Speaker 1: At the time, all it was was woods, and I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in the woods. But I
Speaker 1: never saw anything like that ever, And certainly that was
Speaker 1: my first and lonely experience of seeing something like that.
Speaker 1: But certainly let them impression. I mean, my mind made
Speaker 1: me see some guy in like a blonde flannel shirt
Speaker 1: raking leaves like for an instant, that's what my mind saw.
Speaker 1: But when I looked at it again, it clearly wasn't.
Speaker 2: It was this thing like trying to show me away,
Speaker 2: just throwing leaves in the air. I didn't know what
Speaker 2: to think. I didn't know what this thing was.
Speaker 1: I just yeah, I think my mind went to monster
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get eaten. The thing was huge and
Speaker 1: covered in hair. This thing is sometime a monster. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell it is. You know, since then,
Speaker 1: I think I know what it is. But why do
Speaker 1: these things even exist?
Speaker 3: Just to get us started?
Speaker 2: Why? Now?
Speaker 3: What made you decide to share your story at this
Speaker 3: point in life?
Speaker 2: Really? Your podcast?
Speaker 1: I went down some YouTube rabbit hole about a year
Speaker 1: ago and I stumbled on your podcast, and as I
Speaker 1: was listening, nobody. I really never shared the details of
Speaker 1: my story other than I attempted with my wife and
Speaker 1: my kids at one point and got laughed at. But
Speaker 1: some of the guests on your show really seemed to
Speaker 1: be genuine and there's got to be something to it.
Speaker 1: And I think you said it best in one of
Speaker 1: our communications. You got to get it off my mind
Speaker 1: or my chest because I saw it and it was real,
Speaker 1: and why now maybe you opened the door and an
Speaker 1: outlet that I can actually get this stuff off my
Speaker 1: mind at my chest and just move on. I have
Speaker 1: I hadn't experienced since, but I saw what I saw
Speaker 1: and it made an impression on me in my entire life,
Speaker 1: which I had to hide. And the one time or
Speaker 1: one and a half times I tried to share it,
Speaker 1: you know, I got laughed at. So your show seems
Speaker 1: to be an outlet or a venue for me to
Speaker 1: share that. And it's probably a one and done with
Speaker 1: me because I don't go investigating, and you know, I
Speaker 1: don't read books on this stuff.
Speaker 2: But the way you approach your guests.
Speaker 1: With an open mind and honesty, and I gather that
Speaker 1: you've had experience as well and you're trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out, allows me to open myself up to this
Speaker 1: and it's very out of character for me too even
Speaker 1: speak about any of this stuff. But I guess, Matt,
Speaker 1: you know, to summarize your podcast, said, Hey, maybe I
Speaker 1: should share this and get it out there because I
Speaker 1: don't believe a lot of the things I hear, but
Speaker 1: a lot of the things on your show, people do
Speaker 1: seem genuine about it, and I'm ready to share after
Speaker 1: Jesus had to happen late seventies or early eighties my
Speaker 1: first experience, and I guess we can venture in today
Speaker 1: us Toto experience as time allows.
Speaker 2: But I guess that's my answer to you, Matt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I appreciate it, first off for trusting me
Speaker 3: with this, and you know, you're pretty accurate on everything.
Speaker 3: I give people an opportunity to share their story. Sometimes
Speaker 3: those stories venture into areas that you know, I have
Speaker 3: a hard time believing personally, But I don't make any judgments.
Speaker 3: I don't know what people experience. You know, I'm not
Speaker 3: there whenever they have their encounters, but a lot of
Speaker 3: them ring very genuine, even on things that I might
Speaker 3: have a difficulty accepting. The genuine conversations that I have
Speaker 3: with people both on and off air, I just want
Speaker 3: to you know, have that outlet for them because regardless
Speaker 3: of what I think or anybody else thinks, I can
Speaker 3: tell that they're being honest about their experiences, and that
Speaker 3: has helped me deal with a lot of the stuff
Speaker 3: that I've encountered and experienced over the years, which hasn't
Speaker 3: been a lot. But like you, I have to live
Speaker 3: with the fact that, regardless of what others think, I
Speaker 3: know what's real. I know what I saw, I know
Speaker 3: what I experienced, and I think a lot of us
Speaker 3: are just looking for those answers or some sort of
Speaker 3: closure in accepting what we experienced. So just take us
Speaker 3: through it, you know, tell us how it all happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sure, So, like I said, I live in a small town,
Speaker 1: and this experience happened. It was either very late seventies
Speaker 1: or very early eighties, and in that time town things
Speaker 1: were extremely different.
Speaker 2: A lot of your listeners aren't going to understand what.
Speaker 1: I mean by that, but you were literally allowed to
Speaker 1: come and go as you please throughout the neighborhood or
Speaker 1: you know, within the town, as long as you're home
Speaker 1: for dinner. And you had that freedom in a small
Speaker 1: town that I grew up in a small farm town.
Speaker 2: It was just a given.
Speaker 1: You know, we would gather in the neighborhood or certain
Speaker 1: neighborhood and you know, do our thing, and then as
Speaker 1: long as we're home for dinner, that's fine. So you know,
Speaker 1: I was either ten, eleven, twelve thirteen. I really can't
Speaker 1: tell you an exact timeframe. I just know about when
Speaker 1: there was a pond by my in between my house
Speaker 1: and my friend's house, who's about what you're saying, a
Speaker 1: half mile from my house walking distance and a little
Speaker 1: bit more than a half mile from my friend's house.
Speaker 1: And we would talk on the phone, you know, the
Speaker 1: courted phone with the rotary dial, and hey, what do
Speaker 1: you want to do today, Let's go fishing. Okay, I'll
Speaker 1: meet you up, you know, around eleven or so, and
Speaker 1: we would walk to the pond.
Speaker 2: In this pond at the time. My town since then
Speaker 2: has been overdeveloped.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of farmland and a lot of
Speaker 1: woods at the time, but since it's been completely overrun
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and overdeveloped. But in any regard, there
Speaker 1: was a pond literally off the side of this side
Speaker 1: road that was surrounded by forest and swamp. And I'm
Speaker 1: not going to say the name, and the pond because
Speaker 1: I don't want to, you know, give away too much
Speaker 1: here and and going out on a limb, and we
Speaker 1: would go fishing there.
Speaker 2: And so here we go.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm going to say, early spring, because the
Speaker 1: green leaves were just starting, the buds were just starting
Speaker 1: to sprout on the trees. Nice day, still day, I
Speaker 1: can remember it that much beautiful day to walk to
Speaker 1: this pond on the side road. And I got there first,
Speaker 1: and I actually started fishing first.
Speaker 2: And my friend showed up. He walked to the same age.
Speaker 1: I was a year older than him, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're fishing, and maybe we got there a little too
Speaker 1: late because it started getting a little too warm, and
Speaker 1: I started getting a little too bored. And one thing
Speaker 1: that we have never done is I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: this pond is about the size and shape of a
Speaker 1: football field, and so if you can imagine, we're standing
Speaker 1: at like the end zone. I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: the other end zone, which at that point in time
Speaker 1: none of us have ever done.
Speaker 2: So I couldn't go to the right because it was.
Speaker 1: So overgrown with pricker bushes and brambles and whatnot. So
Speaker 1: I went to the left. Did you try to get
Speaker 1: to the other side of this pond and my other
Speaker 1: friend excuse me, my friend stayed there and I said,
Speaker 1: I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 2: You know, because all.
Speaker 1: We were catching at that point was what we call
Speaker 1: johnny roaches. I don't know what the right term is
Speaker 1: for these fish. And it was getting boring because you
Speaker 1: could throw a bare hook in air and catch one
Speaker 1: of these things. There's no strategy involved in it. I
Speaker 1: wanted to catch like a catfish or something. So I
Speaker 1: went to the left and the left, although it was overgrown,
Speaker 1: it was manageable. And you know, looking back now and
Speaker 1: actually look into what I'm about to tell you about,
Speaker 1: not just this pond, but a series of ponds in
Speaker 1: the mid fifties, these ponds were dugout and part of
Speaker 1: a sportsman's club for fishery. So as I'm walking along,
Speaker 1: I see another overgrown pond to the left, severely overgrown,
Speaker 1: and I'm walking. I'm walking, and I'm keeping focused to get
Speaker 1: to the other side, and I'm walking alongside a berm
Speaker 1: that was obviously now I know man created to create
Speaker 1: these ponds.
Speaker 2: And I get to the other side and I waved
Speaker 2: to my friend. I see him on the other side.
Speaker 1: But as I got to the other side, I see
Speaker 1: there's other ponds behind it, And now I'm really curious.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I'm young, and so I keep walking to these other
Speaker 1: ponds that I see in back. So at one point
Speaker 1: I can still see the big pond, and where I'm
Speaker 1: standing now I count one, two, three more ponds, not
Speaker 1: as big, let's just say half as big, but completely square.
Speaker 1: And again my research, like really recently, I discovered they
Speaker 1: were fisheries for some sportsman club and it's documented in
Speaker 1: some papers or whatever.
Speaker 2: So I saw this clear pond. There was like no
Speaker 2: lily pads on it.
Speaker 1: Where the pond we were fishing on I had lily
Speaker 1: pads and.
Speaker 2: Algae and other stuff.
Speaker 1: And I was also getting irritated because every time I
Speaker 1: threw something out, I would come back with either a
Speaker 1: Johnny roach or half a tree.
Speaker 2: You know, it's full of stuff.
Speaker 1: So I would walk and I saw this other pond
Speaker 1: and it was nice and clear, and this pond was
Speaker 1: like almost perfectly square. There's a pond now the pond
Speaker 1: I left behind me, and there's the overgrown pond, and
Speaker 1: then there's another overgrown pond.
Speaker 2: But then there's this clear pond.
Speaker 1: So I headed toward the clear pond, and now I
Speaker 1: can't see anything else except another pond that's overgrown behind
Speaker 1: me and this clear pond, and I start walking alongside
Speaker 1: of berm with my fishing tackle and my fishing pole,
Speaker 1: and I walk to the furthest if you're looking down
Speaker 1: at a square. I'm at the left hand side of
Speaker 1: this pond now, and I can't go any further because
Speaker 1: it's really overgrown with pricker bushes, thorn bushes, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call them, and even higher berm where they
Speaker 1: must have dug out, and it's just impossible to go
Speaker 1: any further. So I picked that corner because I also
Speaker 1: had a clear shot to start casting fishing pole, and
Speaker 1: which I did, and I got a few in there,
Speaker 1: and I heard at that point I completely lost track
Speaker 1: of my friend.
Speaker 2: I assume he's stole over air fishing.
Speaker 1: I heard like what sounded like somebody raking leaves.
Speaker 2: Likesh, shush, shush.
Speaker 1: This is after a couple of casts, and it was
Speaker 1: completely silenced before I cast it into the water. So
Speaker 1: I looked on the other side of the pond and
Speaker 1: I said, what the hell is My mind made me
Speaker 1: think that it was somebody raking leaves in the middle
Speaker 1: of a forest, and I said, what the.
Speaker 2: Hell is going on here?
Speaker 1: And me being a kid, I put my head down, thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm trespassing on somebody's yard here, and I'm about to
Speaker 1: get yelled at.
Speaker 2: And I looked up again and it's not a firmer.
Speaker 2: It's this thing.
Speaker 1: It's what everybody says is a sasquatch, all right, but
Speaker 1: at the time I didn't know what a sasquatch was.
Speaker 1: And this thing is like on the far right hand
Speaker 1: side up a hill, and he's making movements like toward me,
Speaker 1: throwing leaves up like and I'm looking back now, and
Speaker 1: I think he asked me, and I asked myself the question.
Speaker 1: It was like he was trying to scare me away,
Speaker 1: which he quite frankly scared me. But I was frozen
Speaker 1: at that time. I was like, what the heck am
Speaker 1: I looking at? So he sees me, I see him,
Speaker 1: I say him, And I don't know if it's a
Speaker 1: him or her. I just say him, because that's just
Speaker 1: what I gathered.
Speaker 2: Sure, this thing is. I later.
Speaker 1: Gathered that it reminded me of There was a show
Speaker 1: called Land of the Lost and there was these things
Speaker 1: that looked exactly like what I'm seeing. It wasn't black,
Speaker 1: it wasn't brown. It was like this dirty blonde, long
Speaker 1: haired sasquatch. And I'm gonna say sasquashed now, but at
Speaker 1: the time, I don't know what the hell it was.
Speaker 1: And excuse the swearing, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1: He starts the scaring tactic. I guess he sees that
Speaker 1: I'm not moving, although I wanted to move, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just I'm just standing there with my fishing pole,
Speaker 1: just staring at him.
Speaker 2: So he begins to walk.
Speaker 1: If I'm on the far left hand side, he on
Speaker 1: the other side, he begins to walk diagonal to the
Speaker 1: other left hand side, opposite of me, far of the pond,
Speaker 1: and he walks over there. And now I'm like freaking
Speaker 1: out and I'm like really scared. So I'm not sure why,
Speaker 1: but he begins to walk like extremely fast across the
Speaker 1: other side, towards the right, and there's a clear shot.
Speaker 1: If he runs that corner, I have no escape, and
Speaker 1: that's what I was thinking about. I'm like, how do
Speaker 1: I get myself out of this? There's a half grown
Speaker 1: pond behind me. I can't go to the left of me,
Speaker 1: and this thing starts walking across to the right hand side.
Speaker 2: It's going to round the corner.
Speaker 1: And Matt, when I tell you how fast this thing
Speaker 1: walked like effortlessly.
Speaker 2: So I did what a kid would do. Stupid me.
Speaker 1: There is a little tree on the far left hand
Speaker 1: corner where I put my tackle box and I got
Speaker 1: as small as I could. I put myself into like
Speaker 1: a almost like a fetal position, although I was still
Speaker 1: on my feet, and I hid my head, and I
Speaker 1: can hear this thing walking, and I'm thinking, if he
Speaker 1: can't if I can't see him, he can't see me.
Speaker 1: But I hear this thing walking, and I clearly saw
Speaker 1: that there's no way I'm going to get out of
Speaker 1: this because he's walking so fast. I can't run out now.
Speaker 1: He blocked my path and he rounds the corner and
Speaker 1: I can hear him, and I'm hiding my face behind
Speaker 1: a tree although I'm clearly still there. I'm thinking, if
Speaker 1: I don't move and I don't breathe, this thing isn't
Speaker 1: going to see me. But holy shit, I'm dead, is
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking. And I'm staying there, and then it
Speaker 1: just got I hear him walk all the way to
Speaker 1: the right hand side, almost to the point where I
Speaker 1: walked into the pond, so that would be on my
Speaker 1: immediate rite, about fifty yards away of the square pond.
Speaker 1: And it gets quiet, like nothing, and I'm thinking I'm
Speaker 1: dead any minute, and I'm staying as still as I can.
Speaker 1: I'm holding my breath. And then the thought came to me.
Speaker 1: I said, holy shit, my friend. He's going to get
Speaker 1: my friend. And this extreme guilt came over me, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy shit, he's going to get my friend.
Speaker 1: I want to say his name, but I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1: And it was just so still. This thing was so
Speaker 1: loud walking and it just got still. So I'm thinking
Speaker 1: he's even looking right at me at the far right
Speaker 1: hand side of me, or I don't know, or he
Speaker 1: went and I lost track of him because my heart
Speaker 1: was beating so fast. He's going to get my friend,
Speaker 1: or he's going to get my friend. So I mustled
Speaker 1: up the courage. After about I don't know, I want.
Speaker 2: To say, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It felt a long time, but let's just say in reality,
Speaker 1: let's just say maybe a minute of the stillness, I
Speaker 1: mustled up the courage to pick up my tackle box,
Speaker 1: get my poll, which I think the line was still
Speaker 1: in the water, and start walking. And just as I
Speaker 1: was starting to walk out, my friend comes around and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at him in his eyes to see if
Speaker 1: he saw anything, and he's just like, hey, where you're going.
Speaker 1: He's surprised that I was walking out. I said, let's
Speaker 1: just there's nothing here. Let's get out of here. And
Speaker 1: I walked right by him, thinking that we're going to
Speaker 1: get you know, killed or eaten any minute. And I
Speaker 1: just walked right by him. I said, just come on,
Speaker 1: let's get out of here. You know, there's nothing over here.
Speaker 1: Let's just go back out to the front. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to get out to the front to get in
Speaker 1: it clear and get my friend out of danger. And
Speaker 1: I did not.
Speaker 2: Say a word.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we get to the original meeting spot. There's
Speaker 1: no noise, no nothing, but this thing that I just
Speaker 1: saw scared the hell out of me.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to say within forty.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of us meeting there and this happening maybe
Speaker 1: an hour, I told my friend. I said, there's nothing here.
Speaker 1: I'm done, it's getting too hot. I'm going home. And
Speaker 1: he was disappointed. He goes, Mike, I thought we were
Speaker 1: going to you know, fish, I said, listen, heaues, I'm
Speaker 1: just getting bored. I'm going to go home. I'm done
Speaker 1: with today. And I didn't tell him what just happened.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get the hell out of there,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to get him out of there in
Speaker 1: a way that it didn't embarrass me, because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to say what I just saw because he's going
Speaker 1: to make fun of me. And so I walk, I'm
Speaker 1: walking my way. I made sure he started walking his way,
Speaker 1: and all the way home, I either thought he was
Speaker 1: going to get attacked or I was going to get attacked,
Speaker 1: and that fear stuck with me the whole walk home.
Speaker 1: And either I told him to call or he called
Speaker 1: me when he got home. I can't remember what, but
Speaker 1: that's how worried I was. And I felt so guilty
Speaker 1: that I didn't tell my friend that I'm sending him
Speaker 1: home and this thing is like gonna come out of
Speaker 1: the woods and get one of them, either him or me,
Speaker 1: and that that guilt was real until I heard that
Speaker 1: he was finally home. And you know, that's the extent
Speaker 1: of that story. But then on a mutual of Omaha.
Speaker 1: Then I saw the Sasquatch and I remember the what
Speaker 1: you guys cause a Patty Gilman film whatever it was
Speaker 1: on him and I saw that and I watched it
Speaker 1: with my father on one Sunday, and I think it
Speaker 1: was a mutual of Omaha, and my jaw dropped and
Speaker 1: I almost wanted to tell my father, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: tell him either. I mean, I don't know how long
Speaker 1: the time was between I saw what I saw and
Speaker 1: when I saw this bigfoot thing, that's what I saw,
Speaker 1: but it was a different color, and my jaw hit
Speaker 1: the floor and I'm like, holy shit, I mean this
Speaker 1: is I really actually saw this, but I.
Speaker 2: Couldn't ever tell anybody.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I saw the Land of the
Speaker 1: Lost thing, and then the six million dollar man thing
Speaker 1: with the sausquash came out, you know, and you get
Speaker 1: more exposure to this stuff as you know, time goes
Speaker 1: on and I'm like, okay, there's something to it. Why
Speaker 1: is there anything like that's being invented out there? So
Speaker 1: I mean it had to happen before the Patty film
Speaker 1: came out, that people experienced this stuff, and you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's my story with the Sasquatch. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you can ask me questions or whatever. But I saw
Speaker 1: what I saw and I don't know where it went.
Speaker 1: It just like disappeared. But I saw what I saw
Speaker 1: and it stuck with me all these years. So I
Speaker 1: try to tell my wife. Once she laughed at me.
Speaker 1: And then one day we were driving by the pond
Speaker 1: and I said, I saw a sauce squatch over there,
Speaker 1: and you know, then I just made it up, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, you know, I'm just kidding you, guys. I
Speaker 1: was trying to scare you because I mean, didn't laughed
Speaker 1: at by your kids. It's a whole other deal. But
Speaker 1: so that's you know, my story with the encounter.
Speaker 3: Did you ever go back to the pond as a
Speaker 3: kid for fishing and stuff?
Speaker 1: I did, but I I stayed at the edge at
Speaker 1: the at the meeting place, which was right by the road.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: One time I ventured by myself to the exact space.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking and I'm looking and there was nothing there.
Speaker 1: But I literally was scared and I wasn't fishing or anything.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to say, did I dream this? No?
Speaker 2: That the pond is there?
Speaker 1: The same bushes are there, and I got out of
Speaker 1: there real quick. And I don't think I really ventured
Speaker 1: maybe three times back after that, and I think I'm
Speaker 1: more I was more curious than anything. And since then
Speaker 1: I've done some research on the ponds, and that's what
Speaker 1: it was. It was a series of five or six
Speaker 1: man made ponds. The big one was triangle the size
Speaker 1: of a fishing football field, and the others were just
Speaker 1: squares and they're still there to this day, although it's
Speaker 1: been overdeveloped. The time I was there was full of
Speaker 1: woods and the most I could get it was made
Speaker 1: for the Sportsman club. They were like raising trout or something.
Speaker 1: There were made many ponds in the fifties, but at
Speaker 1: the time all it was was woods. And I spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in the woods as a kid,
Speaker 1: but I never saw anything like that ever in my life,
Speaker 1: and certainly that was my first and only experience of
Speaker 1: seeing something like that.
Speaker 2: But certainly you left an impression.
Speaker 3: Whenever you first saw it. Obviously you didn't know what
Speaker 3: a bigfoot was at that point, correct, what did your
Speaker 3: mind process it as like a monster or I mean,
Speaker 3: you obviously could tell instantly that it wasn't a human.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I don't know why, but my I mean,
Speaker 1: my mind made me see some guy in like a
Speaker 1: blonde flannel shirt raking leaves like for an instant, that's
Speaker 1: what my mind I saw. But when I looked at
Speaker 1: it again, it clearly wasn't.
Speaker 2: It was this thing like trying to shoo me away,
Speaker 2: just throwing leaves in the air, throwing leaves in the air,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I didn't know what to think. I
Speaker 2: didn't know what this thing was.
Speaker 1: I just, yeah, I think my mind went to monster
Speaker 1: and I'm going to get eaten. I mean, as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, I think I said a few times
Speaker 1: already that's what was in my mind.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get eaten by this thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing was huge and covered in hair,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this thing is some kind of monster.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the hell it is. You know,
Speaker 1: since then, I think I know what it is. But
Speaker 1: why do these things even exist? And you know, after
Speaker 1: listening to your show, and then where do they go?
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't figure that out for a life
Speaker 1: of me. I mean, this thing just kind of like disappeared.
Speaker 1: But if you can imagine walking home thinking that this
Speaker 1: thing is stalking you. I didn't hear a footstep or
Speaker 1: anything after it got silent, like everything got silent, and
Speaker 1: the only thing was me and my heartbeat, trying to
Speaker 1: get the hell out of there and walking home knowing
Speaker 1: literally knowing either my friend's going to get whacked or
Speaker 1: I am, and walking home with that and then keeping
Speaker 1: it to myself for these years.
Speaker 2: It's just crazy.
Speaker 1: And for you to even listen to any of this,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's bizarre even to me to this day
Speaker 1: that I'm even I had this encounter. But again, you
Speaker 1: give an outlet and you provide a venue for it.
Speaker 1: So I reached out to you first.
Speaker 3: How have you processed it over the years. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously you reach the point where you have a good
Speaker 3: understanding of what it was.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: This is something that I have spoken about a few
Speaker 3: times with different guests, and you know, just in personal conversations.
Speaker 3: You share something like this with your wife, who you
Speaker 3: know that's the main person in your life, they should
Speaker 3: believe everything that comes out of your mouth. And then
Speaker 3: the reaction was not a good one, right exactly. I mean,
Speaker 3: how do you handle that? How do you process that?
Speaker 3: Does it bother you that she didn't believe you.
Speaker 2: That's an excellent question.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I didn't stumble on your podcast, I
Speaker 1: was beginning not to believe myself. So I kept it
Speaker 1: to myself. And the one or two times one and
Speaker 1: a half times I tried to share. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you get laughed at, so you begin to
Speaker 1: doubt yourself, and I kind of just I suppressed it.
Speaker 1: I literally suppressed it and just didn't think about it
Speaker 1: anymore because listen, nobody talks about this.
Speaker 2: Stuff, I mean, in any form. And I blocked it out.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, I felt the need to get
Speaker 1: it off my chest and and talk to my wife
Speaker 1: about it, and it didn't work out. So I suppressed
Speaker 1: it again. And for whatever reason, you know, I have kids,
Speaker 1: Like I say, how many? But we're driving, I mean
Speaker 1: go by the pond, and I said, I saw for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I still had the need to share, and uh,
Speaker 1: it was you know, quickly meant with a bunch of laughter,
Speaker 1: and I went with it. I said, I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to scare you guys, you know, don't you know? So
Speaker 1: that's what they know about it. But how how did
Speaker 1: I deal with it? I just blocked it out because
Speaker 1: you begin to doubt yourself. And nobody at that time,
Speaker 1: nobody talks about this stuff. There was no YouTube, there's
Speaker 1: no there wasn't even an there's no Internet. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to be a guy in school. That's why
Speaker 1: I didn't even tell my friend, my dearest friend at
Speaker 1: the time, what I saw, because you know, this gets out,
Speaker 1: I'm done at school, kicked on. Yeah, you know, we're
Speaker 1: talking elementary school and going into middle school.
Speaker 2: In high school, I'm going to be the guy that's
Speaker 2: you know, saw.
Speaker 1: At the time whatever I wanted to call it, but
Speaker 1: now I know it's sasquatch.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be that guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I mean, like you wouldn't even be able
Speaker 3: to explain to anyone what you saw. I mean, there
Speaker 3: wasn't no word for it, and you know, so what
Speaker 3: are you going to say? I saw a big hairy
Speaker 3: man monster in the woods, like okay, correct?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, And when I'm sitting there watching
Speaker 1: TV and I saw that the first time, I think
Speaker 1: it was mutual Oman when I saw that it could
Speaker 1: be another show, but I think it was on a
Speaker 1: Sunday or a Saturday, and I literally watched it with
Speaker 1: my father on TV. I think he was half a
Speaker 1: And when I saw it, I almost wanted to tell
Speaker 1: my father and I was like, you better keep your
Speaker 1: mouth shut, kid. My father's going to think I'm crazy too.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't even share it with my parents. And
Speaker 1: so how did I deal with it? I just blocked
Speaker 1: it out To answer your question directly, you.
Speaker 3: Know, But seeing here on Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom
Speaker 3: loved that show as a kid, was that validating for you?
Speaker 3: At least internally a little bit?
Speaker 1: It was like, holy shit, this is what I saw.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that other people are seeing it. It was
Speaker 1: like a mind blowing experience where I still actually doubted myself,
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to figure out my mind what I
Speaker 1: really saw.
Speaker 2: And literally the first.
Speaker 1: Time I saw this thing, and I'll say it again,
Speaker 1: my mind made me see something that it wasn't like,
Speaker 1: it made me see some guy breaking leaves. Everything was obliterated,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't leaves. It was this guy, not the guy.
Speaker 1: It was this thing throwing leaves. And when I saw
Speaker 1: it on TV, my mind just got blown open and
Speaker 1: was like, that is exactly what I saw.
Speaker 2: It's just a different color.
Speaker 1: And you know then you start reading books and you know,
Speaker 1: I've listened to enough of your podcasts. I think we
Speaker 1: all stumble across the same books in that little, you know,
Speaker 1: two foot section where you can find anything, and yeah,
Speaker 1: and you start reading about it, and you know, at
Speaker 1: least it made me feel at that time that Okay,
Speaker 1: there's something to it, but you better not say anything.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm well over mid fifties right now,
Speaker 1: and for me to reach out at this point and
Speaker 1: you asked why, you could probably hear that. I just
Speaker 1: got to get it off my chest. And to hear
Speaker 1: your podcast a year ago and to continue to listen
Speaker 1: to it in the way you handle things is a
Speaker 1: mind blowing experience. And there's something to it. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, and I don't care what it is,
Speaker 1: but I I just know that some people out there
Speaker 1: are genuine in saying and seeing what they believe.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of where I am. And it's just
Speaker 2: at least you're able to listen to me and I'm
Speaker 2: able to voice what I saw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not everybody is going to laugh, you know at
Speaker 3: this point, like you were talking about, it's all over
Speaker 3: the place now, it's huge and pop culture and media
Speaker 3: and advertising and everything else. And you're absolutely right. I've
Speaker 3: never heard anybody really put it that way. But why
Speaker 3: would the human race make up something like this?
Speaker 2: Right, what's the point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. And now it's everywhere,
Speaker 3: So I do think it's more accessible and less combative
Speaker 3: whenever people you know, bring it up or whatever. But
Speaker 3: on the same token, there's still people that are gonna laugh.
Speaker 3: There's still people that are going to think you're full
Speaker 3: of shit.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, that's just the way it is. Though.
Speaker 3: Obviously, like if you hadn't seen it, and it had
Speaker 3: been your friend that had seen it, I mean, how
Speaker 3: how would you have approached that if he had told
Speaker 3: you what he saw, you know, you would have probably
Speaker 3: thought the same thing. Correct, And this takes a lot
Speaker 3: of courage for you, man, So I applaud you for that,
Speaker 3: because to have the reaction you got from your close
Speaker 3: personal family and now here you are sharing it publicly,
Speaker 3: that's a huge step and I appreciate you doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate you listening too. And it probably you know,
Speaker 1: it just sound, you know, the usual cliche, but it
Speaker 1: probably lifted a weight off of me that I'm able
Speaker 1: to share it with you because after listening to your
Speaker 1: program and some of what you've shared your own personal experience,
Speaker 1: I know you're genuine and for me to be able
Speaker 1: to share it with somebody that actually experienced something similar,
Speaker 1: it does feel relieving.
Speaker 2: And that's probably why I'm doing this.
Speaker 1: That's why I kind of reached out to you, because
Speaker 1: after more than a few episodes, I said, this guy
Speaker 1: is genuine and he actually cares, and even if somebody
Speaker 1: is full of shit, you're really helping them.
Speaker 2: But I'm here to tell you I'm not full of shit.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, I mean like the leaf throwing, the
Speaker 3: bluff charging, whatever you want to call it, that behavior,
Speaker 3: I mean, that's not you know, that's not a detail
Speaker 3: that somebody is going to make up. That's not a
Speaker 3: detail that somebody's going to imagine. You're not going to
Speaker 3: takingly see a bear or a deer and right have
Speaker 3: that sort of behavior you know, imprinted on your brain.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Correct, Most people, if they're making up a big foot story,
Speaker 3: like it's across the road in front of me, you know,
Speaker 3: and I look back, just like in the film or something,
Speaker 3: this is an entirely different situation. You have behavioral traits
Speaker 3: that make sense.
Speaker 1: Thanks for validating some of this. You know it helps,
Speaker 1: it helps.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure.
Speaker 3: If you don't mind. Though you mentioned the UFO, I'd
Speaker 3: like to hear about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got to get that one off my chest too.
Speaker 1: And after that, I mean, you know, I listened to
Speaker 1: some of your podcasts and Okay, this guy's seen Bigfoot
Speaker 1: and you've seen dog Man not Spara too, you us aliens.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, that's not me. But again it's it's
Speaker 1: something that happened that I feel the need to get
Speaker 1: off my chest.
Speaker 2: This is very much later. This is another section of
Speaker 2: the state I live in.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine, a relative of mine, has sixty
Speaker 1: acres at the time had sixty acres.
Speaker 2: Of pure woods.
Speaker 1: That bordered a state forest, so it was nothing but
Speaker 1: woods and in a very wooded, unpopulated area of the
Speaker 1: state I live in, and we built. I don't have
Speaker 1: any brothers, so at the time my friend, well, I
Speaker 1: guess I should say I had brothers is my brother
Speaker 1: in law became and we built a small cabin in
Speaker 1: the middle of this sixty acres, again bordering on a
Speaker 1: state forest, which was I don't know how many acres
Speaker 1: and I could name the forest, but I'm not.
Speaker 2: But one of my brother in law's brothers.
Speaker 1: Like to hunt, and we all like to hang out
Speaker 1: and you know, by a campfire and drink beers or whatever.
Speaker 1: It maybe back in the day. We're talking like mid
Speaker 1: nineties now. So we built a small cabin with a
Speaker 1: wood stove, and it was a cozy place, and we
Speaker 1: built it well, it was. We finished it. We started
Speaker 1: it in May, and I think we finished it over
Speaker 1: time and by September. And then what I would do,
Speaker 1: it's almost I love camp and I love the woods,
Speaker 1: love the freedom and nature. And what I would do actually,
Speaker 1: we would go there together and we would hang out.
Speaker 2: And I'm not into hunting in any regard. I just
Speaker 2: like the doors.
Speaker 1: And it was a cathartic experience for me, a relaxing
Speaker 1: experience for me to just go there on my own
Speaker 1: and just camp out for a couple of days. I
Speaker 1: also went there with friends and we'd spend almost a
Speaker 1: week there and.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that. But I would also go to this
Speaker 2: cabin on my own many times, you know. And one
Speaker 2: time my friend and I would go.
Speaker 1: It's not the same friend from the fishing trip, he's
Speaker 1: since moved on, and so has this friend.
Speaker 2: But I would go there with my very very dearest.
Speaker 1: Friend to this day, even though he passed away, and
Speaker 1: we'd spend we would go there the same time in
Speaker 1: March every year for about five years, and we would
Speaker 1: just spend almost an entire week in the woods. And
Speaker 1: March is a great time in that area because there's
Speaker 1: even if it's hot outside, there's still snow somewhere in
Speaker 1: the woods, so you can keep your food cold.
Speaker 2: Your beverages of choice cold, you know.
Speaker 1: And we had built fires and we would have other
Speaker 1: friends over there.
Speaker 2: But this one particular time.
Speaker 1: We were all done with outside, We're all done cooking,
Speaker 1: and it's time to hit the hay. And you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, there was you know Coleman lanterns
Speaker 1: and stuff like that with the the fuel.
Speaker 2: And I had just purchased I thought I was King
Speaker 2: of the hill.
Speaker 1: I purchased one of the most powerful flashlights at the time.
Speaker 2: You could ever buy.
Speaker 3: I mean, I remember those days. The million candle power.
Speaker 2: Yes it was, I think it was a million cans.
Speaker 1: And the thing, it's funny, the thing was so big,
Speaker 1: you know. I had these you know, cooling fins. It
Speaker 1: was aluminum and all that. Yeah, it was like a
Speaker 1: million or two million candlepower, and I thought I was
Speaker 1: the coolest guy in an entire planet. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: I take the flashlight and I said to my friend,
Speaker 1: I said, hey, listen, I'm gonna go take a leak.
Speaker 2: Be right back. Close the door. And I walked behind
Speaker 2: the cabin and it's a beautiful.
Speaker 1: Starry night, no clouds, no nothing, And because I'm a
Speaker 1: mayer of nature, I'm looking up at the stars and
Speaker 1: something caught my eye and it was a light that
Speaker 1: wasn't a star.
Speaker 2: It wasn't moving fast, it was moving ever so slightly,
Speaker 2: and it was a different color than the surrounding stars.
Speaker 1: So me being me with my nice big flashlight, I
Speaker 1: shined it right at the light and Matt.
Speaker 2: Almost immediately this thing kind of stopped.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how to say, I knew it
Speaker 1: turned toward the flash light. I'm not sure exactly, but
Speaker 1: I I know it turned toward the flashlight and I'm
Speaker 1: shining it right on this thing, and Matt, this thing
Speaker 1: came at me so damn quick like, and I got
Speaker 1: like scared the shit out of And I don't actually
Speaker 1: remember anything after that? Wow, what I do remember? And
Speaker 1: my friend is not like this.
Speaker 2: My friend uh forgave everybody and anything.
Speaker 1: I don't remember anything at that that I do remember
Speaker 1: now all this thing is, this thing has gone and
Speaker 1: I'm just standing there with the flash light now by
Speaker 1: my side.
Speaker 2: That's what I remember.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, and I guess I already took
Speaker 1: a leak because I didn't have to take a leak.
Speaker 1: And I go walking back inside and my friend says
Speaker 1: to me, where the hell have you been?
Speaker 2: I go, I want to say his name, but I'm
Speaker 2: not going to. I say, hey, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: I just want to take the leak. He goes, Mike,
Speaker 2: you've been going for a couple hours. I was ready
Speaker 2: to call the cops. I don't know where you've been.
Speaker 2: He's lecturing me. This is my friend. He's completely not himself.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, dude, come down. I wasn't gone that long.
Speaker 2: He goes, yeah you were, Mike, you were going for hours.
Speaker 2: I didn't know where the hell you've been. Why would
Speaker 2: you do that to me? He's genuinely scared.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, the place is all lit up, and
Speaker 1: I go, that was the extent of it. I don't
Speaker 1: have any like memories of anything like being inducted or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But what struck me And it didn't
Speaker 1: even seem to me that I was gone that long.
Speaker 1: I just said, Okay, I saw something, I got scared,
Speaker 1: and now it's not there anymore. And I walked back
Speaker 1: into the cabin, thinking it's five minutes later. But he's
Speaker 1: a lectured to me like I was gone for hours
Speaker 1: and I couldn't figure it out. I said, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: gone for that amount of time. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. And we just went to bed, but
Speaker 1: he was genuinely pissed. And my friend never got pissed
Speaker 1: at me. I mean, that's a true friend. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I ever had a friend he thought like me,
Speaker 1: and we talked and we never got mad at each other.
Speaker 2: And he was totally upset at.
Speaker 1: Me because I was going for a couple hours and
Speaker 1: he's generally concerned about me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like when you can't find your kid or something,
Speaker 3: whenever they come back and they're safe, you're angry, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, correct, yeah, And you know, I don't have anything
Speaker 1: other than that.
Speaker 2: But that's another thing that I had to get off
Speaker 2: my chest.
Speaker 1: Those are the only two things that's ever happened to
Speaker 1: me in my life, and nothing's happened.
Speaker 2: To me since.
Speaker 1: And but you know, again, I listened to your podcast
Speaker 1: and I had to reach out to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the missing time thing is really freaky.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, sure is.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to venture to guess or imagine anything
Speaker 1: or invent anything that happened. And if the story is boring,
Speaker 1: you know, I apologize, but no, I don't have anything.
Speaker 2: Good than that.
Speaker 3: No, that's not boring at all. I find it really interesting,
Speaker 3: especially nowadays, you know, whenever UFO stuff has talked about
Speaker 3: on the news, which is crazy to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, more and more frequently.
Speaker 3: I appreciate you coming on and sharing your stories and
Speaker 3: putting them out there and hopefully it's you know, helped
Speaker 3: you or begin a process of helping you and maybe
Speaker 3: helped a few others that are listening. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: just again commend you for coming on and sharing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for preventing providing this outlet. I appreciate you, Matt.
Speaker 1: The way you conduct yourself is applaudable. I listened to
Speaker 1: your podcast now regularly since I discovered it, and I
Speaker 1: really you have a talent and you're helping people in
Speaker 1: some regard, and I just hope I didn't come across
Speaker 1: as crazy because you always had that in the back
Speaker 1: of your mind.
Speaker 3: Not at all, man, not at all, And for what
Speaker 3: it's worth, you're not crazy, not crazy at all.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Matt. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: If you've had your own encounter with Bigfoot, at UFO
Speaker 3: or something else you can't explain and you'd like to
Speaker 3: share your story on the podcast, email me at Bigfoot
Speaker 3: Crossroads at gmail dot com. Check out the website Bigfoot
Speaker 3: Crossroads dot com. You can find links to the social media,
Speaker 3: past episodes, merchandise, everything you need all in one place,
Speaker 3: and until next time, remember there's something in the woods.