Episode 215: Your Urban Legends XLV - XL!
/A creepy store, ghost hunting parents, and a small town monster family! These extra long stories deserved their own episodes because they are so JAM PACKED with details to scare and delight.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, bodily remains, xenophobia, demons/The Devil, graves, murder, body horror, organized crime, cultural appropriation, self-harm, fire, curses, and cannibalism.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends playing some games on your Switch! Her Twitch channel with Eric Silver is twitch.tv/HouseBreakfast (@HouseBreakfast_ on Twitter).
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Multitude: Listen to some other MultiShows this week! Search Multitude in your podcast player or go to multitude.productions.
Sponsors
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Find Us Online
If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books.
Transcript
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.
Amanda: And this is Episode 215: Your Urban Legends. It's #45 in our series, but, more importantly, it is the XL Edition of --
Julia: XL.
Amanda: -- Oops, All Urban Legends Month.
Julia: Sometimes, you know, we get stories, and we look at them, and we're like, “Wow. That's gonna take a really long time to read on the show.” And, sometimes, we read them. Sometimes, we don't, but, this time, we're definitely reading them.
Amanda: Yeah. We’re just – we’re just making space for the verbose among us, which I particularly appreciate. And, listen, some of my favorite stories we ever read are in here.
Julia: Yeah. And, honestly, great storytelling.
Amanda: Great storytelling.
Julia: That's why they use so many words because they're telling so many stories.
Amanda: That's a very good point, Julia.
Julia: Speaking of very good points, Amanda, I think that our new patrons have a good point in that they're supporting us with monetary value.
Amanda: They do. Good point. Good taste. Good action. Thank you so much to Olive, Mar, Scar de Courcier, and Xiphosuras, which I believe is how you pronounce that. It starts with an X.
Julia: Yeah, I think so. That sounds right.
Amanda: Thank you for joining. You join the distinguished ranks here of supporting producer level patrons: Uhleeseeuh, Allison, Debra, Hannah, Jane, Jen, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Keegan, Kneazlekins, Liz, Megan Linger, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Polly, Sarah, Skyla, and SamneyTodd.
Julia: What wonderful human beings.
Amanda: That's it. That's all we need. All she wrote.
Julia: Yeah, they’re just wonderful human beings.
Amanda: And thanks too to our legend level patrons to whom I get to send fun presents every dang month: Audra, Drew, Frances, Jack Marie, Ki, Lada, Mark, Morgan, Necrofancy, Renegade, and Bea Me Up Scotty
Julia: I hope that, every time you tell a very long story to your friends, they're all enthralled and really, really interested and thank you at the end.
Amanda: Absolutely. Julia, this week, I did not have the attention span necessarily to read something or to even, like, pay attention as I was listening to something. So, instead, what I did is I opened up my Switch and I just played a hell of a lot of Sword and Shield, Pokemon Sword and Shield, and it's wonderful. They had, like, a, a downloadable content. Like, a DLC, like, expansion that came out in October. I didn't realize that. So, to me, the whole Crown Tundra Edition is completely new. And there's just something so satisfying about catching them all, and going online, and looking at the guides, and figuring out where each poke is, and just, like, riding my little bike around and around until I find it. So, if you have a Switch or if you have, you know, your Gameboy SP and you want to open up that, you know, Pokemon Red, or Pokemon Ruby, or Pokemon whatever, just, you know, take that little dip into memory lane and play a game. Maybe it's for children, but, you know, we're all child at heart and it's – it's for you too.
Julia: And, Amanda, I know that it's your week to recommend something. But, if you liked Amanda's recommendation and would like to see her doing some of the things that she just recommended, you should definitely check out House Breakfast on Twitch.
Amand: Yeah, Eric Silver, my lovely partner, and I started streaming over the holiday break because the world shuts down for Christmas and we were like, “Well, we're just gonna do a fun new thing.” And we stream video games. So, if you want to watch me play Pokemon Ruby – it’s the run I'm doing. Eric has been playing Kirby 64 and SSX Tricky. And we’ll be debuting Scott Pilgrim tomorrow as of when this episode is coming out. It is a lot of fun. So, thanks for the plug. And that is at twitch.tv/housebreakfast or on Twitter @HouseBreakfast_.
Julia: It's very cool. It's a lot of fun. And, Amanda's Nuzlocke Challenge is very relaxing, unlike most Nuzlocke challenges. So, I highly recommend checking it out.
Amanda: Thank you, darling. And, of course, if you are looking for yet more relaxing content, Multitude make a lot of shows. And I don't know if you listen to all of them, but you should check it out. We have, of course, each week Potterless and Spirits. We have Join the Party, which is pretty much every, every week, three out of four weeks of the month, a D&D show where Julia and I play two characters that are super powered in a kind of, like, 2020X, like, slightly above the present future world. We have Meddling Adults and Horse, each of which come out every other week as well as Exolore, the newest member of our collective. And we also have things that you can catch up on that are completed. So, Waystation was our Lost Girl rewatch podcast.
Julia: Rip.
Amanda: And you have several episodes you can catch up on there. And, Next Stop, the scripted fiction sitcom that Julia and I helped make along with Brandon Grugle and written by Eric Silver. And that has a whole 10-episode season that you can listen to now. It's fun, lighthearted. You know, take your mind off the present, but also think about things like friendship and aging. It's fantastic. So, just put Multitude into your search player of your podcast app and all of those lovely shows will come up for you.
Julia: They're all great. Honestly, all great.
Amanda: We're proud of them. And you listening and you recommending a show to your friends really helps us out. So, you know, we're trying to be there for you in these, these times, hashtag. And we hope that it brings you some love, some hope, some – you know, not thinking about whatever you don't want to think about for a moment.
Julia: Just like we hope this episode does.
Amanda: Absolutely. So, thank you all again very much. We know that you were enjoying this month as much as we are. So, enjoy here the XL Edition of Oops, All Urban Legends Month.
Intro Music
Eric: Guys, 2020 was one of the biggest years ever.
Amanda: In what way?
Eric: It literally had an extra day. So, it was statistically larger than the average year.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: But, also, just a lot happened at it. So, I think it makes sense for one of our bonus urban legends episodes this month where we're doing all the urban legends to be extra large just like the last year we came out of was. So, this episode, very excited, we are reading just three stories, but they are longer emails. Sometimes, we get sent emails that are quite long, many, many paragraphs, and it's kind of hard to fit them in to the episode. So, this time, we'll each be doing one email from a listener. And they are just chock full of spooky stuff.
Julia: Chunk lads.
Eric: So, buckle up.
Julia: I'm excited to get to these, these real chunky lads. But, first, I wanted to start with an email that I saw in the inbox today.
Amanda: Oooh.
Julia: And I was very excited about.
Amanda: Breaking news?
Julia: And it’s just like a quick follow up to another story that we've talked about on the show. And the email was titled Julia, I saw that ghost in my dream.
Eric: Oh, no.
Amanda: What?
Julia: This is from Taryn and she writes, “Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I just listened to Episode 36 where Julia talks about her and Jake's run-in with a shadowy ghost.” If you don't remember that, because this was a very long time ago and it took me a second to remember what they were talking about, this was when I saw the shadowy figure with a dog while we were making out in the car near the high school --
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Hmm. Yes.
Julia: -- back in the day. And you'll recall it was very scary and we drove away very quickly. But Taryn writes, “I have seen that man in my dreams. When I heard your story, my blood ran cold. The earliest dream I remember having, five years old or younger, was a recurring dream. It started with a scene where the friends from my preschool were playing in my room and a monster under my bed started talking to me. I don't remember what it said. But I remember it having evil intentions. It was like a demon monster.”
Eric: Mhmm. It was like a demon monster.
Julia: Like a demon monster. I can't confirm that it was a demon monster. It was in a dream.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: So, we're not sure. Then change scene to the shadowy figure. He's exactly like you described him in your story. I remember him standing in a trench coat and a fedora with a big dog on a leash. He was standing directly underneath a streetlight. Only, he wasn't in the middle of the street. He was on the corner. Then the dog howled and that's when my dream would end. Surprisingly, this dream didn't scare me when I was little. I live in the Midwest. So, it's not tied to the same location. So, who knows? Anyway, stay creepy and cool. Thanks for your content.” It's a very specific image that I feel like we both saw. So, the fact that someone else saw it in a dream is extremely cool to me.
Amanda: That's a very specific. I wouldn't, like, name that as a category of ghosts. It's not like a Slender Man situation where, like, lots of people see it all over the place.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: This is pretty specific.
Julia: Yes, trench coat and the dog. It’s a – it’s a unique image.
Eric: We'll have to keep an eye out for him because, now, he's – he's visiting other people. And that's no good.
Julia: Now, he's around.
Eric: Well, I will read my extra large story if --
Julia: Oooh.
Amanda: Let’s do it.
Eric: -- if you don't mind.
Julia: No, go for it. I'm very excited.
Eric: I was telling Julia just before the recording that I – this is some inside baseball editor stuff. We sound great in these episodes. Julia and Amanda are great at public reading. I am bad at it. So, I am dreading what's about to happen, but it's gonna sound great because I'm going to cut out all the bad retakes I do and hum, hums and has. So, so, this is gonna sound great, but I'm gonna hate every minute of it. Let's go.
Julia: It’s the magic of podcasting.
Eric: This comes to us from Anna Katherine and she writes, “My name is Anna Katherine. I know, I know, two first names, but, hopefully, you'll forgive my Southern parents.
Amanda: No judgment here.
Eric: I discovered Multitude shows near the beginning of the pandemic. And you have all been amazing in helping me get through this year. I love Spirits and have been marathoning the Urban Legends episodes. And I was inspired to share a couple of spooky stories that I have had happen to me in my hometown of Atlanta.
Julia: Atlanta, extremely haunted, right? Like, Georgia is an extremely haunted state in general.
Eric: It's one of the more haunted places I think. Yeah.
Julia: I know Savannah is the most haunted.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: But I feel like Atlanta has its share of hauntings.
Eric: I'll start off with one of the more wholesome ones. I grew up with a mix of Christianity and a vague awareness of a spirit world. My mom raised me to be attuned to energies and possible spirits nearby, which wasn't uncommon in my childhood home built in 1930.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: I was in my preteen years when I had my first long term experience with the paranormal. I don't think we've ever read someone describing their experience as long term.
Julia: Yeah, some people are like, “Oh, yeah, I've been haunted my entire life or I've always had paranormal experiences.”
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: But long term feels like you signed a couple year lease.
Amanda: It’s a real commitment.
Eric: Yeah, not – not like the same way of a long term relationship.
Julia: Long distance, long term relationship with a ghost.
Eric: I'll call it a ghost or spirit for the lack of a better term, but it definitely was a distinct energy. Either way, around the time I was 11 or 12, a feminine spirit settled into my bedroom. I never felt threatened or harmed by it, but I could always feel its presence in the south east corner of the room. That corner became the spirit’s corner. Our dogs never liked coming into my bedroom and they would frequently stand at the doorway and stare alertly at that corner. When I rearrange the furniture every couple years, I considered moving my bed to the spirit’s corner.
Julia: No, don't do that.
Amanda: Uh-umm. Uh-umm.
Eric: The only piece of furniture there was a chair, which I rarely use except to practice the cello. You should have been practicing the cello more I guess if you rarely used it.
Amanda: Okay, Eric.
Eric: How are you ever going to become a famous cellist?
Amanda: Bringing a lot of – bringing a lot of you're really looking for conflicts here, Eric, with yourself, with the listeners, with your schedule, with editing. You're just – you're ripping and raring to go.
Eric: I’m ready. I’m ready.
Julia: I, I love it. It's a good energy.
Amanda: I was gonna say putting a chair in the spirit’s corner is just asking them to stay. No wonder it was a long term relationship.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I also feel like, every time you put a chair in a bedroom, you don't actually ever sit on that chair. It just becomes the clothes chair. Like, right?
Amanda: It does.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: That's just a thing.
Eric: Yeah. I, I don't know if I've ever had – I had a – I had a small couch in my bedroom growing up. And it was a real – that thing was made of balsa wood. It’s a real piece of shit. Anyways, not afford – not that this would support it at all.
Julia: I, I'm loving this combative energy from Eric today.
Amanda: Combative, that’s the word I was looking for. Thank you, Julia.
Eric: The energy of the ghosts always felt more concentrated when I played the cello. And I had the distinct sense that somebody was watching me. Okay. It makes sense that you might not want to be playing the cello that much --
Amanda: Ahh!
Eric: -- if the ghost was spooking you during the, the cello playing.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Fast forward about four years, during which time I had been living in harmony with the spirit. One day, my mom and I were talking about an older woman, Miss Joyce, whom she had cared for during my childhood and had passed away when I was 10 or 11 years old. My mom mentioned not being the best at doing things in a timely manner and that she had yet to scatter her ashes.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Not only that, but the container holding her remains was sitting on the other side of the wall backing that corner of my room.
Julia: Oh, come on.
Amanda: Ohhh.
Eric: Needless to say, I was astonished and disturbed and demanded that my mom moved Miss Joyce's ashes from that area of the living room.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: After she did, the constant presence went away. And, as of last year, my mom did get around to scattering her ashes almost a decade after her passing. But, hey, I can only assume that it was Miss Joyce's spirit residing in my room all those years. Not only was the presence friendly, but it had felt more pronounced when I played the cello. Miss Joyce had loved my music for the few years I had been learning it while she was still alive.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: I even brought my cello to play for her while she was in hospice.
Julia: Aww.
Amanda: Aww.
Eric: I like to think that she was enjoying the music from whatever plane comes next.
Amanda: Adorable.
Julia: That's extremely sweet. I love that.
Eric: Yeah. So, that's a – that's a lesson in, in the urgency to scatter ashes.
Julia: Yeah. You know, we – when my grandfather passed away, we kept his ashes in my grandmother's closet for a very long time. I'm not entirely sure how long, but it was quite a bit. And --
Eric: It’s definitely – I understand – I understand. It's definitely something that can take, take some time. My, my aunt lived in Montana. And, so, like, they had to go to Montana to scatter her ashes. She --
Julia: Right.
Eric: She was – yeah, she was here at the end of her life, but she wanted them back there.
Julia: Sure. And you have to, like, gather the family around and stuff, like, that.
Eric: Exactly. Yeah. There's a lot of things that you need to – need to do.
Julia: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Eric: But, if you got a ghost that is directly tied to it --
Julia: Yeah. Yes.
Eric: -- just do it.
Julia: Yeah. Well --
Eric: Do it.
Julia: Do – I will give credit to the mother. She probably didn't know that the ghost was tied to the remains until --
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: True.
Julia: -- the daughter mentioned like, “Hey, by the way, this area of my room is extremely creepy sometimes.
Amanda: It's also a very, like, mentor figure, older friend or family member thing to do to be like, “I love it when you practice your instrument. Won’t you do it more?” Like, it's just it's so sweet.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Like, reading out loud or something. I, I love it.
Julia: Yeah. And I will say that, like, it wasn't a negative energy. There wasn't, like, things flying off of shelves or falling, picture frames falling off the wall and stuff like that. It was just like a pleasant presence.
Eric: A pleasant presence.
Amanda: It could be worse.
Julia: A pleasant presence.
Eric: The best kind. Here is her second story. It is a more recent encounter and a little creepier, which happened in July of 2019. I was on a date with my then partner walking through a cute busy part of town with some quirky shops and good food.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Was it in – was it in Cassadaga, Florida?
Julia: No.
Amanda: I have to know.
Eric: It was not.
Julia: They're in Atlanta, Georgia.
Eric: They're in Atlanta, Georgia. We've located the place.
Amanda: Too close for comfort if you ask me.
Julia: Mhmm. Only one state away.
Eric: Amanda – Amanda needs to be, at least, two or three states away --
Amanda: Yes. Yes.
