Ghost Child’s Screen Time | Your Urban Legends 115
/We should be telling more ghost stories in the winter time. That’s why we’re coming to you with a whole new urban legends episode, featuring mischievous ghost children, haunted dorms with a mysterious pull, and a grandpa ghost that has GOT to stop acting so creepy!
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of implied abusive relationships, hallucinations/unreality, child death, family member death, suicide, accidental death, and murder.
Housekeeping
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Send in those urban legend emails as you head home for the holidays!
- Submit Your Urban Legends Audio: Call us! 617-420-2344
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Cast & Crew
- Co-Hosts: Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin
- Editor: Bren Frederick
- Music: Brandon Grugle, based on "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Spirits is a boozy podcast about mythology, legends, and folklore. Every episode, co-hosts Julia and Amanda mix a drink and discuss a new story or character from a wide range of places, eras, and cultures. Learn brand-new stories and enjoy retellings of your favorite myths, served over ice every week, on Spirits.
Transcript
[theme]
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia. And Amanda, it's hometown urban legends time, baby. Welcome back.
AMANDA: Oh, man, oh, man. A lot of us have spent some time in our hometowns over the last couple of months. We're going to be reflecting on our holidays as children, and I don't know about you, but a big part of my holidays was getting told spooky stories in a basement by a cousin.
JULIA: And it should be. That should be the tradition, right? So if—
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: —you're listening to this episode and you are home for the holidays, much like I encouraged you during our Thanksgiving episodes, hey, go ask your favorite cousin or your weird aunt or uncle, or your grandma who seems like she's seen a lot of shit, go ask them about a scary story. And then write into us about it.
AMANDA: We've all been kind of, like, left in the cluster of relatives that perhaps you wouldn't choose for yourself, but it's maybe a mid-tier blunt rotation or would be, should that be appropriate at your family gatherings. You can always just break an awkward silence by saying, "So what ghost stories have you heard recently?" And people will light up. They love this shit. Go ahead and ask them.
JULIA: Or have you ever had a supernatural experience? Or what's the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
AMANDA: Maybe not that one, Julia. Maybe that one—
JULIA: [1:48]
AMANDA: —is like after dessert when the sort of, like, the wine is out and we're sort of getting a little more intimate.
JULIA: I would say do the paranormal question first and then the follow up to that one is, what's the scariest thing that ever happened to you.
AMANDA: Y'all ever seen a ghost? Listen, just try it. Just try it.
JULIA: Yeah. I think that's a great icebreaker for family members who you want to avoid having to talk politics about.
AMANDA: Couldn't agree more. Speaking of which, Julia, I had a super cute, little voicemail update from a listener, Sam. [2:16] May I play it for you real fast?
JULIA: Please.
AMANDA: This is a longtime friend of the show, Sam in Austin. Here we are.
SAM: Hi, ConSpiriters. It's Sam in Austin. It is Saturday, the 6th of December. And I'm sitting in my favorite regular diner, and guess what's playing on the music? Suzy Snowflake. Just wanted to let you all know that it does escape once in a while. Later, Satyrs.
JULIA: That is incredible. First off, Sam calling us from the diner, incredible.
AMANDA: Incredible vibes.
JULIA: The fact that Suzy Snowflake has broken containment from the Chicago area, also incredible.
AMANDA: We've also gotten multiple Chicago grandmothers confirming to us that they remember the debut and existence of Suzy Snowflake. So just a little update here. Just trying to bring you the real-time urban legend news, folks. It's spreading.
JULIA: Shout out to the grandma who also let us know that you could watch it on the YouTube.
AMANDA: Spelled with the you. You, T-U-B-E.
JULIA: Spelled with the you.
AMANDA: Which is also how my grandma spells it. Shout out grandmas. Shout out ConSpiriters, sharing the show with their grandmas. Thank you so much.
JULIA: We love to hear it. We love to see it. Well, speaking of sharing the show with loved ones—
AMANDA: Ooh.
JULIA: —and family members, Amanda, I have a— somewhat of a follow-up from Delaney, [3:32] she/her. You might remember Delaney from the story of the haunted house that their family had bought. A ghost child locked her in the closet while they were viewing the home.
AMANDA: During the viewing? And then after that, Julia, what'd they do?
JULIA: They still bought the house and they still live there.
AMANDA: Sure did.
JULIA: Uh-hmm. Well, Delaney was very kind to share a bunch of very interesting stories in that episode and has followed up with a couple of other ones. So this is called Mothman, Unexplained Footprints.
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: Delaney writes, "Oh, my gosh, I'm honored to have been on the Halloween episode. Thank you. I did sit my mom down and we listened to it together. She thanks you for your kind words and said, 'It'd be fun to go for margaritas with y'all.' You might have a new listener."
AMANDA: Anytime.
JULIA: "I'm glad my story was somewhere a doozy and epic. I'll take that. As soon as I heard that, I pause the audio and ask my mom, 'Am I the doozy? She answered with a high pitch, 'I mean—" and we burst out into snorting laughter." Thank you for that, Julia. All right. I promise Mothman and you shall have him. Now, this is my dad's story. He told it to us kids over and over and over. Now, he swears by it, but, uh, we'll take it with a big grain of salt, is all I'll say. My dad was in his teens, early 1980s. Obviously, this was well after the Mothman incident in the 1960s, so maybe he had heard of it already, but he says he didn't. He didn't have the best childhood to be frank, so he often went into his backyard to get some fresh air. It was one of those nights that he swears he felt time, not stop, but slow down to where you almost can't tell it's moving. He saw a shadowy figure block the light of the moon, which then dropped down quickly, landing precariously but steadily, as if not affected by gravity, on the roof of the garage. Red eyes staring at him. Wings unfurled. And then my dad says that he heard Mothman communicate telepathically with him."
