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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Jim Harold  

Two Hatman experiences, a Skinwalker, and so much more on this edition of Campfire.

Campfire Announcer  

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  

Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold, and so glad to be with you. Happy New Year. Thank you for joining us. I certainly appreciate it. I hope you had a great holiday season and a happy new year and you’re staying well and healthy. And for our part, we are going to bring you brand news stories for the new year. Some great stories of strange experiences. Now if you’re new here, what we do is simply–is have real folks calling, telling true stories about their paranormal and supernatural experiences could be ghosts, could be cryptid creatures, could be UFOs. But whatever they are, they are fascinating and they are true and so glad to have you aboard. And if you’ve listened for a while and enjoy what we do, I want you to do me a couple of favors. First, make sure most importantly, that you follow us on whatever app you use for podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever it might be, iHeart Radio, the list goes on and on. So make sure that you have hit follow if you enjoy the show. And if this is your first time you listen to the show and you like it, hit follow, because that’s the way you make sure that you get each and every week. And we don’t skip any weeks around here for Campfire, last year, we went 52 consecutive weeks. So you’re always going to have great content to tune into if you love true stories of hauntings and spooky stuff and all that good stuff. And I really appreciate it. Also, if you would rate and review on the podcast app of your choice that would help. I know Spotify has just introduced ratings recently. So we’re trying to build up our bonefides there. So help us out. I thank you so much for tuning in. And now hold on. We have some incredible campfire stories. Ky is on the line from Oklahoma. And Stephanie called in recently to talk about her spooky story. And Ky is her wife and Ky is going to tell us–and this is spooky, spooky stuff here, folks. Skinwalkers in Colorado. Ooh. Ky, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. And please tell us about these skinwalkers in Colorado.

Ky  

For sure. Jim, thank you so much for everything you do and for having me on the show. 

Jim Harold  

Thank you.

Ky  

So I lived at–thanks. At the time of the story, I lived in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. We’re just like at the center of a couple of ley lines, which makes stuff crazy and it’s kind of like a vortex for, for crazy stuff. If you believe in that type of stuff. If, if you don’t have electromagnetically it’s a really interesting location regardless. But, so while I lived there, I actually worked at two of the local hot springs. And my first story is centralized around one of them. Sand Dunes Recreation, shout out to you guys. It’s a really great spot. I was there, I was like, kind of at the end of my lifeguarding shift, I was sort of heading towards the locker room and making sure everybody got out of the water okay, lifeguarding a birthday party, and I looked over at the landing strip, which is like adjacent to the hot springs that I worked at just like right across the road. And I looked over there and I saw a figure, and he was like moving around and walking. And I just knew something wasn’t right about his movements. And so I like kind of walked down to the end of where the pool area was kind of where the grass started. There was like a volleyball court down there and stuff. I would say he was probably 30 yards away from me. And he was dressed in normal clothes, like I guess almost too normal. Now that I think about it like khakis and a button up polo like looking very Ward Cleaver, you know, like very–

Jim Harold  

Yeah.

Ky  

Too perfect, you know? And he was walking and it was almost like he was practicing his movements. Like he was trying to figure out how to do it correctly. And like his right leg would move when he was walking and his right arm would go and then his left leg would go and his left arm would go. And he was like, “Oh,” like trying to figure it out. And I was just like, “Man, this is the craziest thing” and because I was you know, off–off duty and on my own time I stood there and watched him for probably two to three minutes and I was like “Yeah, something is not right about this guy,” right? So in relation to the same hotspring, Sand Dunes Recreation in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, I was heading home after bartending our Christmas party. And it went a little later, we had some of the boss’s friends and everything, and everybody was having a good time. And so it was probably 1:30, close to two o’clock in the morning. And we were driving home on actually, it’s called the Cosmic Highway in the San Luis Valley. And all three of us in the car were kind of, you know, like, kind of drowsy and just ready for the day to be over. And on the side of the road, we saw a guy standing. I don’t know if you know what a bar pit is, but it’s kind of like a big embankment on the side of the road where the road kind of washes away.

Jim Harold  

Yeah.

Ky  

 This particular one was probably four to five feet deep. And we’re going 65 miles an hour 60 to 65, because it was late and it was dark. And so of course, we’re all paying attention to the road, the brights are on. And it’s almost like when you’re going that fast and you see somebody, you don’t really have the time to react to it. You just see them and they’re gone, you know?

Jim Harold  

Sure, sure.

Ky  

And so we saw this guy, and he was standing on the side of the road. When I got closer to him, I realized that he was standing off to the side of the road in the bar pit. And he had like a old robe on and like he looked like he was dressed in this jammies. And–but he was just unbelievably tall. So the fact that he was standing in the bar pit, which was you know, like I said, three to four to five feet deep. He was standing in the bar pit and also reaching out for our car, which was probably the creepiest. 

Jim Harold  

Oh.

Ky  

And he had a hat in his hand and his arm would have had to have been at least six feet long which I know is–

Jim Harold  

Oh man. Oh.

Ky  

I know. I know. It’s crazy. But we went back and we looked at it. It’s mile marker 98 on the Cosmic Highway and we went back and like took measurements and I was like, “How is this humanly possible this guy,” but he reached out for our car and was pretty darn close to touching the windshield. And his face was like, his bones were not working properly. Like his jaw was completely like slacked open.

Jim Harold  

Oh, you’re giving me chills, Ky. You’re giving me the chills!

Ky  

It freaked me out too, I’ll never forget it till the day I die. And it was, it was really crazy. And I’m like, why would he reach out for our car? Like why was he there to begin with? And there are no houses Jim, like up to the point where we saw him there are no houses. And so where was he coming from? Where was he going? What was it even, like all those questions.

Jim Harold  

The thing is, you know what that reminds me of? And I’ve heard this before, when these mysterious figures,–they walk in like, it was like a herky jerky motion? Is that kinda what–is that right? 

Ky  

Oh yeah. Very much. Like a skipping record.

Jim Harold  

Yeah, because I’ll tell you an example of that. And it’s really kind of ironic, you know, as we record this, it’s early January, and this will be on the first week in January this story. And we just did our Christmas special, you know, for the holidays. 

Ky  

Right.

Jim Harold  

And we played some older stories that were classics, and I’m thinking about–and you might know the one talking about. My Love What a Mirror Image We Are. And–

Ky  

Oh my gosh.

Jim Harold  

–he talked about the figures, these tuxedo figures that were like ghosts or something, walking down the steps and they walked in a herky jerky kind of, you know, not straight motion. And I’ve heard that multiple times when people see something very strange. 

Ky  

Yeah.

Jim Harold  

And I just wonder what is that about? Yeah, I don’t have any answers.

Ky  

Yeah, no, that’s great. I love that story, by the way. That was a great one. 

Jim Harold  

Oh, thank you. Thank you. So that that herky jerky motion kind of skipping record motion.

Ky  

It’s a thing. 

Jim Harold  

Yeah. So, and then the Ward Cleaver thing. You know, that’s pretty wild, too. You know?

Ky  

Yeah, he was just too normal. Yeah, totally.

Jim Harold  

Almost, maybe like it was trying to imitate? You think?

Ky  

Absolutely. Yeah, like a replicant, so to speak. Yeah, it was definitely creepy. I’ll never forget it. And it drew my attention. I couldn’t look away from him. You know, like, all the kids were out of the water and everything was good, but I just couldn’t stop watching him. It was so weird.

Jim Harold  

That’s a strange one. That’s a strange one, Ky. Thank you so much for being a part of the Campfire tonight. I know you have more stories. And if they’re anything like this one, I want you to hurry up and sign up when we have the–have it reopened. And I thank you so much for being a part of the show tonight. 

Ky  

Awesome. Thank you, Jim. 

Jim Harold  

Susan is on the line from New Mexico and we’re so glad to have her on. She’s actually a very accomplished best selling author. We’re going to talk about that at the end of the call. She has a story for us in this one has me intrigued she calls it the Man in the Bowler Hat. Susan, welcome to the show. And tell us about this man in the bowler hat.

Susan  

I wish I could, I don’t know what it was (laughs). 

Jim Harold  

Okay, well tell us what you can.

Susan  

Well, thank you, Jim very much for having me on the show. I really appreciate it. I’ve started listening to you over the pandemic. And I actually had no idea there was a whole community of people who liked freaky, strange stories.

Jim Harold  

Well, thank you. Thank you.

Susan  

So it’s right up my alley. Okay, so this story, I’m going to date myself, I’m, I’m rather old. This takes place in the mid 1980s when I was a graduate student in the Chicago area. And at the time, I should probably just start by saying that I wasn’t into paranormal stuff at all. I was a very practical minded person. I was very focused on my career. I was studying journalism, and I wanted to do, you know, hard news reporting. So–

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

Susan  

Um, so I–what happened was, I lived in an apartment in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, which was near Wrigley Field. And I lived in this apartment in grad school with my boyfriend at the time, and a buddy of ours from school. My boyfriend’s name was John and my friend’s name was Jeff. And so the three of us lived in this place. And it was a 1920s brownstone that had three levels. An office was downstairs, we were on the second floor, and another family was on the third floor. And so what happened was one day, I was in our brownstone, it was an afternoon, and I was studying for my work and and school. And nothing really super strange had happened in the apartment, except for a couple things. And this is the background. We would hear, we would hear voices sometimes. And it was usually our names being spoken. And I remember one night, I was in my bedroom studying. And my roommate, I thought called my name. So I met him in the hallway. And he’s looking at me and he said, “What do you want?” And I said, “No, what do you want?” And he said, “You just called my name.” I said, “No, you just called my name.”

Jim Harold  

(Laughs)

Susan  

So that was really freaky. And we smelled cigar smoke a lot. And we didn’t know where it was coming from. In the city, you know, you could always assume that there was just some guy walking down the sidewalk smoking a cigar, but it was really, it was really strong. And also I had this just generalized creepy feeling that I was being watched in the apartment, especially in my room, or while taking a shower, which I don’t recommend to anyone because it’s a little nerve racking. So this day, I was studying by myself in the apartment, it was afternoon, it was very sunny, Chicago winter day, and there was light coming through. And the only other creature who lived in the apartment with us was my cat. And his name was Blackjack. And he was a typical, you know, Halloween black cat with beautiful green eyes. And I was sitting in a chair reading next to a fireplace. It was this gorgeous floor to ceiling oak fireplace with a beveled mirror above the mantel. And so I’m sitting there reading, and my cat, Jack suddenly jumps off the couch and is staring. And it’s like, you know, his hair’s up, his tail is all sprayed out. And he’s growling. And he’s staring at something at the other end of the apartment. And I watched him very slowly track whatever it was he was watching. I watched him track it down the apartment. And right as he became looking perpendicular to the beveled mirror, I looked up and I saw a silhouette of a man in a bowler hat. 

Jim Harold  

Ooh. 

Susan  

Yeah, that’s what I saw. It wasn’t precise. There was no face. There was nothing I could see, no features, but it was a tall man with a very clear outline of a bowler hat. And I think you know where I’m going with this. As soon as I saw that, I smelled the cigar smoke, super strong. And so you know my cat’s growling. I am like, at this point I backed up in the chair, totally freaking out. I’m not moving, I’m frozen. And I watched this–this image pass through the mirror very slowly. And my cat’s–

Jim Harold  

Oh my.

Susan  

–my cat–I know–my cat’s watching it. And then it gets to where I can tell that it’s moving right in front of me. And I feel this, like static electricity, no temperature change or anything, you know, like that. I mean, I didn’t know anything about paranormal stuff back then. I just felt this weird static charge. And I, and I was watching the image in the mirror. And I knew that it was right in front of me. And I just didn’t breathe, I didn’t move. And then all of a sudden, my cat turns and then runs really fast and slams into a door that was closed in the corner of the living room, which led to my boyfriend’s bedroom. So he had watched the image, go in through that door, I think, and just smashed into the door. And then he comes back out into the room and looks at me, and gives me this look like “Okay, what was that?” 

Jim Harold  

(Laughs)

Susan  

And then he jumps–like, I would know– then he jumps on the couch and goes back to sleep. Well, I am completely janky, at this point, shaking and I, I can’t think straight and I’m so scared. And so I get all my stuff together. And I decide, you know, the heck with this. I’m not I’m not staying in this apartment by myself. And I went downstairs and I knocked on the door, the guy who was our landlord, he had a little real estate office down there. And I I knocked on the door and I said, “Hey, do you smoke cigars?” And he goes, “No. Why?” I said, you know, “Nothing. Nevermind.” So then I went outside and I started walking around our little brownstone to see if I could smell it outside. And I couldn’t. There was there was just no odor in the general neighborhood. So I went upstairs to our neighbor, and I knocked on her door. And I asked her, I said, “Hey, I know this is really weird. But you know, Is your husband home? Is he smoking a cigar?” She said “No.” I said, “Are you smoking a cigar?” She said “No.” I said “Okay, well, thanks. I just was curious.” So I just dragged myself to the train and went back to my university to study because I just, I could not be in that apartment after that. So a couple days later, I see my neighbor from upstairs, the husband of the woman that I had spoken to. And he was a very interesting dude. He was a little eccentric. And he, he said to me, “So I hear you came up here asking about the cigar man.” And I said, “What cigar man?” He said “The guy who smokes cigars.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And he said, “I see him quite often. He wears a bowler hat.” And I was just like, “Okay, I cannot deal with this.” It completely freaked me out. So, you know, of course, I told my boyfriend at the time about this. And he, you know, told me I was exaggerating. Yes, I’d always had a, you know, an imagination, but I didn’t make this one up. And, you know, of course, my roommate believed me completely, because he’d smelled it as well. 

Jim Harold  

Sure.

Susan  

He’d never seen the guy, but he had smelled the cigar. And so we lived there, you know, a couple more years. And then after I moved out, a couple other college friends moved in. So there were people in and out of that apartment, you know, that I knew over the years. And I never heard another bowler hat guy story. But that is my story. And I am sticking to it. Because it actually happened.

Jim Harold  

That is a cool story. And yeah, I think about, and this is really going back aways, is there used to be–when I was a kid in the 70s, there used to be–Scotch tape had this commercial with the quote, The Invisible Man, but he would have a hat on and he would be walking through the hall or something. And with the hat floating, and it just made me, it just made me kind of think of that. But the thing is, is that yeah, in the story that would stick with you these all these decades. 

Susan  

Oh absolutely.

Jim Harold  

It’s one of those stories that’s so powerful. And what a great story it is. And you’re a great storyteller. I guess that makes sense because–

Susan  

Usually in the written word form. 

Jim Harold  

But–yes, yes. But people may not know it, but you are. Well I’ll let people tell you who you are. But you are a New York Times and USA Best Selling Author of dozens of novels. So, so tell us a bit–give us about a minute on the books and where people can find them.

Susan  

Well, I’ve been a writer for about 20 years and I, after I finished my journalism career, I started writing fiction. I have a series out right now the first book is out, and the second one is on its way, and the third one is coming in April. I’m not sure when this will be released, but it’s called the Cat Lady Chronicles. And the first book is called Catalyst. The second book is Catastrophe. And the third book is Cataclysm. And it’s the story of–basically I like to tell people, “Never underestimate a middle aged cat lady with no F’s left to give,” that pretty much sums up the, the series. She, she’s a woman who has been through a lot she has 11 cats, lives in an Airstream is divorced is recovering from cancer. And then, in a freaky set of circumstances, she is responsible for saving the world. She becomes the, the emissary of the goddess Bastet and must save the world from evil. So those are the books.

Jim Harold  

Oh, that is very, very cool indeed. So I hope people will check that out. And I hope you don’t mind me saying, Susan’s full name is Susan Donovan. So if you like those Catalyst books, you’re gonna want to look for the Catalyst books by Susan Donovan.

Susan  

The Cat Lady Chronicles. 

Jim Harold  

Excellent.

Susan  

And I’m writing these books with my writing partner who is a former screenwriter. She worked on some paranormal TV shows that your listeners may remember, Charmed, and X Files. So she’s definitely– Yeah, yeah most people have. But she’s also an excellent storyteller. So together, we’ve been having a blast writing these books. But you know what, what is interesting about this bowler hat story is that it was my very first experience. And I had no idea that as the years would go on, I would learn that life was just so incredibly strange, and a lot more complicated than I had any idea at that age. So yeah.

Jim Harold  

I’ve heard of that one. It certainly is. And thank you, so, so much for sharing that great story about the cigar man or the man in the bowler hat. Susan, thank you again for being part of the Campfire. 

Susan  

Thanks, Jim very much. Take care.

Jim Harold  

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Campfire Announcer  

Want the entire Campfire archive going back to 2009 plus much more? Get in on Jim’s Plus Club at jimharoldplus.com. Now, back to another great story.

Jim Harold  

LeAnne is on the line from the great state of Michigan, and we’re so glad to have her on the line. And she found out about us from a podcast, I believe it’s called Myths and Legends. So we want to thank them for that. And so glad she found us back last August I guess. So LeAnne has a story going back to her–several years ago, when she was a nanny for friends in college, and she’s gonna tell us about some very strange things that ensued, and we’re so glad to have her on the show. LeAnne, welcome, and please tell us your Campfire story.

LeAnne  

Hi, thanks for having me, Jim. In the early 2000s, I would come home from college in the summers and stay at home, and I would nanny for friends of my then boyfriend now husband and mine. They lived in a in a small rural town. And they had bought a, an old Victorian farmhouse to remodel and live in with their two sons and their stepdaughter. And I would go out, the wife worked from home. And so I would go out every day, and I would watch the kids, and keep them away from her so she could work and just, you know, play with kids and have fun. And I’m, I was an education major. So it was great. Well, the wife decided to go back to school. And so I started staying later and later at night. And eventually, I started staying over. And the first night that I stayed over, I took the kids upstairs, they all shared a big loft bedroom on the second floor. (Clears throat) Excuse me. And I took them all upstairs, and I put them to bed. And I heard them a little while later, like running up and down the stairs–it sounded like–and playing. And so I just shouted at them to get back in bed. And the noise stopped and I was like, “Oh, okay, they went to bed.” And Mom and Dad got home late. And I went, I went home late. Um, the next time that I was over there, I was talking to their mother, they were just hanging out when she got done with work. And she was telling me about the two women who show up in their bedroom at night. Um, they had asked me to stay the night with the kids again, but actually stay the whole night this time and told me you know, you can use our bedroom, everything’s clean in there. And then she told me not to be alarmed if I saw two women who cook dinner and then leave the room. 

Jim Harold  

Huh.

LeAnne  

Because they show up late every night they, they seem–they were residual. She was like, “They show up every night. They don’t bother us. Where their bedroom was at the time apparently was the farmhouse kitchen at one point. So they come in, they wash up, they, they make stuff. And then they leave with it.” And so I was like, “Oh, okay, well,” I wasn’t planning on sleeping in their bedroom anyway. But I was like, “Oh, sure.” You know, like, you’re, you’re trying to get me because the house was really creepy, too. I mean it was an old farmhouse. It was pretty creepy. So I stayed that night with the kids after she had told me this. And I decided I’m not sleeping in their bedroom. Because if that is real, I did not want to see it. 

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

LeAnne  

I’m, like, I’ve always believed in stuff like that. I was like, “I don’t want to see it. I’m gonna sleep on the couch.” Their couch was in one of those like alcoves under the stairs, in their living room. 

Jim Harold  

Okay. 

LeAnne  

So I did the same thing that night and I put the kids up in bed, I tucked all three of them in. I told him good night, told them to stay in bed. A little while and by and I heard them playing on the stairs. And I hollered at them to stop. And you know, they stopped. And then five or 10 minutes later, I heard one of them up on the stairs again. And I was like, I was a little frustrated. So I got up and I–there’s a door on the basement stairs.

Jim Harold  

And I think, I think I know where this is going. But go ahead.

LeAnne  

I opened the door and I walked all the way up to the stairs and all the kids were laying down in their beds. It was just one big loft bedroom and they all had three beds and, um, you know, they were like between three and like eight at the time. So they were all laying down and I was like, I just talked to them. I didn’t see anything. I was just like “You know what, you guys, I know you’re faking sleeping. Just stay in bed. You know, it’s time to go to bed. It’s time to go to sleep.” All that mommy nanny stuff. Went back downstairs about 20 minutes later, I hear something go up the stairs again. And I just hollered the kids and I go to sleep. I got up the next morning, and I was helping their mom make breakfast. And the youngest asked me if I saw the man in the black hat.

Jim Harold  

Ooh.

LeAnne  

(Laughs) And, um, I was like, “No, I didn’t,” like, again. I thought they were messing with me. Um, their house was really creepy and they had a lot of other like creepy little alcoves and a really weird, creepy Michigan basement. You know, those half cinder blocks finished half dirt basements? 

Jim Harold  

Yep. We have them in Ohio too.

LeAnne  

Yeah, it had a lot of little add-ons, um, and then, you know, some weird farm stuff in the back. Not in the house, but you know, remnants of barns and you know, like, farm stuff. Um, so, we would always pick and tell ghost stories and things like that, and like, they’re trying to get me, you know, and I’m like, “I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything.” You know, I said, “I just heard you guys playing on the stairs last night.” Their mom just turns around from the stove and goes, “No, there’s a–there’s an old man who comes in and walks up their stairs. And he wears a black coat. And he stands at the top of the stairs, and he’ll stand at the foot of their bed, and he like, checks on them. And then he goes, and I’m sorry, I guess I should have told you about that, too.” And I was like, “Oh, absolutely.”

Jim Harold  

I would think so. It was a minor detail.

LeAnne  

You know, I’m just like, “How are you okay with this?” And she was just like, you know, their whole philosophy was, she had–the mom was very spiritual, their whole philosophy was, if they’re not bothering us, and they’re not harming us, we’re not going to do anything to disturb them. This was probably their house first. You know, like, they haven’t heard anybody. I never stayed in that house again without my husband staying with me, with the kids overnight. I mean, which was fine with their parents, but I never, I never stayed they’re alone at night again. Because I didn’t want–the hearing it was enough. I did not want, I don’t know–the other side getting comfortable enough to show up. I didn’t want to see it.

Jim Harold  

Man, I gotta tell you, Well, this story works for me on two levels. One, it’s just creepy. And I just imagine, you know, you’re in that alcove. And on the steps above you, there’s like a ghost dancing around on the steps. You think it’s the kids, and it’s ghost. And then the other thing that you don’t know is, you know, I don’t know if you’ve heard this because you’re relatively new to the show. But sometimes the show will produce itself when–just inside baseball for people. When we do these shows, we have people sign up. We don’t say, “Sign up on any certain day if you get a certain kind of story.” We don’t say, you know, “Tuesday night, sign up, if you’ve got a UFO, Tuesday afternoon, sign up, if you’ve got a, you know, a shadow person.” It’s just whenever people find a spot. Well, a couple calls ago, and the callers will have already heard this story. We had a caller call in, Susan from New Mexico. And she talked about when she was in, in grad school, that she lived in an apartment where there was a man with a bowler hat that would walk around, a ghost. And when you said the man in the black hat, I almost fell off my chair because once again, the Campfire produces itself.

LeAnne  

And I had never heard of you know, the hat man– 

Jim Harold  

Right.

LeAnne  

–until I started listening to–to Campfire I’d heard of like the shadow people and other things like that. And so it had never connected with me and like maybe an even creepier level at that time.

Jim Harold  

Yeah, absolutely. I love how we get these group topics. I love it. Now, let me ask you when your husband would stay there with you then, was there anything else that happened? Or what did it come down after that other times that you went?

LeAnne  

Oh, no, it calmed down, like the kids would talk about–the family that lived there–they really just treated it like it was, like it was completely normal. Um, I’ll tell you one other really creepy thing about this house. If I don’t tell this, my husband will get upset with me. Um, when we showed up–when they first bought the house, we went on the tour because we were really close friends with them as well. Um, they took us down and they were showing us their basement. And it was too small for the house. You could only fit maybe about four people in there. And one whole wall was cinder blocked. And the the husband asked, asked–my husband–“Wanna help me tear this wall down? I really want the space and I want to know what’s on the other side.” And the wife of the house was like, “I don’t want you to touch that wall. We’re not touch–I told you we’re not touching that wall.” And I asked her why and she said that they had those old storm cellar doors like the Wizard of Oz cellar doors and she was like “That’s what’s on the other side of there. And it is locked from the inside. And we are not opening it.”

Jim Harold  

Oh man. 

LeAnne  

And so like this, this house had all these creepy–but they never seem disturbed by it. They just they We’re all okay with it. 

Jim Harold  

Oh man, I gotta tell you.

LeAnne  

At least how it looked on the outside to everybody else you know?

Jim Harold  

That is, that’s–that’s really spooky. And locked from the inside, who knows, I would–I’d love to know was on the other side of that wall, but I guess we’ll never know.

LeAnne  

Of course you do, but you know better.

Jim Harold  

(Laughs) I do I do. Well, LeAnne, thank you so much for sharing this fantastic story on the campfire.

LeAnne  

Thank you.

Jim Harold  

Well it’s a great thing when we have known names on the list I saw Brenda is on the list, she’s a longtime supporter, and been a Plus Club member, and been listening for probably pretty close to a decade at this point, maybe not quite, but a long time. And so glad that Brenda is on line from Missouri. And she’s going to start off with a story about her dad who passed in 2005. Brenda, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us, again, thank you for all of your support. And please tell us your story.

Brenda  

Well, this is kind of a short story, but it just amazed me, what happened to me in the general dollar store one day. My father had been gone about probably six months or less. And I was shopping in the dollar store. And I looked up, and I saw my father walk through the door. He had the same plaid shirt on, he always did wear. And I was just stunned. I mean, I just stood there staring at him. And I thought, “Oh my gosh,” you know, and then lady had come up behind me and just wanted me to move a little bit and I moved. And when I looked back up, it wasn’t the same man.

Jim Harold  

Interesting. Interesting. Now did this other man, did he have the same clothes? Or was it? Was he totally different?

Brenda  

He was totally different. He had a different color shirt on and everything. 

Jim Harold  

Huh.

Brenda  

And I just, and I thought, you know, “Is there something wrong with me?” But I swear to this day, that was my dad that walked through that door.

Jim Harold  

Oh, I believe those kinds of things happen. And I’m not going to repeat the story. But I have my own strange story in the dollar store, about my mom who passed. So maybe something about those kinds of stories. I don’t know what it is. But I bet it was your dad. I bet it really was for sure. And then I believe you also have another story, a shadow person story or a dream story for us?

Brenda  

Oh, this is a good one. Yes, I do.  A couple of years ago, I was asleep in this like, wee hours of the morning. And I have this candy dish that sits on my bedside table. And I heard it cling, like somebody took the lid off of it and put it down. And so it woke me up, of course. And when I looked at the end of my bed, there was a very, very large shadow person, it looked like a man, and that was to my right. And I thought well, there was only two people in my home. My son was on the other side of the house upstairs in his bedroom. 

Jim Harold  

Please tell us. Yeah.

Brenda  

And my husband was away, out of state working. So I called out my son’s name because I thought well, maybe he’s sleepwalking, you know?

Jim Harold  

Right. 

Brenda  

And of course, nothing, nothing at all. So I just laid there, kind of quiet. And then I started seeing the shadow person, like move at the bottom my bed, towards the other side of my bed. And so I took my left arm and I felt over there on the bed to see if there was anything there. And sure enough, the shadow disappeared and I actually felt like an arm there. Hmm. So I took my left hand, I put it back over to my side and I thought okay, you know, it didn’t say anything didn’t speak. And I just kind of laid there really still. And then I felt this hand go down my arm, just a, like a real soothing touch. And down my arm, down my left leg a little bit. And that happened to me, it seemed like minutes, but it was probably seconds. And I just laid there real still, and then it stopped. And it completely went away. 

Jim Harold  

Ooh.

Brenda  

I turned on my lights. There was nothing there. And if anyone’s listening, I would like them to–you know, maybe it was sleep paralysis, but the thing of it is I wasn’t paralyzed. I was moving. I’m kind of confused about that. But I remembered it, it was just real to me. So I got up the next morning, and my son came down. He was getting ready for work. And I said, “I had the strangest thing happened to me last night.” He goes, “Well, let me tell you what happened to me last night.” 

Jim Harold  

Oh!

Brenda  

And I said, “Oh, okay.” And he said, “Mom, I was asleep,” and he goes, “all of a sudden something grabbed a hold of my ankles, trying to drag me out of bed.” And I said–I just about died. I just sat there like, quiet, you know? And I said, “Well, what happened?” He goes well–and my son is kind of a skeptic, you know? He said, “Well, my mind just kicked it off. I just kicked. And it left.” And he said, “I just went back to sleep.” So–and that’s another thing was, you know, because it happened to two people at the same time, basically. So that I to this day, I don’t know, to me, it seemed more real.

Jim Harold  

And well, the fact it happened to both of you. I mean, that’s kind of confirming evidence to me. One person, well, maybe it was just a bad dream, maybe, whatever. But two people? Something was going on. I mean, does the house have a history of activity? Or?

Brenda  

Yes, we do have a little bit of a history in the house. We did build onto it about 10 years ago, but the older part of the house, of course, is still here. And so–I don’t know how much time we got left, but I could tell you another little short story.

Jim Harold  

Sure, we’ve got time for one more short one, yeah.

Brenda  

Okay, Okay. So, my son came upstairs. He was just a little guy. One morning, and he goes, “Mom–” okay, let me back up a little bit. I, I’m a hairstylist, and I had one of my clients pass away in a car accident. And it’s just–it was devastating. It was very uncommon. It was just devastating. So this is about a month later. And so he comes upstairs, his bedroom at that time was in the basement. And he said, “Mom, what were you doing in the salon?” Because I had one in my basement. He said, “It was about four o’clock this morning, I heard a noise, and I walked in there, and you were sitting in front of the mirror combing and brushing your hair in a white gown.” And I said, “Well, honey, I don’t even own a white gown. And it wasn’t me.” 

Jim Harold  

Oh. 

Brenda  

So there there was that story. There’s many more. I’ve had a lot of dreams too.

Jim Harold  

Well, these things do happen. I firmly believe it, Brenda, and I thank you for sticking with us all these years and sharing your stories on the Campfire. 

Brenda  

You’re welcome.

Jim Harold  

Hope you come back sometime and tell us more.

Brenda  

Well, I have more so I’ll be back sometime.

Jim Harold  

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Jim Harold  

Next up on the show is CK, and her niece Amy, who is great supporter of the show. We really appreciate it. She told CK about the show. And here she is. And that’s how the calculus works. It’s not that complicated. You tell a friend about the Campfire, we end up getting a lot more great stories like the one CK is gonna tell us. CK, I know that this is about a house you moved to in the 80s, and some strangeness ensued. So please do tell us what happened. And welcome to the Campfire.

CK  

Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Yeah, we moved into a house in 1986. And it was in Wisconsin. It was an old house built in 1915. And the house had been in the same family since about 1921. And we bought it from that family. The owners at that time, were living in an assisted care facility. So, shortly after we moved into the house–we had two small children, a two year old and a four year old–no pets. My husband woke up in the middle of the night, he woke me up and he said, “CK there’s, there’s something in the house.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And–and to just back up a second, my husband is an engineer, just such a skeptic, you can’t believe, and so if he’s scared, I am really scared. 

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

CK  

So we call the police. And what my husband told me, and told the police was, he woke up and he heard a chair scraping across the floor downstairs–it was a two story house. And it just it made no sense to him. And you know, old house make–old houses make a lot of noise. I ean, you know, you get noises, but this one made no sense to him. So the police came, they checked everything out, no issues, no problem, whatever. Okay. So you know, it’s a fluke. And then periodically, he would get up in the morning and say, “I heard the chair again, I heard that chair scrape across the floor.” And you know, it’s just one of those things. So about about eight years later, we went on a vacation. We left for a month, we had an addition put on the house at the time, and we had three recent college grands stay of the house for us while we were gone, take care of our two cats. And they were gonna do some peeking. So when we came back after lunch, one of–one of the young women picked us up from the airport, and first thing she said was, “Before you hear from the neighbors, I want you to know, the police were called one night.” He said, “Okay, well, what was it?” And she said, “Well, well, we were, Ky and I, we were in the bedroom, we had the cats in the bedroom with us. And we heard a chair scrape across the floor.” 

Jim Harold  

Hmm. 

CK  

And at that point, I mean, just–and we had never told anyone else about this particular incident. And so at that point, we said, “You heard a chair?” And she said, “Oh, yeah, we heard a chair scrape across the floor. And then we heard footsteps coming up the stairway, and then it went down the hall and it disappeared.” So they also call the police. The police didn’t treat them as well as they treated us. They just thought they were young women and they were scared. And so we had that. And then it wasn’t until maybe we were in the house for 20 years or so that our next door neighbor, who also had a legacy home, his grandfather had owned his house. And the next door neighbor, we were just chatting one day and he said, “I don’t know if you ever knew this, but the original owner of your house committed suicide. He hung–he hung himself in the basement.” And that’s when we got chills because to me, that’s the chair scraping across the floor. And it was, it was just bizarre. So that’s, you know, that’s essentially the story. We also heard, you know, different kinds of noises here and there, and our neighbor once–a different neighbor–once was at our house watching our animals. And when we came home, she said, “Boy, the weirdest things happened.” And there was a door that was left open that she knew wasn’t left open. She heard things happening in the kitchen when there was nobody there and whatever. And our–part of our sense was that when something changed with the house is when there was the most activity, so we had the addition put on the house. And then we had these young women streaming and there was an activity, you know, we moved in the house, that was different. And then we had this, you know, strange activity, we had a friend watching the house, and then she’s hearing things so–and, but it never felt it, never felt like, you know, it was dangerous or evil or anything, you just, you know, we would talk, we would talk to it and say, “Okay, fine, thanks, you’re here, bye.”

Jim Harold  

So it, it almost became kind of a thing like it was just like the mailman. In other words, it was just there, and you expect it. Once you kind of figured out what it was, is that basically it?

CK  

Well, basically, and we started calling it Bill, because Bill had been the former owner of the house and, and the activity seem to pick up after Bill passed away. And so we just called it Bill. But once we learned about the original owner, who committed suicide, then we looked in each other and said, “Oh, that’s not Bill.”

Jim Harold  

Hmm. Interesting.

CK  

There’s some other entity. So, yeah, but it’s, it’s interesting.

Jim Harold  

It is interesting. And so you said your husband was a big skeptic, did that–did that turn him around? Or was he just still a skeptic, but with that one exception?

CK  

He is, he is still a skeptic, but he just shakes his head at this one. Because all the years, we lived in that house for 31 years. And he is the only one that heard the scraping across the floor. And actually the first time he heard the scrape, it was really odd, because the whole downstairs including the steps was wall to wall carpeting. We didn’t have any wood floors. And to hear a chair scrape just really did not make any sense. Yeah, but this is the, this is the one thing where he just shakes his head. And, and I said to him many times, you know, we don’t know everything.

Jim Harold  

Right. And that’s the interesting thing. I do believe CK, that many times people are skeptics, but even the most hardened skeptic will say, “Well, there was this, there was this one thing, there was this one time,” and then they go ahead and tell it so I guess it–

CK  

Yeah, the unexplainable.

Jim Harold  

Yeah. And the other thing, my point to the skeptic would be–and being skeptical is okay, you know, I’m fine. We’ve had skeptics on our shows, I kind of look at it the way that I look at a lot of different things in life. I can agree to disagree, which is something we’ve lost these days. But then, but anyway, the point being that to me, well, if there’s one ghost, what does that mean? There’s almost certainly more than one. So it’s kind of like, you know, that saying they say, it’s like being a little bit pregnant? I mean, one way or the other? Yeah, either they exist or they don’t, and I think we both think that they do. CK, thank you so much for joining us today on the program. I appreciate it. And thanks to your niece, Amy, for all your support as well.

CK  

Alright, thanks, Jim. Appreciate it.

Jim Harold  

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Jim Harold  

Nick is on the line from the Detroit area. He’s been listening to us over several months, heard us about us from Ryan Sprague’s Somewhere in the Skies, and always glad to be featured on Ryan’s show. And also Ryan is terrific. If you’re into UFOs check out his show by all means. And Nick is going to tell us about something that happened to him in 2008, and it was quite, quite the experience. Nick, thank you for joining us and being a part of campfire tonight.

Nick  

Oh, thank you Jim for having me.

Jim Harold  

So tell us what happened.

Nick  

Well, in 2008 I went on a road trip with some friends to celebrate graduating high school, and we, at the end of the trip were going to a theme park in the Midwest called Cedar Point.

Jim Harold  

That–yes, that’s right in my, that’s right in my area, Cedar Point. I’m in northern Ohio, so very familiar. In fact, I was just there around Halloween with my, with my kids.

Nick  

Oh, very cool. Yeah, I’m from the Detroit area, and so we were driving down there, and we were closing in on the off ramp to Sandusky, when we just took the turnpike too fast and the tire blew, the wheel caught gravel, and we flipped off in that, we flipped into the grassy area. And I was definitely hurt the worst among everyone in there, which thank God, there were seven of us in that van. 

Jim Harold  

Oh my.

Nick  

But they shut down traffic, they landed a helicopter on the road, and they life flighted me away to a hospital in Toledo. 

Jim Harold  

Oh.

Nick  

St. Vincent’s. 

Jim Harold  

Oh my goodness. 

Nick  

Yeah. But, so I went there. And I mean, obviously over the next couple of weeks, there was a lot of trauma, several surgeries. I had broken my arm, my shoulder, and my back in two places.

Jim Harold  

Oh man.

Nick  

Yeah, that wasn’t a fun time. But, so after a couple days in the ICU, naturally, all the trauma and the drugs and all of that, I started to hallucinate pretty vividly, all around me, and–and some of the stuff I saw, like, I am fully aware all of those were hallucinations. But it’s just funny because at the time, I didn’t know what the hat man was. But I have a very clear memory of seeing a hat man walk through the neurology ICU. Like that type of shadow person. 

Jim Harold  

Huh.

Nick  

Yeah. But anyway, towards the end of my stay there, I needed to get what was called, I think it was a radio isotope test. Where basically they inject a radioactive element into your blood, so they can track it with this monitor, and make sure that all your blood is moving steadily through all your veins and things like that. At least that’s my understanding of it. Um, but that lab was down in the basement of the hospital. And when I asked the nurse, she indicated to me that the basement, it really wasn’t in a lot of use, and hadn’t been since the 80s, save for a couple labs that were down there because they built a new wing. 

Jim Harold  

Right. 

Nick  

And as soon as we get down there, we get lost almost immediately because none of the lights really are turned on permanently down there to save power. It’s one of those setups where as you’re approaching an area of the hall, the light in front of you will light up, and the one behind you turns off.

Jim Harold  

Right.

