Episode 46: Your Urban Legends Part II
/We’re telling your creepy stories this week! From haunted theatres to farms and rivers to something called a Dinglehole, we bring you listener stories that made us giggle and gave us goosebumps. Listen as we come up with band names, discuss haunted rooms in our high school, and reveal how Amanda definitely misunderstood the premise of Field of Dreams.
Huge thanks to Shaker & Spoon for sponsoring us this week! Check them out and sign up for a box of your own at http://shakerandspoon.com/spirits
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Transcript
AM: Welcome to Spirits Podcast Episode 46: Your Urban Legends Part 2.
JS: That's right we're back y'all with your urban legends/email stories/creepy ghost stuff.
AM: I forgot how much and badly I lost my shit in the middle of this episode with I think our second to last story. Oh, my goodness. It was bad.
JS: Yeah. Yeah. Amanda just got real giggly towards the end, but I love it. And I love you. So, it didn't really matter.
AM: You know who else we love?
JS: Our patrons.
AM: We do. Welcome our newest patrons to the family: Kristen, Brooke, Robert, Marthe, RPish and Dorothy! My tattoo artist!
JS: We are so excited. Amanda.--
AM: Dorothy.
JS: -- excitedly texted me. She goes, “Oh, Dorothy's – Dorothy is donating. I'm like, “Awww.”
AM: Babe. And, if you need a tattoo of any kind of flora or fauna or anything else in New York City, hit up @DorothyTattoos on Instagram. She's the best.
JS: She's really, really cool. She does some good, good work.
AM: Other people who do good, good work.
JS: Our supporting producers.
AM: Hell yeah, they do. Thank you so much to LeeAnn, Cammie, Cassie, Dylan, Chandra, Catherine, Philip, Shannon, Julie, Sara, MCF, Katie, ddlgfordummies, Phil Fresh, Debra, and Charles.
JS: And, Amanda, I think that this episode is brought to us by someone special, correct?
AM: Oh, my goodness, guys, this episode is brought to you by – are you ready for these magical words? – a subscription cocktail service called "Shaker & Spoon."
JS: Oh, god, I just cry a little knowing that this is in the world.
AM: I know. It's, it's like a subscription meal service that you heard of, but instead, they send you every single month the ingredients that you need to make three different incredibly cool, interesting stuff you've never heard of type cocktails. You just buy a bottle of booze. They send you everything else, little tiny things; bitters, lemons, limes, Pellegrino. All you need. Anyway, we're gonna tell you all about it in the midroll. Don't worry.
JS: You're gonna hear us open up our actual Shaker & Spoon boxes that they sent us.
AM: An unboxing podcast ad, which I think is pretty cool.
JS: It's gonna be fun.
AM: But, in the meantime, if you want to get a jump on that, you can go to shakerandspoon.com/spirits to check them all out. See what this month's box is. Watch their videos. They're really, really beautiful. Anyway, thank you.
JS: And, Amanda, we have some very, very exciting news, too for a couple months from now.
AM: We do. We are delighted to tell you that we are going to be at PodCon --
JS: Yes.
AM: -- which is a podcast convention happening in Seattle in December; December 9th and 10th.
JS: Yeah.
AM: We're gonna be giving a workshop on community building, social media, monetization, and kind of doing a podcast. Once you launch it, once it’s in the world, how do you grow it? Keep it warm. Have a community like ours.
JS: Just wonderful people.
AM: I know.
JS: How do you attract wonderful people to your podcast?
AM: We have to decide that and put it in PowerPoint.
JS: That is 100 percent true.
AM: I'm really excited about it. And we're gonna do a meetup. So, we're gonna do a meetup at Pacific Northwest Seattle area, whoever can, can make it that day, either December 9th or 10th. So, if you want to mark your calendars now. If anyone has venue suggestions near that convention center that PodCon is gonna be at, get in touch. But we are so excited.
JS: We're also gonna be giving away cool stickers --
AM: Heck yeah.
JS: -- and postcards. And you're gonna want to come and get those, because they're amazing. And they're only going to be for PodCon.
AM: Yes. Limited edition. Well, maybe Cons that if we're invited.
JS: Maybe.
AM: But we are – we're so, so, so stoked.
JS: Yes. It's gonna be amazing. I'm so excited to see my pod friends and also --
AM: Yeah.
JS: -- our wonderful listeners.
AM: I know. And you don't have to get a ticket to the convention to come to our meetup. We'll, we’ll have it near or, or outside the convention center. But you should come to PodCon. If you haven't registered, if you live in that area or it's easy for you to get there, it is gonna be so much fun. I'm so excited to see a bunch of the podcasts that we love perform live. Our friend Lauren Shippen and all the other people that we know and love who are gonna be there.
JS: And we're excited to see you guys. Please come.
AM: All righty. Well, without further ado, enjoy Spirits Podcast Episode 46: Your Urban Legends Part 2.
Intro Music.
AM: Julia, what do we have in store today?
JS: It is, Amanda, a listener story round up.
AM: Your hometown legends, your grandma's stories, your creepy shit you did and didn't do in high school. We are here for it, y'all.
JS: We are indeed. So you want to just get into it?
AM: Let's do it. Who's going first?
JS: I'll go first.
AM: Tell me the story.
JS: Okay. So, this story comes from Megan Hughes.
AM: What's up Megan?
JS: What's up, Megan? What's up? And the subject was family legend/ghost story. I'm going to read it now.
AM: Let's do it.
JS: I'm gonna skip the part where she compliments us and go straight to the story.
AM: Thank you. Please do not stop complimenting us. We're just not gonna subject you guys to it.
JS: Yes. The first story comes to me from my dad who grew up on a farm in Illinois. This farm was pretty old for Midwestern standards at least. It's been in existence since the mid-19th century. My dad's parents bought it in the 1960s. And the story goes that it was an aging farmer who sold it to them, who didn't want to deal with the trouble of running the place.
AM: Suspicious.
JS: Now, the man's son was pretty upset by this decision. In fact, he was so upset – maybe it had been in the family for a while – that he hung himself from a tree out in one of the pastures. Again, this is what I was told.
AM: Yep.
JS: According to Megan.
AM: Yep. Julia’s assumed Megan's voice.
JS: I did.
AM: Maybe identity. Maybe credit history.
JS: Just a little bit. I now know your Social Security number. And my dad loved pointing out this tree to us when we walked past it. That's a little sketchy, dad. I'm not gonna lie. Anyway, this is the background in mind. My dad told me one night, when he was a teenager, he was home alone. My grandma raised Irish wolfhounds at the time and, suddenly, the dog started going crazy. Also, raising Irish wolfhounds, it's amazing.
