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This man didn't say whether to use
his name or not, and I won't.

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But here's what he writes. And
this is a short, little This

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00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:22,839
is a short, impactful story with
a big punch. In the summer of

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nineteen eighty eight, we went on
a family camping trip to North Pines in

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Yosemite. We were there for two
weeks and our campsite was right next to

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the lake. On the second to
the last night, my cousins and me

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decided to go to the lake.
The idea we were going to see if

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we could see any animals. Back
then, I had a maglight. It

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00:00:44,679 --> 00:00:49,399
was one of the big ones with
the four D sized batteries. I was

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scanning the other side of the lake
and we could all see a pair of

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red eyes glowing. They were low
to the water, and I assumed it

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was drinking water. We could not
see the body, just the eyes,

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so I had the bright idea of
shooting at it with our wrist rocket slingshots.

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We took turns trying to hit it. Like I said, it was

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an idea. Well, then the
animal stood up. I know it stood

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up because the eyes went up and
up and up. It must have been

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ten feet tall and the eyes got
bigger. We freaked out. Well,

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we got scared and we ran and
that's when the animal or whatever it was,

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got up and walked, and all
we saw were these huge red eyes

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move like a float. We ran
to the campsite and my cousins went and

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hid in the tent, and I
sat by the fire with an odd look

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on my face. My two uncles
asked me, what did you guys do

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The boys ran into the tent.
I said, we saw something that scared

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us. I said, well,
I thought it would be funny to shoot

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at it with rocks. My uncle
said, well, that wasn't smart,

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you idiot. I said, yeah, right, I think it was a

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bigfoot. And then both of my
uncles laughed at me and they said,

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don't be stupid. There's no such
thing. I will tell you what they

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really said in Spanish, but some
people would get offended. Until this day,

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I'm still confused about what I saw. The question I have is why

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would a bear stand up and walk
away. I'm not saying it was bigfoot.

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I'm just not sure what it was. It's a good story, good

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story, three boys shooting at a
bigfoot with wrist rocket slingshots, that'll get

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them pissed off. That's a great
story. I really appreciate it, thanks

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00:02:39,039 --> 00:02:46,439
to the writer. Hey, welcome
to the Dixie Crypti channel. I really

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00:02:46,479 --> 00:02:50,400
appreciate you clicking on the video.
You know, we're also out on the

37
00:02:50,479 --> 00:02:54,840
podcast apps if you have Apple Podcasts, Google podcast which is going away real

38
00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:01,080
soon, Spotify, Stitcher, pod
Bean, and there's one hundred podcast apps

39
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:06,879
out there. If you just do
a search for Dixie Cryptid or what if

40
00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:08,879
It's True podcast, it'll be right
at the top. You can listen that

41
00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:14,039
way. It's a lot less draw
on your mobile device battery, and it

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00:03:14,159 --> 00:03:17,240
saves you a ton of data if
you were on a data plan. But

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00:03:17,319 --> 00:03:22,400
I thought I would just mention that, so maybe I save somebody some money.

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00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,000
Let's take a minute and get a
word from our sponsor. Nah,

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00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000
I'm just mess away. I don't
really have a sponsor. I just want

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00:03:30,039 --> 00:03:32,039
to say hi to everybody. I
usually just jump into these stories and I

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00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:36,159
don't say much, but I thought
I would just say hi, and I

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00:03:36,159 --> 00:03:39,000
appreciate all of you listening. This
is a pretty good video. I think

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00:03:39,039 --> 00:03:44,159
I've got four You just heard one
short story. I've got three more.

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00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,960
It's an assortment of different types of
stories, and I hope you guys enjoy

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00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:58,039
it all. Right, here we
go. This is an email from Tony.

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I really enjoyed reading this. I
hope you like it. I remember

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it vividly. It was a summer
of nineteen ninety eight. Sarah, my

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wife at the time, and I
had spent a lovely first week of our

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vacation with my parents and siblings in
Michigan's Upper Peninsula along the southern shore of

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Lake Superior, camping and canoeing near
the mouth of the Two Hearted River.

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It is a wild and beautiful place
that I have been visiting since my childhood,

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and it always seems to call me
back. Sarah and I had not

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spent much time in the lower portion
of Michigan before, so we decided to

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split off from the rest of the
family and do some exploring For the remainder

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of our vacation. We spent several
relaxing days at Lake Anne State Forest,

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then planned to break camp take a
day to hike the Sleeping Bear Dunes,

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which culminates with the breathtaking view of
Lake Michigan and its many shades of blue.

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This is where the story beginsans the
day was sunny and hot, and

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by late afternoon the ambient temperature on
the dunes was probably hovering around ninety degrees

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or above, and we were ready
to be done. Once we completed our

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hike, we planned to find a
camp site, preferably by the water,

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and then drive back home to Ohio. The following day, we stopped at

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the ranger station to inquire about nearby
camping, only to discover that pretty much

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every campground in this part of Michigan
was full. In retrospect, I should

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have expected this, since it was
a Friday in the high summer and at

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a very popular destination for weekend vacationers. The ranger told us that we were

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probably out of luck, though he
knew of a trail camp some ten miles

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distant, primarily used by equestrian campers. It wasn't much to look at,

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yet would do as an overnighter.
I was grateful for the tip, and

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we thanked the ranger and set out
for our destination, and we followed the

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directions he had written down for us. The site was not easy to find,

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since it ended up being on a
road or off a road off another

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road, but we finally located it
and pulled into the entrance. We travel

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further down the dusty gravel course that
ended with a loop and a clearing.

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It was sparse, with trees and
hitching posts set at regular intervals. To

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our surprise, there was absolutely no
one within view, and my first thought

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was perfect, we'll have this place
to ourselves. And I turned off the

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van and we got out to look
around and decide which site to choose.

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This is when things got freaky.
As in a side I should point out

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that I have always considered myself to
be somewhat of a psychic brick. If

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anyone is going to hear ghosts talk
with their spirit guides or have premonitions,

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it isn't going to be me.
Not that I'm not open to it.

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I'm just not very sensitive in that
way. The sun was getting low in

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the sky and the air was warm, but still it was quiet here,

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even peaceful. Yet I could not
explain this growing sense of dread. I

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scanned the area to explain my cognitive
dissonance. Where was this perceived danger coming

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from? All I saw was an
apparently tranquil meadow with nobody around in virtually

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no places for a threat to be
concealed. I pushed down the feeling,

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telling myself that I was just imagining
things all because I didn't want to worry

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Sarah. She looked at me and
she asked, so, what do you

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think. I don't know. I
said, something feels off. She agreed

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too quickly, and it turned out
that she had been sensing the same unease

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and didn't want to mention it to
me either. Let's get the hell out

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of here, I said, in
a low voice, Without wasting another moment,

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we hurried back to the van and
locked the doors and spun the tires

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in our haste, leaving a cloud
of dust behind all to put some distance

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between us and a nameless menace.
We traveled east toward home, and we

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molded over, trying to understand what
had just transpired. There had been absolutely

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no visual or auditory queue to indicate
that anything was amiss in that camp,

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yet we both had the distinct feeling
that something very bad was about to occur,

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and had we stayed, we most
certainly might die. Since then,

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I have never experienced that level of
dread for something that didn't happen. More

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than twenty four years later, I
still think about it from time to time,

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and I wonder what did we avoid
Had there been an axe murderer in

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camouflines hiding behind a tree preparing to
pounce. Was something paranormal about to unfold?

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I wonder if that feeling of something
being wrong precedes an abduction event or

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the spontaneous opening of time and space
portals. Only many years later did I

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discover that the Great Lakes area,
particularly Michigan, is known for its unexplained

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disappearances of people, ships, and
aircraft, as well as other paranormal activity.

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On multiple occasions, I have tried
to locate the trail camp that we

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visited using internet searches based on its
probable position, but without any success.

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Unfortunately, the original written directions have
long been lost. Did we wander into

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and out of an unstable pocket of
reality just before it collapsed? I'd love

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to know the answer from a distance, though I'm eternally thankful that we didn't

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experience at firsthand whatever it was.
I hope your audience finds this interesting and

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thanks for reading, and he signs
off. Tony, Tony, it's fascinating

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to me these premonitions, these feelings
of dread. I get those. Sometimes

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I don't. I can be sitting
here and I can get a feeling of

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dread, and I'm like, oh, man, the hammer's about to drop

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them. You never know what it
could be. Uh. I've been through

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a few of those in my life
and they are devastating and you get through

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it. But it's a and I'm
talking about superficial things, but you're talking

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about a life and death thing.
But anyway, I thought it was very

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interesting and I couldn't wait to share
it. Thanks for the story. It

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doesn't matter to me if you ever
use this story on your channel. It's

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not a Bigfoot story. It's just
something I was thinking about and I felt

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like talking kind of straightened it out
in my own mind, I suppose,

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so I decided to write it down. By all accounts, my grandfather was

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not a very nice man. He
was a strict disciplinarian, a man who

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beat his wife and kids. By
today's standards, he'd be a criminal.

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But I think maybe he was a
victim of his times. Born somewhere around

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eighteen eighty, he was of a
time when it was the job of the

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man to keep his house in order. A man who failed to keep his

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house in order could not be the
deacon of a church. And was looked

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upon as weak. Any failings in
his family would have been his failings as

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a man. Now I'm not making
excuses for him. God knows, I

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have my own reasons to question his
actions, and I try not to view

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him too harshly. My grandfather died
when I was two. I was the

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only grandchild that he lived to see, and by all accounts, in my

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00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:56,159
one memory of him, he loved
me very much and he was very proud

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00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:01,159
of me, even though at the
time my greatest achievement was in having been

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born. Mama told me that he
died lying on the sofa in the living

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00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,279
room of the house he built and
owned. He owned and built another home

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00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:16,039
for my uncle and his wife just
behind us. Now that's no small feet

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00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:22,559
for a black man born only sixteen
years after slavery. On the day he

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died, the corner was playing golf, and no one could move the body

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00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:31,759
until the corner pronounced him dead.
And this house was out in the country,

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and the corner didn't see any reason
to interrupt his golf game. After

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all, Granddaddy wasn't going anywhere,
and he laid there for hours, and

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finally the corner showed up verified the
obvious, and the funeral home was called,

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00:12:46,039 --> 00:12:50,120
and while they waited for the hers, Grandpa sat up. Everybody in

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00:12:50,159 --> 00:12:54,759
the house saw it. He stood
up, and he walked over to his

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00:12:54,919 --> 00:12:58,799
rocking chair. He sat down in
it and started rocking, and after a

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00:12:58,799 --> 00:13:05,159
few minutes of rocking, the chair
slowed to a stop. A little while

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00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:09,120
later, the funeral home picked him
up from that chair, and when they

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00:13:09,159 --> 00:13:13,080
got there, everybody told them what
had happened, and the director nodded,

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00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:18,440
and he says, these things can
happen sometimes. That should have marked the

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00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:22,159
end of my time with my grandfather, but that was not the case.

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00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,240
When I was three or four,
I was playing in the dirt in the

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00:13:26,279 --> 00:13:31,200
front yard when someone blew in my
ear. First, I was engrossed in

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00:13:31,279 --> 00:13:35,360
my game and I didn't pay it
much mine. As it happened again and

168
00:13:35,399 --> 00:13:41,080
again, I tried absently to brush
it away, and finally I stopped playing

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00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:45,759
entirely, and I looked around.
It now had my full attention. I

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00:13:45,799 --> 00:13:50,159
knew this wasn't the wind. For
one thing, the air was still in

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00:13:50,279 --> 00:13:54,000
For another, the wind doesn't blow
directly into your ear. There was no

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00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:58,600
one there. I stood up and
I ran in the house and I told

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00:13:58,639 --> 00:14:03,200
my grandmother that someone was blowing in
my ear, but nobody was there.

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00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:07,360
Oh, that's just your grandfather,
She said, don't worry, he won't

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00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:11,639
hurt you. Well. I was
shocked, and I tried to process that

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00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:16,799
information. I knew my granddaddy was
dead and he didn't have any business blowing

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00:14:16,879 --> 00:14:22,759
in my ear, but mother acted
as if it was normal. And I

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00:14:22,879 --> 00:14:26,600
was used to taking my cue from
her, and I decided to let it

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00:14:26,679 --> 00:14:30,759
go. But it troubled me,
and I didn't go back outside all day.

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00:14:31,399 --> 00:14:35,240
I didn't know then that my grandmother
was both right and wrong. He

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00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,559
wouldn't hurt me, but he would
most definitely try. In fact, he

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00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:45,679
would try to kill me. For
the most part, the things that happened

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00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:50,519
during my years of being shadowed by
my grandpa's ghost were innocuous. Once,

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00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,919
when I was turning flips on the
sofa, I heard a voice that sounded

185
00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:01,639
just like my uncle, my grandfather's
brother, say stop that right now.

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00:15:01,759 --> 00:15:05,919
I looked over and no one was
there. There wasn't even a car in

187
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:11,440
the yard. I found my grandmother
in the back of the house hanging out

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00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:16,919
the wash and I stayed outside with
her. Another time, it got into

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00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:20,279
my head to try to see my
face in the bottom of the well.

190
00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:24,440
I was about six at the time, and I noticed that I could see

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00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,200
a round circle of blue sky in
the dark depths of the well. I

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00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,279
figured if I could lean over far
enough, I could see my face in

193
00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:35,879
the middle of that circle. Now
I knew I might fall, and I

194
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,320
knew I couldn't swim, so I
let the bucket down into the water,

195
00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:43,879
believing that I could grab the rope
and scream until my grandmother came and found

196
00:15:43,919 --> 00:15:46,399
me. But it never occurred to
me that I could hit my head on

197
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:50,000
the way down, or that the
rope may come loose when I grabbed it.

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00:15:52,159 --> 00:15:54,600
I scrambled my way up the side
of the well and I leaned over,

199
00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:00,600
and I couldn't see my face.
I needed to get high, and

200
00:16:00,639 --> 00:16:03,919
I pushed and scraped and pulled my
way up the stone sides, and I

201
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:08,440
still wasn't high enough. I took
a deep breath and I tried again.

202
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,039
This time, I heard a loud, stern voice shout, get down.

203
00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,399
I let go of the well and
I dropped back to the ground, fully

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00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:22,879
expecting to get a good chewing out
from my uncle. But there was nobody.

205
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,840
I didn't learn until a few months
ago that my baby brother had also

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00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:34,000
heard the same voice, and he
too thought it was our uncle. The

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00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:41,440
last thing to happen before my grandfather's
forced departure happened in front of my friends,

208
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:45,879
Brenda and Benny, who lived up
the hill. My mother was friends

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with their mother, and one day
she walked up to the hill to visit,

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00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:52,840
and I went with her. We
were playing on the swing set in

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their yard while our mothers talked outside. They were both older than me,

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00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:02,159
and they could swing higher than me, and I was desperate to get as

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00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:04,279
high as they did. But no
matter how hard I tried, I just

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00:17:04,319 --> 00:17:10,640
couldn't do it. And then suddenly
my swing froze in mid air. The

215
00:17:10,759 --> 00:17:15,559
chain attached to the seat was outstretched
and taught. Brenda and Benny jumped off

216
00:17:15,599 --> 00:17:19,039
their swings and stared up at me, and I looked down at them,

217
00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:23,559
and I needed a lighter or something. And my swing went four feet higher,

218
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:29,039
and I started to kick and scream, and my swing came loose from

219
00:17:29,079 --> 00:17:33,079
whatever force held it, and I
swooped backwards through the air. More than

220
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,160
anything in the world, I did
not want that swing to go up again,

221
00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,599
and I dug my feet in the
dirt to stop it, while my

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00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:45,680
friends watched, wide eyed and frozen. And when I managed to get off,

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00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:49,039
we all stood there looking at the
swing, in each other and in

224
00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:53,880
the way of children who have just
experienced something they know adults will not believe.

225
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:59,720
We went and played somewhere else.
We never got back on that swing,

226
00:18:00,279 --> 00:18:04,720
not that day, not ever,
And that brings me to the culmination

227
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:11,039
of these events. My grandfather's house
was in a small country town where there

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00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:15,160
wasn't much by the way of employment. My granddaddy had been a farmer,

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00:18:15,559 --> 00:18:21,319
an occupation my father had no interest
in continuing, so Daddy and Mama both

230
00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:25,839
worked in the larger town about an
hour away, and sometimes they stayed there,

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00:18:25,839 --> 00:18:29,640
and sometimes they came home, and
on this night they were home.

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00:18:29,759 --> 00:18:33,400
But I was used to my grandmother
taking care of me, so when I

233
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:37,440
woke up in pain that night,
I tried to wake her. There were

234
00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:41,680
sharp pains in my stomach, as
if my intestines were being pulled out of

235
00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,599
my body. I shook my grandmother
and I called her, but I couldn't

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00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:51,200
wake her. And this was unusual
because Grandmother was a very light sleeper,

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00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:53,720
and finally I gave up and got
out of bed and went to the door

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00:18:53,759 --> 00:18:57,359
of the room where my parents were
sleeping, and I was crying. When

239
00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,839
I opened the door, Mama heard
me immediately. What's wrong, She asked,

240
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,680
sleepy? I told her my stomach
hurts, and I was crying from

241
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,960
the ache and tears were streaming down
my face. Mama threw back the covers

242
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,880
and got out of bed. They
went to the bathroom and pulled a peptipismo

243
00:19:15,039 --> 00:19:18,759
from the medicine cabinet, and we
went to the kitchen for a spoon and

244
00:19:18,839 --> 00:19:22,319
sat down on the sofa in the
living room, and she gave me a

245
00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:26,440
dose from the bottle, and I
fell asleep with my head in her lap.

246
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,960
I don't know how long I slept, but she woke me up and

247
00:19:32,079 --> 00:19:33,960
sent me off to bed, saying, you'll feel better, now, go

248
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:38,319
get some rest. I did feel
better, but not for long. As

249
00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:42,799
soon as I climbed into bed,
the horrible jerking and pulling pain started again.

250
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,920
I felt as if I was dying, and I sat up in bed

251
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,279
crying, and I saw mother struggle
to open her eyes, but she fell

252
00:19:52,319 --> 00:19:56,240
back to sleep. It was the
only time in my life that I felt

253
00:19:56,359 --> 00:20:00,319
she didn't really care about me,
but I knew that wasn't true, so

254
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:03,079
I thought she must really be tired. I didn't want to go back to

255
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:07,200
Mama's room, but I didn't have
a choice. This happened a time when

256
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,720
television played the Star Spangled Banner when
it went off at night, and I

257
00:20:11,799 --> 00:20:17,079
never thought of sitting up in the
dark alone. Now opened the bedroom door,

258
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:21,240
hoping that Mama wouldn't get impatient with
me. It still hurts, I

259
00:20:21,319 --> 00:20:25,680
said again. Mamma threw back the
covers, and I heard Daddy Mama,

260
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:30,119
what's wrong with her? She says
she's sick. Mama answered. This time

261
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,799
Daddy got up and came with us. We were all in the living room

262
00:20:33,839 --> 00:20:38,359
and I was sniffling on the sofa
with Mama rubbing my stomach. Daddy was

263
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:42,160
sitting in a chair, skimming through
a magazine and talking to Mama, And

264
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,559
after a while I went to sleep, listening to the soft sound of their

265
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:52,079
voices as they whispered back and forth. I was later shaken awake by Mama,

266
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:56,200
who was telling me to go back
to bed, and I looked around

267
00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:59,279
and I saw that Daddy was gone. I didn't want to go back to

268
00:20:59,319 --> 00:21:03,160
bed. Something was happening in that
bed, and every time I got in

269
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:07,160
the bed, those horrible pains would
start. I walked slowly down the hallway

270
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:11,440
to my grandmother's room, and as
soon as I was back in the bed,

271
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,920
the torture and my stomach began again. I held it, curling into

272
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:21,279
a ball and willing it to stop, willing myself to be stronger so that

273
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:26,000
I could endure it. That is
the first time I heard the voice.

274
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,160
It was a man's voice, and
it seemed to be speaking to me telepathically.

275
00:21:30,839 --> 00:21:36,240
I had no idea at the time
what telepathy was, but someone was

276
00:21:36,319 --> 00:21:40,680
talking to me inside my head.
Again. I was six or seven years

277
00:21:40,759 --> 00:21:45,799
old. I didn't question that.
It's the same way we didn't question it

278
00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:51,079
when that swing stopped in midair and
the voice told me that my grandfather wanted

279
00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:53,880
to take me with him. You
have to stay awake, it said.

280
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,319
I spoke back to it the same
way it spoke to me, with a

281
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:03,039
thought. But I have to sleep, I said. I can't stay awake

282
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:07,559
forever, and he'll get me.
He only has tonight. The voice answered,

283
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,480
If you'll live till the morning,
you'll live well. I wanted to

284
00:22:11,559 --> 00:22:15,599
ask why he had any time at
all, but Mama had taught us about

285
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:21,359
messing in grown folks business, and
this seemed to be grown folks business,

286
00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:26,039
if ever there was any besides.
The voice could read my mind too.

287
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,599
It knew the question I wanted to
ask, and it had not answered,

288
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:36,960
and I decided to leave well enough
alone. Crying loudly now from the pain

289
00:22:37,039 --> 00:22:40,880
in my stomach, I struggled out
of bed. This time. Mama met

290
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:45,039
me at the door to her room, Margaret Ann. She said, why

291
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,160
is it that you only seem to
be sick when you go back to bed,

292
00:22:48,599 --> 00:22:51,880
As long as you're in the living
room, you seem fine. I

293
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:53,799
wanted to ask her, well,
if you know that, why do you

294
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:57,839
keep sending me back to bed?
But I knew better than to say that.

295
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:03,079
She might at back talking and send
me to bed, saying and you

296
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:06,799
better not get up again, which
would probably be the end of me.

297
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,519
So I stood there silently, staring
up at her while she looked down into

298
00:23:11,599 --> 00:23:15,559
my tears stained face, And finally
she sighed and took me back into the

299
00:23:15,599 --> 00:23:21,440
living room again. I went to
sleep. I don't know how long we

300
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,200
were there, but she woke me
up, saying it's almost day. Go

301
00:23:25,319 --> 00:23:29,599
back to bed now. I got
up, and as we walked through the

302
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,480
still dark house, I looked toward
the kitchen window, which faces east.

303
00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:40,000
I could just make out a pencil
edge of daylight on the horizon. The

304
00:23:40,039 --> 00:23:44,839
sun was coming up. Wouldn't be
much longer. The voice had told me

305
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:48,799
that he had till morning. So
I climbed back in bed next to my

306
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,839
grandmother, and immediately the pain in
my stomach began even harder than before,

307
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,599
and I buried my face and my
pillow, and I cried while I held

308
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,960
my stomach, and I tried not
to go back to my parents' room.

309
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,880
The sun was coming up fast now, and soon the pain began to go

310
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:11,720
away, and as it drifted away, I drifted off to sleep. I

311
00:24:11,759 --> 00:24:15,920
never saw or heard from my grandfather
after that. In later years, I

312
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,759
read something in the Bible that said, when the silver cord is loosed,

313
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:26,079
the connection between life and after life. I also heard someone speaking on an

314
00:24:26,079 --> 00:24:33,119
astral projection talk about silver cords connecting
the spirit body to the physical body,

315
00:24:33,599 --> 00:24:36,680
and when it comes loose, that's
the end of life in this world.

316
00:24:37,799 --> 00:24:41,759
He said that it seemed to be
around the navel or in the stomach area.

317
00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,400
I wonder about that and that horrible
pulling. But more than that,

318
00:24:45,559 --> 00:24:49,440
I wondered why my grandfather would try
to kill me. He could have just

319
00:24:49,519 --> 00:24:55,319
let me fall into the well.
Years before, I've come to the conclusion

320
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:59,079
that he wanted to take me because
he loved me and he wanted me to

321
00:24:59,079 --> 00:25:02,920
be with him. I don't think
he really believed Mom and Daddy would take

322
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:07,240
care of me. He did know
my grandmother would, which is why I

323
00:25:07,319 --> 00:25:11,960
think she wasn't allowed to wake up
that night. Granddaddy was certain the family

324
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,960
would fall apart without him, and
that's why he fought so hard to live,

325
00:25:17,559 --> 00:25:22,079
and that's why his spirit reanimated his
dead body. But he couldn't make

326
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:26,559
it live. He could only make
it move in a way. He was

327
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,440
right. My uncle and his wife
divorced shortly after his death, and my

328
00:25:30,519 --> 00:25:36,480
parents divorced five years later. If
he had lived, could he have stopped

329
00:25:36,519 --> 00:25:40,400
all that? I don't think so. He may have delayed it, but

330
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:45,039
it would have happened anyway. That
was the whole point. That was what

331
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,799
the owner of that voice I heard
was trying to teach him. People are

332
00:25:48,799 --> 00:25:53,240
in charge of their own destinies.
He could even control a seven year old

333
00:25:53,279 --> 00:26:00,319
girl. And as for that voice, I still hear it sometimes when I

334
00:26:00,319 --> 00:26:08,279
do, I always listen. Here. This gentleman doesn't want me to say

335
00:26:08,319 --> 00:26:11,440
his name for a store last,
so I wan't. Here's what he writes.

336
00:26:12,519 --> 00:26:17,400
My encounter takes place in Fort Stuart, Georgia, in the middle of

337
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,480
summer. For those who have never
been there, Fort Stewart is tucked off

338
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:26,880
in the low country of southern Georgia, and it's a sportsman's paradise. There

339
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,839
are lakes and large animals everywhere you
look. You don't even have to go

340
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:36,039
outside to see wildlife. From my
barracks room window, it wasn't uncommon to

341
00:26:36,039 --> 00:26:41,599
see a combination of deer, boar, alligators enjoying the pond behind our building.

342
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:45,240
And after living there for a few
years, I thought I had grown

343
00:26:45,279 --> 00:26:49,160
comfortable with every creature Fort Stewart had
to offer. But I quickly learned that

344
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,240
this was not the case. One
night, when I saw something in the

345
00:26:52,279 --> 00:26:57,960
woodline, I didn't recognize. It
was a Friday in July a few summers

346
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:03,079
ago. My plan for the evening
was to go for a five mile run

347
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,359
fold out a lawn chair and Blastom
classic rock and relaxed with a few frosty

348
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:12,759
adult beverages by the pun During the
pause between the songs, I heard a

349
00:27:12,839 --> 00:27:18,160
knocking coming from the woodline. It's
knock knock, tap, tap knock.

350
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:23,319
It almost sounded like Morse code,
so I turned down the music and then

351
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,960
I heard what had to be a
reply from the trees on the other side

352
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:32,599
of the pond, and another set
of taps coming from my twelve o'clock and

353
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:37,519
it was very clear whoever was outside
there was talking to each other and they

354
00:27:37,559 --> 00:27:42,359
had me partially surrounded. I've heard
stories of cult members living in the woods,

355
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:45,200
and I thought maybe they were waiting
on me to leave to start a

356
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:51,319
ceremony. Not wanting to get in
the way of religious freedom, and with

357
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,799
my healthy amount of fear bestowed upon
me from horror movies, I took this

358
00:27:55,839 --> 00:27:59,559
as my queue to start packing up, so I grabbed my lawn chair in

359
00:27:59,559 --> 00:28:02,920
my radar, but I had to
make a second trip for my cooler.

360
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:08,799
I started to leave and I heard
the taps intensify and whoever was out there

361
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:12,519
was about to make a move,
And as I headed toward the barracks to

362
00:28:12,559 --> 00:28:15,160
put my things in my room.
I could see out of the corner of

363
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:21,920
my eye what was making all the
noise, and it was prehystoric. I'm

364
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,440
telling you. This thing was eight
feet tall or taller, and it was

365
00:28:25,519 --> 00:28:30,200
covered in dark fur and belt like
an Abram's tank. And my god,

366
00:28:30,319 --> 00:28:34,559
the hands on this thing. It
looked like it could open handslap an alligator

367
00:28:34,759 --> 00:28:40,960
into two pairs of boots and a
belt. Subconsciously, I knew I was

368
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,160
out number three to one, so
the last thing I wanted was a confrontation.

369
00:28:45,759 --> 00:28:48,839
And to be honest, it took
every fiber in my being to remember

370
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:53,519
what little training I had, So
I pretended like I didn't see it,

371
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,640
with the hopes that it would keep
doing what it was doing and it would

372
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,319
leave me alone. And by the
time I open the door to my building,

373
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:06,920
my brain was manically freaking out about
everything I had just witnessed. Was

374
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,720
that a bigfood? Was it three
bigfoods? I don't know what it was,

375
00:29:11,799 --> 00:29:14,200
but I have to get a better
look at it, I thought to

376
00:29:14,279 --> 00:29:18,680
myself. And from the safety of
my barracks room window, I hid in

377
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:25,119
the dark watching this giant fur person
low crawl with extreme urgency toward where I

378
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:30,000
was sitting, and with what has
to be the largest hand I had ever

379
00:29:30,039 --> 00:29:34,400
seen, palm the lid of my
cooler, reached in and snatched my four

380
00:29:34,559 --> 00:29:41,720
remaining beverages, and stealthy low crawled
back to the woods. Now I don't

381
00:29:41,759 --> 00:29:45,839
claim to be a primate expert,
but based on the way this guy was

382
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,519
moving, I'm almost certain this wasn't
the first time he had raided a cooler.

383
00:29:51,519 --> 00:29:55,640
My friends who have deployed to Africa
say that monkeys love people food and

384
00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:59,200
they'll rob you blind if they get
a chance, So I guess there is

385
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:03,480
some merit to the this type of
behavior. Anyway, the next morning,

386
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,200
I summoned the courage to retrieve my
cooler, and it was warped from the

387
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,839
grip of my furry friend. I
can't help but wish there was a way

388
00:30:11,839 --> 00:30:15,559
to communicate with him better. I
had a whole case in the fridge,

389
00:30:15,559 --> 00:30:18,640
and I was willing to share it
with him. Oh man, that's a

390
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:23,039
great story. That's a you actually
saw this thing. I'm kind of wondering

391
00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:27,920
what kind of detail you saw.
At some point you were thinking, is

392
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,720
that a bigfoot? Did you ever
just verify to yourself it was a bigfoot.

393
00:30:32,759 --> 00:30:34,920
I got a lot of questions about
this one. This guy was in

394
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:41,519
the army and he was at his
army base in Georgia and he was relaxing

395
00:30:41,759 --> 00:30:45,960
and three bigfoots are communicating between each
other. One of them sneaks up,

396
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:51,279
scares him off, and steals his
beer. That sucks, all right,

397
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:55,839
great story. I appreciate the email. Thank you, sir, Thank you,

398
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,799
thank you, Thank you for listening
to this podcast. If you listen

399
00:31:00,039 --> 00:31:03,319
as far, I appreciate you so
much. Thank you for the all the

400
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:07,599
people who have been listening to me
for over five years now. Can you

401
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:11,519
believe I can't believe I've been doing
this for five years. It seems like

402
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:18,039
five weeks or not really five days, maybe five months. Maybe not five

403
00:31:18,079 --> 00:31:21,599
weeks, maybe five months. I
don't know what I'm talking about. The

404
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:26,000
point is I appreciate you. This
channel is still going strong. We're gaining

405
00:31:26,079 --> 00:31:30,240
new people all the time. It's
not just one of these runaway kind of

406
00:31:30,279 --> 00:31:33,480
channels, but it's steady growth and
I'm just tickled to death with that.

407
00:31:34,279 --> 00:31:37,799
And I just love doing these So
thank you for listening. I really appreciate

408
00:31:37,839 --> 00:31:41,640
you. So with that said,
I will see you guys. On the

409
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:45,279
next podcast. Appreciate you all.
Thanks,