AMANDA: What did he say?
JULIA: "Something about his destiny or a job that he had to do. Like a prophecy, you know, the whole schtick."
AMANDA: Most importantly, Julia, is there a detail about what happened when Mothman turns around? Because we know you might just think it's a generic spooky figure but if it's got that cake.
JULIA: You know what? You're absolutely right, Amanda. And I did have to take a moment to Google whether or not the Mothman prophecies came out in the 1980s and that's what this was. Nope, it came out in 2002, so—
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: —might be a retcon situation but—
AMANDA: Pretty impressive.
JULIA: —potentially could have happened. So something about his destiny, his job he had to do, like a prophecy, you know the whole schtick. "Then dad blinked, and time sped up to normal, and Mothman was flying away in the distance. The end, apparently. Now, this turned my dad into a lifelong believer in the supernatural or unexplainable. He never specifically said Mothman wasn't sexy, so by default, I'm still keen to believe that there is a ripped flying man out there."
AMANDA: You know, to be absolutely fair to your dad, I also would not notice the sexiness of the apparition. I mean, maybe I would, but I think an average dad would not necessarily notice the sexiness of the apparition when they're like, "Holy shit, there's an apparition telling me a prophecy." I'd be like, "Hahaha. Hi."
JULIA: I really wonder, like— Amanda, imagine someone came through a magic portal, and I'm not going to describe this person to you at all. And they're like—
AMANDA: Uh-huh.
JULIA: "—Amanda, it is your destiny to come with me and save the world from the evil sorcerer, Megananum." [7:19]
AMANDA: Uh-huh.
JULIA: Are you focused in on that or are you like, how hot is this person?"
AMANDA: I think in all seriousness, Julia, I would listen to the prophecy unless they were so hot, it was distracting. At which point, I'd have to be like, "I'm so sorry, could you repeat yourself? I was really lost in your eyes/boobs/legs."
JULIA: Gotcha. Cool. Cool. Good to know. Good to know.
AMANDA: Just to be real. That's how it would go for me.
JULIA: Now, that is not the end of Delaney's stories, though, re her dad, so moving on. "There was a time that I stayed in my dad's new house in order to be much closer to my college. Not the best choice-looking back, but whatever. So it was just me and dad in a house that was built within the past decade. It seems nicer on the outside, but a strange darkness lay within." And then Delaney includes, "Dun, dun, dun," which I think is great. "Now, this may shock you, but I was living in yet another house with a creepy-ass basement. As you'll recall, the basement was extremely creepy in the last story. And also, at one point, just manifested an illusion of thousands and thousands of ladybugs."
AMANDA: I have tried really hard to forget that, Julia. Alas, I never will in my human life. And I mean, at this point, like, I'm not going to, Delaney, like harp on the fact. This is just a, you know, a thing your folks have in common and a product of your childhood, so we can roll with this.
JULIA: "Now, this basement was mostly unfinished, except for one capital R, Room at the back."
AMANDA: Oh?
JULIA: Uh-huh.
AMANDA: So, like, wait, like walk through unfinished basement and then at the back is, like, a bedroom?
JULIA: Well, it says, "Nice carpeting, tons of electrical outlets, an entire wall of sliding closet doors that were mirrors. I refused to spend time in there. Absolutely not. Now, we kept the litter boxes downstairs off to the opposite side of the room. Our cat was 17 at this point and had a bit of trouble with being clean, plus her. The dust kind of covered the concrete floor in the immediate surrounding area, no matter how often and how much we mopped it up. One evening, I was home alone. My dad was just starting his shift at work. I settled in for a night of movies and take out in the living room, house dark and locked up tight. After finishing the first movie, maybe 9:00 P.M., I went looking for Shadow, the cat, so that I could snuggle her during the next movie. She wasn't cocooned under my bed sheets. She wasn't sprawled out on the dining room floor, begging for food. She wasn't even behind the couch the whole time. So I had to check downstairs, alone, in a dark house, looking for my Shadow. This shit writes itself, such is my life."
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: "Turning the bend in the stairs, having my phone flashlight on in hand." The fact that the stairs to the basement have a bend is actually somehow a thousand times worse.
AMANDA: It's somehow worse than the open back stairs that I have long hated.
JULIA: "Turning the bend in the stairs, having my phone flashlight on in my hand, I kept my head down until I could feel the light switch. I had the big 'nope' vibe. But if she needed help," the cat, I assume, "if she needed help after doing her business, I'd rather take care of it now so that I could go and relax. I walked over to the far side of the basement, putting on my old shoes that I kept down there specifically for this job, because again, very dusty around the litter box."
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
JULIA: We had a small lamp that Shadow could see by to save electricity by keeping the main overhead lights off unless necessary. This created a sort of unholy aura around the litter boxes surrounded by darkness for a couple of yards."
AMANDA: You know, you can think about it like a very classy theatrical ghost light, but instead it's your poop light for Shadow.
JULIA: Just the idea of the unholy aura surrounding litter boxes is extremely, extremely funny.
AMANDA: It's not wrong.
JULIA: "I got close enough to see that Shadow wasn't here either, which set off the panic alarm, of course, in my brain, but that was pushed to the back of my mind. In the dust, on the floor, leading from one wall towards the center of the room where I was standing, were little footprints."
AMANDA: From your cat?
JULIA: "Human footprints."
AMANDA: No. Uh-uh.
JULIA: "Bare feet."
AMANDA: No. Oh.
JULIA: "About the size of a toddler, I guessed."
AMANDA: What?
JULIA: Well, the next line agrees with you, Amanda, because it says, "What the fuck?"
AMANDA: Okay, this is bad. What ghost children are running in the litter box dirt?"
JULIA: Listen, I was gonna say at least they’re corporeal, but they're corporeal enough to leave footprints, so—
AMANDA: Yoinks.