AM: Your grandma sounds like a badass Also, if you're going to live alone in the fields of Illinois, like please have some gigantic guard dogs out there. You need it.
JS: Yeah, pretty much. My dad investigated around the house and saw nothing, but the dogs kept barking for quite a while. My dad said he remembers smelling the distinct scent of cigar smoke – wooh --
AM: Wooh.
JS: -- and started to get nervous. Eventually, the dogs calmed down and the smell went away. When his parents returned, he asked them about the previous owner. And my grandparents informed him that the previous owner’s son had a habit of smoking cigars. Spooky.
AM: And like who else would it be?
JS: Yeah. I mean, given, given the history of the farm, who else would it be?
AM: Yikes. It's not like your neighbors can like throw a frisbee and, and like hop your fence like they did when we were kids. Like they're, they're far away, people.
JS: That is the, the long distance neighbors that really adds the spookiness level to farm stories.
AM: It sure does.
JS: I don't know how true it all is, Megan says. But I do know that my dad is 100 percent a believer in ghosts as am I. I've had my own experience with the supernatural in the house I grew up in. On one occasion, a very heavy paperweight that sits on top of my dresser came flying off the top and landed right next to my foot. Wooh. Geez.
AM: Whoa.
JS: I also woke up in the middle of the night once to clear sound of someone calling my name. Not good. Lastly, I once came downstairs and saw the faint outline of a little girl with pigtails sitting on my couch. No.
AM: No.
JS: The creepy children is just not a good one.
AM: The worst possible situation.
JS: I blinked and she had vanished. I know that that sounds completely out there and unbelievable, but I promise this all did happen, incidentally, all during the span of about two or three years when I was a teenager.
AM: Whoa.
JS: Not good. Maybe my teen angst energy brought forward a poltergeist. Megan that's probably it.
AM: Megan, I'm not gonna say you're wrong.
JS: But we're also gonna say you're right.
AM: Absolutely. Wow. That's a pretty good story.
JS: Yeah. So, she finishes off happy to report that I have not had any supernatural experiences for a while and hope to keep it that way. I know it seems way out there. And I would definitely not blame you if you didn't believe me. But, after hearing the show, I felt like I had to share my stories with people who might have least slightly be more inclined to listen and appreciate them.
AM: Listen, Megan, that definitely qualifies as creepy and cool.
JS: Yes. And I believe you.
AM: You came to the right place.
JS: Yeah. Hell yeah.
AM: I feel like – I feel like, all things considered, it's better to, at least, believe a little bit and ghosts.
JS: Of course.
AM: I think you're talking about this at the bar the other night.
JS: Yeah.
AM: We actually do talk about ghosts outside of the show. That’s why we do it.
JS: That is how the show got started.
AM: But we were talking about how, you know, it's, it's like you don't have to believe in ghosts not to want to provoke them. So, like you're not gonna invite ghosts into your home, you know, even if you don't believe in them. Like, like you can be kind of sensible and, and not like see ghosts everywhere. I believe that people's grandmas have the sight and stuff. But still not like, you know, watch terrible movies, and like buy haunted artifacts, and like leave Bibles upside down under the table or something.
JS: Is that a thing?
AM: I don't know. I was thinking about like demonic summonings and what I would do to summon a demon.
JS: Yikes. It's, it's not flipping Bibles upside down.
AM: I don't know. I helped – I helped some friends move the other day and brought salt with me as a housewarming present, which is a thing that my grandmother, whose grandparents were from Germany, always like did for, for friends and family growing up. It’s supposed to be some kind of, you know, good omen. Wishing you a flavorful life or whatever --
JS: Fair enough.
AM: -- for, for the household. And like, you know, you don't have too. But I don't know. I just feel like if you – if there's a little opportunity to do something that'll like give a person good fortune or ward off bad fortune, I'll do it.
JS: That's fair. Amanda, do you wanna take over the next story?
AM: I sure will.
JS: Okay.
AM: And the subject line could not be more me. It says Midnight Marry across the pond.
JS: Dang.
AM: From Ash Brass. Thank you, Ash. So, Ash says, I've just started listening and I'm jumping around in the feet of it. I just finished listening to Midnight Mary which is an episode that shocked me because my mother's village in Stoke-on-Trent, which is in England had a very similar story. I think that's the cool thing about folklore is how it can hop on a boat and travel to a new country or maybe the story is just so part of the human condition that it's within every culture to come up with it independently. Word. And that's what we love about this.
JS: Hella. That's the best part.
AM: Hell yeah,
JS: Globalization mythology.
AM: Sometimes isn't destructive and is sometimes cool.
JS: Yeah.
AM: So, Ash --
JS: I think it’s too long of an intro song.
AM: Listen, Julia. This is our show.
JS: Okay.
AM: There's no radio limits telling us what we can and can't put on air.
JS: Damn. All right.
AM: You did every one Ash says. Anyway, my mother's legend took place in two different time periods. Oh, my god, I love it already. One being in the early 1960s, the other 1746.
JS: Yes, good year.
AM: Starting with the earlier date first. That was the day that Molly Leigh died. And everyone --
JS: That's – that's a good fucking start to the story.
AM: Right. Megan and Ash killing it with a story telling y'all.
JS: Good storytelling.
AM: Ah, I love it. So, Molly Leigh, everyone was fairly certain she was the town witch. She wasn't married. Strike number one. She was ugly. Strike number two and rude. Same.
JS: Same.
AM: Same. She spoke to no one. Same. And did nothing for anyone. Oh, my god, I love this woman. I love you, Molly.
JS: That was the best.
AM: She just sat on her porch all day rocking back and forth in an old rocking chair.
JS: Hella.
AM: The only company she kept and the only thing evil enough to love her was a raven who sat on the back of her chair.
JS: Okay. Also, ravens are highly intelligent.
AM: They are.
JS: So, fuck that noise.
AM: They're way more discerning then like the village, you know, bachelor who like – whatever.
JS: Yes. The Gaston of the village.
AM: My favorite Tumblr post in recent memory was a Belle. What is that opening song she sings? Like another – there goes the, the baker with his loaves or whatever.
JS: There goes to the baker with his tray like always.
AM: And then. So, it was like – it was like a quotation post. So, that was the first quote and the second one was, Baker, there goes Belle sing her mean song of the day.
JS: True.
AM: I love it. Back to Ash’s email. So, Molly Leigh, raven, ugly, didn't do anything for anybody. I love it. Upon her dying, her body was bagged up and buried. Like you do. And her house was left to the village. Only when a councilman and his moving men went to her house to pick it bare, she was there waiting for them.
JS: Damn, Molly.
