Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Mandatory Meet Up - Episode 2
16 Plays10 months ago
Welcome back! Rachel and Cristy catch up, take time to recognize Breast cancer awareness month, and continue spooky season with more ghost stories!
The grey man of Pawley's Island, South Carolina has been spotted walking the beach before impending storms, warning whomever may see him to take shelter. We discuss the legend and lore around this mysterious figure!
We share some of our personal experiences with the paranormal!
Resource to self examine for signs of breast cancer:
https://www.breastcancer.org/screening-testing/breast-self-exam-bse
Transcript
Introduction and Podcasting Journey
00:00:29
Speaker
Hey y'all and welcome to mandatory meetup. I'm Rochelle. And I'm Christy. We've reached episode two. Oh my goodness. Can you believe it? I don't sound like I'm underwater this time because I have a microphone.
00:00:52
Speaker
So excited. Get this going, girl. Yes, we are. ah This has been a fun But sometimes frustrating getting to like figure out what works for us and what isn't working and ah trying to figure out where we what we need, what's going to work. You know, I already said that, but ah me Yeah, it's been a process for sure. It's ah it's very like hit and miss. like a lot of We recorded so many times too before we actually did our first episode. so um yeah we got a lot of We're getting a lot of experience under our belt now, I think. Yeah, for sure. and um I guess a little bit of growth. It's not always smooth sailing, so it takes a little bit of bumps and bruises to get through it all, but it's been interesting and it's been a lot of fun to learn different
00:01:45
Speaker
things and use different software and try to um work together to find different topics to talk about and stuff. and um' into Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. yeah its a funny This is a fun thing that we're doing, me and you. I'm enjoying it very much, I think.
00:02:03
Speaker
So I hope our listeners are enjoying you now.
Balancing Work, Family, and Hobbies
00:02:06
Speaker
Yes, for sure. And I'm ah ah super excited to see how we are able to grow this and keep learning and improving and um to fine tuning our different things. And um yeah, it's a lot of fun. Exactly, girl. What's going on with you this week? What's happening?
00:02:25
Speaker
It's been a pretty good week. I've been busy at work. um We still have someone on eternity leave. So I've been, we've all been a little bit more hectic than usual. So it's been just a lot of just getting into work. And then Haven has been so busy with school. She has so many like activities. Plus we have Halloween coming up and then right away is this Haven's birthday.
00:02:52
Speaker
And then it's Thanksgiving, and then it's my birthday, and then it's Christmas. ah So this time of year is so hectic. My brain is just trying to figure out which way is up, I think. What about you? um I took a like ah standard work week this week, which is the first time I've done that in a long time. I'm usually working 12-hour days every day.
00:03:16
Speaker
nonstop. I've been doing it that for like two months and I'm, I just got kind of burnt out and I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to work like a regular eight hour shift and then take the time after work to like kind of take a step back or relax a little bit and like decompress and just reset my mind a little bit. Um, so that way I'm not like over-exerting myself like mentally. And I've been focusing a lot on like hobbies and stuff. So that's what I've been doing this week. Just chilling yeah and you know coloring and cross-stitching and the little project that I told you about that I'm not going to say yet. But I'm excited about that one too. So yeah, yeah' um yeah
Halloween Excitement and Decorations
00:03:57
Speaker
yeah I'm excited for it. and But you all hear about that later when I actually like really get some of the works. But I'm i'm an excited to
00:04:06
Speaker
to do like a just a bunch of stuff for myself, stuff that I enjoy. you know I love art, period. like I just love it. I love every aspect of art, any type of art. I just find it fascinating. and um This is my left-minded or right-minded brain, I guess you could say. right but yeah That's what I've been doing this week, just focusing on me a little bit. I love that. That's great. You deserve it. We all need that.
00:04:31
Speaker
and I've been trying to be, yeah, I've been trying to be more mindful of myself in little ways every day at least. So that way I don't have to feel like I need to take a large amount of time for myself. But I did take next Thursday and Friday off of work just so one it's Halloween and that it's my favorite day of the year. So I just want to not have to work. I took Halloween off day two.
00:05:00
Speaker
Yeah. I took it off. I did. Yeah. I took it off. I was like, screw it. It's Halloween. Like I never have Halloween off, but let's just on like a Saturday, which hasn't been for years. So I'm like, I took the day off. I absolutely did. Absolutely. I can't wait. I get to do nothing but like chill around and watch the kids like, you know, trick or treat and do a lot of fun stuff. Yeah, girl. I'm excited for it. Me too. I got my yard all decorated.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it's finally where we want it to be for the year. We got a few more things up and are always looking at how we can add to it the future years. Oh yeah, me too. I wish I had all of the funds in the world to be able to do it because I want a 12-inch skeleton and I want that creeper skeleton that comes out of the ground. Yeah, the ground. Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
00:05:50
Speaker
they are so cut and I want this blow up purse that I saw at Spirit Halloween. It was so cool. Oh, ah that would be cool. I saw one that it's like it's not a blow up, but it was a guy i like a dead submarine dude. He was like, it was at Lowe's. I saw it and he had the whole undersea thing on and like a green screen. It used motion activated and it would like sound really cool. I was like, I want that, but I don't want to pay $600 for it. so right I'll just look at it and admire it for like five minutes. but I know. But it looks so cool though. I was like, oh, I wish, man. I wish. I'd get all the props if I could. I like to make my own props. That would be fun, but that you also need the extra funds to do that too. so
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Maybe next year. I got a good little thing going on. Simple, but next year I'm going to do it a little bit more, you know. Yep, exactly. I think you're going to start to it. Yeah, that's how we've been doing it too is each year just adding a little bit to it and um not able to go all out, but we add a little bit more here and there and like I'll find something that I can do to add to it, but it might not be a huge undertaking, but that way we have props as it comes and um each year, we can add to them a little bit more. But our um I have sanded down my haunted house project, but I still have not worked on the roof because I have to remove the varnish from it. And I just haven't dedicated the energy to start that. So it's not going to be done by this Halloween. I know that for sure. But maybe just finished my cross stitch. It took me a year.
00:07:30
Speaker
yeah It took me a whole year. ready
00:07:36
Speaker
I'm still dedicated to it. I'm working on a Christmas one now and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to be done with this thing by Christmas, but maybe, I don't know. I doubt it. It could take so long to cross stitch. Oh, I can imagine. I feel like when I was a kid, I tried it like once or twice, but I never really um had anyone else until I met you that had really done it. So I never really picked that one up because I do also have lots of different crafts and things that I will do. You're good at crocheting. You're really good at crocheting. I don't know if I'm really good, but I'm getting good at the basics.
00:08:12
Speaker
You've made some stuff now. You're good. I can't do it at all. I can't make a looper to save my life. I could cross stitch, but I can't make a loop. Makes no sense. I can't knit either. My mom just fixed my sewing machine.
00:08:25
Speaker
And so now I'm going to make Ryan
Intuition and Spiritual Beliefs
00:08:28
Speaker
a quilt or a blanket or something like that because the dog's chewed up his Tennessee Titans one. Sorry. And so yeah, he's like using this all ratchet little blanket with holes all in it. And I'm like, oh man, I got to get you a new blanket. It's funny because like it was his favorite thing too. And the dogs just ruined it for him.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, I swear they always do because it smells like the things that we love the most are the things that we had like usually smell like us the most so they're like our go for those so strongly but it's so frustrating because Hazel is Yeah, she's still a puppy too and she's been, she's getting better all the time. But like Chris's shoes currently, his current ah running shoes have holes in them in the toes because she chewed the toes on them. And like my sandals have a the toe, ah ah yeah, my sandals have a rip and my sneakers have a hole in the back because she chewed on them.
00:09:28
Speaker
No, no. So we just get to carry remnants of hazel with us everywhere, and plus the hair. My goodness, all three of them are shedding right now. And we are having such a hard time keeping up with the fur. We are like every single day I am pulling like brushing clumps of hair out of them and picking up little tough balls along on the floor. Every day we are vacuuming and sweeping and picking up these little tumbleweeds of dog hair that keep rolling. on I can relate to that. Daisy May. Oh my gosh, man. It's like I sweep and do everything.
00:10:06
Speaker
I run my vacuum every day. It doesn't work. It doesn't help. it The hair goes in like the most random spots. It's every single day, every day. Yep. I had to pull. She's a golden retriever, so like I was expecting it, but man. like If I could brush her every day, I could probably fill a pillow in like one setting. Just like- Reese's is the worst. Oh yeah, for sure. Reese's is the worst. Hazel's is the second worst and Aurora is the least, but they all still are shedding. Like I was ah petting Aurora this morning and I could just, as I was petting down her back, I could feel the fur coming out and just like coming down towards her tail. and i was like
00:10:46
Speaker
Oh, God, I hate this. She's such a sweet girl, though. Oh, my goodness. They all are good girls. She's such a baby. Yes, wherever is my little baby? Yeah, she's a sweetie. She'll come crawling up and like curls up into like the crevice of our arm and lays her head on us, and like we'll snuggle up. I love it. Yeah, she's so sweet. She really is. She's always so happy to see me, too, and I'm like, aw, I love you. Yeah, I love their people.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yes, they definitely do for sure. sweet sweet I said, qui I don't know what that was about. That was weird. I don't know what word that was, but anyways.
00:11:28
Speaker
yeah
00:11:33
Speaker
So today we are going to be, um, let's see. Yeah, today we want to talk about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is the month of October. And we have some traditional, like the origins of Halloween and the Celtic traditions.
00:11:55
Speaker
We also have some ghost stories to continue on with um since this is our spooky season. So we have a few more real world or not real world, but other people's accounts, the gray man. And then we also have um some of our own personal experiences that we'll talk about that we haven't already shared. So yeah, we're really excited about all that. ah Very much so. You know me, I'm always, I always have something around me all the time. And it's I don't know what it is. So now Groucho is starting to notice and he's been acting very weird. And my mom and dad
00:12:32
Speaker
came down and I'll tell that story later on part of our podcast. yeah But yeah, it's a story I got to share because it's, um, yeah, my mom saw it now and it's, she's freaked out about it. But anyways, yeah. Yeah. I can't wait to hear it. Yes. Yeah. We've both, um, we, whatever people want to call it, we definitely have been very intuitive our whole lives and have had ah unexplainable situations happen at different times throughout our lives and it's been interesting and I think that's part of the reason we get like we bond so well because we have so many shared
00:13:13
Speaker
common and ground, I guess, and like interests and can relate on so many levels because we have so many shared experiences, which is good because we both need that. We need somebody that can relate to us. Very much so. Nice. Yes, it is. um But it's also kind of crazy like the things that we can experience and sometimes it makes me personally like, did that really happen? Is this like, am I imagining this? is You know, is there something wrong with me? And then I'm like, no, like there, there is a lot more magic in our world than I think.
00:13:52
Speaker
we allow there to be, if that makes any sense. Like as adults, we start to close that part of our brains back off and our world is like shaped to stop us from allowing and like being open to that magic, but it's still there. And all you have to do is just be open to it and intuitive about it and look for it and it'll present itself. It doesn't really take that much. I don't know that I think some of us are like naturally more open-minded people, but I think we all have that in us. We just have to find that ability and be ready to receive those that information. Exactly. Yes, for sure. 100%.
Breast Cancer Awareness and Screenings
00:14:33
Speaker
I am very intuitive.
00:14:35
Speaker
And sometimes a little bit too much though. Sometimes it could be like a burden though, because I'm like, okay, well, it's kind of like draining. You know what I mean? To be so intuitive or like be so emotionally connected to other things too. It can be very like mentally draining. So yeah, but it's relaxing and then it's also like not so much sometimes because then you're like,
00:14:58
Speaker
Then you seem like a crazy person because you know what's, you know, you've seen it and you know, it's real, but other people don't see it. They don't think it that it's real. So it's like, it's kind of frustrating because you're just like, yeah okay, well I've seen it. I've heard it. I know what I've experienced. So I'm not going crazy, but to other people, it just doesn't seem real possible. Yeah, exactly.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, 100%. And um I also have a hard time with that. And it's um interesting to see. But I have my spiritual beliefs and stuff have morphed and changed and continue to grow. And I have like, I've always tried to be an open minded person, even though there were definitely times in my life where I was ignorant and like,
00:15:44
Speaker
ah pretty closed off. I'm happy to say that like that was when I was still a child, so at least I was able to grow and like become an open-minded adult and try to like help the world be more open-minded. Exactly. yeah,
00:16:05
Speaker
but yeah those those will be some fun moments we can share and get into. Yes. And um the first thing we do want to talk about is a ah Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As a woman, it's very important to check daily. ah We'll get in more detail about that. ah What do you have to share, Christy, with that? Because I know you have some information, right?
00:16:28
Speaker
While it is very important for women, of course, because we have larger mamma mammogram mammary glands. That's what I was trying to say.
00:16:41
Speaker
um Men also have mammary glands and it is important for them to also be aware of these facts and to also check because even if they don't have protruding breasts like a woman does, they still have mammary glands, so they can develop cancer also. um It is less common in men than women, of course, but just that fact. Yeah, there is a lot of things too. There's a few things like at the risk factors, age, family history, genetics, such as the BRCA1,
00:17:17
Speaker
and the BRCA2 mutations, your livest lifestyle factors like if you smoke, if you drink alcohol, and hormonal factors like hormonal replacement therapy, they can also increase your risk. So the best thing to do is to do regular screenings such as mammograms um to improve your detection. And because the higher the early stage breast cancer has a higher survival rate and often requires less aggressive ah treatment.
00:17:47
Speaker
Um, and the symptoms are lumps in your breast or underarm changes in your breast shape or size, nipple discharge or skin changes. Um, sometimes though they're as asymptomatic. So you, you might not even have any symptoms at all. So it's always really good to make sure you do your daily checks. Like if you're in a shower, you wake up in the morning, if you're been laying down, you know, do a little fondle, see if that, you know, see if anything's going on, if it is.
00:18:18
Speaker
get checked out. And there's different types of breast cancer too. um The most common form is the ductal carcinoma in SUTU or the invasive ductal carcinoma. And then there's an invasive lobular carcinoma and they differ about how they start and how they spread. And let's see, treatment can be really rough. You have surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted therapy. It just depends on the stage, the type, and the hormonal type that you have, I'm assuming.
00:18:56
Speaker
so just yeah i mean I was gonna say the best thing is to just be aware that if you feel something and you're not sure, it's always best to just say something, go to your doctor, because mammograms don't typically start unless there's an issue until you're 40 for women. So it is better to, it can happen before you're 40, so it's best to just be aware. If you feel something that doesn't feel right, or as a man, if you're listening to this and you are
00:19:28
Speaker
um having an intimate moment with your partner and you feel something that doesn't feel normal say something to them or you know It's better to say something even if you're scared and to talk to your doctor and get normal Gynecological visits because they will also do a breast exam then and that way you have your regular visits even though um like my Gynecologist I believe said women are um below 40 I think who do not have any irregular um histories for their periods or any um you know polycystic fibrosis or anything like that. If you just have a regular, um normal, quote unquote, um system, you should you only need a to have a um gynecological exam and a pap smear, I think every three years, but you still should have
00:20:23
Speaker
a regular gynecologist visit once a year. That way they can help check for breast cancer as well as other symptoms and signs that they are looking for. So um obviously this is not medical advice, but just signs and symptoms to work out to and definitely talk to a doctor if you have any questions or concerns, especially that's what they're there for. So if you're not sure, ask and they will tell you if it's right or if it's something that needs to be looked into further.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, i I'm actually looking into getting my genes checked for the BRCA1, I believe that's what it's called. Yeah, ah because my grandmother, you know, my grandmother had breast cancer, sir yeah and it runs in my family. And because she had breast cancer, I had to get a mammogram soon, actually. Yeah. and not forty i to do I'm supposed to do a 35, but I didn't, so I need to get that done. I hope a gentleman told me I need to, but I want to get the the test to see if I have the mutation because if I do have the mutation, then I need to figure out what the next step would be to because the my risk would be way higher to get it. so
00:21:34
Speaker
and That's something I definitely don't want to go through, which my grandmother did, and it was terrible. um When I did the 23andMe, my mom had gotten me the 23andMe test to do the Ancestry report, but they also do a health and DNA part that you can add to it, and I had that one for mine. so The BRCA gene was one of the things that they test for, and I did not have it. Oh, okay.
00:22:00
Speaker
Oh, that's good. I don't know what the testing costs and stuff would be to go through medical. Of course, it might be a lot cheaper. But yeah, just i was ah I don't think breast cancer runs in my family as far as I know. um But I still, it was good to know that I don't have that gene. so I know we're going to post like resources and links and stuff there on our YouTube and our socials so that way you can get resources if you need help with any need advice on how to check and where to go to if you need help with that too. ah yeah That's going to be included. I'm also going to look and see if I can find um a way to self-examine and link that in our description for the podcast so that everyone has access to it. Got to watch out for our tatas.
00:22:50
Speaker
That's right. for Protect them at all costs. Yes.
Fall Traditions and Holiday Plans
00:22:56
Speaker
So since this is probably our last episode um in the month of October, we do want to continue on with our spooky season um talks and stories. um So what are some of your fall traditions that you do out there? Do you have um things that you do every year. If you do, please reach out to us on social media. Find us over on TikTok. um Find our postings that we'll be posting about this episode and let us know what your fall traditions are. You can also share, you know, a leaf emoji for us so that we know that you were listening. Yeah, that's so cute. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. So find us on TikTok, Instagram, and we will have this episode posted on YouTube as well um so that you can do that over there.
00:23:45
Speaker
ah So Rochelle, why don't you tell us about some of your fall activities? What do you like to do? um I always like to do a spooky adventure. It's like number one, um also Halloween decor shopping, getting them good smelly candles, pumpkin carving, which I still haven't done yet. I need to pick up a pumpkin.
00:24:06
Speaker
I kind of want to wait till the end of the month so my pumpkin couldn't rot on me. Right. Yes. And usually, we do trick-or-treating. Usually, we do trick-or-treating with you. But last year, we lived in Chicago, so we obviously couldn't trick-or-treat with you because we lived in Chicago. But this year, I'm going to have trick-or-treaties come to me. So I'm excited for that.
00:24:31
Speaker
I'm really sad because I couldn't go apple picking. I did that last year when I was up in Chicago and it was so much fun. But um I do like do the apple cider and the apple cider donuts. Oh, yeah. And also, of course, scary movies. It's like as soon as like August hits, I'm like, okay, scary movie every single night until Halloween. Even then I'm still watching scary movies because I just i love horror movies.
00:24:59
Speaker
you know, serial killer podcast, you know, that kind of thing. I like a you a all the time. Just love it. I just love the energy of October in general. Yeah. So what about you? What kind of decisions do you do? Same. Yeah, I um I think we usually start in August, like you said, that it becomes that's when I think of the fall, even though it's not technically fall, it's still summer. yeah I think the kids going back to school in August here, at least um in South Carolina, the kids get back in August before Labor Day, which I know like my family up in Pennsylvania, they don't start till after a Labor Day. but
00:25:41
Speaker
We start sooner and get out sooner than they do um but so depending on Where you are in the United States or wherever it might be different, but for me it has always been you know, August we go back to school so that's the fall semester and that's just when spooky season though, so we have August September and October to enjoy and it, and then you have November and December for Christmas. And like I'm like in full spirit mode. Like I go from spooky season to like Christmas mode as soon as November 1st. Yeah. Yes, I know. This year though, I do
00:26:23
Speaker
This year I do want to get a blow up turkey though for my front yard. This is happy Thanksgiving. like I kind of like don't want to forget about Thanksgiving because I'm actually having it at my house this year. I don't know if y'all have any plans for Thanksgiving, but you know you're more than welcome to come. Thanks. My mom and dad are coming and um yeah we have you know we have space here. so Just in case I'm inviting you. Thank you. But that's if you don't have any plans. I don't know. I think last year we had we hosted and had all our parents here. So I don't know what our plans are yet, but I definitely will keep in touch about that. Yeah. Okay, sweet. But yeah, this year is the first time I'm hosting for a while because I know we did the f Friendsgiving once. Yeah. for the That was so much fun when we did that.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, it was but like I, I'm definitely going to decorate for Christmas as soon as November 1 hits because Brian got a job and he has to train in Camden for four days out of the week. He's gonna not be here for seven weeks.
00:27:21
Speaker
and um because of that, which I didn't even tell you by the way, I didn't tell, this is like brand new news to you. We just found out about it like two days ago. wow But yeah, and um I bought me a Grinch tree. oh yeahy And I'm putting, I know I'm so excited. I'm making little clay ornaments and it's all gonna be Grinch themed. I'm gonna paint them all and it's gonna be in our dining room. So I'm gonna have my little Grinch tree. It's like bright green. It's the ugly tree, but it looks so cute whenever I get done doctoring it.
00:27:49
Speaker
I'm so excited. I'm like, Oh my God, I'm gonna have two Christmas trees this year. Like, I'm so excited about that. to have two I know. I was like, I don't I kind of want to put a little one in my office too. You know what I mean? I can have the spirit in my office. No, no, I just love the holidays.
00:28:04
Speaker
and you too I want to um so right now we have a fake tree because we've tried real trees in the past and our dogs will chew on the um on the limbs and then they end up throwing up the pine needles everywhere. So ah yeah, so we can't have a real tree right now. um Or I have a fake one too, because I'll have my my cat thinks though he chewed the cord to it. So now it doesn't really work half the time and light up. We have to do it a certain way for it to work.
00:28:35
Speaker
So we have to get a new trade this year because Binks just chewed the cord. He loves to be under that Christmas tree. It's like his spot. like as He's like a little cozy spot there, surrounded by lights, and it's like he takes over the area. I did see this hack that I'm going to try this year, I think. You take the little hair rubber bands, like the really small ones, and then put those through your ornaments as like so that you have a like loop. So like attach it to the end of your ornament and use that to attach them to your tree instead of hooks because it won't fall off. Yes. That's a good idea. Because all season long, I pick up ornaments, especially along the bottom where the dog's tail has knocked it off just by like touching it. So I'm going to try that this year for sure. Yeah, that's a good idea. I have so many of those two here in the butt.
00:29:32
Speaker
Anyways, we are going completely off the radar here. Yes. Okay. of course we are Bring this carriage back around. Speaking of after this, I will show you. Um, we were kind of talking about this, but, um, the other day I had to go, um, yeah, this week was crazy because I had so many things to do and work was so busy. I know back to 30 minutes ago when we started.
00:30:03
Speaker
Personally, um i after on Thursday, Haven had a they had rehearsal. So they stayed after school from four to seven. And Brenna and I went to go find, because they went to Tammy's yesterday to go trick-or-treating. So I had to get their costume stuff together because we didn't have it finished. like We had some of it, but they still needed pieces for their costumes.
00:30:31
Speaker
and um they went camping with ah Tammy and the campground that they were at has trick-or-treating on Sunday or Saturday. today So they needed parts for their costumes. So I took Brenna with me while Haven was like when I got off of work while Haven was at her thing. And so Brenna and I, we were in the car and I was like, you know what? I haven't been to Cracker Barrel yet this season, and they always have such great Halloween stuff. I was like, it's pretty late in the season. They might not have anything left. So I was like, let's go in and just see what they have. I love Cracker Barrel stuff. So we went in. Oh, I know. And they're always so cute and such good quality, but it can be pretty pricey. So we went in and
00:31:19
Speaker
everything we saw looked like Christmas. So we're like, okay, well, we'll just wander around a little bit. We walked in here. Let's just walk around. So we walked around and we did end up finding a couple of Halloween things. And we um we found two ah like Jack Skellington marshmallow lollipop things. So I grabbed those and I grabbed some M&Ms that were ah Halloween colored. So it's just like purple and uh, orange and green, I think are the only colors that are in there. So then we walked around and I found a shelf and it was like one shelf that was left that had a bunch of different Halloween stuff on it. Some really, I mean, I love all their stuff and it was all 50% off. So really?
00:32:08
Speaker
I wanted to buy all of it, but I ah yeah um we got this poison bottle that glows. I need to put batteries in it, but I'll show you what it's. It looks so cool. It looks kind of like it's giant. It looks like like a large wine bottle size. Oh, wow. The largest wine bottle. Think, you know, like a really big, thick one. um And you got like a big and thick girl. saying Yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
Just had a photo of that. It kind of looks like a snow globe. So it has like ah water in it, and it um has color and stuff. And then you can turn it on. It'll glow. And it has like it says poison on one side, and the other side it has some stuff. And then we also got this um old carriage, I guess, kind of like the Cinderella's carriage.
00:32:59
Speaker
And it has it's also got like a snow globe on the inside that glows and it has two skeletons in it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. That's cool. That's why you know that's what i um I collect. I collect the skeleton snow globes. I get one every Halloween season and since me and guy are ran yeah it' me and Ryan got married. So um last year I bought one and it broke. ah It actually shattered.
00:33:23
Speaker
which really sucks, but I did get one this year. I got it from Hobby Lobby and it looks like um kind of like a hurricane light, but it's like really small and it has two skeletons on the inside. I have to get batteries for it though. I haven't got batteries yet, but it winds up on the bottom. um I get one every year. Yeah. I have a whole little collection going on.
00:33:43
Speaker
I like that. Yeah, I still have my coffee cup collection, but I try because I don't buy just every single coffee cup that I see that I like. It has to like really be unique and really speak to me because if not, then I'll just have four trillion coffee cups. So I have to really make sure that it's not just some generic thing that I like stamped on a coffee cup. like It has to be a unique shape or really have like some unique quality to it. um But i'd love I like those too. I've minimized my coffee cup collection a lot because I was like, I'm just getting random ones that I think are cute. So now, excuse me. So now I have more Halloween themed ones than I do Christmas ones. And then I have like the ones that mean the most to me, like the ones that you, the one that you bought me with us on it. I love that. I want to drink that one all the time. I have one that Julie gave me and I have one that was my Papa's. That was really important to have a couple.
00:34:38
Speaker
that's like made in Scotland that I had like sent here to me. And then I have one that I got from the Halloween or the holiday festival up in Chicago. And yeah, it's really pretty and they're like handmade from Germany. So it's like a really unique one. So I like to get those like random pretty different coffee cups. It just makes it a little bit more special whenever I'm drinking my morning cup, you know? Yes. And I have mine, like my collection cups. I will drink out of them, but I've told the kids that because they cracked and broke a couple of them and I was like, okay. So we have some just like plain random, like a couple of cups. I think I have Starbucks on them or whatever that I had gotten as like a, um, work Christmas exchange one year. Um,
00:35:28
Speaker
And it's just some other like generic coffee cups. And I'm like, these are ones you guys can use. And these other ones are mine. You're not allowed to use them because you break them all the time. They're expensive. You know what I mean? Yeah. And you know, they're mine. So it's something that I have for myself and I'm allowed to have something for myself and they can look at them and they're cute. And if I do like they like to also look for them sometimes for themselves. So of course they can have their own cups and like if they want like but the And if they break it, they break it. But yes, I um have mine that I'm like, these are my collectible ones. These are just for me. You guys aren't allowed to play with them. Leave them alone. I can relate to that.
00:36:15
Speaker
Alright, so ADHD. I took us off the rails again.
Origins and Evolution of Halloween
00:36:19
Speaker
Alright, so I think next. Do you want to talk about the Celtic origins? Or should we? Yeah, yeah, we'll do that. And then the great man and then top stuff. Yes, let me pull it out really quick.
00:36:33
Speaker
I have a little bit here that I can share, and then we can both talk about some of these. so um The Celtic Festival is the Samhain Festival. um It's spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N, but it's pronounced like S-O-W dash A-N, Samhain, and um is thought and is given, widely given, the origin of Halloween.
00:37:03
Speaker
You know, it's not 100% sure where it actually came from, but that is the most widely believed origins of it. And it started with the Celtic people and the pagans. And they thought it was, an um well, they used it to honor the ending of summer and to celebrate the harvest season.
00:37:26
Speaker
And they also believed during that time that there was a ah veil between the living and the dead that had been thinned out. So it allowed spirits to pass um interchangeably between their world and our reality. And I found out that something really cool that in order to protect themselves and their homes ah from wandering spirits, the Celts would light bonfires and wear disguises to confuse or scare away any malevolent entities. so They would also offer food, drink, to peasy spirits too. They would do offerings, which is really cool. And a lot of them involved divination. Is that how you say that right? Divination. Divinated. Thank you. Divination. And so they were considered a potent time to foretell the future, which is pretty cool. And when Christianity spread around the world,
00:38:23
Speaker
ah the Kelks, through the Kelks land, the church tried to replace a salmon. So you say salmon, Samhain? Samhain. Samhain with all saints day, which we all were of all saints day. But despite this, um the Samhain tradition still endures, blending Christianity beliefs.
00:38:43
Speaker
with the Celts beliefs. And they also formed what we know now it is Halloween. So that's usually where it comes from, which is really cool. And yeah, you can see the tradition of Yeah, you can see how the some of those traditions of dressing up to disguise the um yourself as the evil spirits or to scare them away in some beliefs and then also the um offerings. So we do trick-or-treating nowadays. That is our offerings to the spirits. Isn't that cool? Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
I um think it's a really fun and I always have so many fun, like nostalgic memories of Halloween as a kid. I always remember just thinking like the world just felt so much more magical at that time and seeing everybody out involved and about.
00:39:38
Speaker
I love, obviously not everyone participates and whatever it is your belief is your belief, but um I love seeing all the different people that come together all at once to just enjoy the season still. Halloween in the 90s was just, it slapped, okay? Let's be real. like We had kids our age back in the 90s. It just was nothing like it, honestly. like I go looking back in time, I'm like, man, we really did have amazing Halloween back then. this the The vibe of it was amazing. And everyone was involved. All the family, there were more trick-or-treaters out, I think. There wasn't any such thing as trunk retreating. Kids were still out in like not a playing. These generations and generations are indoors a lot more than our generation was still.
00:40:31
Speaker
kind of the end of the latchkey kids and where our parents didn't necessarily, you know, we didn't have cell phones when we were kids, kids. I didn't have the cell phone until I was a teenager. And um so we would tell our parents, hey, I'm going to go to Lee's house. And I would be like, I'll be, she'd be like, OK, check in in two hours.
00:40:53
Speaker
Nowadays, if I don't know where my kids are going to be, I freak out. And like, Haven will walk herself to the bus stop to get on the bus in the morning. But I'm like, let me know when you get on the bus because I can't go all day long. I'm not knowing whether you got on the bus or not. That will drive me crazy. I can't imagine back then. So let me tell you a funny horror story. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I didn't mean to cut you off. No. Go ahead. Oh, no. I'm just going off on another tangent. No.
00:41:18
Speaker
That's okay. That's what we're here for.
00:41:23
Speaker
I can do it all day. Oh, me too. Me too. Me too. Okay. What was I saying? Oh yeah. Wait, what? Yeah. Halloween story. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Halloween story. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So my dad, my mom used to dress up all the time for Halloween when we were little. And you know my dad, he loves to scare. That was his thing. It still is. That's where I get it from.
00:41:46
Speaker
And this one year, I was Bell. My cousin Nealey was I, what was she? I think she was little mermaid, I think. And we had a house in Jennyville, which is like outside of Keene Street. It's very small. And my dad was dressed up as like a gorilla or a monster or something. I don't know.
00:42:07
Speaker
and We were like walking up there to trick-or-treat because we had walked around the neighborhood and everything and my dad scared me and my cousin so bad that my cousin Neely took off running down the street with her Halloween costume on and I found a truck with an open window and I dived in that and fit in the floorboard. I was so little then I could I just dove in that truck and hid in the floorboard of that truck.
00:42:34
Speaker
because it scared me so bad. I still remember it to this day. like I think me and my cousin nearly sometimes we still talk about that because it was so traumatic for me and her. He scared the living crap out of us. I don't even remember what he did. All I know is that my mom and dad couldn't find me because I had hid in the truck.
00:42:52
Speaker
And I heard them yelling for me. I was like, oh, maybe it's my time to like, come out and i maybe I'm okay now. My cousin, Neil was crying. I was crying. It was so traumatic. I don't even remember how he scared us, but he scared the crap out of us. And that's just like a never ending thing every year. You come up with something to scare us somehow. And when how I was little, that's what stuck with me the most. Yeah.
00:43:14
Speaker
My mom always loved to scare us also. So she taught that to me and my little brother. But when we were little, um I remember but we always had a bunch of like Halloween masks and all of that. And we would dress up every year. And my mom would always dress up with us. And um my stepdad did usually too. but i when we were little enough, ah he would especially. um Once we stopped trick or treating, he didn't. But um anyways,
00:43:43
Speaker
my mom would grab one of the Halloween masks and sneak outside without us knowing. And then she would come like my bedroom window, I usually would have my blinds open during the day.
00:43:54
Speaker
And then by the evening, I'd like go and close my blinds. Well, we were hanging out in my bedroom. I don't remember who. It might've been me and my brother. It might've been me and a friend. It happened multiple times. So it probably was both and all of the above at different times.
00:44:10
Speaker
that she would sneak around and come up to my window in my bedroom with a scary mask on and just all of a sudden I look over and there'd be this monster at my window and I would scream bloody murder and then she I could hear her laugh like I'm like you Now I'd be like, yeah you My gun, I didn't dare. That's funny. I did that once too, but that wasn't for Halloween. We were watching, remember when the ring came out? Yes. Okay. That was like forever ago, right? Well, um my mom, we actually got it from Blockbuster. It was actually N, which we were so happy about. And my brother had all his little friends there. I had all my little friends. And this is before me and you became besties. It was like,
00:44:58
Speaker
my sophomore year of high school, I think. So um we were all like watching this movie and we lived off of Forest Brook Road at the time. And we had this like and the living room had two big windows and a front porch, right? So my dad had this like crazy Carolina Panthers scary man mask. I don't know where he got it from, but the windows were open. Like the blinds were open. The curtains were drawn, like not drawn, but they were open.
00:45:25
Speaker
And my dad sneaked up and as soon as that girl started coming out of the whale, my dad like banged on the window and screamed with the mask on and we all turned around and got scared.
00:45:40
Speaker
the shit on me. I, girl, i I don't think I've ever heard my brother scream such a high pitch scream like a woman ever in my life. If he's listening to this podcast, I almost pissed myself because he sounded like a woman before he hit puberty. Okay. So he was like really little. I was Oh my God, I could have sworn. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world. And my mom's like, Bill, don't do that to the kids. You know how she sounds.
00:46:09
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So I was like, Oh my God. Like I think Krista was there actually. She was with me yeah and she got scared to death too. I think we were all like stayed up all night till like two o'clock in the morning. We were scared to go to sleep because my dad was doing some crazy shit. I was like, why does he always do that? She just likes to like be so traumatic.
00:46:28
Speaker
I don't get it. But then again, like I love scaring Bryson. It's so much fun. He yeah hates it. It was so funny. Haven scared the crap out of me one time. And my reflexes are like, you know everyone has fight or flight. Mine are usually fight. And so I almost punched her. And I realized it was her, thankfully. Thank the Lord. But I um it was i was in the bathroom. And her and I were about to leave, and I think I think we were going to go pick up Brenna from daycare or something like that. And so I was like, yeah, okay. So I was in the bathroom and I heard the garage door close. So I thought she had gone and gotten into the car to wait for me. So I come out of the bathroom and I'm just like not thinking about anything, just thinking, okay, I'm about to go get in the car. and she
00:47:19
Speaker
was she had closed the garage door to make me think that she was out there and she was hiding around the corner. Smart. Yes. And she, rawr. And I was like, ah. And then I pulled back and I started to like swing and she dropped to the floor. And I knew at that moment it was her. And I was like, oh my god. She's got the crap out of me. And she it was sitting on the floor laughing her ass off. like She was scared that I was going to hit her and laughing that I screamed. Oh, that's funny. Once I realized it was her and what happened, I had started laughing. but so Let me tell you, last week, it was a few days ago, Bryson got Ryan so good. He gets scared so easily though. He's always like so scared all the time. It's so funny. He's a big boy. Bryson's tall. you know what i mean yeah so He usually has a really loud step.
00:48:18
Speaker
in the house, but he tiptoed behind Ryan and he, Ryan was like really into his computer, doing his thing he'd always does. And Bryson just screamed behind him and Ryan, he, all his arms just flared up in the air. His feet lifted off the ground. I don't i don't think I've ever seen him jump so high in the air in my life. And whenever Ryan gets really pissed off, he gets very quiet.
00:48:48
Speaker
Like you could tell, like he's just seething in anger and he just looks so red in the face. And I just, I almost pissed myself. I was like, Oh my God, he got you so good, babe. He's so mad. I was like, damn, Bryce was acting really good this time. Like he was not expecting it. And he just like, his whole body, like, like he got the spirit and his whole body just like lifted up and levitated in the air. I was like, Oh man, he's going to be so mad. He calmed down.
00:49:18
Speaker
Yeah, I always have like my initial reaction is scream, anger, then I laugh. I'm like, I have to go through those emotions. It happens quickly. But it's like those, I have those three things. It's, ah yeah, it's funny, but I will um sometimes notice that the girls are in their bathroom.
00:49:37
Speaker
And so I'll just wait outside the door until they open it and just go, boo. And it scares them every time. It's so funny. But then they get me back. And so it's my own karma, I guess, for it. But there's this thing that I want to do really bad to Ryan. like He's always on his phone like all the time. He's addicted to this thing. So he never pays attention to where he's walking.
00:50:01
Speaker
There's this thing that women do, they lay on the ground, stick their head out from their door. Yes. I want to do that so bad to him. I know it would scare the shit out of him. i'm going to so way or Oh, God. Oh yeah. I'm doing it. I'm going to post it on like my TikTok or something. I just got to find the right time to do it because I want to so bad because I know he will jump so high. I'm just, I'm waiting for it.
00:50:27
Speaker
I'm ready. Oh, yeah. im good I just got to figure out like the right time to do it because he's not going to be here for Halloween. So like it has to be like on the weekend, you know, after he's done working and stuff, just got to find like the right time. But it's going to happen. And I'm definitely going to record it.
00:50:47
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. That's so funny. Yes, for sure. It's the funnest thing. Whatever you get to scare your partner is the yeah girl. It's so funny. I don't think it's funny what's happening to me, but it is hilarious when it's happening to everyone else. Right. But me. Yeah, I don't. I will laugh at it after the fact, but it takes me, you know, like I said, I had, I first get scared and then I get angry that I got scared. And like, then it's like just a flash. And then I'm like, okay, that was funny. And then I start to laugh.
00:51:16
Speaker
I love it. um My brain's just my brain.
The Legend of the Gray Man
00:51:21
Speaker
All right. So do you want to get into like the gray man now? Because I think that's it. Because we already did our personal yeah experiences, right?
00:51:29
Speaker
um We might have some more, but we can talk about them as we get into it and see what we think about. Because we were going to talk about like we We talked about us being intuitive a little bit, but we didn't really talk much on that. So we'll touch, let's do the gray man and then we can touch on those. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Okay. Let me see what I'm about here. I think I have one here actually. Yeah.
00:51:58
Speaker
So we want to talk about this local ghost story that is very popular along coastal South Carolina. And there have been a lot of publications about this gray man, but, you know, as a local, we really have, um, it's kind of a fondly shared experience, especially ah along coastal South Carolina and near on Poly's island and the Grand Strand because that is where he has been mostly seen and spotted. um But it has been spread among the young and the old and it just seems to be something that continues to be present since a long time ago. And it especially in ramps up every time that we have a large storm coming near.
00:52:52
Speaker
Now, of course, um if you are familiar with South Carolina and coastal South Carolina, we are in the hurricane zone. So we semi-regularly have to deal with different large storms. But I have heard that he has been spotted before other types of storms. um I've heard some personal stories of other people over counting things that it wasn't um a severe storm that ended up coming, but maybe they had received some sort of protection from him. So who or what is the gray man? So in Polys Island, South Carolina, and a bit farther north, there have been sites of this mysterious figure who spotted walking along the shore prior to the arrival of a large storm.
00:53:39
Speaker
There are many different versions of the tale, but the possible sighting, first sighting was around 1822. But more recently, the tale has struck, or kind of stuck to the fact that he might have been more um a Civil War soldier in 1865. So might've been 1822, might've been 1865.
00:54:03
Speaker
um Two other notable sightings where things um people have seen him was when ah right before Hurricane Hugo hit the South Carolina shore in 18. Oh my gosh.
00:54:17
Speaker
in 1989 and Hurricane Florence much more recently in 2018 he was sighted. He has been described as appearing to have little to no color so he's essentially all gray but he's dressed in what looks like a long gray coat and boots and a lot of people have kind of described it of what you would think of an old pirate's clothing to be.
00:54:44
Speaker
Some people also say that they are not able to see any legs, um but that might be just that the way the apparition is showing you're not able to make them out or maybe he is legless. So I was reading about the Gray Man to get some information for our podcast other than what I knew about it. um I found this local South Carolina historian whose name is Lee Brockington. So that's where a lot of this information is coming from.
00:55:13
Speaker
And um they wrote, quote, the gray man seems to always be a masculine figure shrouded in gray, although rarely can people describe human features or clothing. But he seems to appear just as you would expect as a ghost or as a spirit, as a questionable figure down the beach. Also, he seems to be appearing at the time the weather isn't impending. Skies are gray, waves are choppy, wind might be blowing the tide higher than normal.
00:55:43
Speaker
And the Gray Man does not speak. In some of the stories he points to the mainland. In other stories he merely appears. But the Gray Man, since 1822, seems to appear and give heed of an impending storm. And if you heed his warning and evacuate, not only will your life be spared, but a strong belief is that your house and belongings or property will also be spared.
00:56:08
Speaker
have heard that. I heard about the first sighting of him too. A woman was like worked like walking on the beach and it was after, it was like shortly after his death apparently and she thought that it was her her long lost love. So she approached him and he disappeared and then at at the terrible hurricane hit her home or hit Polly's Island like two days later, and the whole town was devastated that her home, her home wasn't touched from the hurricane at all. Yeah, I have that origin story um with a bit more detail. So we can definitely go into that. But yes, yeah, that is the same story that I remember hearing. um And like how he
00:56:50
Speaker
came to be and that's why if you see him he will kind of protect you. He was trying to protect his love and now if you happen to be the one that he finds then he will grant you and your property protection from the next storm that comes through as long as you evacuate.
00:57:07
Speaker
So also one really cool um thing is if you are a fan of Unsolved Mysteries from the 90s, a couple, Jim and Clara Moore were interviewed and one of the episodes is about that experience. It aired, bless you.
00:57:27
Speaker
No, no worries. It aired in 1990, and they shared their experience seeing the gray man prior to Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The couple say that they were walking on the beach just before the evacuation order came in on that September day, and they saw a man walking alone on the shore.
00:57:46
Speaker
When the men got within speaking distance of them, the man Jim raised his hand to say hello, and the man disappeared. They looked everywhere, but saw no sign of this mysterious figure, and they eventually evacuated. And when they returned to check on their house, it was almost completely um concealed by debris, but was unharmed. Their home was spared while their neighbors had not been so fortunate.
00:58:14
Speaker
And so, um like we stated on um the belief um that he might have been cited in 1822, but the most common origin story is that of a Civil War soldier who went off to fight in 1861 while wearing his gray Confederate uniform. He left behind his sweetheart, the daughter of a rice planter and plantation owner on the Waccamaw River.
00:58:39
Speaker
on the mainland side of Paulie's Island. The pair would write letters while he was away and he proposed marriage in one of these letters, which she accepted in her written reply, promising to wait for him until the conflict between the North and the South was resolved. Once the Confederacy surrendered, he wrote of his return home and hopefully by the beginning of May, which we in the low country know is the start of hurricane season.
00:59:07
Speaker
Her family was currently living on the Polys Island where they could enjoy the ever-present ocean breeze instead of further inland at the Rice Plantation. South Carolina weather, as you and I know, is not for the faint of heart, especially in the warmer months. the um They always say it isn't the heat, it's the humidity, and the low country of South Carolina's humidity is ever-present.
00:59:34
Speaker
And mosquitoes. Don't miss them. Oh my gosh. Yes. yeah That was also a huge thing. So the plantation um also was a horrible breeding ground for those mosquitoes. their um The rice fields flood with water and then there's lots of sanding water. So that is just a huge breeding ground for mosquitoes.
00:59:55
Speaker
Yes. And back in the day, there was no medication to help with malaria. So it was a huge disease that was spreading, especially in the South. So the owners and those that were not enslaved on the plantations were able to leave during those months and leave behind their workers and enslaved people. And they would go to the coast and enjoy their summers on the coast while their people were working. So they would leave their plantations and reside um on the coast between April and October. So in his letter to her, he assured her that he would hurry back um because he could not wait to see her and was um excited to start their planning for their wedding. He was planning on taking a shortcut on horseback instead of coming up the river the way that they normally would. He thought he would be able to travel from the adjacent island across the creek
01:00:52
Speaker
and arrive at her beach home. As he traveled along the beach of Debordu Island, he stopped at a creek dividing the barrier islands. There are some reports that he had an enslaved person with him who was able to escape after the soldier lost his life, but this is um just a report. So Regardless, the soldier was not aware that the creek around the barrier islands um have what we call pluff mud. And when he and his horse stepped off the island into the creek, they began to sink into the mud.
01:01:26
Speaker
forty if you're not familiar too yeah oh my gosh If you're not familiar with Plough Mud is, it acts very much like quicksand. You can escape from it, um but you have to know how. And unfortunately, he did not. And the more you struggle, and um the further you will sink into it.
01:01:48
Speaker
So the story goes that his fiance waited on the dunes of the beach, we watching a building hurricane out on the horizon horizon while her family packed the house and their belongings and prepared the their beach home for the coming storm. She continued to look south well after her family had begun, had started to beg her to give up and leave before the storm arrived.
01:02:12
Speaker
While looking south towards Debordu, she saw a figure walking towards her and recognized him almost immediately. She jumped up from the dunes and quickly made her way onto the hard sand nearer towards the water and began to run towards him. She cried out and her family could hear her calls um ah from the wind. So coming out onto the porch, expecting to see the soldier returning, um they saw her throw her arms up um and she expected him to start running towards her. Yet what she saw was he was just standing there motionless um with his arms by his side. Her family is outside on their porch looking down at her. She is on the beach. She's running down the beach and she sees her long lost love just standing there. um So determined she ran right up and right through him.
01:03:07
Speaker
as if he was never there at all. And so confused and um she starts turning around and looking for him, she thought she saw a glimpse of him standing with one arm pointing towards the mainland. Then she couldn't find him again. She eventually returned back to the house to her family who, and she was exclaiming, I saw him, he was there, he was pointing towards the mainland.
01:03:33
Speaker
Some of the family thought that she meant she saw someone else telling her how bad the storm was going to be, while others thought she was overcome with grief and saw something that wasn't there. They had never seen him at all. So they finished up their preparations and headed off the island. And then the huge hurricane came and struck the island and destroyed most of everything on the island. But when the family returned, their area had not been damaged or taken away.
01:04:02
Speaker
So if you happen to be walking along the coast and you see a mysterious gray figure wandering on the beach, heed his warning and take shelter from the oncoming storm. Yeah. I mean, I would love to see him, honestly. Yeah. I always thrive to see it like a ghost figure. I've seen so many in my life. I always love the story of the gray man, though, because it's, you know, local. Right. And we're very aware of it since, like,
01:04:32
Speaker
Elementary school. Yeah, I guess So yeah, it's always a cool story. It's very sad though. If you think about it is yeah Yeah, and plough mud is like not just mud. It's made of oyster shells, which is very sharp So that had to be a very painful slow death for him. Yeah, and that's really sad and it's you know the it's sand too, so It is like quicksand in a lot of ways and I saw a video um and So if anyone is not familiar with the coast or what Plough Mud is, it's kind of, if you think about it, if you've ever stood on the beach and you stand still where the water comes in and out, and you can, at first, you're standing on top of the sand, the water comes in, the water goes out.
01:05:18
Speaker
then your feet slowly start to sink into the sand. That's kind of an example of when you have plough mud or quicksand. um That is kind of how it acts. Now in the like creek beds and stuff, you don't have the water tides coming, the tides do come in and out, but you don't have the like on the ocean shore.
01:05:40
Speaker
You don't have the water constantly lapping in and out, but the water is just below the surface of that mud and it's a caked within there and it's almost viscous and it's in that weird state where it's not solid, it's not water, you know, it's not liquid, it's kind of between the two. So if you do ever find yourself and you are sinking into it, what you have to do is kind of vibrate your whole body, like move, move, shake, shake, shake, and you will see the sand around you will start to also shake. And if you continue that motion and just keep moving, just keep moving, it will keep it will turn it more
01:06:28
Speaker
Liquidy then solid and you'll be able to climb yourself out of there. You just have to keep moving and keep Climbing out and once you get out on top of it again you it will um Be hard almost and like once it stops moving it's hard and it holds you in so you If you run out onto it and you've got that motion, it starts to soften up and you'll sink down into it. But then as you get into it, it hardens. So if you fall, if your head goes underneath it, you will suffocate because you won't be able to. But if you were to find yourself in it, that's how you can get out. Oh, God. Yeah. Can you imagine? Oh. No, that would be horrifying.
01:07:12
Speaker
Oh my God. There are so many ways to die. It reminds me of that, um, show that used to be on like spike TV or something when we were kids. ah Yes. I remember that. Yes. Or that game show dumb ways to die. Yes. You ever play that little game yellow game? Yeah. Crazy. Crazy.
Paranormal Experiences and Intuition
01:07:32
Speaker
So um yeah, so we both, um like we said, have had some pretty interesting moments. um I have had a lot of different paranormal experiences. Mine have not just been ghosts. I've also had extraterrestrial type experiences um that I have, I feel like we're more intense than some of the paranormal ghosty experiences I've had so far. Um, but I've had some interesting ghosty experiences too. And a lot of them, of course, because we're best friends have happened when you're around. Yeah.
01:08:18
Speaker
so yeah I don't know what it is, man. I've always been like, Not really, I wouldn't say like a vessel, but I don't know. I always attract. We're just open. Yeah. Yeah. spirit I feel like it's just because we're open to the world and because we're intuitive and, and empathetic that we're able to sense it. Like it's not like we're mediums or like have that like necessarily tapped into it in that capacity where they they're like.
01:08:49
Speaker
can, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe we are. Maybe it's all the same. Maybe we just haven't har harnessed our skills enough yet. Honestly, unlike you though, I haven't had a lot of experiences with aliens. I've only seen a UFO one time in my life and it was with my brother and my mom.
01:09:11
Speaker
I remember you telling me about that in the first record. Yeah, on Forest Book Road. I remember people at school talking about it because lots of people saw it. Oh, okay. Yeah, it freaked my mom out. Me and my brother were telling my mom to pull off on the side of the road where Forest Book Baptist Church is, all that open land where the horse farm is.
01:09:32
Speaker
That's where it was. I was hovering over those trees right there and on the right side. and I was like, oh my God, look, it's an UFO. like It was just hovering. and It was like in the middle of the day. and i could I didn't believe it at first. I was like, I'm just seeing things. My brother, who's like, mom, she's not lying. There's a UFO. All these people were pulled off on the side of the road and they're all pointing up in the sky. and It was a UFO. I'm like, what the hell?
01:09:56
Speaker
And my mom floored it. She just like put gas to pedal to the metal. And she was like, ah we're not stopping. We're not stopping. We're going. And I was like, what? Come on. I want to see. I don't take pictures. you know i mean I had like a little camera because you know I didn't have cell phones back then. And I was like, oh, let me get my my camera, take pictures. And she just floored it. She wouldn't stop. And um that's the only time I've ever seen a UFO though, ever.
01:10:21
Speaker
Yeah, I've had, well, I've seen something in the sky twice. And then I had a an interesting experience that I, it was more like a, I guess a cryptid. Maybe it was an alien. I don't know. I don't really believe. At your mom's house, right? I remember that story. That story is so freaky.
01:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, the first time um is when I was pregnant with Haven again. It's like when I was, I don't know, maybe it's because when we're pregnant, we're like in that. So I've heard that a lot of alien abduction or those types of stories um happen when people are in transition phases. So like, um if you're in a state of transition, so you're not in a stable state. So you're either things are really chaotic in your life, or you're currently moving or changing careers, like just, there's something not a whole lot of stability at that time, things will
01:11:29
Speaker
that that seems to be a correlation. I don't know exactly what it is yet or if we will ever understand what it is but there has been like this correlation between people being in transition at the time when they have these experiences. So maybe that like unsteadiness in our brains at the time is making us more open to other experiences or maybe there isn't actually any correlation but Interesting enough, I remember a lot of my experiences were at times where I was either in a really unhealthy mental state or in an unhealthy relationship or in a time where I wasn't feeling stable, um but I digress. um I was pregnant with Haven and in an unhealthy relationship at the time and that unhealthy person was at the end of the peer
01:12:20
Speaker
And i we were fishing at night on spring-made pier in Myrtle Beach. And I was meeting him and for our friends at the end of the pier. So I parked my car, and I'm walking out down the pier. And I like just barely got on the pier, and I'm looking out at the end. And of course, from my viewpoint, I can see the whole sky.
01:12:46
Speaker
And off the end of the pier in the sky were these three giant red lights in a triangle shape. So one at the top, two at the bottom. And they were just, I mean, massive. They weren't little tiny lights, like huge circles in the sky. It was kind of cloudy and overcast.
01:13:07
Speaker
So like I remember I could see the three. And like ah when I noticed it, I looked around to see if anyone else was looking at the sky. No one else was looking. So I like look back up, and I could see like the you know we're on the beach. So the wind's blowing, and I could see the clouds moving. And this thing was behind the clouds because sometimes it would disappear. And I was like, am I seeing this? And I remember like staring at it.
01:13:36
Speaker
And I couldn't hear anything. There was no noise. No one around it, like everyone else was busy doing different things. It's summertime ah in the on the beach. People are busy. And um so I just looked out there and then one at a time each of the lights disappeared and then it just went away. And I went to the end of the pier by this time I got there and I was like, I finally got out to them and they're all just like doing their thing. And I was like, Did you guys see that? And they're like, see what? And I was like, and no, like you didn't see that thing in the sky. And they're like, what are you talking about? And I was like, there was something up there. like It was massive. and ah it But yeah, there was no sound. And it was just these three red glowing orbs. Oh, cool.
01:14:21
Speaker
And then another time, um, I just saw lights in the distance. Um, I could see in, I was in Georgetown, so there wasn't as much of the, um, city glow that we have. Um, if, you know, as most of us are familiar, we have the like light pollution, so it can be hard to see the sky and where we live on the, in the grand strand and in Charleston.
01:14:49
Speaker
There's terrible light pollution most of the time. um But when I was staying down in ah south of Georgetown with my mom for a little while, I had gone outside and I think I was on the phone with Chris and I was looking out at the sky, just sitting on the front porch. It was dark and I was looking out at the sky and I could see planes flying because we have a very busy flight pattern.
01:15:13
Speaker
um So I could see planes flying, like and they were just little dots in the sky flying back and forth, you know. And then I saw this other dot, and at first I thought it was just another plane, but it was traveling from right to left, and then it disappeared, and then I saw another place in the sky, and it was traveling from left to right.
01:15:38
Speaker
and then it disappeared and then it was in another place in the sky and it was traveling the other direction again and it kept happening and it was like I could still see the other planes going and like it's like a pattern kind of but it was like It made me think that there's no way that that's a helicopter. There's no way that that's an airplane because I can see the other airplanes and they're not disappearing. You know, like I can see their pattern as they're going. This one is moving in ways that don't make any sense. Like even a heli- Like sporadically. Right. an Airplane is going to go from point A to point B. A helicopter has a different pattern.
01:16:18
Speaker
But not going from, you know, east to west to north to south, back to west to north, you know, like they don't do that. That's crazy. Yeah, it was really weird. um And then there was that night.
01:16:32
Speaker
um I was all by myself at my mom's um place in outside of Georgetown. And their property um has quite a large, they have several hundred acres. So it's a large property and there's lots of woods and it's down in like away from the cities. So it's pretty somewhat remote. And I was staying at their house. I think my mom and her husband had
01:17:03
Speaker
I want to say maybe a cruise or maybe they had just gone on a vacation somewhere and I was staying at the house by myself and watching the dogs. So they had two dogs at the time, Bailey, and she was a lab something mix. and She kind of had a coat like a copper spaniel kind of or like a golden retriever. But she was copper colored coppercoed and she was soft yes very soft. Yeah. And then they had Gigi, who was um a.
01:17:38
Speaker
Oh, my gosh, German Shepherd. And then we also had Angel and she was a little Shih Tzu. But Gigi and Bailey were protectors and they had um They were able to run on the property because it was such a it is such a large property that they were able to roam pretty on their own. um They had dog doors so they could just run outside and they would just run around and then come back inside. and um But at nighttime, we would close the dog door so that animals and stuff didn't come in while we were sleeping. And um I was sound asleep.
01:18:11
Speaker
And all of a sudden they started barking, which somewhat kind of regular, not usually in the me middle of the night, we're all, all were asleep, but it happened. I mean, we were in the middle of the woods. So there were times where you could hear packs of coyotes running near the house and the dogs would go crazy. um So it wasn't like super uncommon that they would, you know, alert to something.
01:18:36
Speaker
So they started barking. So I got up to just go let them outside to go pee and go see what it is. And I get up, I open the door, they run outside. I go lay back down and then I'm like, well, I can't just leave them out there anyway. So I might've went like to the bathroom or something. And then I went back out to get them to come in so we could go back to sleep. And I go outside and they are barking this whole time and they're standing in our front yard and the way the property is set up the the road to come in to the property and up to the house goes in front of the front yard and on the other side of that at the time were trees um huge forest and
01:19:21
Speaker
pretty much just a large portion of that was just left to just grow. So the dogs are standing on our side of the road looking at the trees and barking and barking and barking and barking and barking. So I'm assuming it's probably coyotes.
01:19:38
Speaker
So I am like, okay, just let it go. Come on, come on girls, come on. And all of a sudden this thing came out of the woods. And at first, like I said, I thought it was a coyote or another animal. That's what I'm assuming it is. And I'm standing on the front porch looking out at them. Both dogs are standing in the yard barking. And this thing comes out of the woods and within,
01:20:05
Speaker
A second, it crossed the road, it crossed the yard, and it disappeared onto the other side of our property into the woods. And it went so fast. It was dark. I couldn't make out a ton of features, um but it was short, maybe three foot tall, and looked like it was running on two feet.
01:20:34
Speaker
From what I could see, it looked, that's always gared practical girl and the dogs were barking, barking, barking, barking. they And we watched it. I watched the dogs watch it and track it from the one side of the yard to the other side of the yard. And as soon as it disappeared into the trees, they stopped barking and they turned around and came back to me like it was gone.
01:20:55
Speaker
and like nothing had happened and they just came inside and we all went inside and went to sleep and which is also weird to me and Chris and I have talked about this some and we're gonna we might also I might share this story on a podcast with him as well but um there's a lot of people that talk about these experiences and I don't remember being scared which you think in a moment like that you would be terrified right I don't remember. I remember being like, what the fuck is that? What am I seeing? Am I seeing this? But it happened so fast. But then the dogs just stopped barking and turned around and came back to me. like
01:21:39
Speaker
nothing had happened. And we went inside and I just laid down. And I remember laying in the bed and like for a few minutes being like, wait, that creature's still out there. But then I fell asleep. And it was, but that's been like a common thing, I guess, is some people will have those moments and they won't be afraid. So, and they're able to. It could be a trauma response, too. Yeah, it could be shutting it down. Yeah.
01:22:10
Speaker
For sure. Like disassociating. Yeah. I feel, I don't know. it's It was um interesting. I never felt threatened because like it didn't even seem to like pay attention to us. And it stayed just out of sight. like It was you know on the other side of the property. It was a decent several, hot ah ah maybe probably not even 100 yards though. I say maybe like 50 yards. It reminds me of the movie Signs. Yes. It kind of. Or reminds me of.
01:22:38
Speaker
it wasn't as tall as like in that it was like almost like a miniature but that is a common alien sighting as well is that they're not like they are like gray man shaped but they're small people um but that is yeah It was weird. It was lanky and it was running and it just kind of looked like something hunched over on two legs and that was, and it ran so fast. Like I, yeah you know, I couldn't see legs or anything, but it was moving so fast, faster than anything I've ever seen. And you know, the dogs run super fast and, but it was way, way faster than that. And yeah.
01:23:18
Speaker
That's crazy. no it's good You know, it's a creature like as unknown like species if the dogs didn't run after. Yeah. Like they just watched it go like, yeah, we can't. They just alerted to it and just stood there like, stay away. This is our property. You stay over there and we'll stay over here. And then once it left, they were just like, all right, it's gone. Oh, so creepy girl. It was weird. Yeah. I haven't had any experiences like that.
01:23:47
Speaker
was with aliens at least. Mine has just been with ghosts. I've had a few. that Yeah, I've had, I mean, as you know, I've also had my a ghostly experiences too, but not like yours have been, which is interesting. So I have like the paranormal go ah alien side and you get to cover the ghost side. So yay. Yeah, my gosh, my first experience was when I was Probably six or seven whenever we lived in jennyville we had a house that my great-grandfather actually built and I don't know what it was. I was laying in bed I was actually laying in my parents bed. My mom and dad were still up, but I was like laying in their bed and I see this man um But he was like kind of see-through like I could see the other side of the wall. He was very young and And he just walked right in front of my mom and dad's door and stopped and stared at me and had this grimace smile. And it freaked me out so bad that, I mean, I was so, little I didn't cry, but I remember being so terrified and I covered my face up with a blanket hoping that it was just a dream. And then when I lifted the blanket down or pulled it down, he had disappeared. And I told my mom and dad, you know, that happened and um they didn't believe me.
01:25:09
Speaker
So yeah, I saw that the ghost would like the grimace smile. That was my first, um, experience, I guess, seeing a ghost. And then from that point, um, I don't know, just, I always have this like,
01:25:28
Speaker
Gosh, I've had so many. I can't even tell like the second one I've had. I just remember my first one. I remember um seeing entities growing up as a child in different areas. I always have something following me, a spirit everywhere I go. you know I have a crazy crazy things happening. Any home that I live in, um doesn't matter where it's at. I'm always hearing someone call my name.
01:25:58
Speaker
I'm being brushed on like someone's walking past me. There's no one there. I've had scratches on me. I've had oh My dogs see things and then react to me from seeing it like when I had Oreo she would act crazy about Seeing stuff in corners that wasn't there and then now um Daisy May is doing that. She's always like walking really slow around the house and Um, it freaked my mom out, but what really freaked her out was Groucho because Groucho will.
01:26:35
Speaker
just start barking at something in the corner of the house. And it's always behind me. It's never like in front of me. He's always barking behind me or he's barking like beside me. Like he sees something, but there's nothing there. And it freaks Ryan out too. Uh, I didn't tell you this, but the other day I was sitting, um maybe I did, I'm not sure, but I was sitting in my, in my office and Ryan comes running in the office and he was like, why did you turn off the bathroom light?
01:27:02
Speaker
I was just in the bathroom. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I've i've literally been working the whole time. I'm in my office. I'm i'm sitting down. It's like someone just turned off the bathroom light whenever um I was in the bathroom and it was during the day. So Bryson was at school and the dogs didn't do it because they were in the living room. and Are the switches for the light in the bathroom or are they on the wall outside? side okay yeah yeah Outside of the room.
01:27:30
Speaker
So he blamed me. He thought I did it, but I'm like, they're working. Like I didn't do that. He was like, well, that's really creepy because I heard someone walk in the room, shut off the light and then walk out and close our bedroom door. I'm like, I've literally been in here the whole time and my office door was closed. So I didn't hear anything and I did not close that door. I didn't turn off the light. I don't know. So yeah, we have something in here too. And, um,
01:27:57
Speaker
I'm always experiencing weird things, seeing things. I don't know. It's like, it's always happened with me all the time. And, um, I don't know what it is. Like I've, maybe I'm like a vessel for them. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but it's always something with me. Oh, it's when it comes to like a ghost or a spirit or something. Like I see orbs all the time. I.
01:28:23
Speaker
hear things, like maybe I'm going crazy. I honestly don't know what it is, but it's always like, I know when something's up because but I'll start hearing like sounds or like whispers and I'll, my dogs will start freaking out and dogs can see things that we can't. So. Oh yeah. They can sense things forever. Yeah. And Daisy May, like she, she'll look at me and then she'll go, like she'll walk really slow around the couch.
01:28:53
Speaker
And with her, with her tail down, like she's scared and she'll just go in slow motion just to walk all the way around the couch. Like she can hear something under the house maybe, but there's no, there's no, we don't have a foundation with her. We have a foundation, but we don't have a crawl space. right So nothing can get under the house because yeah we don't have crawl space. So it's like she feels something and it makes her uneasy. And and when a dog has its tail behind, like in between his legs, that means it's it's either in pain or it's scared. Yeah.
01:29:23
Speaker
And that's what she does all the time. And you Groucho would just be on like alert. And one time he was under the dining room table whining. He wouldn't move from under the dining room table. And he was just whining and crying, and crying, and crying, crying. He just wouldn't move. He was like scared to death. And I'm like, what are you scared about? There's nothing here. And then he would just look and then start whining and then look in the the corner of the room again and start whining. I'm like, Oh my God, not again.
01:29:52
Speaker
Not against what is going on. I don't know what it is. I don't know, girl. It's like ah constant. It's constant. I always have something following me. And um Bryson wanted to get this vintage Ouija board from the thrift store that we saw. And I'm like, absolutely not. No. Like I already have enough going on with that. I don't need to welcome anything bad into our home.
01:30:19
Speaker
because it's cool. Like I'm used to weird things. Like this one time when I lived off of Conway, I was like a dead sleep and our bedroom door at the time, the guy that was with my baby daddy, he was gone working, which never happened back then. But anyways, I heard this like loud banging on our bedroom door and Bryson was in school. He was in kindergarten and he was at work.
01:30:46
Speaker
And I had the day off, I think, and it was just like someone was trying to get in our bedroom door and I thought it was him and it made me really mad. I opened the door and I'm like, what? And there was no one there. Nothing. And like the door was just trying to open by itself and then nothing. And that was, that was kind of freaky. It was like, okay, really? Come on. Like, let me sleep. You know what I mean? For like 10 minutes. Yeah. That one happened and, um,
01:31:12
Speaker
I don't, I don't know, man. There's been so many different instances. Like I can't really think of a one specific one, except for when I was little, that one sticks out to me a lot because it was my first one. Yeah. So I don't, I don't know.
01:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that is your experience, is that it's pretty much ongoing. and It is. And having little moments that sometimes are little, sometimes are bigger than others, but um things that keep pestering. And I um remember myself um when I was younger. The house I grew up in, um in Zoksti,
01:31:51
Speaker
in the outside of Myrtle Beach. I had a lot of experiences and some of it people will say, you know, you were a kid. So maybe, but I remember specifically many times where the, my bathroom, me and my brother shared a bathroom. And our, like, there was a hallway, my brother's room was the first, as soon as you entered the hallway, my brother's room was there, the bathroom, and then it was my bedroom um at the end of the hall. And I would be standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth or brushing my hair or whatever. And
01:32:31
Speaker
be facing the s sink which would be facing my um bedroom and out of like beside me out of the corner of my eye I would see for a while it was like a large dog shape would run into my room and then it would be this like a man I'd see just out of the corner of my eye I would see this person a figure walking down my hall and go into my room And I remember feeling that way when I was young. um My mom in that house would have terrible um nightmares where she would enact them in her real life. So she would, she had nightmares about the ceiling fan in her room for whatever reason. So sometimes
01:33:21
Speaker
And she would envision our dog that we had was on the ceiling fan and she would be like calling to the dog in real life like, come on, get down. Come on, Maggie. But she was sleeping, like dreaming. And um another time she woke up and she grabbed onto my stepdad and we laughed about this for a long time. But she asked him like she was like, what are we going to do with the pieces to the Eiffel Tower? And he's like, what?
01:33:51
Speaker
and So that became like an ongoing joke for our family for a while. We would just be like, what are we going to do with those pieces to the Eiffel Tower? um But then my brother slept walked and walked out into the um kitchen.
01:34:08
Speaker
and was crying and was trying to call for my mom, but was confused because he was sleepwalking and ah my mom sleptwalked and walked out into the living room and saw snakes all over the house. um Yeah, like crazy things would happen all the time. And then um when we got Angel,
01:34:27
Speaker
um who I had referenced a little bit earlier. She was um our little Shih Tzu that we had, and she, um like you said with Groucho, um yeah, so Angel would be standing in our living room, and we had a sunken-in like den that was kind of off of our living room, and it was like the centermost point of the house, those two rooms. And she would be standing in our living room facing towards that sunken-in den area,
01:34:56
Speaker
and just be showing her teeth and growling and like not just barking like, hey, I heard something outside, like an aggressive, angrily, like when, ah you know, you can tell the difference if you're a dog person, especially, you know, when your dog is just like, oh, I heard something, I'm going to make noise, or I feel threatened, or there's a threat here.
Love for Spooky Subjects and Halloween
01:35:18
Speaker
um They have different sounds and noises that they make. And she used to do that. And it would scare the shit out of me. And I would end up running into the kitchen and grabbing a knife and just like standing in my house with a knife while my dog's barking.
01:35:30
Speaker
um But yeah, like moments like that were um freaky. And then I had a couple other just like little things that would happen that just doesn't seem to be explainable. And I always like to try to reason it out and not just assume, oh, it's got to be a ghost. like I try to be rational and be like, so I hope everyone has enjoyed this episode. I think this episode is going to be a little bit longer than our previous one.
01:35:59
Speaker
So, like we said, we are pretty brand spanking new at all of this and this is going to be a work in progress for quite some time before we probably have a smooth system in place, but yeah. yeah hey we're doing it though we're doing it we're out in the street so let us know like if you on these podcasts yeah do you want um like uh the podcast streets
01:36:33
Speaker
So let us know, do you want us to do longer episodes like this where they're like maxing out closer to two hours? Do you want us to do shorter type form types? um What kind of episodes do you like? Because we can always kind of cater to that and do less topics at once. I think we're going to try a new format um we've discussed so we should have you know There might be a little bit of differences with every one of our episodes for a little while until we figure out what works for us. So there might be a little bit of different styles and formats and stuff, but just as our listeners, let us know what works for you and what you like hearing us talk about. um Please share your fall traditions and that leaf um emoji with us. Yes, please. I'm looking forward to seeing those leaf emojis for real. That was so cute.
01:37:26
Speaker
and we Thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. I know we go on tangents, but that's what we're here for. We're here for bestie tangents. Yes, exactly. That is what we are good at.
01:37:40
Speaker
Just a little bit. Yes, but we're spooky girls, you know what I mean? So of course we're going to talk hours about spooky stuff because we just live for all year long, not just for Halloween. Right. Yes. Even when I am celebrating Christmas and I'm all in that Christmas spirit, I still will rock my skeletons and that is just, um, I just love all that stuff. So it is me all year round. to Same with you. and um but But yes, thank you guys so much. And we look forward to our next episode. Please stay tuned. We got some fun stuff planned for the month of November. And yeah, until next time. or to Happy Halloween, everybody.
01:38:27
Speaker
and
01:38:30
Speaker
easy ah
01:38:36
Speaker
Bye, y'all. Bye.