JULIA: "And then the cold realization washed over me. I had cleaned this area yesterday. It was the weekend. I was here the whole time. I knew for a fact that nobody have visited and our doors were kept locked as usual. I thought this part of my life could have been chalked up to having sleep paralysis once or twice, or an overactive imagination as a kid. I went to therapy for Pete's sake. There's no way this stuff was real after all, right? And I'm not a religious person, but I prayed. I prayed that my eyes were lying to me, that all that work for years wasn't for nothing. But no, those footprints were not disappearing. I took a picture on my phone to prove to myself and my dad that this was real. I slowly turned, keeping my eyes on the trail of prints, seeing that they led to the little empty space beneath the staircase."
AMANDA: Oh, you mean the ghost children's play closet?
JULIA: "Which was directly on the other side of the wall from the rooms near closets."
AMANDA: Okay, I mean, Julia, what do you think that room was? Because it's like, you have to walk through unfinished basement to get to that place. It can't be a sex room, because that's not the vibe. I'm not going to bring a guest through my unfinished basement to get to the sex room. May— it doesn't feel like it would be like an apartment or like a bonus room or a rec room, because again, why would you walk through the unfinished parts? Like, what was this?
JULIA: I really don't know. It's very confusing to me. Maybe they like— maybe it was sold as like, "Oh, and the basement is partially finished." But the— like, I— contractors are usually just bad at understanding how people want to live in the spaces that they live in and so I think that it's like, "Yeah, we'll just finish, like, that one room that is the smaller of the, you know, square footage of the basement so that we can call this partially finished and charge $50,000 more."
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: Well, I mean, if I was a kid, I'd rather play in like a creepy closet than a huge room, to be fair.
JULIA: "Now, I had seen enough scary movies to know not to investigate. Sorry, ladies, I just couldn't do it. I ran up the stairs, slammed the door shut, and walked briskly to the living room. Guess who was fast asleep in my spot on the couch? My stupid, adorable, old baby Shadow. I didn't question it. I just put her on my lap and turned on the movie to escape the anxiety, burying us both in blankets. I woke—" this is not the end of the story.
AMANDA: Oh?
JULIA: Not the end of the story, Amanda. "I woke up in the early morning hours and knowing that my dad would be home soon. I wanted to check the photo in case I needed to crop it better or brighten it at all. My phone was gone. I then heard a sink running upstairs in my bathroom."
AMANDA: What?
JULIA: And then, in quotes, "No. Please no."
AMANDA: Uh-uh.
JULIA: "I ran. As I rounded the corner, I saw the faucet handle finish its last tiny bit of turning back to off. The sink was wet. And there was my phone."
AMANDA: No
JULIA: "RIP."
AMANDA: In the sink?
JULIA: In the sink.
AMANDA: Damn!
JULIA: "No amount of rice made it functional again, sadly. Looking back, it was either a purposeful cover-up of a ghostly visitor or a dumb, mean prank by a child spirit?"
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "Got any theories?"
AMANDA: Okay, this is my theory, Julia. Ready? So these ghost children were corporeal enough to leave footprints, but I'm going to argue they were not corporeal enough to swipe or—
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: —touch screens aren't doing the thing with ghost kids right now. So I think the ghost children were jealous of the excellent entertainment that the phone provides. They can't play with it and so they got mad and wanted to destroy the phone instead.
JULIA: Now, I am going to Google how touch screens work.
AMANDA: Cool.
JULIA: Because I am curious— okay, so it relies on electrical properties. My first thought was like, "Is it temperature-based?" Because if it's temperature-based, I can understand a ghost not being able to swipe because they're probably cold, and so it doesn't register as human.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: But also, I don't think that a ghost would have the same electrical properties as a human body and—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —so would not be able to swipe as well.
AMANDA: Frustrating. I know we both spend time with kids and toddlers, Julia, from time to time. Toddlers know how to swipe, okay? I met like a 14-month old the other day, knew how to swipe. And so I think that the ghosts just see fellow children doing this and they're like, "I want to play," but they cannot.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah.
AMANDA: So they're like, "Well, no playing for anybody."
JULIA: Maybe that ghost child just wanted to play with the cat.
AMANDA: Oh, that's true.
JULIA: That's why they're hanging out by the litter box.
AMANDA: Aw.
JULIA: And maybe they can't get out of the basement, so the only time they get to play with the cat is when the cat's doing its business.
AMANDA: Or maybe the power ranking is like play with the cat when possible. They don't want to disturb the cat when she's napping, so second is phone. And then you can't play with the phone. Nope, we're going to prank.
JULIA: Well, actually, I should say, obviously, the ghost can leave the basement because it uses the upstairs bathroom in the story, so—
AMANDA: Or maybe the bravest of the ghost children, if there is a little gang of kids here.
JULIA: Oh, we can't say there's multiple children.
AMANDA: I mean—
JULIA: We can't do this to ourselves.
AMANDA: I don't know. Team Delaney seems to attract spirits.
JULIA: Yes. So Delaney finishes off, "I moved back to this house from email one with my mom after that. Numerous reasons, but this definitely contributed to it. I don't know what was wrong with that house, it being so new and in a rural area. But I'd rather live here where I know our demons were gone than deal with the creepy ghost child. If it was a child and not pretending to be one. That's a nice thought. Thank you, Brain. Those are the stories I promise, but they are not the end. Well, this is the end for now, but I have more I can write in about in the future. I hope you enjoyed. And if there are any follow-up questions you would like answered, please let me know. And thank you both for the solidarity and empathy shown in your responses. They mean more than words can say. Stay creepy. Stay cool. Delaney."
AMANDA: Delaney, you are one of our ConSpiriters, one of our sweet Satyrs, and we are here for you any time. Thank you for writing in.