Nick  

Um, and so we’re going through this place, and it’s a maze, and the nurses immediately get lost. And mind you at this time I, I can’t move. I am on my back in a neck brace. Um, and if I sit up, I could seriously hurt myself. So I’m just letting them push me along. And eventually, they get so turned around, one of them, they stopped at an intersection between two hallways. So like a four way crossroads. And one of the nurses says she’s just going to go check the end of that–of another hall to see what’s down there. And then we could find out where we are. She walks off and I’m sitting there, chit chatting with that nurse, when the nurse who left calls to her and says, “Can you come down here?” And so she says, the nurse I’m talking to, says, “I’ll be right back.” And she goes down that way as well. And I, I’m fine with it. I’m I’m just sitting there calmly, until I realized that because I can’t move, the light sensor isn’t sensing that someone’s there. So the lights turn off, 

Jim Harold  

Oh boy.

Nick  

And I, and I am in pitch black. And, so they went down the hallway to my left. After about a minute of sitting there in the dark, down the hallway to my right, the light at the very end of the hallway turned on. And then it turned off, and the next one closer to me turned on. And then it turned off. And then the next one closer to be turned on, as if something was walking down the hall towards me.

Jim Harold  

Yikes. 

Nick  

And well, I, you know, like I said, I had been hallucinating for quite a while. But this, I knew wasn’t a hallucination. Mostly just because it you know, it felt different. So I started to freak out, this all’s too real. And so the light is coming closer, closer, and it’s about two lights away from me, you know, the kind of like light panels. When down the opposite side, the nurses come back around the corner, and the light turns on. And as soon as their light goes on, all the lights to the other side of me go out. They come back over there. And I, at this point, I was starting to convince myself, “Okay, that didn’t really happen.” And, but they come down there and one of the nurses looks at me and says, “Was someone else just down here?” 

Jim Harold  

Oh man.

Nick  

And I said, “No, why?” And she said, “Well, we saw the lights, when we came around the corner. So I don’t know what’s down there. But I know I sure didn’t enjoy that experience. Thankfully I’ve had some more positive experiences since then. But that was my first and probably most impactful.

Jim Harold  

Yeah, that, that certainly would be. What was that? You know, and, again, I think that hospitals hold a lot of energy. You know, because of the things that happen there, a lot of sickness, a lot of sadness, you know, some happy events with births and things like that. But I’m guessing there were no births down where you were at.

Nick  

I sure hope not, it was a windowless basement, that’d be a terrible place to come into the world.

Jim Harold  

My goodness. Now, we’ve got a few more minutes here. Do you want tell us that story about that entity at the factory?

Nick  

Oh yeah, I can do that. So this is–I did a little bit of very amateur paranormal investigating when I was in college, through a college club. And my friends, my friends back home got wind of this, and they decided they really wanted to do it too. And so when I came back from college, one year for winter break, one of my buddies came up to me and said, “Hey, I have a friend who knows of this abandoned factory out in the middle of nowhere in Salem, Michigan. And it’s–it used to be used to make hoses until there was a big fire and people died and it’s been closed ever since.” And so I said “Okay, sure. I’ll go with you guys.” And so we got flashlights. And you know, we got I think we had one video camera between us. I can’t stress very amateur enough. And we go to this place, and it is an overgrown–um, it is basically just an overgrown industrial lot out in the middle of nowhere. And the factory building is effectively standing in a field of knee high grass. This was around winter, so of course, all the grass was dead and brittle. And we walked up to this building, and as we walked in, I noticed a couple things. One, there was absolutely no interior walls. It had been gutted. So it was just a massive concrete room, save for one hallway that stretched off from it, and a set of stairs going up to an office, but those were collapsed, so we couldn’t go up there. The other thing I noticed was that the ceiling had been very badly weathered over the decades ,and it was made of that kind of corrugated sheet metal, and certain sections of it had ripped free or just started to rust away, so that now there was the–there were several large chunks of razor sharp metal dangling pointing down towards the floor. 

Jim Harold  

Oh man.

Nick  

So yeah, so that, that–of course we went in because we were stupid. And as we’re walking around, we move towards that hallway, that hallway I noticed. And it looks like it’s a long concrete hallway, and there are a couple empty doorways on either side that I thought maybe were individual workshops, but we didn’t really get to investigate them too much because at the end of the hallway, there was a single, empty windowsill. Obviously, there was no glass or anything, kind of set about 10 feet up on the wall. And at the moment we stepped foot into that hallway, the temperature dropped 10 degrees instantly. And we all just froze and looked at each other. And then we all notice pretty much at the same time–this was me and two others–that there was no more light coming through that window at the end of the hall. And in fact, we couldn’t even see it. And so we shined our flashlights down there, and it was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. But the flashlight beam just ended, it wasn’t like it was illuminating anything, it’s like it just got swallowed up. And so there wasn’t–you just saw where the beam ended. And then that–where it ended started moving closer to us, like whatever it was, was moving in, and we could see this kind of writhing massive shadows coming out. And so we of course, ran. Um, and as we were running, we heard kind of groaning, and we looked up and all those chunks of metal that were pointing down, were now swayed, a pretty aggressively, so, you know, and at least at the time, to me, it felt like they were swaying towards us. And so we got out of there. And when we were walking–and then we decided to walk around outside the place, you know, without going in. And actually, we did find over on–I think it was just north of the building, in that knee high grass, there was an area that had been stamped down. And I don’t know what happened here, or if it was even related at all to what was in the building. But we found an area of burned grass, and it looked like there was some candle wax, and there were what appeared to be some bones. I don’t know of what. I didn’t have the expertise to say that. So we just took some pictures. And we, we left. But I’ve always suspected that maybe someone did something irresponsible there. And it caused whatever is in that factory now to be there.

Jim Harold  

Wow, you’ve had a couple of wild experiences at these older buildings, you know, kind of want to stay away from if you can.

Nick  

I mean, I, I’ve always kind of followed the adage of the more you look into this stuff, the more looks into you. And I’ve been obsessed with ghost stories since I was a kid.

Jim Harold  

No, I believe that. I believe that. You know, when you look into the abyss, sometimes it looks back. I think that was Nietzsche who said that, if I remember correctly. Well, Nick, thank you so much for joining us. Glad you’re okay. Sorry that your visit to our fair state had such a scary happening. But sounds like you’re doing great now. And thank you so much for being on the show tonight.

Nick  

I am, thank you very much. This was a lot of fun.

Jim Harold  

Well, Becky is on the line from Ohio, a fellow Ohioan. And she says her friend Ken told her about the show, and kept asking, “Have you checked Jim Harold out? Have you checked him out? Have you checked him out?” And she said, “Finally I checked you out. And I never miss a Campfire.” I think it’s been the last three years or so. So we thank Ken, and also congratulations to Ken because Ken and Michelle, I believe just got married. Is that right?

Becky  

Yes.

Jim Harold  

So congratulations to them. See, when you share the Campfire, good things happen to you. I’ll take full credit. But Becky is here, and I got to give you this little note. You just heard a call from Nick, in Michigan, who talked about Cedar Point. Now, you know, most of the time, these calls are all jumbled up. We might have a call from October and one from July right next to each other. But literally right before I spoke with Becky, I was on the line with Nick. Now Nick talked about that Ohio amusement park, Cedar Point. And guess what? Becky has a story, one of her stories tonight, is surrounding cedar Point. So that’s just kind of weird, one of those little synchronicities. I love when they happen. Becky, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us, and then tell us your first story.

Becky  

Thank you so much. This happened when I was in my early 20s. Um, Cedar Point was one of my favorite places to go with my mom and my, my nanny, my grandma. Um, my nanny was sick at the time, and I was not able to go with her that day. Um, but I went with a friend, and you know, had a great time didn’t think anything of it. But we were coming back home via route two. Well, it was late and I wanted to you know, rest my my eyes a little bit. I put my head back. And I just, out of the darkness I see my nanny’s hand just kind of reaching out at me, and I sort of sat up and it just disappeared. I looked around, I looked at my friend, and I go, “I really want to get home.” And she, you know, asked me what’s going on, I go, just, “I don’t know, I want to get home.” We get to her house, and there was a phone call on her answering machine. It was my mom. And she was asking to come over. I kind of already knew, I did not want my mom to come over because I knew what she was going to tell me, but it wasn’t gonna change anything. When she did show up, she let me know that while I was at Cedar Point, my nanny had passed away. 

Jim Harold  

Oh.

Becky  

And she was a, she was the most amazing woman ever. And she proceeded to give me a crucifix that my nanny had went shopping for very recently for me for my birthday, because it was literally just days before my birthday. And I believe, seeing my nanny’s hand was her way of saying goodbye. And since then–I have three children–and within days of my coming home from the hospital with each and every one of them, I had a dream, where I’m sitting on the floor in front of them–in front of her. And she’s holding, she’s been holding each one of my kids, I feel that she comes and, you know, meets them and visits me. And that’s that.

Jim Harold  

Oh, my, well, I gotta tell you, that’s something else. That’s quite, quite the story. And thank you so much for sharing it. That’s a very poignant story. And I do believe our loved ones get in touch. Now I know you have another story you’d like to share tonight, going back to when you were five years old?

Becky  

Yes. And this one is, you know, a very similar premise of being visited. It was the middle of the night. I don’t know if I was woken up, or if I just woke up. I know it was winter, there was, you know, that glow that you get coming from the window when there’s fresh snow on the ground?

Jim Harold  

Sure.

Becky  

There was that glow just filling up my room. I just kind of looked around, and I see three men walking around the corner of my bed. They were of three different ages, 40s to 50s for the oldest, mid 30s for the middle aged, and then late teens to early 20s for the younger gentleman. My bedroom door was closed. And I kind of thought that was odd. I had no idea where they came from. They were all dressed exactly alike. They were wearing, you know, what I would describe as 1920s, 1930s white doctor’s surgical shirts with some buttons going down the side of it, and a really thin collar. Like what you would see, you know, a pastor or a minister wear, you know, and oddly enough, I don’t remember being afraid. I just remember being confused. And the older gentleman sat down on the side of my bed. He put his hand on my leg. And I don’t know if that was, you know, to, you know, through our minds, or if it was, I don’t remember if he said it, but I just remember hearing, “Everything’s gonna be okay.” And I woke up. And that was that. I asked my mom, and she kind of dismissed it. She seemed a little off about it. And I kept that memory for obviously, forever. And shortly before my mom passed away, we ended up being able to talk about it. I’m not sure who mentioned it, if she mentioned it or if I mentioned it, but she kind of filled in the blanks a little bit for me. It was definitely in January. It was right after three of our family members had passed away.  One being my papa, he passed away of emphysema. He was the last one to pass awa, in early January. My uncle passed away–he unfortunately had committed suicide in mid-December. And then my cousin was hit and struck by a drunk driver two weeks after my uncle had passed away. My mom tells me that it was kind of a volatile time for my uncle, and he had swore that he would take my cousin if him and my aunt had split up. And my mom swears that my uncle swooped down and took him straight to heaven that day. And she says that those three visited–those three men visited me within about two to three weeks after my grandpa passed away. And those deaths all happened within a month and a half period.

Jim Harold  

Oh my.

Becky  

So that was kind of a sign of those deaths you think? I think so.

Jim Harold  

Oh, wow.

Becky  

It used to scare me. But now I look back at that memory and feel a little bit more comforted than I was scared.

Jim Harold  

My goodness, my goodness. Well, that’s quite the story. I’ve got to say, and the world is a far stranger place than we realize, Becky, indeed. Thank you so much for sharing your stories. I know you have another one. I hope you’ll come back and share that one with us. And thank you for being a part of the program tonight.

Becky  

Thank you so much.

Jim Harold  

Brittany is on the line from Buffalo, New York, the home of the Mighty Buffalo Bills. And 

Brittany  

Go Bills!

Jim Harold  

So there you go. And we are talking to her and she is going to tell us about something that happened to her just a short few years ago when she was in college. Brittany, welcome to the show, and tell us what happened.

Brittany  

Yeah, thanks for having me. Um, this happened in 2016. And let’s see, I moved into this apartment around July or August, and a month before we moved in actually caught on fire. So the landlords had to completely renovate it. 

Jim Harold  

Wow. 

Brittany  

It was pretty scary. But we were, we were able to move inon time. So it was a two story home with a first floor and a second floor. And I went on the second floor with three other roommates. When they loft–or they lofted the ceiling in my room when they did the renovation, so–this is relevant, I promise–in my room, it was just the ceiling and then the roof. I am a little nervous.

Jim Harold  

It’s okay, don’t–don’t be nervous. It’s okay. It’s just me. Don’t worry about–everything’s fine. Go ahead.

Brittany  

Thanks. Alright, so it was a random morning in March. I remember because I actually have a video from this event. I was hanging out in my room in the morning. And I heard what sounded like, I would imagine a reindeer to be on your roof at Christmas time. 

Jim Harold  

Hmm.

Brittany  

So I was listening to it for a couple minutes before, like, I realized that this was odd, because I was trying to figure out what animal it was. And I realized that this wasn’t normal. So I decided to stop thinking about it for a second and record a video on my phone so I can go back and listen to it later. And what it was doing, it was running from one end of the house, kind of taking a couple steps, running back to the other end of the house. Taking a couple steps. 

Jim Harold  

Huh.

Brittany  

Yeah, it was. I was 100% sure it was an animal because it seemed like it was really conscious. And it was doing things on purpose, 

Jim Harold  

Right. 

Brittany  

But it was like, very clearly a heavy-hooved something that was like running on the roof of my house. I didn’t feel weird when it was happening. I just kind of wanted to figure out what it was. So after a while it stopped, it ran back over to my side of the house, it took a couple steps and then it just was gone. 

Jim Harold  

Yeah. 

Brittany  

So I waited a couple minutes to see if it would start again. And when it didn’t, I walked out into my living room where my roommates were and I was like, “Hey, did anybody hear that?” And they’re all like, “No, we don’t know what you’re talking about.” They didn’t hear anything at all. So we didn’t really talk about it that muchb ecause it was kind of just a weird thing that happened to me, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about it.

Jim Harold  

And did you play the video for them so they can hear it too?

Brittany  

I don’t remember if I did then. I have since because I’ve kind of been obsessing over it honestly. But I don’t remember specifically at that time if I played it for them, I think I was just kind of–shocked sounds kind of intense because I remember it being very normal for me. 

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

Brittany  

But yeah, I don’t remember if I actually showed them the video at that point.

Jim Harold  

So what, what conclusions have you come to? I mean, it sounds like it was a sentient being, it didn’t sound to you like it was just just some house noises or anything like that, right?

Brittany  

Yeah, and I actually, because I’ve been thinking about this for so long, I sent the video to my stepdad a couple months ago. He’s a conservation teacher, so he knows all about animals, and houses and construction and everything. Him and his classroom, they called me a couple times asking questions about the house, but they decided that it was the radiator, which I thanked him for his time on that I really appreciate that. He’s a very practical person, and I wanted to get someone else’s opinion. But I just, I wasn’t satisfied with that, because it seemed like it was alive. And I really just don’t know what it was. And I was kind of wondering if anybody else has experienced anything similar.

Jim Harold  

If anyone else has experienced anything like this similar to Brittany, please sign up at jimharold.com/campfire and tell us about it. Because that can be disturbing when, you know, you’re trying to tell everybody, “Hey, this weird thing happens.” And maybe they’re kind of disregarding it a little bit, I can understand why that would be upsetting.

Brittany  

And I just, I was really nervous about wanting to share the story, because I don’t know if it can be explained away. But I feel like you just tend to be there.

Jim Harold  

Right. 

Brittany  

And nobody else was there with me. So now I’m just saying this weird thing that happened.

Jim Harold  

Well, Brittany, I hope that we get some other people who have had similar things happen. You know, I wouldn’t say it’s definitely something supernatural, but I wouldn’t discount it either. And, you know, it’s tough when something like that happens. As I said before, when people don’t take it seriously, or those go “Ah, it was all in your imagination” or something like that, when you know it wasn’t in an imagination, you have it as a recording. The other thing that you might want to do is post it over on our virtual campfire group, maybe you can get some feedback there, that’s my Facebook group, Jim Harold’s Virtual Campfire and everybody, if you haven’t had a chance to check that out, we have 21,000 members who share their experiences. And on the whole, everybody’s very supportive, and we try to keep it that way. So that might be another option to come up with some plausible explanations, Brittany.

Brittany  

Yeah, I would. That’s a really good idea. I would love to do that. The video is also really interesting. I’ll tell people the story and then have them listen to the video, and the reactions have been kind of wild.

Jim Harold  

Very interesting. Brittany, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story. And I hope that you get those answers you’re looking for.

Brittany  

Thank you so much, Jim.

Jim Harold  

Well, next on the line is Maria from Florida, and she used to live next to a military cemetery. And I got to tell you, that sounds like the beginning of a really spooky story. She’s not been listening very long. She started looking on Google for a spooky podcast, and she tried a few and couldn’t find what she liked till she landed on Campfire. And she evidently found something she liked. And we appreciate it. Maria, welcome to the show. And tell us this story. It sounds like a spooky setup.

Maria  

Yeah, thank you so much. So, this happened when I was about four or five. I currently live in New York City. But I’m from St. Augustine, Florida, which if anybody is unfamiliar, it was established in 1565 by the Spanish, it’s been burned to the ground a few times. So there’s a lot historically that’s happened. 

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

Maria  

And at that point in time, both of my parents were in the military. And so we lived in military housing, which happened to be right next door to a sort of a historical cemetery. It had soldiers from the various Seminole Wars in Florida, as well as a few mass unmarked graves. So, a little spooky to look right next door to. 

Jim Harold  

Yeah. 

Maria  

And so at that point in time, it was just my parents, myself, and my two brothers, one of whom was just a baby. And when we moved in–and this was all told to me, I was four or five so I don’t remember many details from living there–so this is all secondhand from my parents.

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

Maria  

Um, my mom says that at time, you know, they would hear sounds in the house of you know creek, and it sounds like you know, noises from the attic, but they just chalked it up to an old building settling, or just maybe rats or squirrels running around.

Jim Harold  

 Right. 

Maria  

But the first instance where they thought something, you know, might be afoot was–so I–my bedroom was upstairs and you know, sometimes in the middle of the night I would have a bad dream and come downstairs to my parents. But I was scared to walk down the stairs. So, I would just go down step by step on my butt. So my parents went hear in the middle of the night just a steady, thump, thump, thump, as I was coming down the stairs. And they would make room and wait for me to come in. And one night, they heard very distinctly the thump thump thump all the way down the stairs. And they waited and waited. And after a few minutes, I didn’t come in. So the downstairs of our house was sort of set up in a circle, all the rooms blended into the other. So they split up and circled around and met down at the stairs, and there was no sign of me. And they walked upstairs, and find me in my bed in like, you know, the kind of sleep that a toddler is in where you know, they’ve been out for ages, their butt’s in the air, there’s drool on the pillow. 

Jim Harold  

Sure. 

Maria  

And they thought, “That’s weird. You know, maybe we were hearing things. Maybe we imagined it.” And they went back to sleep. And I believe this was a few weeks later, this was sort of the main event. They came to wake me up one morning, I think it was a Sunday morning, we were going to church, and they go into my bedroom. And I’m not in bed. And it’s 8am. So they’re a bit confused. Normally, I would be awake at that time. So they search around the house for me, you know, look around, calling out for me. And I’m just nowhere to be found. So they’re starting to freak out a little bit. And my older brother Jack, wanders into my closet for some reason, and finds me asleep under a pile of clothes and miscellaneous blankets. 

Jim Harold  

Huh.

Maria  

Yeah, really odd. So they wake me up. And they asked me, you know, “Maria, why? Why were you asleep in your closet?” And I just looked at them, deadpan, and said, “The tall dark man told me to go in there.”

Jim Harold  

Oh, man.

Maria  

Yeah. And I apparently, I didn’t seem scared or frightened. It was just a fact, the tall, dark man told me to go in there. And the only tall man in the household, my dad, he’s 6’4″. But he, of course didn’t do that. So we moved out, I think shortly after that event, because it was the sort of temporary housing. And since it was military housing, my parents knew the couple who moved in after us. And sort of jokingly, they told them like, oh, look out for the ghost. And, you know, they just sort of laughed it off, you know? “Okay, sure. Thank you for the heads up.”

Jim Harold  

Yeah. 

Maria  

But a few months later, at some ceremony or promotion, they pulled my parents aside, you know, away from everybody else, and asked them, “You know, what exactly did you mean by a ghost?” Because they had had their own experiences since then. 

Jim Harold  

Ah.

Maria  

It was a husband and wife, and they had a few kids who had since grown and moved out. And there was one night when their son was visiting from out of town, and come to find out later that their guest bedroom was my previous bedroom. And their son, maybe in his 20s, I think, was just in bed, and in the middle of the night, he feels something tug at his bedspread. And he looks up, and there’s this tall, dark figure standing at the foot of the bed. And in this really low, he described, menacing voice, he just heard that figure whisper, “Get out.”

Jim Harold  

Ooh.

Maria  

And the figure just disappeared, I think sort of in the direction of the closet, and just vanished. 

Jim Harold  

Oh, my goodness. 

Maria  

And he got–he apparently got more aggressive because that man’s father who lived there permanently, would, whenever his wife was away on business, or something, would always catch out of the corner of his eye, always at night, always in the bedroom. And this figure just kept menacing this family. 

Jim Harold  

Oh my.

Maria  

And they since moved out, my parents don’t know who’s in, you lives in there now. But the kind of the final bit to the story. This part I actually remember, this was just a few years ago. I was walking around downtown, which is where the housing was and I’ve walked by the, the house many times and have looked up and, you know, always kind of helps that I would catch a glimpse of some tall, dark figure in the window. Never happened. And there’s one day, it was just midday, I was strolling around. And as I passed by the house, I just sort of felt this overwhelming heaviness kind of wash over me, and I look up and unfortunately I didn’t see anything. I was almost hoping that I would, but I just felt this weight sort of on my chest until I kept walking, and I was made Be a block away from the home. 

Jim Harold  

Wow. 

Maria  

So that’s my story.

Jim Harold  

Who do you think the the sinister, tall, dark man is? Or was?

Maria  

Well, that something that I thought about because, you know, like I said, the house was right on top of an old cemetery, complete with mass graves, people who had died in battle. But it was also right behind the historic St. Francis barracks, which was where there were Franciscan monks way back when, when the Spanish came. And it turns out, they actually built on top of graves.

Jim Harold  

Oh boy, 

Maria  

They have since sorted that out. Or it could just be a matter of, you know, a town that’s been around since 1565. There’s the yellow fever that swept through and Sir Francis Drake raided, you know, a time or two. So there was a lot of, you know, aggressive action that happened, it could just be an unfortunate matter of circumstance, that this gentleman, for some reason has lingered on. And my mom said that she never felt aggression. So my theory is that maybe he was just, you know, he noticed me as a little girl and just wanted to mess around with my parents, because it was never aggressive until more adult presence came in later, you know, with the following tenants.

Jim Harold  

Right. Well, thank you so much for telling your story that is a spooky one. And also a salute to your parents for their service. Always appreciate that. Thank you, Maria, for listening. Glad you found us. And thanks for being a part of the Campfire.

Maria  

Thanks for having me, till next time.

Jim Harold  

I told you it was a good one. Thank you for listening to the Campfire. And I really appreciate it. And I hope that you will follow or subscribe in the podcast app of your choice. As I said, at the beginning of the show, you know, I was looking and Campfire fell out of the top 200 in its category in Apple podcasts. I’m like, I don’t know if that happened once last year, maybe it’s just because of the holiday season, whatever it might be. So come on. Make sure that you follow or subscribe in the podcast app of your choice. It means so much. And also tell a friend too. We really appreciate when you do that. We thank you so much. We’ll talk to you next time. Have a great week everybody, stay safe. And as always, stay spooky. Bye bye.

Campfire Announcer  

You’ve been listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire. Tune in again next time for more stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things.