AM: Sitting on the front porch with her raven smiling at them. They didn't waste any time and Scooby-Dooing back out the driveway.
JS: Scooby-Dooing back out the driveway.
AM: And running back to the church yard. What?
JS: Oh, my god. That's so cool.
AM: Ash, you’re our new best friend. And like, for once, people in a story doing the sensible thing, which is getting the fuck out of there.
JS: Hell yeah.
AM: Don't stick around. So, yeah, they Scooby-Dooed back out the driveway and ran back to the church yard, where they immediately dug her up. I mean, okay, and buried her again. So, her feet were to the tombstone this time. After that, she seemed gone for good, except the night of Halloween. If anyone dances around her tombstone three times singing Molly Leigh, Molly Leigh, you can't catch me, you would wake her up and invoke her to do something awful to you.
JS: That, that sounds like you're invoking something awful. Don't do that. Don't do these things.
AM: No, please never. Please never.
JS: Just, just don't do that thing.
AM: Please never. Fast forward to an October in the early 60s, my mom and her girlfriends were discussing this legend with the boys in the class. I see where this is going. And the conversation naturally turned to blustering about which gender was least afraid of ghosts. Ash your mom sounds like a badass --
JS: Yeah.
AM: -- in that she was like arguing for women.
JS: Hell yeah.
AM: The natural conclusion of which being that my mother, her enthusiastic two best friends – same – a witness from the boy’s side and my nan who drove the getaway car. Oh, my god.
JS: Go nan. Go.
AM: Were all in the cemetery on Halloween at midnight, because in for a penny, in for a pound.
JS: Hell yah.
AM: Oh, my god. I'm picturing the grandma wearing like a gray or like a black hairnet like, like driving scarf and sunglasses --
JS: In her nightie. Yeah.
AM: -- just like ready to go. Oh, my god.
JS: Grandma's in the [Inaudible 13:17].
AM: My mom and her two friends danced around the grave singing, Molly Leigh, Molly Leigh, you can't catch me. I don't even want to say that, because it sounds so much like I'm invoking a bad spirit.
JS: You said twice already. Please don't say it again.
AM: Okay. I'll try. I’ll try. And, anyway, on the third turn around, trip, trip, trip, trip. First my mom falling over a tree branch or something. Then her two friends falling over her. This was preceded by no small amount of screaming from both the girls and the boy who witnessed the curse before them.
JS: Same.
AM: They sprinted back to the car. And they got away very fast. Good job, nan.
JS: Good job. Thank you, nan.
AM: A few years ago, I spontaneously remembered this childhood tale of my mother's and did a curious Google search and was delighted that Molly Leigh was a real village legend. Though her name was Molly L - E - I - G - H not L - E - E. And it was a blackbird, not a raven. And, to solve a mystery my mother could not, the reason they buried her with her feet facing the tombstone was so, when the second coming of Christ happens and he comes from the east to raise the dead, that way, she's buried upside down. She won't get lost and, and will be able to like ascend to heaven.
JS: Okay. Which pretty dope.
AM: All right. All right.
JS: I'm into it.
AM: That's really interesting. I never heard of that particular Second Coming type lore, especially from a Protestant type situation.
JS: Well, you know.
AM: There are other variations where the blackbird was captured. Molly Leigh was excavated. And the bird was buried alive with her.
JS: No.
AM: Ash saying this is the top reason why I like my mother's version the best even if it does make more narrative sense. There are photos of Molly Leigh's grave, which is near no trees, but the raised border of a path that looks very tripable. Fair. Lastly, because this really is just a story about an introverted old woman with a pet bird.
JS: You say.
AM: You can find a PDF of Molly's last will and testament --
JS: Yay.
AM: -- which details that she wanted the city to use her wealth to feed the poor.
JS: Oh, Molly.
AM: And then Ash provides a URL. Ash, not only was that a dope email, it's a great story. And you gave us links. Like A+.
JS: We appreciate all of those things.
AM: A+.
JS: There were birds.
AM: Yeah.
JS: There was charity.
AM: Yep
JS: There was a second coming of Jesus.
AM: There was an antisocial old woman, because same.
JS: Yeah.
AM: And --
JS: And, honestly, all good.
AM: And high school taunting were girls come out on top, because that boy --
JS: Right.
AM: -- what himself.
JS: A good, good women studies feminist theory for the 1960s.
AM: Love it.
JS: A+.
AM: Love it.
JS: Okay. Do you want me to go?
AM: Please.
JS: Because I got another farm one.
AM: Ooh.
JS: You know, I love a good farm story.
AM: I also must take this time to plug the book Universal Harvester by John Darnielle, who is the lead singer of the Mountain Goats. And he has written two books of fiction. The first one was called Wolf in White Van. It was about actually a like play-by-mail, role-playing game, and a very like antisocial kind of creepy, kind of cool protagonist.
JS: Cool.
AM: And it was like very beautiful. But Universal Harvester is about a video store in the 90s, where some like creepy shit happens on tapes. Like, like it – like it jumps into the tapes. They're not sure where it came from. And there's like a chase. There's cornfields. There's barns. There's like intrigue. It's, it's sort of like a – like a gothic sort of horror story. You can borrow it if you want.
JS: I was just looking --
AM: Oh, yeah.
JS: -- on your bookshelf to see if you had it.
AM: I do.
JS: I literally turned in my seat to look.
AM: I do.
JS: Okay.
AM: But, yeah, listeners, Universal Harvester, I recommend it.
JS: Sweet.
AM: Back to the cornfield.
JS: Okay. So, this one is from Jess Fortney and the title is The Haunted Farm. So, obviously I went for it.
AM: Amazing.
JS: So, Jess starts out, so, I grew up in West Virginia on a farm that my great grandpa built in the 1800s. Amazing.
AM: Whoa.
JS: There were so many weird and insane myths that my grandparents would tell me, my brother, and my cousins to freak us out. As you do. However, one of the most known stories on the farm was the one about my great grandparents. As my grandma tells it, my great granddad had one lung due to being gassed back in World War I. So, he had a horrible wheeze.
AM: Yikes.
JS: After he died, which, by the way, the thing to do in the backwoods of West Virginia was to have the body displayed in the family room so the family could pay respects.
AM: Yeah.
JS: There was a huge storm. And my grandma called out to all of us in the little house that granddaddy was walking the farm one last time.
AM: Wait. Wait. Okay. Whoa. Was this a proclamation? Was she just describing what was happening? Was she like hoping?
JS: I, I don't know. Later on, when I was about six, I was walking in the corn with my cousin, and I felt someone walking with me, and I could have sworn I heard wheezing. We even have a picture of me pointing to the corn to get my parents attention.
AM: Oh, my god.
