WEBVTT

1
00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:15.480
I had my first bigfoot counter back
in February of nineteen ninety eight in Golden

2
00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:20.120
Dale, Washington. It happened on
a trip with my father and my uncle.

3
00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:25.120
A little bit about my family,
and you need to understand, is

4
00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:29.480
that they don't camp like everyone else. None of them own a tent or

5
00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:33.759
a trailer. We prefer throwing a
mattress in the bed of a truck or

6
00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:38.399
sleeping up front along the bench seats
of an F two fifty pickup truck.

7
00:00:39.320 --> 00:00:44.200
I'm the youngest and I usually got
the back seat. On this day,

8
00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.920
there was enough daylight to make two
walks through the woods. My uncle dropped

9
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.280
me and my father off at a
place that we call the lake beds.

10
00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:57.320
The plan was for my uncle to
pick us up at the road down below

11
00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:00.759
the Rock Bluff, which is twenty
minutes away on foot, and I told

12
00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:04.519
my father I'd be walking west down
the slopes while he took off to the

13
00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:10.760
east. I noticed the birds and
the light breeze blowing through the trees.

14
00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:14.799
There was a deer trail, and
I was looking at fresh tracks, and

15
00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:18.359
at one point I glanced behind me
because I thought I heard my father,

16
00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:22.200
but there was no one there.
So I kept walking down toward the same

17
00:01:22.280 --> 00:01:26.280
road where my uncle had picked me
up on previous hikes. I heard a

18
00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:30.959
deer close by. I figured it
was a deer, judging by the light

19
00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:36.480
weight sound of its hoofs hitting the
ground. I didn't understand what had spooked

20
00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:38.920
it. The wind was at my
back, and then I realized the birds

21
00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:45.239
and the chipmunks weren't flying around or
singing or making any noise. My uncle

22
00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.400
told me that if it ever got
quiet to the point of seeming odd,

23
00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:53.239
just head straight down the road and
don't get distracted by anything. So I

24
00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:56.079
focused, and I walked toward the
edge of the bluff, where I could

25
00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.840
look down and see my uncle in
the distance, sitting on a tailgate,

26
00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:07.159
nervously swinging his legs. He seemed
agitated. Hurry up, my uncle yelled,

27
00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:12.240
there's something out here besides us.
Yeah, I yelled back the rocky

28
00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.400
slope, causing my voice to echo, it's dead, silent, like you

29
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:23.080
said. I had no clue what
was actually happening. I carefully made my

30
00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:27.400
way down the hill, and as
I closed the distance between my uncle and

31
00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:31.120
I waiting in the truck, he
suddenly commanded me to run well, I

32
00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:35.800
reached the passenger door and I opened
it, and I flung myself across the

33
00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:38.400
seat, and my uncle hit the
locks. Look behind you, up on

34
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:43.879
that bluff, he said. I
looked out that window, and I scanned

35
00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:47.240
the hillside, and I spotted the
largest manlike being I'd ever seen in my

36
00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:53.439
life. Its sheer size was jaw
dropping. There was an animal carcass of

37
00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:58.599
some kinds slung over its shoulder.
We need to get to your dad,

38
00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:01.800
my uncle said. He threw the
truck into gear, and he sped away.

39
00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:07.599
I noticed the way my uncle had
phrased it as get to your dad,

40
00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:12.080
as if somehow this thing might have
already trapped my father. It was

41
00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.639
walking down from the top of the
bluff and was almost to the road,

42
00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:20.479
and in less than a minute it
must have closed a hundred yards, and

43
00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:24.919
it stood there looking at us,
before continuing down the slope. A few

44
00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:30.560
minutes later, to our relief,
we saw my dad standing just ahead of

45
00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:34.719
us. My uncle slowed the truck
down to a crawl, and my Dad

46
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.400
took a flying leap into the truck
bed. Go go go, he said,

47
00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:44.800
as my uncle mastic accelerator to the
floor. Did you guys see that