JULIA: Yes, and please write in more, obviously. We very much enjoyed it.
AMANDA: Julia, I actually have a voicemail that I don't remember downloading, but I did title New House Haunting, so—
Jullia: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: —it seems like a perfect follow-up. Does it not?
JULIA: It really does. Go ahead.
TASHA: My name is Tasha, longtime listener, first-time caller, and all that fun stuff. I had an urban legend about my child's home that definitely was not haunted. So my parents moved into their house. They still live in. I grew up in 2000. It was the newest house in the development. There were no other houses in the neighborhood. Brands make anew. Like nobody died in this house, couldn't possibly be haunted.
AMANDA: Except, Julia, with the vibes of McMansions, which if it's—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —a new development, you're moving in in the year 2000, it's giving housing bubble. It's giving, you know, like McMansion-y looking in suburban America. And that's a bit of a haunting on its own, don't you think?
JULIA: Exactly. And just remember, just because the house is new, the land is not new.
AMANDA: Certainly not.
TASHA: And growing up, there was like always a weird feeling to the house. I always thought when at night I would be like, "Oh, I feel like someone's watching me, or I hear creaks that's kind of, like, somebody moving around or trying to, like, watch me sleep in the house.
AMANDA: A specific feeling that I hate.
JULIA: Certainly not a good one.
AMANDA: Especially— imagine an empty development. This is the only house that's done and knew in an empty development.
JULIA: Yeah. And, like, it's only the model homes and you, you're the only one living there. Spooky.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
TASHA: I was little. I assumed it was either Easter Bunny or Santa Claus, and that's just with them checking in and make sure I was a good kid, which I wasn't because I was supposed to be asleep, but I had insomnia. But my little brother in the house as well, he has— he always had that creepy feeling as well. And he talked a lot about the big bad wolf that lived in his closet. He was really scared in the big bad wolf in his closet.
JULIA: Oh, no.
TASHA: Never did figure out what that is. Heaven knows what it could have been. We were talking, my brother and I, recently about our childhood home, and I was like, "Yeah, the house is kind of creepy, but nothing that we couldn't handle and not just houses. Houses just make noise." I'm very much Team Ignorant. And my brother just very quietly was like, "I've heard things in this house. Not [20:48]." Well, I didn't ask any follow-up questions because my parents still live there, and I sometimes come over, and I don't want to think about that.
JULIA: Yeah, but you don't live there anymore.
AMANDA: You don't live there. Okay, you don't have to lay your head down there every single night and fall asleep with what may or may not be the big bad wolf in your brother's closet. I do think it's important that you and he share notes about what exactly happened, or maybe he can just write in, and then you can find out in the comforting, safe kind of vibe of this podcast, exactly what he experienced.
JULIA: Yeah, seriously.
TASHA: But maybe, you know, someday I'll ask my brother more about the house or look into it, but for now, I'm very much Team Ignorant. My house definitely wasn't haunted growing up. All the weird dreams, all the weird sounds. That was just what houses normally do, even though no other house I've lived in has made those kinds of sounds or have those kinds of feelings. Thank you so much [21:42] guys."
JULIA: We might need you to write in and describe a little bit more about the dream situation because the dream kind of got dropped in there at the end.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: I need you to compare notes with your brother. I really do.
AMANDA: Because, I mean, the thing that would freak me out the most is if these experiences have followed you, right? And if, like, the spirit is following you or if it's something, you know, sleep-related, insomnia-related, the spirits are contained, okay? Your parents are fine.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Clearly, they've come to a understanding. It's 2020, almost, six. Like, they're fine.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: I think it's time.
JULIA: I think it's time. And also, clearly it hasn't followed you. So talking about it can't make it worse.
AMANDA: Optimistic smile?
JULIA: Haha.
AMANDA: Yeah, I think it's time to compare notes and to write back in. I love it.
JULIA: Oh, boy, I need a little break. Why don't we go grab our refill?
AMANDA: Let's do it.
[theme]
JULIA: Hey, it's Julia, and welcome to the refill. First off, we have to thank our newest patrons, N. Kowalski and Sailor Enchantics. [22:44] Thank you so much for joining us at Patreon, and you too could get some cool rewards like ad-free episodes, recipe cards for every single episode, bonus urban legends every month. We just released our Spirits Winter Solstice tarot reading for our upper-level patrons and so much more. Go check that out at patreon.com/spiritspodcast. And of course, thank you to our supporting producer-level patrons, Uhleeseeuh, Hannah, Scott, Anne, Matthew, Lily, and Wil. And of course, our legend-level patrons, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Audra, Sarah, Bea Me Up Scotty, Morgan, Bex, Rikoelike, Chibi Yokai, and Michael. This episode is sponsored by Volante Design, and listen, I always want to be the main character in my story, and there's something about Volante Design's clothing that just makes me feel like the main character. If you're looking for gear that makes you feel like just as much of a badass in real life as you do in a video game, look no further than Volante. Their high-quality, handmade jackets bring that main character energy into your everyday life. With official licenses from series like Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry, and Star Trek, as well as plenty of original collections like their cyberpunk and modern ninja line, Volante Design has a jacket for whatever your lifestyle needs. Ethically sourced and manufactured Volante jackets are made for quality and will last you for years to come. It is a great investment, let me tell you. Just go to volantedesign.us and use code SPIRITS for 10% off your entire order. That's SPIRITS for 10% off your entire order. Volante Design, stay badass. And they let me say that in the copy.