JS: That's horrifying. Cornfield scared the crap out of me. It might be because I watched Children of the Corn a little bit too young. But cornfields scare the shit out of me.
AM: I think I watched – what's the movie if you build it, they will come? With Dennis Quaid.
JS: Field of Dreams.
AM: That one. I think I watched that at some point. I always – all I remember is having a crush on Dennis Quaid a little bit. Oh, no.
JS: Oh, no.
AM: Julia's crying as she continues. Anyway. And I think it – we know there's ghosts in that, right? That's part of the thing.
JS: There are angels. Yeah.
AM: Well, anyway, at some point --
JS: It’s not a scary movie.
AM: At some point, I saw the celestial forums like in the cornfield or something or he was like talking to ghosts. There's like a kid and a dog in a cornfield or whatever. And I was like, “Oh, that's creepy.” And then I walked away. And that's my Field of Dreams story.
JS: I can't. I can't with you sometimes. I just can’t.
AM: Sometimes, I'm really glad that Julia and I have a business venture together and not just like a lifelong friendship, because sometimes I feel like, “Well, this is the one. Now, it's over. This one's too bad.”
JS: This, this one's ending our friendship.
AM: And Julia is gonna walk away from this now.
JS: Okay. All right. Let me collect myself before I moved on. Jess continues, years later when I was 18 and my brother was 22, we went back up there for a family reunion. I slept on the parlor sofa, which I found out later was the exact same place that my great granddaddy was put, put for the family to view.
AM: Oh, no.
JS: That's actually – like you wouldn't put the casket. Like you put him on the couch?
AM: Well I guess the body is viewed while the casket’s being built. Like pre-manufactured casket situation.
JS: Yeah, I guess.
AM: You know, like it didn't always have like inventory.
JS: That's true.
AM: I know that that's like historically a thing.
JS: I don't know.
AM: But no, no. Bad. Please no.
JS: Jess continues, and my brother slept in the room next to me. Around 3:00 AM, my brother came into my room and said he was cold and felt someone looking at him and touching him. So, I went into his room and slept on the floor next to him. About an hour later, I heard someone talking and, with a house full of cousins, I thought someone had come down to get a glass of water. I woke up and saw the faded image of someone sitting in the chair across from us. The only words I could make out work, “Where is Lena?” which was my great grandma's name.
AM: No.
JS: I was so freaked out I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. The only people that believed me about this was my brother and my grandma. Haha. So, haha, she – so, to this day, I refuse to sit in that chair and sleep downstairs.
AM: Correct.
JS: If you wanna know more myths told by my fam, I'd be happy to tell you or to show you the picture I was talking about. Keep up the good work, Jess.
AM: Hell yes. And we will put that picture on our Tumblr, spiritspodcast.tumblr.com.
JS: We'll do. We'll have Jess follow up with – and send the email.
AM: Yeah. Any, any of y'all who's myths are mentioned, we want photos of you, you, your parents, the places that these things happen. So, get in touch at spiritspodcast@gmail.com.
Midroll Music
AM: So, Julia, when this week's sponsor emailed me, I think I dropped my laptop and gasped in joy.
JS: Okay. Good.
AM: Because they are a subscription cocktail service.
JS: Oh, god. Eric will die.
AM: Oh my god. They are called Shaker & Spoon. And they are the best.
JS: Yes. You put a box in front of me. And I don't know what it is, but I'm excited to open it.
AM: So, we're actually gonna unbox our boxes right now.
JS: Yeah.
AM: So, yeah, as we do that, I will tell you about Shaker & Spoon, which send you all the ingredients you need to make I think three different cocktails, 12 servings worth, every single month. There's recipe cards. These are actually really good paper.
JS: Oh, yeah. This is really nice.
AM: There's a pretty like confetti like an Easter basket.
JS: I have blue. You have yellow. Oh nice.
AM: And they're themed. So, every month is a different kind of liquor. So, like you buy one bottle of whiskey, and then they give you three cocktail recipes, and all the stuff you need. There’s lemons. There's a tiny little thing of bitters.
JS: What is your cocktail called?
AM: I got many. One is called – well, my box is called Austin Without Limits.
JS: Oh, mine is called Sake It To Me.
AM: Adorable. I've got – I have these upside down actually.
JS: Oh, I gotta open that up.
AM: Oh, my god, there’s illustrations.
JS: Gorgeous.
AM: I'm gonna put this on my fridge.
JS: I have – I have nori in mine, which, if anyone doesn't know --
AM: Ooh.
JS: -- what that is, that's dried seaweed. And I'm already excited. And there's 11. I see 11.
AM: And the – it's, it's actually good. Interesting. Like advanced kind of cocktails. Like stuff I would never think to make on my own, but they make it really easy. They have videos for every single drink that they send out.
JS: Oh, sweet.
AM: Yeah, on their website. And they're like really beautifully done. And like this, this cocktail I'm looking at right now has a method called fat washing, which is kind of like marinating the liquor in butter before you use it.
JS: Oh, my god, that's amazing. I went to a really cool restaurant, where they did that but with goat's milk. And I've been wanting to try that forever. We're gonna have to try that cocktail later.
AM: We're gonna do it. It's called the Ma Sour.
JS: Ooh.
AM: And, anyway, it's, it's all – it's awesome. It's like you can have a bunch of friends over. You can make the cocktail several times over the course of the month. It's affordable. All you need to do is order the box, and then go buy the liquor for the month. And it's one bottle. So, you know, to like use up the whole thing. And I don’t know. For me, it's really awesome because I don't know how to like start making, you know, brandy cocktail.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Like who – I, I don't know.
JS: I don't know.
AM: So, to have an introduction in this awesome form including like they have lemons and limes and sparkling water. Like all of the exact sizes you need.
JS: All the things you need.
AM: Oh, my gosh. A cute opening little bottle here.
JS: You know – you know, Amanda this would make such a good gift idea too.
AM: Yes.
JS: The cocktail enthusiast in your life or just someone who wants to try their hand at like cocktail mixing or just bartending or like making cool cocktails for your friends when they come over. This is the perfect gift for them.
AM: For your D&D group, for your book club, for your like monthly brunch with your mom. Like make it into a whole thing and do --
JS: My mom would love this.
AM: I know. My mom would too. I think we might have to get them for Mother's Day. But we want to thank Shaker & Spoon so much for sponsoring us this week. Genuinely, I am so excited to try this out with later.
JS: I'm stoked.
AM: And you can go to shakerandspoon.com/spirits to let them know that you came from us, that you're interested, that they did good in reaching out to our podcast. And they're just the sweetest people. So, we would really appreciate it.
JS: Also, my last cocktail is called For Fox Sake.