48
00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:49.000
thing, yelled my father through the
back window, as the rush of air

49
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:53.680
blew off his prize baseball cap.
There was no going back for it,

50
00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:58.960
though. We pulled into the driveway
of my uncle's place, and that night,

51
00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:01.800
all of us there in the truck
bed, staring up at the stars

52
00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:06.800
and munching on snacks and sharing a
six pack. I think I'm going to

53
00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:13.120
invest in a camper, said my
father to no one in particular. It

54
00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:19.399
was my uncle who started laughing first. All right, all right, welcome

55
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:23.920
to another podcast. It's been a
few days, and I'm glad to be

56
00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.160
back reading these stories because I love
doing this. Got four stories in this

57
00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.600
podcast, and I hope you guys
enjoy it. I just wanted to say

58
00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.360
thanks for clicking on the video.
Now let's jump into these stories. Let's

59
00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:43.920
do this all right, here we
go. My wife and I have been

60
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.720
hunting together for twenty years. It's
tradition for us to leave our house in

61
00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:54.800
Shelby County around one am on Sunday
morning and dry three hours to her family's

62
00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:59.000
property in Fayette County, Alabama,
and then take a nap in the truck

63
00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:02.959
until right before daylight, and then
we walk out to our stands. That's

64
00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:08.839
how we've always done it. Like
I said, it's a tradition. On

65
00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:15.160
January twenty seven, twenty nineteen,
it was different. When we pulled up

66
00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.600
to the gate at four am,
it was noticeably silent. In the pre

67
00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:24.360
dawn hours of winter. It's always
quiet as part of the joy of honting.

68
00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.639
The gentle piece of nature surrounds you
and it seeps into your bones and

69
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:34.360
sort of fills your soul with something
I can't quite explain. It's a knowledge

70
00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:41.519
or a wisdom that you're walking the
path of generations beyond memory. During that

71
00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.360
time, you might hear the earliest
bird chirp as it catches that proverbial worm.

72
00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:49.639
A late hunting owl might hoot it's
good night to the world. A

73
00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:55.240
rabbit might shuffle under the protection of
a briar patch, or a squirrel might

74
00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:59.720
getter along a tree branch. That's
to say that it's quiet, but it

75
00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:05.360
is silent. That morning, it
was silent. We pulled through the gate

76
00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:10.360
and cracked the windows and turned off
the truck. Within a few seconds,

77
00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:14.800
the whole cab was filled with an
odor that could have peeled the paint off

78
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:18.399
an outhouse. It was a kind
of smell that made you ask yourself if

79
00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:23.639
you wanted to breathe it through your
nostrils and endure the smell, or open

80
00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:31.199
your mouth and wrist tasting it.
Oh, man, that's a good line.

81
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:35.319
That is a good line, good
writing. My wife wrinkled up her

82
00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:40.720
nose and looked at me in uttered
disgust before asking, did you do that?

83
00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:46.160
Oh my god, no, I
exclaimed, horrified at the possibility that

84
00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.199
my body, or any human body
for that manner, could create a smell

85
00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:56.160
that nauseating. After a short discussion
on the possible origins of the odor,

86
00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:00.079
we decided to head on out to
our stands. Were looking forward to having

87
00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.959
a good day, and the land
that we were hunting was full of wildlife,

88
00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:10.199
and we each usually harvested two deer
there every year, so we were

89
00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:14.160
both a bit surprised to learn that
neither one of us had seen a thing.