GUSTAVO: Hi, I'm Gustavo Sorola. And if you love D&D style adventure full of humor and heart, you should check out Tales From The Stinky Dragon. Tales From The Stinky Dragon is a cinematic listening experience complete with guest performances from professional voice actors and comedians, immersive sound design, and its own musical score. Go on a thrilling journey with four friends and me, Gus, their very patient Dungeon Master, as we stumble through disastrous dice rolls, questionable roleplay decisions, and even a few wholesome feel good moments along the way. You can binge on our first two campaigns or join us every other week for our latest third campaign. No matter where you decide to start listening, you're guaranteed to have a side-splitting journeys that's fun for all ages and perfect for both D&D veterans and newcomers alike. Just search for Tales From The Stinky Dragon wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe today.
JULIA: And now, let's get back to the show.
[theme]
JULIA: Amanda, we are back and, hey, I got to ask you, what have you been enjoying lately? Cocktail, Mocktail, weird, edible- wise in your court?
AMANDA: Julia, we had a family wedding a couple of weeks ago. My baby brother got married, congrats—
JULIA: Shoutout.
AMANDA: —Austin and Alexa. [25:40] It was so much fun. And I got to merge my hotel partying experience for my days going to VidCon with a family tailgate. And so what we did is we brought a large Yeti cooler into the largest hotel room that our family had in the hotel.
JULIA: Hell yeah.
AMANDA: And stocked it full. We tried to go for three options that would please the most people. And so we had, like, a fairly, mild white wine. We had some little skinny boys of Stella Artois.
JULIA: Classic.
AMANDA: And then we had some High Noons in lime flavor. And I got to say, everybody had something they liked. I recommend that little, you know, budget trifecta.
JULIA: Very nice. I love that for you.
AMANDA: Yeah. How about you?
JULIA: I am getting excited, because at the time of this recording, Jake and I are going to be leaving to go to Maine soon.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Which I'm very stoked about. And I am really looking forward to going wine shopping because we're going to bring, like, a couple of bottles of wine up for the hotel room and for the trip. And, ooh, baby, the wine store by me, there's like a really nice boutique wine store. And I have been obsessed with their selection lately. So I think I'm going to do like—
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: —a Lambrusco. There's a really like apple-y— I think I've recommended it on the podcast already, but like a really apple-y white wine that's like a little bit funky, too. And then I'm going to wild card see what the third one is. But there's another wine that I really do like. It's an orange wine. It's called Hablo Gulpo.
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: And I think that's a really fun, just like crushable wine.
AMANDA: I love that. And do you—
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: —think about, like, the snacks you're going to pair with them at the same time?
JULIA: Oh, we're going to bring some cheese.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Oh, there's going to be cheese.
AMANDA: Love it.
JULIA: That's going to be like our dinner on Christmas Eve is just wine and cheese. I'm so excited.
AMANDA: Aw. I love that. You're going to have so much fun.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, I have a new email, hot and fresh in from our favorites, the Winchester family.
JULIA: Hell yeah.
AMANDA: What a gift for all of us. This one is from SW, she/they. Welcome back, SW, our original Winchester.
JULIA: Truly, the Winchester's the gift that keeps on giving.
AMANDA: So true. So true. So SW writes, "Hi again. Sorry, it took so long to write back. Ma took a lot of stories from me, so I wasn't sure what to write about—"
JULIA: Dang, Ma.
AMANDA: "—and was also busy applying to grad school."
JULIA: Ma getting called out immediately in this. Damn.
AMANDA: "I also just relocated to Scotland for a year."
JULIA: Exciting.
AMANDA: Congratulations. "And I think I'm ready after you read my Ma's most recent tale. Firstly, as she mentioned, once you guys started the Winchester bit, it felt right to transition from SW to just Sam. If you know, you know."
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: "Now, I think I'll write in about some theater ghost stories, a little bit about my grandfather that Ma mentioned, and my great-grandfather, too. In high school, I was a theater kid, the kind who constantly hummed and pretty much only listened to show tunes. I essentially lived in the auditorium between band chorus, and theater, and probably fully spent more time there than at home. The stories of the ghosts of the auditorium were mostly jokes, mostly just a funny thing used to blame props being moved or sheet music disappearing. But we called our auditorium ghost specifically Sherry. [28:54]"
JULIA: Hmm. Okay.
AMANDA: "From my first year there, I had a feeling that Sherry was more than a joke. I didn't have any proof she was real, but the occasional creaky steps and shuffling backstage when I was in there alone felt way too convenient to just be floorboard settling."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "Now, my first musical was in eighth grade, and it was a modern day interpretation of a Jane Austen book."
JULIA: Which one?
AMANDA: I don't know. I've never heard of that. "As we were learning the dance to Somebody To Love Me," does that help us, Google?
JULIA: I don't— this sounds like something that someone in the community wrote a jukebox musical set to a Jane Austen.
AMANDA: "As we were learning the dance to Somebody To Love Me, there were suddenly footsteps and a loud bang from behind the curtains on stage left. Everyone stopped in their steps and turned to look toward the sound. The director called out to see if anyone was back there, but it was a Sunday rehearsal and everyone who was in the building was either currently on stage or in the audience."
JULIA: Sure. Makes sense.
AMANDA: "Now, I was the person closest to the curtain, so I reluctantly—"
JULIA: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: "—stepped forward to look around and saw a huge mess of music stands on the floor, but nobody else back there."
JULIA: Sam, you're an eighth grade. It's not your job to investigate this.
AMANDA: It's true.
JULIA: Send an adult.
AMANDA: You say, "I need an adult," and then you wait.
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "Feeling shivers go up my spine, I noped away from backstage at that point and booked it to the front row where my water bottle was sitting. We took a quick break to fix the stands, but the feeling of someone being backstage didn't leave me for the rest of rehearsal. And from that point, until the end of my sophomore year, so three years here—"
JULIA: Uh-oh.
AMANDA: "—whenever I went into the auditorium, I wore a necklace that was supposed to ward off evil spirits.
JULIA: Hell yeah, dog.
AMANDA: "For a few months, I even avoided being alone in the auditorium and the bandroom, which was situated directly behind the auditorium."