AM: Oh my gosh, puns.
JS: I love it so much.
AM: And puns. Beautiful.
JS: Oh, so good. Thank you Shaker & Spoon. We are so stoked.
AM: And, now, back to the show. Well, our next myth comes from down under from Dylan Cunningham.
JS: What's up Dylan?
AM: What's up, Dylan? I am actually going to read a little bit of this because this is fucking funny.
JS: Okay.
AM: So, Dylan says he's been listening to every episode. Thank you. And is now feeling a sense of loss in my life. Where do I go from here? What do I do with my newly rediscovered spare time? Well, anyway, I thought I'd share a legend from my hometown. Home city? When does a town become a city? I think that's over 50,000 people. Is that true?
JS: I have no idea. That’s [Inaudible 24:24].
AM: Or for 100,000. Anyway, Brisbane, Australia. Shout out to Rowan Solman, one of our very first listeners, my YouTube friend.
JS: What up dude?
AM: What up, Rowan? So, Dylan says, the legend takes place at the aptly named Slaughter Falls.
JS: Oh, fuck.
AM: Oh, my god.
JS: I, I heard of this one.
AM: Didn’t you have a super fucked up Australian myth before?
JS: Yeah, from Rowan.
AM: Yeah. Oh, from Rowan, that's right. So, thanks, Australia, you're actually quite delivering so far. Anyway. So, Slaughter Falls is located at Mount Coot-Tha just outside the city of Brisbane, a mountainous area with hiking trails, waterfalls, barbecue areas, and all that jazz you expect from a nice quiet nature escape.
JS: That sounds beautiful.
AM: Sounds like also murder. There's a few variations on the story, but the basic premise is some kind of party or get together was taking place one evening at a barbecue picnic area.
JS: Cool.
AM: When a man approached a young lady and asked if she could assist him with his car as he was having trouble getting it to start.
JS: Nope, don't do that.
AM: No, never, never, never, no. Not even if you've Irish wolfhounds and a seven-foot tall partner.
JS: Yes, bad idea.
AM: I'm a little fuzzy on the details. But, basically, she was said to have been lured away into a brush near a waterfall.
JS: Nope.
AM: Slaughter Falls. Nope, where she was murdered by four men who are awaiting her arrival.
JS: Oh, goddammit.
AM: Some stories say it was a couple that was lured away. Some stories say the young lady was dragged away by a motorcycle gang. But they all end the same with a brutal murder.
JS: Is this Mad Max? Is this the beginning of Mad Max?
AM: No, because then she would come back with one arm and a shaved head and like take over.
JS: Well, the original Mad Max not Mad Max: Fury Road.
AM: I haven't seen that one.
JS: It's just Australia bike gangs basically.
AM: The only one I care about is one where it's a matriarchy. So --
JS: That's the correct choice.
AM: So, this happened sometime in the 1970s. But, since then, it’s said you can see a lady running through the trees around Slaughter Falls. And that, if you stop your car in the area, she will get into your car and ask you to help her.
JS: Nope.
AM: Oh, boy. Apparently, if you reply yes to her question, you die. If you answer no, you die. If you don't answer at all, guess what Jules.
JS: You die?
AM: You die.
JS: Sounds like Japan.
AM: So, really, Dylan says you just die. Oh, boy.
JS: Why, why have the options then? Why?
AM: To, to really drive home the fact that choice is an illusion, and we're all gonna die.
JS: I mean solid choice. I guess – I guess like, if you're polite, maybe you go to heaven.
AM: No.
JS: No.
AM: I don't – I don't know.
JS: You're just like, “Nope, you die.” It doesn't matter.
AM: I think – I think they're just concerned with the dying part. What comes after is up to you.
JS: Fair enough.
AM: So, anyway, Dylan says, I haven't heard the story for many years having been to very few sleepovers lately now that I'm an adult with adult responsibilities. Same.
JS: I mean fair.
AM: And Dylan just turned 25 a couple weeks ago. So, happy birthday, Dylan. Thanks for the depressing myth.
JS: Oh, Australia, giving us a lot of depressing stuff.
AM: They, they super do. And --
JS: But we appreciate it.
AM: I was trying to think of something else Australia gives us
JS: Koala bears.
AM: Koala bears. That is a good one. That is a good one. I was thinking about Outback Steakhouse and what I could possibly say about it.
JS: It's not a thing.
AM: I guess inspiration for our, our hometown’s one chain restaurant; Outback Steakhouse. How did that happen?
JS: Is it our only chain restaurant?
AM: That's our chain restaurant.
JS: Hold on. No. No. I have to think about this. No shit. That might be our only chain restaurant.
AM: It is. It is.
JS: I mean there's La Bottega.
AM: Not the local chains.
JS: Yeah, I guess. Yeah. All right.
AM: That’s our only chain restaurant.
JS: I still like the Outback. The service always sucks, but the steaks are good.
AM: I, I really loved that bread growing up.
JS: Dude, yeah. Pumpernickel bread.
AM: You know what's much better? Cheesecake Factory bread.
JS: Really?
AM: Really.
JS: I don't go to Cheesecake Factory enough.
AM: That is something I say to myself every morning. What's our next myth?
JS: So, this one comes from a listener named Frederick Penniman. Maybe. It's German. So, I don't really know how to pronounce.
AM: Word.
JS: I apologize for butchering it probably. And the subject is Lorelei, which I picked because I have heard of this myth before. So, they start, hi guys, I'm a huge fan of your podcast. And I thought I'd write in with a legend from my birth region, the Rhine Ruhr in Germany. The Rhine is one of the major rivers that’s for ship traffic in Germany. And, while it's usually calm and easygoing, there are a few treacherous spots. They have – so, Amanda, do you know why I picked this myth yet?
AM: Is it the drownings?
JS: There's some drownings in it.
AM: Hey.
JS: There you go. Okay. So, one in particular is the Lorelei. The Lorelei is a high sleet slated rock in a river bend with sandbanks and strong curtains. Ships commonly --
AM: Sounds treacherous.
JS: Ships commonly have troubles and even crash there even in this day and age. In medieval times, it was said that dwarfs, mountain ghosts – mountain ghosts --
AM: Wooh.
JS: Mentioning that name. That's my cover band for the mountain goats. Okay.
AM: Yes, Julia, home run.
JS: So dwarves, mountain ghosts, and nymphs inhabited this mountain.
AM: Fucking mountain ghosts. They need a minute.
JS: In the 1800s – sorry – in the 18th century, a poet named Clemens Brentano – that's a cool name – created the modern myth of the Lorelei. In his ballad, Brentano speaks of an enchantress who was so beautiful she brought devastation to the men around her. Same.