90
00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:18.160
When we met back at camp that
night, while we were discussing our

91
00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:23.319
lack of luck and enjoying a hot
meal of my wife's homemade stew by the

92
00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:29.680
camp fire, that same putrid smell
washed over us again and hung around for

93
00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:33.439
about ten minutes before it finally dissipated, and once it was gone, we

94
00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:39.079
got our taste buds back into order, and we finished our stew and climbed

95
00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:44.079
into the camper shelf for a good
night sleep. The next morning, my

96
00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.360
wife went straight to her stand,
but I decided to wander the property to

97
00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:51.560
see if I could figure out where
that horrendous smell was coming from. The

98
00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:57.600
first thing I noticed was that small
trees were down across every walking trail I

99
00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:03.240
went down. After by an hour
of wandering through those paths and stepping over

100
00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:07.480
trees, I happened to look up
at a limb that was hanging seven feet

101
00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.240
or so off the ground, and
I saw a long clump of black horse

102
00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:16.240
hair dangling from it. I believe
in bigfoot. I think is real,

103
00:08:16.759 --> 00:08:20.439
so it didn't take much for me
to put two and two together and realize

104
00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:26.279
the situation we were in. I
texted my wife to meet me back at

105
00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:30.040
the truck right away, and when
she got there, I showed her the

106
00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:33.360
hair and I told her what I
thought. She's not a believer. She

107
00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:37.639
laughed and poked fun at me,
but I wasn't having that. But in

108
00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.879
the end I won. We left
that morning and we didn't go back there

109
00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:48.799
for six months. Since then,
I have sent that hair to Auburn University

110
00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:54.600
to get it tested. Meanwhile,
I leave offerings of fruit and vegetables when

111
00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:58.320
we arrived to hunt, and again
before we leave the property. We haven't

112
00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:03.759
had anything than usual happen to us
since that night. Now I'm hoping the

113
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:13.440
offerings will let whatever it is out
there know that we mean it no harm.

114
00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.679
On July first, two eleven,
my life changed forever. I've been

115
00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:24.320
an avid deer hunter my whole life. I've seen and heard strange things in

116
00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:28.399
the woods before. When I was
twelve, I came face to face with

117
00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.759
a black panther. My only regret
was that I didn't have a clear shot

118
00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:37.080
at it. The first time I
ever heard of fox mark. It scared

119
00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.600
the hell out of me, and
it was years before I knew what made

120
00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:45.320
that awful sound. But like all
the other strange things I've seen and heard

121
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:50.080
before that fateful day, it could
be explained. But this day changed me.

122
00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:56.159
At the time, I was in
a loveless marriage. The only piece

123
00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.039
I found was in the time I
spent alone in the wood. During April

124
00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:07.399
of that year, an E five
tornado destroyed the town of Smithville, Mississippi,

125
00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:11.320
along with almost all of my friends
and neighbors. I volunteered to help

126
00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:15.200
with the cleanup. While I was
there, I ran into a girl i'd

127
00:10:15.240 --> 00:10:18.879
known in high school. She was
in an abusive marriage and we had a

128
00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:24.320
common ground, so we began to
meet and talk and about July first.

129
00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:30.879
We had bonded over our mutual bad
marriages. That day, I was driving

130
00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.240
home from the bank in Tupelo,
where I had taken out the money to

131
00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:37.159
make my house payment, when I
got a call from her. She told

132
00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:41.559
me that she and her husband had
gotten into another bad fight and that she

133
00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:46.519
wanted to talk. It was a
holiday weekend and I had plans to go

134
00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:48.960
hang deer stands, but she begged
me to go with her, so I

135
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.240
said, okay, I'll be there. Where I hunt is two miles deep

136
00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:56.840
into the land that is owned by
a timber company. It's a long,

137
00:10:56.919 --> 00:11:01.679
slow drive down the logging road to
it to my spot. I parked my

138
00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:07.080
truck at an old logging camp and
we sat there with the air conditioner running,

139
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:09.559
and we talked for a while.
It was a hot day in July

140
00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:16.440
and Tremont, Mississippi. We were
parked in side of an old fire tower.

141
00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:20.840
It's all hills and hollers, inhabited
by rattlesnakes and ticks. And I

142
00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:24.120
could tell that she really didn't want
to follow me through that mess, so

143
00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:30.200
I suggested that we sit on the
tailgate and talk some more. I reached

144
00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.679
in my cooler and I got us
both a beer, and I turned on

145
00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:37.559
the radio, and well, one
thing led to another, and pretty soon

146
00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.120
we were tangled up in each other's
arms in the bed of my truck.

147
00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:46.320
A little later we were lying there, back to back. She was talking

148
00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:50.919
and I was listening, or maybe
I was just staring. There wasn't much

149
00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:56.600
to see the was there thick the
leaves and underbrush made seeing past the perimeter

150
00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:01.840
of the clearing impossible. And then
it up down. It was seven feet

151
00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:05.960
tall, and it didn't look anything
like the sasquatch you see on TV.

152
00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:11.960
It wasn't built like an NFL lineman. It was more like a basketball player.

153
00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:16.519
And it was tall, and it
was muscular, and it was covered

154
00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:20.879
in long, black, shiny hair, with a white patch on its stomach

155
00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:26.039
that I'll never forget. I couldn't
tell you what its teeth were like because

156
00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:31.799
it had its mouth closed but its
eyes and face looked very human. It

157
00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:35.720
stood there staring at me as if
it were in deep thought. All I

158
00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:39.960
could do was stare back, and
I was thinking we needed a plan to

159
00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:43.759
get out of there. About that
time, the girl I was with poked

160
00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:48.120
me in the back with her elbow
and she said, are you listening to

161
00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:52.000
me? She must have turned around
then, because then she let out a

162
00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:56.039
blood curdling scream that told me that
she'd seen what I was seeing. We

163
00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:58.960
have to go, I said,
and we climbed out of the back of

164
00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.960
the truck and into the cab as
fast as we could. I don't think

165
00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:09.639
I've ever taken that old logging road
that fast before. I kept checking the

166
00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:13.840
rear view mirror to make sure it
wasn't following us out on the public road.

167
00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:18.200
We stopped, and we were both
crying by then. I guess it

168
00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:24.559
was an emotional letdown after being so
scared. She noticed that she'd left her

169
00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:28.960
shoes behind, and I was thinking
about the summit dare stand that I'd left

170
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:35.759
on the ground by where we'd parked. No parashoes or even a drestand was

171
00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.799
worth driving back into that spot,
as far as I was concerned, so

172
00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:43.519
I told her, no, we're
not going back for your shoes. We

173
00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:46.879
drove all the way back to Fulton, where we stopped to get a coke

174
00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:50.759
before I realized I had also lost
my wallet. It must have fallen out

175
00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.679
of my pocket and it still had
my house payment money in it. It

176
00:13:54.840 --> 00:14:00.720
was two thousand dollars. We had
to go back Navis. I had my

177
00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:05.000
Taurus Judge Revolver with me, and
I loaded it with forty five long code

178
00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:11.039
m O. The ground was tore
up where we had left so quick.

179
00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:15.559
I looked around for my deer stand
in my wallet, and she was searching

180
00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.919
for her shoes. Now. I
couldn't find my wallet anywhere, and when

181
00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:22.919
I picked up the deer stand and
tossed it into the back of my truck,

182
00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:26.440
it landed with a big bang.
For whatever reason, I glanced up

183
00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:31.480
then and I saw one of her
shoes stuck in the crook of a tree

184
00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.360
ten feet off the ground, and
I started tossing rocks and sticks at it

185
00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:39.759
to try to knock it out.
It was unnatural how quiet the woods were.

186
00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:46.440
I noticed that about the time I
managed to unwedge the shoe, the

187
00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:50.799
loudest, most menacing growl I've ever
heard in my life came from the holler

188
00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.360
below us. I looked over and
I saw a forty foot tall pine tree

189
00:14:54.440 --> 00:15:00.120
swaying back and forth as if it
were being pushed. It was time to

190
00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:03.240
leave again. Now I'm no good
at guessing wade, but I'd say that

191
00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:07.360
thing must have weighed at least three
hundred to five hundred pounds, and apart

192
00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:11.639
from that white square patch on its
stomach, it was as dark black as

193
00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:16.159
a mink. I said its face
looked human, but it was an ugly

194
00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:20.759
human. I couldn't believe how well
groomed its hair was. It didn't have

195
00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:26.559
an odor, and it approached us
in total silence. If I hadn't seen

196
00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:30.840
it, I would have never believed
in Bigfoot. I didn't until that day.

197
00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:35.519
That e F five that hit smith
Fille was a little south of where

198
00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:41.559
we were that day. It cut
a mile wide path that probably dislocated a

199
00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:46.360
lot of animals. I guess that
Bigfoot was one of them, and these

200
00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:50.720
days I never go into the woods
without my shotgun. Fortunately that day,

201
00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:54.879
I found my wallet in the floorboard
of my truck when we got back to

202
00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:04.919
town. But we never did find
her other ship. Something happened to me

203
00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:10.960
that has always haunted me. I've
never told anyone except my father and my

204
00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:17.240
best friend. Neither one of them
believed me. During the nineteen seventies and

205
00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:22.360
eighties, my dad was a land
developer in East Texas around Toledo ben and

206
00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:27.600
sam Rayburn Reservoir. He would buy
lakeside lots of land and get a surveyor

207
00:16:27.639 --> 00:16:32.159
to break it down, and then
he'd put in roads and eat sell the

208
00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:37.960
lots. He developed several campgrounds and
neighborhoods that way, and I grew up

209
00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:44.480
in a small town in deep East
Texas around the Sabine and Angelina National Forest

210
00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:48.399
above the Big Thicket. Every now
and then Dad would go see the surveyor

211
00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:52.440
to discuss the business, and sometimes
he would take me with him. I

212
00:16:52.519 --> 00:16:56.840
thought I would enjoy the ride.
And the surveyor had a son that I

213
00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:02.279
could play with. His name was
Tommy James, and we called him TJ.

214
00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:07.440
For short. He was nine and
I was eleven. He didn't go

215
00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:10.519
to my school, but he was
fun to play with because he was a

216
00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:15.119
simple kind of country kid, and
we would shoot bb guns and we'd whittle

217
00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:18.319
sticks and get dirty playing in the
dirt. Pile with his talk of trucks.

218
00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:23.079
It was while we were playing in
a dirt pile one day when TJ

219
00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:27.640
slowly looked up at me and he
said, there's a Chebacca man that lives

220
00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:33.400
down that trail right there. He
pointed to a thin trail in the back

221
00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:37.200
left corner of his backyard. You
want to go see it, he asked.

222
00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:42.960
Chewbacca lives back there? I asked, yep, he's a Chewbacca man.

223
00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:48.720
TJ assured me. I remember laughing
and saying, okay, let's go

224
00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:55.240
see Chebacca man. We started down
the little path with me convinced that we

225
00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:59.880
were playing make believe, and I
was surprised how far TJ was taking.

226
00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.880
It seemed like we walked for a
long time before we came to a huge

227
00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.440
dead fall across the trail. It
looked like a tree had fallen down and

228
00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:14.200
taken a lot of trees with it. There were empty cracker jack boxes with

229
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:18.720
Little Debbie snackcake rappers strown on the
ground in front of it, and I

230
00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:23.319
guess this is where TJ came to
eat as snacks. TJ looked around and

231
00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:27.759
he said, well this is it. I'll call him. He let out

232
00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:33.160
a long howl. I was still
convinced that this was just a game that

233
00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:37.240
we were playing, so I didn't
expect to see anything. I figured this

234
00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:41.240
was his imagination and overdrive. But
when he let out another long howl,

235
00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:47.279
I began to hear the sound of
walking and cracking that was coming in our

236
00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:51.960
direction. TJ, what is that, I asked, as the fog of

237
00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:56.480
make believe was beginning to clear.
Well, it's the Chewbacca man, he

238
00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:00.359
told me. I took a step
back as TJ faced the dead fall and

239
00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:04.720
him began to speak in a coaxing
tone. Come, come on, come

240
00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:11.000
on. He was beckoning it like
a little puppy. The walking sound stopped

241
00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.319
on the other side of the tree, and I could hear loud breathing like

242
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:19.319
a horse. A horse, Yes, I thought he's calling a horse.

243
00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:25.839
I took a huge breath and I
released it in a deep sigh of relief.

244
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:32.720
T J began to almost sing the
word Chewbacca and a gentle voice.

245
00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:37.279
He was calling it again. A
few limbs shifted and moved in the dead

246
00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:41.640
fall, and then I heard it
utter, a single, deep but faint

247
00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:49.960
word. Oh. All of my
former relief slipped away in this place was

248
00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:55.000
a hard nod of fear and anxiety. That the thought of whatever was on

249
00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:57.839
the other side of those trees that
was big enough to have a voice that

250
00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:03.079
deep. I could almost feel its
mass as it stood there, breathing the

251
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:08.960
air into its lungs. That must
have been massive. Come on, TJ

252
00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:15.200
sweetly beckoned again. Tommy, I
whispered, let's get out of here.

253
00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:21.039
At that second, the thing released
a loud sound, and it shook the

254
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:23.039
world around me, and it shot
through me, and it rattled in my

255
00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:29.240
chest, and it left me stunned
in my tracks. My eyes widened in

256
00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:33.720
fear, and my own lungs ceased
to function. T J was still calling

257
00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:37.160
the thing. I felt hot and
sick, and beads of sweat broke out

258
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:41.559
all over my body, while my
heart was jumping up into my throat.

259
00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.079
If I could have made my legs
work, I would have run away.

260
00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:49.480
In my mind, this wasn't happening, This couldn't be happening. But t

261
00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:56.720
J wasn't afraid. Limbs and the
dead fall began to move and snap again,

262
00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.880
and I thought the thing was coming
over it or through it, and

263
00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:06.279
big grunts of breath mingled with the
sounds of limbs slamming and cracking. I

264
00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:10.759
was still frozen and could only stand
there and listen to the thing raising hell

265
00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:15.519
a few feet away. TJ turned
to me and he said, he doesn't

266
00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:22.000
like you. As he spoke,
I saw arms coming up over the dead

267
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.960
fall. I didn't want to see
more. Tommy, run, I screamed,

268
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.599
Now, wait, it's okay,
he was calling to me. I

269
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:36.319
had already taken off, and I
left TJ standing in the path with that

270
00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:40.920
thing with the long arms and the
deep growling voice and the loud scream was

271
00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:45.839
chasing me. I could hear it
coming up the path behind me. It

272
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.400
was exhaling great puffs of air with
intense force. I barely felt the limbs

273
00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:55.480
slapping my face as I raced up
the narrow path. I had to get

274
00:21:55.519 --> 00:22:00.279
to my dad behind me. That
thing seemed to have left the trail all

275
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.960
together. All around me, branches
were snapping and trees were cracking. And

276
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:08.319
then it was in the woods next
to me, and from the sound of

277
00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:11.960
the brush I could tell it was
running a wide circle, and I guessed

278
00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:18.839
it was about twenty five feet out. Glimpses of its enormous black body with

279
00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:25.839
long arms swinging flashed through the leaves. It was so big and unbelievably fast.

280
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:29.839
It was pulling ahead of me,
but the trail was endless, and

281
00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:34.240
panic stricken tears began to blur my
vision when I realized it was gonna cut

282
00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:38.920
me off, and ahead of me, I could see into TJ's backyard.

283
00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:45.039
Daddy, I screamed, Daddy.
And then as I broke through the underbrush

284
00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:49.640
into the yard, that thing came
to a sudden, violent stop, and

285
00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:55.680
everything went silent. The thrashing of
the limbs stopped, and the sounds of

286
00:22:55.720 --> 00:23:02.920
its breathing stopped, and the sounds
of those impossibly footfalls stopped too, And

287
00:23:03.039 --> 00:23:06.240
had chased me all the way back
up the trail, and it almost caught

288
00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:11.920
me. I ran into the office
building where my dad and the surveyor were

289
00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:15.359
talking, and TJ came running up
behind me. Well, I was out

290
00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:18.759
of breath and I was crying and
whimpering. As I began to tell my

291
00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:23.519
dad about the big thing that was
chasing me, TJ stood behind me and

292
00:23:23.559 --> 00:23:29.240
he never said anything. Well,
our neighbor has a ghosts to get out

293
00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:33.839
all the time, the surveyor offered, I'll bet one of those nannies got

294
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:37.720
out and got after you. Well, Dad could see that I was really

295
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:41.279
scared, and he laughed and he
patted me on the head and he told

296
00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:44.519
me to go wait in the truck. Well, I ran to the truck

297
00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.599
and I got in and I locked
all the doors. I watched TJ walked

298
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.680
slowly over to the truck, and
I waited until he was standing beside it

299
00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:56.839
before I had the nerve to roll
down the window. I told you there

300
00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:02.839
was a Chewbacca man. He said
it. I saw it. I said,

301
00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:07.839
what was that thing? He's the
buggey Man. He's a Chewbacca man,

302
00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:12.359
was TJ's only answer. Dad came
out to the truck and I rolled

303
00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:17.039
up my window as he got in, and we were pulling away, and

304
00:24:17.079 --> 00:24:21.119
I looked back to see TJ walking
towards the back of the house. He

305
00:24:21.240 --> 00:24:26.599
turned around and gave me one last
look before disappearing around the corner. Are

306
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:30.119
you okay? Dad asked, you
got chased by a goat? Huh,

307
00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:34.640
No, Dad, it was not
a goat, I answered, and I

308
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:38.119
told him the whole story on the
way home, but I could tell that

309
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:42.319
he didn't believe me. He thought
maybe a cow or a bullet chased me

310
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:48.400
out of the woods. Well months
later, Dad asked me if I wanted

311
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.279
to go to the surveyor's house with
him again, and I gave him a

312
00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:56.480
solid no. Okay, I just
thought i'd ask, he said, holding

313
00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:02.519
up his hands in surrender. He
knew how I felt about that place.

314
00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:07.359
I never went back there again.
Many nights, I've laid in my bed

315
00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:11.559
and I thought about what happened to
me that day. I thought about TJ

316
00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:17.039
and all those wrappers around the trees. I figured he must have been going

317
00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:21.200
down there and feeding that thing.
I guess he had kind of made a

318
00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:25.839
friend of it. I've also thought
about what would have happened if I hadn't

319
00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:30.839
run. Some time after that incident, I overheard my dad telling my mom

320
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:37.079
that the surveyor had taken his family
and moved out of the state. Neighbored

321
00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:40.000
down the road. Said that they
had moved back to where his wife was

322
00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:45.559
from. Was Alabama or Mississippi,
He couldn't remember which. It's funny.

323
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:48.599
Dad said that he didn't tell me
he was leaving. He just up and

324
00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:52.960
left, and I got him a
lot of business. He didn't even call

325
00:25:52.039 --> 00:25:59.559
to say goodbye. My father was
disappointed. My father died several years ago

326
00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:03.359
without us ever talking about the incident
again. But I think I know what

327
00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:11.759
made them move without warning. TJ
called it that Chewbacca man. Thank you

328
00:26:11.799 --> 00:26:15.200
for joining me on this podcast.
If you thought it was pretty good,

329
00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:18.960
maybe you could give it a thumbs
up, or you could hit the subscribe

330
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.160
button and come back and listen to
another one. And if you're new,

331
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:27.880
I've got over three hundred videos just
like this, all back through my library.

332
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:30.519
So if you just go to my
channel, pick out a title that

333
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:34.359
looks interesting and start listening. I
want to appreciate that, and I think

334
00:26:34.359 --> 00:26:38.160
you'll enjoy it if you like these
kind of stories. But with that said,

335
00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:41.480
thanks for joining me, and we'll
see you guys on the next one. Appreciate you