Episode 150: VERY SPOOKY HOMETOWNS XXVII
/We ask important questions with these hometowns. Are all ghosts just pranksters? How much spooky stuff has to happen to create A FAMILY LORE? Rediscovering a ghost son, the spookiness of bad infrastructure, an accusatory phone call, and thankfully, a palate cleanser.
This week, Amanda recommends Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about surgery, dental/tooth discussion, health care, drug use, burning, drowning, suicide, strangling, implied sexual assault, drunk driving, car accidents, cult/cult suicide, death, and gaslighting.
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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.
Amanda: And this is episode 150, Very Spooky Hometowns! Ooh, happy Halloween!
Julia: It's our 27th Hometowns, and they're very spooky this time.
Amanda: That's true. It's also episode 150. Julia, congrats on getting into another round number with me.
Julia: Wow. I'm so proud. I love when we hit the 50s.
Amanda: Me, too. I know. It's so exciting.
Julia: 50, 100, 150, soon 200.
Amanda: I can't wait.
Julia: Next year, right?
Amanda: I can't wait for that day, which might actually, wait for it, might fall on Halloween next year.
Julia: Oh, wait.
Amanda: Hold on.
Julia: I'm trying to do the math in my head.
Amanda: September 30th.
Julia: It's going backwards. Damn it.
Amanda: We'll just have to have two Halloweens then. Halloween in September, spooky!
Julia: Oh! Oh, well.
Amanda: But you know what, Julia? No matter what month it is, if one of our new friends or new Patreons said to me, "It's always Halloween for me and I want to celebrate today." I would be like, "Yes, thank you."
Julia: Yeah, no. Our new Patreons are the regents of the spooky times.
Amanda: [Debra Malaya, Bridget, Maria, Akit and Adam 00:01:17], welcome. You join supporting producer level Patreons, [Philip, Er, Molly, Megan, Skyla, Samantha, Sammy, Josie, Neil, Jessica and Phil Fresh 00:01:25]. and our legend level patrons, [Emily, James, Beam Me Up Scotty, Audra, Chris, Mark, Allah, Cody, Mr. Fulk, Sarah and Jack Marie 00:01:27]
Julia: You all have a place in the hierarchy of spookiness of our hearts.
Amanda: So good, so good. Speaking of which, Julia, we needed some serious fortifications to get through this episode. Really, folks, I know that you like to listen to the Hometown Urban Legends episode while, I don't know, walking alone on a road in Ireland or driving across all of Iowa by yourself. This one maybe save for a well lit, warm place with friends.
Julia: It really is a spooky one, except for the last story because we needed the pallet cleanser at the end.
Amanda: Yes, yes. But, Julia, tell us what you were drinking to give us some courage during this episode.
Julia: Okay. For the holiday season, I want to go for a pumpkin ale because I do actually love a pumpkin ale despite the fact that I don't really like pumpkin- flavored things. I'm not a pumpkin pie person, really, personally, but it's something about pumpkin spice in a beer that just gets me nice and toasty. So we went with two Roadsmary's Baby, which I think is hilarious and cute.
Amanda: Extremely good pun.
Julia: Yeah, so it is a barrel-aged pumpkin ale. It's appropriately an homage to one of my favorite classic horror movies, Rosemary's Baby. And it really, just the barrel age gives it that kind of woodsiness to it, which feels like campfire-y in my mind, and then get those pumpkin spice in there. It's really, really nice.
Amanda: Yeah. I love a pumpkin beer that is kind of really spicy, toasty, woodsy, and this was definitely up my alley.
Julia: Yes. Speaking of up your alley, Amanda, what are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you watching lately?
Amanda: Oh, Julia, I am existentially, let's just say rocked, because I recently read Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino, which has a beautiful orange '70s vibe cover that makes me want to just display it on my mantel and not even just put it away in my bookcase. But apart from the looks of the thing, Jia is one of my favorite online commentary writers. She is an essayist, a journalist, she worked at Gawker, at The Hairpin. She writes for New York Magazine and The New Yorker now, and she's just one of those... It's like listening to a smarter and more eloquent and funnier version of my own internal monologue.
Reading her essays, it was almost like I was putting to words thoughts that I had had before or sort of remembering myself thinking this briefly, and then this expands on for like 40 pages as a just beautiful, well-thought-out, smart essay that really is changing the way I think about myself and the internet and culture and being a woman. So there's just so much to love. So, Trick Mirror, you can find a couple of the essays online for free, but if you're able to request it from your local library or pick it up at your local indie bookstore, it has my resounding two thumbs up.
Julia: Ooh, fantastic. Oh, Amanda, thank you for the rec.
Amanda: You're welcome. And I also wanted to point out, we were just at Sound Education in Boston and did our Boston live show, which thank you so much to the conspirators who came out. It was so heartwarming to see you wearing our merch and having us sign your flasks, and it was just so incredible to hug you and take photos with you and perform for you.
Julia: It was delightful. I still am in awe at the response that we got from that show.
Amanda: But even before that, we went to Sound Education, which is a conference for educational podcasters, and we were able to give a ton of advice and run a workshop for people who in some cases were making podcasts for universities or institutions, and in other cases, wanted to start one of their own. And it reminded me that I haven't talked about the resources that Multitude makes in a while. So, folks, if you are a creative person, if you are an aspiring creator or particularly a podcaster, you got to go to multitude.productions and check out the dozens of free resources that we published for creative folks of all types.
Julia: Yeah, it is fantastic. Amanda and Eric and Brandon and the rest of the team have really put a lot of effort into making sure that podcast education and learning how to do things is really accessible and welcoming. And I really appreciate all of the work that they do, and I think that a lot of people could benefit from it.
Amanda: Why, thank you, Julia, and some of the wonderful lessons that you put into practice on our social media, folks can learn for themselves in our resources page.
Julia: Thanks.
Amanda: Without further ado, we hope that you enjoy this very spooky Hometowns, this midpoint of October. Spirits Podcast, episode 150.
Eric: Was Surgery Watch on a live episode of this?
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Surgery Watch. Guess what, guys? It came for me.
Amanda: Oh, Jesus, Eric.
Eric: Guys, it came for me. Here's what it is. It's my bad job.
Julia: Oh, yep.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: That's it.
Eric: I luckily don't need surgery.
Julia: That's good.
Eric: But what I do need are adult braces.
Julia: Oh, buddy.
Amanda: Oh, darling.
Julia: No shade on people who have adult braces, but-
Eric: No, friend of the show, Jarvis, who was just our guest judge on the Avengers series of Head Heart Gut, has braces.
Amanda: So good.
Eric: And it was a great episode. You should all subscribe to the MultiCrew and listen to it. I haven't confirmed that I need them, but the dentist recommended I see an orthodontist and was fairly confident it will be the case. So in one year, everyone in this household has had some kind of medical procedure.
Julia: Oh, boy, proud of you guys for getting through everything.
Amanda: Eric, I'm very glad you're well. I'm very sorry you had to deal with all of that. And whenever I think of the healthcare system in the U.S., I also get deeply terrified, which is maybe the right energy to bring to this most spooky, your urban legends Halloween October edition.
Julia: I'm very excited to get creeped out and hopefully creep the two of you out.
Amanda: Ooh, me, too.
Julia: And all of our listeners.
Eric: I'm excited. Cannot wait.
Amanda: I know. For all of you who listened to Urban Legend episodes when you're alone or walking through a forest or a moor or a windswept plain, just think twice about this one.
Julia: Can I go first?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: I'm very excited. Okay. This is what I live for, guys, is trying to scare the shit out of both of you. We don't have our cameras on today, so I can't see your faces as I scare you, which is upsetting, but I will live.
Eric: That's because we've become ghosts.
Julia: Oh, no.
Amanda: Oh!
Julia: Ghosts in the machine.
Eric: Well, no, maybe we've become vamp- This is a better joke. This is a better joke. We're going to retake it. We're going to retake it.
Amanda: Okay.
Eric: Because I'm a vampire, and you can't see me in the web camera.
Amanda: Oh!
Julia: Oh! All right. So this one I feel like is going to really resonate with you, Eric, and the subject of the email is growing up in a haunted house, because as we discovered, you almost definitely grew up in an haunted house.
Eric: There were some sleepwalking incidents.
Julia: That stopped when you moved out of the house.
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Julia: Okay, great. So this is from Betty, and so she writes, "So my dad is super skilled at woodworking construction and basically anything mechanical that he can do with his hands. So when my brother was a baby, he bought this old, rundown house that had been a drug den. The door had been kicked in by the FBI, I think, when they raided the house, and then it was foreclosed. It was an extreme disrepair, and my dad rebuilt it from the ground up. I've seen a lot of pictures from before he rebuilt it, and it was pretty rough. One picture in particular stood out to me as it is where my room is now. The room was basically bare except it had bright orange paint from the onto the ceiling in weird swirling patterns. My dad said that people probably got their hands on a bucket of paint while they were high. I think they were summoning demons. But who's to say?"
Amanda: Terrifying.
Julia: "The spooky stuff started happening right away. I don't remember it because I was either not born or a baby, but my parents have told the story several times. When my brother was about two, he said that he saw an old man who had shoes like the guy from Lady and the Tramp, like old loafers, walking around upstairs. He also said he saw a goat in his bedroom window, which was on the second floor.
Amanda: What?
Eric: Yeah, that's like a Beelzebub.
Amanda: Yeah. Oh, baby.
Julia: I hate that.
Eric: That's one of the guys that is a goat.
Julia: The next line is, "My mom says it's because the beloved family goat, Cindy, of whom he was very fond of, had passed away, but we all know the goat was a form of the devil. So you tell me."
Amanda: There you go. Conspirators are on the same page.
Julia: I do love that there was a beloved family goat in the story.
Amanda: So cute.
Julia: That's very good. "My parents said that weird things would happen in the house, like the lights turning on and off by themselves, et cetera. The day I was baptized, my parents invited friends and family over for dinner to celebrate. While everyone was there, several things happened. The kitchen faucet started running by itself, and then the radio turned on by itself to full blast. No one was near either of them. A little later, my mom took me up to my room to change me and when she was doing so, my cradle started swinging violently by itself."
Amanda: No!
Julia: "It spooked my mom, but she just assumed my dad had tied some fishing line to it because he was a prankster."The amount of prank-to-haunted ratio that happens in these emails is very high, and I appreciate it, but also I want to know what's real and what's not.
Amanda: Okay. Thesis statement. What if all hauntings, the ghosts just think they're pranks but instead they scare us?
Julia: Oh, interesting.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: So just trickster spirits, but they just scare the crap out of us.
Amanda: Yeah. And if you could control things without other people seeing you, I think your bar for what a prank is would have to rise considerably. You can just like tie their shoelaces and be like, "Nah, nah."
Julia: that's true. That's fair.
Amanda: I'm going to think on this hypothesis.
Eric: It really, really puts Poltergeist in a new light.
Julia: Fair. It's playful.
Eric: It's just a bunch of pranks.
Julia: Yeah, that clown prank. Real not creepy at all when you think about it in that light. Anyway, "When my mom asked my dad about the swinging cradle, he said he didn't know anything about it and swears that he didn't do it. Seeing that my mom was scared, he definitely would have owned up to it if he had. After that, my parents called a priest to come bless the house, and things stopped for a while."
Amanda: Ugh.
Julia: "When my brother was in seventh or eighth grade. He started seeing and hearing things. I don't remember everything, but I do remember him being scared. I also remember that I would randomly feel like someone was watching me, a feeling I still sometimes get when visiting my parents because apparently they still live in that house." No!
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: "When my friends came over for sleepovers, there was only one room in the house that they were comfortable sleeping in, which was the sunken part of the living room that my dad added on. They didn't know about the spooky stuff until I told them later. I remember one morning when my brother was in high school, he had woken up pretty scared. He said that he had had a dream where he sequentially was burned then drowned and then strangled."
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: "He woke up in the middle of the strangling part and couldn't move. He swears he saw a woman floating above him with her hands around his neck. He was really shook, and I know he wasn't making it up. It certainly could've been sleep paralysis, though." I appreciate that Betty is very straightforward about this and be like, "It could've been this thing. It could have been that thing."
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: It could've been the ghost of our beloved goat. Who's to say? "Throughout the years he would hear and see things, but I would only get these weird chills and feelings, and the hairs on my arm would stand on end. But when I was home for Christmas break one year in college, something really creepy happened. I'm not ashamed to say I still sleep with stuffed animals." I like to snuggle with them. Dude, fair. I get it. "I had a lot of stuffed animals at my parents' house, and there were a few that had the special privilege of residing on my bed. I have some obsessive-compulsive tendencies and had specific patterns that I would put my animals in, both when I made my bed and when I laid them out on the floor very carefully when I was reading. There were three small ones that I would hug while I was sleeping, and they would sometimes end up on the floor alongside the ones stationed at the foot of my bed, and I would always feel bad and apologize to them every morning." That is very sweet. "Anyways, one morning I woke up and my stuffed animals were all lined up a couple of feet from the side of my bed facing me."
Amanda: Nope! No!
Eric: No, no.
Julia: "This is not a pattern I would ever have put them in. I just figured my brother had come into prank me while I was sleeping, but that didn't seem right because I'm a light sleeper. I went downstairs, and my brother who slept on the living room couch that night, asked if Chubs, our cat, had slept in my room last night. I told him that he hadn't, and then he asked if I had come downstairs at all during the night. I hadn't. He said he heard footsteps coming towards him that stopped right by his head, but he was too afraid to open his eyes because he couldn't hear any of the doors open or the stairs creak.
The footsteps had started in the middle of the living room. I would have thought he was kidding, but he looked genuinely spooked, and I can pretty much always tell when my brother is lying for a prank. The worst part is, is that it was in the sunken part of the living room, which had always been the safe part of the house. My brother and I both moved out, but as I said earlier, I still sometimes get the feeling that someone is watching me when I visit. We haven't had a priest back to bless the house again, but my mother confided in me a couple of years ago that she keeps a bottle of Holy water on hand and sprinkles it around the house every now and again when my dad isn't home."
Amanda: Smart. Smart.
Julia: Very good. I love this so much. Betty, this is an excellent story. Thank you for sending it in.
Amanda: Oh, shit. That's a really, especially the stuffed animals has such a cinematic haunting.
Julia: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's very creepy.
Eric: Yeah, it's extremely spooky.
Julia: I like when ghosts are just like, "Ah, yes, dolls, stuffed animals? Yes. This will be my mechanism of horror."
Amanda: That's true. I should really search in the in-box for stuffed animals and see what comes up.
Julia: Yes, absolutely.
Amanda: Julia. I really enjoyed that tale, but I think I might be able to outdo you in the spooky factor.
Julia: Ooh, okay. Do it up.
Amanda: It's like the song, "Anything you can do, I can do better," only instead, we scare each other to death.
Julia: I'm totally fine with that retelling of "Annie Get Your Gun."
Amanda: All right, so this email comes from Sam, who titled it, "Warning! Super spooky."
Julia: Thank you for being upfront about the spooky levels. I appreciate it.
Amanda: I love this. So she starts with, "This is one of the scariest paranormal experiences I have ever had. And before you ask, yes, I have had many of them. Prologue." There's a prologue.
Julia: Oh, I love that it's a prologue. Ooh, yes. [crosstalk 00:15:55]
Eric: This is going to be good.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: I'm so excited.
Amanda: "In the middle of Iowa, there is a college that was started by nuns in the mid 1800s, opened as a convent in transitioning into an all girls school to the university it is now where I went to college. During freshmen orientation week, one of the stories, the orientation leaders, TMTM, always tell is the story of the haunted building on campus, Ward Hall, which was the first building built on the land by the nuns back in the 1800s."
Julia: I like the name Ward Hall because it makes me think of warding off evil.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Oh, I was thinking about children as wards, too...
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: ...like the kids that are in their care. Thank you so much, so much.
Julia: Good point.
Amanda: Okay. "The story with this building is that there is the ghost of a nun who killed herself off the top of the building after finding out that she was pregnant."
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: "Even today, only the brave or naive will stay in the building after dark. Flash-forward to the spring of 2019, my senior year. I am a newly discovered medium, and my friends and I are adamant to see just how good I am."
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: "In the building is an old chapel where we have choir practice because the acoustics are a solid A-plus, which is where we begin our adventure. Another one of my friends is also a much more experienced medium and met us over there. They told us that they had encountered the ghost nun in the chapel many times during various practices, but had never interacted with her since she spends most of her time in the choir loft. But they were curious if I could draw her down into the chapel itself since I was arguably more approachable than my friend was." Oops.
Julia: Whoops.
Amanda: "Now let me describe our merry band of investigators. One, there's me, a baby medium who is a homegrown Catholic, and despite all my experiences as a child, my parents brush them off as a vivid imagination and little girl dreams. Two, one of my best friends, Annie, who has an ability to read past lives and is desperate for a paranormal encounter. Three, my other friend, I'm just going to call them Post, hailing from Boston, the well-trained medium.
Julia: Mm.
Amanda: "Now a fun fact about Post is that they can see the spirits, which is something I have yet to learn. Sitting in the chapel for about 45 minutes, I feel a tingle travel through my whole body. 'She's here,' I say to them, and Post nods their head, pointing up to the choir loft. We all start asking questions but aren't really getting anything from her, and she leaves a few minutes later."
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: "I got the idea to ask my ghost son Ben to talk to her and maybe convince her to come down to talk to us."
Julia: I have a question.
Amanda: Yup. Same here.
Julia: Go.
Amanda: Ghost son Ben.
Julia: Who the fuck is Ben? I know Ghost son Ben. I know what's up. We did this as a Patreon extra.
Amanda: Oh, shit. Yes.
Julia: This was the child ghost that really liked this girl and would follow her around.
Amanda: I am so excited that we get to hear more about Ben. This is like we're building our MCU of ghost stories. It's amazing.
Julia: Incredible. I love it. Oh, yes. Excellent.
Amanda: All right. "So good old Ben brings the nun down moments later, hand in hand. They're still hesitant to join us, but she finally does. We talked to her for a little bit, but then she leaves again without really telling us anything about her. We wander around the chapel and are just kind of messing around, investigating the rooms connected to the side of the main room. By this point, I find myself in the room where the choir director keeps all of his music, and I'm just wandering among the stacks when I hear a breath."
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: "It sounds like a man sighing right behind me."
Julia: Nope. Nope, Nope, Nope. Nope.
Amanda: "Turning around, predictably, there's no one there. So I call them my friends and ask them if they were calling me. They both responded no. So I go back to perusing. The next thing I know, I am pushed back against the wall by a cloud of black bog."
Julia: Oh, fuck. See, my problem here is going ghost hunting or trying to contact spirits, fine, great, spooky as it is. But when you get intercepted by one you're not expecting?
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Julia: A thousand times worse now.
Amanda: Extremely true. Extremely true. "So this black fog rushes through me, pinning me to a wall and pushes me then to the floor. Barely breathing, I can feel my heart beating so fast, but when I check my Fitbit, it doesn't even register that I have a heart rate." Aah!
Julia: The Fitbit says you're dead!
Amanda: Technological ghost hauntings. "From my place on the floor, I am looking into a closet in this room, and I see something so terrible that I'm not even going to try to explain it here, but let's just say it was what happened to the nun."
Julia: Oh.
Amanda: "I feel tears streaming down my face, and I can't move, this vision replaying over and over in my head until Annie and Post run into the room looking for me. They pick me up off the floor and walk me back into the main chapel as I tell them what happened. This is the point we decided that we need to get answers from the nun."
Julia: Oh, baby girl. All right.
Amanda: "Calling her back downstairs. I connect with her, and I'm having a full conversation with her, but she still isn't giving me any information, so I ask her if she wants to talk privately, to which she agrees. in full anti-Spirits Podcast advice, I go upstairs to third floor and follow her to a room where I had a experience earlier that year..."
Julia: Hell, no.
Amanda: "...which she tells me was her room when she was alive.
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: Oh, Sam.
Julia: A lot going on here.
Amanda: "In the span of half an hour, this is what I learned about her. Her name is Cecilia, honoring her mother's Polish roots. She wanted to become a sister to travel the world. She loves music and singing, which is why she always shows up during choir practices and was 24 when she died and was very unhappy with the haunted house that occurs in the building every October."
Julia: That's adorable.
Amanda: "After going back downstairs, I relay all of this to Annie and Post, and that's the end...for that night."
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: "About a week later, we go back to hangout with Cecilia, and Post is teaching me how to put up psychic barriers that can be used as protection from spirits and other beings. It's nearing 1:00 a.m., but we sensed that smoky presence again, and recognizing us, it starts circling the crude barrier I put up for practice like a predator measuring up its prey."
Julia: Like the raptors in Jurassic Park.
Amanda: "We ignore it and go back to our conversation, but soon enough we hear a bang like the sound when a bird hits a window, but it definitely came from inside of the chapel. That gets our attention. Annie and I are starting to freak out, but Post says we will all be okay as long as my barrier stays up. As soon as they say this, we smell something burning, and the back of the room is turning hazy."
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: This causes Post to start showing some thinly veiled panic, to which we all stand with a start."
Julia: At least it's only thinly veiled.
Amanda: I know, I know. "It's trying to break down the barrier, they say. The smell is intensifying, and the room is getting hazier. This is the point where we decided to leave almost bodyguard-style to each other, backs to one another in a crude triangle as we leave, with it following us as far as the building steps, but no farther."
Julia: Okay, that's good. Don't want the ghost to go home with you.
Amanda: "Needless to say, that was the last time I've ever been in that building, in fear that the hazy thing could do some real damage to us. After this night we did some other paranormal investigating around campus and found some other spirits that I could send in about. One is very, very heartfelt, and if you need a happy ghost story for Eric to read, I would gladly send that one in as well."
Julia: Please.
Amanda: "Happy trails, you spooky friends. With love, Sam."
Julia: I feel bad that the hazy ghost kind of ruined the friendship that was happening between Sam and Cecilia.
Amanda: Yeah. I know.
Julia: I appreciate them going to hang out with her more.
Amanda: Yeah. And being like, "Hey, ghost, I get that we're coming into your house and asking you to talk to us. You want to talk privately?" I just thought it was really sweet. Oh, I don't know. There are so many things I loved about this haunting. I love the smell. I mean, any haunting with a smell, I think it's just going to strike me as so creepy and interesting. The fact that it was trying to get down the barrier, just the way Sam told the story was so cinematic, and I have been thinking about it for days.
Julia: Horrifying. I love it.
Amanda: Yay.
Eric: I have an exciting two-part story.
Julia: Ooh. Tell me about it.
Eric: This comes to us from Kay, and she writes, "A shape-shifting spirit follows my family."
Amanda: Oh, no.
Julia: Hard no.
Amanda: When it shifts, it shapes. It's harder to find.
Julia: Yes, but still know will it follow you.
Eric: It's findable enough because she knows that it's there.
Julia: Somehow works.
Amanda: Oh, I love it. I love it.
Eric: "I'm a recent fan of your podcast and had been raving about to anyone and everyone who will listen, including, but not limited to my siblings, my coworkers, and the barista at my favorite cafe."
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: Very good. Very good. Once again, grab their phones. Auto download feature.
Julia: Thank you.
Eric: "Anyway, here's the deal. Weird things have happened to me and my family my whole life. These are two stories of how a shape-shifting spirit follows my whole family and how it's saved me from a car crash and saved my sister from an evil nun."
Julia: Ooh, okay, so evil nun, shape-shifting spirit. Helpful?
Eric: Maybe.
Julia: Interesting.
Eric: We'll find out. "I'm from the North Shore of Massachusetts, specifically a suburb just outside Boston, a very beautiful and deeply haunted city." I'm not sure if she's saying that about Boston or where she lives, but either way, very good.
Amanda: This does seem true.
Julia: Boston is deeply haunted.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And also beautiful.
Eric: "I'm the oldest of three sisters. Read into the mythological witchy-ness of that as you will."
Julia: I will.
Eric: "And our family has deep roots in the spooky. The lore of my family..." Now my family doesn't have a lore, and I think if you have a lore for your family, I feel like that's enough already.
Julia: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Amanda: That's fair.
Eric: "But the lore of their family is that our ancestry on my mother's side can be traced back to the Salem witch trials, and the confirmed history of our ancestry on my father's side revealed a long line of men who were high ranking in the Freemasons and a long line of women who were deeply involved in the Order of the Eastern Star, a symbol-"
Amanda: I don't know what that is. That sounds incredible.
Eric: Buckle up. "The symbol of the Order is an inverted pentagram with the word 'Fatal' inscribed at the center."
Julia: Sign me up right now. Give me it.
Amanda: Oh, my.
Julia: Make me a member.
Eric: "My great-grandmother was a Matron of the Order for most of her adult life." Now that's capital M in "Matron of the Order." That is a title.
Amanda: Adopt me.
Julia: Yes.
Eric: "Now I know via cult theories involving the Masons and the order are alleged conspiracies, but I am of the opinion that if a super secret society is housed by rumors of the occult, then something fishy is probably going down. At least that's how I explain all the weird shit that happens to me. The first incident is that of the spirit deer. When I was in high school, I was in the passenger seat of my friend's car driving home from Chili's, probably because that was the thing to do in high school. Late one Friday night as we were driving, I felt my stomach drop, and as I opened my mouth to say something to my friend, a deer jumped out of the trees and landed right in front of our car. My friend slammed on the brakes, and luckily we didn't hit it. The deer stood very still in front of us and lit up in the headlights and looked straight at me."
Amanda: Inherently creepy. Inherently creepy.
Eric: Oh, yeah. "It didn't break eye contact with me for about 10 seconds before running all the way across the road and disappearing into the yard on the other side. After we all caught our breath, nervous giggles started to fill our car, and we continued to drive. Not 15 seconds later, we were coming up on a blind curve when we saw headlights. A presumably drunk driver came speeding around the bend in the wrong lane. My friend once again slammed on the brakes and this time lay on the horn, too. The driver luckily swerved back to their own lane and drove past us. If we had reached the curve even a few seconds earlier, we wouldn't have had any chance at spotting the incoming car..."
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: "...who would have crashed into us at full speed. The way the accident would have occurred, the driver would have slammed into the front passenger side where I was sitting, and I probably would have died."
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: Oh, yikes.
Eric: "The weirdest part of all of this is that I had never seen a deer on that side of town before and haven't seen one there since either."
Julia: Ooh, boy.
Amanda: Thank you, deer. Good deer.
Julia: I like deer. Just silence at the statements of the deer.
Eric: Now Kay's second story you'll all have to wait for until we get our drink.
Amanda: Ahh.
Julia: Oh, let's go refill then.
Amanda: All right, let's do a quick one. Julia, we are sponsored this week by Skillshare. As you know and all our listeners know, Skillshare is an online learning community for creators with over 25,000 classes to fuel your curiosity, creativity, and career. And we talk often about the kind of business and creative lessons that we take from Skillshare, but sometimes you just are home over a three-day weekend, and you really want to make some macrame plant holders, and no joke, before pulling up any of those other sites that I could search for tutorials, I was like, you know what? I bet someone on Skillshare has a beautiful, well-lit, well-thought-out class with digestible lessons and links to help support my learning, and sure enough, there was.
Julia: That's the most you thing I think I've ever heard during an ad ever.
Amanda: I was extremely excited to take this course on DIY macrame plant hangers. It was extremely exciting, and now I have some beautiful plants hanging in my window.
Julia: Yeah, and that's thanks to Skillshare that you now have those plants hanging there, Amanda. What a cool skill you learned over the Internet.
Amanda: And, you, too, can sign up for two free months of Skillshare Premium, which allows you access to all of their classes, not just of the free ones, at skillshare.com/spirits2. That's skillshare.com/spirits2 for two free months of unlimited access to all of their classes.
Julia: Yep, again, that is skillshare.com/spirits2. Amanda, it's Fall. Fall is upon us right now.
Amanda: Sure is.
Julia: And I need a new wardrobe real bad.
Amanda: Julia, I know this is a segue into our Stitch Fix ad, but I am wearing a Stitch Fix sweatshirt right now. It's the one with these corduroy elbow patches, and-
Julia: Yes, my favorite.
Amanda: I am obsessed. I've had it for, I think, almost two years now, and there's nothing I love better in the world.
Julia: Yeah, so I got my Stitch Fix box right after we returned from Boston, and oh, my God. My stylist crushed it. I asked specifically for... I'm like, "Hey, I really would like to do a little bit more androgynous of a look this fall." I sent them a picture of [Molly Osterburg's 00:30:12] tweet of her in a green suit, and I was like, "Just this vibe, please."
Amanda: Oh, Molly, so wonderful.
Julia: Oh, they just crushed it, like two blazers, tweed pants, and a button-up, and I just am completely stunned. And Stitch Fix is there to give you exactly what you are looking for. It is an online personal styling service that delivers your favorite clothing, shoes, and accessories directly. They have brands you love, brands you don't know yet, exclusive brands you can't find anywhere else. So all you have to do is complete your style profile, and then your expert personal stylist will send you a handpicked box of items based on your style and preference, and they really do listen to what you're looking for, as my blazers could tell you right now. They're just sitting behind me, ready to get hung up in my closet. So there is also no subscription required, so you can pick between automatic shipments or only getting new pieces on demand, so I specific scheduled one for around my birthday as a little birthday treat for me.
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: And then shipping, exchanges, and returns are always free, plus the $20 styling fee that they have automatically applies towards anything you keep in your box, so you keep something in your box, that $20 just goes towards that thing, which is awesome. So you can get started at stitchfix.com/spirits and get 25% off when you keep everything in your box.
Amanda: That's stitchfix.com/spirits for 25% of when you keep everything in your box. Stitchfix.com/spirits. And, finally, Julia, I'm glad that everybody was as starstruck as I was when we interviewed Garth Nix several weeks ago. I'm kind of still not recovered from it, but the reason we actually got in touch with him is because Harper Collins reached out about Angel Mage, his new novel, sponsoring the show, which is so fricking cool. And then once we did the sponsorship, I was like, "Hey, also, um, can maybe Garth talk to us?" And they were like, "Great." So now I also get the pleasure of telling you about his new novel, Angel Mage, which is from Epic Reads.
So this is a stand-alone fantasy novel from Garth, who you know from Sabriel, and just like in Sabriel, my favorite part of Angel Mage, which I inhaled in like one day a couple weeks ago, is the well building. So there is this angelic, magic, and epic quest-filled world. Folks use icons in order to kind of channel that magic and draw upon different angels for different kinds of favors. And my favorite part is that there's just casual matriarchy, like there are women leaders in military, religion, in government, and it's not like a thing. It's just the way that the world is. It's diverse on all counts. There are two women having crushes on either and being disastrous and trying to fall in love, and I just really loved that aspect of it in addition to all the very cool fantasy, magic, and plot elements. And I just desperately need more books in what I hope will become a series.
Julia: Yeah, so if you liked our interview with Garth, if you like fantasy book with women and power and angels and magic and fantastic world building, Angel Mage is now available wherever books and audio books are sold. Go to your local indie bookseller. Pick up a copy. You'll really like it, we promise.
Amanda: We promise, and when you do, show us a picture and tag us on Instagram or Twitter, and we would love to cheer on your newest purchase. That's Angel Mage from Garth Nix. And now let's get back to the show.
Eric: Okay, here is our second story from Kay. "The second and most creepy incident involves almost my whole family. Like I said-"
Amanda: Ooh, I like that the creepiness is ratcheting upward.
Julia: Yes, ratchet that creepiness.
Eric: "Like I said, I have two sisters who are both younger than me. My youngest sister is 17, and one Friday night, she was out late with her friends. I had already gone to bed, as my parents, who are very, very, very, cannot emphasize this enough, heavy sleepers."
Julia: Mm.
Eric: "Around 12:45 a.m., the time is important, my dad wakes up unprompted and hears footsteps walking down the hall and a knock on their door. He rolls over and sits up to see my sister standing in their room near the door. My dad goes, 'What are you doing?' My sister doesn't say anything, and when my dad looks at his clock to yell at my sister for doing laundry so late, assuming she needed something in the laundry room attached to my parents' room, but when he looked back at the door, no one is there."
Amanda: No!
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: "He wakes up my mom in a panic, asking where my sister is. He tells my mom to call my sister right now, ask her where she is and if she is. My sister was still out with her friends several towns over and was totally fine. It's worth noting that my dad is a scientist and logical to a fault."
Julia: Mm.
Eric: "He doesn't believe in anything supernatural, ghostly, or higher power-esque, and he swears on his life all of the details of that night. He described her standing there, smiling a little, wearing a dark hoodie with white writing across the chest and athletic shorts. This is an outfit she wears often. Needless to say, we were all a little bit shaken."
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I'll say.
Julia: I would be.
Eric: I wish to say this story ended there.
Julia: No!
Eric: But it doesn't.
Julia: Oh-oh-oh!
Amanda: Fast ending.
Eric: "About a week later, my sister and her friend were driving around another town when they decided to drive down a well-known haunted room."
Julia: Mm.
Eric: Do you guys have a well-known haunted road around you?
Julia: Yes, we do.
Eric: I don't have a well-known haunted road around me.
Julia: We do have a well-known haunted road. Can't remember the name of it right now, but we do. Amanda and I filmed there.
Eric: So well-known, you can't remember the name.
Amanda: Was it...
Eric: I don't think it counts.
Amanda: Isn't it...
Eric: I don't think it counts if you can't remember the name.
Amanda: Isn't it Mill Pond Road?
Julia: Mill Pond Road? Yeah. Yeah, all right. Mill Pond Road or Old Hollow Road?
Amanda: No, I think that's right. Actually, we filmed this for a project that didn't end up going forward, so why don't we release that video to the public when we hit our next Patreon goal?
Julia: Ooh. That could be cool. Let's do that.
Eric: Sure thing.
Amanda: Why don't we release this video when we hit 350 Patreons?
Julia: That sounds great. I love that idea.
Eric: Sounds great.
Amanda: Amazing. I have long hair still. Julia has cute lipstick on, and we walk through a graveyard. It's wonderful.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's true.
Julia: There's a bunch of stuff that we do. It's great.
Eric: "At the end of said road was an abandoned convent. The legend of the haunting was that it previously housed a religious cult of sorts that met a bloody end..."
Julia: Ooh.
Eric: "...when the priest leader went on a rampage and brutally killed the nuns."
Julia: Almost definitely untrue, but I do love the commitment to the bit.
Eric: Yes. "Once such nun haunts the road. The road is long and winding, with a wall of trees on both sides. There are no streetlights, so you can only see was far as your headlights reach, and the road turns from the pavement to dirt part of the way down."
Julia: Ooh, nothing scarier than bad infrastructure.
Amanda: Ooh, my suspension.
Eric: "They got about halfway down the road before my sister felt that something was very wrong and turned the car around despite her friends' protests. It was 12:45 a.m."
Julia: Oh, no!
Amanda: Ooh, the creepiest hour!
Eric: This is the same time that her father saw her back at the house.
Julia: Shit!
Amanda: Yep.
Julia: Bleh!
Eric: "They never laid eyes on the convent. The following night, two of her friends made the same trek on their own and made it all the way to the end of the road. They didn't get out." I thought that was the end of it. I was like, oh, shit.
Julia: Yeah, but they didn't get out alive.
Eric: "They didn't get out of the car but tried to see if they could spot anything in the windows. At first they saw nothing, but as they were getting ready to leave, scoffing at the ghost story, the girl driving saw something move and turned on the high beams."
Julia: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Eric: "They both swore that they could make out the shape of a nun's habit in the first floor window watching them."
Julia: Oh, hell, no.
Amanda: Oh, no.
Eric: "Fully spooked, they sped away, but they texted my sister in the process. 12:45 a.m."
Julia: Shit!
Eric: "In these instances, it seems like a spirit was looking out for us, but I have also had my fair share of warnings. See, this was quite long, but I'll write it again about the time I seriously pissed off the vengeful she-ghost of Fort Warren."
Julia: Oh.
Eric: "Anyway, hope you enjoyed."
Amanda: Yeah, I need that one. Give me that one, please.
Julia: That was so good.
Amanda: Just grabby hands. Give me more!
Julia: Damn.
Eric: So solid.
Amanda: That was wonderful.
Julia: Would anyone like to hear about a haunted phone?
Amanda: Yes, I would.
Eric: Yes.
Julia: Okay, so this story comes from James. James is from Northern England, and he writes, "I'd just arrived home from a day out, and it was lot later than usual when I set out to walk out my dog, a lovely boy named [Alphy 00:38:56]. Since it was already late and he had plenty of exercise earlier that day, I figured I would just go as long as he needed to get his wiggles out." I like that phrase. That's adorable.
Amanda: Aw.
Julia: "The nearest town High Street was only about 10 minutes away, and that didn't seem quite long enough, but I didn't want to go as far as the local park, especially in the dark. I ended up turning off into the small local cemetery, since I knew it had a lot of dog walkers going there and had a fair few paths to walk around. It's attached to a church but isn't currently in use for interment as it hit capacity back in the 1930s. Since the cemetery was near the road and fairly well lit, I wasn't too concerned...at first. I'd been in plenty of graveyards before, and although I have a fairly robust belief in spirits, I don't find graves too scary."
Good for you, James. I find them very, very creepy. "After a moment, I heard what sounded like somebody screaming. I thought I was alone, but I couldn't see every angle of the graveyard from where I was, and it sounded like the scream was coming from down a long row of graves. I'm not particularly strong or brave of a guy, but having my dog with me gave me a bit of courage, and I absolutely had to go and make sure nobody was in trouble, so I headed immediately towards the source of the sound." Bad idea, bad, bad idea.
Amanda: You are strong and brave, but also maybe too brave, too brave.
Julia: "I found myself at a dead end, facing a hedge and a couple of trees, but no people. There was no way that they could have gotten past me without me seeing. I was confused but a little glad that I wasn't in for a confrontation and figured I must have just heard a noise from the nearby street. But now I had noticed a nearby tomb I hadn't seen before, which was a sort of weathered carving of a woman slumped and clinging to a gravestone." Horrifying.
Eric: No.
Julia: Bad imagery. "I took my phone out to use the light from it to get a closer look, but in the dark of a graveyard, it seemed kind of creepy to have this pale, stone human curled on the ground, when most of the nearby graves were just straightforward gray tombstones, especially since it sounded like I had just heard somebody screaming, and now there was this figure apparently deeply upset, albeit made of stone. As I lifted my phone towards the grave, though, my phone immediately drained its battery and shut down, which I thought was weird, because the battery had been pretty healthy on the way there. But I chalked it up to a funny coincidence and headed home with my dog." Eric, your cough in the middle of that story just scared the shit out of me.
Eric: Sorry.
Julia: No, that's okay. I was just like, oh, I'm telling a scary story, and then loud noise. Anyway, "Now here's the weird part. The phone never turned back on. I had never really had any problems with it before, but it was totally before. Chargers would connect and light up, but it wouldn't even start. Every tutorial and troubleshooting guide told me at this point, there was no clear answer and I should just send it off to see if anybody else could repair it, but unfortunately, it was out of warranty and ended up being easier to replace. I kind of want to go back to the cemetery to get a closer look at that grave in the daylight, but I really don't want to take my new phone with me just in case somehow that area really does have the power to break any electronics taken there."
Amanda: Extremely good.
Julia: I just, I love that imagery a woman wrapped around the tombstone. Oh, God, creepy. I love it.
Eric: "Love" is an interesting choice of words.
Julia: I said it.
Eric: I see what you're saying.
Julia: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Amanda: Extraordinary. So good.
Julia: Now, Amanda, I think you are our last story for the day.
Amanda: I am.
Julia: Take us out. Take us out with a creepy one, babe.
Amanda: I will. I have a creepy with a little touch of cool, which I think is very fitting for the end of this episode.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: So this comes from Jess, who titles this email, "A possible murder, a creepy demon, and two friendly giants. Hi, team. While I can't promise to tell my stories with the same eloquence and finesse as some of the other listeners, I do hope you enjoy them. I recently finished binge listening to the Urban Legends episode between catching up on all the other amazing eps while I work. FYI, I previously listened to Spirits in the shower but got way too creeped out by some of the spooky AF stories, so stopped this habit pretty quickly."
Julia: Love that.
Amanda: "All the stories reminded me of two that I thought you might be interested in. The first, totally creepy and my own experience with what might have been a demon, while the second is a really cute story from my hometown that features giants." What's not to love?
Julia: Ooh, okay, yes. I am here for it. I'm here for a palate cleanser at the end of this episode.
Amanda: [inaudible 00:43:20] Okay, "This all started in my parents' old house when I was around 10 years old. We lived in a pretty normal house in a small town just outside of Bristol in the UK. It was a boring town. Nothing exciting ever happened, and there was nothing creepy to worry about. I can't recall the first time it happened, but I believe it was just after my parents had built a large extension to the side of the house featuring a garage on the ground floor and then my bedroom directly above it. We started to get random phone calls from a strange number..."
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: "...always with either a man or a woman on the other end asking for Mr. Davies. Now this usually wouldn't be strange, right? Mr. Davies could have been the previous owner, or the caller could have gotten the wrong number, so nothing to worry about, right? Except no Mr. Davies had ever lived in this house, and the people calling were insistent that this was the correct number, so we always politely told them we didn't know who they were asking for and to please stop calling."
Julia: I don't like this.
Amanda: "This continued for a while, until one evening where I was home alone, the phone ring." Anyone else super creeped out by phones ringing when you're home alone? I always was.
Julia: Yes, yes.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: And also I just have so much anxiety around phone calls to begin with. The fact that these people are angrily calling, asking for a person who doesn't live there and probably doesn't exist, even worse.
Amanda: It's bad. It's bad. "So this evening, the phone rang, and sure enough, it was the strange number, and the woman asked for Mr. Davies. 'He's never lived here,' I said, ready to hang up as the person on the other end never said anything except, 'Is Mr. Davies there?' This time, however, she said, 'Why?' 'Uh, I don't know. He's just never lived here. I think you have the wrong number,' I replied. 'Did you kill him?" she asked."
Julia: What?
Amanda: "'Excuse me?' I said, surprised they had actually said more than the usual four words and a little, I don't know, upset to suddenly be accused of murder."
Julia: Faire.
Amanda: "'You killed him, didn't you?' she said, this time with a menacing laugh."
Julia: No! Worse! Terrible!
Amanda: "I promptly hung up the phone and hid behind the sofa until my parents got home." Smart.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: "We later called the police to see if they could track the calls, but strangely, they said the number that was calling us..." Any guesses here?
Julia: Uh...
Eric: No idea.
Julia: Hasn't been in service in years.
Amanda: Didn't exist.
Julia: Even worse.
Eric: Ooh. Wait, like the numbers didn't exist.
Amanda: The number didn't exist.
Julia: No one had that phone number, ooh, bad.
Amanda: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Julia: Hate this.
Amanda: "They blocked the number anyway, and so the calls stopped."
Julia: Okay, so maybe it did exist.
Amanda: I don't know. I mean, it couldn't have been private. Maybe they were not enough digits? I have no idea. I have no idea. "But at this point, I started seeing a tall, shadowy figure around the house. He was well over six feet tall, and though I never saw his face, I always got a terrifying feeling of dread and horror whenever he was around."
Julia: That's Mr. Davies.
Amanda: "I could never look at him directly, and he was only ever in the original house, so never came into my bedroom or the garage."
Julia: That's why you put add-ons on the houses.
Amanda: Very helpful. "There was, however, a window in my bedroom from when that wall used to be in the external window in the house, and it looked onto the top of the stairs, so I'd often see him looking through this window at me."
Julia: I hate that so much.
Amanda: "He never bothered me."
Julia: Okay, listen. Uh, Jess...
Amanda: That's bothering you.
Julia: He's bothering you. He's bothering you right now.
Amanda: "But I just kind of accepted he was around and got on with things."
Julia: Oh, Jesus.
Amanda: "Until anything, when I was 18."
Julia: Oh, God.
Amanda: "Far too old to be scary of creepy noises in dark houses." I'm 28, Jess, and I don't think that's true. Am I 28? I'm 27. Never mind.
Julia: No, you're 27. I was like, wait, what? Back it up, back it up.
Amanda: All right. "My parents had gone out for the evening and wouldn't be back until late. The shadow man had been around a lot more than normal, so being the sensible person I was back then, I took my parents' dog and enough food for the whole night into my room, where he still never went, and decided it was best not to bother him. I thought we had good understanding. If I didn't bother him, he wouldn't bother me. How wrong I was."
Julia: No. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Eric: Oh, boy.
Julia: You're telling the story really well, and I'm extremely terrified, and also, you're exhibiting very good Spirits-endorsed behavior. That was a great idea.
Amanda: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Julia: Excellent. You know the rules of this ghost, and you...
Amanda: Stockpile?
Julia: ...made it stick to him. I appreciate.
Amanda: A pile, have a dog bowl. All right.
Julia: Excellent. Good girl.
Amanda: Unfortunately, story takes a turn here. So...
Julia: Oh, God.
Eric: Great. Great. Love that.
Julia: Eric, you sound so pissed. I love it.
Amanda: All right, "Around midnight, the dog starts to get-"
Eric: I got yelled at one time for telling a story like this at the end of an episode, but no, it's okay because it's October.
Amanda: Listen, Eric, this dog doesn't die.
Julia: That's fair.
Eric: Okay, okay.
Amanda: Around midnight-
Julia: And also it ends with a palate cleanser, so...
Eric: But his spirit lived on as a beautiful stone statue.
Julia: I'm so sad.
Eric: That's why I thought it was fine.
Amanda: I forgive you.
Julia: So sad.
Amanda: Back to Jess. "Around midnight, the dark starts to get agitated. He keeps looking at the door and won't stop growling. I turn off the film I was watching and wait to see if I can hear anything. Sure enough, there is the unmistakable of sound of footsteps down the hallway, through the kitchen, and then the noise of the internal door to the garage being unlocked and slowly opened."
Julia: Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Don't interact with the locks.
Amanda: "I freak out."
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: "There was no one else in the house, and it can't be my parents home early. The shadow man..." I think we can call him Mr. Davies, Jess. "...had never entered the garage or my room before. I had assumed he was somehow attached to the original house, and as my room didn't exist before, he couldn't get it. He'd also never really had a physical presence or had been able to touch and move objects before."
Julia: Ohh. No, no, no, no, no. Don't like this. So much dread happening.
Amanda: "A few moments later, the garage door opens again, and I can hear the footsteps going down the hallway towards my stairs."
Julia: Mm-mm.
Amanda: "He started climbing the stairs slowly, seeming to be dragging something heavy."
Julia: Ahh!
Eric: No. Just no.
Amanda: "By now I was barricading the door..."
Julia: Good.
Amanda: "...unsure as to whether my safe space was really that safe from him at all. In a panic, I texted our neighbor, who was a policeman, saying I thought someone had broken in. I could tell that whatever was coming up the stairs was near the top, his dark frame creeping into edge of view at the window that looked over the stairs. The air felt electric, and I was sure that something terrible was about to happen to me. Just before it reached my door, the front door to the house burst open, and the lights were all turned on. In an instant, the creature/man/whatever it was disappeared, and I ran down the stairs to greet our neighbor."
Julia: Oh, thank God the neighbor showed up.
Amanda: "I saw the shadow man a few more times after that but moved out to live with my boyfriend pretty quickly and haven't seen him in the five years since this. My parents also recently sold the house, but it took almost two years to sell what was a beautiful family home. I'm convinced that the shadow man had something to do with this."
Julia: Yeah, no shit.
Amanda: "My theory is that Mr. Davies of course had something to do with this, that there was maybe a death or even a murder at some point, and in the building the extension, we disturbed something that should have been left alone. Either way, I'm glad I never have to go back to that house and really hope the new owners haven't encountered him yet."
Julia: Okay, I need the palate cleanser right now, because I'm going to die otherwise.
Amanda: Don't worry, Julie. This is a cool story from Jess' hometown of Bristol. "The legend of Goram and Vincent. Goram and Vincent were brothers, and while they shared-"
Julia: Vincent's a quite an opposite name than Goram, I feel.
Amanda: Vincent is also sometimes called Ghyston? Ghyston?
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: So Goram and Vincent, for the sake of my American pronunciation, were brothers, "and while they shared the genetics, the two giants were very different. Vincent was wise and smart, while Goram was much lazier and enjoyed his ale a little more than your average giant. The two brothers each fell hopelessly in love with the beautiful Avona, and constantly tried to outdo the other in order to win her affections. Avona grew tired of the two competing and agreed she would marry the first of the two to drain a nearby lake."
Julia: Oh, interesting. Is that why you want to-
Amanda: Weird task, Avona, but okay.
Julia: Why? Why?
Amanda: "The brothers quickly began digging, racing to see who could get to the sea first. Vincent began to dig a deep, wide channel, while Goram dug a much smaller one. Goram's channel quickly overtook Vincent's, but the giant was unfit and soon got tired and thirsty. Happy with his progress, he settled down to drink some ale, laughing at his brother, who seemed to be working far harder and getting nowhere. As Vincent continued to dig, Goram continued to drink, soon becoming very drunk and falling asleep in the sun."
Julia: Mmm.
Amanda: "While Goram slept, Vincent completed his digging, and the lake drained into the Bristol channel. When Goram awoke, he was outraged that his brother had beaten him and stamped his foot in anger before submerging himself in the Severn Estuary and choosing to drown rather than see his brother with the beautiful Avona."
Julia: Okay, bold choice. All right.
Eric: Power move.
Amanda: "The two giants and their story can be seen all around Bristol with the river Avon running through the gorge that Vincent built and a much smaller gorge at Hazel Brook being that of Goram. When Goram stamped his foot, he created the giant's footprint in Henbury, and if you look out into the sea, two islands, Flat Holm and Steep Holm, are believed to be the head and shoulder of Goram."
Julia: That's adorable.
Amanda: "They have many different versions of the story, but all the landmarks are beautiful to look at and make Bristol such a pretty city. We also have an annual hot air balloon festival, which is currently happening and makes for some beautiful views. If you're ever in the UK, Bristol has so many legends and stories and is close to the infamous town of Glastonbury, which has so many connections to the spirit world, you could fill a library with all those stories."
Julia: I love it.
Amanda: "With much love from the other side of the pond, Jess."
Julia: Thank you. That is a very good palate cleanser. I appreciate it.
Amanda: Oh, baby. Very good. It was the dragging the body that made me decide that, yeah, this is... or dragging whatever...
Julia: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Amanda: ...that this is the one worth telling, but oh, I'm so delightfully creeped out.
Julia: Whew, yeah, that was a good one. I'm into it. Oh, whew.
Eric: It was nice. It was nice to get something refreshing and not terrifying to wrap this all out.
Julia: Yeah, you need that chaser sometimes, you know?
Amanda: I'm so glad that we got to celebrate our fourth Halloween together as a podcast and our Most Spookiest Hometown Urban Legends episode ever. Can't wait.
Julia: Me, too. People really came through with those spooky stories. I appreciate it.
Amanda: They really did, and as a reminder, when we hit Hometowns episode 30, triple X, we're going to do a very sexy Hometown special, so if you have any sexy urban legends...
Julia: Send us your sexy hometowns.
Amanda: Send them over.
Eric: I'm not looking forward to that one...
Julia: It's going to be great.
Eric: ...at all.
Amanda: Beautiful, wonderful. Listeners, whether you exhibit pro Spirits Podcast behavior or things that we would yell at you for when facing hauntings, above all, remember...
Julia: Stay creepy.
Amanda: Stay cool.