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Speaker 1: I was not a believer until I was twenty four

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years old. It was nineteen ninety and I was visiting

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my parents in West Virginia. As soon as I came

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into the house, my mom told me what she had

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found on the property. There were eight inches of snow

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on the ground and a half inch of ice on

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top of that, the kind you can walk on without

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breaking through. She had taken the grandkids out to play

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when over by the well she found footprints eighteen inches

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long and seven feet apart. They came out of the

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woods at the top of their yard and led down

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to an artesian well, where it looked like the creature

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knelt to get a drink, and then continued on down

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through the yard onto the county road. But along the

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way it stopped at my mother's feed pile. All the

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snow and ice had been pushed away, and every piece

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of corn was gone, even the ones picked out of

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the frozen dirt. A year or so later, I was

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deer hunting from a tree stand on the property with

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my rifle when I heard something two hundred yards away.

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I thought it was a big buck that I'd been

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waiting for, since it wasn't making any effort to be quiet,

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but as it got closer, I started to get disappointed.

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It was walking upright, not on four legs. It was

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probably just someone walking through the woods. I thought, whoever

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was messing up my hunt was being extremely loud about it,

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cracking sticks and splitting trees. And then came that smell.

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It was so horrible that I thought I might get sick.

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I listened to this guy. I ruin my hunt for

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a minute, getting more and more scared with each lumbering

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step that he took. Even with my rifle at my side,

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I realized something wasn't right. I needed to get out

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of there, and I ran all the way back to

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my parents. I was so upset and out of breath

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that I was shaking. My mother asked me what was wrong,

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and after I calmed down, I told her and my

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dad what had happened. My dad said that I was nuts,

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but I know what I heard and how it made

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me feel. Even though it happened thirty years ago, I

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still get a sinking feeling when I think about it.

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Since then, I now believe there are things out there

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we know nothing about. I can't say for sure that

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it was a bigfoot, but I know it's the closest

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I ever want to come to one. I'm retired now

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and I lived in West Virginia for the last twenty years,

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but I still haven't gone hunting back in that place.

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Thank you for giving people like me a platform to

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share our experiences and get some of this off our chest.

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God blessed Shorty. In the late nineteen seventies in southeast Missouri,

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sixteen years old and a farm had around mid July,

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I was plowing tall soybeans with a fifteen eighty six

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International tractor pulling an eight inch roll plow. That was

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pretty big stuff back then. That day was payday, and

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as the day war on, my boss told me to

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follow him to a small, thirty acre field that I

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had never been to. When I finished, he told me

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that I'd be done for the day. I wasn't complaining

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about that. I could roll through thirty acres in an

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hour and start my weekend early. So I followed him

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out to the secluded, little fenced off farm somewhere back

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in the Boonies near an old farmhouse, and we turned

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in and got to work. I was done in an hour,

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and when I pulled my plow up and started back

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to the entrance of the property. I noticed a five

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inch black irrigation pipe running across the dirt drive. I

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stopped within about twenty feet of it the tractor and

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park and wondered who had laid this pipe there while

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I was working and for what? But I didn't care.

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I was going to move it. It was Friday afternoon,

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there was a paycheck waiting for me, and this thing

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was in the way of me and my weekend. The

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thing was, I couldn't see the beginning or the end

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of it. One side was running through an old, overgrown

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fence line on my left, and the other end was

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coming out of the tall Johnson grass to my right.

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I climbed down from the tractor and walked within four

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feet of it. When I saw it shimmer, I stopped,

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not really understanding why it would do that. Then I

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stepped back and I realized that it was moving. I

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looked to my right and watched it taper off into

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a tail and then slide across the drive in front

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of me. It was no pipe, It was a giant snake.

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I jumped into the cab of my tractor in one move.

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Let me tell you I needed a beer at that point,

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and I needed one now. I hauled asked to the

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shop where my boss and my uncle were waiting for me.

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They were already feeling the weekend and were ready to

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go until they saw my face. My uncle asked what

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in the hell happened to me and why I was

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so pale? I ask, have either of you seen big

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snakes around them bottoms down there? Hell? Yes, my boss

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shouted and then told me he'd once seen one that

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was six feet long. I took my check from him

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and shook my head, saying that's not very big, and

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then I left. People know I'm an obs kind of guy,

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and when I tell the story, everyone's faces turns like

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a shade lighter. All of us grew up farming those bottoms,

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and many folks I know have seen some strange stuff.

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I know I've seen my share. I am an old woman,

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and I've had many encounters with all of North America's

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large animals, as well as sasquatch. I've listened to lots

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of stories about people going out into the woods hoping

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to have an encounter. But let me tell you this.

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If you're thinking about going out into the great outdoors

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to try to see a sasquatch. I suggest that you

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reconsider I've known that something was out there since I

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was eight years old, when one morning at five am,

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my sister and I were in our barn milking, and

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one stuck at six foot long arm inside. Once, when

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my mother and two sisters and I were down by

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the river, one came out and stood right next to

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my sister while we picked berries. Always respected them in

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their territory, and when I encountered one, I always left

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him alone. If you study the characteristics of this animal,

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you'll see that bigfoot is not a violent creature by nature. Well,

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with that said, it could turn violent if it's surprised

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or cornered. Humans are no different. I've had close encounters

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with other animals far more violent than sosquatch. I was

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hunting mule deer one day when I walked up on

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two moose and they were just five feet away. I

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took cover behind a bush and prayed they hadn't seen me.

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It must have worked, because they kept going with my blessings.

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Anyone who knows about moose attacks knows how lucky I got.

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There was another time a cougar stalked me to within

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twenty feet. I had my pistol in hand, and when

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that cougar jumped out and took off, it scared me

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so bad that I completely forgot my pistol. And not

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long after that, I was surrounded by a pack of

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coyotes when I was deer hunting. They were moving in

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for the kill when my husband showed up and saved

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my life. Don't you know that I fell in love

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with my husband all over again that day. Another time,

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a big grizzly bear came into our camp at five AM,

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and I woke up eyeball to eyeball with that thing.

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I could have petted him if I wanted to. I

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grabbed my flashlight and I held it between his eyes,

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hoping the light would keep him calm. Meanwhile, I held

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back my little chihuaba, who was trying to kill that

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grizzly bear. That bear tore off like a bat out

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of hades when my husband shot in the air to

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scare it away. Well, here's what I'm saying. If you're

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expecting to see a sasquatch out there in the wiles

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of America, you are far more likely to encounter other

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life threatening creatures, and it's best to never assume that

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you are safe. Like I said, if you're going into

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the great outdoors just to catch a glimpse of sisquatch,

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think again. These things stay hidden for a reason, and

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if you do have an encounter, trust me, it'll happen

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when you least expect it. My interactions with them have

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happened over sixty four years, and every single time it

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happened unexpectedly. For the times I did have an encounter, though,

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it made my time out there worth it all. If

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you're going out there, don't do it while drinking or

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smoking dope, and you're better off going alone or split

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up from the group. Silence is the key to achieving

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success no matter what you're looking for. I don't think

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it's wise to shoot one, even in self defense, and

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I suggest that you don't try and remember sosquatch could

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be more human, so think before you shoot. My uncle

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was a mechanic for a big corporation, and during a

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lunch break, one of his co workers brought up the

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subject to bigfoot. Most everyone responded with typical comments like

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now they're not real, or I'd have to see one

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to believe it. But one guy, a full blooded Choktaw

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Indian shared a story that challenged all their minds. He

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and his cousins were deer hunting when they saw a bigfoot.

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Two of them, covered in brown fur, ran off into

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the timber, and the third, covered in blackford, didn't move

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it all. It roared at them so loudly that they

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felt it to their core, and then it charged. An

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old tree stump was in its path, but this thing

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ripped it from the ground mid sprint and hurled it

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at them. At this point, they knew they were all

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about to be ripped limb from limb, so they started

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shooting at it with every round of buckshot they had

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until they finally brought it down. Not knowing what to

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do next, and knowing that no one would believe them,

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they took photos, cut some of its hair, and put

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it in a sandwich bag. Not long after, the Fed

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showed up with a truck to haul it away. The

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men stood there shocked and asked if it would be

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on the evening news. The officer in charge responded, absolutely not,

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This never happened and you were never here. One of

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the cousins shot back, saying he couldn't be serious that

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it was a big deal and the whole world should

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hear about this. They finally had proof that Bigfoot exists,

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but the officer just shook his head and said, no,

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we don't do that. The cousins argued with him about

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it until he got fed up and finally broke. He

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told them that the big brown were herbivores, but the

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black ones were carnivores. That means they eat any meat

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they can find when they get hungry. Now understand what

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I'm saying to you, The officer shouted, you are the meat.

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If the public knew about them, every hiker, camper, mountain biker,

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or anyone in the wilderness would be armed to the teeth,

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shooting at anything that makes a sound and killing each

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other in the process. The next day, during lunch, the

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guy brought in the photos and the bag of black hair.

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My uncle said the smell was indescribable. The guy and

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his cousins never went public with the pictures. They kept

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quiet about what happened, and they only tell the story

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when people start claiming that Bigfoot is not real. Okay,

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this podcast is not over. I'm going to drop one

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or two short stories from the vault. Stories I've done

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several years ago that I think you might enjoy. These

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podcasts are a little bit shorter because I'm working on

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Steve Lilly number twenty. I think it's a pretty good story.

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It's going to be quite long. I'm just going for it.

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I'm going for the deep dive into Steve Lily, so

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I'm really paying attention to that. Plus, I've got a

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little bit of work to do with my regular job,

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so I want to keep these podcasts going. I want

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to keep uploading, so I'm putting these shorter ones out

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with some archived stories at the end. Hope you enjoy it.

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I really appreciate you. Thanks. My name is Kenneth and

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I live in an area called Arcla, tex It's where

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the Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas state lines meet. I grew

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up in Texarkana back in the nineteen sixties, and my

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family and I love to go camping in the river

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bottoms of Little River, Arkansas in Little River County. I

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reported this event several years ago to other reporting agencies

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or organizations. I went dormant afterwards due to the ridicule

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and other family members recanting from what we experienced this night.

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So I'm the only one still holding on to the

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actual events that took place in August of nineteen sixty

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nine when we encountered a white bigfoot. I was twelve

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years old when we had our first encounter. On a

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Friday afternoon at Cottonwood Shoals. My family and I were

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excited about going on a weekend camping trip. My brothers

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and I got the family truck loaded with all our gear,

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and when my father got home from work, there would

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be no delay in getting to the woods. As we

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were leaving, a family member who lives a couple of

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houses down stepped out to the curb and she waved

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us down. She was my aunt's mother in law, and

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she asked us not to go camping at Cottonwood Shoals.

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She said that her and her husband were there a

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couple of weeks ago and saw a hairy man peering

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at them from behind some brush while she was fishing,

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00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,480
and it scared the hell out of her. She said

241
00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,080
she had run to get her husband, who was fishing,

242
00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,120
and she told him what had happened. Well, he called

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00:14:46,159 --> 00:14:50,919
her a crazy old one. Oh man, what a mistake.

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00:14:51,039 --> 00:14:54,279
He called her a crazy old woman, and then he

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00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:58,000
took her home. My father told her that we would

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00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:00,039
keep a lookout for this monster, and that she you

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00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:03,679
shouldn't worry about us. I'll be honest. We were all

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00:15:03,759 --> 00:15:09,320
laughing as we drove away. We don't laugh anymore. I'm

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00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:14,000
about to tell you why. We arrived in time to

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00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,519
set up camp and have supper. My three older brothers

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00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,759
got their fishing gear and they went to get a

252
00:15:19,879 --> 00:15:23,759
night in of catfishing. It was getting dark when my

253
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,039
mother and younger sister and two younger brothers crawled into

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00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:30,039
the tent. They were ready to turn in for the night.

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My father enjoyed sitting by the campfire, drinking beer and

256
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,559
listening to country music on the radio. I wasn't ready

257
00:15:38,559 --> 00:15:41,200
for bed, so I decided to take a short walk

258
00:15:41,279 --> 00:15:44,480
down the road. The moon was bright enough so that

259
00:15:44,559 --> 00:15:47,759
I could see without a flashlight, and I hadn't walked

260
00:15:47,759 --> 00:15:50,840
far from the camp site, and the hare stood up

261
00:15:50,879 --> 00:15:53,720
on the back of my neck. I felt a current

262
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,679
of wind whiz by me. Something had been thrown at me,

263
00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:02,559
and I turned around. I didn't see anyone. For whatever reason,

264
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:06,360
the woman's story about seeing the hairy man came to mind,

265
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,159
so I ran straight back to camp. My father asked

266
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,480
what had me in a hurry, and I blew it off,

267
00:16:13,559 --> 00:16:15,720
saying that I was just tired and ready for bed.

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00:16:16,799 --> 00:16:20,200
Once in the tent, I noticed our dog was acting weird.

269
00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,519
He was alert and staring at the wall like it

270
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,279
knew something was out there. Well, I betted down and

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00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:32,480
we slept through an uneventful night. Saturday was the big

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00:16:32,559 --> 00:16:36,720
day for swimming and fishing and exploring the area. I

273
00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,320
was down the road where my brothers had been catfishing

274
00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,360
the night before and had had the place to myself.

275
00:16:43,759 --> 00:16:47,080
Behind me, across the road were some pea gravel piles

276
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:50,960
placed there by the county. From that area, I heard

277
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,399
noises like weird bird sounds. I looked around and I

278
00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:59,120
didn't see any birds. This went on for several minutes.

279
00:17:00,399 --> 00:17:03,200
To this day, I've never heard noises like that before.

280
00:17:03,759 --> 00:17:06,759
And I noticed my two younger brothers playing behind the piles,

281
00:17:06,759 --> 00:17:08,599
and all I could see was the tops of one

282
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:12,319
of their heads. They both had cotton white hair then,

283
00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:14,759
so it was easy to see it was them, even

284
00:17:14,759 --> 00:17:18,319
though all I could see was the top of their heads. Okay,

285
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,640
I thought, it's just my brothers playing in the gravel piles.

286
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:24,720
As long as they stay over there and don't bother

287
00:17:24,839 --> 00:17:29,599
me while I'm fishing, That'll be fine. Later in the morning,

288
00:17:29,599 --> 00:17:31,720
I heard my mother calling us to come back to

289
00:17:31,799 --> 00:17:34,839
camp for lunch. So I grabbed up my fishing pole

290
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:38,799
and I headed back. When I arrived at camp, my

291
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:42,119
brothers were there. The only way they could have beat

292
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:46,480
me there was if they'd had gone straight through the woods. Well,

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00:17:46,519 --> 00:17:48,799
I told them they needed to stick to the roads

294
00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,759
because the woods were full of snakes and chiggers. They

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00:17:52,759 --> 00:17:55,319
looked at me like I was crazy. They went on

296
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:58,160
to say that they had not even left camp all morning.

297
00:17:58,759 --> 00:18:01,599
Of course, I thought they were with me. I had

298
00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,079
seen them playing close to where I had been fishing.

299
00:18:04,519 --> 00:18:06,920
I let it go. We all had a fun day.

300
00:18:08,799 --> 00:18:10,880
By nine point thirty that night, I was tired and

301
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,799
ready for bed. I crawled into the tent with the

302
00:18:13,799 --> 00:18:17,000
others and I was drifting off when our dog started

303
00:18:17,039 --> 00:18:21,000
acting weird again. We had left the dog outside to

304
00:18:21,039 --> 00:18:25,200
sleep that night, and somehow, with his teeth, he had

305
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:28,920
opened the zipper door of the tent and squeezed inside.

306
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:33,240
He woke everyone up. The dog came over by me

307
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:35,759
and it was trembling like it was cold, but I

308
00:18:35,799 --> 00:18:37,920
could see by the whites of his eyes that he

309
00:18:38,039 --> 00:18:41,480
was scared. My mom told me to close the zipper

310
00:18:41,519 --> 00:18:43,920
and let the dog stay in the tent again that night,

311
00:18:44,839 --> 00:18:47,559
that dog crawled in so close to me, I think

312
00:18:47,599 --> 00:18:51,079
he was trying to get under me. At some point

313
00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:53,680
during the night, my mother woke me up. She was

314
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:56,000
getting up to go to the bathroom and a spot

315
00:18:56,039 --> 00:19:00,960
behind the tent. A few minutes later, her scream startled

316
00:19:01,039 --> 00:19:04,519
us fully awake. Well, I immediately stood to look out

317
00:19:04,559 --> 00:19:07,240
the tent mesh window, and I saw my mother running

318
00:19:07,279 --> 00:19:10,400
back to the tent with her drawers still down around

319
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,680
her knees. She kept screaming, something's out there. It's watching me,

320
00:19:14,799 --> 00:19:18,599
it's watching me. She made it back to the tent

321
00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:21,319
and was screaming the same thing over and over to

322
00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:24,640
my father. Well, he finally got her quiet enough to

323
00:19:24,759 --> 00:19:28,160
understand what she was even saying, and then he asked her,

324
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,319
what's watching you? By chance? I began panting the woods

325
00:19:33,319 --> 00:19:36,559
and I saw a large figure run past our truck.

326
00:19:37,839 --> 00:19:40,559
The truck rocked back and forth as it ran by.

327
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This thing was huge. It really shook me up. And

328
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,279
then my mother began to describe this thing to my father.

329
00:19:49,279 --> 00:19:52,160
She said it was a giant and it looked like

330
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,759
an ape. It was covering white hair, and it had

331
00:19:54,839 --> 00:19:58,119
long arms. It was only a few feet from her

332
00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:01,880
when she noticed it. That's when I told them that

333
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,119
I saw something run by the truck while I was

334
00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:07,519
looking out the window. So all the men walked over

335
00:20:07,559 --> 00:20:11,599
to look around in that direction. Beside the truck were

336
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:17,160
giant tracks, clearly visible in the dust. My father noticed

337
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,480
a dent in the rear fender that had not been

338
00:20:19,519 --> 00:20:24,039
there before. When my mother had started screaming, she had

339
00:20:24,079 --> 00:20:27,319
scared the creature as much as he scared her, and

340
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:32,119
it ran away. That was my guess, I guess, not

341
00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,279
paying attention to what was in front of it, it

342
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,160
ran into the truck and then carried on with its escape.

343
00:20:38,319 --> 00:20:43,440
That's what I thought, but that wasn't the case. Now.

344
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My father was worried. I could see it in his demeanor.

345
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,799
Out of the truck, he pulled a shotgun and he

346
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,400
handed it to my brother to stand guard while we

347
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:58,000
packed up camp. We were leaving. This was one of

348
00:20:58,039 --> 00:21:00,720
those times when it took no encouragement for any of

349
00:21:00,799 --> 00:21:03,759
us to pack up camp. It was dark and hard

350
00:21:03,799 --> 00:21:07,279
to see everything, but we started throwing things loosely into

351
00:21:07,319 --> 00:21:10,400
the bed of the truck. We had that camp site

352
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,920
packed up in record time. And then one of my

353
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:19,160
brothers yelled, out, there it is. He raised the shotgun

354
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,480
and he fired into the darkness, and then my father

355
00:21:22,599 --> 00:21:26,200
yelled out, it's circling the camp. Hurry up, we gotta go.

356
00:21:27,839 --> 00:21:30,759
By this time I was terrified. I know the rest

357
00:21:30,799 --> 00:21:33,599
of my family was too, and we couldn't get out

358
00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:37,759
of there fast enough. Finally, with all of us in

359
00:21:37,799 --> 00:21:40,359
the truck, my father turned the key in, it started,

360
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:45,079
and in a few minutes we were gone. We made

361
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,759
it home in the early morning hours, and we all

362
00:21:47,799 --> 00:21:51,279
went straight to bed. It had been an exhausting night.

363
00:21:52,759 --> 00:21:55,559
The next day, our aunt came over to ask why

364
00:21:55,599 --> 00:21:59,119
we were home early. She already knew, but she wanted

365
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,200
to hear about it. We all sat in the living

366
00:22:02,279 --> 00:22:06,599
room comparing notes on what everyone had seen. Apparently it

367
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:11,480
was the same creature. None of us laugh at bigfoot

368
00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:18,799
stories now, we take them very seriously. Back in nineteen

369
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,680
seventy nine, when I was nine years old, we lived

370
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:26,119
in Angelina County in East Texas. It was about twenty

371
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,920
miles south of Luvekin, near the sam Rayburn Lake area.

372
00:22:31,039 --> 00:22:34,319
Both of my grandparents lived there. They were divorced, but

373
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:37,279
lived about two miles from each other. They each lived

374
00:22:37,319 --> 00:22:40,799
on a typical modest farm of twenty five to thirty

375
00:22:40,839 --> 00:22:45,519
acres with lots of chickens, ducks, horses, and cows. One

376
00:22:45,559 --> 00:22:49,119
smoldering summer night at my grandmother's farm, the adults were

377
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:53,000
engaged in their usual routine of cooking dinner before settling

378
00:22:53,039 --> 00:22:56,799
in for a night of card playing. Meanwhile, I was

379
00:22:56,839 --> 00:23:01,119
slipping outside with my brother who was eleven, who was eight,

380
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:05,160
and my dad's ten year old brother, our uncle, to

381
00:23:05,279 --> 00:23:07,440
hang out at the edge of one of the pastures,

382
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:09,720
where the yard light on a pole made a bright

383
00:23:09,799 --> 00:23:13,960
circle in the night. Beyond that halo, the world was

384
00:23:14,039 --> 00:23:17,880
inky black. Within the light was the pasture gate, where

385
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,759
we liked to sit and use our sling shots to

386
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:24,039
play sort of a gigantic game of marbles by shooting

387
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,480
rocks out of the circle and into the night. We

388
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:29,920
were all sitting up on the gate, engrossed in our

389
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,920
game and cutting up and laughing as little boys will do,

390
00:23:33,039 --> 00:23:36,559
when our attention was suddenly drawn in the direction of

391
00:23:36,599 --> 00:23:40,640
the barn located one hundred yards to our left. We

392
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:44,640
silently stared and listened as something massive and heavy came

393
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,640
running through the pasture from that direction. We shot looks

394
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,240
at each other as we realized the speed at which

395
00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:54,720
this thing was running. We knew it was on two legs,

396
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,519
and that brought another round of glances to one another.

397
00:23:58,599 --> 00:24:02,599
Every thump, thump, thump, those pounding steps burned itself into

398
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,079
my mind as we sat waiting to see what this

399
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,359
thing could be. It was at the edge of the

400
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,039
light when it came to a complete stop, as if

401
00:24:11,079 --> 00:24:14,880
it had just then noticed us sitting there. The brightness

402
00:24:15,039 --> 00:24:18,079
ended so abruptly at the circle's edge that all we

403
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,359
could see were two tree trunk sized legs. From the

404
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,640
knees down, they were massive. We could tell they were

405
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,799
covered with brown hair that looked like long, fine brown wire.

406
00:24:30,599 --> 00:24:33,119
It was swaying like the hair on a wig moving

407
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:37,279
in the wind. Then my uncle did something that surprised us.

408
00:24:37,319 --> 00:24:41,079
All had a rock locked and loaded in a slingshot

409
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,359
and chose that moment to fire it right at the creature.

410
00:24:45,559 --> 00:24:47,680
We knew it hit its mark by the thump it

411
00:24:47,759 --> 00:24:50,519
made when it hit the animal's body, followed by a

412
00:24:50,599 --> 00:24:53,799
plunk as it hit the ground at its feet. But

413
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,839
what happened next was the craziest thing I'd ever seen

414
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:01,039
in all my nine years of living. The creature picked

415
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,519
up the rock and threw it back at us, missing

416
00:25:03,519 --> 00:25:08,000
my head by inches. Instantly, as if the devil himself

417
00:25:08,039 --> 00:25:11,759
were chasing us, we sprang into action and sprinting for

418
00:25:11,839 --> 00:25:15,559
the house, pushing at and tripping over each other as

419
00:25:15,599 --> 00:25:19,000
we ran. It wasn't a matter of out running that

420
00:25:19,079 --> 00:25:22,480
thing in the darkness. We were trying to outrun each other.

421
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:25,720
No one wanted to be the last man in line,

422
00:25:26,319 --> 00:25:29,119
and there was no doubt in our minds that whichever

423
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,599
poor soul came in last would go down first. We

424
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,039
breathlessly burst through the door, screaming for our parents to

425
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:40,640
come outside and dispatch the monster in the pasture, but

426
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,799
they just laughed at us. They went back to their

427
00:25:43,839 --> 00:25:46,759
card game, Certain we were making up the whole thing.

428
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,200
There was nothing left for us to do. We weren't

429
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,680
going back outside with an adult to get rid of

430
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,880
the beast. So we cleaned up and we went to bed,

431
00:25:56,759 --> 00:25:59,079
but none of us slept that night, knowing there was

432
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,920
something out there. The next morning, my dad and my

433
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,720
stepfather weren't at the breakfast table. We asked my grandmother

434
00:26:06,759 --> 00:26:08,880
where they were, and as soon as she told us

435
00:26:09,039 --> 00:26:11,279
they were out in the pasture, we ran out the

436
00:26:11,279 --> 00:26:14,440
front door to join them. We found them at the

437
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,079
far end, examining a piece of fence that had been

438
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:21,039
ripped up and completely demolished, as if something large had

439
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,759
run right through it. My step grandfather and dad were

440
00:26:24,839 --> 00:26:28,680
baffled by the damage. All the animals were accounted for.

441
00:26:29,279 --> 00:26:31,000
They couldn't imagine what had done this.