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: "And eventually, I came to the conclusion that Sherry was simply hanging out without any bad intentions."
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: "I don't know if anyone ever died in that area of the school or even the building in general, but I sure misplaced enough props and heard enough creaks that I have no doubt there was some interference back there."
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "There's one other time in that same auditorium where a trumpet player said the M name—"
JULIA: Whoops.
AMANDA: "—Scottish play while standing on stage and almost immediately fully tripped down the stairs."
JULIA: You know, sometimes the curse of the Scottish play is really funny because you can really blame anything that goes wrong on someone saying it, because inevitably—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: —someone will be an edge lord and say it, right? But when it's the immediate comeuppance, it's pretty funny.
AMANDA: It's— I mean, listen, as a teen, I wasn't particularly coordinated. Theater and band kids carry a lot of stuff. Like, I feel like we're slightly more accident prone than normal. But, like, saying it and then immediately face-planting down the stairs is pretty good.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: "Luckily, that same player then listened to me when I told him to go outside and spit on the ground."
JULIA: Uh-hmm. Good.
AMANDA: "So a couple of family stories now. My great-grandfather passed away in 2015. I'd spent some time at his and my great-grandmother's house when I was younger, a few days a week, actually, until they ended up moving into a nursing home. And when he passed, a year to the day later, my great-grandmother followed. I think it was about 2018 when I was home from school a couple years after we'd lost both of them. I'd just come home from rehearsal and laid down in the big, comfy chair in our living room, lights off, taking a brain break before starting my homework. I napped for about 20 minutes until I woke up smelling Old Spice. Now, I was a bit confused because as far as I knew, no one living in our house used Old Spice. So when my dad, Pa Winchester, got home, I asked, 'Oh, did you switch to Old Spice?' And he was like, 'No.' So I was confused where the smell came from. I kept noticing it, in fact, every few days and eventually, remembered what exactly that smell reminded me of. It was my great-grandfather."
JULIA: Grandpa. Yeah.
AMANDA: "My dad confirmed that he wore it every single day, and eventually, we figured out that he was there to send a message to us about my grandmother. After a few more months of the smell appearing every few days, it started to appear less and less until I realized one day that I hadn't smelt it for years." Love a sweet-smelling haunting. Typically, the smell is scary. In this case, it is sweet.
JULIA: Hmm.
AMANDA: "All righty, final topic here. Ma Winchester talked about her experiences with her father in her last letter, so I wanted to touch on some of mine. I have never met my grandfather, like Ma mentioned, so I really only know about him through other people's stories. And in her last letter, Ma mentioned the family room in the basement. Now, I never really liked to be down in the basement by myself and I was surprised that Ma didn't mention in her letter that fear in her creepy kid's story. Because I think it lasted until I was fully 15."
JULIA: The creepy basement is coming full circle this episode. I love it.
AMANDA: Truly is. "I just always got a weird feeling that something was standing behind the couch and just watching. Now, Katie [34:01] confirmed, of course, that her grandfather hung out down there, and I thought maybe it was just his presence I was feeling, but it was distinctly not comfortable, the feeling that I was getting. I think when I was about 15-16, I was down in the basement cleaning the litter boxes. The family room took up about a third of the basement, and the rest is just laundry and storage, so the door for the family room was parallel to where I was scooping out the boxes. I heard a sound from behind me and looked back to see a shadow standing in the open doorway to the living room, just staring. I'm not sure exactly what went through my mind, but all I knew is I threw the poop on the scoop into the trash, threw the scoop on the floor, and booked it back up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind me. Ma, Pa, and Katie were all in the next room and looked up at me as I did so, staring at me like I had five heads. Reluctantly, I took a deep breath and told them what I saw. Katie, bravely, went downstairs and came up a few minutes later to say that it was just our grandfather wanting to say hi. To which I responded, 'If he wanted to say hi, that's fine, but don't stare at me, grandpa, standing in the shadows like a weirdo.'
JULIA: "Don't be a weirdo, grandpa. Like, just say hi."
AMANDA: "God." "I haven't seen him since, but I think that moment legitimately shortened my lifespan by a couple of years."
JULIA: Incredible.
AMANDA: "Grateful you guys love our stories. Ma gets so excited every time you read them on the show, and I'm so glad I introduced her and all of them to Spirits. Stay creepy, stay cool, Sam Winchester."
JULIA: Oh, man, the Winchester lore just gets better and better every time we hear more from it.
AMANDA: Just this family being like, "That makes sense. It's Grandpa." I love it. I love to see it.
JULIA: "Okay, but Grandpa doesn't need to be a spooky bitch about it."
AMANDA: "Okay, Grandpa, you can ha— be an apparition and say hi to me, but don't be fucking weird."
JULIA: "Like, I know that, like, inherently being a ghost makes you slightly creepy, but, like, don't embrace it so much, you know?"
AMANDA: I know. I know. Grandpa, come on.
JULIA: All right, Amanda, I've got one more for us here. It's a bit of a long one, so I think it'll probably take us to the end of the episode. But this is a follow -up email from Bree, [36:09] she/they, titled Follow-up, Figures in a Condemned Student Dorm, My Best Friend's Dead Grandparents, and Silly Holiday Traditions.
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: "Hello again. You wouldn't believe how happy I was to hear your reactions to my previous email. I was so excited when I realized my story was being shared and immediately wanted to write a follow-up with some clarifications and more stories. Alas, life has been rough, and I only now have a chance to sit down and write. As requested, I will explain the story about the condemned student dormitory, clarify some points to specifically Julia's reaction during my mention of my friend Em's [36:48] grandparents, and as a little treat, I'll throw in a cute holiday tradition that my brother started as a pallet cleanser, if needed."
AMANDA: Little treat, little treat.
