Ghost Story of Vietnam Veteran Haunting Lakewood, Ohio Essay -- Urban

Vietnam Veteran Haunting Lakewood, Ohio Perhaps some of the best stories told are classified as urban legends. Urban legends have become a part of culture, and a way to tell stories. They can tell us things about ourselves and about how we lead our lives. They serve to entertain us, but can also teach us lessons, such as morals to live by. Urban legends are passed on between generations, and become a part of the oral history of a place. Whether the stories are true or not, urban legends are often taken to hold at least some truth about a culture. No matter how radical some of the stories may be, people often take the urban legends to be true. People may take these stories to be true simply for entertainment purposes, but mostly because the morals the stories teach are important. Urban legends can become a part of the place where they originate, and can help define a culture, and shape its history. There a number of urban legends from where I live in Cleveland, Ohio, but one struck me more than others. The man who told me the story had attended the same high school as I, St. Edward High School, an all-boy high school, in Lakewood, Ohio. Lakewood, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland located directly on Lake Erie. It is a small town that does appear to have anything special about it. It was very hard to find an urban legend concerning this small town where I attended high school, but my friend’s father knew the perfect story. He was born and grew up in Lakewood, and so knew the area very well. He had not heard the legend before attending St. Edward, but heard it during his first week of high school. After that, the story became so common, that it did not seem weird to him. The students of the school simply seemed to acc... ...am Vet from Lakewood became a famous story not only in the halls of St. Edward, but throughout the city of Lakewood. With the ghost of the vet haunting Lakewood Park, the entire city was haunted by the tale, with sightings of the ghost being made by many different citizens. However, the story is special to St. Edward because it is believed that the vet who committed suicide attended St. Edward High School before going to war. Urban Legends help to tell a history and share a culture with those who listen to them. The Legend of the Vietnam War Vet did just this. The story was easily relatable to kids of the area, as most kids either attended Lakewood High School or St. Edward. The story of the Vietnam Vet from Lakewood is one that has served to create a culture for Lakewood, Ohio, and is one which will live on in the city, and the halls of St. Edward High School.