02/20/2006: Thanks to the anonymous contributor for submitting this story about Rapid Run Park in Cincinnati. The park’s oldest swing area is haunted by a young boy whose ghost has been seen swinging on the middle swing. He has been seen by multiple witnesses at the same time. The park’s shelter and upper ball fields are also said to be haunted by spirits of both children and adults, although no one is sure why.
I live in a haunted house so ghosts are not frightening to me. I grew up with them, my children too; we live in the house I grew up in. Anyway ghosts are not unusual for us. We also have a park nearby that I played at as a child and, of course, heard all the chilling stories of kids and adults that haunt the park’s shelter, old swing area and upper ballfields. I never encountered anything strange except two years ago. I walked to the park with three of my children. We were there for a couple of hours and decided to go back home. We took the path at the top of the park where the shelter house and old swings are. As we got closer to the swings my son, who was on a bike, stopped and was looking at them. I turned my head and noticed the center swing slightly moving and a little boy looking at us smiling, then he was gone. We walked a couple of steps past the swing and turned to look and the boy had gone, but the center swing was moving again as if someone was swinging. Neither of the other two swings moved, it was 95° out an no breezes to be felt, even in the shade.
I remembered hearing the stories of the children who play on the swings but this was the first time I actually experienced them at the park. My children and I didn’t talk about what we had just witnessed until we got to the old path leading out of the park. We all sensed the same and seen the same boy, it was truly amazing though I haven’t gone back to investigate it further. I plan to soon, hopefully I will be able to get a picture or two or even have the chance to find out who he is and why he is there. But more than that, I’d like for him to be able to find his way home. He was maybe 5 or 6 years old.