transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:02] The 2026 Chevy Equinox is more than an SUV. It's your Sunday tailgate and your parking lot snack bar. Your lucky jersey, your chairs, and your big cooler fit perfectly in your even bigger cargo space. And when it's go time, your 11.3-inch diagonal touch screens got the playbook, the playlist, and the tech to stay a step ahead. It's more than an SUV, it's your Equinox. Chevrolet, together let's drive.

Speaker 2:
[00:30] K-Pop Demon Hunters' Saja Boys' Breakfast Meal and Huntrix Meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi?

Speaker 3:
[00:39] It's not a battle.

Speaker 4:
[00:40] So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day. It is an honor to share.

Speaker 5:
[00:46] No, it's our honor.

Speaker 4:
[00:48] It is our larger honor.

Speaker 6:
[00:49] No, really, stop.

Speaker 2:
[00:51] You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side.

Speaker 7:
[00:58] And participate in McDonald's while supplies last.

Speaker 8:
[01:00] Half man, half ghost. Up next on the Campfire.

Speaker 9:
[01:13] Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire.

Speaker 8:
[01:18] On the line, we have Brittany from Canada. Now, I saw her nice setup there with the mic and the Rode pop filter, and I said, ah, she must be a podcaster. No, she's a singer. So, how cool is that? And you can even tell in her speaking voice, she has a very pleasant, pleasant voice. But the point here today is not to talk about that, but to talk about the story. And Brittany is going to tell us a story that surrounds her son and her dad. And we're so glad to have her with us, she's been listening for a few years. Brittany, welcome to the show and tell us what happened.

Speaker 10:
[01:54] Thank you, Jim. Yeah, so my son, Declan has always been pretty tapped in. It's been a real delight to see the world through his eyes in a spooky sort of way. And when my dad was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2024, yeah, it seemed to almost ramp up. It started with him seeing this kind of, he said there's a ghost at the end of the bed and it was this woman figure within days of dad getting diagnosed. That was the first time that it was really clear that something was going on. But after my dad passed away, June, 2025, Declan, it took him a little while to understand because he was three.

Speaker 8:
[02:41] Sure, of course.

Speaker 10:
[02:42] So he was just starting to kind of process it. And in the like depth of his grief, there seemed to be something kind of special happen where, I don't know, he woke up one morning at like 3 a.m., which is kind of the magic time, right? And he was like, he was just crying. And so I went in to his room and I said, okay, buddy, I got him settled. And I was like, I'm gonna go downstairs. I gotta grab a snack. I was hungry and I was like, I'll come back up in a minute. So I went downstairs and I thought to myself, well, he's funny that he's so quiet. Normally he'd be like, mama, you know? And I thought I like heard or felt, intuited this voice in my head that sounded like my dad saying, you're a good mom. And I was like, well, that's nice, but I'm probably just comforting myself, you know? So I went up to, I came back upstairs and I was like, man, he's awful quiet. And he was laying in his bed and he was smiling. And he said, I saw Grampy. And I just like this like wash, like this feeling went over my body like, whoa, that's wild. Yeah. And I was like, where was he? Like I wanted all the details because I love this stuff, right? And I was like, where was he? He was like, he was right over there, about probably three or four feet away. I said, what do you look like? He said, half ghost, half person.

Speaker 8:
[04:06] Oh my Lord.

Speaker 10:
[04:07] So cute, like a cute way to describe what a lot of people say, right? Yeah. And he said he saw kind of like his head down to about his below his torso. And he was smiling and he said, I love you Declan. I love you. I love you. Which was really sweet. It kind of felt like, yeah, just something I wish that I could have seen him, of course, but I was so grateful that Declan got to. And since then, dad's shown up to him a number of times. He'll see him at school sometimes as teachers. Some of them think that's amazing. Some of them get freaks them out. But he'll see my dad with him at school. He'll see him sometimes just when we're outside, he says he's climbing a tree or he's standing on someone's head, just being silly, trying to make him laugh. So it's just been this really lovely thing to get to, to watch and to know that dad isn't going to miss out on his life, I guess, you know?

Speaker 8:
[05:05] That is so cool. And the thing is, is that, I mean, I believe he's seeing him. He's got to be seeing him because where would he get half man, half ghost? Where would that, I mean, he's what, three, four years old. Where would he get that phraseology from?

Speaker 10:
[05:20] Yeah, exactly, exactly. I just thought that was really, really neat because I don't know, he usually would just say something would look like a ghost, like what he would see on, I don't know, on like cartoons or something.

Speaker 8:
[05:32] Right. Half man, half ghost. Wow.

Speaker 10:
[05:35] Yeah, half ghost, half person. Really just clear like that. Like, of course, that's what he looked like, you know.

Speaker 8:
[05:42] And the thing is, is that I wonder as years go on, how long he will continue to see him because they say they outgrow, right? And I wonder if he'll remember it.

Speaker 10:
[05:57] I hope he does. He's pretty obsessed with spooky things. So I think that's, I think he'll hopefully remember and since he's become a fan of your show as well. So he loves it. We both love it. Thank you.

Speaker 8:
[06:10] I love to hear when families listen together. And I think, you know, obviously, that's the way to do it with kids. You know, some stories might not be appropriate, but some stories are very much right. Yeah, you just skip those ones that are a little too scary or whatever. But love to hear that. And the thing is, is that I'm so sorry about the loss of your dad. But I will say this, it's obvious he's still with you both.

Speaker 10:
[06:35] Yeah, yeah, he is. I've got more stories and I can call back another time. But yeah, he's made it clear a few times, which has been really awesome. It's something we talked about when he was in hospice. He wanted to find ways to come through and I was like, I'll be watching, you know? And he's done it.

Speaker 8:
[06:54] That's very sweet. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Keep singing and stay spooky.

Speaker 10:
[07:01] Thank you. Thank you, Jim.

Speaker 8:
[07:03] Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold. So glad to be with you and spring has sprung and we're so happy here in Ohio. And I hope that you're having a great time of year, wherever you are and whatever you do and whatever time you're listening or watching this. If you're not familiar, Jim Harold's Campfire is the show where real people tell real stories in a real great way. And we've been doing it for 17 years now. And the formula is pretty much the same from the beginning. Real people come on, they say, Jim, something weird happened. And I say, person, please tell us. And they tell us. And that's how we get these great stories. And we're so appreciative of all of our listeners. Also very appreciative of our Plus Club members who can go back and get the whole history and the whole backlog of the campfire going back to 2017 and so much more. It's actually what allows us to do this show. So, if you would like to support the show and get the whole backlog of thousands of spooky stories, jimherald.com/plus, jimherald.com/plus. We have a great deal going on now for our direct version that you can get $30 off your first year. That's fantastic. Or $5 off your first month. I often say it's on a monthly basis, it is less than the price of a fast food meal these days and a lot better for you. With that, we will get on to our first Campfire story and here we go. We have a brand new listener, two weeks, David from Pennsylvania and not only is he a brand new viewer and listener, and just signed up to tell his story. Please be like David and go to jimherald.com/campfire to do the same. But I think he may have won the prize for the best all-time backdrop while we've been doing this in video, with an actual campfire. That's beautiful. That's gorgeous, David. I love it.

Speaker 11:
[09:05] Now the story is going to stick, the background is good.

Speaker 8:
[09:09] I don't think so. I don't think so at all. I think it's going to be great. In fact, I'm very interested because I shared with you, Dar is of Italian lineage, 100 percent. She has educated me about a lot of the traditions like the Moloik and all these different things. The Molocio, I think that the school people call it. All of those different things. But this one she wasn't familiar with, but you are and you experienced it, and we can't wait to hear about it. So tell us your story, David, and thank you for signing up.

Speaker 11:
[09:42] Now, the bad part is I was only six or seven years old when this happened. So it's like I'm retelling the retellings of it that I remember. My mother just passed away. She was 90, so she's the Italian inside of the family. Her maiden name was my last name, which is German, and my dad was German. He got a kick out of it because he would make fun of it, but in a nice as you can be way. They never really, he's the one that came up with the idea of we have to drop off the spirits. It was known from my grandfather, if you go to a funeral or if you go to a viewing, you never go straight home because then something bad will happen in the household connected with the funeral or whatever, which is creepy. But my dad always said it was like that, I think they just wanted an excuse to go out to eat afterwards. It's not like we went to funerals all the time, but when we did, it was just, don't forget, you got to stop somewhere. It was just known. My dad, one time, I remember this because my grandfather was real little, his name was Oggy Panucci, good name. He said, you know what, I don't have time, we're just going to take you straight home today. He actually opened the car door and it looked like he was going to jump about. So my dad was like, okay, okay, okay, we'll go. So I think up in Cleveland, they have an Eaton Park. Did you ever hear of that?

Speaker 8:
[11:17] Oh, yeah. We used to go to Eaton Park. In fact, my Italian father-in-law used to love that place. But anyway, go ahead.