JULIA: "I'll break my email into parts like last time, and hopefully this one will be more brief, but I guess we'll see. Starting with Valley View Tower. To start this part off, I wanted to give a little bit of history. I went to school at Utah State University, which is over 130 years old, and has a lot of ghost stories surrounding the campus. I know that there are some rumors about Old Main's organ playing on its own, the tunnels that span underground nearby where your own voice will whisper back to you, and, you know, the like. But I'm going to talk about Valley View Tower. Valley View was one of two towers on campus that were built in the late 1960s. It was a woman's only dorm that was well-liked by those who had lived inside. For my freshman year, I lived in its sister tower, Mountain View." That's very funny, it's Mountain View and Valley View.
AMANDA: Uh-hmm.
JULIA: "Now, Valley View was already closed down by the time I came to campus, but had been yet to be demolished because they were investigating the best ways to destroy it." Extremely funny. And I know that, like, makes sense, but it is like a funny thing to be like, "So how are we going to blow this up safely, safely?"
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Safely, but also a little bit fun.
JULIA: "I'm assuming that it had similar living conditions to the Mountain View Tower that I experienced, which was planned to be demolished soon after, which meant sketchy elevators that would trap you inside occasionally, Spartan conditions, and generally living like you live in a prison cell. It was a rough freshman year."
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: "That being said, Valley View was a two -minute walk away from where I was living, with caution and condemned buildings labeled everywhere in sight. Only demolition experts and people in safety gear were allowed inside due to safety concerns."
AMANDA: Sounds like some students would probably explore it, nonetheless.
JULIA: Of course, naturally. That's just how it always happens, huh? "During my first couple of months at college, I heard the usual ghost stories about a student dying by suicide by jumping before they added bolts to the windows so you could only slide them open an inch or that someone fell in the elevator shaft and died. You know, the basic stuff you hear often in school ghost stories. This was no different than the secret murder basement story that I heard throughout middle school. I had weird and spooky friends. I didn't pay much attention to them because while I got weird vibes from the building, it wasn't like anyone was living there anymore. But then, I saw the figures in the dorms. As I mentioned in my previous email, I have a hard time sleeping, and when I couldn't sleep, I would go out and walk around at night. I always had some mace on me if needed, and it was well-lit, so I wasn't too worried. One night, I was wandering around and not really paying attention when something catches my eye. There, on the sixth floor, was a strange light on in a couple of the rooms. Now, the lights in the dorm rooms were your usual warm, yellowish, white, cheap lights. But this one was very different. There was something almost of a greenish-gray tinge to it, like I was looking at it through a smudged, old-fashioned camera film."
AMANDA: Whoa.
JULIA: "From the ground, I couldn't make out much, but I saw a figure pacing slowly back and forth inside of the room. I told myself that it must be someone inspecting it, right? And then I looked at my phone and saw that it was around 3:00 A.M."
AMANDA: Uh-hmm. Yep. Nope.
JULIA: "No one should be doing official business at this time of night."
AMANDA: Uh-uh.
JULIA: "I glanced back up to make sure that I wasn't seeing things and the figure was gone."
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: "I shrugged it off, but it kept happening throughout the next two months. I would wake up around 2:30 at least twice a week and need to walk off the uneasy energy I had. I would inevitably end up back outside of Valley View even when I was purposefully going in another direction. Whenever I would zone out while walking because I was tired, even if I couldn't sleep, I would somehow change directions and end up just outside of the abandoned dorm building. Sometimes I would see the same figure pacing again in the sixth floor window until it vanished when I looked away. Other times I noticed other small lights like golf ball-sized fireflies zipping between the windows of an entire floor."
AMANDA: Whoa! What?
JULIA: "It was weird. I was glad that there was a fence around the building because knowing my sleepwalking tendencies, if it had been an option, I'm certain I would have fallen asleep only to wake up inside a condemned building given how often my body wanted to return there."
AMANDA: Something was pulling you there, my darling. Oh, no.
JULIA: "And then there was the nauseating feeling of something wrong whenever I got near. My ears would buzz like someone had turned the lights on too loud, and I would start to feel a cold sweat building up. It was a lot. Thankfully, after I befriended Em, [42:01] the nightly wandering stopped. I told her about what I was seeing and how I kept on ending up at Valley View, and it was freaking me out. Em admitted that she, too, had seen some lights on at night every once in a while, but figured that there was a logical reason behind it. Regardless, we decided on a system that I would call her until she woke up and she would keep me company when I was alone at night. I only ended up standing and staring at Valley View only once more after I met Em. I had needed to move around so we were walking towards Old Main in one minute and then the next minute, we were outside Valley View again. She told me later that she hadn't noticed us being turned around until we were heading across one of the small roads along the middle of the campus, and it almost seemed like I was in a trance. I didn't talk to her or even respond to her. I only snapped out of it once we were both outside of Valley View, staring at the sixth floor and watching the figure pace back and forth. And decided that we wouldn't do any more late-night walks after that. So from then on, when I needed to do something, I crashed in her room because she didn't have a roommate, to watch anime and TV shows. So, yeah, not the most interesting end to that story, but it was a little weird. I do sometimes wonder what kept calling me back to the dorms considering the only vibes I got were bad ones. Oh, well."
AMANDA: Man, oh, man. That is fascinating.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah, that is— that's really weird. That's really wild.
AMANDA: Ugh.
JULIA: I wonder if that feeling still would happen if you return to campus now that I would assume it's been demolished, right?
AMANDA: And presumably, yeah, replaced.
JULIA: Hmm, I wonder.
AMANDA: Hoo, what was calling to you, man? And yeah, the differences— like the many different types of hauntings here, we had fairy lights flickering, we had the silhouette, we had a weird tinge, the light inside, plus the sort of gravity of the place calling you there as if in a trance, that's a lot.
JULIA: Super bizarre. Part number two to this email, Em's grandparents. "So listening to Julia's horrified reaction of me describing the murdered grandparents made me think that I should add more context to that bit."
AMANDA: Yeah, let's go.
JULIA: "Out of respect to Em, I will keep this brief and vague for the most part. Her grandparents were murdered in their house when her mother was young before she and her siblings were taken in by other family members. It was obviously very traumatizing for everyone involved, so all Em knew about her grandparents were some old photos her mom had hanging in the living room and the occasional story her mom shared about them. One day, when the whole apartment was hanging out together, I was listening to Em play her guitar and decided that it was a good time as any to tell her that I think someone attached to her likes bluegrass. Now, Em's whole family likes to have jam sessions where they play bluegrass and she was playing some songs that she was planning on performing at a family reunion." That's incredibly sweet.
AMANDA: Oh, my God, so cute.
JULIA: "She stopped and looked up at me to ask what I meant. Everyone in the apartment was staring at me at this point and I had to try and explain without coming across as crazy what was going on. The conversation more or less went like this. 'You know, the people that like to check in on you, they like the music that you're playing.' 'What people? What do they look like?' 'Well, the man kind of has a mustache like this.' I proceeded to make the shape of his mustache on my face, 'And he has a mole on his left cheek and red hair. He's tall and he smiles a lot. He checks in on you whenever you play. The lady does, too. She's got wavy-ish brown hair and is wearing one of those dresses from the '70s with dots and a collar.' At this point, Em was looking at me with wide eyes before she ran to her room and came back with her phone and shoved it in my face. I looked down at her phone to see a black and white photo of a man and a woman that I had seen hanging around her every so often."
AMANDA: Oh, my Lord.
JULIA: "'Yeah, that looks like them, but they look a little older now.' And that was how I accidentally described my roommate's dead grandparents in enough detail that she called her mother to confirm. Now, her mother is a very intimidating woman, and it was very nerve-racking [46:16] to be questioned by her. But in the end, Em's mom seem to believe that somehow, without prior knowledge, I knew exactly what her parents look like."
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: That is wild.
AMANDA: That is probably among the most, like, specific and otherwise inexplicable sweet hauntings that we've experienced.
JULIA: It is very cute, right? The little bluegrass grandparents haunting? Adorable.
AMANDA: I was like, "Oh, good job. Yeah. Play that one."
JULIA: All right. One more story to be our little palate cleanser for this episode. This is the Easter duck.
AMANDA: The Easter duck?
JULIA: The Easter duck.
AMANDA: Not the rabbit?
JULIA: Not the rabbit. This is a duck. "Well, it looks like I've still rambled and made this even longer than my first email. Sorry about that. So I'll keep this part short. Growing up, my brother was the one to figure out the truth about Santa, the tooth fairy, and the Easter Bunny around the age of seven. He walked up to my mom and bluntly asked, 'Are they all made up?'"
AMANDA: Aw.
JULIA: "Oh. So she asked why he thought that. He explained that it didn't make sense and proceeded to logically lay out all of the issues that came with holiday figures. He specifically focused on the fact that it made no sense for a bunny to have that many eggs."
AMANDA: Oh, that's true.
JULIA: That's really cute, yeah.
AMANDA: It's also marsupial, yeah.
JULIA: "And that it makes way more sense for there to be an Easter duck rather than an Easter bunny."
AMANDA: Hmm.
JULIA: "So, once they'd had the long conversation about holiday figures, childhood, and why this was something that he shouldn't tell me, he still eventually did anyways, funnily enough. My mom decided to honor my brother's logical argument. So that Easter, we got a note from the Easter duck—"
AMANDA: Let's go.
JULIA: "—saying that the Easter bunny had been stealing the credit from him for all of these years, and that he had staged a coup to regain rule over the production of his eggs.
AMANDA: Whoa! The lore is deep with this one!
JULIA: That's really good.
AMANDA: That's really good. I wonder if your parents had some things to work out about work, and they're kind of like—
JULIA: "Hey, babe."
AMANDA: —"Fucking Demetri at work is stealing all the credit from me."
JULIA: It's very possible. It's very, very possible.
AMANDA: Oh.
JULIA: "My mother wrote a whole little story to go along with my brother's offhand comment about an Easter duck just to make the holiday a little sweeter for him. It was a small, silly thing, but it made him smile. I'll sign off here so you don't have to read any more of my ramblings." I want to read more of your ramblings, in fact.
AMANDA: We don't do things we don't want to do. And if we like it, we read it, people.
JULIA: "But if I think of any more stories from my various spooky shenanigans, I'll let you know. Later, Satyrs. Bree."
AMANDA: Thank you so much, Bree. Absolutely fabulous. And shout out to the Easter duck. So sweet.
JULIA: I almost wish I had saved that for Easter time, but no, it feels appropriate. It feels right here.
AMANDA: Well, Julia, you're giving the parents in the audience a chance to up their game—
JULIA: Uh-hmm.
AMANDA: —for this year, so we can perhaps, you know, have a little new roundup of some Passover, some Easter, some, you know, like spring time May Day rituals that perhaps we are giving to the next spooky generation.
JULIA: If you incorporate the Easter duck in your next Easter celebration, you have to tell us.
AMANDA: You have to tell us.
JULIA: You have to tell us.
AMANDA: You have to tell us.
JULIA: It's very important.
AMANDA: Julia, I hope that everybody here listening, specifically everyone who has a litter box in their basement, just takes extra special care next time you go down to empty that litter box. If you see a silhouette in the doorway, just be like, "Not so creepy, please." And if you see little footsteps, maybe guard your phone extra close, okay?
JULIA: And remember, listeners, stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
JULIA: Later, Satyrs.
[theme]