Because of this, she was called to the bishop to be judged.
AM: So, you know you need something right in the like pre-modern times when you get called in front of the clergy.
JS: Yeah. Upon seeing her, the bishop was so moved by her beauty he pardoned her asking her who seduced her to evil. She responds expressing her wish to die as her beloved betrayed and left her. Shit. The bishop felt unable to fulfill her request, telling her that sentencing her to death would break his own heart.
AM: No.
JS: Okay. He then sentences her to spend the rest of her life in a convent and calls for three nights to bring her there.
AM: Get thee to a nunnery. Fair.
JS: On the ride to the convent, Lorelei begs the knights to let her visit the mountain to stand on its top and see her castle and the river Rhine. After which, she would comply with the ruling to become god’s virgin.
AM: Sounds like the butterfly lovers.
JS: Yeah, it does kind of sound like that.
AM: Love it.
JS: It's cute. She then proceeds to climb the steep rock face of the mountain with the knights following her ascent. Having reached the top, she sees the boat on the Rhine and is certain that the person standing on the boat is in fact her true love.
AM: Whoa.
JS: She leans forward and falls into the Rhine.
AM: No.
JS: The Knights were unable to move along the cliff side and perish there without a priest or grave. Oh, that's kind of sad.
AM: Yikes.
JS: So, the knights die. She dies. It’s kind of --
AM: They were just like at work, you know.
JS: Yeah. They were just like doing their fucking job.
AM: Whoa. Doesn't it strike you though like getting to a convent as like a pretty good punishment overall? Like --
JS: I mean yeah.
AM: I mean you get to live with other women. You get to like have a life of the mind and like study, you know, philosophy and religion. Definitely, probably some of them were queer. And that will be nice.
JS: Yeah.
AM: And you just get to like be of service and wear the same outfit every day. And, and probably cook a lot. Doesn't sound so bad.
JS: Yeah. I think, honestly, as far as punishment goes, convent’s pretty good
AM: Convent’s pretty good.
JS: Could be burned at the stake instead.
AM: You could be. You could do both. Like our girl, Julie d'Aubigny.
JS: Yes, she rocked. Did she die on stake? No, she didn't.
AM: No.
JS: No. She died of like syphilis or something.
AM: Yep.
JS: God bless.
AM: God bless.
JS: So, this story became very popular during the Romantic era so much so that it became a part of the regional folklore. Love that. It is said that the real reason the spot is so treacherous for ships is because Lorelei is still there and her beauty is like a siren song luring men to their death.
AM: Amazing.
JS: And it just adds tiers. Just like --
AM: That does. Right, right to the point.
JS: Love it. I love it.
AM: And Julie and I were talking recently about how much we want to buy and rehab an old lighthouse. And like how cool would it be to have a lighthouse on a haunted cliff?
JS: It would be great.
AM: Right. Like, especially, if it's a siren that you know would be a bro. You know, like, like we, we would get along with Lorelei. It's not like it's some like weird, gross, masculine like aggressive horror spirit. It's just like, like a girl who died.
JS: Yeah.
AM: And like we can just like give her a little shrine.
JS: I’d chill with it.
AM: Right. Like have our true loves visit and whatever. And like it'd be great.
JS: I like it all.
AM: Next up, we have a myth from Joseph Ricky Ordeli, currently living just outside of Atlanta. Even though he would describe himself as a skeptic, he's always loved folklore, spooky stories, and local legends. So, he says, even if I fail to spook myself, I still enjoy learning about people's mindsets who form these tales and love to ponder what nuggets of truth might live in the stories. Same. It's just a ton of fun, which is why a friend who heard of your podcast passed it along to me. Y'all, this is what I'm talking about. Quick pause in the story to talk to the listeners here.
JS: Go for it.
AM: Listen, if you have a buddy who you think would like this, who would go with you to go summon a ghost somewhere, who you've talked to during sleepovers or camping about like creepy shit, show them our podcasts.
JS: Also, go do the ghost summoning thing.
AM: Go do it and email us. Let us know. If you have like a cool library that you really love,show her our podcast. If you babysit some kids that are old enough to hear profanity and you think would really dig our podcast, show them our podcast. So, Joseph says, I grew up in a small town called Millis, Massachusetts. Nice. Alliterative.
JS: Nice.
AM: Which straddles that line between rural and suburban, comfortably middle class, and very white. Same.
JS: Same.
AM: It's gotten a little denser and more developed now, but in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was growing up, it was a peaceful, boring place. Being an introvert and a budding nerd, I entertain myself by reading anything that was put in front of me with a preference for stories about the supernatural.
JS: Yes.
AM: It's also relevant that my favorite movie of all time was and still is Ghostbusters, to the point that he leads a costume group and does public events and charity work; atlantaghostbusters.com.
JS: I was about to say, “Is that the Atlanta Ghostbusters?”
AM: Yes,it is.
JS: Sweet.
AM: Beautiful.
JS: Thank you, Joseph. We saw you on Twitter. And it was fantastic.
AM: We did. Good work. Joseph idolized those characters. And, for years, wanted to investigate paranormal happenings myself. So, I sought out anything I could find that was local. So, here's what he can remember of the supernatural folklore of his hometown. Millis was founded in the 17th Century colonial period under the name Bogastow Farms.
JS: Sweet.
AM: Then was – that line break really fucked me up there. Bogastow Farms and was later incorporated as East Medway and later Millis. The main site you'll hear about if you look into Moses folklore is called the Dinglehole.
JS: Yes. That's why I picked this one by the way.
AM: Joseph instructed us not to laugh.
JS: Sorry, Joseph.
AM: Joseph, buddy, you can't hold me back. This site is a steep depression that is filled with dark water. Same. When it freezes over, local residents say it looks eerily bottomless. The stories I read as a child described a frequent unusual happening centered around the landmark. So, bells could often be heard ringing, said to be rung by satanic imps. Wow,
JS: Cool.
AM: That's quite a thing.
JS: In the Dinglehole.
AM: In the Dinglehole.
JS: Gotta keep making you do that. Go ahead.
AM: In emoji, I would represent that as, as a bell. The – like the whole emoji. Like, like the manhole emoji.
JS: I got you.
AM: And, and then like the eggplant. So, bells could often be heard ringing. Said to be rung by satanic imps and possibly giving the hole name its even though there is also the suggestion that it's more directly demonic or satanic in origin. The hole would also attract unusual wildlife such as weasels and raccoons, which could not be caught or killed by any hunters and would not show any sign of injury even if shot point blank. Dang.
JS: That seems weird.
AM: Mortal raccoons. Please no.
JS: That is the last animal that I want to be immortal.
