

No need to apologise, Devin! I very much like this re-imagining of a classic scare-lore tale, and like you I believe it has grown out of a version of “The Ghostly Hitchhiker” [1].

Having said that, I can’t remember coming across a version like this in any of my source books, and Google doesn’t return a match when you search for terms like “ghost bus driver”.

Can I ask roughly where and when you heard this story, if you remember?

And to any others who drop by; have any of you heard a similar tale involving a helpful, ghostly bus driver?

Footnotes:

1.	Sometimes also known as “The Vanishing Hitchhiker”.
	Return

If you’re a fan of scary stories about the Bloody Mary ritual, you might enjoy resonanttantei’s fun retelling of a group of friends calling on Bloody Mary, and the terrifying results.

You can read the full story at: “Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary….oh crap” (note: language may be a little unsuitable to some in some places).

After a while, we summoned up our courage and went back to school, went into the bathrooms and of course, since I’m the “Legend Tripper” I had to say what we do.

I liked resonanttantei’s idea of being a “Legend Tripper”, and while I don’t know exactly what he intended to convey with the term, I thought it was perhaps meant to be a way of describing someone who’s something of an expert in various legends, but who also may be just a little bit unpredictable with it as well.

Jake being the bravest, looked up and his eyes went BIG. I looked up as well, I gasped and I almost screamed. Cori took her hand and covered mine. “Don’t scream, don’t..” She said to me.

Photograph courtesy of peskymac

I’ve just discovered a charming version of the Bloody Mary story over on the American Folklore web site.

In this rendition, Bloody Mary is a witch who lives in a forest and who lures children from a nearby village to use them in black magic that will give her back her youth.

Predictably, things don’t go well at all for the wicked witch once the villagers discover that she has been lying, and she is burned alive for murdering their children.

Before she dies, however, Bloody Mary curses the village, and to this very day anyone who chants her name three times in front of a darkened mirror will summon her vengeful spirit from the grave.

You can read the tale in full over at: Bloody Mary: A Scary Urban Legend from Pennsylvania Folklore

“Everywhere I go,” the man said, staring through a window at the darkness pressing in against the glass, “there are always puddles of water beneath my feet. I think it’s supposed to mean something, but I don’t know what.”

To Jacob, sitting at the counter next to the man, the diner seemed to be too harshly lit, as if every object within had been rendered with almost painful intensity. He glanced at the man sitting on the next seat and sighed. One of those, he thought. Just my luck.

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