She was in the rearview mirror...until she wasn't. Vanishing Hitchhikers and Ghost Passengers

A stranger stands alone on a dark road. You stop to help. They get in the car, speak like anyone else, and then — impossibly — they’re gone.

This week, we explore the eerie and surprisingly emotional folklore of vanishing hitchhikers: ghostly passengers, Resurrection Mary, taxi-driver encounters, prophetic riders, and stories where the dead may simply be trying to find their way home.

Are these just legends that travel from town to town? Or are they glimpses of something stranger — a pattern of encounters that keeps repeating across time, roads, and cultures?

New episodes released regularly.

Join Paranormal Mystery Author Terri Reid and researcher Andrew T. Reid as they explore ghosts, cryptids, alien encounters, and other unexplained mysteries.

If you'd like to share your opinion, thoughts, or your own paranormal experience with us, please contact us at vftattic@gmail.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

A Chicago police officer came home from work with a look of shock on his face. The entire family was so worried that they gathered around him to ask what had happened. He explained that he had been driving down Archer Avenue and saw a woman walking down the road dressed in a white ball gown. It was freezing outside, so he turned around to ask if she needed help. As he pulled alongside, looked out the window, he realized he could see through her. Then she disappeared before his eyes. He had actually seen Resurrection Mary.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Listen closely, the old walls still speak. Some things are hidden, not to be forgotten, but to be kept.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

The old house remembers what others forget.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

What is remembered is not true.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Listen closely, and you too may just hear voices from the attic.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

And he was never seen again.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

No, because at the very beginning I said he went to see his family thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Right. And he was never seen by Resurrection Mary again.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Yeah, that that was really good. Everybody comment on how much you think Andrew's line was.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

I'm funny. Hi, I'm Andrew T. Reed. I'm a comedian, first and foremost, before anything else. I'm a researcher, uh, editor, uh, podcaster, and YouTube editor, and just overall big old giant nerd. As you could tell, I'm that that uh, you know, that that joke was it was awesome. It was a joke that a nerd would absolutely say.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

And the mother would love.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yes, yeah. Speaking of, I'm also a son of Terry Reed.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Hi, I'm Terry Reed. I'm a writer, um, storyteller, researcher, podcaster, uh, grandmother, and um, and today we're gonna be talking about one of my my favorite favorite topics. Um, and I didn't even know it was um the hitchhiker ghost. I didn't even know that was a thing because I I grew up knowing about Resurrection Mary, but I didn't know she had like cousins all around the world doing the hitchhiker thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I don't like it being referred to like that because that's terrifying. I don't like the fact that there's a bunch of they're all cousins, you know.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

And they they have conventions in Chicago, the hitchhikers convention, and they all come and they get rides from people. They all come to like uh what is the there's a haunted hotel in downtown Chicago. They all come. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

No, you're I that sounds like a fantastic pitch. Somebody please make a resurrection married convention in Chicago. I will go to it.

SPEAKER_04 3:06

I don't I don't fit the qualifications, but I want to meet in a white dress and you have to be able to disappear.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I could do one of those two things. I could totally wear a white dress. Will I look good in a white dress? No. Could I wear it? Yes, yes, you could.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

You could do it. You well, you know. These hips don't lie. I don't know. I think you would need another color because white would drain your complexion. You need you probably would need like a red dress or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

I feel like I feel like some of the some of the the the black and the brown that would probably show up in the dress would probably, you know. Because I would it would be, you know, it'd be a it'd be a modern dress. It would kind of come down to here. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

So it would my my it would be one with like a plunging neckline.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

It could be. It could go down to my all the way to like the navel so you can see my belly button. And your chest tears. Oh, absolutely. Well, yeah. I mean, that's that's I I've thought that was without saying. You know, I it would look like I'm wearing a sweater underneath the dress, probably.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Have we mentioned that we get off topic quite a bit? Anyway, welcome to um Voices from the Attic, and we're gonna be talking today about Hitchhiker Ghosts. Go ahead, Andrew.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yes, hitchhiker ghosts, also known as vanishing hitchhikers. Uh so vanishing hitchhikers, well, so I guess before I go into that, Rose Recmary is is interesting because she falls into a number of different categories. She does fall into the hitchhiker or the the vanishing hitchhiker folklore category. She also falls into the um the lady in white or white lady uh thing. She there are there are a few different categories she falls into. The Chicago girl. Whoop, whoop, whoop category. I I would imagine she'd probably if if she lived long enough to have gone to any Cubs, bowls, or or Bears games, she probably would be a fan of those. Yes. Uh or at the very least, she would hate the Green Bay Packers.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

She could have been. I mean, it uh it starts in like the 1920s. I'm trying to think of when the Chicago Cubs will have to look this up.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Yeah, but you're asking the wrong guy. Yeah, yeah. I I know a lot of things about a lot of things. I don't know much about it. And baseball. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yeah, they won the World Series in 1908. It didn't win again until 2016. Okay. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

So Ash with the facts, you just let us know that uh we really need to get you a mic. Yes, yes. Uh, so you can uh pop it pipe in with some of these things. Um, so the the Cubs were in fact around in the 1930s. They won the first World Series in 1908.

unknown 5:36

Well, the last World Series.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

Their last their last World Series.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Their first and their last. I don't know if it was their first, but their last.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

First until 2016. Okay. 108 years later.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

Somehow that Billy Goat. Because of a goat.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Yeah, it was that it was that Billy Goat.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Yeah. But she she could have gone to the game. She could have. Yeah. And she probably was a fan. She probably was, which is probably why she wanted to die.

unknown 6:00

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

That was so rude. Hey Chicago, what do we say? The Cubs, you know, the Cubs might win today. We're really hopeful. We like them. Please win. Love the Cubs. We're we're fans of the Cubs.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Well, when we get to go to the case, again, have we mentioned that we get off topic a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Andrew. A little bit. So anyway, so vanishing hitchhikers and vanishing hitchhiker encounters. What are they? I mean, the name is a little self-explanatory, but in case you're like me and you like definitions, which I love definitions, here's a definition that I kind of came up with. The vanishing hitchhiker is a folklore term used to describe an encounter where someone traveling meets a stranger in need of help or passage, interacts with them as if they were a normal person, and later realize that person vanished impossibly, leading the traveler to wonder if they had met with a ghost or some other kind of supernatural presence.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

See, what I don't like about that definition, even though it's a very good definition, is the folklore. Because just like when we talk about people telling you, and and we use the word story, ghost stories, it's people have these experiences. You're right. And and you know, this opening that I did was a Chicago police officer, and it his son called into, I believe it was Astonishing Legends, um, either emailed them or called in and said, Hey, my dad is a Chicago cop, and this is what happened to him.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Which honestly, good on his dad for being a Chicago cop. If you're gonna be a cop anywhere, I feel like Chicago would be a tough place to be a cop in.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

And and these guys are trained observers. Yeah, they're not people that, you know, like the regular SP say, oh, I don't know what car he was driving, or I don't know how tall he was. These guys are trained to observe these people. And and so there have been so many stories. Stories makes it sound like it's not real, but st anecdotes.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Yeah, anecdotes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Yeah, about um from and I I um I had mentioned him before, Richard Crow, who was the famous ghost person. Um and he would do ghost tours in Chicago and talk about ghost stories of Chicago on WGN radio. Sure. On Halloween, he would have like an open mic, and taxicab drivers would call in and talk about their experiences picking up Resurrection Mary, driving down Archer Boulevard and or Archer Avenue, and then having her disappear in the car.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

So it's not I bet kind of messed up, you know, taxi fare a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Yeah, it did. But but it's not folklore.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Well, and and so the interesting thing, because you're right, you're right, especially when it comes to people who research folklore, because at the end of the day, the term vanishing hitchhiker or uh vanishing ghosts or those kinds of things, those are folklore terms. Okay. Um that doesn't mean folklore is this interesting thing because when people study folklore, they do treat them like legends, like stories. And I agree with you. I think that a lot of these as we talk about things, I'm I try to change language a lot because a lot of you know the researchers will talk about these stories having motifs or having um, you know, the similar anecdotes or something like that. Whereas to me, it instead of a motif, which is more of like a made-up part of a story, to me, it's more of a pattern. Right. And it's it's a paranormal pattern. And I feel like because so many different people have had these experiences that are so similar, that doesn't sound like there's one story that then kind of spread throughout. Because that's that's what the there's a a study that I'll be I'll be referencing a lot. But their whole thing was there there is a root story that they're trying to find where it came from. I don't think that's a fair thesis because I think that there's a pattern of experiences that people have that are very similar to each other. Um but you know, in terms of of folklore, because folklore is just stories that people tell each other. And so I don't think calling it folklore is bad necessarily, as long as we recognize folklore doesn't mean made up. It means it means stories. It means people have told each other these stories. And honestly, I think you know, it will probably be, I know that I've got a few stories later on that come from Reddit and you know, other websites. I feel like that's kind of the natural pre progression of folklore, internet folklore. And I again, I don't think I think that people can make things up, and I think that happens in folklore as well. But I think there is a a at the very least a kernel of truth when it comes to a lot of these things. But I do definitely think that there is an experience that people have had, especially when they talk about their own personal experiences. I will never say, no, your personal experience is wrong, you know.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Well, and I you know, you mentioned that that pattern, and and I remember years ago, and and we might have to do uh another podcast about this, but um, there's there's a pattern of ghost ghost sightings on staircases. Uh there's right, there's a lot of ghost sightings on staircases, and some people have talked about that it is, you know, there's an analogy there that they're moving from one plane to another, and that's almost like a liminal space. Yes, and that's why they're doing it. I wonder if this vanishing hitchhiker is that same.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

I mean, a car a car, you could argue is a very liminal place to be because you are a a car is not meant to be stayed in, usually. Now that's not always the case. Some people live in their cars, but you but there's a reason why that's not the norm. Uh, because a car is a box that goes from one place to another. Right. You spend a lot of time there. I I know that I sure have, especially when you're traveling cross-country or something like that. But uh a car is is a very liminal space. It's it's a place that literally moves. Right.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

And so, yeah, so maybe that's why the pattern that's part of the pattern, just like the staircase is part of a pattern. So it doesn't mean that somebody heard the story and then just changes it to fit their area, their culture, right, their time.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Because that's the other thing, too. With when it comes to vanishing hitchhikers, and so the like I mentioned before, there's a study that I that I'll I'll reference here. Uh, that and this study from 1942. This study uh only talks about this occurrence in the United States, but as we've done research on it, it is all over. It's global. I'll be I'll be pulling things from uh Australia, I'll be pulling some, you know, from from England. But it it's a global phenomena. But um but it also it's a phenomena that you know folklore researchers say that there are I guess distant relatives of there are experiences that cousins. We talked about cousins, yeah. Yeah, cousins. Um but these are these these are things that have a lot of the similar patterns, right? But uh these are before vehicles were invented, you know, or or cars, I guess, were invented. Vehicles have been around since the wheel technically, but you know, these are like people instead of instead of somebody asking for a ride uh in your car, uh sometimes there were there were people on horseback in medieval times or in Rome where a phantom would would, you know, get onto the horse with them, or it would be instead of a car and they're driving, instead it would be travelers, you know, phantom travelers going to various places, but those have their own specific patterns as well.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

But um so are you do you want to talk about the four different types, or do you want me to start about some of the stories?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Um I'll yeah, let me I'll I'll try to do this really quickly because we want to get to the fun stories, but I do want to talk about before we do the stories, it's interesting to note. So in this 1942 journal that was it was published by Richard K. Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey, and it's called The Vanishing Hitchhiker.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Very smart.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Uh I agree. And so the one of the interesting things about this is that as I read through the journal, I was keeping my eye out for Resurrection Mary. Now, mom said in the story that it's it's it's a story that's permeated since 1930, and while that is technically true, and we'll see a lot of those, a lot of those stories probably in here. They didn't have that name. That name wasn't used or at least widely used or published until around the earliest that I was able to find is like the early 1970s. Uh they could have been used earlier, but it doesn't seem to have been at least commonly used at this point in time. They don't mention her at all, but what they do note is that there are a lot of these stories that come from Chicago or the greater Illinois area, uh, including some places that are even really close to us, um, about 45 minutes away from where we live, which is I think really cool. I I have that story in here. Um, but so they note though that there are four types, four variations of this type of story. So the first variation is version A, um, which I will call the disappearing passenger. It is the most common type. Um basically, you know, it's it's your common, you picked up a uh pick someone up while traveling, they appear completely normal, then they vanish from your vehicle, and then somehow the button of the story is they find out that the person has died. Now, a lot of these modern ones, they don't really get that confirmation right away, or they are able to do research, or they hear about this pattern and they realize, oh, this person probably was dead. There's not always that same kind of payoff as there used to be that was a lot more established in the 40s or earlier. Okay. Um, a lot of these stories come from like the 1930s or you know, 20s, or yeah, they're they're it's it's old. Um, version B, this is interesting, is the prophetic passenger. So the simple description is a traveler picks up a stranger who delivers a warning, prophecy, or message and then vanishes.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

I actually found a story like that as I was doing my research. These people this couple was driving, and somebody appeared in the back of their car and put reached over, put their hand on the shoulder of the driver, uh, and and the guy, you know, stopped the car, and then they realized that the road was out in front of them, and they would have plunged to their death had they not stopped. And so talk about prophetic ghosts, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah. And and so, and that's the interesting thing because, you know, uh sometimes, well, actually, usually with with this version, later investigation reveals the passenger had already died. But the interesting, the climax of these kinds of stories, kind of like what we just saw, is not usually the disappearance of the ghost like version A. Rather, it's it's the the fact that this passenger had a purpose. And so it's why did this passenger have that purpose? What does the prophecy mean? And some of these stories, the the prophecies are wildly inaccurate. Oh, good. You know, and so that that at least we know that people need to. What's the powerball numbers for next week? One of them uh that I remember was because this was right written in 1942, um, but the story itself took place, I want to say 1939 or 1940. Okay. Um when did when did Pearl Harbor when did that incident occur? That was December 7th, 1941. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Ash with the facts, thank you. There you go. Okay. So in 19, I want you guys to know we there was a whole thing, and he actually fished out that mic. So now he's gonna be mic'd finally, officially. Nice. Uh, so that when we ask facts that he knows. And he knows lots. He does know lots. He is he is a man of of many talents and much knowledge. Um, anyway, so in 1941, it that happened. The a prophetic passenger got in and said, uh I'm sure around that year that America would get out of the war in six months.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

And the person said, like the the because this was published in 1942, they say, well, since we're still in the middle of the war, that obviously didn't come to pass, but you know, it tried, I guess. So it's very interesting that there are some prophetic passengers that appear to be wrong. Um, but not always, not that one. That one was a very good one. Right. Um, so that's version B. Version C, I call the Shindig Spectre. I'm very proud of that name. So the simple description is that someone meets generally an attractive stranger at a social event, often a dance, but other events as well. Okay. Uh, they spend some time with them, they get to know them, and then they escort them after the event, they escort them home or wherever else the person needs to go. And that's when they discover that they've been dead for a long time.

SPEAKER_04 20:00

So there's a a song called Laura. Um, I met a girl. Laura was her name. And basically, is it that? Yeah, since she met me, I've never been the same. And and then it turns out he gives her his letterman sweater because she's cold, and the next day he goes to her house to pick it up, and oh, Laura's been dead for a year.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

That's a huge staple of this kind of story, though.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

He goes to the cemetery and his letterman sweater is hanging over her gravestone. So that's an interesting part of the So, Ash, have you heard of the Laura? I have not. Oh, it's it's like a six, I think it's a 50s or sixties. It sounds like it. It sounds yeah, it's in that whole dead person kind of they did a whole genre of dead teenager songs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Well, that's leader of the pack. Leader of the pack is one. Yeah, dead man's curved. That's really morbid. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

Yeah. So yeah, that was Laura.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Sounded like Donna from uh Richie Valence.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Yeah, no, this is yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Well, so but that is a very interesting point because that is another staple of the sh the Shindig Spectre. They make songs about there should be more songs about the Shindig Specter. Guys, that's on you. You make songs about and and let us, you know, let us know. Um, so we can we we won't be able to probably put them on here because we'll we'll get demonetized so fast. Yes. Um, but so no, it's a physical object is often left behind or returned to them in an uncanny way. Sometimes it's on a gravestone, it's folded up and everything. Um, one of the ones that and it's this one is kind of a mixture of the two because sometimes physical objects or or physical evidence is shown in other of the versions. Okay. Um, in a version A story that I have what we might do. to it. Um up in I I believe Dallas, Texas, there's some of the physical evidence left behind is uh a wet seat. Ooh. And so those or ew it was a person who had drowned. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 22:16

Much better than when I was I mean look if I if I raised kids wet seats can mean many things.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

If if I I mean you know that when you die, you you don't hold on to to well that that generally happens. Anyway, version sorry go ahead. You're right. You're right. Version four um version four uh the last version is very similar to version B. Um there was no B.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

There was one, two, three, and four.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

You can't stick a B in theirs in their journal they called it version A, version B, version C, version D. All right, that's I was changing it. So but you're right. The version four is very similar to version two, the prophetic passenger, but this one is a traveler picks up or encounters a stranger who later vanishes. Often they they do something maybe prophetic or something but the difference here is that the being is understood not to be a human ghost. It was never a ghost rather it was like an angel a deity a spirit power an angel something like that. It's it's someone who is divine. One of the stories that that you we found um this one was very big in Hawaii uh because of the the the goddess Pele Pele yes uh because a lot of stories of Pele were you know it it fits perfectly that whole helping a stranger and being rewarded right that kind of thing uh is very often but there are a lot of other places but it's generally it seems like the places that these occur the most at least in this journal the stories they got the 72 stories that they got most of them took place in the Midwest very close to Chicago some of them took place in some other metropolitan cities a lot of them took place in Utah okay and then a good portion of them took place in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

So I've got a question for you because the story came to mind immediately there's a true I I look at a lot of um websites where police officers law enforcement people put stories that have happened to them. Sure. And this one guy wrote about how he was uh a rookie um and he was alone was he Nathan Fillian oh no he wasn't sorry Nathan Fillian wouldn't be a rookie alone that's right he was alone and uh he happened to see somebody that looked suspicious so he uh doing something wrong in a like in a parking lot in a car okay and he flipped on the lights and the guy took off so he took off after him and um ended up following this guy but it was a dead end and so here he is in this car and he there's backups not available for a while. Okay. And the guy steps out of the car and and it sounds like the police officer was probably a strong guy but not a very big strong guy. Okay. And this guy that steps out of the car is like a huge a huge huge guy and um you know he says oh I think I know this story because it was it was a dead end but what didn't he get into a didn't he get into a car accident? No no no not that story different story. So this guy is is he's saying okay I need you to do and he's first starting to get a little snotty you know and then he looks behind him behind the police officer and he says oh okay what what is your what is your what's your partner doing what and and and this guy is thinking okay the police officer is thinking this guy's on on something but he says why why is your partner looking at me like that and the police officer just plays along he says he doesn't like criminals and he says well you know where'd you guys get him from like a football team said yep and he likes to punch people and he basically this guy that's amazing whatever he saw behind this police officer big dude big dude guardian angel yeah I mean what so what's the difference between guardian angel or is it the same thing in in this phantom hitchhiker thing?

SPEAKER_02 26:25

I mean he wasn't obviously hitchhiking he was right I think that is the difference the phantom hitchhiker the the or the vanishing hitchhiker the the vanishing hitchhiker always has the staple of needing a ride even in number four he's even in number four okay it's it is somebody often it is they still need a ride that's why the the the the pale Pele Pele thank you that's why the Pele is so that's such a core staple because from from my understanding and I I this is very cursory research on this one so I could be very wrong I apologize if I am do your own research when it comes to this as well if you you know if you want to double check me. But she is a goddess that is known to reward people who do kind things. And so if if she she will she doesn't actually need a ride okay but she will ask for one so that she can see whether or not this person would you know give them a ride or not. Again I could be wrong about that um Hawaiian mythology there are some things that I know about it and I also know that there are plenty of things that I don't know about it. And so that's one of those ones where I would love to do more research on certain things. There are some really cool things that I've heard about with with Hawaiian mythology.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

If you want to learn more about Pele I do have a freaky Friday on Terry Reed.com and just just look up the Pele one because it she is very interesting. So yeah. All right now I'm going to tell some stories. So um in in 2011 there was a terrible tsunami in Japan and people were just caught off guard um thousands of people died and um afterwards there was a 22 year old college student and her name was Yukakudo and she was a sociology major at Tohoku Gakunen University and Sendai I probably am saying that really badly and poorly but you're saying it as well as I probably would actually I'm curious let me can I can I see you're probably saying it just as as well as I would where is it be up here something like that okay I don't know anyway so every week during her junior year she went to and Ash you might have to step in Isha no Maki Isha no Maki you've been to Japan haven't you yes uh yeah I was kind of dorking around the uh Tokyo era oh okay okay so this is like in uh was this this was the Fukushima right right down where that okay so she went to the area of Isha no machi and she hopped she hopped into waiting cabs and when she got into the cab she would ask the drivers did you have any unusual experiences after the tsunami disaster and she rode in a hundred different cabs and asked the hundred different cab drivers that and she said some got angry interesting seven of them talked of the passengers they picked up shortly after the tsunami one driver said he picked up a woman and a coat in early summer several months after the tsunami please go to the Mina Mahama district the woman said he told her the area was empty that it had been devastated by the tsunami then she asked have I died? The driver turned to look in the back seat but no one was there another driver spoke of a man in his twenties who climbed into his cab he spied the stranger through the rear view mirror and asked the man for his destination the ghost passenger said Hiro Ryama when they arrived the man vanished all the drivers who talked about ghost passengers started their meters once the riders entered their cab and when the ghost passengers disappeared the drivers had to pay their fares. That sucks some of the seven who spoke to Ms. Yuka had recorded their experience in their logs and one had a report that proved the unpaid fare. Finally a taxi in the city of Sendai picked up a sad faced man who asked to be taken to an address that no longer existed halfway through the journey the driver looked into his mirror to see that the rear seat was empty. He drove on anyway stopped in the front of the leveled foundations of the destroyed house and politely opened the door to allow the invisible passenger out at his former home that's that's incredible because I know that with with Japanese culture and Japanese um thoughts about spirits and about family and about you know very respectful.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

Very respectful and also where where the spirit is is kind of important. I mean there there are shrines dedicated to various family members and things like that and family and just families in general. And so that good on him for doing that and I hope it didn't cost him too much.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

There's actually an and and if I can find it I will link it uh I'll put it in the the links below there was a video that I saw and it was um it was like a bus station but it was for taxis. You know they had all these taxis waiting in line but they had and it was underground it was like in a garage. Sounds so stressful. Sounds like a place I would never want to be at and they had and so there's piers where you know people wait just like if you're wait waiting for a bus but for a taxi and so there's cameras on these these areas and you can see this translucent figure moving from the pier into the back of the cab and the cab takes off. Interesting so once again going back to the stories thing these are these are people and they're modern yeah they're modern and these cab drivers had proof that this happened to them. Yeah and so but but how sad is that I know that these people were killed so suddenly they had no idea they died and they just wanted to get home. I mean that's just a that's a sad thing.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Heartbreaking especially the one woman who wanted to go I'm assuming back to her home and it was an area that didn't exist anymore. Right. And so he can't you literally can't do that. But that's just so heartbreaking am I am I dead? And then just like seeing that like that's not even scary. That's just tragic. Yes you know I mean it is a little scary but it's mostly tragic.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

I had heard that there's similar stories in New Orleans that there's areas in New Orleans that cab drivers will not pick up uh people standing on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Well I'm sure for some reasons as well as others.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

That's true. But in those reasons there have been too many I couldn't find any specific specifics but um there was a lot of inferences about areas especially after Katrina.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Well and and the hard thing with taxi drivers is that you don't want to spook people away from the taxis, you know, from from people using the taxi service.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

And so you know you don't you maybe don't always want to advertise hey yeah I've picked up a couple of passengers who I've had resurrection Mary in my cab exactly yeah there's there's a reason why I feel like those are probably things that are um that are reported anonymously right maybe exactly yeah uh I had a question didn't mean to interrupt was there for the New Orleans thing was there a specific place in the in New Orleans where they were talking about it was like in the French quarter or like the garden districts or something they didn't say they just said the Katrina area.

SPEAKER_04 34:34

So I don't know what wherever the flooding and those things had happened where people a lot of people had died. But no the the I couldn't get all I could get was people saying I have heard that rather than having somebody say yeah I'm a cab driver.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

So yeah very interesting that is very sad.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

It it is and and you know I don't know if they're they these are considered vanishing hitchhikers because basically they're displaced spirits.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Well and I I mean I would imagine that's where it probably originates from I don't think now it doesn't fall within the same exact pattern of it being a woman specifically right not all of them anyway and so it could be not dressed in white just dressed in their regular clothes that they were wearing. Not all not all uh vanishing hitchhikers dressed in in white that is that is a resurrection resurrection married thing specifically um there are others that do that as well but she kind of fits into like I said multiple categories and things like that. But you know it I I would imagine though even if it is a a a a man or whatever I would still consider it's it's a hitchhiker that you picked up that vanishes. Right. It falls within enough of that pattern that I would consider it part of of the folklore. And especially considering folklore like experiences like circumstances situations it's always evolving. And so you know perhaps these vanishing hitchhikers there just hasn't been a a man in the United States that would have a wandering spirit like that in that way. And so that's why you know it's it's um that's why it's potentially mostly women.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Okay so do you have a story can I tell you my big long my my reverse hitchhiker story.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Let me tell a a story a shorter story first. Because I've got a lot of the stories I pulled a good portion of the stories from from this journal this um study that I I read um and I'm actually I want to do one of the I'll call it the precursor stories to Resurrection Mary.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

Because there are a lot of like like I mentioned they don't ever like say resurrection Mary in these stories. Okay. But a lot of the experiences are very similar to it. And so I believe I have one that's just straight up Chicago but I might not have actually put that one in there. There are plenty from Chicago proper I'm gonna do the one from Rockford Illinois which is yeah so the Rockford Rockford Illinois is about that's the one I was mentioning is about 45 minutes away. And this took place in 1933 and it says in parentheses the narrator's landlady told him that she had heard this story over the radio a man and his wife were driving home to Rockford from Chicago. They picked up an elderly woman hitchhiking home to Rockford in the course of general conversation she told them her street address then she told them that Northerly Island was going to disappear in Lake Michigan before some definite date I believe she mentioned July 4th when the man's wife said something to her and she did not reply they turned around to look at her and found her gone. When they reached Rockford they went to the address the woman had given and learned that she had died a year or two before that's cool. That's a prophetic one I'm curious I actually didn't look up if Northerly Island is still there.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

Interesting what what Northerly Island used to have was Miggsfield and uh it was an airport and um it was uh mostly used by um private it was a sm uh it was small little and um uh the city of Chicago I guess didn't like it and they went in and they uh I think the mayor at the time and I don't basically went in and bulldozed it without anybody else knowing so Northern Ireland if you're thinking of Make's field Northerly Iron Island did kind of disappear I mean that's fascinating something else.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

So I I mean yeah in all tents of purposes the island itself might still be there but it But Make's Field is gone. Yeah and any really sounds like functioning reason to go there is gone.

SPEAKER_04 39:07

Well I think they ended up turning it into an entertainment venue kind of like a big concert kind of place that's where they want they thought that and they probably did make more money that I would imagine is it still is that still around today Northern Island interesting I'll have to one of these days when I actually go and visit Chicago I'll have to go and see if I can visit Northern Island as well as Demon Reach.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

Ooh that's the Dresden files when people talk about um the the Michigan or the Lake Michigan triangle I'm always like that's just because Demon Reach is right there.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

Yeah come on all right so my story I really love the story um so Tully Savalas do you know who he is? No he played a TV detective who would eat lollipops what what was the okay Ash what was the name of the TV detective it was Kojak I do know Kojak so bald headpop yeah so this is what this is okay let me read you this Tully Savalis story. Okay he said something happened in my life which scared the hell out hell out of me the late actor of Kojak fame told an Australian TV show called The Extraordinary in 1993. For something like that to happen to me is something I can't understand to this day. Less than one year before his death a famous actor appeared on this television paranormal television show to talk about his strange brush with the unexplained according to Savelis the incident took place in Long Island long before the actor made a name for himself it was about two o'clock in the morning and Savalis was on his way home after a date when his car ran out of gas. Been there done that Savelis walked to a White Castle restaurant to ask for directions to the nearest gas station love White Castle sliders. The restaurant employee told Savelis to cut through a wooded area until he reached a highway where he would find a service station that was open all night. The actor began to walk towards the woods when he heard a voice calling from behind him offering to give him a ride. Savalis turned around and saw a man in a Cadillac he was wearing a white suit recalled the actor he got into the Cadillac and asked the driver to take him to the gas station I think I picked it up right yes nice when they got there Savallus realized he didn't have any money for gas. Oof as he fumbled around his pockets the stranger in the white suit offered to give him a dollar this had to be a long time ago if he could get gas for a dollar a dollar man Savallis accepted the money but insisted on getting the man's name and address so that he could pay him back when he got the chance Savalis picked filled up the gas can and he and the stranger drove back to Telly's car. That's when things began to get strange. Out of nowhere the driver in the white suit said that he knew a very well known baseball player an infielder for the Boston Red Sox. Savales thought this was weird since neither of the men had been talking about sports or about baseball. It's so bizarre that he would say that and in the spookiest voice I ever heard recounted Savallas the stranger helped Savales refuel the car and even helped him push the vehicle in order to get it started. So I'm guessing it's probably a stick shift you know Tully thanked the stranger and went home. The next day Savallas went to his job. He was employed by the U.S. State Department after serving a three year stint in the Army during World War II. And while he was on his way home he heard a news report about a baseball player who had died. It was the same player the mysterious stranger claimed to know the infielder for the Boston Red Sox. Savallas was so rattled that he told his mother about the experience. While retelling his story it suddenly dawned on Savallis that he still had the paper in his pocket the scrap of paper upon which the stranger had written down his name and address so Tully could repay him the dollar he borrowed. A telephone number was written down. The actor called the number and it was answered by a man. Jimmy's bar he answered Savallas asked to speak to the man whose name was written down on the scrap of paper. Just one minute replied the voice a woman came on the phone and asked what he wanted. When Savalis told the woman the name she said he wasn't there. When will you expect him? Tully asked Who is this? demanded the woman Savellis told the woman about running out of gas the night before and how the man who had given him the dollar had given him his telephone number. Look, you son of a bee, the woman said. I don't know what you're talking about, but you're talking about my husband. He's been dead for two years. Then she hung up the phone.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Savellis couldn't get over the strange incident and eventually got in touch with the woman again. She agreed to meet him in New York, although she lived in Boston. They talked, and Savelis described in detail everything about the man who had given him the ride that night, the clothes he was wearing, the car he was driving, every little detail that Tully could remember. The woman informed him that those were the same clothes that her husband had been buried in. She also brought a document with her husband's signature to compare with the signature on Tully's scrap of paper. It was a perfect match, except that the government document had been signed James while Tully's scrap of paper had been signed Jimmy. There was one strange difference, however. Savallis told the woman that Jimmy had a high-pitched voice. The woman insisted that Jimmy had a low, deep voice. Savallis told the extraordinary that he later learned that the stranger in the white suit and Cadillac had committed suicide by shooting himself in the neck. Whoa. So that's a reverse hitchhiker because he brought the car. So my first thought.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Yes. Does that mean that there's a ghost dollar just circulating in our current like where did that dollar come from? And where did it go?

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Right? I I mean it do ghosts carry around dollar bills? Should you get married? Should you get buried with money in your pocket just in case?

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Is it are we working on Egyptian rules where you get buried with your riches?

SPEAKER_04 46:10

A dollar.

SPEAKER_02 46:11

Maybe more than a dollar. I mean, I I would hope. But also, like, if if that dollar are ghosts causing inflation? It's like like silver dollars on your eyes.

SPEAKER_04 46:21

I oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:23

Yeah, or pennies. Thank you, the Irish. I mean, that that tells us that tells us how lucky the Irish, the luck of the Irish. Some people die with silver dollars. We we Irish die with pennies over our eyes. I just thought that that was That's very interesting. I do like that. There are multiple points where I got the goosebumps. Yeah, me too. The green flesh.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

The goose flesh. Okay, turning it over to you.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

Um let's see. So, since we're kind of talking a little bit about some variations, okay. I might as well talk about this. Is what what a lot of researchers and scholars think is the the first story, recorded written story within this pattern. All right. Um, now this is a 400-year-old manuscript. So it's not actually the same exact pattern, but it has a lot of similar similarities to this.

SPEAKER_04 47:17

It's like like an Egyptian. No, it's not that far from the earth.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

No, no, it I mean Egypt is uh Egypt is still around. But this is um it's written by the priest um Johan, I'm assuming. Johan or or Joan Petri Clint.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

Um Swedish. Okay, this is Swedish from Sweden. This is uh I have the actual name of the book, but I realize there's no way I'm gonna pronounce it correctly. So I'll tell you the English translation about the signs and wonders that preceded the liturgical event.

SPEAKER_04 47:54

Nice, okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

Yeah, so basically the the entire book. I have that book. Oh yeah, yeah. You have Om the Techn och Wunder Sum I'm not gonna, yeah, I'm gonna stop there before I Please do before you insult everybody any Swedish, yes, any Swedes. Um it but the book itself, like I said, is written by the uh a priest, uh Priest Clint. And the book is talking about uh talking about omens and signs and all these different things. We've already talked about that. You're right. Well, I told you that that's a that's the title of it. Uh but what I'm saying is this story isn't a fictional story. Now, folklorists will consider it folklore, but this is an event. It what he didn't experience it himself. Okay, another priest did, but this is from this is I mean, basically, this was kind of like uh, you know, 1600s journalism where he recorded somebody else's story. So in February 1602, a priest and two farmers were on their way home from the candlemass market in Vesergotland. That was good. Sure, we'll go with that. If I'm wrong, then I apologize. A maid asked to go along. At an inn, they got off to get a bite to eat, and the maid wanted something to drink. Uh a jug of beer, which I guess was very common around that time. The first time the innkeeper fetched beer, the jug came back filled with malt. The second time it came back filled with acorns. And the third time it came back, it was filled with blood. Obviously, they were horrified. Then the maid explained that this year will yield much grain, plenty of fruit on the trees, but war and pestilence. And then she disappeared into thin air. So she never got her beer. No. Okay. Well, and so I think one of the interesting things about this kind of pattern that you kind of pointed out a little bit, she didn't get her beer, but she also never paid for it either.

SPEAKER_05 50:07

That's true. That's very true.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

And I feel like that's when it comes to uh vanishing hitchhikers. Granted, not all of them are picked up by taxis, but like some of them are. Right. And they don't pay their fare. That's true. Which is also how your the the story that you just shared previously is the opposite because he paid this other dude's gas. And he could never pay him back. Never pay him back. Right. Did he pay back to the wife?

SPEAKER_04 50:28

He they didn't say. They didn't say. I I would have, especially since she traveled all the way from Boston to New York. I would have to New York.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

He might have introduced ghost inflation, ghost forgery into our start into our already fragile economy. Well, that's what I'm saying. Actually, back then, yeah, back then it wasn't as fragile as it is now.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

So Dale Kasmeric, who I know I've mentioned, he is the president of the Ghost Research Society in Chicago, and he is like the original Ghostbuster guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

So his uh website We definitely need to do an interview with him.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

I know, he's such a nice man. His website is called ghostresearch.org. And he has he's got at least two dozen stories about Resurrection Mary on this.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

I just want to point out you can tell he's been in the business for a long time because that straightforward of a domain, he must have been one of the four front peoples, people to get that domain, or else it cost him a lot of money. But I'm guessing he was just he got it first. He just got it first because he he was that guy. So he's that guy.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

He's that guy. So this is one of this is one of his stories from his website. One of the very first persons to have encountered um Resurrection Mary was a Southside man by the name of Gerald Pallas, who used to frequent the Liberty Grove and Hall near 47th Street and Mozart. The building is no longer there, but his memories of that night have persisted until his death in 1992. He had apparently seen her there on more than one occasion and had decided to ask her to dance with him. They conversed very little throughout the evening, and Paulus noticed the only strange thing about her was that she had ice cold hands. Her beauty and charm more than made up for that icy chill. He even commented, cold hands, warm heart, to which there was no reply. Like, no heart. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Well, I mean, I've I've heard that also. I've definitely danced with people with bad poor circulation, like cold hands. Cold hands, you know.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

As 11:30 approached, he decided that it was time to leave and offered her a ride home, to which she gave him an address in the Bridgeport area of Chicago. But instead of going straight home, she asked Pallas to take her down Archer Road, as she called it. As they approached the main gates of Resurrection Cemetery, she asked Paula to pull the car off the road. She then informed him that she had to cross the road and that Pallas could not follow. This statement took him aback, but before he could respond, she suddenly darted across the street towards the cemetery.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

That'd be terrifying to us.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

And disappeared before she ever reached the gates.

SPEAKER_02 53:20

Take it back. That would be terrifying.

SPEAKER_04 53:22

It was only then that he realized he had been with a ghost that evening. His encounter was recreated by the series Unsolved Mysteries, hosted by Robert Stack. The next day, he visited the address she had given she had given him and was told by the woman who answered the door, even before Palace rang the bell, that he couldn't have possibly been with her daughter as she had been dead for some time. He correctly identified her from a picture on the piano in the front room.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

This is why I don't go to social events in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

Um you just never know who you're dancing with.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Yeah, you you know, you you go, you start dancing, you get a great connection. You're like, man, I could see this going places. Turns out she's been dead for a couple years. You know, dating is already difficult enough. And now I'm getting catfished by a ghost. Come on. No, but that is, I mean, that that's where she says she's a ghost. That would honestly, I would rather her be dead than her, you know, pretend to be dead. Yeah. She's behind the door. Tell, tell him I've been dead. Tell him I've been dead for a few years. I really don't want to go out again. I'm a ghost. Really? Come on. Tell him, tell him dead. Come on. Um, no, so it's interesting though, because that that fits the um couple of those. The the Shindig specter specifically. Except he didn't she didn't give him an article of anything to And he didn't put a sweater on her or something like that. So it's not the So that's interesting. I guess the ice cold hands is is the big evidence part of it. But um it still I think matches enough to the Shindig Spectre to to kind of count as that.

SPEAKER_04 55:04

I'd count it then, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Um it's that there's another story in Salt Lake City that's very similar to that. I'm not gonna because it's so similar, I'm not gonna go into that particular one. Um, but what one of them that I do wanna wanna go into is um so this one is I found it on Reddit.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Uh R slash Truckers. And it's uh in other places as well, but I decided to pull it from R slash Truckers because it I would imagine that's probably the I don't know if it's the first variation of it, but I would imagine it's probably the the the most true to form. Now I did have to edit it. I edit it for readability, okay. And also because he uses what I term Australian language, okay, which I don't feel comfortable repeating uh next to my mom. Um thank you.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

All right, so there's I don't want to have to ground you.

SPEAKER_02 56:00

Yeah, and I I I don't want to have to get my mouth washed out with soap. Yeah. So it starts off with uh I'm a trucke. Uh I mainly do all road terrain work from Brisbane up around uh up around the top of Australia to Perth and along the Nullabor. I'm assuming it's Nullabor. I've seen some strange things, but nothing like this. I've never really ventured into Vic and NSW or New South Wales uh due to scalies. I'm assuming that's slang for like scally wags or something. I I I looked it up. Uh yeah, scalies is kind of a slang term, I think. Uh and revenue raising, but had to do an express run to Melbourne via Sydney and had to come back up the new old highway to collect a load from Toowoomba. My boss said with the giggle, I don't mind if you pull up before you get around Cunabarren, as some drivers choose not to go on through the night. Kind of with like a twinkles eye, like, yeah, there's some weird stuff going on there. Uh but I said, uh, she'll be alright, mate. Plenty of hours left, all good. So I hooked in, which I'm assuming to that would be the equivalent of I locked in with us Americans. I was in between Quinabarin and Newarbury, and a woman out of nowhere flagged me down hitchhiking. She said she was gonna go home to her camp, and a bit confused, I said hop in. The hairs stood up all over my body with the instant thought I should have kept going. She stunk like nothing I smelt before, and the cab was destroyed with stench. She didn't say a word and just gazed ahead. About twenty kilometers down the road and not passing one vehicle, the old woman said, Here, this is it. And I had to stop in a gully and off she went with a bag, no thanks, nothing. I looked around to see where she was going, but there was nothing in sight. There were no lights or tracks or anything. I was glad that she was gone though, because my guts were about ready to explode. I I'm I would imagine as a trucker that unfortunately is probably you don't eat great the greatest food while you're driving.

SPEAKER_04 58:18

Or the smell of her made him sick.

SPEAKER_02 58:21

That could also be it. I I assumed I I assumed one direction, but it could have also been the other direction. Guts I assumed the the downward direction, but it could be the upward direction. Who knows? I mean, he probably does. He does. Um I pulled up to the other side of Nuribri. Nurebri for a few hours and decided to get going at daybreak, but had to sleep in the trailer because the smell was horrible. I woke up to a truckie kicking his tires during a pre-start, and I climbed out to which he replied, Good grief, man, you're working pretty hard. He didn't say that. That was that was the very heavily edited version for me. I explained to him that the cab was absolutely stinking from the hitchhiker lady. And he went pale white and he told me exactly where it happened. I said, Yes, mate, and he said, mate, that nutter was run over back in 1939 by a truck. I gulped and thought, no way, this can't be real. This was in 2014, and to this day, never have I been anywhere near that part of NSW. Pilga Princess is for sure, is real for sure. I told the boss and he laughed and said, There's Coldies in the fridge, so hurry up. He showed me the camera footage in the truck. It only showed the passenger passenger door open by itself and closed by itself as I'm looking across talking to what looks like thin air, where I remember her being.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

So did she smell like death?

SPEAKER_02 59:57

Like a corpse smell? So the it's interesting because the Pilaga Princess, I looked it up, and actually, here I'll I'll pull up my notes. I didn't print these ones out, but I I have them readily available right here. The Pilaga Princess Um is a known entity, I guess, um on the Newell Highway. Okay. Uh is she's been known to wander through the Newell Highway through and around the Pilga region. She generally looks homeless or like your classic eccentric bag lady. Okay. Uh often she's pushing a shopping cart or as they say over there, a shopping trolley. Uh and apparently she's very, very smelly. So it sounds almost it sounds less like death smell and more like by the odor smell. Yeah, homeless. She probably she probably, I mean, because we I so she she the the story goes that she was killed in 1993 after having been hit by a truck. So she might have been um she might have been like that before, and that's just kind of the representation of her spirit. Uh and also, I mean, if she got hit by a truck, I it I don't know if it was a semi-truck that she got hit by or if it was just like a um a classic pickup truck. Yeah, like a pickup truck. But if it was a semi-truck, I could see there might be uh an anger and a and a desire for revenge against truckers. And so the smell might kind of be like uh maybe getting back, you know, at that at the person. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it seems like that's a a common trucker specific experience or story. Though I don't know if others might have also experienced uh uh Pelica Princess. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:40

All right, so I have. So uh years ago, I was asked to speak at the Dixon Public Library. And when I tell ghost stories, I often let people tell me their ghost stories. So um, let's see, let me start because I've already talked to you about who Resurrection Mary is. So did you get this from No, this is what actually happened to me. This woman was at the Dixon Public Library. Did you Oh was it Freaky Friday? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I pulled it from my Freaky Friday, sorry. So she says, the person at the library told the story, related that she was at Resurrection Cemetery for the funeral of one of her husband's maternal grandfathers. Her son went along to the funeral. And she decided to tease him a little bit about Resurrection Mary, but she really didn't have any good details. At the end of the funeral, though, as they walked to the car, her son asked, Who was the lady in the white dress? What lady in a white dress? she asked. Everyone at the funeral was at the church first, and we were all wearing black. No, she was wearing a white dress, he's he insisted. Where? This woman asked, looking around at the guests who were now getting into their cars. Yeah. He shook his head, deadly serious. She joined us once the service started at the gravesite, he said. She stood in the back and then suddenly she wasn't there anymore. So now after she told this story and we all went, um, a woman in the back of the room raised her hand.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

That was actually me. Uh, I apologize. I didn't mean to startle you.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:33

She said um it was it was a dark and stormy night, which seems like a trope, but it really was. It was she was Burton on a dark and stormy night. Oh, sorry. And so she uh it was in Dixon. She says it was a dark and stormy night, and this woman was taking her two teenage children home from a late night at work for all of them. She was driving cautiously because of the water pooling on the road. She pulled up to the intersection of Chamberlain and Brinton and Dixon. So I'm giving you guys very specific information. Chamberlain and Brinton and waited a moment before proceeding.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Now, we're giving you this information, not to necessarily if you're gonna go visit, be very polite about what's an intersection? I'm sure there if it's an intersection, I'm sure there are things around the streets. That's true.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:24

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

So also, yeah, don't just randomly stop in the intersection and take pictures. I'm sure you guys already know this, but this is also the internet. So let me finish.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:33

And maybe they won't want to. Fair enough. While she was waiting, she happened to look out her side window and saw a woman dressed in dark Victorian clothing standing out in the rain. When she drove forward, she looked in her rear view mirror, but the woman was gone. Everyone in the car had seen the old-fashioned woman, and no one could figure out where she had gone. So I'm standing in front of the Dixon Library group. Sure. And so this woman finishes her story, and it was my turn. I was gonna share one of my ghost stories. When another woman in the second row raised her hand, she had a perplexed look on her face. And when I called on her, she turned and looked to the back of the room and said, I've I've seen her. She said that to the first woman. I've I've seen that lady at the intersection. And now the first woman initially misunderstood and said, I've never told this story to anyone. You couldn't know this story. And the second woman was adamant. She said, No, I've never heard your story before. I've seen her too, the woman dressed in Victorian clothing at that intersection. She was there and then she was gone. What? So it's real. The first woman whispered. There was a long moment of silence. Yes, the second one replied. I guess so.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:05

Two's a coincidence. Three's a pattern.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:07

Should we go? Should we go hang out in that corner?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:10

I mean, so the problem is I'm like, yeah, I kind of I mean see, here's the thing. I want to see experiences. I want to be able to like experience these kinds of things when I'm ready for it. But I know that they'll happen when I'm not ready for it. Yeah, yeah. And so that's when I that's I don't like yeah. So I want to go there and try to experience it, but I know that if I do experience it, it will be in a way that I'm not prepared for. Prepared for. Exactly. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. That's uh.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:44

Yes. So I looked it up. That is a residential area. So there's houses on each of the corners there. So it's it's a neighborhood with homes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

So maybe definitely uh we probably shouldn't go and visit unless there unless there are people in the area who well, I I don't I feel weird about asking.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:02

You could park your car and and just kind of take a stroll in the neighborhood and see if a lady in a dark Victorian dress joins you.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

I get that's that's fair. Yeah. That could be that could be a fun Sunday afternoon. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:15

It has to be at night when it's dark.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

True.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:19

Maybe rainy, but maybe not. I don't know with the second woman if she saw her in the rain or if it was just Or at a funeral.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

You have to go to a funeral.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:25

No, the funeral was it at Resurrection Cemetery. Oh, that the first story was the the first story was a different woman who had had a funeral in Chicago at Resurrection Cemetery.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:37

So it just happened to be another woman in in white clothing who just vanished.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:41

Or the same woman in white clothing who just vanished. I she thinks that her son saw Resurrection Mary. Well, yeah, yes, Resurrection Mary, but because the Victorian one, totally different story.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:53

Okay, that's what And she was dressed in black.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

Black.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:56

And she was in Dixon. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

I paid attention, I promise.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:03

So this is from uh Uber driver. She says, New Year's Eve 2019, picked up a gentleman that at first seemed kind of odd. Every time I stopped at a stoplight, he softly said, Thank you. It was creeping me. Yeah, it was creeping me out at first, and then I assumed he must have some kind of disorder. I love that. It's either creepy or he's got disorder.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

Why not both?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:28

Yes. When we reached his destination, he exited the car saying, Thank you again. When I went to pull away, I saw a dozen red roses on the front seat. Okay, this guy was sitting in the back, made no movements or gestures towards the front seat when leaving the car. I stopped my car, got out, and said, Hey, you forgot, and the guy was seriously nowhere to be found. Gone. Here's the deal. I normally don't believe in angels, ghosts, supernatural, etc. But I was feeling super sad that day as my husband died of cancer last year, and I was really missing him. I went home that night feeling like something from the beyond had graced me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

That's great. That's I like that ending because it it not creepy. Well kind of creepy, but nice creepy. Exactly. Yeah. If you're it look, if you're gonna be if you're gonna be a little creepy, at the very least, be nice about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:30

You know, don't don't be uh leave gifts, leave parties.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

Or or thank people at, you know, I won't say inappropriate times, but but times that are are generally not the social norm. Like that's that's a kind way to be a little bit off. Yes, as opposed to, you know, other really bad creepy things.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:49

So this was from Reddit under Reddit Paranormal, and it's called Never Stop for Hitchhikers. So and I I think this guy has has two different uh experiences.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:59

So I I do want to I I want to pause there because that's actually so it's interesting. We we I was gonna I remember I was gonna bring it up, but then got sidetracked and forgot about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:09

So us getting sidetracked?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:11

Yeah, that's the how we're the PhD experience. I got sidetracked and forgot what I was gonna say. No, but this this one though, it's interesting. I think part of the reason why a lot of the the more archetypical, and I guess a lot of these are more modern, are kind of architect archetypical. Right. But like That's a good word. Thank you. You're welcome. I appreciate it. But I think a lot the reason why a lot of these stories take place from about the 1920s and 30s to you know the the big core ones kind of start to stop at around the 1980s is because during that time the culture of hitchhiking was a lot more commonplace. Right. And nowadays it do you have things like don't don't accept people from hitchhiker or don't let people hitchhike.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:59

There's that joke about um somebody picking up a hitchhiker and the hitchhiker saying, you know, what would you think if I was a serial killer? And the the person driving laughing and saying it would the odds are pretty low there's two of us in the car.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

I do like that. That is a good way to get your hitchhiker buddy uh on on guard. But yeah, it it it the culture of hitchhiking, at least in the United States, I I believe most places, but I could be wrong, but it's it's not nearly as um prev prevalent as and safe. And well, I mean, let's be honest, it was never safe necessarily, but there was in in before I would say the 70s, there was a lot more trust uh to each other. And nowadays, I mean, you you can't you can't necessarily trust your neighbors as much as as you would like because we've we've learned. I don't think it's necessarily that people are less trustworthy as they are now. I think it's we now have a lot more experience. Maybe that's it. We know. Yeah, we're a lot more jaded after hearing so many awful stories about horrible things. And so, yeah, so we don't get as many hitchhiking ghost stories because we don't get as many hitchhiking ghosts. That being said, we do have obviously we have some of these examples, but most of them are going to be people who their profession is closer to it, or they're gonna be vanishing hitchhiker adjacent.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:25

Right, right. Oh, remind me to tell the main story because yeah. Yes, haven't done that, but let me let me give you this one. I had to give an employee a ride home from work one day. Her ride bailed on her, and her parents were out of town, and she was 15. I wasn't leaving her outside at night to find her own home miles away, and I checked in with the owner of the company first to cover my butt. I was very smart, very smart.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

Very wise.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:51

On the way to her house, we passed by what looked like a young blonde woman in a white hoodie with large patches of red. I wasn't paying close attention as the driver. The teenager asked me to stop. I said, no way. And then I glanced in the rear view mirror. There was no girl there. It was a gated community, so unless she jumped a nine-foot stone wall, I have no idea what we saw. But I will not drive through that neighborhood again. On another driving incident, I worked at a job where I did a lot of driving and passed through this small town. I caught a glimpse of someone on the side of the road, Brunette, in a fancy prom uh pageant-looking dress, huge skirt yellow. I assumed she would be there for a photo shoot. Sure. Twelve hours later, on the way home, I passed through that same town and was chilled to the bone to see a cross on the side of the road covered with artificial yellow flowers. That one's gonna stick with me for the rest of my life. Oh, that's that's that that's so tragic.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:00

Yeah. That's I mean And spooky. And spooky. Yeah. But yeah, man, just I'm that's that would be incredibly unsettling. It's like, oh yeah, look at this person. They're so fun. They're they're they're so happy to be alive.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:13

You have to tell the motorcycle story.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

Well, I I I was gonna say that one for the end. Okay. Um there is uh let's see, let me see if I can find it. Yeah, some of the other comments. So I found a really good um post in in Reddit, R slash paranormal, asking about hitchhikers specifically. Uh it starts with Macrocosmos Movement asking, have any of you experienced a ghost passenger? Uh they go on to say, like the ones when you're driving late at night and pick up a hitchhiker, only for them to disappear a few moments later. So I'm I'm gonna tell a few different stories because it's all part of the same thread. So this is Macrocosmos Movements story. Um, they say 10 years ago, I was hitchhiking across Australia. It's Australia again. Australia, I mean, I've heard a lot of things. I I we should do some research into Australia. I've also got some friends who live in Australia, so I might reach out to them and see um what spooky things because I hear there's a lot of wild stuff in Australia.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

Anyway, I was hitchhiking across Australia and passing another hitchhiker going on in the opposite direction, just as outside of Cairns. We gave each other a quick head nod, and that was it. I turned my head around to look back at them maybe three seconds after that, and there was no one there. The area around the road was completely flat, and there were only very small patches of grass and shrubs, nothing big enough to hide behind. I was still close enough to them that I would have heard their footsteps if they ran off to the side of the road. It still weirds me out today.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:53

So they were walking and hitchhiking?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:55

Yeah, they were walking, they were hitchhiking, they saw somebody else. Apparently, hitchhiking is still strong in well, this is also 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:01

So they're across across the road from each other because one was going one way, one was going.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

And they turned around and his gone. So you know Aliens.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:11

I'm not saying it's aliens, but it was aliens.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:13

Aliens, time slip, a ghost. A ghost.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:17

So here's some other comments. And I think these are where some of the I mean, like that one was fun. These are where the fun begins. Okay. The fun really begins. Nice. My Nickelodeon voice. This is from Vegas bus stop. When I was a bus driver, I had several instances while while deadheading back to the yard at night where I would habitually glance up in the mirror that looks at the passengers to see someone in a seat or the stop request tone would signal despite the bus being empty and the lights off. I have even had times when I heard running down the aisle towards the door. Yeah. This is from Boring Pudding 2635.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:05

Not me, but my uncle, who is no more in this world. He used to tell a story about how he was returning home from dropping a passenger late at night. A woman was in the excuse me. A woman was in the middle of the highway asking for a lift. My uncle gave her a lift. She sat in the backseat. After a while of driving, my uncle felt uneasy, so he wanted to make conversation. But the lady was not there anymore. My uncle sw sweared, swore he didn't drink or hallucinate. Now this one is from Soul Street Pro. This one's a little longer. This one might, there's a bit of a trigger warning here with this one. Uh, we are gonna be talking about somebody who doesn't want to live in this world anymore, especially during COVID-19. That unfortunately happened quite a lot. So if that's something that you don't feel comfortable with, you probably will want to skip this episode uh this this not episode, this portion portion, this particular story. Um so anyway. So during COVID, I worked as a traveling mechanic for a compute c for a commuter rail service. I had many responsibilities, but the one unfortunately I had to deal with the most was unfortunately I I hope that we go don't get demonetized for this word.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:19

Can you say unaliving?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:21

I I could. I could use that. Yeah. I don't like that. I don't like that term. I know, but go ahead. You know, that's what we gotta do. So I had unfortunately I had to deal the most uh unfortunately the one responsibility I had to to deal with the most was unaliving. Uh people who unalived themselves.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:41

During the heart of the pandemic, I was going to two to three a week. I pretty much had to make sure there was no damage and the train was safe to operate. I had one in late September where the victim was caught up in the power cables between the cars, and I had to assist getting her untangled so the coroner could take the body away. I hadn't seen a body up close since my time in the military, and it was a bit unnerving. Fast forward around a week, and I was traveling back from a call when the weather changed dramatically, almost instantaneously. I'm talking a good 20-degree drop and high winds. I was around a mile from my work trailer and my truck just died. Now keep in mind I was working long, stress-filled hours during this time. I got out to pop the hood, and the truck cab temp dropped. I looked over, and the woman whose body I had helped untangle was sitting in the passenger seat, but I could see right through her. I fell out of the truck and ran across the street. A few minutes later it began to pour rain and hail. I went back to the truck and she was gone. I will never forget that night, and I still have nightmares about it. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. And if you are if you did skip ahead, this is a good time to come back. The the story is done. Uh, and we welcome you back. Uh, thanks for thanks for and those of you who did want uh did listen to the whole story, thanks for sticking around. Um yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna tell our personal experience.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:20

Yeah, yeah, the the main Yes, and then um and then you can tell your motorcycle experience. Well, not not my motor. I'm a coward. I can't, I I I won't drive a motorcycle. So when Andrew was either it was the summer of of him going from junior to senior, or it was he had graduated in the I think it was junior to senior because when I uh the summer that I graduated, we went to uh Porcupine Mountains up in Michigan with the boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:48

Okay. I remember correctly. So we're we so we were um and I remember this was also a trip to help you write. Because I remember dad and I when we went there. You guys had a vacation and I sat in the cabin and wrote a book. That was what you you know, I did chat, I was like, which was so ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:05

This is my one chance to go to Maine, and I sit inside a little cabin, and it wasn't even that cute of a cabin.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:10

So and we I remember both of us being like, Are you sure you don't want to? And you're like, No, no. We went we went kayaking. That's right. We we ate some delicious po-boys.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:19

I know, and you would tell me about those.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:21

Yeah, because it was still bitter. It's not our fault. It's not our fault. Salty, salty's salty, okay. Still salty. That's that's that's a that's a valid.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:29

So anyway, so this trip, it was one of those trips where if anything could go wrong, it did go wrong.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:36

And so we're Murphy's trip, Murphy's lawn.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:38

It was and so we traveled, um, we drove through, you know, through Ohio, up through New York, and and we we had cool stops actually along the way. We stopped in the Adirondacks. Do you remember at a bed and breakfast up there?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:54

Yeah, I remember that. I had uh there was a really good pizza place nearby.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:57

And we wasn't as good as a Chicago pizza place, but it was you know, and they stayed open late for us because we got there very late. So that's right. The people that were at the bed and breakfast called these people. I mean, there it was very that was very nice. So then we drive from New York through New Hampshire, and which is gorgeous, and then we get into Vermont and we you have to take a ferry uh to get in, and we get to the other side and the car won't start. And we had just had transmission work done on the car before we had left. So it was like this this shouldn't be happening.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:34

And I think it was a Sunday, and so we I think so called Saturday night, Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:39

I think it was midday.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:40

You're right, it was midday, and it was it was a Sunday because everyone was closed.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:44

So there's a town, we're like in the middle of nowhere. And so there's a town like 30 miles away. So we have to get a tow truck from that town, and we find one, and they come and they get us and they bring into the town. And the town, first of all, it's got a small liberal arts college, and it's graduation weekend, so all of the hotel rooms are booked. Yep. And so we we end up with like this suite, which was kind of a crazy suite, but we were in this suite, which is a sweet suite. It was a sweet suite, but it was an expensive suite. Yeah. And um, then the next day, yeah, the next day, there's a funeral in the town from one of the like a prominent person in town. So everything's closed because everyone's going to the funeral. So anyone who's anyone. Yes. And so we're kind of obviously we don't have a car, we're kind of stuck in this little town. We walk around, it was a cute little town.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:37

I mean, all the shops were closed, but because it was Sunday afternoon. But uh, but the sh the shop fronts looked really pretty.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:44

Very quaint. And I think Monday morning we were able to walk around and see some things. But anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:48

But we also I remember us leaving. We we like maybe looked around for an hour, but then we ended up getting on the road pretty quickly, if I remember correctly.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:55

No, because there was a funeral. Right. And then the guy it was like after lunch that he started working on the car. So it was probably late uh afternoon when we finally could get out of there. And we decided we're gonna just gonna drive straight through from there to Bar Harbor.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

Yeah, because we were already late. Right. Because we we were supposed to be there the day before. And we rented uh was it an Airbnb or was it G. It was an Airbnb, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:20

Yeah, it was a cabin Airbnb in Bar Harbor. So I'm I guess I'm driving, and Andrew's in the passenger seat, and my my husband is in the backseat asleep, and and it's pouring down rain, and it's after midnight, and and there's a whole bunch of bridges because these little islands are all connected to each other by these these bridges. And I'm driving down the road, and then to the right on this little narrow um sidewalk between the road and the bridge's uh edge, yeah, I see this man, and he looks like an old-fashioned fisherman, you know, with the the black rubber hat um and then the big black raincoat. And I stare at him because he's he, I mean, the sidewalk is like what 18 inches to two feet wide, it's not big, and this man is standing there and then he's gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

So now you tell me what Yeah, so I I was like I said, uh like like she said, I was in the passenger seat, um, and I was I I think I was fighting weariness. I don't exactly remember, it was a while ago, but I I do remember getting chunked a little bit more uh awake because she was driving. I don't remember if you were we were talking. I was probably saying something, and I noticed that you didn't respond. Right. Uh you you tensed up a little bit. And so you know, I after after a moment or two, I was like, are you okay? And you're like, Did you see that? I said, see what? What what what what did you see? And you're like, uh never mind, nothing. And I'm like, okay, okay, and and so I I you know kind of coaxed, like, no, no, are are you okay? Like, what what what happened? What was it? Uh both, you know, because I mean there was part of it where I was worried that you might have seen like a dead body or something like that, you know, that I completely had, but I well, you saw a dead spirit, not necessarily a dead body. Um I guess an alive spirit, not a dead spirit, because I don't know. Anyway, um, but uh so finally you said I I I saw I saw a man look like a fisherman on the side of the road. And I actually hadn't heard what he what he He had no face.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:41

It was black. And he looked like you know, the usually it's yellow, you know what Gordon's his his skin was his skin was black before or shadow.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:49

The shadow, it was okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:50

So he was all silhouetted, shadow-like, and and it was like you you know how the uh and uh the Gordon's fish sticks and the Gordon, you know, they've got and I think he's usually in the yellow, but he's got like this this cap that comes down over his face almost covering his neck, and then he's got a big raincoat. It's the same kind of look, but it's it was all black, and then yeah, he's gonna be like yellow coat and you wanted to paint it black?

unknown 1:27:14

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:15

Is that a something that I should know?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:16

That uh it was a very bad reference to uh I see a red door and I want it painted black.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:21

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:22

Uh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Anyway, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:25

Um, but no So it was all in black and then he was gone. Looked through the rear view mirror, just like everybody else, and he's gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:32

You know, I'm just realizing. So so he was he was a person though. He's not he you wouldn't consider him a a shadow.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:42

He he felt like me, I could see the rain because it was very tangible.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:47

Yes. It wasn't just like a silhouette or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:49

I thought I had passed a person until I looked and he was gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:52

And he also had no face. Or that you couldn't it was sh shadowed, probably heavily shadowed.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:58

Like probably one or two in the morning. It was raining, it was dark, you know, so there's a lot of things, but and and those hats kind of cover everything and put everything into shadow.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:09

So he might have had the insmuth look and we didn't know. He got big old fish-like eyes and kind of a fish-like I'm glad I didn't get to see that.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:18

So we I mean, I wouldn't I wouldn't want to to meet somebody from Innsmith anyway because tossing it back over to you for the final So I'm gonna first I'm gonna tell the story of how we came across this story.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:34

Um a couple of days, two days ago, right? Was it two days ago? Maybe a couple of days ago, uh the there was a really horrible storm.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:47

Yeah, Tuesday, yes. Because you were supposed to go to Rockford and you didn't. So it's very smart.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

Yep, so there was a terrible, terrible storm. It was uh a storm where there was a t tornado that touched down in Iowa and made its happy way, actually, all the way to Freeport. There are some pictures I saw at work the next day. Pearl City got it. But there was a building that got uh demolished in Freeport.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:11

It could have been winds, but it looked like the facade of it looked like it had been a brick building, and then somebody put a facade over it and didn't do a really good job because it was the facade. It did. It got a topple.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:24

It was toppled, yes. Um, but yeah, I I saw like actual pictures people have taken of of this in Freeport. I I mean I guess I don't I don't track tornadoes very often, but that seems like a very far way to travel from Iowa to like almost the the middle of of Illinois.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:44

It and it it was it was a supercell. And so I think what you had were multiple tornadoes? Multiple tornadoes. So you had the the system was spawning tornadoes, but it wasn't like a tornado that was on the one tornado that kept going. No, it wasn't luckily it wasn't that turn left here, you know, goes down. No, it would come down, mess things up, go back up, come down, mess things up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:07

So anyway, during that time, um, you know, we uh at first we kind of we gathered together downstairs before uh and I think this is very funny because I I needed to use the bathroom, and so I was just like, I'm gonna go quickly use the bathroom. And what did I say? You said as soon as you you use the bathroom, the warning is gonna happen. And I was like, of course, you know, when I'm the most vulnerable, that's when it's gonna happen. Lo and behold, when I am the most vulnerable, think of this midstream. I got so scared. Luckily, I was already going, so you know, I didn't have to worry about it. Uh well, you know, you're right, you're right. I apologize for anyone who uh any decency I've I've attended. Uh no, we didn't die. We we ended up going downstairs to the basement and um lost power. And that was the other fun thing because it's we've got a a fun, creepy limestone basement, uh unfinished. And you know, we're we're joking, we're talking.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:03

We're telling ghost stories.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:04

We're telling ghost stories, lights turn off for a little bit, turn back on, we're like, huh, whoo, good. I thought I was gonna, and then it turned off.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:12

And that was it.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:13

And it stayed. And it's like, well, okay. So we kept telling ghost stories. And one of the ghost stories that we found, this was on on Reddit, uh, R slash Paranormal Encounters, which I also just wanna I wanna take a moment uh another aside real quick. I think the subreddit is hilarious because I can't tell if it's supposed to be kind of memey or not, but half of the half of the um posts, and this one, I mean, it shows here that it was posted two days ago. So it's like it's kind of perfectly timed to our our our episode. But a lot of the posts are jokes as well. And like the the the rules in the subreddit specifically state don't, you know, don't joke. Yeah, don't don't don't post pictures of of various things. Like it's this is uh a real story, a real paranormal encounter. So share your real paranormal encounters. And a lot of them are, but a lot of them you can tell, they're kind of goofing around. And the comments are always really funny, but this one feels real. Um, and it's titled Ghost Hitchhiker by one C OneC. Okay. What a name. I love that. That's fantastic. Okay. So I went on a scout camp to Bodman Moor in England, and my dad, who was a scout leader, told us scary stories like he always did, as it as it's a small group, and we all love them most of the time. But one always stuck with me. My dad lived in Bodman town in the in the 80s to 90s and had friends that were all into motorcycles, and they drove around a lot late at night as the roads were more quiet and can push limits of them. He then got a new motorcycle and always tested the speed of new bikes out on the A thirty on the Bodman Moore stretch of it. He had done one drive up to Temple along the A30, the bike felt good, reached good speeds, and decided to do the same back. But on that drive back to Bodman, he was slowly picking up speed and he saw a white lady in a dress in front of him. And he had to swerve out of the way. And he slowed down and looked on the side mirrors, and there was nothing. He turned back his head to look, but still nothing. But when he looked back into the mirrors, the lady was on the back of the bike holding him, like she's riding as a second person on it. He was shaking and terrified and never looked back in the mirrors out of fear and sped all the way back to the Badman police station in tears. And I called BS to him, but I brought it up to family members on his side, and they say they never saw him like that when he got back from the police station. Now, whenever I'm on that stretch of A30, I always try to find her in the back of my car.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:06

Cool. Can I add one more? Absolutely. I felt bad for the maid who didn't get the beer, so let me do this story. His father died suddenly, and he had lived with his son, we'll call him Ben, for three years prior. His son after work would take his dad to the local pub for a beer as it was a tradition. The whole family was born and bred in this town. The day after his dad passed, Ben drove past the pub and was remembering the tradition. Suddenly, Ben sees his dad in the back seat for a split second in the rearview mirror, smiling at him. Oh he slams on the brakes and jumps out of the car and honestly thinks he's going mad. He calms himself down and makes it home, shaky and scared. He goes to the fridge to get himself a beer and relax. When he turns around, his dad is at the kitchen table and says, Well, are you gonna get your old man a beer? Then disappears in front of his eyes, turned Ben's whole world view on his head.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:17

I bet there's probably because I weird, we you know, we talked about the vanishing hitchhiker. I bet this is probably a subsection of that as well, the appearing hitchhiker. That's right. Where you don't stop to put this bring bring this person in and they're just suddenly in the backseat.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:34

Well, and I there it's you know, we couldn't get through 22 pages of stories, but yeah, this is a cool thing. There's a lot of stuff out there, but there are a lot of uh there was one story that I didn't tell about these couple is driving, all of a sudden they look and there's an old woman combing her hair in their back seat.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

Like, whoa. So it's a driving hazard. I gotta say, spirits, please stop doing that. If we if we get spooked, we're we could easily swerve and then we'll be joining you in the afterlife. So maybe that's the point.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:02

Maybe that's it. Anyway, thank you for joining us in the present life.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:08

Yeah, thank you for being here with us, maybe on your card ride home or watching us on YouTube.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:14

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:15

Yeah. Um, if you have any stories of your own, whether they be stories like this or any other paranormal encounter, please email them to us at vftic at gmail.com if you would like us to share them with everyone.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:29

And please like, subscribe, tell your friends. Um, we're we're loving how much our our podcast is growing. We we just we're very excited about this. So thank you all who have who have already supported and like and have commented. Uh, we love your comments and uh keep it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:49

Yeah, yeah. We're we're very new, we're very small, and so any support that you can throw our way, whether it's uh a comment or a a like, or I guess for for podcasts, a favorite or a follow or whatever, any engagement that you can get with any of the platforms is always appreciated so that the algorithm can show us to more people with similar interests as you. So we appreciate everything that you're already doing and and yeah, our community, it's it's it's tiny right now, but it's growing and it's really exciting to see it grow. And we just we're hoping that it can grow further.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:26

And and again, if you have any topics you want us to cover, any topics that you can stand having us cover, we'd love to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:34

Do you know that we're probably gonna get a little sidetracked and and and but we'll always come back, you know? We're we're like uh we're we're like boomerang because we're doing Australia. I was I was gonna say like a dog. We're like we we run away sometimes, but we always come back home.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:49

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:50

You know, but a boomerang works. I can't throw a boomerang and have it come back to me. Neither can I, but we can't even say Australian names, so let's do the dog thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:57

Okay. Have a good night. Thanks for visiting.