Speaker 11:
[11:25] Yeah, my dad would joke around that that place is filled with spirits of all the times people stopped off there to drop them off before they go home. It was just that type of a joke where we would get in the restaurant and my dad would brush the spirits off of him and shake his legs saying, there's one on me and blah, blah, blah. It was true and naked. But we would do that. I just barely remember this because I was little. Now, the story that I sent to you had to do with, we had to go clear out to Ohio because back then we didn't have GPS. So going out to like Massillon, it was Massillon, Ohio.

Speaker 8:
[12:04] Yeah, I know Massillon.

Speaker 11:
[12:07] And we went to the viewing of, I don't remember because I was little. And we were on our way home. And of course, my mom said, why don't we stop at the cheese factory? Because they knew, I remember the old man that lived there was named Joe. I forget his wife's name, but Joe and Maria, or yeah, Maria, Joe and Maria had a cheese factory. So that way we can stop at a place of business. My grandfather would always say, it's not a restaurant, it just has to be a place of business. You can't just go straight home to your family with whatever it was. He didn't even have a name for it, but anyway. So we go to the parking lot of this cheese factory and I can remember this, I must have been seven, and everybody was headed towards the business part of it. And I remember this old Italian guy came out and said, David, come in the house, I have cookies for you. So instead of me going into the cheese factory, I went and ran after him to his home. So whatever, we stayed there an hour or so and got back in the car, didn't think anything of it. We got back home, went to bed, everything normal. The next day, my mom yells down the steps, George, you won't believe this. You won't believe this. We just saw them. Joe died. Joe died last night. And he had a heart attack or something. And my sister, I only have one sister. I'm like a mistake baby. I have a 14, she's a 14 year old. She's 14 year old difference than me. But anyway, she said, Oh my God, David killed Joe. And everybody's like, What are you talking about? And they said, Remember, he didn't go into the, he went straight into the house. He dropped the spirits off with him. And then so that was that story.

Speaker 8:
[13:56] Wow, wow, that's a pretty good story. And you know, I think some of the best stories, I love you were saying, Oh, well, I was only six years old. I actually enjoy those kinds of stories. Because to me, it's the stories have been told over and over and over. And we have some of those in my family that I was told, I wasn't involved in, but happened before I was born. And as long as my dad's still around, he's 90. My mom unfortunately passed a number of years ago. But these were stories that they told over and over and over. They never changed. And to me, that gives them more credibility. You know, I think it's awesome. I think it's an awesome story. So let me ask you this. Now, here's the true test. David today, 2026, goes to a funeral. It goes to a funeral. Do you still, do you still drop off the spirits at a place of business?

Speaker 11:
[14:50] It's the whole, it's the whole risk reward. I know it's silly, but what can it hurt?

Speaker 8:
[14:56] Exactly. Yeah, can't, can't hurt might help. Well, David, pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. So glad you found this.

Speaker 11:
[15:08] I got to go buy, I got to go buy some merch now.

Speaker 8:
[15:11] Hey, I agree. And you know, I see you have that Penn State, Nittany Lion on there. I won't hold that against you. Both my girls, Ohio State girls, but I won't hold that against you.

Speaker 11:
[15:25] My son has the basement done in Buckeye stuff, so.

Speaker 8:
[15:28] There you go. Go Bucs. Excellent. Thanks, David. You have a great night. Stay spooky.

Speaker 11:
[15:35] Yeah, you too. Thank you.

Speaker 2:
[15:38] So good, so good, so good.

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Speaker 8:
[17:04] Go to your happy price, Priceline. He always has such amazing stories. Gary from Canada is here once again. In this time, he's going to talk about one of his adventures when he was very young and the strangeness that ensued. Gary, welcome back. It's always a pleasure to hear you. You have such amazing stories. We're almost glad to hear them and tell us what happened.

Speaker 15:
[17:30] I appreciate that. This story, as you mentioned, happened when I was a young teenager. As I mentioned in other stories, where I grew up as a young child and in my teens, I lived close to a large park with a lot of history, large woods and a large cliff face that dropped down onto a lake. All kinds of great areas with the history over the last 150 years. This happened, a couple of friends and I, Dave and Rob, we were two of my good friends at the time. We would just go to the park, we'd do all the regular things. We'd toss a football around, play baseball, walk through the trails, go fishing, do things like that. And we'd walk along the lake shore, looking for whatever washed up, whether it's dead fish or hoping maybe there's a washed up alien, some googly-eyed alien washes up, but never found that.

Speaker 8:
[18:19] Buried treasure?

Speaker 15:
[18:21] Buried treasure, you name it. So on one of these occasions as we were walking along the lake shore, we were kind of looking up because there was a cliff face. They were just sand cliffs and they were probably 200 or so feet high. And we walked along and we always noticed there was one stretch where there was an open wooded area, but there was also an area where it was the sand cliffs, where we could see hundreds if not thousands of swallows that had pecked and clawed holes in there for nesting, I imagine. So they're constantly flying in and out. It was so cool to watch. So at one point, there were actually trails through the woods on top of that cliff, going right along the edge of the cliff, which is dangerous. The footing wasn't good. There were tree roots and things. But one time we went up and walked along the air and said, let's get up close to those bird holes there. So we went up there, we looked down, and we said, you know, there's enough of a slope that we can shimmy down if we're careful. There was a kind of a sandy slope beside this kind of area where the bird holes were. And that sand was more like winter packing snow. It was hard and they pecked in. And the other area where we shimmy down, we looked into the holes, and we shouldn't have done that, bothering the poor birds. But as we were investigating that area, one of us spotted a really big hole, we said, this is bizarre, this can't be a 500-pound swallow that's living in this hole. So we said, that's a big hole, big meaning in diameter, I'm guessing maybe it was two or two and a half feet, roughly round hole. So we said, that's kind of cool. What is in that? How did that hole get made? So, I think it was day first, he kind of crawled halfway in, went in there and said, it's pitch dark, you can't see anything. So we came, we decided we're going to come back the next day. And we came back the next day, and people have asked me in telling this story over the years, you know, why didn't you bring a flashlight? I don't know. We brought, we decided to bring a candle on a little plastic plate and a lighter to light it. So what we did is, Dave went in first, we had like a stubby candle, lit that and he kind of pushed it on his hands and knees. We see him go in, he going, oh, this is cool, like there's a tight tunnel, worked his way in and he got to, I don't know how many feet in, but he got to an area where there was a cave on the left and a cave on the right, which he said was about five feet in diameter, maybe four feet high, carved out of this harder sand. And then he looked around there and then he went through another longer tunnel to the back where there was the last cave, which had a much lower ceiling, maybe three feet high, but it was wider and thinner. And he got in there and he said, this is so cool. And he mentioned that the candle blew out a couple of times. But the one thing I remember he mentioned was the smell in there. It smelled like death. You know, there's a smell. You smell a dead raccoon or you smell a dead animal. There's that awful stench. And he's like almost gagging. We could hear him almost throwing up in his mouth. Like, he's going, oh, this is awful. And then all of a sudden it was quiet and we're yelling into this cave and it's, you know, echoing off the caves and tunnels. We're going, you know, Dave, what's going on? What's going on? You see anything? And then he didn't respond for a while. And then suddenly he goes, what the, you know, F is that? And we go, what would you find? And he goes, there's something in this last cave here with me. And he said, what do you mean something with it? He says, I can see its yellow eyes blinking.

Speaker 8:
[21:47] Oh my God. Oh man.

Speaker 15:
[21:50] What is it? Canary yellow eyes. And we're thinking, oh, maybe some rodents, some squirrel or a skunk or something's gotten back there. And so he's looking at it and he goes, it's making the weirdest sounds. It's this weird crunching sound. It's blinking these yellow eyes and that smell is just overpowering. I'm like gagging. And so he comes crawling back out and we look at him and he's usually the loudmouth of the bunch. He was really extrovert. He's just usually really boisterous. So he comes out, he's white as a ghost, and he's just sitting there looking at the ground and his mouth is like a big O and he's just kind of not saying anything. We said, Dave, what happened? What did you see? He goes, just go in there. It's a weird looking creature. I don't know what it is. I don't think it's an animal. It looks almost, he said it would look almost like a doll. But how would a doll be moving? Right. So then Rob just laughed and he says, it's probably a squirrel or something. He said, let me go in there. So he took the plate and lit the candle, slowly pushed it in, went through the caves, went to the final cave, looked around, and all of a sudden I hear him, holy, there is something back here. And so he says, you got to come see this. So he calls me. So he comes back out. And anyways, he said, your turn to go in. And I'm going, I believe you, I don't need to go in. And I suffer from plastrophobia, so I've never wanted to go into tight places. And I kind of think that happened because before this had happened, when I was a young kid, probably before I was even 10 years old, probably eight or nine, hanging out with friends, we were hanging out at a gym and there was almost like a yoga mat that you work on. And we were playing there and these typically other boys came in and somehow they rolled me up inside this yoga mat. So my arms were pinned and I was claustrophobic and I had a claustrophobia and I said, I can't move. And then one of these guys pulls out a praying mantis that he caught. So they got me pinned sitting on top of me and they put it up to my nose and they said, it's going to crawl up your nose and lay eggs. And I had such a freaky, I was screaming trying to get out. They wouldn't get out. My friend was trying to push them off. They're bullies. So that stuck with me. And ever since then claustrophobia. And then when they said, go in there and see what it is. And as you go through this tunnel, your shoulders are scraping against the sides because it's only two feet or so round or poster. So they say, well, you're a pussy, you're a wimp. And finally, I just had to suck it up and say, I don't want to have the rest of my life. These guys are going to school saying, look, this guy's a wimp. So I sucked it up, went in there. And I started going in, shoulders scraping against the sand. And I feel like a big anaconda is wrapped around me, it's like sucking the breath out of me every breath I take. And I go in, get to the first caves, take a break, go through the second tunnel, go to the back. And they say, do you see it? I go, no, not yet. So he said, we'll get closer. So I take the candle, I hold it up and it starts flickering like crazy. I hold it, go closer to the back of that cave. And then I see something kind of hunkered down in the very back of the cave, kind of sitting there. And I'm thinking, that does look like an old tattered doll, but it looks kind of like a witch, meaning it had the blinking yellow eyes. It had this weird, frizzled hair, you know, four or two long, just long frizzled hair, it was a long crooked nose. And you could see it had this kind of a crooked mouth with these yellow teeth. But the sound that was, you know, that smell was there of death. But the sound it was making, I could best describe as like snapping tree branches, kind of a crackling sound, like bones or something breaking. And then I'm looking at it and I said, I don't know what this is. I'm getting out of here. And the thing suddenly perked up.

Speaker 8:
[25:48] Oh boy.

Speaker 15:
[25:49] And that's when all hell broke loose because this thing suddenly starts running towards me. Not only does it run towards me, but from what I remember, it ran up the side of the tunnel. Then it was on the top of the tunnel upside down. Sounding, the way I was describing, it sounded like an enraged, dungeness crab running across a cobblestone street. There was that sound of a hard shell, just a clacking, must have been something on it that was clamoring. I went running or scrambling out of my hands and knees so fast through that tunnel and those caves and got out of there. Once I got out, I ran away from them. I didn't stop. I went straight home.

Speaker 8:
[26:28] I don't blame you.

Speaker 15:
[26:29] Yeah. They came home and they said, what happened? I explained to them what happened. We were all freaked out. Of course, we hadn't told our parents about any of this. As it turns out later, I guess we had spoken in my room or someone's room, and one of our parents overheard what we had said about these sparrow holes and that big hole we'd crawled into, and then they figured that's very dangerous. What if that collapsed? It easily collapse and your kid's dead. They had contacted the authorities, I'm assuming the police, and the next time we went there to check things out, we realized that we found out that the police had come and they sent someone there and blew it up with dynamite. They put a stick or sticks of dynamite in those caves just so it wasn't exposed, because another child could go in there and it caves in, and they blame the city.

Speaker 8:
[27:20] Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. You know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of it, the Tim Curry vision. Come down here, Georgie, we all float down here. Come down here, Gary, we all float down here.

Speaker 15:
[27:36] But a freaky thing, because I've had nightmares over the years, not so much anymore, but to have this freaky looking thing and trying to make sense of it later, the smell of death and discussing it with adults at the time, it was probably some kind of an animal, but what kind of an animal resembles that? It wasn't some animated doll that had a smell like death feature with blinking eyes and moving limbs that runs towards you and goes on the roof of the cave. But it probably had, it was an animal that had maybe animals that had caught and killed and it was eating it in there, and there was that smell, and that's why the candle kept going out.

Speaker 8:
[28:14] Yeah, and you were going to be the next entree, Gary.

Speaker 15:
[28:17] And maybe we were hallucinating too with that smell, that stench of death in there. Maybe that's not enough oxygen in your lungs, maybe it makes you go a little wonky, I don't know.

Speaker 8:
[28:27] Yeah.

Speaker 15:
[28:28] But to make a long story short, my two friends, Dave, ended up passing away in his late 30s, massive heart attack, and Rob died not much later than that, he died in his mid 40s. And I'm still around, and she's still tormenting me, my nightmares occasionally. But it's one of those things that sticks with you, bizarre. But I like to think that it was some kind of a weird animal. And whatever it was, hopefully when they blew it up with dynamite, that was the end of it.

Speaker 8:
[28:59] That's terrifying. That's terrifying. There are odd things out there we do not understand, Gary, and you're one of those people who has run into several of them.

Speaker 15:
[29:09] I'm a magnet for this stuff, I think.

Speaker 8:
[29:11] Well, but I think that's a real thing. I think some people tend to have more of the experiences. Maybe they're more open to it. Maybe they're more of, like you said, almost a magnet to it. I don't know, but I do believe that's absolutely the case. But we always appreciate your willingness to share.

Speaker 15:
[29:26] Yeah, it's nice to share the stories anyways. But thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

Speaker 8:
[29:31] Thanks so much, Gary. Stay spooky.

Speaker 15:
[29:33] Same to you, Jim. Stay spooky.

Speaker 8:
[29:36] Next up is Dylan, and we're so glad to speak with him today, and he's going to tell us about a supernatural and surreal experience. Dylan, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. Tell us what happened.

Speaker 16:
[29:50] Yeah, thank you. So yeah, it's kind of a weird story where it's not something that I even necessarily thought of as being supernatural exactly so much as on the day, I was like, wow, all of this stuff is so weird when it's happening altogether. And then listening to the Campfire here, I heard another storyteller actually tell a story of one of their travel experiences, and it kind of brought this one to mind for me. I was like, you know, that was really strange. So essentially what happened is when I was back in college, I went to school in Boston, Massachusetts, and then my parents were living in Rhode Island. So I would often take the train from Boston, from South Station into Providence, Rhode Island to go visit my parents. And so this particular day, I lived in the Harvard area. So I took the red line to go to South Station, and I got up in the morning, just normal as ever, and my phone wasn't really working right. So normally I would call my parents and let them know, oh yeah, I'm going to take this train or whatever, but it wasn't working right. So I kind of just put it away and carried on with my day to go on with my travels. I got into the Red Line train station there, and normally it's a very, very busy area. Harvard Square, there's lots of people, there are lots of tourists, and people going to school and all that stuff. So normally very, very busy. But this day, there was literally nobody else in the train station. At first, I thought maybe there was something going on, that the trains were actually closed and I just missed the signs or something. But the next train pulled right up, and then I was like, okay, I guess it's a weird time of day. I happened to hit it, you know? And I went and got onto the train. And when I did, there was nobody in the train car, which again was very unusual. It's the red line. It's one of the busiest lines for the subway in Boston. So I was like, man, this is, you know, this is super strange. But again, I was like, maybe it's just that perfect time of day where for whatever reason, there's not really anybody else around. And so I kind of just sat down and we went along. And over the next several stops, nobody else got on, at least into my car. I didn't see the other cars, but nobody else got on. So I was like, man, that's so strange. And then we get to South Station, we get off and there was a couple of people around, but again, it was very weirdly empty. It felt like, man, where is everybody? And so when you're coming from the T up into South Station, you like go up kind of a couple of staircases and then it opens up right into the whole train station. So you kind of kind of see everything out in front of you as you come up the stairs. Right. And so when I was coming up the stairs, I look out at everything and right in front of me, just like a few paces ahead of the stairs, there's this man and he is standing very rigidly up straight. His eyes are rolled back in his head and he is kind of shaking. He almost looked like he was having some sort of seizure, but he was upright as well. So I'm like, oh my goodness, what's happening? Is this person okay? And I'm looking around thinking surely there's regular EMS people in the train station, there's the train station security and stuff. I'm thinking surely somebody is about to run over and see if this guy needs help. And I'm looking around and nobody else seems to notice him.

Speaker 8:
[34:00] Oh man, oh man.

Speaker 16:
[34:03] It was so freaky because, you know, sure there are people that, you know, they have substance abuse issues or whatever, that maybe are experiencing some sort of situation. But normally somebody is still at least noticing, you know, like you're never, even if they're not necessarily rushing to help a person, you can see that other people can see them. This did not feel like that. This felt like I was the only person that could see him, and it was very, very strange. And I was getting ready to go and actually try to get him some help and, you know, just reach out to the train security people. When I looked up behind him was the board that tells you when all the trains are ready to go. And I realized that my train was already in the station, and if I didn't run, I was going to miss it. So I was like, okay, well, like, he's literally surrounded by hundreds of people. So, you know, and he's in the center train station. So I was like, I got to go catch my train. So I run off and then I get on to my train. And again, these trains, between Boston and Providence, they're not as busy in the middle of the day. They're usually more like commuter trains. So that's different parts of the day that they'll be a bit more busy. But there's usually at least several people getting each car. Again, I get on to the car. There's nobody else in this one that I get on. And I'm like, man, that's so strange. But also I was like, all right, cool. I get the seat that I want, you know, and I sit down at the spot that's got the table and everything so I can do some art and whatever during my ride. And then the train pulls out of the station and I check my phone again because I'm like, okay, like, you know, it should be able to turn it on and get it working by now. And it still wasn't working right. And I was like, man, this is so weird. And, you know, I'm in the city. It's not like I don't have service or whatever. It just, my messages weren't going through. I couldn't get calls to work. And my phone bill was paid. So he's like, I don't know what's going on. It's like, whatever, my, you know, it's not the end of the world kind of thing. So turn my phone off again, figuring it just needs to be off for a little while, and it'll figure itself out. And I sit back, and as we start going to approach the next station, the speakers in the train that announce each station go off, but they go off at different times. So it's almost like it's echoing itself. These trains, they have those old kind of sound systems and everything, so it has that very scratchy sound to it. And then where it was echoing itself, it genuinely felt demonic. It was so creepy and unsettling, and you couldn't really understand what it was saying because it was overlapping itself. I was like, okay, I don't want to be in this train for this whole ride. I'm going to go walk into another car. So I walked into the next car. Nobody in there again. I'm like, this is just so weird. I can't be the only person for all this time. And so I'm like, whatever. I sit down and then we ended up skipping the next couple of stops, which sometimes happens. There's like trains that if there's not a lot of people on, they'll turn them into like express trains. So if they know that these are stops that people usually don't need or whatever, they'll skip a few. And I was like, oh, cool. I'll get there earlier than expected. But then the ticketing agent never came by, which is also very strange. They always, always come by. I literally, other than that, couldn't remember a time where I didn't see the ticketing agent come by and scan my ticket. So it was very strange that that happened. And then when we finally get up to go to the next station that they're actually stopping at, the speakers in this car start doing the same thing. So at this point, I'm just like, okay, what is going on? Like why everything is just a little bit off. Everything is just a little unsettling. Like it's nothing super crazy, but it's all adding up, you know?

Speaker 8:
[38:33] Right.

Speaker 16:
[38:35] And so I'm like, okay, you know, I put my headphones on, I turn my phone back on, and I just start listening to music. I still can't get any messages through, so I'm like, whatever. I'm just kind of like, okay, if I just drown out the weird sounds with my music and carry on. So finally, I get to Providence train station, and I get out of the train car, and I see, you know, other people around, and I'm kind of like, okay, my things are fine now, right? Like I'll be fine. And I climb up out of the train station and go outside, and there's, at the Providence train station, there's one side that you can go out where you kind of just see, like, the city, and then there's the other side where you are right out at the Capitol building. And so normally, I would go out on the Capitol building side, because that's just where, you know, pick up kind of is. So I walk there, and the second I walk out, there is this crazy rally happening. There are people in, like, big cars and trucks, and they've got all kinds of, like, flags and things on their cars, and they're yelling, and they're screaming, and they're honking their horns, and, like, there's just, like, chaos, it feels like. I've, like, come out of the, into this just crazy chaos thing, and, you know, it was, like, the middle of the week. It wasn't, you know, like, a weekend where, usually, I feel like when people have rallies or protests or anything like that, they're usually kind of on a weekend or whatever, but it's, like, the middle of the day and the middle of the week, and there's all these people all over the place, and I'm like, what is going on? It felt like some sort of, like, nightmare chaos thing, you know? And I was just like, OK, I can't even figure this out. So I turned around, I went back into the train station, and I just kind of, like, took a deep breath. I, like, closed my eyes and was like, OK, everything's fine. Like, you're fine. Whatever's going on is just a weird day. And I, you know, took that deep breath, and then I was like, OK. So I turned around, I walk out back outside. The rally is gone. There's nobody there. There's no trucks. There's no cars. There's no, there aren't people up at the Capitol building anymore. It's like I was gone for five minutes, maybe, and everybody's gone. I was like, it was so strange. I really genuinely feel like the only way that I have ever been able to kind of explain, at least to myself, what happened is that I must have been in some sort of like parallel situation.

Speaker 8:
[41:12] I was going to say, yeah, like in another dimension or parallel universe or something.

Speaker 16:
[41:19] Exactly. Yeah. Where it was just like, I was traveling, I slipped over to the other side here and all these weird things were happening because I wasn't supposed to be there. Like everything was a little off or whatever because I wasn't really supposed to be there. Then when I took that deep breath and re-centered myself, I feel like maybe I somehow got back to my own dimension and timeline or whatever.

Speaker 8:
[41:45] Right. Makes sense.

Speaker 16:
[41:48] Then my phone started working. I looked at my phone and I had missed calls from my mom that I hadn't seen before.

Speaker 8:
[41:56] Wow.

Speaker 16:
[41:57] Like, oh, yeah, I'm just circling around like you didn't see all the trucks and the cars. She's like, what are you talking about? No, there wasn't anything there.

Speaker 8:
[42:08] That reminds me of is this was a little more severe, but I don't think it was a person who called him, but they said it was their aunt or something and this was in a major city. They had an appointment in the downtown area of this urban large metropolis. They went down, this woman went down for her appointment, and as she was either getting in or out of her car, she saw a construction worker fall to their death. She came home and she was very upset, and there was nothing, there was nothing, there was nothing. Because she was telling her family, oh my God, I saw this horrible thing. Wait till you see it on the news. It's just horrible. There was nothing. And then it was either later that night it happened, it actually happened. Oh, weird. A different time, or it was the next day, I can't remember.

Speaker 17:
[43:03] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[43:03] So it was like, she was out of sync with time.

Speaker 17:
[43:07] Yeah.

Speaker 8:
[43:08] And I mean, we've had stories like this, I think, and I mean, we're getting really kind of into the weeds. You know, that's why some people believe in something like the simulation theory, is it just a glitch in the computer, the computer program. But I do believe there are these weird time and space glitches, weird things like kind of like, what's that all about? Sounds like you ran into that.

Speaker 16:
[43:32] Yeah, definitely. That's what it felt like. And, you know, it was one of those things, like I kind of said, that each of those things on their own would have just been a weird part of my life or whatever. But then put them all together. That was like, all right, something, something strange happened to me that day.

Speaker 8:
[43:49] High strangeness indeed. Dylan, thank you for joining us on the show and stay spooky.

Speaker 16:
[43:55] My pleasure, Jim. Thank you. Bye.

Speaker 13:
[43:59] This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs. So you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online at statefarm.com. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Speaker 8:
[44:25] Next up on the show is Kristen from Illinois, and she has an interesting story about a dark figure. Kristen, welcome to the program and tell us what happened.

Speaker 17:
[44:37] Yeah. So this was back in 2019. I believe I was a sophomore, junior at UIC, so University of Illinois, Chicago. So, I had a dorm room and it had three other roommates in it, and just for the layout, it was mirrored, like the dorm room. So, my door, if I looked out my bedroom door, I could see my other roommates door from across the dorm. So, I had just gotten back. It was either a Friday or Thursday night. My roommates had left for the weekend. So then it was just me in this big dorm by myself. I was in bed, just doom scrolling, whatever. Then I had to go to the bathroom. At this point, I think it was like 3 AM, happy witching hour. I get up and I opened my door. I open my door, I see my other roommates door. I thought it was open at first, but then I saw there's people like to inscribe the black mass or the void. It's just darker than dark shadow. That's what I saw. That was clearly, it was darker in the dorm, but there was just black shadow there. It looked like it was trying to get into my roommate's door. Then I'm standing there just watching this thing, because I think I was just frozen. Then I see it turned to me. I just went back, closed my door, locked my door, one under my covers because I thought that was going to help me. I don't think I slept at all that night. Then the next morning when I woke up, I never went to the bathroom that night either. Then the next day, I want to say it's around 11 AM. The dorm had a kitchen in it, so I was just cooking, minding my business, and I see something in the corner of my eye, and it's an old lady in my dorm. She's fully like she was in front of me, and I'm a spiritual medium. So a lot of the times, I'll see spirits and stuff in my mind's eye, if that makes sense. This, she was in front of me. I could touch her if I wanted to, she was there. And she was going directly from my roommate's door, and then walked right into my room.

Speaker 8:
[47:12] Oh my goodness.

Speaker 17:
[47:13] So I said, that's enough of that, turned off the stove and I left for the day. Nighttime came and I was still by myself, and I'm just scrolling or tapping through people's stories on like Instagram or Snapchat. And I saw that my roommate had a story, and I clicked on her story. And it was one of those funeral obituary cards.

Speaker 8:
[47:38] Right.

Speaker 17:
[47:38] And it was her grandmother that I saw in my dorm.

Speaker 8:
[47:43] So she was that identifiable from the obituary card.

Speaker 17:
[47:46] Yeah. Like, exactly. And just the energy she was giving off though was such like, she was looking for something. So I don't know what she was looking for, but it wasn't like a happy energy. So I was wondering, maybe she left too early, like had some stuff she didn't, you know, complete. But, cause it wasn't like anything towards me, like negative, but she was just needed to find something. And I just think I was in her way.

Speaker 9:
[48:16] Wow.

Speaker 8:
[48:19] Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, that's something else I got to tell you. These shadow people experiences, I think they're fascinating and so many people experience them. They experience them and I feel like it's certainly definitely a real thing out there. Do you think because you have this mediumship ability that you're more prone to see these kind of things? Yes, by definition, you would be, right?

Speaker 17:
[48:47] Oh, a thousand percent, like growing, like that's just one. This is the story I usually tell people that they're like, oh, you ever seen anything scary? I'm like, let me tell you. But throughout my entire life, like, yeah, there was a shadow guy following my mom around for a very long time that I would always see when I was a kid and like, I had an understanding with him after I yelled at him. So it was just, yeah, but I knew it was attached to my roommate directly because once she moved out, it left too and it was only there for a few days.

Speaker 8:
[49:25] Well, I do believe, I think it's like anything else in life. Some people are more musical. Some people are more athletic. Some people have, they're great at tech or whatever. They have talents, specific talents. I think why we all have some level of psychic awareness and psychic ability. People argue in the room and you walk in the room and you realize there's been an argument, although there's no physical evidence or anything. You can just feel that energy. I think we all tap into that a certain amount. But I do believe there are people, and it sounds like you're one of those people, who has a heightened ability for that. It's just the way it is. Well, Kristen, thank you so much for joining us tonight. And for sharing your story on the campfire. Hope you'll come back and tell us more. Sounds like you've got plenty. Stay spooky.

Speaker 17:
[50:16] Stay spooky. Thank you so much.

Speaker 8:
[50:19] You know, we are getting a lot of callers from up north, Canada. And I, for one, could not be more pleased. Love that great country and the people in it. Such great people. And Lauren is from Canada. And she's gonna tell us a story about, actually, when she was in another great country, when she was living in Venice, which is probably a story in and of itself. But something very unusual happened when she was there, and she's gonna tell us about it. Lauren, welcome to the show and tell us what happened when you were living in Venice.

Speaker 6:
[50:52] Hey, Jim. Thank you so much for having me. I've been wanting to call in with this story for a while. I'm just such a huge fan of what you and Dar do.

Speaker 8:
[50:59] So thank you.

Speaker 6:
[51:01] Thanks for having me on. Yeah. So, you know, actually, when I called in with this story, I didn't realize this, but it would have been actually 10 years ago to the day that I was still living in this apartment. And I didn't click in, that didn't sort of, I didn't clue into that until I placed the, you know, request to call in to your show. But yeah, 10 years ago today, I would have been winding down my internship in Venice and I would have been preparing to make the big move back home after living abroad for a period of almost two years. So that's kind of interesting timing. So yeah, so as you said, I did get the amazing opportunity to do a graduate degree abroad. I was very lucky and fortunate. It actually happened to be in the city where my mom grew up. So I had a lot of family in a city called Trieste, which is about two hours away from Venice on the northern coast of, or on the northern side of Italy at border Slovenia. I had a wonderful time there in class and then had this amazing opportunity to do my eight-month internship in Venice. I made the trek to Venice in the fall of 2015. This is my little PSA for people who want to visit Venice. Most of your listeners, maybe you yourself, if you've ever visited Italy, you've probably gone to Venice in the spring or the summer. Don't do that. It is packed with tourists. Everything is extremely overpriced. It is super hot and the canals smell bad and it's just not the best time to go. I actually really encourage everybody to go in the fall or in the winter. That's when I had the pleasure of living in Venice. I love the spooky stuff. If you're into the spooky stuff, that is the best time to go. Venice becomes very spooky and eerie and beautiful. It's dark, it gets dark early. The canals are all dimly lit with grass lights and there's this mist that settles on the canals. You can see the gondolas rocking in the water and the smell of roasted chestnuts from the street vendors. It's just a really special time to be in Venice and just adds to the creepiness of what I'm about to tell you. I got my apartment there and was starting my internship. It was all a little bit helter-skelter. I had to find a place to live and get settled quickly as I was starting an internship there. Got the keys to this beautiful little apartment that I found in the heart of one of the largest zones of the mainland of Venice. Got the keys, had my bags, had made the two-hour journey from Trieste to Venice, and had all my luggage with me and was super tired, moved into this beautiful apartment that was down this little alleyway. I think I was the only person living on the street. I swear to God, I didn't see another soul the entire time I lived there. It was row housing, and the first thing I noticed was how old everything is. I mean, obviously, everything in Europe is super old, way older than anything we think is old in Canada. We have century homes, we put a plaque on and you go to Europe and it's like, this is a building from the year eight.

Speaker 8:
[54:18] Exactly. I have the same observation here in the States. Oh, it's a century home. And they're like, it's brand new, over there. It's amazing.

Speaker 6:
[54:27] But now we can't change the paint or the windows because it's some kind of museum. But anyway, Europe is really, really, really old. And so this apartment was super old, but it was charming. Everything was very heavy. Like you could see the heavy wooden beams, the original beams are still there and everything was big and heavy and made of stone. And I just remember it being very dark and heavy, but also very charming. So it was a perfect little spot for me and I lived there alone. So it had everything I needed, a washing machine, which was nice, a small kitchen, a bathroom, a living room, and a huge bedroom. And I remember walking into the bedroom and just being taken aback by this massive, heavy-duty sleigh mahogany bed. And it was so beautiful. And I thought, oh my God, this bed must be 200 years old. So I was so tired. My first night there, I crawled into bed and I was a little bit stressed because I did have to go into the greater Venice area to work the next day. It's an area called Mestre. I don't know if anybody has heard of that, but it's sort of the town over from the island. And so I'm getting ready to go to bed and I'm trying to go to sleep. And I start hearing, as I turn the lights out, I start hearing this very strange tapping sound. And I know what it sounds like as the house is settling. I know what that sounds like. That's not it. I know what a creaky bed sounds like if you're rolling over and you sort of hear that. I know what that sounds like. And this just wasn't that. It was like a rhythmic tapping.

Speaker 18:
[56:01] Like it would be like tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Speaker 6:
[56:09] And I would just keep doing that. Almost like it was somebody tapping along to a tune they were humming in their head. And I'm trying to figure out where it was coming from. And I would sit up in bed and it would stop. And then it would start again. And then I would roll over thinking maybe it's just the way that I'm lying in the bed. And then it would stop. And then it would start again. And then, and like the tune would change night to night. It was like somebody was like, it was clearly in the room. And it was almost like it was coming from the headboard. And it was like somebody was standing by the bed and like tapping along to a song. And it was the strangest thing. I eventually just kind of got used to it because I mean, I had to go to work, right? Like I had to get some sleep. I never felt threatened by it. It never felt malicious. It just sort of felt like someone was standing there tapping me a little lullaby or something as I was trying to go to sleep. And it wouldn't happen every night. And it wouldn't happen throughout the entire night. Like it's not as though I would wake up at three in the morning and it would still be tapping. It would just it would stop but it would always happen around the time that I would be trying to go to bed. So this just kind of went on. Fast forward a few months, my parents decided they're going to come in, crash my place, move in with me for two weeks.

Speaker 8:
[57:26] Thanks mom and dad.

Speaker 6:
[57:28] Yeah. Well, you know, they were helping me pay for the rent.

Speaker 8:
[57:31] Well, that's different. That's different.

Speaker 6:
[57:33] I guess they felt like they were entitled to do that. So naturally they take the bed, you know, they show up, it's a long journey across the pond. They're tired. That first night we go to dinner and then we're, you know, going through our bedtime routine and I'm about to get onto the couch for the next 10 days. And I say to them, oh, by the way, don't be surprised if the bed plays you a little song before you go to sleep. And they're like, what the hell are you talking about? How much wine did you have with dinner? And I'm like, okay, you tell me then tomorrow morning, you tell me if I'm crazy or not, but you're going to hear a little tapping tune. And it's not going to be the house settling, so don't give me that crap. It's going to be something very different. Yeah. So they're like, okay, you're nuts and they went to bed. The next morning, we're sitting around the breakfast table and I say, so what did you hear? Did you hear anything strange? And they both kind of get this odd look on their face and they look at each other and they were like, well, you're not entirely wrong. It was like a rhythmic tapping and that was really strange. And I'm like, I told you, I mean, I wasn't making this up. And they're like, well, and, you know, I'm just trying to figure out what that could have been, but you're absolutely right. It was rather bizarre and it was kind of like this rhythmic tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And so, you know, my dad being an engineer and very logical and reductionist materialist starts giving me this song and dance about how, well, you know, it's a wood bed. So it's from a tree and a tree has rings and the plant cells. And, oh, you know, when you move in the bed, it's sort of the sound of the tree going around. And I'm like, oh, I didn't realize you were also a plant biologist. Okay. If that's the explanation you want to stick with, then you go right ahead. But that just sounds almost more insane to me than, you know, the alternative, which is that it could be something residual that's, you know, hanging around the apartment. So they heard it too, is the point. So anyway, they go home, fast forward a few more months, and this is kind of where my story comes to an end. I fly home for the holidays, but then I had to come back very early in January to wrap up my thesis, and I was going to be going into the last half of my internship. So I remember it being like the early days of January that I flew out of YYZ. And I have to give a little shout out to another caller that you had on your show a few weeks ago that aired. It was a man talking about some beige suited Cheshire cap.

Speaker 8:
[60:11] Oh yeah, Gary, Gary from Canada, yes.

Speaker 6:
[60:14] Yeah, in the Toronto Pearson basement parking lot. And I had to laugh at that because that's the airport that I fly in and out of all the time. And that's the airport that I was flying out of that day. So yeah, that made me stop and pause for a second and hear that story. So I'm flying in a YYZ, Canadian winters being what they are. Of course, my flight was delayed. And I just remember it being a whole kerfuffle getting back to my apartment in Venice. I almost missed my connection in Rome and it was just like trains, planes and automobiles. When you land in Marco Polo Airport, you have to take a bus for like 45 minutes to the Vaporetto stop, which is like the water bus when you get to the island of Venice. Then I had to get on a boat and go for another 20 to 25 minutes with all my luggage. By the time I finally got back to my door, it had been like 14 hours of traveling and I was so tired. Again, I was very stressed because I knew I would have to go into work early the next day and I just wanted to go to bed. I managed to get all my stuff up the stairs and into this apartment and get myself showered and get in bed. I had almost forgotten that this tapping business was still a thing. I'm trying to go to sleep and I'm so exhausted. The tapping starts up again. For the life of me, I was just exhausted. I had had it. For the life of me, I don't know what possessed me to do this. But I sat up in bed in the dark. I was at my wits end and I just said, not tonight. You've played me your little weird song, it's been lovely, but you can't do this to me right now. I've been traveling for a million hours. I have to get up for work. Do this another time, but not tonight. And Jim, I swear to you, it stopped. I lived there for another two months and I didn't hear it again.

Speaker 8:
[62:10] That makes sense to me. That makes sense to me because years ago, I interviewed the great and unfortunately now late, Brad Steiger. He wrote many, many paranormal books about different topics, ghosts, UFOs, all those things. He was like the preeminent author of paranormal books for many decades and he wrote a ton of them. And he said in his experience, he had a very similar experience. He was up working, I think, in his attic that he had fashioned as a writing studio. And one night he was on deadline or something. It was important work that he was doing. He was under pressure to get it done. And there was something bugging him, some kind of spirit. And he said something to the effect of, cut it out, I'm trying to get some work done here. And it cut it out. I've heard exactly that before. Sometimes you just put my, you know, it's just like a person. Sometimes, you know, a person's bugging you. And even if it's somebody you like, you know, you're like, hey, just cut it out. I'm not in the mood. I'm not in the mood. And, you know, they'll go away. Sounds like it's the same for the spirits. Plus you get bonus points for using the word kerfuffle. Oh. Did I win a prize? I didn't know. Well, there is no prize. Just my admiration, because I thought I was one of the few people that ever used that word kerfuffle. Cool word, cool word. Well, Lauren, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for sharing it. As I was telling you before, this phantom music kind of thing is not new. We've had stories of it over the years and a couple recently. Thank you so much for being part of the campfire. Stay spooky.

Speaker 6:
[64:00] Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it.

Speaker 8:
[64:03] Before we get back to the next great story, I want to ask you to join my Plus Club. Basically, the Plus Club is the thing that powers what we do. But more importantly for you as a campfire fan, it is the key that unlocks the whole treasure trove of all the campfire episodes going back to 2009. We just recently had our anniversary and we've produced over 750 episodes of the campfire. But over 740 of those are not accessible to you unless you are a Plus Club member. And that's just the beginning. In addition to that 740 plus campfire episodes that you get access to, you get access to the whole back catalog of the Paranormal Podcast, going back to 2005, plus all of our plus only shows. I want to read some of these to you because I myself forget all the Plus Club shows. You get behind the scenes, which is me and Dar talking about all the happenings, behind the scenes at the Spooky Studio, including some stuff that's not really related to our jobs, just kind of a slice of life. That's something the audio version, you only get through the Plus Club. The Cryptid Report, where we have years of interviews going back with cryptozoologists and the like. Of course, Ghost Insight, where we focus on specifically that, ghosts, and so, so much more. We also have the other side. We have UFO encounters. It is amazing. And there's so much content. In fact, there's so much, I'm looking at the page here, they cannot fit all the content on the page. You have to hit the arrow because I noticed one was missing. And there it is, UFO encounters. I'm like, where'd that go? But UFO encounters, interviews going back over well over a decade about UFOs. Not available on the free feeds. The other side, Ancient Mysteries on the air, just over 2,700 episodes. And we've got a great deal going if you join via our direct supporting cast version. You can get $30 off your first year or $5 off your first month. In fact, the Plus Club cost less per month than a single fast food meal these days. And it's a lot better for your waistline. So, you know what to do. Go to jimherald.com/plus, jimherald.com/plus. And if you are an Apple aficionado and you prefer to do everything in Apple Podcasts, you can actually join right from Apple Podcasts with the Apple Podcast version, which is very convenient as well. So we thank you so much. Really, this is what's going to keep us going. The ad revenue is not what it used to be, and we need your help. I mean, we need your support to keep this thing going, and we want to keep it going for many years to come, many years to come. Join us, jimherald.com/plus, jimherald.com/plus. And now back to the next great campfire story. I love to hear from our long-time listeners and now viewers that we're doing video. Wendy is on the line from Pennsylvania. She's been listening since 2010. I was young back then. I know. But regardless, be that as it may, Wendy is here, plus club member also. Thank you, Wendy. And you're going to take us back a while. This is a story about, well, I don't want to... it's something happened to you and your friend, I'll put it that way. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for all the long-time support. And please do tell us what happened.

Speaker 19:
[67:54] Okay, Jim. Nervous, Jim. So I'll try my best.

Speaker 8:
[67:57] Oh, don't be nervous. Don't be. You've known me for a long time.

Speaker 19:
[68:01] Long time. Long time. Okay. Well, this was in... Well, it pretty much spans the year of 1985. I grew up in upstate New York, Lake. The place that I grew up was Erieville, New York. So, it is very eerie in Erieville at times. And this was an especially eerie year. So, I grew up there and I lived on a lake, grew up on a lake. And it was a place where the, obviously the summers were really rocking, you know? We had a lot of the people who came in just for the summer.

Speaker 8:
[68:52] Sure.

Speaker 19:
[68:53] And the camps, yep. And we were year round. So, we spanned the whole year. And in 85, it was the winter. And the winters in Erieville at that time were really kind of brutal. In the middle of nowhere on the lake. And it was real deathlit. And so, I was babysitting for these people who lived on the lake and they lived on a place called Funk Road. And Funk Road, it's kind of hard to describe, but it's like a horseshoe. And the main road, it kind of goes around and it spans the lake on one side. And it is, no, the end of Funk Road comes up and gets Tuscarora, which is one of the main road where I lived off of Tuscarora Road. And the other, it just, the other horseshoe, the other part that comes up hits Tuscarora Road as well. And so, it's the horseshoe. And my friend and I were, or I'm sorry, I was babysitting on Funk Road for these people and little baby. And they came home and that evening, and the woman, I forget her name, a long time ago, and she said to me, have you heard about that, like anything about that light that is up in the woods, you know, around Funk Road? And it was in the middle. So they lived on Funk Road. It's a little tiny road. It wasn't even like, I would say, it was just a, it wasn't even like a half mile long. But like I said, it kind of came out towards the lake. So you're kind of walking on the lake side.

Speaker 8:
[70:49] Right.

Speaker 19:
[70:50] And she said that in the middle of that horseshoe were these trees. And in the top of the trees, there was this light that would kind of hang out and sort of in this one tree. And they could, nobody around that lived there year round could figure out why it was sitting there. It was way up in the top of the trees and it just sat there. And it was a large light and it just kind of glowed up there. And there was no electrical run up there or anything. So nobody could explain why it was there. And she told me about this and it kind of like intrigued me. I was always kind of into the paranormal. I love that kind of stuff. And but I didn't think much about it, you know. And so that was in the winter. And then in the late, later summer, and the people were still, most of the people were in the camps and it was a very active time at the lake. And my friend Anne and I were walking around the lake and it took about, it was like a small lake, five miles. And we got the Funk Road and we decided to take Funk Road instead of just going on Tuscarora, because it's more scenic and more interesting. And we started up there and it was getting, it was probably about, I would say it was summer, but it was getting to be about like, I don't know, 630, 7 o'clock and everything was dimming. The light was dimming and it was getting dark out. But we could still see everything. And we were walking and I started telling her, I remembered, and I started telling her about this light that was in the top of the trees, in the middle of Funk Road. And she was, and Anne was very skittish. And I like to kind of, the one kind of thing I felt, I, you know, we were friends since I was six, or we were both six. And so I was kind of razzed, this light hung out there. Right. And she was getting really, really ashen and like very skittish. And she was just like, you know what, let's drop this and let's just keep walking. Just keep walking. And I was like, okay, you know, and I was like, what's up? And she's just like, just keep walking. Just keep walking. Don't say a word. Just let's just keep going. And like when we were little kids, we used to race and I was a lot faster than her. She wasn't the greatest runner, you know? And when you're a little kid, that's kind of your claim to fame type thing. Right. And so she was just like, just keep walking. Just keep, you know, we'll just keep going. And I was like, what is up? And she, I look back and there is the light. I mean, it was right behind us and it was sort of, like right behind us. And it was sort of bobbing along. And I swear to God, it was like, I don't know. It was like maybe six feet away from us. Head length, I mean, it was, we were walking along and it was just sort of bobbing behind us. And it was the size of like an inflatable ball. It was pretty big. I mean, it was a little bit bigger than a basketball, I'd say. And it was, and it was white and it was shimmery. And it was just kind of bobbing along in back of us. And I was like, this ain't right. You know, and I looked back and there it was. And it was, you know, it was just, so we started, I started booking, I started running down Funk Road and Funk Road eventually turned up this big hill and then it hit Tuscarora and I lived on Tuscarora Road, which was another like half mile down the road. So I'm running and she's trying to keep up with me and we're running and we're kind of like, you know, screaming and it kept following us. And like I said, it was like maybe six feet behind us. I mean, it was right on us and we're running up and Funk Road, it's a hill and then it hits Tuscarora and it was just, you know, right behind us. I kept looking back and there it was. And I got onto Tuscarora Road, which is the main road. And then there's like trees and then you go down and you hit the lake. So it's not right on the lake, but there's a bunch of trees and a bunch of camps. And then you go right on to the lake. So, but you can't really see the lake from where it is. And I look back as we're going on to Tuscarora to go to my house, we're running towards my house, and I see it just absolutely turn and then zoom at like this turbo pace across the trees on to the lake. And I kind of knew in my heart it was gone. Like it was not, I mean, it was just fast. It was like, you know, and by that time we were winded out of breath and, you know, we just started like I was like, we can walk now, you know. But it was just like the turbo pace of it just flying out over those trees. And what happened is we ran home and got my mom. We were screaming and yelling. Sure. And we went and looked for it and we couldn't find it anywhere. But it was the most inexplicable. And so I talked to Ann and we keep in touch pretty well for, and she lived still in upstate New York, but you know, not on the lake anymore. And I'm in Pennsylvania, but we talk quite often. And I said, I need to talk to you because I'm going to be doing Jim Harold's Campfire and I'm really, and I said, I don't know if we have the same story because we have discussed it in the past. But sometimes I like, oh, there's like a little discrepancy here and there. And, you know, I got to thinking, holy crap, is this like, did I just imagine some of the things here? And we talked about our stories and she said, Wendy, the one difference about our stories here is the fact that I saw it way before you did. And it wasn't that it was following us, she saw it in the trees. And it was, like I said, it was getting dark and she could see it moving from tree to tree in the top of these trees, just kind of floating. And she kept thinking, I don't know what that is. And it was before I started telling her the story, which, honestly enough, and the only reason the story was really triggered is because we were on Funk Road, and that's where I heard, and I was like, hey, I got a story for you. And by that point, it's following us. And so she said, I saw it along the trees, moving through the trees, and I couldn't, she's like, I really didn't, I couldn't understand what it was. And that was way before I saw it. I saw it only when I first turned back and she said, crap, it's behind us. So yeah. And it was just absolutely incredible. And she said, later on when we were talking, she was like, what do you think it was? And I, alien, what, you know? And I was like, I did not get that feeling. I got the feeling that it was definitely sentient, you know, new.

Speaker 8:
[78:31] See, that's interesting. That's interesting because people don't think about that, but there are a lot of cases where they feel like the UFO was communicating with them. The UFO is aware of them. And in some ways by movement or whatever, they're interacting with it. That's, you know, that's more common than I think people put stock into.

Speaker 19:
[78:51] Yeah. But I didn't, you know, later on, I heard that it started from the graveyard, like they would see that, and then it kind of settled into those trees. Graveyard was like two years, or I'm sorry, two miles away. So it was a long while. But that was the, so I really always thought it was more of a spiritual, like a, you know, like a spirit thing. I don't know, you know, that's all hearsay about that little part, but I kind of get that vibe more than the, you know, extraterrestrial thing, for sure. And that, but yeah, it was incredible. And I just got like one quickie, one quickie. Sure, sure. After that, it was the same year. And I didn't have paranormal, it was kind of a, you know, in the summer, it was very desolate. I'm sorry, in the winter, it was very desolate because all the summer people left. You know, it was very quiet and very, very snowy. And, but it was kind of an eerie place anyway. But that winter following, because it was, that was late summer, and it was, it was actually not winter yet. It was before winter, but all the summer people had left and it was getting really quiet. I got off the bus from school. I was a junior in high school and I got off the bus and I went into, I had to get something in our garage. And my dad wasn't great about maintaining things. And we had a garage that was located across the street and it had an old school push up door. And it was this heavy door, but you'd push it up. And for all the years that I remember, you know, that I know it, it stayed up. You'd just push it up, use all your might, it would kind of crawl up and stay there. And that year, later on, and you know, it was, like I said, around, it was fall. And I was going in to get something and I was leaving to go across the street and go back into my house after school. And I'm in there and I get that just really horrific feeling, like an evil presence, you know, and I could really feel it. It was really kind of terrifying. And in that garage and as I was leaving the garage, the door, which is really heavy on the rollers, but it was sort of stuck up there when you'd put it up there, it never come down like a guillotine. I mean, it was slammed down really hard. If it had hit me, I think it would have killed me because I was just walking. I was just out of the threshold. It slammed down and this thing, it never did that. You push it up and it would stay wherever it was. I put it all the way up and so it wasn't half down, but you could have put half down and it would just sit there because it was old and it never did that before, never, and never afterward. But I didn't really go in that garage much afterward.

Speaker 8:
[82:14] I don't blame you.

Speaker 19:
[82:16] Yeah. But it was terrifying because it just went, and like I said, I was in the garage and I was like, something's really off. I just think that I don't, I really don't believe that it had much to do with that light or the orb that followed us. I think it was more of a, I think it was more of a, just unto itself kind of a strange situation. It was sort of like a different, it didn't, I don't think, I just think it was like a really, I think the veil was very thin around that time, you know, around that whole year.

Speaker 8:
[82:54] Yeah, interesting. And also the age, you know, I think that adolescents and teenagers, they seem to have, you know, higher energy and stuff. And I think that that does play into things like poltergeist and things. And it would make sense that might in these other venues as well. Wendy, thank you so much for your support. Much appreciated. Been with us for 16 years. Really appreciate it very much and stay spooky.

Speaker 19:
[83:21] Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you.

Speaker 14:
[83:24] So, you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a free night stay anywhere?

Speaker 20:
[83:29] Anywhere.

Speaker 14:
[83:30] What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris?

Speaker 20:
[83:32] Yeah, Hilton Honors, baby.

Speaker 14:
[83:34] Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad and Touloume?

Speaker 20:
[83:37] Hilton Honors, baby.

Speaker 14:
[83:39] What about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives? Are you going to do this for all 9,000 properties?

Speaker 4:
[83:46] When you want points that can take you anywhere, anytime, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Book your spring break now.

Speaker 7:
[83:54] Amazon presents Jeff vs. Taco Truck Salsa. Whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habanero? More like habaner, yes. Save the every day with Amazon.

Speaker 8:
[84:24] Next up on the Campfire is Bridget from Iowa, and her daughter Brenna told her about the show, ooh, about 10 years ago. So thank you, Brenna, and thank you, Bridget. Brenna did a great thing by sharing the show, and let that be a lesson, because that's how we get new listeners. But not only new listeners, we get new storytellers. So if you want to hear more great stories, share the love, tell somebody about the Campfire, text them a link to it today, to this very episode. You could do that in YouTube, you could do that from Spotify, you can do that in Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen, and say, hey, check out this Campfire show. I think you might like it. You might end up hearing a very interesting story like the one we're about to hear from Bridget, and this is about your grandma. I got to say, we have been doing this show almost 17 years, and I don't think I've ever heard a story like this.

Speaker 20:
[85:21] Yeah. Thanks for having me, Jim. This is amazing. Thank you.

Speaker 8:
[85:24] Tell us what happened.

Speaker 20:
[85:27] So 27 years ago, my grandma passed away in a tragic car accident, and I lived next door to her my whole life. And so we were obviously very close. And my grandma appears in a very unique way. She's not a bird. She's none of that. So when I was young, she always had fruit on her countertop, and she had fruit flies. And we kind of teased her as a family. Like we would joke around, like someday you're going to haunt us as a fruit fly. And it's not haunting, but she is always with us. Let me tell you. So I guess the first time I really thought like, oh my gosh, grandma is a fruit, arriving in a fruit fly form. I was at Christmas Eve Mass with our whole family. This, you know, we live in Iowa, and it's, I don't know about you Jim, but fruit flies are common in the winter.

Speaker 8:
[86:29] No, they're not. They are not, not in Northeast Ohio either.

Speaker 20:
[86:33] No, it's cold, and it's just not a common thing. So we're at Christmas Eve Mass, and I'm not kidding, a fruit fly flies right into my face, and then disappears. And it, by the way, it was her birthday on Christmas Eve. So that was the first time I was like, okay, I think grandma's gonna, you know, show herself. But it was a, you know, this would, by this point, like other people had seen fruit flies, and are like, I think grandma's coming in the form of a fruit fly. So this is, this is our story. Yeah. So many times over the years, we'll, we're at family gatherings, we're all together, and we'll all say, oh, grandma's here. She's a fruit fly. You know, grandma's here. So my, as time goes on, my oldest daughter gets pregnant, and we're having our first grandbaby, and we're super excited. She, you know, as a, as a progressus, as a mom, I'm super, you know, nervous for her, concerned. Sure. Yeah. You know, worried about her. You know, we have three daughters and it's, yeah, I was just so nervous for her. And I was praying to grandma. And so we, my daughter's overdue. We, she says, mom, I'm, you know, she's depressed. She's kind of like, I want this baby to come. Can you, can we meet you for lunch? I said, sure, honey, we'll meet for lunch. We meet for lunch and we order our water with, you know, and the waiter brings around, water's for everybody. And on my glass is handwritten, like I, like Pam painted the word grandma. Only my glass, only my glass has anything on it. It was just strange. And literally a second later, here comes grandma, flies around right in our face, do do do all the way around the table and gone. And so the next day, you know, she has her OB appointment and she's in the doctor's office. And in the face of the doctor comes a gnat. And the doctor says, oh my gosh, what is that? We're talking February too. This is February in Iowa, in a doctor's office. And in her face, a gnat. And the doctor is like, ah, what is going on?

Speaker 18:
[89:12] I don't know what this is.

Speaker 20:
[89:14] And my daughter says, oh, it's just my grandma. And so then that night, she goes into labor and we have our first grandbaby, the next, like he arrives that night. As so I'm thinking, you know, grandma's got powers here.

Speaker 18:
[89:32] Let us know. Absolutely.

Speaker 20:
[89:35] So I love this story because, you know, now it's still, I'm at doctor's office. So we're at our friend's house, playing cards, having good fun. This is again, in the dead of winter, having so much fun. And my friend is, you know, she's like, yeah, yeah, you're a kook. Your grandma's a gnat, whatever, you're kooky. And so I said, please, can I tell the story of the gnat again? Cause she's heard it many times. And she's like, sure, tell it again. And I start telling this story and Jim, I'm not kidding. A gnat flies right in my friend's face. And it was hilarious. I'm dying laughing. We're all just like, she's like, you got to be kidding me. This is crazy. And she's like, okay, I believe you, your grandma's a gnat.

Speaker 8:
[90:30] Amazing. Amazing.

Speaker 20:
[90:32] Yeah. So present day, our middle daughter is now pregnant. And I'm like, this is why I'm on your show because I said to grandma, grandma, if you, if you show yourself, I'm going to call into Jim Harold and here I am.

Speaker 8:
[90:50] There you are. There you are. I love it.

Speaker 20:
[90:53] Yeah.

Speaker 6:
[90:54] So yeah, there's more.

Speaker 20:
[90:56] Let me tell you.

Speaker 8:
[90:57] Oh, okay. So go on. Keep going.

Speaker 6:
[90:59] Sorry.

Speaker 20:
[91:00] I don't, I.

Speaker 8:
[91:01] No, it's all right. You're good.

Speaker 20:
[91:03] So we all get together for our old, the grandson's birthday party. And my other daughter is due, like babies do. And we're at a bowling alley, celebrating our six-year-old grandson's birthday party. And sure enough, like there's grandma, flies around, says hi to all of us. And then she's gone. And so then we thought, oh, baby's coming. Well, baby didn't come. Not yet. So they eventually go for an induction and they send her home. And I'm like, grandma, I'm disappointed. I thought baby was supposed to come. Like that baby wasn't coming. So the next time they go in for induction, grandma, my husband and I, they leave, they go in for induction. My husband and I go out to eat in a restaurant. And sure enough, there's grandma right in my face. And no baby, no baby. But at the time, I am praying really hard to grandma and to my father-in-law who had passed like five years ago. Just praying, sorry if I get emotional. And so as it turns out, baby, we have a little nephew who passed of leukaemia as an infant. And it turned out that our granddaughter had the baby on his birthday and named him the same middle name unbeknownst to her. She had forgotten it was his middle name. And so I think my father-in-law stepped in on this one.

Speaker 8:
[92:55] I just love stories like this because I think when people hear the campfire, and we do usually lead with the scary story, because honestly, that's what gets people to tune in. I mean, I have to be honest. But the thing is, is that I always make sure we have two or three stories in every episode like this. Because I think it's important for people to realize that the paranormal, the supernatural is a continuum. And yeah, there can be spooky, scary stuff. And I personally believe there are some scary entities out there. But I think just as much, maybe even more, there are stories like you, where a loved one reaches back and makes contact, and maybe multiple times over the year. And they do it always in a way that seems to tie into, you know, the history of the relationship. Or you've always joked about her haunting you guys as a fruit fly. And then, boom, that's what's happened over all these years. And I had a similar thing with my uncle over something as weird as a crane game, you know, those games that have the claw. And there was a very specific sign that I got, which seems kind of odd, but, you know, it's very unique, just like a fruit fly. They find a way to get a message to you, and they do it in a way that's almost unmistakable.

Speaker 20:
[94:16] Yes, absolutely. Yeah, they are with us always.

Speaker 8:
[94:21] Well, thank you, thank your daughter so much for being a part of the Campfire family. We appreciate it. Thanks for sharing this great story, and of course, stay spooky.

Speaker 20:
[94:31] Stay spooky.

Speaker 8:
[94:33] Dreams. You know, I think that we have those dreams that are just kind of like we go to the supermarket and the produce section, and, you know, that night we dream we're flying on ahead of lettuce. I mean, there's those kinds of dreams. But I also believe that there are dreams that are meaningful, and maybe give us clues whether it's a connection with a past loved one, or maybe it's a premonition of things to come. Samuel has an interesting dream or a series of dreams to tell us about. From Montana, he's been listening since about 2020. And we're so glad to have him. Samuel, thanks for joining us tonight on the Campfire and tell us your story.

Speaker 21:
[95:13] Thanks for having me, Jim. My story is basically a reoccurring dream growing up, where I would walk into the kitchen, like wake up out of dead sleep, hear like a loud banging coming from the basement, which was through the kitchen. I would walk through the kitchen in this dream. And apparently I was sleepwalking at the same time, according to my parents. And I'd look down the stairs to see where the noise had come from. And there'd be this little old lady hanging out at the bottom of the stairs. And I would hear a crash to the side of me, and look over and try to see where that crash came from, look back down the stairs, and then I would, the way it would be gone, I'd feel a cold hand on the back of my, or on my back, and then shove me down the stairs, and then I'd wake up right then and there, every single time.

Speaker 8:
[96:23] Wow.

Speaker 21:
[96:24] And it happened all throughout my childhood, many, many times. It just chills a little bit, just talking about it.

Speaker 8:
[96:33] So what happened subsequently?

Speaker 21:
[96:38] Well, so later on, I ended up going with some buddies to the local library. They had all the old newspaper clippings, and found out that an old lady that fairly well matched the description had actually passed in that house a couple decades prior.

Speaker 8:
[97:00] Wow. That's interesting. So you tapped into her energy, it sounds like, obviously.

Speaker 21:
[97:12] Sure felt like it, and always had an uneasy feeling in the house.

Speaker 8:
[97:17] Well, that's the thing. And how old were you again when this happened?

Speaker 21:
[97:21] This was anywhere from like five to 12 or something like that.

Speaker 8:
[97:28] See, that's the thing. I believe that's the thing. Because I believe that kids, young kids, have a connection to the spiritual world that we, you know, we grow up, we become too smart, whatever, we quote grow out of it. But in some ways, I think we become less intelligent, if you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 21:
[97:49] Yeah, well, closer to the, further from the veil, anyway.

Speaker 8:
[97:53] Exactly.

Speaker 21:
[97:53] That's what they say.

Speaker 8:
[97:54] Exactly. So that was the whole experience. But that is a remarkable experience. You kept having these, these dreams, and then you got the validation with this lady.

Speaker 21:
[98:04] Yup. Crazy stuff.

Speaker 8:
[98:07] Something else, something else. Samuel, thank you for joining us tonight on the campfire and Stay Spooky.

Speaker 21:
[98:13] Thank you, Jim. You Stay Spooky as well. I'll probably have some more stories to tell you at some point. Appreciate the time.

Speaker 8:
[98:20] Sounds good to me. We love to hear from those repeat callers. Thanks, Samuel.

Speaker 21:
[98:25] Thank you.

Speaker 8:
[98:27] Thanks for joining us on Jim Harold's Campfire. I appreciate it very, very much. And if you want to get some cool Jim Harold Campfire and Stay Spooky merch, I could tell you where you can do it. You can go to jimherald.com. jimherald.com. We have hoodies, we have t-shirts, we have caps, we have mugs. We have a whole cornucopia of curated curiosities that DAR has come together with, and people seem to love it. And I gotta say, DAR does a great job on that. So jimherald.com/merch. Thank you to all of our storytellers. Be sure to tell your story at jimherald.com/campfire. And if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe to this channel. We would like to grow that subscription base. And regardless of how you're watching or listening, please do share a link this week with your friend, or today actually, as soon as you get done listening to this. That would be so helpful to us. That's how we grow the show and get all of these great stories. We'll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. Stay safe and stay spooky. Bye-bye.