AM: Seriously.
JS: Genuinely, genuinely, do not want immortal raccoons to exist in the world.
AM: Too smart, eat the same food as me, better at night. No. I don't want that competition. JS: Also squirrels. Fuck squirrels.
AM: Fuck squirrels. Sorry Australians. And I know that you are delighted by them when you visit America, but fuck squirrels. So, anyway, these animals were said to be local witches, who were visiting the devil and his servants in magical animal form in order to pledge themselves to him.
JS: I feel like, if I was a witch, I wouldn't pick weasel or raccoon as my magical form.
AM: Maybe you're flying under the radar. People look for crows. They look for cats, look for owls. Just do a fucking weasel.
JS: Maybe like a deer or something.
AM: Yeah. Anyway.
JS: If I can't die, I might as well do a deer.
AM: That's right. Otherwise, you'd be like a target.
JS: Yeah.
AM: But one story tells of a hunter cramming a bow of witch hazel into the barrel of his gun and firing into the face of a raccoon. Aww. Only to have an unpopular lady in town named Murky Mullen.
JS: Yo!
AM: Oh, my god, I need a football jersey right now.
JS: That’s my new nickname.
AM: So, Murky Mullen later showed up with an unexplained injury in roughly the same area of her face.
JS: Hell yeah.
AM: Murky Mullen. God, I need to know everything about her. A similar story is told about an oxcart that refused to move by the Dinglehole.
JS: Goddamn Dinglehole.
AM: Until the driver whipped at the wheels and then moved again. Later, a local suspected witch was said to have been covered in welts from the whip having been invisibly holding the cart in place.
JS: Yo.
AM: Sounds strong.
JS: That sounds pretty cool.
AM: Sounds like invisible Luke Cage witch.
JS: Sweet.
AM: Please do.
JS: I’m into it.
AM: Another story is that of a Mrs. Cabbage, who was walking back from her knitting circle in the snow – like you do – with her unfinished knitting pinned to her dress when she walks, which you do actually because --
JS: Oh, okay.
AM: -- you want to like, like keep it – you have to like keep it in a – in a – in a solid row. And, if you like bundle it up, the stitches can start to come undone.
JS: Okay.
AM: Just like pinning it in place can be helpful. Anyway. So, unfinished knitting pinned to her dress when she walked past the Dinglehole on the way home. She heard what sounded like a step in the snow behind her and turned to see a black creature in the snow right on her heels.
JS: Yes.
AM: She raced home. The little black shape chased her all the way to her door, where she slammed it in its face to escape. Listen, you go to your most annoying neighbors house in that situation, because, if that spirit goes into your home, you don't want it to be yours.
JS: You get their house haunted.
AM: Exactly. It's like – it's like, back in the day when, when we had creepy cab drivers instead of vetted, you know, right on demand drivers and you would have the cab driver drop you off like a block from your house, because you didn't want them to know where you lived. JS: Make sense.
AM: So, she slammed the door in its face. The next morning, she realized that her knitting wasn't attached to her dress anymore.
JS: Oh, no.
AM: Oh, no. She found it on her doorstep the next morning suggesting that the scary little creature that chased her was probably just her knitted stocking being dragged behind her by its yarn.
JS: Oh, no.
AM: Oh, Mrs. Cabbage.
JS: That’s adorable, Mrs. Cabbage.
AM: There are scattered historical reports of the Dinglehole having been filled in. Oh, no.
JS: I can’t. I can’t deal with the story.
AM: This is so difficult to get through. Having been filled in, which I can attest is certainly not true as I pass it on the school bus every day for years. If you’d like to see it on Google Maps, Joseph provided a screenshot --
JS: He did.
AM: -- which is dope. Thank you, Joseph. We'll put it in the show notes. By far, the most exciting part of these stories about the Dinglehole is that he found out that the original publication about them is called The History of Medway, Massachusetts 1713 to 1885 by JA and RA Reed, published in 1886. So --
JS: Wow.
AM: Just they were like, “Well, this is it until now.” And then published the book a year later. JS: There you go.
AM: And it's free. It's an ebook. You can read it on Google.
JS: Sweet.
AM: So, Joseph used it to check the consistency of these stories. And they're identical to the one he heard as a kid. I chose Massachusetts filled with nerds.
JS: Joseph, I love that you did your own research. Makes me very happy as a historian.
AM: Thank you so much, especially one who was trained in Massachusetts.
JS: Yeah.
AM: So, we really appreciate that. It wouldn't be as good if the name wasn't as funny. But you really delivered there.
JS: That was a good one. I like that a lot. You want to do one more?
AM: Let's do it.
JS: All right. So, last story is going to come from Kiera Jo ValVerde.
AM: Kiera Jo.
JS: And the subject is urban legends from my local community theater and girls camp cabin.
AM: I love it. Kiera Jo is my favorite person.
JS: You’re hitting, hitting all my – hitting all my buttons there.
AM: Yeah. Let's do it.
JS: Into it. So, Kiera writes, hey Spirits team, I'm obviously super late to the party, but something I noticed growing up is that theaters always have ghost stories attached to them. AM: Hell yeah, they do.
JS: These stories are passed on through the years by middle school and high school age drama kids and community theaters and school plays. My local community theater was built in 1890. Damn it's an old theater. And was originally a church for early Mormon settlers in the area. It was converted into a small theater in 1975.
AM: Yes, Kiera Jo. That's a very old theater, especially for Utah.
JS: Yeah. I was in several plays there as a teenager. And, without fail, different cast members would always have stories about the ghosts. They included an old lady, who watches rehearsals from the back of the auditorium, and a young girl in a white dress, who twirls in front of the choreography mirrors on the lower floor. People claim they sometimes see her in the mirror when they're standing in front of it, but then they turn around to see that they’re alone.
AM: Yeah. She's gonna like trip you in the stairs and take your part.
JS: Yeah, she does want it.
AM: Yikes.
JS: She wants to be your understudy.
AM: She absolutely wants to be your understudy.
JS: So,however, Kiera writes, the main thing the kids are terrified of is the scout room, a cold damp lightless storage space underneath the practice stage, which we had too. We call it, The Pit.
AM: The Pit.
JS: I suspect that it was once a cellar for canned fruit preserves and like judging from houses I've been in from the late 1800s. But the story teenagers like to recite is much more colorful. The room used to be used for Boy Scout or in some versions Children's Sunday School meetings and activities.
AM: Okay. Anyone die? I hope not.
JS: It was locked from the outside. And, one fateful day, a group of children are locked in there.
AM: No.
JS: You called that one at least.
AM: Well, you know what happens then, Julia? The fruit preserve is you.
JS: Actually, somehow, a fire started leaving the children trapped inside. So, of course, they haunt the room. And, if you go inside, you're supposed to make sure the door remains open a crack, because, if it closes all the way, you'll be locked in there just like the children tragically were many years ago.
AM: Whoa. And call back to our episode on Reptilians and Cults with Kelly Weill, where we talk about food storage and prepping.
JS: Yes. Yes.
AM: A+.
JS: Except, in this case, it is children dying in closets.
AM: Yeah. But I mean like, if you're gonna have a weird damp unlit space, you're gonna make a myth to fill it.
JS: That's true.
AM: Our pit was just filled with asbestos. That is literally true. That was an asbestos room.
JS: It was asbestos wood and very mildewy couches.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Also, if there were tunnels underneath our school, buecause, you know, the school was built in the time where you might need a bunker for your children.
AM: Yeah. Yeah, the 50s.
JS: You could figure out where the bunker was if you went far enough and didn't --
AM: In the Pit?
JS: Yeah.
AM: Where?
JS: Dude, you know where the wall was where everyone painted their names down on the Pit?
AM: Every wall.
JS: We kept going. Well, no. You had to go through the asbestos room and then go – keep going.
AM: Oh, see, I never went through the asbestos room, because I don't want lung cancer.
JS: Oh, well, sucks for me I guess. But it was the sandy area and then you had to walk past and --
AM: You know what was in the sand, Julia?
JS: Asbestos.
AM: Asbestos.
JS: Cool.
AM: Whoa.
JS: Yeah.
AM: I actually – there's so much I wanted to do in high school that I never got to do.
JS: That’s okay.
AM: Like I never dated at all. And I always wanted to like make out in the costume room and make on the lighting booth. Most of my bucket list items around making out actually now that I think about it.
JS: As a teenager.
AM: Never gonna have a chance. Yeah. Never gonna have a chance now, because that'll be creepy. Oh, well.
JS: That's all right. Moving on, because Kiera Jo is not done. The theaters website doesn't mention anything about these legends. Naturally. But, if you want to see what the church and theater looks like, you can go here. And then she provides a helpful, helpful link.
AM: We'll put in the link description.
JS: My middle school and high school auditoriums were also said to be haunted, but I don't have any specific stories related to them. Do we have any haunted, haunted shit going on in our theaters?
AM: I actually remember always being really enthralled by the concept of the ghost light, which is like across theater in general, not just ours, which is that you always leave a light on in the theater.
JS: Right.
AM: In reality, it's because you don’t want people to trip in the – in the empty theater while they're like going to find the lightswitch.
JS: Yeah.
AM: But it's also to like ward off bad spirits. And, of course, not to say the name of the play Macbeth in a theater.
JS: Yes.
AM: Or else, by varying accounts, you have to turn around in a circle counterclockwise three times, run around the school three times. That was ours I think.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Throw salts over your shoulder. Like do all kinds of crazy stuff.
JS: We had one dude who would always say it and then we would just be like, “Godamnit, go, go for a run outside.”
AM: Yep. And, sometimes, it was January, and it was snowing. And the school was very big.
JS: Yeah. Yes.
AM: So --
JS: We did have a big school. It’s like sprawling.
AM: They'd be like back in 20 minutes.
JS: Yeah. Took three times. They’re like, “So, I just ran a mile outside because I said the Scottish play.”
AM: Yep.
JS: So, Kiera Jo writes, another local urban legend is that of Suzy Sour Blood, a surly teenage girl who once attended a girls camp at a large cabin owned by the Mormon Church. I'm from Utah. There's a lot of church-owned properties near me.
AM: Oh, my god. One, I love that name. And, two, I love it as like a parable. Like this is Johnny, you know, Sour Face. Like you like really – you're, you're just really emphasizing the lesson here. And I love that.
JS: My image is I'm just thinking of Moaning Myrtle as Suzy Sour --
AM: Oh, my god.
JS: -- Sour Blood.
AM: Headcanon not just accepted, headcanon embraced.
JS: I like it. I'm into it. So, the legend goes that she was bullied by the other girls at the camp until, one night, she was pushed from the balcony on the top floor of the cabin and fell to her death.
AM: Oh, my god.
JS: As you do.
AM: Classic bullying ends in murder, guys. Slippery slope.
JS: The older girls would always point out the dark little specks in the cement around the cabin and say those were the stains from Suzy's fall.
AM: That's so fucking gory.
JS: Yeah. That's not great. Suzy roams the top floor at night. And, if she sees young girls walking around, who remind her of her tormentors, she taunts them and tries to throw them from the balcony in vengeance. Kiera writes, I can't tell you how terrified I was as a 12-year-old girl sleeping in a rickety bunk bed on the top floor.
AM: Oh, my god. Kiera. I'm glad you made it.
JS: Yeah. And she just finishes out with the stay creepy, stay cool.
AM: Oh, my goodness. Y'all really came through with this one.
JS: That’s a good one.
AM: We hope to do these even more frequently. So, send in your frickin legends, y'all.
JS: Yeah. What was your favorite this week?
AM: I just love the image of like a lit up, you know, cottage in a cornfield with nothing around it, but mystery, you know.
JS: Yes.
AM: And like you're inside. You got your grandma. You got her 15 Irish wolfhounds and, and, you know, just looking outside. Like just the idea that there's like no one around – like I could – I could, you know, spread my arms and like hit four people's apartments from outside my door. And, you know, like I'm used to being very densely surrounded with people. And, so, that image of just being alone, no moon, no stars, no noise, just the rustling of the cornfield. Like anything could happen.
JS: I think I was partial to old lady rocking chair with a raven.
AM: Ah, so good.
JS: Pretty solid one.
AM: I love it. I just love that image of like she does nothing for anybody. No one does anything for her. Like that’s my aesthetic. Beautiful. I love it.
JS: Okay. So, thank you guys so much for sending in these emails. You all are the best. We're going to try and get to every single one that you all send. Hopefully. Eventually.
AM: Yes.
JS: We're going to start doing these more frequently.
AM: We will.
JS: And, as always, stay creepy.
AM: Stay cool.
Outro Music.
AM: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Allyson Wakeman.
JS: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram @SpiritsPodcast. We also have all our episodes, collaborations, and guest appearances plus merch on our website, spiritspodcast.com.
AM: Come on over to our Patreon page, patreon.com/spiritspodcast for all kinds of behind the scenes stuff. Throw us as little as $1 and get access to audio extras, recipe cards, director’s commentaries, and patron-only live streams.
JS: And, hey, if you like the show, please share us with your friends. That is the best way to help us keep on growing.
AM: Thank you so much for listening, till next time.
Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil