A young man’s sleep is interrupted by an evil entity, tales of hauntings and more! It is all on this edition of Campfire!

TRANSCRIPT

Please note we do not guarantee 100% transcript accuracy. The below reflects a best effort. Thank you for your understanding.

Jim Harold  0:00  

Coming face to face with an evil entity that hates you? It happened to a Campfire caller this weekend you’ll hear that story and much more strangeness on the Campfire.

Campfire Announcer  0:26  

Welcome to our gathering tonight. Here we share stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things. Sit back, relax and warm yourself by Jim Harold’s Campfire. 

Jim Harold  0:38  

Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold and so glad to be with you once again, and boy do we have some great stories this week. They just seem to get better and better. And if you’re new here, just know what you’re about to hear are real stories of the supernatural, the paranormal. Could be ghost,s could be cryptid creatures, could be UFOs. But they are indeed strange, fascinating and true. And welcome to the show. And if you love what we do, or you listen and you’re new and you say Hey, I like this, make sure that you follow on the podcast app of your choice. That’s very important. That way you never miss an episode and we have two big spooky shout outs for birthdays and I always love to get these. First of all, Kim wants to give a birthday shout out to her son Noah he is turning 13 on March 25. And she says they are huge fans of the Campfire podcast. And she started listening a couple years back, introduced Noah to the show as he loves all things spooky, and now it’s turned into a fun routine to listen to the show together in the evenings. So Noah: Happy Birthday! Happy 13th birthday and stay spooky. And we’ve got another happy birthday to put out there. Andrew wants us to say a big Happy Birthday to what he calls his favorite weirdo Nicole and tell her to stay spooky. Nicole is Andrew’s work friend and they both love the Campfire. So Nicole: Happy birthday to you and a stay spooky to you. And both to Noah and Nicole great illiteration, not even planned. Happy birthday to both of you and stay spooky. Now if you would like personalized birthday greetings via video. Check out Cameo I am on Cameo now it’s very affordable and really kind of a unique gift. So it could be for a birthday or whatever special occasion. Just go to cameo.com/theJimHarold. Cameo.com/theJimHarold and now that we’ve taken care of the shout outs, it’s time for some great Campfire stories. Jordan is on the line from New York and he’s going to take us back to his college years where a comfortable sleep was most uncomfortably interrupted. Oh, Jordan, thank you for joining us. I appreciate tell us what happened. 

Jordan  3:07  

All righty. Yes. So a little bit of background. So this was my last year in college, which was a really stressful time I had to find a job and make sure it was all worth it. So I was really stressed out, really vulnerable. So that’s, that’s where my my head was at. And where sort of, you know, where I was spiritually at the time. So I lived with a roommate and I don’t remember what I was doing on that exact day. But uh, you know, I was I was going asleep. And you know, I was very comfortable. I remember being very comfortable and having very pleasant dreams and just, there’s just one of those nights where sleep came easily and I just, I was just in a good, good place. But I remember as I was sleeping in this very pleasant dream, I heard an old roommate of mine, his voice actually, a couple years back. I haven’t thought of this guy in years, but I heard his voice. And he said, he said Jordan, Jordan. Jordan, just calling out to me. Well, I’m really really strange but it his voice sort of pulled me right out of this pleasant dream. Just completely out of it in a second. And I was sitting up in my bed and I was terrified. It was completely dark. And I was I was scared. Just I didn’t know what of what that first but I was scared and you know, my roommate of course he wasn’t in the room. I don’t I don’t know where he was. He is. It wasn’t really him. Um, so at the foot of my bed, I have sort of a desk with my computer chair and as I was sitting up, I was I was completely paralyzed. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. I just felt fear. And there was, there was something in my chair. I don’t remember what it looked like. But it was, it was just shadows and darkness. And it was, it was terrifying. Really, whatever it was. It it was reaching out to me with a hand. So I guess there was there was humanoid, but it was sort of a dark hand reaching towards me from this chair. I know. And I could feel.I mean, I’m kind of a skeptical person ,so I even feel a little bit silly saying this, but I could, I could feel hate radiating off this thing. 

Jim Harold  5:54  

Wow. 

Jordan  5:56  

Towards me, just just hatred. I, it’s we I I don’t know how to describe it. But I could, I could feel the hate coming off this thing. This thing hated me. I don’t know why. I, I don’t know what it was. But it hated me. And it was reaching out towards me. I couldn’t move. But obviously, I was terrified. But I felt like a pressure at first in my lower jaw. Like, like a pulling, you know, it quickly became clear that this somehow, it was it was pulling my lower jaw. It was pulling me downwards, almost off the bed. Just like some sort of force. And it hurts. You know, I can, it. It was real pain. And I could feel it pulling me downwards. Oh my off the bed with this, this psychic energy, I guess. I mean, that seems so silly. But that’s, that’s what it was like, I was so scared. And I was I could just feel this intense pain just fully focused in my lower jaw and it was pulling me downwards hard towards the, towards the ground and off the bed. And I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. I was just getting pulled by this thing with its its dark hand outstretched towards me. And so I didn’t say it out loud, but I did the only thing I could think of at the time. I mean, I’m not a very religious person. But you know, my mom taught me like the Lord’s Prayer when I was a kid. So I started reciting that in my head and just, you know, to help me basically begging for help from some sort of higher power because I I felt completely powerless from this this thing that just hated me for some reason. And so as I as I recited that, it just it just was over, and it was it was gone. I was sitting up in my bed. I was you know, I could move. The thing was nowhere to be seen, and that that was it. But yeah, I might have forgotten about this story and chalked it up to you know a horrible nightmare or something, or sleep paralysis, but the pain in my jaw from it pulling me down persisted. It was still there, the pain, my jaw still hurts. And you know, I went to the bathroom looked and there was nothing nothing wrong with it right? There was no there was no injury, it just this soreness was still there. It it was a strange experience. And it just the soreness lasted for a few days, and then dissipatedand I’ve never experienced anything like that before or after.

Jim Harold  9:01  

What do you think it was?

Jordan  9:03  

You know, I think I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I was in a really vulnerable place, like probably the most spiritually vulnerable I’ve probably ever been. I think this thing, what for whatever reason, it it it got through my defenses I guess the defenses we all have against this stuff and I just hates hates humans, I guess. I don’t know. And it just decided that I was the one who was gonna mess with that night. You know?

Jim Harold  9:39  

Wow. What an interesting story. Well, I mean, that’s the kind of lottery you don’t want to hit.

jordan  9:47  

No, I’ve wanted tohave supernatural experiences but I don’t want to have anything like that happen to me ever again.

Jim Harold  9:54  

Well, you know, I believe it’s perfectly possible that there are entities, darker entities out there. More sinister entities out there that wish us ill. Just like I think there are entities out there who wish us well. So unfortunately, it sounds like you ran into one of those that particular night.

Jordan  10:14  

Yeah, I agree completely just the the hate radiating off this thing. I think it just, it just hates what we are. I guess it just, it felt like a bully, I guess just decided to mess with me.

Jim Harold  10:29  

Jordan, thank you so much for being a part of the Campfire.

Jordan  10:33  

Thank you, Jim. 

Jim Harold  10:34  

Bill is on the line from Kentucky. Now, he was back on the show. I think it was back in 2013 or 2014. So he stuck with us all these years. I appreciate it. And now he is back to talk about his teenage years. And, well, a haunting. We always love to hear about those. Bill. Welcome back to the show. And thank you for sticking with us all these years. And please tell us this Campfire story.

Bill  10:59  

My thanks for having me on Jim. The The haunting is well, odd. Just to date myself, I’m making myself older than I need to be. It’s 86, 87 and I’m a junior senior in high school. And my best friend for reasons, familiar, family reasons of his own, he wound up living with us. So it’s it was him and I Yeah, we were we’re best friends, we did everything together. And he wound up sharing a room sharing bedroom. He had his own bed, I had my own bed. But in the middle of the night, three or four times a week, for a month, month and a half, almost two months, I would get I would have repeated dreams, the same dream over and over again. A little child would come into the room, walk past his bed, come to my bed. Get me up out of bed. 

Jim Harold  12:03  

Whoa. 

Bill  12:05  

And take me from my room out into the house. 

Jim Harold  12:10  

Oh man. 

Bill  12:11  

And it was my house. But it wasn’t my house. The layout was the same. Everything was the same but like the wall hangings, the furniture. Everything else was different. So, you know, bathroom was where it’s supposed to be veterans where it’s supposed to be my parents bedrooms, whether it’s supposed to be ,living room were it’s supposed to be, but everything’s different.