Eric: -- from Florida at all.
Julia: Constantly three states away from Florida at --
Amanda: Mhmm.
Julia: -- at most.
Eric: It’s a simple rule and she sticks to it, except for that time we were in Orlando. It was midday, the intense Georgia sun beating down and urging us to stay indoors whenever we could. Between the heat and our witchy queer curiosity, it didn't take much convincing to go inside the next small shop on the street, a narrow building with blackout windows and simple hand-painted question mark above the door --
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: -- where a sign would normally have hanged.
Amanda: Oh? Oh?
Julia: Okay.
Eric: Cool. Cool. I mean this, this is big ignorant energy right here.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: This is --
Amanda: It is. But --
Eric: This is me. No.
Amanda: But, if we were in a major metropolitan area together, wouldn't the three of us say, “Tight. A speakeasy,” and walk right in?
Julia: Probably. Amanda's – Amanda's got us there.
Eric: She does – she does have our ass on that one.
Amanda: I would probably take a picture, tweet, “Don't enter the fairy door,” you know, and then enter it with my friends.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yes, absolutely. This also has, like, big, like, fantasy TV show or fantasy book energy --
Amanda: Yes, definitely.
Julia: -- where – yeah, I don't know. I just – the vibe is like, “Oh, a quest is going to start the minute I walked through this door.”
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I’m just worried the Riddler is about to kidnap us personally. There's literally just a question mark over the door.
Julia: If it was green, I would be more concerned.
Amanda: It could also be like a secret club on the spectrum of, like, masons to, like, you know, more kind of nefarious, like, political groups.
Julia: Illuminati.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. My partner and I glanced at each other and shrugged figuring why not. Once we entered, the old glass and wooden door closing behind us with a thud, it was as if we were transported to a different world. The Riddler’s realm. This was, as we suspected, a witchy shop.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: But, unlike the tarot and crystals we were expecting, this cater to a darker, more serious clientele.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: The kind that would definitely curse your bloodline if you piss them off. I immediately felt a heavy sense of dread in my gut. And, as I looked over to my partner and took their hand, I could tell that they felt the same.
Amanda: Okay. A little poll here, what would you do in this instance? Because I feel like there is definitely the competing interest of, like, social niceties and like, “Oh, I just walked into somebody's shop. I'm not gonna just nope right out of there because of the décor,” versus self-preservation. I think I would take a look around and say, “Oh, my mistake,” and then leave.
Julia: What – why would you even announce that it was your mistake and leave?
Amanda: Because, whoever is listening, corporeal or incorporeal, I just want to say, “I am so sorry for infringing. You don't have to send a vengeful spirit after me.”
Eric: I would say a very – I think, one, it depends if there's a shopkeep. If you can – if you see the shopkeep, then you have --
Julia: Of course.
Eric: -- then you have to, in my opinion, --
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: -- do essentially what Amanda said, which is, like, take a look at what's on the shelves, go, “Hmm, not, not for me,” and then leave.
Amanda: Oh, honey, didn't we have reservations? I, I’m more on that side of the thing. Yeah.
Julia: Meanwhile, I would be like, “Oh, do you guys have insert banal thing here?” So, it seems like I'm looking for something in particular. When they say they don't have it, I can just leave.
Eric: Aah.
Julia: But, also, I'm team show me the bones. I bet there's bones in here.
Eric: I mean there very well might be bones.
Julia: There’s probably bones.
Eric: So, let’s – let's find out if there's bones.
Amanda: What did AK do?
Eric: In an unspoken conversation, we both knew this was not our kind of shop.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: But we didn't want to be impolite by leaving without looking around. And, because of the layout, to look around, we had to traverse the outside of a larger rectangular counter in which the shopkeeper could stand to make it to the back door. This is a good point in the story to mention the only other person in the store, a pail figure stood behind the counter dressed in bizarre Edwardian style suit, complete with flares of purple and an actual top hat.
Julia: Hey, fun fact.
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: Hey, fun fact, that's the devil. A devil.
Eric: Is it the devil?
Julia: Probably.
Amanda: You're in Georgia. You really got to look out for him there.
Julia: He's gonna – he's gonna sell you an item that has a unforeseen cost.
Eric: He is Georgia. That's very – that is a key detail.
Julia: He’s looking for a soul to steal.
Eric: The purple though. Do you think the devil's purple?
Julia: Royalty.
Eric: Mhmm.
Amanda: I think that's a real, like, Mr. Wednesday kind of figure. You know, like, somebody – somebody masquerading as just like a affluent gentleman who actually has a lot of, like, metaphysical consequences.
Eric: Mhmm.
Julia: I'm thinking like Mephistopheles is gonna sell you a thing --
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: -- that has unforeseen consequences. And then you try to give it back and the shop is gone.
Eric: Ooh.
Amanda: Yeah. Or, like, real estate developer who sold a soul like we all do under capitalism. Yeah.
Julia: Great.
Eric: I might have laughed at his outfit had I not quickly realized that he was not the type to casually joke with.
Julia: Uh-umm.
Eric: I've met a number of pagan witches in my life, but this man was different. The word that comes to mind is magician, the creepy [Inaudible 20:00] accompanied by a traveling old-timey circus.
Julia: Correct. Correct. Correct.
Eric: The man and the black cat standing in front of – and staring at our direction. Fucking curses of black cat.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: My partner and I said a timid greeting to break the tense atmosphere.
Julia: Only talk to the cat. Don't talk to the shopkeeper. Only the cat.
Eric: The shopkeeper inclined his head and told us to let him know if there's anything he could help us with. We told him thank you, but we were just browsing. The man went back to his shopkeeping duties, but we felt his eyes boring into our backs as we began to circle the room. My partner squeezed my hand tighter as we attempted to look intrigued by the paraphernalia on the shelves. In reality, just trying to circle back to the exit so we could escape this feeling. We kept going further towards the back of the shop, which darkened and felt increasingly oppressive. We stopped at the back to smell some incense sticks. At which point, we looked up and realized that the man and his cat had been silently following us from behind the counter. My partner leaned towards me and whispered in my ear asking if I had heard the man talking to his cat in another language.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: I hadn't. But, once I started listening, it seemed like he was not only talking with his cat in a foreign tongue, one I didn't recognize, but that the cat seemed to understand him. The only English we heard was when he abruptly told the cat to sit, which, amazingly, it immediately did. If you've ever been around a cat --
Julia: Oh.
Eric: -- this is not a normal occurrence.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: Uh-umm. Cat’s don’t sit.
Eric: No.
Julia: Cat’s don’t take orders.
Amanda: I want to say on its – like, on its face, speaking the language that you speak with your pet is not – like, that's fine. That's not creepy at all.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: But the cat responding to the word sit is incredibly hair raising for me.
Julia: Unless the language is, like, dead Latin and you're speaking it to the cat --
Amanda: Sure.
Julia: That's the only one – place where I will pause and be like --
Amanda: I mean people have hobbies. People teach their pets commands in different languages.
Julia: Sure. But he used English to say sit.
Eric: Yeah, I don't want – I don't want to – I don't want to make it seem like it's creepy that he's speaking another language --
Amanda: Right.
Eric: -- because we don't want any other [Inaudible 21:56] or anything like that.
Amanda: Exactly. Yeah.
Eric: But there is, like, a number of components building on each other where it's like pretty interesting dress follow you around silently holding the cat with them --
Amanda: Yes. Yes.
Eric: -- or, like, having it follow right behind him. Speaking of language you don't understand, like, it's – it's one of those things where it builds as, like, every little detail is like, “What is going on?”
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: A lot of unexpected twists here.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: I will say the only languages that it would be acceptable that it is creepy are, like, ancient dead languages. Like, you recognize it as Ancient Sumerian that he's speaking to this cat.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I assume it's Russian because I'm guessing this is Rasputin.
Julia: Okay. Fair. Fair enough.
Amanda: Okay. Okay.
Eric: That's just my assumption at this point. I, I mean that guy's still around doing stuff and why not be in Atlanta selling weird knickknacks.
Julia: Why not.
Eric: The looming presence of the man and what I'm convinced was his familiar was weighing on my partner and me. We began to walk slightly quicker towards the door, which was still a good 20 feet away. We could still feel the shopkeeper watching us intently. And, when I looked out of the corner of my eye, the two of them were still following us without any noise, an impressive feat as the building was old and the floors wooden. After what seemed like an eternity, my partner and I escaped back to the bustle of the street outside with a hasty thank you to the shopkeeper grateful to have made it out safely. Needless to say, we were sufficiently freaked out by the whole encounter. While I had no desire to return to the shop, I did want to know more. However, I couldn't find the shop on Google and it didn't show up among the nearby stores on map. I returned to that part of town the following day to grab a present for my partner's birthday from a different shop and looked again for the mysterious storefront. Though I knew exactly where it was. It took me several minutes to find the blacked out windows and the question mark. It was still there. But, hey, I’ve gotten the impression the shop did not want to be found. In that spirit, I'm not giving any details to where this is located. I'm happy to escape without incurring the wrath of the storekeeper and have no desire to disturb his existence any further. But I did think that story merited being told.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: And wish all the best for the both of them. This person gets the ignorant.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: They're like, “I am not giving you any details other than this is in Atlanta somewhere.”
Julia: Mhmm. You found it.
Amanda: I respect it.
Eric: Now, no one's gonna go looking for this.
Julia: I'm gonna Google it and see if I can find it.
Eric: Julia.
Julia: Hold on. Question --
Amanda: Are you sure, Julia, that this is the plot turn you want to make?
Eric: Specifically, tell – doing what I say not to do.
Julia: Shhh. Shhh.
Amanda: See, this I'm fine with us because I, I think you're – you're responding to the vibe that you get. And, if the vibe you get is distinctly do not come in here, I respect it.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Well, I think we should run to a liquor shop and get a quick refill and come back for your two extra large stories.
Julia: Sounds good to me.
Amanda: Let’s do it.
Midroll Music
Amanda: We are sponsored this week by Calm. And I think everybody, Julia, has a really, you know, impassioned opinion about sleep.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Either you love sleep and you want to get more of it. You dread it maybe and you have a hard time with it. Or it's something you have just a kind of conflicted or multifaceted relationship with, which is how I definitely feel. And I definitely feel that temptation to lay in bed and read, you know, all of the news. And I try not to and I put on my humidifier and my – you know, get my room all cool and put on my toasty socks. But, sometimes, I just need something for my mind to focus on that is not the world as I am trying to fall asleep. And I, more often than not, turn to Calm, which is an app designed to help you ease stress and get the best sleep of your life. I listen to their fantastic sleep stories, but they also have soundscapes and meditations – guided meditations. So, you can have somebody kind of walking you through just small pockets of your day, whether that's when you're sleeping or, you know, at work or over lunch or first thing in the morning just to take some time for you and to center your mind and, ultimately, improve your calmness and your sleep. So, for listeners of Spirits, Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40 percent off a Calm premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. That is 40 percent off unlimited access to Calm’s entire library. And new content is added every week. So, get started today at calm.com/spirits. That's C-A-L-M.C-O-M/spirits.
Julia: Amanda, as 2021 comes around and I think about what the future is going to hold, I think, “Oh, damn, I'm gonna have to start wearing bras again, huh?”
Amanda: One of these days.
Julia: One of these days. And I am extremely grateful that I, at least, have extremely comfortable bras because I buy from ThirdLove. And that's because ThirdLove stands behind their products. If you don't love it, you can exchange your bras. And their exchanges and returns are always free for 60 days. They have bras that are made with signature memory foam cups, no slip straps, and a scratch free band. So, it is just like the epitome of comfort. I absolutely love it. And finding the perfect bra for you is super easy. If you're not sure about your size, you can take ThirdLove’s online fit finder quiz. You can find a style and size that fits both your bra shape and your body. And you just answer a few simple questions to find that perfect fit. Over 16 million people have taken the quiz to date. As a person who has, like, weird half sizes for my cups, it is extremely useful. Amanda, just gave me a face about my weird boobs.
Amanda: No. No. I think – no. No, I'm saying I think everybody has – every – like, the range of bra sizes. It's not like shoe sizes where there's just – like, even shoe sizes, there are more of them than there are cup sizes in bras. So, that makes absolutely no sense because a tiny little change in your shape or your sizing or between cups can be, like, a rock in your shoe your entire day. So, I think it is – it should be normal that, that there are so many sizes like ThirdLove has. I'm making this ad longer, but I just feel really passionate about it. Less, less shaming for non-A, B, C, or D cup sizes, please.
Julia: I 100 percent agree, Amanda. And, as ThirdLove says 2021 is our time to shine and it's our time for our boobs to shine --
Amanda: Yes.
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Amanda: Absolutely. And, finally, we are sponsored by BetterHelp, which is how I get therapy each week even if I'm feeling like, “Grr…hmph! I don't want to talk to anyone. I don't really know. Ah, man. Umm. I wish I could just play Pokemon instead of, like, talking to my therapist.” It's always good. And it always works. And I am always really, really grateful that I'm able to get therapy in the comfort of my own home at a time that works for me. I'm so tired by the time I get home from work that it's not a great time for me to have therapy. So, I do it on the weekends. That way, I'm feeling a little more relaxed and a little more introspective. And BetterHelp is how I do that because it lets you start communicating with a trained therapist in under 48 hours. It's not a crisis line. It's not self-help, but, instead, professional counseling done securely online. They are available worldwide, which is super great. If you are somewhere that that might not be always readily available to you or these podcast ads aren't always readily available to you, this is something you can try. And you can also get expertise available to you which might not be super prevalent in your city. Everybody on BetterHelp is taking new clients, which is incredible. And, so, anytime that you, you know, fill out that onboarding survey and you start looking at therapists, all of them are available to talk to you, which is not how it works usually --
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: -- which is great. They're also committed to making sure that you really like your therapist. So, they make it easy and free to change counselors if you need to. And it's more affordable than traditional offline counseling with financial aid available. So, listen, go to betterhelp.com/spirits. That's betterH-E-L-P.com/spirits to join the over 1 million people who've taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Spirits listeners get 10 percent off their first month at betterhelp.com/spirits. Okay. We have come back with our refills. Julia, has found some cursive infernal knowledge about this place that we have forbade her from sharing with us. However, in lieu of our drinks for this episode, Julia, would you please share with us the non-personal identifiable information that you are bursting to tell us.
Julia: Sure. I found the Yelp page for this business and I found a one-star review.
Amanda: Great.
Julia: So, this is from Michael B who is from Solana Beach, California. And he writes, “We visited this weird little shop with a wacko employee/owner who thinks he's the Mad Hatter. No photos, please.”
Eric: Oh, no.
Amanda: No photos, please?
Eric: Oh, no.
Amanda: The person said that?
Julia: Yep. No photos, please.
Amanda: Weird.
Eric: Oh, boy.
Julia: They did take a picture of the outside of the shop, which I am looking at now. It's extremely cool looking. I would go in the store.
Eric: I – ugh. I don't like that there's that added detail that just seems completely incongruous with, with a – with a review in any way. No photos, please.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: It's extremely cool. I love this.
Amanda: Unless that's what the shopkeeper said to this patron.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: In which case, like, you're allowed to tell people if they can take photos or not in your store. That's fine.
Julia: Yeah, there are photos, like, of the – there's four photos of the shop on this Yelp page.
Eric: I don't like how many details we're getting.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Specifically, anti details.
Amanda: I think that's enough for me. If AK would like to write us back and tell us about the, the wares and other impressions from the shop, I'll take that. But, Julia, I feel like looking up real information is cheating and I do not wish it.
Julia: Okay. Okay. I would go here though.
Amanda: I would probably walk in with you too. In the meantime, would you tell us the XL urban legend you have found?
Julia: Absolutely. So, mine is from Shannon and the title of this email is, “Haunted Ghost Hunting Parents?” and then a frowny face for some reason and I don't know why. Shannon, you have cool parents. Shush. And, so, she writes, “Hi, Eric, Julia, and Amanda. What's up? As a longtime listener, I want to thank you for continuing to put out work during COVID. Your podcast has kept me thoroughly enraptured and amused through an otherwise really hard time. I love hearing your urban legends and I thought I would submit one of my own.”
Amanda: Listen, if we didn't make this podcast, I would genuinely not know what day it was or month.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: So, it is – it is good for us and for you.
Julia: So, you've heard of haunted children. Now, get ready for haunted parents.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Normally, my mom works in a flower shop and my stepdad, Matt, is a firefighter in Chicago. On the side, however, my parents are ghost hunters.
Amanda: I love it.
Eric: All righty. All righty. Cool.
Julia: I would like to preface this story by saying that I have absolutely no desire nor interest in going into a ghost hunting investigation because I would get way too freaked out. And I also feel like I'm the type of person who would get, you know, possessed. Needless to say, even though I was away from college at the time of the story, I don't want ghosts in our apartment. When my parents would leave for investigations, I would jokingly tell them, “Don't you dare bring anything back with you.” Little did I know that one day they would.
Amanda: This is so cute. This is so cute.
Julia: A few years ago, their ghost hunting team was asked to give haunted Lincoln Park Zoo tours through the month of October. Lincoln Park Zoo is a pretty popular zoo in Chicago that my family and I have gone to ever since I was a little kid. What many people don't know, however, is that it used to be a potter's field and that there are still bodies lying just beneath the ground where hundreds of unsuspecting people walk every day.
Amanda: So was my college.
Eric: Hmm. No thanks.
Julia: Before the tour started, the team had to first meet up after hours when the zoo was closed and do their own investigation. Before Matt and mom met up with the group, mom had to use the bathroom, which is unfortunately located in the basement of the lion house. That is a creepy place for a bathroom. The only way to access the bathroom is with a staircase. And, so, as mom went into the completely deserted bathroom, Matt waited at the top of the stairs. As my mom finished doing her thing and was drying her hands, she saw a tall figure move behind her as if it had walked through the bathroom door and was headed to the stalls. She said, “Hey, so, you change your mind after all,” assuming it was Matt and that he had decided to use the bathroom before the rest of the team showed up. Not getting a response and not hearing anything from the stalls, she looked at the stalls and saw that no one was there. There were no feet visible. No stall doors closed. Nothing. She went back upstairs and saw Matt was still waiting for her and he said he didn't come downstairs and that no one had. Excited to tell the rest of the group what happened, mom and Matt rushed to meet them. Classic ghost hunter shit. They had to get moving with the investigations because there was a lot of territory to cover. But mom wanted to tell everyone what had happened first and bring them to the bathroom to investigate. Once in the bathroom, mom showed them where she was standing when she saw the figure move behind her. Unbeknownst to her, one of the guests that joined the team on the tours had gone to the same lady's room and took several rapid photos in hopes of catching evidence. Since the bathroom is underground, it is potentially at the level where the bodies are buried, which is a horrifying thing to say in an email to us.
Eric: Hmm. Hmm. Uh-umm. I don't like being parallel with a dead body.
Julia: I’ve – I’ve --
Eric: It’s – okay. That’s – there's a lot of stipulations that’s different. Obviously, like at awake. I don't want to be underground and parallel with a dead body.
Julia: I have done a lot of, like, catacomb tours and stuff like that and it is scary. It is not fun. It is always, like, dark and cold. And there's just bodies surrounding you and it's not fun.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Anyway, it's fun for, like, the novelty and the historical purposes, but, like, the physical experience of doing it, not fun. The guest then flipped through the photo she took to see if anything showed up. And, sure enough, exactly in the area where my mom saw the shadow figure walk was a single picture of a man's frame at the same height and same shoulder width that my mom had described. Ho, ho, ho.
Amanda: Oh, boy.
Eric: Oh, boy.
Amanda: That's a – that's elaborate. That's not a smudge. That's not a flash. You know, it's not a shadow.
Julia: Nope, that is a figure. This just made me laugh thinking about the sentence. After that, they split up – like you don't do in Scooby Doo. That’s always how the ghost get you – and went into different areas of the zoo. There were two groups of three people that went into each of the bathrooms of the children's zoo farm building. My mom was in the ladies’ bathroom with two other team members and Matt was in the men's bathroom with the group leader and another experienced investigator. After a while, mom left the bathroom and went into the hallway to let Matt's group know that it was time to switch. And no one had reported anything as they switched bathrooms. In the men's room, mom stood right next to the partition wall when she immediately felt something press on the entire front of her left calf. Startled but keeping her cool, my mom reported what happened and then switch to a different part of the room because, obviously, it's creepy to be touched at a pitch black room. It's worse that it’s pitch black, right? It's worse that it’s pitch black.
Amanda: It is.
Julia: No lights. After a bit, the teams met up again. And my mom's team told the others what she had felt on her leg. Strangely enough, the group leader reported that he had felt the same thing when he was standing in the same spot in the men's bathroom. Why – why didn't you report it, man? You said that there wasn't anything to report when you switch bathrooms. What had happened to him, he said he looked down and thought he saw a dark area near the floor move after he stated something touched him.
Eric: Dear god.
Julia: This is – it's a whole thing.
Eric: They’re gonna get murdered at the zoo.
Julia: Murdered at the zoo. I feel like the Central Park Zoo is a little bit scary in certain parts.
Amanda: It's quite, like, child sized almost and, like, like a miniature zoo, but then there's real animals there. It's – it's a little bit – it's a little bit strange.
Eric: You know what's scary about the Central Park Zoo to me? I don't know where it is. And I've been in Central Park a lot. Like, I feel like I've seen most of Central Park and I do not know where that zoo is still.
Julia: It's, like, pretty central to, like, the lower part beneath the Bramble, I feel like.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I feel like I may have walked past it once but not realized that's what it was.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: But, like, that's still, like, blows me away because, like, there was a time where I spent, like, a week in New York. I spent like a few hours a day just reading in the park and walking around and never once was like, “Oh, the zoo.” So, like, it's – where is that thing?
Amanda: It is hard to get to. It's like just along a path. Like, there aren't paths to it. It's just, like, on a path.
Eric: That’s so weird.
Amanda: And it's much smaller than you think it is. And it's surprisingly very close to the street. It's oddly located even for me who has, like, lived near the park for years.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: So, the next place that she had yet another experience was in the Café Brauer building of the zoo. It was a beautiful room where smaller sized wedding receptions are usually held, smiley face. Very cute. Love it. Also, another haunted wedding venue. A big fan.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Love it.
Julia: Back in the times of Prohibition in Chicago, the North Side Irish mobsters used the building as their headquarters. And it is known that two mob brothers were fighting over a woman. And one brother killed the other by pushing him down the stairwell there. Ooh, spooky.
Amanda: Hmm. Real Spaghetti Factory energy.
Julia: They all took their seats in the small area of the great room and we're using voice recorders and a Kinect device. As a quick aside, Kinect devices work by using a structured light sensor in tandem with software that recognizes human joints and movements. Like a – like the Kinect for is it Xbox? Or which gaming system uses Kinect?
Eric: Yes. Yes, the – record that Xbox?
Julia: Yes.
Eric: That, that sentence just got a lot of laughs from our gamer listeners.
Julia: Great.
Eric: And no laughs from either of you.
Julia: I didn't --
Amanda: No.
Julia: I didn't understand.
Amanda: Let me make a gamer reference that my style of gamers will appreciate it. Ready? Okay.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Fuck, not another zigzagoon, it's a gold gem inspire. Oh, no, these trellises sure are hard to plant.
Julia: But a Kinect device like the gaming thing, they're using that to detect ghost, which is very cool. And I've never heard of that before.
Amanda: That's really interesting. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: So, mom was on the floor with her legs directly in front of her and the group leader was across from her, standing. They started asking questions. And I guess that stirred something up because the Kinect picked up a figure sliding on the floor back and forth between the group leader and my mom.
Eric: Did they describe the figure?
Julia: No, just sliding back and forth.
Eric: Okay. Because, if it's like a human-shaped figure sliding --
Amanda: I don't like that.
Eric: -- I don’t like that. If it's just like an orb, okay, weird, but I can handle that.
Amanda: But, if the Kinect got it, it had to have joints, right?
Julia: Precisely. The Kinect as --
Eric: Oh, right. Oh.
Julia: And she specifies. She goes, ‘The Kinect uses software to recognize human joints and movements.”
Amanda: Damn.
Julia: Eric is fully away for the mic.
Eric: Real quick. Real quick. Something that I did – it did just occur to me, like, before the last sentence you read. I thought the mobsters were using this. I was very confuse on what kind of technology existed during Prohibition era. And then I was like, “Oh, right. The ghost hunters are using this. Not the mobsters.”
Julia: Xbox record that.
Amanda: Oh, remember the World's Fair? Aye, Xbox.
Julia: Aye. Okay. Hold on.
Amanda: They probably did have things called X boxes, but they were, like, filled with corn.
Eric: I, I was following all of the details of the story, but, for some reason, I thought we flashed back for, like, a bit longer than we did. And I don't – I don't know why I thought that.
Julia: Oh, my god.
Amanda: All right. Do we need a palate cleanser? Because I was going to ask which Xbox games would ghost be best at.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Hmm. Ghost in the Shell, the video game.
Amanda: Sure. Sure. Sure.
Julia: I don’t know. I hope not.
Eric: Ghost Recon. That's a shooter. So, probably not.
Amanda: I think they would be good at a – at all previous generation games that the Xbox was playing. That's kind of, like, resuscitating a ghost, you know.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: I feel like they find survival horror extremely funny.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: Probably.
Julia: Okay. So, the figure sliding back and forth between the group leader and my mom. This continued for several questions. The shape just kept crawling back and forth as another team member was watching --
Amanda: No!
Julia: -- this happen on the screen in real time. They sent a video with a Facebook link, but, unfortunately, because they sent it via the form, the LinkedIn go through. I will see if we can email them back and get a direct link for that. But I
Eric: We don’t want it.
Amanda: Julia, you can live with that infernal knowledge.
Julia: I want it.
Amanda: I do not want it.
Eric: Can we not do that? Julia, stop getting information I specifically am asking not to have.
Julia: I want it though. Okay. After that, it was time to leave. So, they wrapped it up and gathered --
Amanda: I’d say.
Julia: -- gathered all of the equipment and headed home.
Eric: It was time to move on.
Julia: My parents weren't sagging or do – oh, sorry. Not sagging. Saging.
Eric: They were zigzagging. Zigzagooning.
Julia: My parents weren't saging or doing anything protective at this point after investigations. So, when they got home, they just went straight to bed. The next morning, Matt and my mom were sitting on the couch having coffee. The TV wasn't on and they were just sitting in silence until the coffee kicked in, which is big mood. Suddenly, they heard three loud knocks on the wall directly behind them. They looked at each other and each said, “Ah, you heard that, right?” They had never had anything like that happen before and it only happened that one time. They were both like, “Okay. That was pretty wild,” and, typical of my parents, just continued to have their coffee like it was no big deal.
Amanda: This is their bread and butter. This is their everyday. Matt and mom having adventures.
Julia: Later that afternoon, mom was laying on the couch and Matt was about four feet away from his chair. She felt her hair being pulled. So, she put her hand to her hair and it was completely taut straight out like it was pulled taut.
Amanda: What?
Julia: She swatted it thinking that it was Matt and said, “Knock it off.” He looked at her questioningly because his hands were on the sides of his chair too far to be able to touch her hair.
Amanda: So, he wasn't touching her and he couldn't have even if he wanted to.
Julia: Yeah, he was too far away.
Amanda: Damn.
Julia: At this point, they were both a little scared but still didn't think too much of it. Then that night, my mom was lying in bed, not yet asleep, and something hit the wall just above her head.
Amanda: Uh-umm.
Julia: One thing about my mom is that she does not like anything messing with her sleep, supernatural or not, which I feel personally. At this point, she was thinking that this was just getting annoying. So, when she heard the wall to her left get hit at about the same height her head was resting at, she ignored it and just rolled over and eventually went to sleep. Suddenly, she was woken up in the middle of the night and looked up in the corner of the ceiling closest to her head. She saw a dark mass. Of all the things to happen, she told me that this was “a bit unsettling” and she couldn't fall asleep right away. If I were her, I would have thrown myself out of bed and moved that same night, which is correct. Correct.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: A couple of days after this, my parents, a medium, and the rest of the team were investigating a house in Shannon, Illinois where a young girl had died. Matt and her started in the basement where the family said that the father stayed until his death. Towards the end of his life, he started saying that he saw someone down there with him and that it was evil. It made him pull out his own fingernails, that kind of thing. This completely freaked my mom out, which same. So, she and Matt left the basement to go upstairs. As she reached the top of the stairs, she felt a tightness in her chest. She walked through the doorway into the hall and stepped towards the girl's room. Out of nowhere, she started bawling. Like, seriously hysterical crying for no reason. And my mom is one tough cookie and doesn't usually sob like that. The medium grabbed her and told her that they needed to get her out of there. My stepdad was just staring at my mom and didn't move because he'd never seen her like that ever. She got out of the house and the medium told her that that was what the little girl who had died was feeling. And that she took over my mom and her sadness came through her.
Amanda: Fuck no.
Julia: Yeah, it's really sad. She calmed down and Matt was hugging her too to make her feel better, which I'm glad Matt went outside to comfort her. That's --
Amanda: Matt sounds great.
Julia: -- important.
Amanda: Like, top percentile of stepdads, I would say.
Julia: Yes. The medium then said, “Do you know you have someone hanging around you? He's a guy in a suit and a hat, a real ladies man who got rid of bodies for a mobster.”
Amanda: Ahh.
Eric: Uh-oh.
Julia: Uh-oh is correct.
Amanda: That’s extremely specific and a little horny.
Julia: He's just – he just looks a little horny. And, as we know, ghost, horny 50 percent of the time. My mom looked at her surprised and told her what happened after the zoo investigation. The medium said he must have liked you because he followed you home and then explained to my mom that, to get rid of him, she had to say in a stern voice, “You are not welcome here and you need to leave now,” and emphasize the stern voice because she said my mom was too nice of a person and would have probably said it nicer with a please and a thank you, which, damn, called out by that medium, huh? When my mom got home, she did exactly as instructed and it worked. Nothing else happened in the apartment after that, at least, for a while. But that's a story for another time. And she writes, “I hope you enjoyed my story. Stay creepy. Stay cool.”
Eric: That has so many details I hated. It was a great story.
Julia: I'm glad. I'm glad. I love to pick ones that you guys hate the details of.
Eric: Yep. Mhmm.
Amanda: We do.
Eric: Nailed it. So, in regards to, to the ghost crawling --
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: -- which way is worse; if this ghost is being picked up crawling like you would typically crawl or crab crawling? Because crab crawling is definitely creepier if it's like – if it's like a Japanese Ringu girl --
Julia: That was what I was picturing.
Eric: -- then crab crawling is definitely worse.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: But, like, if you just see a spectrogram, which, which type of crawling is, is less ideal?
Julia: I'm also kind of picturing it like doggy paddle but on the floor.
Eric: Hmm. Like floating. That's --
Julia: Yeah. Or --
Eric: -- pretty terrible.
Julia: Or, like, if you're just like, like stealth crawling in a video game, that's kind of how I'm picturing it.
Eric: Mhmm. Gotcha.
Amanda: Yeah, I, I --
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: -- really especially hated that the first word was slithering, which --
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: -- to me, like seeing a jointed creature, I know snakes have joints. Everybody leave me alone. Seeing a humanoid figure doing a kind of snake slither like seeing those little Kinect joints rendered and being like, “Oh, no, that body shouldn't make that shape at that scale,” --
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: -- that would be scariest to me.
Eric: Yeah, I don't – I don't like any – I don't like any of the [Inaudible 47:53]. So, all of it was bad. I was just wondering if you guys have thoughts on how bad it was.
Julia: I will say, to specify, Amanda, I love the concept of slithering.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: She did say sliding and then crawling, which --
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: -- sliding seems worse because --
Amanda: Sliding is also bad.
Julia: -- I feel like I’m also picturing, like, dance moves.
Amanda: Like, an air hockey.
Eric: Sliding, that is just like – that is just not moving its legs at all to, like, locomote.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: It’s just gliding across the floor. And that’s actually --
Amanda: Gliding on a track --
Eric: -- quite terrible.
Amanda: -- sounds real bad.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And I think, for me, it depends mostly on sort of the – like, the opacity of the ghost.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Like, if the – if the body or the rendering is quite clear, then I get that, like, a creepier crawl might come across. But, if it's just like a humanoid shape, like, in the simplest form, I think, like, sliding back and forth is truly the worst.
Eric: Yeah. I hate it. I hate that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I need to email this person back to get this video. I'm so interested.
Amanda: Well, guys, I feel like we've done a really good job of bringing a truly creepy middle story. So, I thought, you know, we want to have a bit of a denouement, right? We want to like deescalate. We want to just, like, fade out on this. So, I thought I would bring you a grab bag of Filipino folklore.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: Of course. Excellent.
Amanda: I'm being sarcastic because that is the worst/best kind of folklore. So, this came to us almost a year ago to the date from Katrina. First off, I really appreciate your love for Filipino folklore. Who wouldn't? It's one of the most descriptive, culturally specific, and malevolent ones out there, if not, the most. We've as many creatures as there are islands that make up the Philippine archipelago. I wish you could watch our horror movies from the early 90s, but I doubt there are subtitled ones on YouTube. But there are some free movies and there's a list of recommended ones that we can include for our patrons.
Eric: That'd be great. I'm on a gold watch two movies a week that I haven't seen before.
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: Oh, very nice.
Eric: So, maybe I’ll – I’ll add a Filipino horror film to that list.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Oh, I see a horror comedy series, which makes me very excited.
Amanda: Any who, why Filipino horror movies are so interesting is that they're, basically and in essence, inspired by true events or stories. Apart from the usual ghost stories, folklore that come from specific regions and are truly believed and even practiced by some people, especially during the earlier years of my nation. Now, we are westernized AF because of globalization and technology, but I can't really complain. It gave me you, gals. Aww. So, Filipino movies again are interesting because it literally teaches us how to avoid and lift or cast curses out. Folklore is a morality tool in general. But, you know, maybe once in a while that shady Maria slips you her shady lunchbox with rice and meat for lunch to share, you know best how to decline nicely without offending her.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: You know, everyday stuff just in case. So, growing up with a nanny, who grew up herself in deep jungle faraway towns and provinces in the Philippines, is such a blessing and a curse because I am a frickin’ weirdo who absolutely loves hearing scary stories but can't handle it and, in the end, cries, particularly, when I was five, six, and seven years old. Now, at 31, I am a new kind of weirdo that watches scary movies alone, maybe in theaters if I can't get someone to watch with me or alone in my room and then sleep like a baby with the lights off and the thought of, “Come at me, bruh. I dare you.” So, I have two stories to share that happened to both me and my nanny. And I think the reason a lot of paranormal activities happen during her stay with us was that she was “sensitive” and couldn't have made shit up just to scare her boss's baby because, one, I was never mean to her and we're still in contact and I loved her. And, two, because of this first short incident that happened one of the few nights that my parents weren't at home and we were home alone with the nanny.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Story one, doppelganger voice.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Uh-oh.
Amanda: One night when I was around seven or eight years old, I was upstairs in my parents’ room watching TV and eating dinner. When I finished, I got up and went to open the door when, suddenly, the knob turned and the door opened wide. And there my nanny was standing in the doorway. She was obviously very startled that I was standing there too. And I was like, “Oh, hey, great timing. I was actually about to call for you to come up.” And she was like, “Wait. What are you talking about? You did call for me from up the stairs. I heard you call out your usual Nana.” And I was wide eyed and was like, “No, I didn't. As you can see, I was just standing right here by the door ready to open it.” And she was like, “Jesus Christ, did somebody or something just mimicked your voice out loud to me? Is my service still not fast enough?” And I was like, “What the actual fuck? Are you fucking serious? Please don't leave me. Let's stay up here until my parents get home.” And I love the image that this person was like five or six at the time so that the, the cursing is just even better.
Julia: I don't know if this is like a thing that other people experienced. But I, like, specifically remember when I was a child and I was, like, either falling asleep or trying to fall asleep. I would, like, hear my parents’ voices not saying anything in particular, but, like, the intonation of their voices just, like, in my mind. Like, I could hear them saying things to me, but, like, obviously, they weren't there and it wasn't, like, through the wall or anything.
Eric: Oh, no. I didn’t have that.
Julia: No, that’s not a thing? Okay.
Eric: I thought you’d have – like, you could, like, vaguely hear them from another room. You just mean like you --
Julia: No. No, I could, like, hear my dad talking to me.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But, like, not specific words.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: I think that's – I think that's pretty understandable.
Julia: All right.
Amanda: Story two was called Mall Bats.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: Mall bats?
Julia: Mall bats.
Amanda: Sure is. Yep.
Julia: Bats at the mal.
Amanda: When I was, like, 10 or 12 my Nana and I went grocery shopping at the mall. Normal stuff. And, when we got home that night, after we ate dinner and she also finished her night's work, we would usually hang out downstairs in the living room and watch TV together. That night, something out of the ordinary happened though. As we were watching our usual late night show, I clearly heard a squeaking sound, a sound that I would normally assign to a bat. But this one sounded deeper and way louder than usual.
Julia: Uh-uh. Uh-uh.
Amanda: The sound came up right to the door near the rocking chair where I was sitting and watching TV.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: And then, for another second, it flew and went away. It was so abrupt. And the squeaking was so singularly clear. I didn't hear any wing flaps or any bat noises like that. I, of course, ignored it because my Nana apparently didn't notice anything as her concentration was on the TV. But, during a commercial break, which was very considerate, I thought. Side note. I couldn't help it and casually asked her, “Hey, I kind of heard something there. That was a normal bat, right, Nana? “Oh, you heard it too. I just didn't say anything because I thought you didn't notice it.”
Julia: Wooh. This is another team ignorance thing.
Amanda: I was, of course, immediately scared.
Eric: Yep.
Amanda: So, she “explained” that she thinks it was the two people who kept eyeing me during our grocery shopping earlier in the day.
Julia: Excuse me.
Eric: She thinks it was people?
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: She asked me if I had noticed the two young men and a woman following me around. And I said, “No, I was like grocery shopping and concentrating on that.” I was like, “Why? Why would they even be interested in me? And why didn't you tell me right then and there not, Nana?” “Well, I kept my distance just to observe them. It wouldn't be good for the two of us if they knew I knew something was up.”
Julia: Uh-uh.
Amanda: You see, there are still people or rather creatures called Wakwak in this world that can transform themselves in search of their next victim, sometimes, for food or, sometimes, to manipulate or hypnotize you into doing something for their benefit. I sensed there was something not right with those two and decided to watch out for you with a bit of distance to observe them because they look pretty out of place. They're closer provincial and out of date. And they just had that look in their eyes. I don't know. Maybe, since most of the people in town are moving to the big city, they had no choice but to travel all the way down here as well.
Julia: I like this because, with this same logic, we can assume that the guy – the creepy guy from the question mark store is, in fact, a wakwak.
Amanda: Perhaps.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, it – we got bats at the mall and the Riddler in Atlanta. So --
Julia: It checks out. It checks out.
Amanda: Katrina continues. “Shut the front door,” I said “So, what happened? Is it coming back? Why didn't it just come through our windows.” Nana, “I think it's because of this bright yellow light we have on. I think it hurts its eyes when it came near the window. But I think it's probably still out there waiting for the light to be turned off.” “Ah, no. Oh, my god. Wait. My mom is upstairs.” So, we didn't turn off the light. And my Nana went to the kitchen, but I went upstairs to warn my mom. After a while, my Nana came up carrying cloves of garlic and salt. Unfortunately, our house has lots of windows. So, my mom, you think she would be like, “Oh, no, how ridiculous. Haha.” But she didn't because she grew up, herself, in another island of the Philippines called Leyte. We were in Davao City by the way. And a niece of her had first experience being chased by a Santelmo, St. Elmo’s Fire, she writes, while riding her motorcycle one night. So, that is how we spent half the night; putting cloves of garlic and small salt piles on each window sill. And we didn't get rid of them after about a week until my dad, who grew up in the big city all his life, ordered us to clean that stuff up.
Julia: I like – I like they’re practically like, “All right. Even if there is something, it's probably gone after a week. It's probably okay at this point. They've moved on. They found a new victim.”
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: Exactly. So, those are just personal stories. And, now, we have a bunch of mini monster facts as Katrina writes them.
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: Mini monster facts.
Amanda: Extremely cute. One, the sigbin, my Nana told me about her grandfather's encounter with a sigbin. It looks like a black skinny half dog – so, dog face – half human that usually bends itself and looks at you from under its own legs.
Julia: An interesting choice for you to pick this one, Amanda. An interesting choice. A bold one, I will say.
Amanda: You know, I'm trying to grow here in our sixth year of doing this podcast, coming up on our fifth anniversary pretty much. I just want to – I want to have some character growth, you know.
Julia: All right.
Amanda: One night, her grandfather heard some ruffling sounds from under their bahay kubo or Nipa hut. He went down to find a sigbin eating their supply of coal. Apparently, it's one of their favorite snacks. I'm sorry. But that is how she just ended that encounter story. I know. And I'm sorry because the next thing I remember is her telling me how to avoid getting eaten by one. So, creepily, sigbins are very fast creatures. It can catch up with you running while being bent and looking even between its own legs, which is a fucking scary image, right?
Julia: How? What – talk – talk me through the logistics. Someone build like a model to show how that would work.
Amanda: I don't want to see it. Don't tag me. And I think probably it runs backwards.
Eric: There you go. Simple.
Amanda: That is why you have to run in a zigzag motion as to confuse it or deter it from being able to catch up with you. I don't know. I guess that's it. To kill it, I'm not really sure. But I guess fire is always a good bet.
Julia: Sure. When in doubt, fire.
Eric; Oh, boy.
Amanda: The aswang as we all know. Now, if you were living in a small provincial town in the mountains, sometimes, it's a common thing to have that “Addams Family” type of neighbors. No, they don't dress in black or anything weird like that. In fact, they try so hard to blend in with regular folk even if they're literally a family of aswangs or mangkukulam/witches/witch doctors/Voodoo. And they can be really good members of the community and are friends with everyone and everyone wants to be friends with them because it is your insurance for something bad not to happen to you and your family.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: And these “people” are really sometimes good natured and don't mean to hurt anyone. It's just that, sometimes, they can't control their powers like this one story where my Nana's father was walking along the path and met the aswang dad. They said hi and exchanged small talk and went about their separate ways. And, after a few meters of walking, her dad felt his shoulder begin to hurt for no reason at all. So, he ran back toward his friend, his neighbor, to catch up with him to tell him, “Excuse me. I'm sorry. But I think you usog me. I think I remember you touched my shoulder while we were saying goodbye.” Friend, “Oh, so sorry about that. Let me fix that for you.” Touch the dad’s shoulder again. Nana’s dad, “Thank you. It's gone now. Good night.” So, usog is a curse you inflict on someone, most of the time, through physical touch.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: It shouldn't be confused with the term sukob, which is a curse belief to come about if a relative of yours dies and you get married in the same year.
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: Another aswang story is that, because my Nana was classmates with the aswang dad's daughter --
Julia: The Wednesday.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly. She would sometimes offer my Nana some food in the form of rice and undercooked meat.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: And, because this family is, like, sensitive and can get, you know, easily offended, one really has to be careful when rejecting them. So, it's better to make some reasonable excuse or just take the thing but never ever eat it.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Because you will turn into one of them. It's one of their tactics of recruitment.
Julia: Ooh. I like that better than the classic vampire, “Oh, you have to --
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: -- be drained of your blood and then buried in a grave for however many days.
Amanda: Me too.
Julia: I like this where it's like, “I ate a little bit of food that my classmates offered me.”
Amanda: It's a real, like, fay logic, which I enjoy.
Julia: Yes.
Amanda: You may be asking yourself, if everyone is aware their aswangs, why do they even try? It's not that everybody knows, you see. But you know how rumors go within a town. It's like you kind of know it, but no one talks about it openly. And, of course, if you make a scandal out of it, good luck, you're the next target. So, they all assume that you don't know and it goes unspoken. But, anyway, one thing you can do to see if it's safe to eat is you sprinkle salt over it. And, if it doesn't transform into a human liver or some other soft body parts, go ahead. It’s safe to eat.
Julia: I – hmm.
Eric: What?
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Julia: I have some questions.
Amanda: Yep.
Julia: Oh, boy.
Amanda: I can't answer them, but it's fascinating.
Julia: I, I don't know where to start. First off, a human liver is very big.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yes.
Amanda: I mean I guess chunks.
Julia: I mean the human liver is huge.
Amanda: I'm guessing.
Julia: Yeah, but then how would you recognize it as human liver if it's just in chunks, you know.
Amanda: It said undercooked. So, perhaps, it would, like, revert to its raw form, which I feel like you, you, like, would recognize liver. It's pretty distinctive.
Julia: Mhmm. Hmm.
Amanda: I don't know.
Eric: Liver is weird looking.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like, it's – it's all like --
Julia: Dark red. Very like jelly-ish.
Eric: But it's like – yeah, it's – I was gonna say jelly but like dense, dense jelly.
Julia: Mhmm.
Eric: Which sounds terrible. Which is why a lot of people probably think liver is terrible.
Julia: It tastes good. Like, it's like a little irony. But --
Eric: I like – I had liver. I enjoyed it when I had it.
Julia: Not human liver to clarify for everyone listening.
Eric: Yes, of course. As far as I know, I've never eaten any, any flesh of man.
Julia: Mhmm.
Amanda: Well, this is already an excellent email and there are a few more that I think I will save for our patron bonus this month.
Julia: All right.
Amanda: So, thank you, Katrina, so much.
Julia: Sounds good.
Eric: Very nice.
Amanda: So, guys, I feel like we really delivered on our promise of – you know, it's like that feeling of listening to a great podcast or watching a great TV show and you're like, “God, I wish this was longer. I wish there was more.” Here you go. XL.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: And maybe in the future we'll – we'll do more XL emails going forward. Maybe, sometimes, one person will just do one big story. I will say, well, formatting helps a lot.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: So, if you're sending us a very large email, a lot of line breaks and paragraph breaks make, make them much, much easier to read.
Amanda: I love a subheader.
Eric: So, keep that in mind if you're sending us --
Julia: Yes.
Eric: -- both regular size emails and extra large size emails.
Julia: Yes, please.
Amanda: But we, we love them. And we would love for you to keep them coming and for us to keep doing urban legend episodes that we are super stoked on and love a lot. But don't worry everybody. There is one more episode left in this month of urban legends.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Can’t wait. I've got – I've got a – can we – can we give a little teaser?
Amanda: We can give a little teaser. Yeah.
Eric: Creants
Julia: Creants.
Amanda: Haa! Creants.
Eric: I think – I don't know if creants ever made it to the – to the public feed. So, they might be – I can't remember if that ever showed up. So --
Amanda: Oh, that is a wonderful breadcrumb, Eric. I cannot wait. So, look out for that next week. And, in the meantime, everybody, remember.
Julia: Stay extra creepy.
Amanda: Stay extra cool.
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Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil