Episode 272: Your Urban Legends LX - Don’t Forget to Close the Portal
/We’re opening the portal, but don’t worry, we’ll remember to close it. Ghosts help Eric with some home improvement, Amanda goes to WikiHow for some Ouija Board instructions, and Julia gives some supernatural house hunting advice.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of fire, murder, violence, illness, and death.
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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.
ERIC: And I'm Eric.
AMANDA: And this is Episode 272: Your Urban Legends Number LX y'all.
JULIA: Whoa. Eric, when we told him what number it was, went Goddamn.
ERIC: It's so many. I mean, we say that every time. It's uh, it's amazing. It's amazing we've done so many. It's very fun.
JULIA: It surprises us every time. That's why we say it every time.
ERIC: I know we've done a couple months where we've done some bonus ones but that's, like, a lot. That's like, five years of this almost if we do a one-- once a month.
JULIA: Hot damn.
AMANDA: And we still have the hot emails coming in.
ERIC: We sure do.
AMANDA: But first, we typically check in with each other. See how your lives are going if any hauntings have happened. I've had a number of stressful, mundane dreams but that's not unusual. How about you guys, anything unusual or creepy happened to you recently?
ERIC: The roof is falling down on the house.
AMANDA: Oh, no.
JULIA: On fire.
ERIC: The roof is not on fire, that would be--
JULIA: Thankfully.
ERIC: That would be very bad. That would be immediately bad. Instead, last week after a snowstorm I heard some sounds from-- from the roof above me.
AMANDA: Uh-oh.
ERIC: And I went up there because the uh, creepy door that used to be behind me during our recordings, I've since moved my desk so you can't see the creepy door. Sometimes it's occasionally opening because-- because of the way the airflow happens and not at all because of ghosts. I went up there and part of the roof was just a little bit lower than it was previously. And that's part of the house that you want to stay the same height generally.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: You don't want your roof to be going up or you don't want it going up. You also don't want it going down. So, part of the roof is going down a little and we've got a guy coming sometime this afternoon to say hey, here's what we got to do to make that roof go back up and so all the snow when the rain doesn't come in, and you know just everything else so, like, I don't think a ghost did it but you-- you probably both do. And I don't know-- I don't know anything about that. Our attic is not particularly spooky looking, but you know, who knows?
JULIA: I don't think a ghost impacted your roof because that's just weather. I do think a ghost keeps opening up that door and made your chair move that one time.
ERIC: My chair did move the one time.
AMANDA: I would like to posit that maybe a ghost, Eric, maybe to attract a ghost, maybe it'd be helpful.
ERIC: Okay.
AMANDA: Because the energy of a ghost, the thermal and also spiritual energy, could perhaps help buoy the roof and keep it up. Like a balloon inside a chocolate sphere, keeping the chocolate the way you need it to be until it deflates.
ERIC: Now, that's interesting for a couple reasons. One, we know that ghosts make areas colder so I don't know if-- if your suggestion of getting some thermal heat is gonna help by-- by adding a ghost to the situation just based on ghosts thermodynamics that we already have-- have posited.
JULIA: However, as we understand, heat travels from hot places to cold places, so perhaps ghosts work in reverse and so making your house extremely hot would attract a very cold ghost.
ERIC: Oh, interesting. It is quite cold in the attic, but that's because of ventilation.
AMANDA: It's an attic.
ERIC: And that kind of stuff.
JULIA: Ghosts.
AMANDA: Ghosts.
ERIC: It's also quite hot there in the summers so once again, I think it's more of a what it is outside it is, like, inside that a-- that anything spiritual but, you know, I mean, how would you-- how would you pause it I guess the ghost. If we're gonna go this route, let's talk about first steps. Obviously, we don't want to make a ghost via murder, so I have to attract a ghost. So, what-- what do you think? Do I just put some posters up on the telephone poles next to the 5G is going to melt your brain posters that are around town or is there something else I should do?
JULIA: I mean, Eric, the answer is obvious. And many of our listeners have partaken in this cursed ritual and the --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- answer is ouija board.
AMANDA: That's it, Julia. That's one.
JULIA: I do actually have a story regarding a ouija board. Would you like to hear it?
ERIC: I would like to hear it.
AMANDA: This was unplanned, which makes it all the better. Let's do it. Haha.
JULIA: So, this comes from Chris and he titles the email Dragged into a Haunted Basement. We're starting out real spooky today, y'all. Are you ready for it?
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: From the attic to the basement. I love it.
ERIC: Let's see if we can apply this to a higher part of the house.
JULIA: So, Chris writes, I grew up in a colonial home in West Philadelphia. The house was around 100-years-old when I lived there. I always felt eerie vibes in the basement. There was a staircase leading to the outside from the basement through the storm doors. The stairs leading outside were wooden planks with a small empty crawl space underneath them. The sides were rough hewn stones. The basement was unfinished and also walled with the same rough cut stones. I always had the vibe that the space under the stairs was haunted.
ERIC: Now, this is already helpful because it's about the same age as my house.
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: Different in almost every other way so far but-- but the age is right, so we've-- we're dealing with the same basic premise.
JULIA: Okay.
AMANDA: I do have to say that while I recognize that all basements are in the ground, and by definition in the earth, I feel like they don't need to remind us of that fact. Like, I don't find basements to be inherently creepy. I love a root cellar. I love the insulation provided by earthing. Earth homes are really cool. All of that. But I feel like if I walked into a basement, or went down cellar up in the northeast, I would look around and if I saw dirt and stones, I'd be like, "Nope, too much."
ERIC: Anytime they're doing a house hunters episode in New England it's just, like, these basements are untenable. For sure.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yup.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: I need the illusion of being indoors while I am in the earth.
ERIC: Mhmm.
JULIA: And you need to buy a house that was built after 1960. I'm telling you that right now. So Chris continues, one year my parents gave my older brother a ouija board for his birthday. Now, I know ouija boards are somewhat suspect, but as a kid, it was real enough. We are, like, anti-ouija board on this podcast, not only because it is, like, a commercialized way of, like, I don't know, channeling energy and spirits, but also because uh, they're bad. They're bad. I don't like them. Bad vibe.
AMANDA: You just-- you don't-- in a world that fucks with you, you don't have to fuck with a ouija board. You know what I mean?
JULIA: That's true. Even if it is all fake, it doesn't matter. It's-- it's still bad.
AMANDA: You don't have to. You don't have to fuc-- you don't fuck with it.
JULIA: It's the energy that you put into it. That's the thing. Anyway, being the youngest of three, I wasn't invited to play with the older kids, so when everyone was done playing, I snuck into the basement to play alone. I didn't read the instructions that had all the warnings written on them. I played for a few minutes, but I don't remember the questions I asked. After a short while, without any results, I stopped playing and put the game away. I hate the idea of playing for a ouija board. Like, it's not a game.
ERIC: I was just gonna say, can we use $20, $30 of the spirits money fund to purchase a ouija board? Just because I've never considered the fact that they do probably come with instructions. And I really want to know what the instructions on a ouija board say. And I feel like we should find out.
AMANDA: Well, Eric, if you check the slack, I have just brought up a scan of a 2001 edition of a ouija board by Hasbro.
ERIC: Amazing. The teamwork is unprecedented.
AMANDA: You know, after-- after six, seven years of doing this together, we know what each other is looking for. Now, it's possible there was some kind of leaflet that came with this ouija board, but I would like to direct your attention.
ERIC: I know where this is gonna go.
AMANDA: To the setup instructions.
JULIA: Please.
AMANDA: Is that where you're going?
ERIC: No, I was going to talk about the creepy sub that is all--
AMANDA: Oh yeah.,
ERIC: This will be-- this will be on our uh, Patreon at the $1 level, we will post this-- these images and you can check them out there as a little-- little bonus.
AMANDA: You super can. If you have any questions or comments about the game, there's also a PO Box, probably long closed, that you could write to the Hasbro in the US or Canada. And I would also just like to pause on this first page to show you that the tagline, Julia, you want to give us a close reading of this tagline right here?
JULIA: Look into the future. Have fun! And remember, the Ouija board is just a game... Or is it?
AMANDA: And this setup instructions here begin with, "If desired, set the mood by dimming the lights or turning them off."
ERIC: It's kind of a choose your own setup.
AMANDA: It is. It is.
ERIC: How creepy do you want this to be?
AMANDA: And it concludes with, "Place two fingers lightly, italicized, on the planchette. And then finally, concentrate."
ERIC: Amazing. It's literally just a lot of instructions on how to take something out of a box. and --
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: -- no actual instructions on what to do once you've set it up.
AMANDA: You apparently have to polish it, but...
JULIA: I do appreciate that they encourage you to wipe off the board with a dry cloth to remove dust and moisture.
AMANDA: Yeah, from all those fingers on the I don't know where they had been from. And they also say in the sort of what do I do now section like this, the setup ends with put your fingers on the planchette and concentrate, and then they want you to ask slowly and clearly your questions, ask one question at a time. See what the planchette spells but they assure you if nothing happens, try asking another question. Allow one to five minutes for an answer to come.
ERIC: Well, I will say.
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: I will say firstly, I like that it's allow one to five. It's kinda, like, loose cooking. It's like well, this can take, but do we want the five minutes for your sauce to get down and get to the consistency you want.
AMANDA: Depending on your oven.
ERIC: What I do like is this is I think something that– that gets you a lot of times with ouija boards is that it's people asking questions they shouldn't. And it's right here in the rules we have no players take turns asking questions and all should agree to the questions being asked. If you don't all agree and you're just asking random questions, that's how things get out of control. If you all agree on safe questions, you get safe responses. You don't summon a demon.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
ERIC: A lot of times people are just going– they're going off book, asking all kinds of stuff and then you get in trouble.
JULIA: It's like oh, when is Trevor gonna die? And you're like, and Trevor's like, "No, don't ask that." It's a lot of that.
AMANDA: This has been a Ouija board instruction corner actually. Back to the email.
ERIC: Really like they're a couple of proof of purchase just so you can prove --
AMANDA: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ERIC: -- that you purchased a ouija keyboard.
AMANDA: I know the creepy son really is sticking with me here.
JULIA: So, Chris played for a short while, no results and then stopped playing and put the game away. I went past the stairs leading outside and started walking up the stairs to the first floor. Those stairs were also wooden and had three steps up from the bottom, a small landing, and then the stairs turned 90 degrees and up the rest of the way to the first floor. I walked up the first steps, turned on the landing and made it up three steps from the top. Now, I wasn't necessarily a clumsy kid. I remember clawing at the top step, gripping it with all of my strength as what felt like hands gripped my ankles and dragged me down the stairs around the 90 degree turn at the landing and onto the concrete floor.
AMANDA: Oh my.
JULIA: It would be easy to say I slipped and the fact that I "slid" all the way down and around the 90 degree landing and then all the weight onto the floor was enough to convince me that something sinister was at play. I don't think I've ever run so fast. I slammed the door to the stairs and flipped the lock. 4 years until we moved, I refused to go into the basement. I remember once my mom asked if I could get something from the basement and I trembled and barely found the words to say I couldn't. It was almost as though my body refused to move to the basement door. If there was ever an event in my life that convinced me that there are hidden or unknown forces, this was it. I know the easy explanation is that I simply slipped and slid all the way down. Considering the circumstances, I'm not sure that explanation could carry the weight of my body as I was dragged into the eerie haunting basement.
AMANDA: Mmmh.
JULIA: And that's from Chris. Thank you Chris.
AMANDA: Quite creepy.
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: Very good. How long did you guys, like, do the, like, four hands up the stairs thing as kids? Because that was immediately what I-- what I thought of, like, as like, the grasp to get up the stairs.
JULIA: I'll be honest, I still sometimes do that because it's enjoyable and I feel like an antelope.
ERIC: It is enjoyable. I also, I was gonna-- I was gonna lie and say I was, like, probably like 12 but no, every so often I do in fact still do that. It's a great way to get upstairs extremely quick.
AMANDA: You also have very long arms, Eric, so...
ERIC: No, what, ugh. Inside jokes continually gets shared between three friends from a decade ago Amanda, PJ. It is truly disastrous for people to expect me to have very long arms.
JULIA: Show me those arms. Stretch them out like a V.
ERIC: They're not that long.
AMANDA: They're pretty long.
ERIC: This is a wide angle lens.
JULIA: Like an eagle.
ERIC: This is a wide angle lens, they’re completely normal.
JULIA: Take flight, Eric, like a majestic eagle. Caw, caw.
AMANDA: Okay, Eric, you're right. I feel badly bringing up an inside joke. Mentally, I apologize bringing up an inside joke that took place outside of our circle before we work together, so as an offering, I would like to direct your attention to the--
JULIA: Oh no.
AMANDA: -- wikiHow. How to use a ouija board instructions.
JULIA: Oh no.
AMANDA: Where they begin, well, I want to just say by the way, wikiHow, such a useful website. I've learned many life skills from this website. I could not enjoy it any more. Highly kind of illustrated ouija board, but then we get into um, step two, be polite. Guys, there's a full ghost depicted there. And it looks like a sheet that's just been tossed in here. If we scroll down to step three, there's a ghost and a lot of questions.
JULIA: Oh, sorry. Are we talking about part two? Oh, there's part two.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah, we're in part two.
ERIC: This is-- this is a very-- this a very detailed list of things.
AMANDA: It is.
ERIC: It's broken up into parts and then sub steps.
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: So, so we've jumped immediately to part two, step two
JULIA: Gotcha.
AMANDA: Part Two, Step two, we got the ghost. Part Two, Step three, the ghost has some questions. And part two, step four, your buddy here is dreaming the Grim Reaper to even a death.
ERIC: Just asking when will I die.
AMANDA: Yeah, followed by lovely uh, illustrations of some incense, a candle, and a ouija board.
JULIA: We talked about this just briefly before, Eric, where the Part Two, Step four is, be careful what you wish for. The last thing you want to do is stay up all night contemplating your imminent death. If you don't want to know the answer to a question, just don't ask it. But if you do choose to ask about your future, take note that it will be jokingly. Just like us mortals, the spirits can't see the future. They're messing with you if they tell you your sister's going to die next week. And then bullet points, don't ask silly or stupid questions. "What did Billy tell his sister about me?" is not something you want your spirit to waste time on, not to mention how long it would be to spell out the correct answer. Also, physical signs, don't ask for those. And also, don't believe everything the board tells you. If it says you're going to die in the next 10 minutes, just don't go running out in front of buses which is horrifying. Don't say that.
ERIC: I mean, good advice generally. Don't run on buses.
JULIA: I mean, yeah, in general.
ERIC: Regardless of that. I mean this, there's just a lot of interesting parts on here. It's like part two in totality is the proper mindset. Just-- just prepping for that. And then you get into part three, which is actually playing the game. And I love that it ends with “close the board,” and that you have to take the board and put it on goodbye. Otherwise, who knows what's gonna happen? If you don't confirm that you have stopped using the Ouija board, it's still active. You've got to say goodbye at the end of using your ouija board.
JULIA: You do.
AMANDA: It is very necessary.
JULIA: You absolutely do need to say goodbye. That's also the first, like, question that someone asked onto the wikihow. It's like, "what if the board doesn't move it to goodbye immediately?" And you're like, you have to do it yourself. Close the portal.
ERIC: You have to close the portal.
JULIA: You have to close that portal.
ERIC: There's one thing about ouija boards, you gotta know, it's that you have to close the portal. If you don't close the portal, it's open. And you don't want an open portal.
JULIA: It's a Ghostbusters. You know, you got to do that.
AMANDA: You know, as a kid, my dad would always instruct me to turn off the lights when I left the house and turn off the air conditioning or the heating when I left. Break down the cardboard boxes when taking out recycling, but no one ever taught me to close the portal. And I think that's really important.
ERIC: It's a big-- it's an important step, closing the portal.
JULIA: Clearly.
AMANDA: Well, guys, I have a short but theory-thought provoking myth that I wanted to bring to you today.
JULIA: Mhmm.
ERIC: I feel like we're-- we're thinking about a lot today, so I'm ready to think some more about some stuff.
AMANDA: We are. Excellent, good. So, this comes from Laura. It's titled: "Scottish Bagpipe Ghost???"
ERIC: Oh.
AMANDA: She writes, Hey, friends, I'm Laura. I've been listening since the very beginning. I'm very excited to finally have a hometown urban legend to share. I was hanging out with one of my friends recently, and we got on the topic of ghost stories. He since gave me permission to share his story with you.
JULIA: Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
AMANDA: Thank you, Laura, for going out into the field and bringing us this research. So, my friend Jay grew up in a standard cookie cutter suburban house that was built in the 80s/90s. He never experienced anything relatively spooky until he was 15. For some background, my friend's father used to be a pastor and my friend has always slept with his bedroom door open and was used to his younger sister coming in late at night to show him YouTube videos and other funny things she found on the internet. Now, Eric, I'm sorry, I know that you are thoroughly creeped out because YouTube didn't start until we were in high school, but here we are.
ERIC: Anytime I learn about technology that-- that I've had for what I consider a long time and be like. Like, I saw someone talk about how they grew up playing, like, Call of Duty and Halo and I was like, oh.
AMANDA: Oh boy.
ERIC: Oh no.
JULIA: I saw someone recently. He's like, "Yeah, you know what, when I was eight and Five Nights at Freddy's came out," I was like, "What? What?"
AMANDA: Yeah, or kids being like, "Yeah, my parents didn't let me have an Instagram until I was, like, you know, nine." And I'm like, "Agghh."
ERIC: This is why I'm not having children. It's so that I don't create children that then people have to base their experience off of how young children are. This way, I just kind of avoid that as much as possible because it's like, wow, young people they're-- they're too young sometimes.
JULIA: I think you just need to teach your children never to, like, give clues to how old they are. Like, never be like, "Oh, when I graduated high school in 2020." And you're like, "No."
ERIC: Yeah, it's only when they say something. Seeing a child does not make me feel old. A child say their experiences happened when they were 5 and I was 25 makes me feel very old for some reason.
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm. 100%.
AMANDA: So, one night, my friend heard someone call his name in a whisper. Jay. Jay. Jay, my friend, opened his eyes and turned toward his door where he saw a figure. Assuming it was his sister, he turned away and went back to sleep.
JULIA: Team [18:41].
AMANDA: Real sibling energy as well. A little while later he heard someone shouting in his ear, Jay Jay Jay. Feeling spooked out but also cautious, he took a moment and then turned toward the noise. When he turned around he saw a raggedy Scottish bagpipe player right next to his face.
JULIA: What?
AMANDA: Bagpipes kilts the whole shebang. I put in the word shebang. She just said and all. I wanted to make sure I was clear that I editorialize there. Okay.
ERIC: You know, a lot of people thinking our listeners are saying shebang.
AMANDA: No, that's just me.
JULIA: Scandal.
AMANDA: My friend, not wanting to disturb or offend the bagpiper, rolled out of the opposite side of the bed and ran into his parents room. He woke up his father, the former pastor and told him somebody was in his room. The father grabbed holy oil and blessed my friend's room. Since then he hasn't seen any ghosts in room or house. His sister on the other hand has seen shadow people in their old house but I told him to write in to tell that.
JULIA: I love this idea of just, like, seeing a ghost on one side of the bed and just, like, barrel rolling out the other side. Like, army crawling out of the room
AMANDA: It's really good.
JULIA: Yeah.
ERIC: What is your question based around this Amanda?
AMANDA: Well, on the one hand, I was just-- I was just tickled, delighted by this sight.
ERIC: It is. It's-- it is delightful. Just a raggedy.
AMANDA: Yeah?
ERIC: Bagpipe player.
AMANDA: And so, I thought perhaps, Eric, you could take a bagpiping or, like, buy.
ERIC: Okay.
AMANDA: I know bagpipes are quite expensive and maybe you can buy, like, a– an old and, like, not functional, you know, set of bagpipes in an estate sale or something. Put it up in the attic, that could be a good way to attract a ghost.
ERIC: Oh, okay.
AMANDA: But also, after our discussion the other month about the creepiest disembodied body part to just be floating toward you in a forest. I would like to know; creepiest musical instrument to find next to your face when you wake up in the middle of the night.
ERIC: I mean, it's the first instrument I always think of because that's what I played in high school, but trombone.
AMANDA: It's a big one.
ERIC: The slide, that thing, it moves, it swings. There's a whole lot of-- it's a lot of points of articulation happening on the trombone I feel like you don't get from like a spooky trumpet.
AMANDA: Okay.
ERIC: Trumpet, it's just-- it's tiny. It's just right there. Not as much uh, as much stuff to do with a trumpet in terms of spookiness.
JULIA: I think, for me, it would just be a full drum kit. Just like the whole-- the whole thing.
ERIC: A drum kit moving even if it's not haunted is scary because it's historically stationary, so...
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: So, that-- just a floating drum kit, yes, that is quite scary. Just-- just because that's not normal in the first place.
JULIA: Also, Eric, I found on ebay.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: You can buy a playable beginner bagpipe for students for $31.25.
ERIC: $31?
JULIA: $31.
JULIA: Is that a buy it now or what, I have to outbid someone?
JULIA: It is a buy it now.
ERIC: Hmmm?
AMANDA: Really?
JULIA: And if you buy two, it's only $29.69.
ERIC: Wait, it gets cheaper?
JULIA: If you buy in bulk. Yes.
ERIC: That does, no. This is a scam. This is sort of it's gonna try to steal my social security card via Ebay.
JULIA: Yep.
ERIC: I know how these things work. I'm not buying two bagpipes for $29.
JULIA: Fine.
AMANDA: I did recently buy a 1970s Genesee Ale Poster from somebody on eBay for $9, which really felt like a steal.
ERIC: That --
JULIA: Pretty good.
ERIC: -- seems reasonable. That I --
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: -- feel like is about-- it's a good deal, but about the right cost.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: About right.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeaah. I pay that much at a garage sale. I'd be like, I'd try to haggle and be like $5? So, Laura, thank you and Jay for your story. I think I would be most scared to see a flute because it would look like a sword if it came at me in the middle of the night.
JULIA: Okay. All right.
ERIC: Very tiny. Hard to-- hard to-- a lot of reflections. Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: Also, like the idea of a haunted trombone scares me a little because that it could be a haunted scar hand. And you don't want a ghost to be scar. That's– that's a whole other issue that you're dealing with.
JULIA: It's a level of hell.
AMANDA: Yeah. If I'm picturing a comic book, like, nightmare sequence, I think waking up to, like, a full kind of, like, drum major or, like, marching band outfit, that will be pretty scary. Just because the, like, the regalia, they feel very out of place. The Scottish bagpipe evokes, like, a past even though it is a current tradition, but to me, it's, like, you know, Highlands and, like, Highland uh, regency era romance. And it just-- it feels a bit like a time traveling ghost, which kind of I mean, by definition, like, you know, ghosts from the past and that-- that makes it a little more scary for me.
ERIC: This is literally just part of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. There is just a haunted band in that movie, which I did watch, like, a few months ago. That's a wild-- that's a wild time.
JULIA: I'll say, never heard of it before.
ERIC: You've never heard?
AMANDA: Me neither.
ERIC: What? You don't know Bedknobs and Broomsticks?
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: No. I'm gonna Google it now.
ERIC: Angela Lansbury? Oh my gosh. They, like, fight off the Nazis during, like, the Blitz but one of them is a witch.
AMANDA: What? Okay, we got to do this then.
JULIA: Oh, it's a musical too. What is ha--? There is so many things happening.
ERIC: I am so ready for this myth movie night.
JULIA: Oh, no. Oh, no.
ERIC: This was one of my favorite movies growing up as a kid. There is a 10-minute just different cultures dancing segment. Where just, they go to some random place in England and just, like, a whole bunch of people just dance for 10 minutes and that's it.
JULIA: Wild.
AMANDA: That sounds fabulous. Julia, ink it. Put it on the schedule. We're doing it.
JULIA: All right. All right. Let me see when we can put it for.
AMANDA: Eric, when's-- when's your birthday? We'll do it for your birthday.
ERIC: Coming this August.
JULIA: Okay, August.
AMANDA: August.
JULIA: Great.
ERIC: Here. It's talks Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
JULIA: Okay, looks like that. Oh, perfect. There's a myth movie night on the third.
ERIC: Love it. Well, I mean, we've got plans to see a movie later so let's go refill our Coke. Maybe get some popcorn I guess? I don't know if there was some rum in there. Not the popcorn, the coke.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: I want one of those blue slushies.
ERIC: And we'll uh, we'll be back shortly I think
JULIA: All right.
AMANDA: Let's do it. Ah Julia finally it's the refill and, you know what, MH just joined us over from the uh, the patreon door. You know in those houses where there's, like, a decorative front door but then the friends come in through, like, the kitchen door?
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: It's the kitchen door.
JULIA: Oh wow. Well, I'm glad that they feel comfortable enough to come through the kitchen door because they're always welcome guests here as well-- as well as all of our other Patreon members including our Supporting-producer level patrons: Uhleeseeuh, Anne, Froody Chick, Hannah, Jack Marie, Jane, Jaybaybay, Jessica Kinser, Jessica Stewart, Kneazlekins, Little vomitspiders running around, Megan Moon, Phil Fresh, Captain Jonathan MAL-uh-kye Cosmos, Sarah, Scott, and Zazi..
AMANDA: Oh my gosh, amazing. And of course our Legend-level patrons who know where all the glassware is: Audra, Bex, Clara, Drew, Lexus, Morgan, Mother of Vikings, Sarah, Taylor, & Bea Me Up Scotty.
JULIA: They all have their own, like, fancy glass that they know is theirs when they come over and we appreciate that they use it.
AMANDA: Yeah. Like a bar where you walk in and like, or a diner, even better. And like each person kind of has their coffee mug up on the wall. That's truly all I aspire to in life.
JULIA: Mug club, baby!
AMANDA: Mug club, baby. And if you want to join the mug club of our hearts, please go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast where you can become a patron for as little as just a few dollars a month and support us, support the show, keep make this happen as our jobs and bring you a weekly podcast.
JULIA: Yeah, we always appreciate when we see a little email pop up being like, "Hey, you got a new patron." We're like, "Oh, a new member of the party. Excellent."
AMANDA: Julia, what else has been bringing you that feeling recently? What have you been reading, watching, or listening to?
JULIA: Amanda, I really love the Olympics. I know that there's problems with the Olympics, but I just love watching hot people compete at a sport that they've spent their entire lives.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Learning. Yeah.
AMANDA: Competency. That's it.
JULIA: Jake and I have just gotten really into curling this year and shout out to Sweden's mixed paired team because, god were they hot. We were cheering for them the whole time. Oscar, beautiful, beautiful, man.
AMANDA: That's so great. I'm so happy for you.
JULIA: Yes. I mean, it's so much fun. Like, we just put it on. We're like, ooh, it's replay time. Let's see how they did in the round robin.
AMANDA: Ugh, that's awesome. I love it. And folks, if you are thinking to yourself, Man, I love Spirits. I wish I could represent Spirits in my daily life. I wish I could walk around the world and have people look at my physical form and instead be mortified that they noticed me be like, Hey, this is a great conversational piece. Let me tell you what my favorite podcast. I got great news, which is that we are making a tee shirt out of the fool card of our Spirits tarot deck and that's available for preorder! That way we know how many to order, what sizes you need, and you can order them now. That way we can make them and everyone's happy so please go to spiritspodcast.com/merch where you can pre order the full tarot tee shirt and pick up all of the other great items, beanie flask, poster, pin, so many things available. The tarot deck did sellout but listen, we're working on it and if this tee shirt sells well, we might be able to reprint the tarot.
JULIA: That would be really nice. I know you guys love that tarot. Speaking of things that I know our listeners love, I know you guys have really been enjoying the It's All Greek to Me episodes and we enjoy making them. And a lot of the inspiration that I feel like I've been having with the level of snark and fun that we have with those It's All Greek to Me is because I've been listening to our dear friend Mike and his newest show, which is called The Newest Olympian. He's reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time and he is loving it. So, in the episodes, he recaps with a guest who is a big fan of Percy Jackson as well, the plot beat by beat, they dive into Greek mythology from the stories and then they also sing the praises of Percy's incredible snark, which I didn't read the Percy Jackson books but I am so enjoying listening to Mike read them for the first time and being like, "Oh, I know what that is." I know that Greek thing that he doesn't know what that means and I'm like "Ooh, foreshadowing."
AMANDA: Hell yeah, you do. So, look out for The Newest Olympian in your podcast player or just search Multitude and all the Multitude shows will come up. And Julia, we have some excellent sponsors to thank this week as well starting with BetaBrand. They make these super super comfortable clothes that look good out and about in the world. I just heard allergy shots recently and I want to suffer less when I visit friends with pets and also, like, the springtime. Turns out I'm allergic to all trees. Oh, anyway. Yeah, so I have to go once a week now out into the world and, like, run errands and stuff. And I want to look like I am not rolling out of bed but also feel like I'm still in the bed and so I am really enjoying my Beta Brand dress pant yoga pants.
JULIA: I wore mine recently to a baby shower because I wanted to look fancy but also be comfortable because it was, like, 20 degrees out when I went and I had these, like, beautiful blue and green swirly ones that I wore with a blue blazer and it looked so cute.
AMANDA: I bet you looked so adorable and I know it in fact because anything you wear is great but also these pants are awesome. So, listen, right now get 30% off your Beta Brand order when you go to betabrand.com/spirits/ That's B E T A B R A N D.com/spirits for 30% off your order for a limited time. And make sure to use our special URL because it supports our show. Find out why women are buying five different pairs of these pants. I get it. Go to beta brand.com/spirits today for 30% off.
JULIA: I like whenever we have a Calm ad, Amanda, to just take a second so that we can survey our thoughts. Like, what are you holding on to right now? Let's pause and think about that. Amanda, you and our listeners, you got to let go of your to-do list and all the pending projects and just focus on your own breath. We all need a few moments in the day where we are just at one with ourselves and Calm can help with that. Calm is the number one mental wellness app and it gives you the tools you need to improve the way you feel. You can clear your head with guided meditations, you can improve your focus with their curated music tracks, and you can drift off to dreamland with their imaginative sleep stories. Choo choo, here comes the Sleep Train. And over 1 million people around the world use Calm to take care of their mind, so you can sleep more, stress less, and live better with Calm. And for listeners of the show, Calm is offering a special limited time promotion of 40% off a calm premium subscription at calm.com/spirits. Go to ca l m.com/spirits for 40% of unlimited access to Calm's entire library. That's calm.com/spirits.
AMANDA: And finally, this podcast is sponsored by Better Help Online Therapy. I know you know, and I certainly know that relationships take a lot of work, especially the most important one you have in your life. That's your relationship with yourself, yo.
JULIA: Whoa.
AMANDA: It absolutely is so important to take time to invest in yourself and, Julia, I've been taking a daily bath almost the entire pandemic.
JULIA: Yes, join me.
AMANDA: Yeah, I have-- I mean, you've been on the-- the bathroom for a long time, I have joined you and it's-- it's the time where like, nobody needs me. I don't bring my phone. I just read a book, I take some time to calm down and just be me. What do you do to take care of yourself?
JULIA: I also start every morning with a bath because it eases myself into the morning because I'm not a morning person, but also I go to therapy and it helps me so so much.
AMANDA: I also go to therapy and it helps me a lot. It helps me to check in with myself, to have some accountability, to know that once a week I need to sit down and talk with somebody about what I'm doing to enjoy my life more and to make my life better. And Better Help is how I do therapy. It is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be matched the therapist in under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used Better Help Online Therapy. Once again, this podcast is sponsored by Better Help and Spirits listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/spirits. That's b e t t e r h e l p.com/spirits. And now, let's get back to the show.
JULIA: All right, we're back from the kitchen, we grabbed our refills. Hey guys, what's everyone drinking lately?
AMANDA: One of my friends recently got sober and uh, very proud of him. And in solidarity and encouragement, we have been sampling different non-alcoholic beers. And at least in our hip corner of Brooklyn, there's lots of, like, non alcoholic sort of aperitif and digestif kind of, you know, liquor tasting things that you can add to seltzer. So, we've been doing some, like, non alcoholic versions of, like, a Negroni where there's like a, you know, a sort of bitter shrub-ish kind of syrup that you can add to uh, to seltzer. It's just really fun to do.
JULIA: Very nice. Love that.
ERIC: Well, I have decided to get sober on the weekdays.
AMANDA: Nice.
ERIC: This year. Not that I was, like, getting, like, drunk or out of control on the weekdays. I've just, like, for health reasons, like, you know what, maybe down the drinking a little bit, and I've just been doing like, you know, the standard, the standard whiskies but Kelsey also has some of those non-alcoholic things, Amanda. And I have tried a couple and yeah, I mean, there are a lot of different varieties of, like, non-alcoholic mixing things where it's like, you wouldn't want to drink it straight. But if you mix it with the right stuff, it's pretty good. I don't remember the brand that we have, but I have been trying some of those, so like if you're doing some new year's resolution stuff, trying to drink a little bit less just for health reasons, for personal reasons, for whatever reasons, there's a lot of really good tasty options of non alcoholic stuff out there these days, so I will kind of second Amanda's idea.
AMANDA: Nice.
JULIA: I have an alcohol option for people who are still drinking.
AMANDA: Hell yeah.
JULIA: I was heading over to play some dungeons and also dragons with a couple of my friends on Friday. And I actually– I went to the beer distributor that's near us and, Amanda, they had the Sun Up Hazy IPA from Talea.
AMANDA: Ooh, lovely!
JULIA: Which is a great brewery that Amanda and I visited a couple months ago and it was mwah, delicious..
AMANDA: Delish. So nice. It's like-- it's like a millennial Instagram ad inside there. It's like all tile, nice lighting, good plants and good beer.
JULIA: Yeah, that's true. Lots of great beer. And I'm glad they're distributing now, like, outside of the city, which is awesome.
AMANDA: It is.
JULIA: So, gang, I know you're ready for it. I have a follow up from an email that we featured in a previous urban legends episode.
ERIC: Nice.
AMANDA: Love a follow up. Who's this from?
JULIA: This is from Phobi and the email is titled Mama Psychic Part II: Man in the Mirror.
AMANDA: Oh.
ERIC: Man in the mirror. I don't remember the man in the mirror.
JULIA: So, the man in the mirror was not the focus of the last email that Phobi sent.
ERIC: Oh, that's why.
JULIA: But rather the Victorian pink room. Do you remember the Victorian pink room?
AMANDA: The haunted hotel.
JULIA: Yep, yep.
ERIC: Yeah, the haunted hotel that was being renovated and then it got too spooky and they're like we're done with this.
JULIA: We gotta leave.
ERIC: Excellent decision, probably.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah. So, Phobi writes, I've written in before. All subject lines start with Mama Psychic? See your Urban Legends Episode Number LVIII: The Pink Room. To answer all of Julia's previous questions, basically my mother is convinced that she is 1,000% psychic. My dad and older siblings are hardline skeptics, so while we as a fam mostly brush off it with "oh, haha it's just mom being psychic" my mother is prone to making sweeping generalizations that are just likely to be true if followed by like, "ah, I thought so" in like ala stereotypical fortune teller. That's how I grew up and 90% of the time, it was all normal, but there's still that other 10% of the time.
AMANDA: That's very good. It sounds like an NPC. Now that you put d&d into my head, Julia, that sounds like somebody you'd encounter and be like, alright, well roll a D10. And on a-- on a 10 she's right and on a one to nine eh.
JULIA: Yeah. So, the house I grew up in had a very long front hallway, you would open the front door and step directly into the center of that hallway, which would extend 30-feet to the left and 30-feet to the right. Directly across from the front door were the mirrored double doors of a large closet. It was a narrow but wide house with a single sloped roof, think like half of an a frame.
ERIC: Oh, I can't stop thinking about roofs.
JULIA: I'm sorry.
ERIC: I don't want to think about.
JULIA: I didn't. I didn't mean to do this to you. I'm so, so sorry. So, it was a narrow but wide house with a single sloped roof, which is why the ceiling in this hallway was nearly 20 feet high and had several long shallow windows near the apex. The ceiling was inexplicably painted hot pink. Pink just seems to be a color in your family, Phobi. I'm sorry.
AMANDA: I know.
ERIC: A hot pink ceiling --
JULIA: Yeah, yeah.
ERIC: -- feels only appropriate like the discotheque.
JULIA: I love it. Basically, from the time I could walk until I was about 14-years-old, I would run the length of this hallway multiple times a day. That sounds so fun. I love that. In fact for no reason that I can remember, a lot of the games I played when I was young involve me sprinting the length of the hallway many times over. As a latchkey kid in the 90s, I had a lot of solo play time and divided it between reading and running around this hallway. I wasn't actually supposed to run unsupervised at all. I had chronic asthma and bronchitis but who was going to tell? I knew where the inhalers were. She's a very latchkey kid.
AMANDA: I didn't know what that phrase meant fully, like, with– with certainty until I was like 22.
JULIA: Mhmm. It just meant, like, your parents would give you a key to your house and you would be --
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: -- left home alone for quite a while in case there's anyone like Amanda who doesn't know what that word means.
AMANDA: Thank you and I sure didn't. And every time I read it I was like, I'm just gonna skip over this one because I'm not really sure what it means.
JULIA: So, Phobi continues, as I would run past the mirrors in that hallway, I would often catch a glimpse just from the corner of my eye, of a man and a small boy.
ERIC: Nope.
JULIA: Always in the periphery of my vision as I zoomed past a man in a brown suit with a bowler hat, his hand on the shoulder of a young boy. It wasn't until I was much older that I would be able to describe them as being sort of sepia toned as though I wasn't really seeing them in a mirror but maybe an old photograph, but this was years before I had seen any photographs in that style.
JULIA: Oh my.
ERIC: Here's what I like about that. The color is fine. Very creepy. Very weird, old timey color. Yes. I don't like the two people. I feel like seeing one person on the corner of your eyes like, Oh! What's that? But two. Two I feel like they've taken enough shape that you're, like, I see two people. And that's too, too many.
AMANDA: Yeah, particularly more than once.
JULIA: And it's always the man and the boy, which is even scarier somehow.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So, Phobi is very kind to describe these two figures for us, which is the man had a pattern three piece suit. Both the suit and the waistcoat were in a printed fabric either check or gingham. He wore the bowler hat tilted down covering his features, but I could see his thick mustache. His Oxford's were slightly scuffed but had been polished so that a soft shine muted by the road dust on his shoes and the hem of his pants. This is a lot of detail for, like, something that you can see out of the corner of your eye.
ERIC: Yeah, it's too much detail for me. It's simply too much.
JULIA: I feel like if you continued seeing him maybe, like, you picked up a different thing every time you saw him.
AMANDA: But then you're like, "Oh yes, my guy, I know what color his pants are." That's a level of familiarity with a ghost that I love from a content perspective and hate from a picturing me in the situation perspective.
ERIC: Oh, it's sunday, so obviously you're wearing the gingham.
JULIA: Classic. The man also had a pocket square. It was the first time I'd ever seen one. And though it looked like a cream beige in my brain, I knew that it was starched white and clean. He kept his right hand always on the shoulder of the boy at his side. And in his left hand, he had a well used briefcase.
ERIC: It's too much detail. It's too many detail. It's just too many.
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: To me, the boy always seemed solemn. He was always looking down and away from the man frowning brown hair in his eyes. He wore a little jacket with matching long shorts or short pants with really big pockets and suspenders. He had socks that went to his calves and little formal shoes, smaller versions of what the man wore, which confused me because I had only ever seen my young male cousins wearing these kinds of shoes at weddings, but the boy's clothes looked far too rumpled for that kind of fancy event.
ERIC: Wow.
JULIA: Yes.
ERIC: It's a lot.
JULIA: It's a lot.
ERIC: It's just a lot of stuff.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
JULIA: I would run down the hall trying to stop in front of the mirror and always skidding past it as I tried to get that extra glimpse of the man and the boy. Like if I timed it just right, I could catch them and we could talk. Occasionally, I would be rewarded with a few extra details. The chain of the man's pocket watch, or a peek of the strange distortion of the background. What was behind the man clashing with the reflection of the bright light from the high windows? I would catch sight of them in this mirror for years. Occasionally, I would think to ask my mom or my sisters about it, but I would always forget. When I was about 11, my father decided that he could stand the pink ceiling no longer and wanted to add a foyer. During the year or so that it took for my dad to remove our front door and add the extension to the house, I would see the man and the boy the most. After the extension was built, I remember seeing the man occasionally, but not really seeing the boy anymore. This was notable as after the extension was built, it became my favorite room in the home. The roof to our new foyer was almost all skylight and I would lay there like a cat in the sun. In the winter for the sunshine and at the height of summer for the cold of the tiles beneath me. It drove my mom nuts. The first thing anybody saw when they came into the house was me sprawled out on the ground with homework spread out in front of me or with a book or just sometimes napping, which is a very big mood.
AMANDA: Now I'm picturing buying, like, a giant dog bed for this child. And I wish someone did that or, like, one of those pillows that you can put on the floor and lay on.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That would have been a better option instead of being like, "stop laying on the floor child." As I lay there, I would look up and catch the sight of the man nearly all the time. I gradually came to understand that he was a serious and solemn man who knew himself to be serious and important. We didn't talk or directly communicate in any way that I understood. These were just things that I became aware as though they were obvious facts. This never bothered me. One of those things where something you see all the time. It's just so part of your normal that you never consider it strange. Eventually, about a year after we moved out of this house, I asked my mom about it. She told me that the man was the original owner of the house from when the original structure was built in the early 1900s. The boy was his son. At some point, his wife had died. And then it was just the boy and his father living in the house. My mother told me that she had spoken to the man long ago and they had reached an agreement. She would allow for the man to continue living in the house. So long as he kept his son in check. She told me that the boy was an angry spirit. And if left unrestricted, he would cause trouble. She never outright said that the boy would harm anyone but the way she said it kind of gave me that vibe. She said that the boy didn't like us or anyone being in the house, but he was afraid of my mom. That was why the man always had his hand on the boy's shoulder whenever the boy was around to be seen. I'm not sure why the boys stopped showing up so much when we built the extension. My mom never explained that part, but I do remember my mom, maternal grandmother, and the priest showing up on moving day to bless the house for the new tenants which exasperated my father to no end. There's not much else to say about the house, save all the motorcycles and cars that wrecked on our front lawn. And the thing with the vines, but looking at how long this email is already, I'm going to have to save it for another time. Maybe this will make it into an urban legends XL which honestly I love it for a regular episode. So, she writes cheers, my dears, Phobi. And then, PS: My mom also told me that she would sometimes stop to chat with the man in the mirror in the early morning when the rest of us were still asleep. And he would tattle on me running in the house. So going back to who's gonna say that, like, who's going to tell my mom that, like, I was running around apparently this ghost would.
AMANDA: The man with the briefcase, now we know.
JULIA: Yeah, apparently, he would look in on me for her. My mom turned on me, like it was obvious. Like, why did you think I was fine to leave you alone so much on your own? She goes, oh mom and PPS does that mean I had a ghost for a babysitter?
AMANDA: It does.
JULIA: Super [44:36].
AMANDA: Phobi, you're an amazing writer and I need you to interview your mom for us. I need you to just like-- just transcribed verbatim just, like, 20 minutes of your mom chatting and that'll be the podcast one day.
JULIA: I also really want to know about the vines. Now I'm curious about the vines.
AMANDA: Yes. I need to know. Oh my god, incredible.
JULIA: Amanda, what you got?
AMANDA: I had one more. We're kind of on, like, a housing and real estate kick this episode, so I am going to read something titled Haunted House for Sale by Aaron.
JULIA: Ooh.
AMANDA: So, Aaron writes, a few years ago I was looking to buy a house. I found an older mid 70s split level home. You would walk into the main floor with living room, kitchen, and dining room. And upstairs were bedrooms whereas downstairs was a finished basement family area.
JULIA: I will say, I have been house hunting, I've seen a lot of split levels, they're probably my least favorite style of house.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: It's just like, it's all broken up and I want to be able to, like, see the other things that are, like, happening around my house. I don't know, just not my-- not my vibe.
AMANDA: I knew another big family growing up the house split level and I was always a little bit jealous that there was, like, more different rooms that you can kind of get a little bit of privacy but from a parenting perspective and certainly if you don't have kid, yeah, I think it's-- it's nice to be able to see the whole house.
ERIC: Mhmm. Mhmm.
AMANDA: So, in the finished basement was a laundry with a shower stall. Next to the shower stall, there was a door, I thought probably a closet. My fiance and the realtor were checking out rooms upstairs so I was alone. I opened the door and found, anyone want to guess?
JULIA: Hmmm.
ERIC: A skeleton
JULIA: I'm gonna say like, like you were afraid of earlier, Amanda, like a-- like a earthen cellar of some kind.
AMANDA: Yeah. Even worse, Julia, it was a staircase. So, Aaron reached for a light switch. Of course it didn't turn on. So, using a cell phone flashlight, I made my way down. It had a low ceiling. I'm 6'2 and couldn't even stand straight up. At first, it was your basic unfinished basement with concrete floors. I thought it was odd that the rest of the house and the former tenant had emptied out but this room was full of boxes and things like bicycles and toys. Nothing creepier than a dusty toy in a basement man.
JULIA: It just like, nothing creepier than an empty house, and then you find where all of the things are and it was just, like, left there.
AMANDA: I was walking around the room when all of a sudden the door at the top of the stare slammed shut. Startled, I threw myself against the wall and scanned the room for any sign of someone or something else, but saw nothing. Once I collected myself, I made my way back upstairs to rejoin my fiance and the realtor. Thinking my mind was just playing with me, I didn't say anything about it. I thought it was odd, of course, that the room was not listed on the description of the house. Normally, Julia, you can attest to this. They want to maximize the square footage, right? Like, brag on all the rooms.
JULIA: Mhmm.
AMANDA: We put an offer in on the house in fact.
JULIA: What? What? What? Why? Why?
ERIC: Julia's immediate reaction.
AMANDA: Don't worry, Julia, they were outbid, and a few weeks later bought a different house. But Aaron adds. Three months later, I got a call from a realtor asking if I was still interested in the house because the new owners had moved in and out and were looking to sell for less than they paid for it.
JULIA: Oh my god.
ERIC: No.
JULIA: No, very bad.
ERIC: No. No. Incorrect.
AMANDA: I told her we had already found a place but asked why they moved.
JULIA: Good.
AMANDA: And the realtor hesitated saying they just didn't like the house. I still to this day wonder if it was haunted.
JULIA: Dude, 100%. Hundo P. There's no way it wasn't.
AMANDA: Yep.
ERIC: Even if you don't like the house, it's the selling it for less than they paid. There is absolutely no reason.
JULIA: Like, they're not even trying to get their money back.
ERIC: Exactly. There's something either structurally or supernaturally wrong with this house if you're trying to just get rid of it as quickly as possible.
JULIA: 100%.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah, capitalism doesn't lie in that regard.
ERIC: Yeah.
AMANDA: Well, that was Aaron. Thank you, Aaron.
JULIA: Oh, thank you. That was extremely creepy and, like, touching my heart a little.
AMANDA: Yeah.
ERIC: Okay. We will round out the episode with this story from Quartz titled "Ghost encounters?" So, Quartz writes, My name is Quartz and I don't really see ghosts. Usually. I've had a few encounters with them, though, which if you've had a few encounters with them, you do see ghosts, so just-- just-- just say it.
JULIA: Yeah. Like, if you've-- you've had at least one supernatural encounter where you've seen a spectral entity, you see ghosts.
ERIC: Exactly. I've never seen a ghost, so I would say I've never seen ghosts. That usually makes it seem like you're-- you are expecting ghosts far more than you should be seeing ghosts.
JULIA: Yes, I feel like there is a difference between, like, people who have like the sight to our psychic mediums, that kind of thing. And then people who have a supernatural encounter, you know?
ERIC: Mhmm.
JULIA: Like, maybe Quartz is saying that they don't see ghosts in the supernatural, like, spirit medium sense, but they have had ghostly encounters.
ERIC: So, I have two short stories of the ones that I've seen. The first is the floral lady. This encounter, I saw a shadowy figure wearing a mustard yellow sundress with tiny red flowers on it.
JULIA: I love this.
ERIC: Her hair was long, wavy, and dark brown. All I could see her doing was speed walking into one room in the house that is the most haunted. In that room, things fall down all the time. You can hear noises, and sometimes I even hear banging on the wall at night. No one goes in there, so what could it be?
JULIA: Okay, we need to pause.
ERIC: Great.
JULIA: It's interesting to call, like, a shadow figure. It's interesting to call this ghost a shadow figure when we have such clear identifiers that aren't just, like, shadow. Like the mustard yellow sundress with red flowers on it. I love that imagery first of all.
ERIC: Yeah.
JULIA: Like, that's so cool.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: You don't see that very often. You usually get, like, ghostly white Victorian dress, but not like floral, maybe either 90s or 70s style outfit.
AMANDA: Yeah, with, like, the long hair I'm thinking very 70s, but this has been quite an episode for ghosts with very specific fashion.
JULIA: I'm into it.
ERIC: The next one wasn't necessarily me seeing one but rather me finding out it's moving by itself.
JULIA: Uh-oh.
ERIC: For years and years I've had a porcelain snowman about three or four inches tall. It has a weird carved out face. I don't like that. I mean, I understand what it looks like but I'm imagining more Jack O' Lantern than-- than snowman because of the word carve.
JULIA: Mhmm. Mhmm.
AMANDA: Mhmm.
ERIC: I've always felt that it was haunted, so I tested it. It was sitting on my window so I faced it to the opposite direction of the window and walked out of the room. Returning two minutes later.
AMANDA: No.
ERIC: The snowman had turned completely --
AMANDA: No.
ERIC: -- around and now was looking out the window.
AMANDA: No.
ERIC: It's been three years since then and I haven't seen it since. Creepy, right? Stay creepy. Stay cool. You know what happened? Didn't close the portal.
JULIA: Didn't close the portal, didn't say goodbye.
AMANDA: Didn't close the portal!
ERIC: Didn't close the portal. The snowman went through the portal. Who knows where it is now.
AMANDA: Schneider, so smart. That's why we got to make sure that at the end of every episode we close the portal.
ERIC: Close the portal.
AMANDA: And remind everybody what we tend to remind them.
JULIA: Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool. Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
JULIA: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @spiritspodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website. As well as a forum to send us in your urban legends, and your advice from folklore questions at spiritspodcast.com.
AMANDA: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/spiritspodcast for all kinds of behind-the-scenes goodies. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more like recipe cards with alcoholic and non-alcoholic for every single episode, director's commentaries, real physical gifts, and more.
JULIA: We are a founding member of Multitude, an independent podcast collective, and production studio. If you like Spirits, you will love the other shows that live on our website at multitude.productions.
AMANDA: Above all else, if you liked what you heard today, please text one friend about us. That's the very best way to help keep us growing.
JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye.
Transcribed by: John Matthew M. Sarong