Jim Harold  12:29  

Now was the decor of the 80s. Or was it the decor of a past time? Could you remember that?

Bill  12:35  

It was it was very, like, like I Love Lucy kind of feel? 

Jim Harold  12:40  

Uh huh. 50s like that kind of?

Bill  12:41  

The furniture, yeah, like the 50s 60s kind of thing. And so it wasn’t extraordinarily old. It wasn’t like medieval times or anything like that. But it was it was not right. And this child would lead me out of my bedroom and into my parents bedroom and pull the sheets back on my parents bed and revealed two burned corpses. 

Jim Harold  13:08  

Oh my gosh. 

Bill  13:11  

And yeah, tell me about it. And at that point, I would wake up and I’d be in bed and everything and everything will be normal. Until the next night. Like I said this happened three or four nights out of a week for a couple of months straight. So I wasn’t sleeping well. And even over and above that, we had we had a dog, we had a chow. We named her Baby. This dog was the least aggressive animal on the planet. I mean, she wouldn’t hurt a butterfly. She’d never growled, she never barked. She never attacked, she never did anything. And when my friend and I would, the house was a standard ranch style house. And my friend and I would be sitting playing video games. And the way the house was set up if we set in front of the TV on the floor, and leaned just a little bit to the right, I could look straight down the hallway into my bedroom. And Baby would lay against the foot of the loveseat that was there at the end of the hallway, or well, in the living room but it walked out into the hallway. And about two or three in the morning every morning. We were sitting there playing video games and Baby pops up, darts down the hallway growling and snarling and barking and then just starts backpedaling.

Jim Harold  14:37  

Oh boy 

Bill  14:38  

Backpedaling back this hallway until she comes back on us. And then she would move over. And you know, come up on us. And I looked at Scott my friend and I said, Dude there this house is haunted. Again, you know, he’s now No, no, no, it’s not, no it’s not. But that happened half a dozen times. And then he to to think, well it might be 

Jim Harold  15:06  

Yeah, I think so.

Bill  15:07  

So there was a, there’s, there’s a, there was a witchcraft shop here in town back in the late 80s. And we went there and bought a quote unquote genuine Ouija board just to try to see what we could come up with. And we use the Ouija board in the house and came up with a young boy named Chris that when we when we when we would press as to you know, how he died and what you know why he’s there, that sort of thing. All would say would be “fire.” 

Jim Harold  15:43  

Oh, boy. 

Bill  15:45  

That’s all was fire, fire, fire and then sign off, fire sign off, etc, etc. Now understand that during this time, my dreams kept kept going on I kept being led out of my bedroom into my parents room and being shown burned corpses

Jim Harold  15:59  

So this this dream was repetitive it was the same thing and you’d always see the burnt corpses. Ugh.

Bill  16:06  

Yes, and then I’d wake up. 

Jim Harold  16:07  

Oh, man. 

Bill  16:08  

Now with it now, with that, coupled with this spirit telling me through the Ouija board, fire fire. We kind of started putting two and two together that some something happened in that house. But we didn’t really know what. And then, at one point, my friend and I we wound up going over to my grandmother’s to stay the weekend. We took the Ouija board with us. Because we’re young and stupid. (laughs) But we took the Ouija board with us. And we were messing around with it and and talking to him again. It’s the same Chris. And he keeps saying fire. He keeps saying fire and we were asking and then he says fire one last time and signs off and we can’t get him back. And about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes later, the phone rings at my grandmother’s house. And it’s my father. That he says hey, are you guys coming home at some point this weekend? I said well yeah. He says Well, don’t. I said, what do you mean don’t? He says the house burned.

Jim Harold  17:19  

 Oh, gosh. 

Bill  17:21  

Yeah. So that really lit, well for lack of a better term and no pun intended that really lit a fire under us to start looking at what the heck is going on? Yeah. And come to find out that the house that we lived in did burn down in the 50s and the family died there.

Jim Harold  17:48  

Oh my Lord. Oh my lord.

Bill  17:49  

Yeah, yeah, the family apparently died in the fire in the house. So our thought was that Chris was trying to warn us warn us of this, and trying to keep us safe more than malevolent more than — 

Jim Harold  18:06  

More than scare you. Oh my gosh. Did you ever find out if there was a boy named Chris in the house?

Bill  18:13  

No. All of that could ever find out was it the family died in the fire. I don’t know whose family was, I know I don’t have any names. But that being what it is, and I don’t know how effective it is. But I wrapped the Ouija board up and velvet cloth and put a vial of holy water on it and it’s still sitting in the attic to this day.

Jim Harold  18:35  

 Wow. Now how destructive that there was a fire in your house that I mean there was a fire. How destructive?

Bill  18:43  

It completely eliminated the kitchen and half of the living room. Oh you know the my bedroom and my parents bedroom. Everything else was still standing but of course you had smoke and water and all that garbage that comes with a fire? Yeah. 

Jim Harold  18:58  

Oh my god. 

Bill  19:00  

Yeah, I mean, we’ve gotten to the point that you know, at one point, my mother and my mother and father started referring referring to him as our little friend because mom started feeling and bouncing up and down on the bed when she’d be asleep at night. Or Or I went over to visit at one point and I’m sitting on the couch and down the hallway I hear in the bedroom the stereo come on. And I know there’s nobody there, but I asked mom, I asked her if my brother was home and she says no, so I get up and go down to bed or go down the hallway and open the bedroom door and as soon as I open the door the stereo goes. So it just there’s there’s always been light orbs in the house. Like I say the the animals sense something there. But yeah, the dream is what really threw me off the the repetitive dreaming of the same thing over and over again. That’s that’s of the burnedcorpses and then the house burning. 

Jim Harold  20:02  

Wow. Wow. That’s disturbing to say the least.

Bill  20:10  

Yeah, yeah, like but like I said, I don’t feel like it was harmful in any way. I think it was more him trying to warn us now,  because when when we took the Weegee board from the house is when the house burned. I don’t know if that’s a coincidence, or if that’ssomething that was deemed to happen. I don’t know. But yeah, we blessed the Ouija board, wrapped it up, put it up in the attic, and it’s still there today, what 30 years later, I suppose what 86, 87? So yeah, we haven’t really we’ve not taken it out of the house since.

Jim Harold  20:50  

I think I just as they say leave sleeping dogs lie, kind of. 

Bill  20:55  

Exactly. 

Jim Harold  20:56  

Well, Bill, thank you again, good to speak with you again. And if you ever have any other stories to share, don’t be a stranger. You don’t have to wait eight years. But we’re glad that we’re glad to have you. We’re glad to have you and thank you so much for sticking with us and being a part again of the Campfire. 

Bill  21:14  

Well, thank you, Jim. And stay spooky.

Jim Harold  21:16  

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Campfire Announcer  23:39  

If you love the Campfire, be sure to check out the Paranormal Podcast where every week Jim interviews experts and authors about strange mysteries. Find it for free wherever you listen to this podcast. Tune into the Paranormal Podcast today. Now we return to Jim Harold’s Campfire.

Jim Harold  23:55  

Gerard is in California and he is a longtime listener of the Paranormal Podcast and Jim Harold’s Campfire and also put a shout out for a show I did a number of years ago called The Great TV podcast, which is still available by the way. Look up great TV podcast we did about almost 40 episodes about and I’ve loved that show. So Gerard made me smile when he said how much he enjoyed that one. And he’s gonna make me smile again, because he has one of my favorite kinds of stories. He has a head scratcher and he’s with us tonight. Gerard thank you for being such a fan of the shows. I appreciate your kind words and please telling you please tell us your story

Gerard  24:33  

Okay, Hey, Jim. So I am really excited to be on your show. As mentioned, I’m a big fan and I really don’t know if there’s a category for what I’m about to tell you about other than calling it a head scratcher but there has by time I’m done. You’ll have a better description of it for all of us. 

Jim Harold  24:46  

Okay. 

Gerard  24:47  

So what I’m going to talk about happened about a decade ago now, as you mentioned, I’m from California, and I met a woman who lived in Europe on on an online forum. Nothing seedy, it was a work related forum. And we came online friends and And, you know, back then we decided to start messaging via Skype. And we had this cadence, where we would actually talk on Skype via messaging, you know, two, three days in a row, then like not for a week, and then one or two days and not for a week or two. It was really random, really intermittent. And if we ever did any kind of video or voice calls, we’d always message andsay, Hey, do you want to hop on and talk? And that was kind of how our friendship was at the time. So after about a year of being friends like this online, I actually had a chance to travel to another country in Europe for work. And I was able to arrange with my company and with her that after my work duties are done, I could stay in Europe for a few days, travel to her country, and we could meet for the first time. So after this one only meeting, I returned to California, and we kept up our previous cadence of communicating via Skype, you know, real random, which is why a couple of months after ‘d I met her in Europe, it was really strange. I received a voice call from her in the middle of my my workday. So I connected to talk to her. And it was as I was doing the connection, I did the math in my head, and I realized there’s a middle the night for her. So yeah, so it was really weird. And then I actually got to the connection going, I immediately realized that she was in shock. And she was frightened It’s one of those things. I think everyone kind of knows that, that that feeling you get when you just kind of hear it in their, well, itwas her breath, actually, she was out of breath that she really couldn’t speak at first. So as a friend, you I made sure she was safe. And I calmed her down. And I tried to talk to her so that she would be able to speak back to me for a bit. And when I finally got her to calm down, she was finally able to told me that the reason why she called me was she had just woke up for a really bad dream. And I’ll be honest with you, when she said I was really kind of confused, because like bad dream, and you decided to call me? That was that was a little odd. I thought, yeah. But she was a friend in need and she was scared. So I asked her so you know what happened in your nightmare. And then I listened silently, as she told me for about a minute or two, what happened to this nightmare that she had just woken up from. And then I interrupted her. And I basically said to her, then this happened in your dream, then that happened in your dream. And to the left, the view was that she was dead silent for a few seconds. And then she said to me, how did you know that? My reply to her was? Because I’ve been having the same nightmare for years.

Jim Harold  27:20  

Oh, man. 

Gerard  27:22  

Yeah. So Jim, I’ll tell you, you know, so for years before I ever met her, I had this recurring nightmare. And the nightmare what would happen one to two times a month, maybe up to 10, maybe 12 times a year, the pattern was not consistent. But the longevity of this nightmare was. And what happens in this nightmare, is it’s not generic. It’s very, very personal what happens in that. And to this day, I have never told anybody about what happens in this dream. I’ve never told a friend, I’ve never told family, I’ve never told a therapist. I have not written down anywhere. And I do not talk in my sleep. So there is no way she or anyone would ever know about this dream that I’ve been having for years before I met her. 

Jim Harold  28:00  

Wow. 

Gerard  28:00  

So I talked to her more about the dream and and I talked about some of the ways I’ve been dealing with it over the years. And then as we kind of concluded our talk there. I asked her, so why did you call me about this? And her reply was, I just knew that I should, huh? So after that call me picked up our normal pattern of communication, you know, probably for like one or two more years. And here’s the twist for you, Jim. She never had that nightmare again. And neither did I.

Oh, there you go. Ooh. You know, it sounds like some kind of telepathy to me,

That is entirely possible. I mean, I really kind of haven’t really put too much thought into what caused it. I kind of think it kind of needs to sit on a shelf by itself. So, yeah. I just kind of like leave it where it is. I think one thing that was really nice about about this experience was you know, as as much as I’m trying to say, having an experience with a nightmare was nice, was that I kind of felt like when I helped her that night or that day for me, I was like that was one of my purposes was to be there for her. That may have been the reason why I went through those so I can help her when she went through it. And I kind of just want to leave it at that. I don’t think that I need to put a whole lot more thought into it. I think it was kind of a good experience to help a friend out.

Jim Harold  29:14  

I think so too. Well, it’s great to have a friend like that whether they live next door or half a world away, Gerard, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for sharing that great Campfire story. 

Gerard  29:27  

Thank you, Jim. 

Jim Harold  29:28  

Well, we have another return caller! Ira is back on the line. He was on a few years ago and have this great story about a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist. I mean, very interesting, very interesting storie. He’s calling in again from Louisiana. This time he’s gonna tell us about a UFO story that happened a few years back. Ira, welcome to the show. And please tell us what happened.

Ira  29:54  

Thanks, Jim. Yes, so this this happened in 2006 or 2007. So it’s been a good while ago, but I was straight out of high school and had a good buddy who had an uncle that had a lake house up on Sardis Lake in North Mississippi, right? Not too far from Oxford, where University of Mississippi is. And so we’d go up there and fish and hang out and go to go to town and go party and stuff, you know, early college kids. So anyway, we decided that this particular night, it was probably June or July, maybe even August, it was the hot part of the summer in Mississippi. I remember that. We’d been boating all day and decided that we were going to kind of have a easygoing night and just do some night fishing on the back of the lake there. So we drove the gator down. There’s what we call them back then I’m not sure what people call them now. It’s just like a little all terrain vehicle with a top on it. Yeah. So we drove down there and made it up and sat back, maybe had a couple beers. But I mean, we we didn’t, we weren’t drunk. We weren’t inebriated to the point where you’re seeing things, for sure. But all sudden, we started noticing these big glowing orbs, these lights, come up over the treeline from behind us. And they’d come in groups of twos and threes. So it, it started with just a couple and they weren’t moving quickly. And making no noise whatsoever. It was they were entirely quiet, we didn’t hear a thing out of them. And they came over my, our right shoulder, which would have been, I guess, the north side of the lake, I’m not even sure. But they’d come over the treeline behind us over where the cabin was. And then up over the lake, and they were probably several 100 feet in the air. And they’d kind of slow down and kind of hang out over the lake and then more would show up, and more would show up. And they were always groups of twos and threes. And they would kind of get closer together, they get down low over the lake and so low that you could see the reflection of the light on the water. And like I said, this was 2006, 2007. So drones weren’t a big writing back then. Especially private drones. I think they even had those. Yeah. So we sat there and just watched them. Neither one of us was we were scared. You know, I don’t remember being afraid at all. And we weren’t freaking out either. Which is kind of odd. But the more I’ve listened to stories, kind of like mine. That’s a common thing that happens when people see something like what I’m describing, you know, especially with unidentified aerial phenomena, there’s almost this calmness that kind of comes over the experiencer. And people aren’t sure why that happens. But anyway, we, we just we hadn’t called anything all night except to a light show. So they kept coming in, then a few of them would get up and just kind of raise up slowly over the water and glide over the tree line on the other side of the lake and they’d be gone. And then more would show up. And they were always coming and going in the same direction. And we counted some 40 odd before we just stopped counting and watched.

Marisa  33:21  

Now, what do you think they were?

Ira  33:24  

There’s I mean, there’s no telling, but I know they weren’t drones. The next morning. We asked his uncle sure if there was some kind of an air show going on. Or if there was an air airport nearby or a bass or something like that. But he didn’t know anything about any air shows or anything like that on on it and they weren’t hot air balloons, which they moved kind of similar to hot air balloons. Just you know, floaty. I guess it’s the only term I can come up with right now for it. But you know, you would have seen the balloon at night. 

Jim Harold  33:56  

Oh, yeah. 

Yeah. And they were probably if I had to guess they ranged in size from about like a VW bus to an actual full-length school bus. And they would split off and go join other groups and things like that, but we stopped counting. And something I thought of years later. And I asked my buddy about it too, because every time we hang out, you know or talk on the phone. Occasionally we’ll bring it up and talk about it. But I asked him if he remembered getting up and going inside, and because I can’t for the life of me remember that? I remember fishing I remember having a couple beers and I remember watching these lights over the lake but I don’t remember deciding that, yeah okay, it shows over time to go inside but I do remember waking up the next morning. (overlapping speech) He confirmed that on his end too;  he doesn’t remember that. He’s like, you know, that’s interesting. I don’t remember going inside either.

So it’s almost like, almost like you have missing time. In the sense that you saw them. You remember going there. You remember seeing them, you remember waking up, but you don’t remember that in between part.

Ira  35:09  

No, I don’t remember stopping seeing them. If, I guess is the only way I can put it. I don’t remember not seeing any more and then getting up and like, okay, show’s over, let’s go inside. Last that I can truly recall is just sitting there watching them. And it was dead silent. Like everything. It was pretty crazy. It think about it a lot.

Jim Harold  35:15  

That’s quite an experience. And it’s really heightened by that. You don’t remember going to going to bed and leaving. That’s, that that brings a whole new level of questions to it. Well, and I guess you both had to be interested in everything you’ve seen in the news now about UFOs. And now the government’s coming out and seems like giving it a bit more credence. I mean, it seems like you’re kind of being proven in time here that this was, this was a real thing.

Ira  36:10  

Yeah, I don’t know. I think when it comes to disclosure, that a lot of experiencers didn’t need that validation. 

Jim Harold  36:18  

You know what you saw.

Ira  36:19  

Yeah, exactly. Like, I can tell you and, you know, you’re not believe me, but it doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. I had another witness. You know. We both saw the same thing. Described the same thing, you know, without us discussing it first.For me, I don’t, I don’t need, I don’t think, the government to say I know what I saw.  But some people for some people. That’s important. And I get that. I can understand why.

Jim Harold  36:51  

Well, Ira, Thank you so much. That is a great story. And we you know, I welcome folks, I welcome UFO stories, because when we talk about the Campfire, I mean, yeah, we probably have more ghost stories than anything, and I love to hear the ghost stories and those kinds of experiences. But we really cover the whole range here. And that includes UFO experiences, cryptid experiences, just unusual, strange, paranormal experiences, and I include UFOs. And, Ira. Thanks for sharing your story tonight on the campfire. 

Ira  37:22  

I had fun. Thanks, Jim. 

Jim Harold  37:24  

Jim Harold’sCampfire is brought to you by my mobile game of choice Best Fiends. You know, believe it or not, and people don’t realize this but this job can be pretty hectic. We put out multiple shows every week, the deadlines never stop. And I love what I do. But sometimes it can be, believe it or not, a little bit stressful. And the nice thing is, is that if I’m in the middle of the day, and I say you know, Jim, you need a break, you need to just step away. And a lot of times we’ll take a walk or something. But sometimes it’s raining and you can’t get outside or you don’t feel like taking a walk. Another thing that I love to do to kind of clear my head is play a round of Best Fiends. It is fantastic. Because you get on these levels, you know, you’ve got to beat these slugs and you kind of lose yourself in it, you can kind of lose track of time for a bit. And you forget about all the work stuff kind of worrying in the back of your head, and you have fun for a little while. I absolutely love it. I think my favorite thing is, is sometimes when you actually lose a level and you come back and it’s a little, you know, it’s a little challenging, but you beat it. You beat those slugs, and it really works your mind. I love it. There’s a strategy to it. It’s fun, it’s approachable for everybody at all ages, but I absolutely love the game. Best Fiends is a mobile puzzle game that anyone can download and play. Now whether you’re having a few minutes or a few hours, Best Fiends is the perfect puzzle game to lose yourself in because you’re having so much fun. The game features tons of cute characters that help you solve 1000s of fun puzzles. And the more you play, the more characters you collect. The more you win, the more challenges you face. New characters and challenging puzzles are added all the time. And there’s tons of fun events where you can win huge rewards. Not too long ago, they had a disco themed event and I absolutely love it. Now I’m at level 352. So I’ve been playing quite a while but it’s still fresh. It’s still fun, it’s still challenging. And with 1000s of levels you literally can play as long as you want and never get bored. Trust me on that. Download best beans free today on the App Store or Google Play. That’s friends without the R Best Fiends and we thank Best Fiends for their support of Jim Harold’s Campfire.

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Keep up to date with everything at the spooky studio, sign up for Jim’s free newsletter at Jimharold.com/newsletter. Now back to another great Campfire story.

Jim Harold  40:12  

Sarah is on the line from England. We’re so glad to have her on the line. She’s been listening for about a year. And we really appreciate it. And, you know, back in the day, we used to listen to boom boxes. I used to do it all the time, you know, and Sarah and her friends decided to do that, then something really strange happened. Sarah, welcome to the show and tell us what happened.

Sarah  40:36  

Oh, thanks very much, Jim. I’m super excited to speak to you. Yes, I was slightly worried people wouldn’t know what we were talking about. Anyway, this was all back in the 80s a friend, me and two friends, were sharing a flat and it was in the top of an old sort of like Edwardian family house. Where we lived was in the eaves so quite tight at the edges. We were sitting in the living room, playing cards sitting on the floor, listening to Wham, I remember on the cassette player. And they get along being you know, just haven’t fully young 20 something year old women. And then suddenly the tape stops and started saying you will be quiet. Ooh, so we looked at each other and when it just said quiet, and then stopped entirely. So we thought, oh my god. So my friend whose machine it was took out tape cassette because you know sometimes in those days, they had stopped, you’d have to rewind a bit with a pencil or something. It was all right. There was nothing wrong with it. And then she said, Oh, maybe I taped over one of my dad’s hypnosis tapes, and we all went and that will be it won’t it? Fine. We popped in back in, play ,started up again with Wham, George Michael. And then a couple of minutes later, it stopped again. And we all looked at each other, thoughts something similar may have happened looked at the tape out was fine. Press play again nothing happened, pressed the electrics in the side again, because maybe that had come out somehow. It was fine. Traced the  wire around to the wall socket not available. So it’s a (unclear), higher voltage or something. So we have three pins right side button where you have to say on and off. The whole plug without the wall socket, dying on the floor, and the switch was off at the side. Obviously, somebody wanted us to really shut up.

Jim Harold  43:00  

You will be quiet

Sarah  43:01  

So we are at this stage, completely freaked out. So we all rushed out of the room went into my friend’s bedroom and he’d done the (unclear) and then we started piecing together that the we’d heard people walking around and we’d all assumed it was one or the other of us. Then we had somebody in the kitchen of cleaning the fridge and we were all in attendance with each other there was nobody there.

Jim Harold  43:29  

It gotta tell you about the fact that it was unplugged and then the switch was turned off that’s kind of you know how do you explain that away?

Sarah  43:39  

It’s not as if we because you couldn’t pull it out that you know the dirt somebody had pulled it and it wasn’t just fallen down exactly where their socket was it was out a foot away and really pulled out and the switch was off and we were all a bit afraid it has to be said .

Jim Harold  44:00  

Was there a lot of other activity in that place, other strange things?

Sarah  44:05  

Not much that was frightening but as I say you used to hear people walking around then there wasn’t anybody there and they always seem to open the fridge and he’d always hear like the milk bottles rattling as the fridge door came open, and we left pretty soon after that to be honest because just you don’t want to be the people who see ghosts I mean had to see the ghost before we ran like the wind when that happens. So no there wasn’t much else except footprints and noises that was that wanted to (unclear)

Jim Harold  44:47  

Well thank you for sharing this story and there’s it’s and the funny thing I’ll tell you, you know proving the staying power of Wham. My youngest daughter just got a turntable and just yesterday she was playing George Michael. So there you go. 

Sarah  45:02  

Ah, stellar. Alright. Well, that’s my story.

Jim Harold  45:08  

Well, Sarah, thank you so much for being a part of the campfire and for listening and all your support.

Sarah  45:15  

Very welcome. Looking forward to hearing it if it ever comes on.

Jim Harold  45:19  

It will be on, it will be on.

Sarah  45:22  

Okay, great.

Jim Harold  45:24  

Dan is on the line from Washington. He’s been listening to the programs for years, and we appreciate it. And he has a head scratcher for us and this one surrounds the passing of his wife and Dan, I know it’s been a while but our sympathies for that certainly. And please tell us your story.

Dan  45:42  

Hi, Jim. Thank you. So it starts out back in 2017, my wife died of complications from a brain tumor. And she literally died in my arms on Labor Day 2017. And I was singing to her as she crossed over so that I would make sure that my voice was the last thing she heard. And she knew she wasn’t alone as she died. And that was a very hard and very sacred moment. And so I was there for last breath. And I experienced the whole thing. And I had been a caregiver for the last six months prior to that. So I knew that this moment was coming. But nothing ever really prepares you for it. And so I started getting (unclear) because a new widow of putting a new life together in the aftermath. But from the day that my wife died, in addition to the grief and the sadness I carried, there’s also this heavy weight on my soul. And this is where the head scratcher starts. And as I went through grief counseling, as I networked with other widows, I felt that this weight that I carried wasn’t right. And it may sound strange to somebody who hasn’t lost a loved one. But there’s the grief that you carry. And it’s complex and complicated with the rage and the weeping and the silence and the inner quiet. But there was a weight on top of that, that just didn’t feel quite right. And I couldn’t place it. And then one day, about three months after my wife died, which was a December timeframe, I coming out of my den, into the hallway of my home. And I stopped because I felt this intense predatory evil presence, crawling along the wall to my right towards me now, it’s amazing to see that I couldn’t see it. And I felt it, just as if it was truly there. And I, I made myself larger than that presence. As a, I’ve got a little bit of background supranet in supernatural things. And so I’ve made myself larger and scared it off. But that was something I never expected. And there was something bothering me about that. Why? Why would something manifest in that way. And so, time went on. And I decided that I would take the honeymoon that my late wife and I wanted to take as we’d only been married for 11 months by the time she died and so I decided to go to Hawaii and stay on Waikiki and turn that honeymoon into kind of a vacation in a process of letting go for. Well, I go to Hawaii in February and I thought I was (unclear) Valentine’s Day by going to Honolulu. And let me tell you, Jim, that’s not the case. It turns out everybody across the Pacific goes so I get to Hawaii. And I make some friends there during my week on Waikiki and one of them’s a native Hawaiian who tells me about Pali lookout up at the top of Oahu overlooking the north shore of the valley. And he says that it’s a thin place between two worlds and and the Hawaiians there revere it. And I suddenly got this idea of letting go of Kris via this ritual. But it was a sacred space. So I figure that you have to bring goodies with me so I brought a plastic tub of whiskey and a letter that I wrote to Kris, I drive over there to Pali lookout and when I don’t notice that this huge rainstorm hits at the same time that I’m driving up there and I think I’m all alone. It’s like get out in this rainstorm. It’s horizontal rain, pounding rain, wind screaming past me. I’m standing up there and Polly lookout looking up the North Shore. It’s 1000 foot drop down to the valley below. Its wind and rain mist and trees and I’m singing the songs that I sang to Kris as she died. And I’ve got that little glass of whiskey sitting there on the ledge as an offering to the demigods and spirits around me there at Pali pass. And, as I’m doing this, this busload of Chinese tourists comes out and stands next to me about 30 feet away, as I’m just drenched wet singing, you know, and crying and just kind of letting go. But here’s where things truly get strange is one and get done with this little ritual that I concocted. I heard Kris’s voice in my head saying, Dan, get out of the way. And I look around and it doesn’t make sense. But I suddenly feel lighter, like this wave I’ve been carrying since my wife’s death just left, just gone. And I head down from Pali pass the following day was last day, I had in Hawaii. And I decided to go up to the north end of Waikiki Beach where there’s a bar called Cheeseburger in Paradise. So I go into this part, I sit down and I order a meal. And next to me, this woman sits down, and she’s  just staring straight ahead. And she’s got a beer and a shot in front of her. And I realized that that beer is my favourite kind of beer, that shot is a shot of whiskey, but she’s not touching the shot. I’m noticing this and then finally I just get this impulse to say so what’s up? Why aren’t you drinking the shot? And she says it’s funny you asked that. I have no idea why I’m sitting here. I’m just sitting here drinking this beer and having this shot. I just got this compulsion to come down here and do this. So we get to talking and I find out her name is Kristen, the same way my wife spelled her name. She is a mechanical engineer and my late wife was a mechainal engineer. And she’s drinking my favorite kind of beer Blue Moon. And that also happened to be Kris’s favorite. And she’s done a shot of Maker’s Mark whiskey in front of firms, which not only with us, Kristen’s favourite whiskey, it was the whiskey that I had with me up there up at Pali point in the howling rain store. And my mind was blown, as there were too many coincidences. And on top of that, this woman lived in the condos above the bar. And normally, she never went down to the cheeseburger in paradise, except today. She said I had this compulsion, and I had to go do this. And so I happened to have Kristen’s driver’s license with me, which was a long story. So I showed her the driver’s license of my wife and she showed me hers. And we saw how the names were right and Jim to this day, I figure out that I after everything that I went through, it was just the strangest. I have no words and only other comparisons I made are the (unclear) you have here on Campfire. I just I couldn’t dream of a weirder story. But this happens.

Jim Harold  53:24  

Do you think that your wife, and I think I know you’ve listened to the show. I think I had a you know it wasn’t a spouse. But it was a beloved uncle who put me in a, I was in a weird situation where all the planets aligned, where there’s a series of weird coincidences. And this kind of reminds me of that your story’s more profound. You’re talking about a wife, you’re talking about a soulmate. But do you think that your wife kind of put the chess pieces in place to say, Hey, Dan, I’m here. I see you, you know, try to get through your grief. Be okay. Live a good life. Do you think that she was trying to say, kind of hit you over the head and say, I’m okay. And let me put this unique series of circumstances in place to tell you that.

Dan  54:13  

Jim, is it has to be that because the odds of all of that falling together in just that way I’m no….I don’t work in insurance. I forget the name, or you know what they call those guys? Actuaries? I’m no actuary, but the odds of all the ones that happen in the sequence and the timing, it cannot be anything else. Well, I can’t figure out and I probably never will, is how that could have happened. I mean, I just I have no idea but it has to be her in one way or another. And I suppose I’ll never know the whole mechanics of it, but it was what I needed. 

Jim Harold  55:00  

And you’ve done you feel you’ve done much, much better since all this happened.

Dan  55:04  

Oh, yeah, I It’s been five years and I have done much better. And, yeah, I yeah, I have survived and thrived.

Jim Harold  55:14  

Well, Dan thank you. Again, our sympathies. But I’m glad that through this experience you were able to find a brighter way and a brighter day and thank you for sharing this very personal story on the Campfire.

james  55:27  

It’s my pleasure, Jim. Thank you.

Jim Harold  55:30  

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Campfire Announcer  58:11  

Subscrib or follow Jim Harold’s Campfire today, wherever you get your podcast. Please rate and review too, it helps so much. Thanks. Now back to another great Campfire story.

Jim Harold  58:22  

Next up on the Campfire is Scott from Akron, Ohio, just a hop skip and jump down the road. And we’re so glad to have him on the show. And Scott is going to talk to us about what he says was his severely haunted home and he lived in it for a long time. So he’s got a lot to share. Scott, welcome to the show. And please tell us some of these experiences.

Scott  58:48  

Yeah, thanks, Jim. Um, well, thehouse in question I lived in within Kiptyn, Michigan. And we moved into that house in the late 90s. It was my wife and I, and we had two daughters. Um, the first thing that happened as soon after we moved in was we weren’t in bed but a half an hour or so. And I hear something in the kitchen, a little girl crying. And I assumed it was one of one of our daughters. So I get up, I go look around. No one’s downstairs. No one’s in the kitchen. I go upstairs. The girls are both asleep. So I thought oh, well, that’s kind of funny, you know. And then shortly after that, because the house is old, it was built in 1836. So it’s pre Civil War. The foundation was also original. So we had the waterproofing company come in and take care of the basement area. And when they did that they, they broke up the concrete and laid down some perforated pipe and stuff. Well, as soon as that happened, it was, I mean, a whole different house. I mean, it just, it just opened up the floodgates. We would hear constant knocking on the wall, constant knocking every night. At one footsteps all the time, footsteps in and out of bedroom. I would see I woke up one night to see a shadow person standing at the foot of my bed. Um, when I look, this shadow person turned its head looked at me and then just vanished. 

Jim Harold  1:00:52  

Oh, man. 

Scott  1:00:53  

It. I mean, for anyone that seen a shadow person. That is the most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

Jim Harold  1:01:01  

I could see that being very frightening. 

Scott  1:01:05  

Yeah, yeah. My wife, she’s had other experiences as well. Um, I couldn’t, the place wouldn’t let me sleep. In the back part of the house  was where our bedroom was. And it was an addition used to be a back porch. But the oppressiveness and the heaviness in that room was almost unbearable. You’d walk in. If you try to sleep for me, I would have something touch my nose, then make my nose tickle every every night for 20 years every night. So it was very difficult to sleep in this place. My my wife at one point she had finally had enough. Because we kept losing things, you know the JOTT, you know, you’re just one of those things where you you’d miss something or something would come up and usually was our children’s gloves or glasses or things like that. She finally had enough of it one one day on the way going shopping. And she’s like, hold on a second. She walked back in the house and just laid into him. (Jim laughs) I mean, she gave it. She said I want everything on the kitchen floor when I get back. And Jim, it was a pile of things on the kitchen floor when we got back from shopping. 

Jim Harold  1:02:34  

It was cleaned up. It was cleaned up when you came back. Or was it?

Scott  1:02:38  

No, no, that the ghost left the stuff on the floor when we came back/

Jim Harold  1:02:43  

I see. Gotcha. 

Scott  1:02:44  

She asked. She said I want all this stuff back. And when we got back, it was on the floor.

Jim Harold  1:02:50  

Oh, see? Okay, I gotcha.

Scott  1:02:52  

Another thing. You know, I’ve listened to a lot of the stories from your other listeners. And the one thing that you know, I thought that’s kind of funny. It was the little girl that said she used to jump down the stairwell, and something would carry her and then yes, gently drop her at the bottom, the base of the stairs. Um, I asked my daughter, I said, if that ever happened to you? And she’s like, well, you know, one time I was at the top of the stairs. And I missed a step and I tripped. And I close my eyes. And then when I opened them, I was at the bottom of the stairs and I don’t know how I got there. So, you know, it’s just stuff like that. It’s bad. I’d hear voices calling my name. I hear people coming into house and I’d get up and no one’s home. No one there. So the place that just ran the gambit. I mean, every every story that I’ve heard your listeners talk about. I can Oh, that happened to me. Oh, that happened to me.

Jim Harold  1:03:57  

Of all the things that happened to you. What was the most chilling? Was it the shadow person? Or was it something else? What was the one thing that stood out more than anything of the many things?

Scott  1:04:07  

The shadow person was definitely one of them. That was very terrifying. But I also had a night where I was laying a bed and something pulled the covers off of my feet like a little bit. And I thought oh, was that a mouse that, was something run over my feet so I just laid there and then a few seconds later did it again, a little bit more. That’s happened three times and the last time it was almost like if the blankets came up off off of my feet. And I you know, at that point I just sat up in bed and I said you know you gotta get out of here. You’re not welcome here. Um, but yeah, I mean several I’ve full body apparition walking through the bedroom I thought was my wife expected her to get in bed. And then I open my eyes again and no one’s in there. What happened with the? So? Yeah, hey, I can’t just pin it down to one specific thing he was all the time.

Jim Harold  1:05:14  

Well, that’s that’s, and, and was your moving was that related to being haunted or just it was a change in life and it was time to move to a new place? 

Scott  1:05:27  

Well, that’s, that’s another thing. We tried to sell it out almost from the minute we moved in, just because of the experience we started having. I mean, it was literally on the market on and off for 15 years, and we just couldn’t sell it. We couldn’t get anyone to come in. And then I had a job transfer, a transfer to the Cleveland engine plant there, for Ford. And I thought, well, we’ll just put it up for sale again and see what happens. Within a week, we had it sold. So I think I think the house let us go finally, it finally said, Okay, we’ll be done enough to you. We’re going to get the next people so.

Jim Harold  1:06:13  

And I’m guessing you were kind of glad to say goodbye. It sounds like maybe.

Scott  1:06:18  

I was so happy to get out of that house. So happy in the place we live in now. Is it? Um, it does have something that it but it’s not oppressive, and it’s not the man of thing. So yeah, definitely a welcome change.

Jim Harold  1:06:37  

Well, the thing is that is that people say, you know, they’ll say, well, I would never live in a house like that. And I’d like to get your your feeling on it. Because, you know, that’s easy to say. But let’s say that you have a house and you have a mortgage and you have commitments, even if you want to get out of a house, and to your point about it being hard to sell and then easy to sell. And but sometimes it’s not as easy as just snapping your fingers is it?

Scott  1:07:05  

It really isn’t. You know, I’ve heard other people say that the same thing that I’m about to say is that you’re stuck. I mean, unless you have an enormous savings where you can afford to, you know, just drop everything and you know, jump into another place. You know, you’re kind of stuck into the environment that you’re in. So, we had to wait for the house to sell and we had to endure the torment that we went through. It wasn’t easy. And it was difficult for the whole family. I know my my daughter wouldn’t sleep upstairs for the last five or six years. we lived there. She’d sleep downstairs on the couch. So yeah.

Jim Harold  1:07:54  

it’s that had to be a very tough go of it. But I’m glad that you made it out safely and that you’re in a better place and welcome to Ohio.

Scott  1:08:03  

I love it. Hey, Jim. I love living in Ohio. I’m a Michigander to an Ohioan when I love living in Ohio. It’s been a great experience. 

Jim Harold  1:08:13  

Great. Well welcome aboard. I know there’s a lot of times there’s some animosity because of the football but I hear the way I feel is on Saturday, let’s be rivals, but every other day let’s just get along because we’re just folks and footballs football. I love football and go Buckeyes, and I’m sure you’d say the same about the Wolverines. But a lot of similarities.

Scott  1:08:34  

Nope, I’m not I’m not a Wolverine. I’m a Spartan.

Jim Harold  1:08:37  

Ah, there you go. There you go. Yeah, you there go. There is a difference and people will let you know the difference. Scott, thank you so much for joining us tonight on the Campfire.

Scott  1:08:48  

Thank you so much, Jim. And we stay spooky, and I know you do too. Thanks.

Jim Harold  1:08:53  

Next up is Karl from San Francisco, California. Every time I hear Karl, you, you might know. You may I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember this. But every time I hear San Francisco I think of the 49ers, I think of Tony Bennett and I think of Rice a Roney that’s San Francisco. (laughs

Karl  1:09:13  

That’s great. And also we have Karl the fog here.

Jim Harold  1:09:15  

There you go. Excellent. Excellent. Well, you’re gonna tell us about a head scratcher. And so glad to have you on the show. So please tell us about this head scratcher.

Karl  1:09:27  

Oh, well, I suppose. Let’s see I guess I’m it’s 1983. And it was just north of San Francisco and Marin County group in a little town called Fairfax. And a brilliant little place to grow up. And I was living at home at the time. I was I guess I was 20. And I have brothers and sisters and I had a younger brother have a younger brother who was about four years younger than I am. And anyway, this occurred one evening I was out with some friends And my brother and I had kind of neat cars at the time he had like up Pontiac LeMans. And I had a 260s Z Datsun and we took care of our cars. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. And I used to go and hang out with these guys until all hours and they were benign evenings, we just sit and talk for hours. And it was on another in another town close to Fairfax, called San Anselmo. Anyway, I guess it was about 1:30 in the morning, 1983. I don’t know what time of year it was exactly. And I drive home from being with my buddies and I lived up this long hill at the very top, there’s about 20 homes at the top of this hill. And as I’m rounding the corner, to turn into my driveway, the whole the whole street is dark. Obviously, it’s like two in the morning, except for our house. Every single light was on in our house. And I said at two in the morning, I couldn’t figure it out. And I had a mother and father there I had my brother and my sister living at the house and the time that at two in the morning, all the lights are on. So I pull into the driveway. I turn off the motor and I get out and they walk to our front door into the kitchen. And every light is on. Not a peep Not a soul in the house as far as I can tell, I called out a few names. And I decided to walk upstairs and check the bedrooms. So the firstbedroom I come to is my brother’s. And I knock on his door and I opened his door in his bed is perfectly made. Which I thought was a little disturbing at this time tonight. So the next room I went into was my little sister’s and her bed clothes were pulled to the side as if she had gotten out for some reason. But her lights are on, then I knocked on my parents’ door. Same thing, their bed clothes are off to the side like they had made some sort of an escape or something. I had no idea. 

Jim Harold  1:12:14  

So normally they all would have been in their beds that time of night at the house. 

Karl  1:12:18  

Oh goodness. Oh, yeah. As I I’d have to quietly step in and go downstairs to my room.

Jim Harold  1:12:24  

So I want to try to get it straight, itwould have been usually your parents, your brother and your sister? Is that right? 

Karl  1:12:29  

Right. They would be home.  Upon my arrival for sure in bed. So I made my way back down to the kitchen in it was trying to figure out what to do. And hadn’t decided to call a neighbor to see if they and heard any thing over here or seen any anything take place. So I called my neighbor who in the morning, very nice woman, an old friend of ours. She said I’m sorry, Karl I have no idea what you’re talking about. No, we didn’t hear about anything. So then I’m sitting in front of the old rotary phones. Remember, this is a time before cell phones.

Jim Harold  1:13:04  

Oh, yeah. We have one on the kitchen wall.

Karl  1:13:07  

On the kitchen wall, exactly. So I go what to do here. It’s so I decided to call the Sheriff’s Department. And we, we were out of the city limits, so the sheriff was the, they were the people to connect with. And so I called them and they said I live at this address. Have there been any reports of any anything going on here and the sheriff said I’m sorry, if I were you I try the hospitals. So I said, Okay, that makes sense. So there’s a hospital about seven miles away from where I live. And I called their emergency room. And they said, you know, we usually pass them into the pay phone. So let me give you that number. And if someone’s in the waiting room, they’ll pick up the payphone. You’re with me here? So I they gave me the pay phone number at the at the first hospital. I called someone picked up and they said, Listen, do you have a show? And so Taylor in your waiting room, is there anybody by this name Taylor are in your waiting room? And so she asked around and No, there wasn’t. So I said okay, so she hung up the phone and decided to call the main hospital waiting room. And this is where it gets really interesting. So I call the emergency room at the main hospital. And they give me the same routine, please call the payphone. So I dial the payphone. And a person picks up and I said excuse me, I understand that I’m supposed to call the payphone to find out if anybody’s in your waiting room. Do you have a Mrs. Taylor or a Mr. Taylor in your waiting room? And she goes well, hold on. Let me find out here. Just one moment. And oh, listen, she goes, Yes. As a matter of fact. So all of a sudden, my mom comes to the phone. 

Jim Harold  1:15:09  

Oh boy.

Karl  1:15:12  

And this is unbelievable, Jim this part. So I say, Mom, what’s going on? She goes, Oh, what are you talking about? And I go, Well, why, who’s in the hospital? What’s the emergency? And she goes, what are you doing calling me here? And he said, Mom, when I checked around, though, all that all the lights are on in the house. Oh, Mrs. H from across the street and no idea what happened. And they decided to call the hospitals and you’re at this hospital. So what’s going on? And this is it, gym. She goes, Karl. I just walked up the hill because your brother’s car broke down. And I knew that they had a payphone here in this hospital. 

Jim Harold  1:16:00  

Oh, how weird.

Karl  1:16:01  

I came up here to use this payphone to call a tow truck.

Jim Harold  1:16:06  

That’s bizarre.

Karl  1:16:10  

And so knowing now Jim here, it gets even better. So I go, Oh, my God, my God, this is astounding. Can you believe you’re at the payphone that I called you at? And she goes, I don’t understand why it’s that big of a deal. And I’m in a hurry, and I want to get home. And my mom is the sweetest, greatest versions, but she was a little annoyed. She goes I’m gonna call to make here and I go, Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, don’t you understand? She goes bub, we’ll talk when we get home. I’m sitting there going. She doesn’t think that’s interesting or bizarre at all. The fact that she happened to be at that payphone. So they get home. And I’m sitting there on the couch and I look at them when I go. Everything’s okay. And he goes, Oh, yeah, we just had a truck, we had his car towed. And I go Mom, can you believe you were at this payphone? She goes, you know, sweetie. She goes, I don’t find it that interesting. And I don’t think it’s up and down bizarre. And they go well, wait a minute. I just don’t understand. I understand. And it’s so funny because thankfully, I still have my mom. Right. And to this day, she vaguely remembers it. And still doesn’t feel that it was that big of a deal.

Jim Harold  1:17:17  

I mean, it’s a pretty wild synchronicity. Now what happened with the maybe I missed it what happened with the rest of the family?

Karl  1:17:24  

Everybody was for everybody piled in the car. Oh, they all went together. Yeah. And they all went down to you know, because Lisa, my my little sister was too young to stay home.. So they just all got in the car to go help Mark. The car happened to break down near a hospital, near a phone.

Jim Harold  1:17:41  

That you happen to call.

Karl  1:17:44  

Exactly! It fits into your…

Jim Harold  1:17:47  

Oh, yeah, it absolutely does. This to me is is a head scratcher. Just kind of, you know, there was a song back in the 80s or 90s things that could make you go hmm, and this is definitely one of those things that make you go hmm. And just kind of wonder what was that all about? Definite head scratcher. Karl, thank you for joining us today. I appreciate it.

Karl  1:18:08  

Oh, it was a joy. Thanks, Jim.

Jim Harold  1:18:10  

Marisa is on the line from Connecticut. And she’s been listening for about a year and enjoying the show. So we’re glad to have her and glad to have her as a storyteller. And today she’s going to talk about her dad. Marisa, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us, please tell us what happened. 

Marisa  1:18:25  

Thanks so much. So my dad was a really a non believer of all things, you know, ghosts or spirits or anything, he was the great debunker you know, um, my dad was from Sicily. And he did not believe in superstitions. Whereas my mom, also from Italy was, you know, believed in every superstition around, but he was definitely a non believer and, you know, the kind of kid who would break into a supposed haunted house and spend the night in there to prove to his friends, there was no such thing as a haunted house. So we heard that story a lot growing up. So anyways, I’m in 2004, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. And it was, it was pretty tragic. Because he was he was 58 when he was diagnosed, and he died within a year. 

Jim Harold  1:18:26  

I’m sorry. 

Marisa  1:19:22  

Yeah. So he was, you know, he was our rock. And it was very, very hard time for us. I was pregnant with my, my second child when he passed. So it was, you know, doubly hard going through this as you know, pregnant person. But my son was born safely after my dad passed and reminds me more and more of him every day. So that’s the great thing. I always say, God takes something away and give something in return. And so that’s how I look at it. Um, but so to my dad’s story, When he was in hospice care, he, um, you know, my mom would spend a lot of time reading to him and things. And she read him a story that she had read in, like, Reader’s Digest or something about a woman who had died and promised to send her children a thunderstorm to show them that she had reached heaven. And I guess the story goes that after the funeral, nothing had happened. And all the children were together. And the next thing, you know, this crazy storm blew through. And everybody said, Well, Mom got to heaven. So my mother read this to my dad. And he said to her, you know, when I when I pass, I’ll send you a storm. So you know I got to heaven. And, you know, she would tell us these things at night after she left the hospital. Um, I don’t know if you are familiar with people who compare the story of the life and death of dragonflies to that of how to explain death to children. But there is something that was written many years ago about dragonflies and how their sign of life after death because they’re born under the water, and when they reach the surface of the water, and they get their wings, they can no longer go back, back home, but they could see their loved ones. And they know that someday, their loved ones will also get their wings and all be together again. So um, a friend of mine, came to the hospital one night towards the end. And she brought dragonfly pins for my mom and my two sisters and myself. And inside the box was the story. So my mom went to see my dad and she said, you know, Lisa came to visit and she bought me this beautiful dragonfly pen and I want to read you the story. So she got on the story. And he says to her, Lena, I’ll send you dragonflies when I die. So these were the kinds of things that were going on. So the day that he died, I was the last person to be with him. And as you, I’m sure you’ve heard stories where people say, you know, people wait until you leave to die, they don’t want it, you know, they want you to be there. So my mom and my sister had been there all day, I relieved them to go to dinner. My mother was nervous, because, you know, she knew the end was coming. And I was, oh, seven months pregnant. And you know, but I convinced them to leave. And I sat there, you know, and, and said the rosary and, you know, talked to him because I was hoping that he could hear me. And then somebody came to the hospital to visit and pulled me out of there and said, Come on, let’s go get a cup of tea or something. And I didn’t want to go and I did. And sure enough, the 10 minutes that I was gone my dad passed. So all I remember is my mother and my sister running down the hallway at a hospital calling my name and here I come waddling out. And they had gone to the room and they’d found that he had passed and I wasn’t there and they were worried something happened to me. So we all go into the room. Now the room is has the curtains closed the whole time. And so, you know, we’re all distraught. And one of my best friends since kindergarten is actually a nurse at this hospital. And we called her she came upstairs. And you know, we were all in the room. And one of the nurses came in and said something about the crazy storm. And we said what crazy storm? It was it was Memorial Day weekend it was beautiful (unclear) sunny, not a cloud in the sky. As she said that was crazy storm just swept through thunder and lightning. And then it just blew through like as quick as it came. And you would never have known that anything happened other than you looked out the window and you saw damp pavement because the sun was shining and the sky was blue. So my mother said he you know he got there. And we’re all like, What do you mean? She told us the story. So we’re like, oh, gosh, you know. So anyways, in the months after he died, obviously, weeks and months after he died, were tough. But a couple things happened that were really unexplainable. So the day of his funeral, I had come home, we had sent our my daughter, my daughter was in kindergarten at the time, and we thought to keep it normal for her. We sent her to school. And she was going to go to a friend’s house, you know, after school and my husband went to go pick her up after the funeral and I was home alone and I was in my room. And I started talking to my father. And I said, Dad, I wish you would show me a sign. And then I laughed and I said don’t,don’t scare me because I don’t want to go into labor, you know, and I was just kind of chuckling to myself. And so I changed my clothes and I went into the kitchen and I smell cigarettes. Now my dad died of lung cancer. He had smoked for many, many years, but he quit smoking 20 years prior to getting lung cancer. So they were never sure if it was from smoking or environmental. But I I was a former smoker, you know, picked it up in college kind of thing. And at the time he got sick I wasn’t pregnant at the time. Um, I was still smoking a little bit. And the day that he was diagnosed with lung cancer. I smoked my last cigarette and I quit cold turkey and I never picked up a cigarette since. And I promised him I said, Dad, I will never smoke another cigarette, I promise you. And I would never break that promise to him. And so I’m smelling cigarette smoke. And all the windows are closed. We just gotten home. So I had all the windows shut. I was home alone. We lived on three acres of land. No, our neighbors were not close to us. And the smell was so strong. And it wasn’t like a fire smell. It was a cigarette smell. A smoker knows the difference. And I was walking around the house, it was driving me crazy. And then it disappeared. And my husband came home and I said do you smell it? And but by then the smell was gone. So it’s kind of creepy. But not creepy. Good, creepy. I was like, It must be him. He must be sending me a sign. Because I couldn’t explain it. And the day of the funeral, one of my sisters tells me that she kept walking into her kitchen and my dad would always sit, you know, as families do. They always sit in a certain chair, you know, at the table.And that his Yep. And that his chair on the chair was pulled back in there was like coffee spilt. And she kept going and wiping up the coffee. And this happened like three or four times. And so she yelled at her husband. And she said, you know why? Why? Why you spilling coffee? First of all, and clean it up, you know. And he looked at her and he said, I haven’t heard a cup of coffee yet. It was before we left for the funeral. And he said I haven’t even had a cup yet. And she she was just like it was a what is this? It’s coffee. And she had a three year old son. So it wasn’t the baby. You know what I mean? So that was kind of strange as well. When the day after the funeral, I went to my daughter’s school. And ironically, her kindergarten teacher had been a classmate of my father’s in high school a couple years younger, but she knew my dad. And she told me that the day the funeral the kids were walking back to the classroom, and you know how they walk two by two, you know, like, down down the hallway together. And she saw my daughter, Mikayla lagging behind all by herself. And when she got up to the door, the teacher said to her, you know, Mikayla, what, why are you by yourself? Why, you know, why are you alone? And she said, Oh, she said, I’m not alone. And she says, Well, you are alone. And she says, Oh, no. Poppy’s with me. I feel his hand on my shoulder. He was walking with me.

Jim Harold  1:27:40  

 Wow. Wow. 

Marisa  1:27:41  

So she told me she started to cry. I started to cry, I was like, oh my god, this is just you know, too much. So, the next thing that happened was the first Father’s Day was a couple weeks after he died. So we went to church, my mother, my daughter and I, and we sat in the middle of our church, not near any of the doors and everything was closed. You know, in churches, they don’t leave doors open. And it was it was just in the middle of mass. And all of a sudden it smelled like somebody in front of me was smoking a cigarette. I smelled the cigarette smell. But this time, I looked at my mother and she, I didn’t even have to say a word. She said I smell it, you know? And Mikayla says, I smell smoke, mommy, somebody’s smoking. Where are they smoking? And we’re in the middle of church, like there’s nobody smoking. And it was Father’s Day, you know. And so that was it. So the third smoke story there was he sent three smoke signals, I’ll say. And the third one is really the biggest head scratcher. So when he was on, when he was on hospice care at the end, he kept saying to me, Marisa, please get your mother a cell phone. I’ll feel so much better. Knowing that she has a cell phone now everybody has cell phones now. But you know, 16 years ago, not all moms had that. My mother was like, you know, I don’t need a cell phone. What do I need a cell phone for? But he was like, promise me you’ll get her cell phone. I’ll feel better knowing that she she ever, you know, has it needs it,, she’ll be safe. So I kept saying, Dad, don’t worry, I’ll get the cell phone. Well, the couple days after the funeral, I went down to the store, cell phone store. And I bought a cell phone. I got home. And I was in the kitchen and I called her and I said mom, she lives in the house behind me. So she was literally right in my backyard. And she said mom, I said mom come over. I got your cell phone and I want to show you how to use it. And she said okay, so while I was waiting for her to walk over, I opened up the cell phone box, and all of a sudden I’m hit instantly with the smell of cigarette smoke. Coming out of the box. The sealed, the sealed cell phone box.

Jim Harold  1:29:53  

Yeah, what are the chances.

Marisa  1:29:56  

How do you explain that? You know? And so my mother walks In. And of course, the smell is blonde. And she looks at me and I’m white as a ghost. She’s, you know, I tell her that I said, I just smell cigarette smoke. I said, I’m not losing my mind. I smelt it. It was coming out of the box. And she said, No, I believe and he’s thanking you for giving me the cell phone. So this is where it gets really strange. That night, I basically gave her the cell phone. I showed her the rudimentary, you know, details of the cell phone, and she says well, you know, you guys will have to show me how to use it. I says, yeah, right now, you know, whatever this turned on, we’ll we’ll deal with it later. And the three me her, my daughter went out to dinner, my husband was working. She said, Let’s go to dinner. So we went out. And we’re sitting in the restaurant, she’s sitting across from me, and we’re talking and all of a sudden a cell phone starts ringing. So I reached in my purse, and I grabbed my cell phone I’m looking at I’m pressing the buttons, but it’s not my phone, and I’m looking around, like almost be somebody else’s phone. And my mother starts laughing. And she goes, it’s my cell phone. My cell phone’s ringing. I says Give it to me. So she gave me the cell phone. It was a flip phone. So I flipped it open. And I look. And it says incoming call. And it has my mother’s home telephone number. So I like almost went into labor. I was like, how? How is this possible? That a phone call is coming to a cell phone that hasn’t been used yet? And the caller ID shows my mom’s home phone number. So at first I’m like, Mom, did you give you know, did you give my sister you know, both my I just said did you give me the the number? She said no. She says I didn’t give anybody the number yet. And I said, is anybody at your house? So I called my sister I said, are you at mom’s house? And she said, No. Why? I said, is anybody at mom’s? No, nobody’s there. And I said, Okay, I’ll tell you later. So basically, we got a phantom phone call. With not when I answered it, you couldn’t hear anything but static. And it came from my mom’s home phone number. And there was nobody there. And it was a brand new cell phone, and nobody even had the number. So to this day, we can’t explain it other than he called to say thank you. That’s what I have to believe because there’s no, there’s nothing else that I could explain that away.

Jim Harold  1:32:18  

Yeah. It really seems like he, he definitely reached out in every way he knew how and in ways that were meaningful to you.

Marisa  1:32:27  

Exactly. Exactly. So you know, all of these signs that he sent were all within the couple of weeks after he passed. The dragonflies were very interesting as well, because he did say he was going to send dragonflies remember. And our house was, like I said on a large plot of land. And we didn’t have any running water near us. No ponds, no streets. No nothing. No dragonflies. I don’t know if you know anything about dragonflies, but they typically live where there’s water supply. You don’t find dragonflies, you know, in the middle of nowhere. And we lived at that house. I grew up in that house. And maybe once in a blue moon, you’d see a dragonfly and it’d be a big deal, you know, um, but that summer, it was like our land our yard was infested with dragonflies.

Jim Harold  1:33:18  

Very, very odd. Very odd. Indeed. Marisa, I want to thank you for sharing this story. And obviously, as I said, your dad was trying to get in touch with you guys. And he succeeded. Thank you for being a part of the Campfire tonight.

Marisa  1:33:33  

Thanks for having me. It was my pleasure.

Jim Harold  1:33:35  

Thanks so much for having tuned into this edition of the Campfire. We really appreciate it. And hope that you enjoyed this show. And if you love the Campfire, but you say Jim, I just can’t get enough with these free episodes. I love them. But I’ve listened to them all I need some more Campfire. Well, there is a good place to get that and the place to get that is jimharoldplus.com. You can currently get as of March 24. As I’m recording this, you can get one month for just a buck if you use the money saving promo code we have over there. And then also, if you decide, hey, I’m going to go all in I’m going to go for a yearly you can get your first year for only $49.99. And that is with those money saving promo codes. You go to Jim Harold plus.com Click on my smiling face and it’ll take you to a page with all of the details. The details includes 500+ Campfire episodes you can’t get on the free feeds anymore. Over 700 episodes of the Paranormal Podcast. You can’t get on the free feeds anymore. Plus each and every month since the inception of the plus club back in, gosh, I think it was 2011 I have been putting out eight additional episodes each and every month on topics like UFOs and ghosts and the metaphysical, and there’s all of that to listen to, and those have never been on my free feeds. So check it all out. jimharoldplus.com. That’s jimhaorldplus.com. And we thank you so much for listening to this show. We appreciate it. And we thank all our storytellers and we hope as always, that you’ll stay safe and of course, stay spooky. Bye. Bye, everybody.

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