 We'll give it a few more minutes for folks to might be rolling in a little bit late But I'm so excited to see some people here and he I hope people have stories to tell Come on There's got to be somebody with stories to tell you can tell other people's stories I have I have friend of a friend stories to tell Well, I guess kind of my friend not friend of a friend. Welcome. Come on in All right Go story night. Mm-hmm. We give it a couple more minutes to see if folks arrive Phyllis, I know you'll have to go first because you've got another party to get to Well, I'll go first, but you'll go second You're not shy Yeah, mm-hmm. I hear we're competing with the big Dave's community fitness party tonight, so Do you know Briefly I came in once to be to do your show for like a minute or whatever Yeah, I do the PSA's with Charlotte. Mm-hmm. Yeah This one's a fun one I I expected last year we had a ton of people I don't know if it's the weather or if we're getting too close to the holidays But this year it's a little but there are some cars pulling in so we'll give you a few more minutes, but But last year was a black was anyone here last year. I know Phyllis was Great stories and great local stories about the stagecoach the Stove flake the country club Boston College Yeah, yes, yeah, so so so it was it was great because it felt like it was like Local history as well as ghost stories. It was really fun So so, you know, don't be shy the camera can go off at any moment So if you if you are if you want to talk about something that you don't want recorded, that's okay We can that week in a moment's notice the camera can go off So but yeah, but last year I was really disappointed that we didn't record it because the stories Were so good. I felt I was like boy. I wish I had these Saved so so this year I thought we'd at least invite the camera and see if we we get something worth Preserving so I will start off with a folk tale not a not a true ghost story, but you're welcome to talk about anything But most people talked about their true ghost experiences last year, which was really interesting. So And it's a good night for it. It's extremely dark out and has been dark Solidly dark for two hours. It feels like and a huge snowstorm is coming tomorrow. So get us into the mood Let's see We're gonna give it a couple more minutes just cuz I saw somebody walking this way. So we'll let them let them get here Mm-hmm. Is everybody ghost believers? Yes, ghost believers. I always say Not to this I always There you go, yeah, I always say Yeah, I I say that I I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I am afraid of them. So definitely Welcome That's right, there's a lot out there there's a lot out there we do not know Yeah, welcome. All right. This is great. All right So, uh, I will get us started. I might give it another minute. It's just six o'clock now But uh, this is this is so much fun. I love I love him. I love telling ghost stories. I love hearing ghost stories It's one of my favorite things People in my book group Phyllis can attest that I always talk about some dark disturbing book I'm we we are in the no pressure book group here is a book group where there's no assigned reading You just talk about a book that you've read and enjoyed recently. So, uh, so it's a very light book group So this is my favorite thing and I love that it used to be a tradition in victorian england to tell ghost stories at christmas time Especially on christmas eve. It makes so much sense to me. It is the darkest time of the year. We're all gathered together We're eating good food having good drinks sitting around a fire. So I'm trying to revive that tradition. So I've got my fire We've got cookies No drinks allowed. Well, you can drink water, but no no alcohol allowed in the library Yes pass the cookies around People are always shy to take treats. Yes I'll just have before you start and you can always say no. Yeah I just enjoyed it. Thank you so much. They smell really good Yeah, judy did a good job picking out cookies Judy. Oh, I forgot. I was gonna judy baked all these cookies this afternoon Oh, yes, you can I'll teach you I will I will embellish a friend's ghost story very good tonight You definitely can yeah Um, so yeah, so so as I was saying I think that this is a very cool tradition And I'm trying to revive it and I also feel like You know, it's nice to have something different to do this time of year. We're all kind of overwhelmed with family and uh holiday celebrations and it's kind of nice to do something that's just for fun Um, and just for you and so I was like, oh ghost story night So this is my my tradition and this is my second year doing it And I hope to do this many years while I'm here at waterbury public library And my name is rachel. I'm the library director if you didn't know that And I am gonna kick it off with a story and I'm not going to tell you the title because I feel like the title gives it away But it's an old folk tale from the Celtic islands And I'll just jump right into it One winter's evening the sexton's wife was sitting by the fireside with her big black cat old tom on the other side Both half asleep and waiting for the master to come home They waited and they waited but still he didn't come till at last he came rushing in calling out Who's tommy tildrum in such a wild way that both his wife and his cat stared at him to know? What was the matter? Why what's the matter said his wife and why do you want to know who tommy tildrum is? Oh, I've had such an adventure I was digging away at old mr. Fortice's grave when I suppose I must have dropped asleep And only woke up by hearing a cat's meow meow said old tom an answer. Yes, just like that So I looked over the edge of the grave and what do you think I saw? Now, how can I tell said the sexton's sexton's wife? Why nine black cats all like our friend tom here all with a white spot on their justices And what do you think they were carrying why a small coffin covered with a black velvet pal And on the pal was a small coronet all of gold and at every third step they took they cried all together meow Meow said old tom again. Yes. Just like that said the sexton and as they came nearer and nearer to me I could see them more distinctly because their eyes shown out with a sort of green light Well, they all came towards me eight of them carrying the coffin And the biggest cat of all walking in front of the for all the world like But look at our tom how he's looking at me. You'd think he knows what I'm saying Go on go on said his wife never mind old tom Well as I was saying they came toward me slowly and solemnly and every third step crying out all together meow Meow said old tom again Yes, just like that till they came and they stood right opposite mr. Fordis's grave Where I was when they all stood still and looked straight at me I did feel a bit queer that I did but look at old tom. He's looking at me just like they did Go on go on said his wife never mind old tom Where was I? Oh, they stood still looking at me when the one that wasn't carrying the coffin came forward and staring Straight at me said to me. Yes. I tell you he said to me with a squeaky voice Tell tom till dream that tim toldrams dead And that's why I asked you if you knew who tom till dream was for how could I tell tom till dream Tim toldrams dead if I don't know who tom till dream is Look at old tom look at old tom screamed his wife And well he might look for tom was swelling and tom was staring and at last tom shrieked out What old tim dead then I am king of the cats and rushed up the chimney and was never more seen It's not really a good story, but I love it so much I had to do it and I thought that would be a good one to start off with. It's fun and Floor is now open And we do have a couple of plants if we are having if people are feeling shy But I would love anybody who has a story to tell it can be a real life experience You can make it up on the spot. We won't know the difference Please come up. Don't be shy. The camera can go off if you'd like We're we love to hear your stories Phyllis do you have anything? Yeah off. Yes I would love to hear more stories about the state hospital because it is such an interesting place was such a difficult and challenging history that we have to wrestle with but I actually for years I worked as the um as an archivist at the Vermont state archives right down the road in Middlesex And um, this is not a creepy story, but it's kind of an amazing story I was one of the two archivists who worked on transferring the historic records of the hospital into the archives, which we did Literally two months before Irene. So just such a lucky lucky thing. We had no way of knowing this was coming But thankfully we were able to preserve these were the very early Ledgers and registries and things like that photographs all kinds of records Just just pure coincidence and pure luck that we happened to be able to get those preserved at the state archives before that happened I also was one of the archivists who came to respond After Irene and we walked around the facility and down into the Travel we couldn't go down into the tunnels because they were so full of mud But uh, it really none of those records would have made it if we if we hadn't been able to do that So that was pretty pretty lucky Yeah, and it is it's we're hearing that you've ever been in the state complex when you get down into the basement areas I don't know if the rooms down there were actually used with people the stories they tell about what was in those bottom rooms Well, it's gone now anyway, but they were when you walked through there it was sound because it's Been a long time since this is something I'd like to bring up though Because I'm hearing it a little bit here and I connect with you because Holiday theme that's all right. I don't mind if the camera's on or not But this is something that happened to me and I have experiences with like Spirit worlds or other realms. I'm really I don't have a name for them. I'm not practiced at this nothing like that just like these are my experiences We being my husband and I were in Salem, Massachusetts in september 2014 It was our first trip out to the east coast were from california And it was like a big, you know, like our first vacation together as a couple and it was a big deal So my point being we were taking a lot of pictures. Okay, all like we were there for two weeks Pictures videos all kinds of stuff. So we knew our phones and our cameras were working So on my husband's birthday september 19th, which just so happens We learned on this night to be the anniversary of the death of the last person in the Salem witch trials Giles Corey and so we went on a witch walk that night And we ended up in the middle of the night at what is said to be the most haunted place in Salem, which is this Now just a building but was once a home originally and a two-story home where upstairs A young girl had been quarantined because she was sick whatever the nature of her illness was And so her parents had quarantined her up there and that's where she was like writing out her sickness And there was a fire and she died up there and so Over the years, I can't remember when this happened But basically over the years this building got passed off to the state and Various entities until it became like a historic building because nobody really wanted anything to do with it And so we ended this witch walk in the middle of the night on this fateful like anniversary night That we did not plan for it was just a vacation And we're hearing the story about this and the witch walk tour guide says You know take pictures like this ghost will sometimes appear and like your cameras might malfunction and You know just this is a very interactive ghost I'm paraphrasing but something to that effect. And so of course we're like wow, this is really cool and it doesn't feel Negative in any way. It just feels like something to be experienced And so we get up there and we do go to take pictures and I have my picture. I brought it tonight because That's awesome. I captured her on camera. Wow Like you can see her in the window Wow, it was this like I don't know. It felt very much like she trusted me or She felt safe with me or maybe she Didn't feel scared. Anyway, I don't know what the situation was But it was my husband's camera malfunctioned as well. He didn't get a picture of her but he got some Disturbance in his image. That was not what was actually in front of us. There was no clouds or anything like that So anyways, um, this happened. We're like These cameras they've been working this whole time Like whoa, this is really happening. And then as we're leaving this totally mind boggled On the ground, I see a brooch And it has opals and rubies in it. It's like an old fashion like Like from the titanic era Amazingly beautiful brooch and I'm like, whoa, this is valuable like I go to the tour guide and I say I just found this it's the middle of a busy street in this area. It's the middle of the night But like people have been walking around all the time. So it could have been someone that's there. I don't know. He's like You should hang on to that. I'm like, what like I don't this is not mine His thing was basically that There was a reason that I found it because we had talked about the pictures and various people had had no Experiences on their cameras and others had and some Didn't work at all. So a bunch of different things had happened and we had showed that I got a picture of her face And he was like, you should keep that. So I decided to I felt again that there was like some reason that I had Interacted with her and so I did I took it home and I took it home And then um over the years Our lives changed and we moved to the east coast. So we now live here in Waterbury, Vermont And I still have the brooch. I didn't bring it because I don't think it's like a trinket or a token but um, I just I have a place and that's where it is at my home and it's always been with me and Separately I had a ghost in a different home that I lived at when this happened while I was on vacation that I had had a Very bad ghost experience with like two weeks before my trip And after I brought this home not not connecting the dots not having any thoughts on it that never happened again Like I never had any ill Experiences in that same house. So anyways, I brought it home. I still have it with me And I just think that she feels safe with me and she likes to be talked about I myself have lost a child And so I think that Maybe she knew So maybe sorry, thank you You have the photo Telling your story I jumped because the light So we passed this around I was the pop socket if that makes it easier In the upstairs window Yeah That is a part like that's not like that's what she's looking at me It's great. Yeah, that's amazing. Oh my god. Wow. How cool. Wow. Look at that That was And my husband was gonna come with me tonight, but he's not feeling well. So I was like, I'm I had I had to hear what I love ghost tours and haunting tours when I'm when I'm traveling and I think it's such an interesting way to get a bit of history and But I will say the only one that ever really really scared me is it if you're ever in Niagara Falls Ontario It is the strangest Ghost walk it is not in that the popular parts of the Niagara Falls. It is in like the sketchy like mafia Ron Carson So much fun. So Yeah, it was so weird It's funny Oh, yeah Anybody with I don't try to it just happens. Um, that's the same with me. I don't call it to me Thank you Um, so, uh, we just had a question that has anybody taken photos and had orbs or other sort of mysterious oras or things like that up here Yeah, that's That's interesting. Mm-hmm Yeah, you have I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. So does anybody have a like a local story and waterberry story or um I can do one from the radio station. Oh, oh, this is fantastic. So I work on stow street And we've always had this sort of running joke about well, if you see pink eyes in the basement You know, it's either the rats or it might be rusty or Lloyd down there. Don't worry about it And over the years and I've been there 40 years over the years people come and go stop it And like, you know, I hear stuff when I'm here by myself and we always joke. Oh, that's rusty or Lloyd Don't worry about it. I've had a few instances where I'm in there either late at night early in the morning I'm by myself or there might be somebody on the third floor I'm on the first floor and you'll hear steps going up the stairs I turn on my monitor. Note the guy's on the air. So it's not him walking through the hallway I go up look down up the hallway. Nope. Nobody's around but there's something there that walks up and down the steps And about five years ago, I walk into the office early in the morning at 6 30 I'm there before anybody else is in the office. I punch in And I hear and feel something in my ear like a man or a woman has gone Oh, that's chilling and I just put my time card down and I turn around and there's nobody there But somebody Now with that said rusty parker did have his fatal heart attack on the air He didn't die in the building But his heart attack was there So we always jokingly say It's rusty or Lloyd and they're just hanging out with us So I go in in the morning fix my tea and I'm always like, hey rusty. I'm just here It's never been anything malicious or nefarious It's just there's something in that building That was his passion. Yeah, right So we just always sort of accept it and when somebody new comes in and they're like, yeah, I was here late at night Oh, that's just rusty. He's Don't worry about it I always think I wear these keys around my neck in the library so that I can open doors and they jingle when I die, you're going to hear that But that's thank you for sharing I will say I have been in that building it is a weird Building Narrow scare Multiple But there's a mezzanine and it's just it's very strange. Yeah, it's kind of it is kind of cool It's neat it's because it'll make it like that It's easy to get turned around because like you're like, wait, I'm on the mid where am I? Which is everything is trying to go up or down. So yeah, it's fascinating. Yeah, I love hearing water bearing stories Yeah, anytime Judy. I have to ask you worked in the old library in the james house. No, actually, I did Oh, you never like in the james house? This was the library staff Do you know any stories of the james house? Like it feels like the james house is the historic building at the front of this building That used to house the library, right? Um, and it feels like it must have stories. Yeah I the only thing I I would take students up to the top floor and supposedly teach the But uh, uh, you know, don't don't have anything but I I know there should be you think they would be Because uh, that's that's definitely historic. I mean, so you guys probably know james, um henry james Dedicated the building or gave the building to the He gave that was his home and you know preserved it for the library the town of water bearing that the the the Whatever word I'm trying to say Dedicated for for the library so that it would benefit the town So that that's the the history there. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful building and now you can see it. You can see the Uh, the wood the the beautiful scroll of work and upstairs if you haven't been it's the historical society um, and so you can You know see some of water bearing's history up there, which they do a great job displaying Yeah, and and just call and find out when you can go or just you know, maybe drop in during the day Yeah, it's really lovely. They've done a beautiful job. Yeah, I can't imagine trying to open a library So small, but yeah Anyone else have a story? I mean I can tell not my own story So I know that asking friends like about their own personal ghost stories is like one of my favorite things to do when When there's a lag in conversation and One of my closest friends she uh is from the pacific northwest feel free to embellish like sony extra Yeah And she's I think in college and she went home to visit her parents and they had just bought an apple orchard and her sister and her mother separately Had seen a man in the apple orchard and they thought it was the neighbor and he was you know Just an overalls the same shirt hat and they're like, oh, I saw the neighbor and they described him and they're like, oh I saw him too. We should introduce ourselves and When they finally did talk to the neighbors there was no man and The neighbors talked about the people that had previously lived there and the man had passed away and The neighbor was talking about how she misses seeing him out in the apple orchard and she started describing him and both of them realized Wait that that's who we're seeing and My friend You know she that was her sister and her mother One evening she was home again. She was in college. She was you know, is at night. They weren't home and she was working on her computer and The lights went out so She was like, oh, that's weird like a you know The um a fuse must have blown or something But then she walked over it to just check the switch And she was able to turn the light switch back on but it wasn't like a loose light switch. It was pretty stiff and moving so she flipped it back on And thought okay, that's weird And then she goes back to what she's doing and then it happens again And so she goes over and she turns the light switch back on and then again There's nobody there and she's starting to freak out a little bit and then she's just stop that And so she just talks to whatever is You know, she believes is causing this and it just doesn't happen again. Wow So we kind of take control And I do believe her she's not yeah, you know, yeah, no because that's I don't think spirits are like trying to Like Instigate something right, you know, I think they're just like don't Different maybe when they passed right some different social norms, whatever. So it was probably messing with you Maybe their character or whatever it is. So I'm here. I'm here Like that's what it feels like. I think that's really cool. I don't know if I agree with you about that Okay, what's your theory? Well, I don't mean to be morbid, but I think there I think there's been two deaths in my house the original owner And my husband he passed on his He committed suicide so I've gotten remarried And we've had a couple of instances where my second husband says to me one day I've been pushed up the stairs and into the Clock what's that big clock called grandfather grandfather clock. He said I was pushed up the stairs into the grandfather clock I know I've been pushed out the door fell on my front And what I do and we always blame my first husband for it because he was a And what I do is I go to the place where he shot himself and I say to him very calmly No, you don't take it out on my husband. You don't take it out on my dog If you're going to get mad you can take it out on me But stop it And then everything quiet down for a few months. Wow, which is like Yeah It's not always maybe I should have specified on it always because as I've said I've had a really Yeah, really scary right experiences. I just sort of think he's messing with us And I just as a character, you know as true to his character. Yeah as true to his character. He's gonna Yeah, and I don't know stop it So people don't change I keep saying It is there I want to look at your face because your voice. I know so well Yeah, I do I live at 12 Stoast Street across the street. Oh, okay. Okay. I probably see you where you should be. You have a great voice But uh, yeah Now with that said about my husband as I said, I think there's been two deaths in the house Maybe the original owner my husband comes out to me many years ago at about midnight And he's he comes into the bedroom. I'm sleeping and he says Stop watching me in the kitchen Whoa, I'm not watching you in the kitchen. He says, yes, you are you've been standing behind me Watching me make my peanut butter crackers Dude, I just woke up when you came into the bedroom. I'm not out there He says well, there is an old woman in the kitchen watching me make peanut butter crackers And I said to him Well, I haven't told you but I've been hearing a woman singing in our bedroom for about a week now It was just this little soft Hum. Wow, I assume maybe it was the original owner That she's Maybe a month interesting Yeah, he said she uh My husband said that she watched him one night for quite a while And then I heard singing probably on and off for about three weeks. Wow And it never scared me or anything. It's just like, okay, somebody's in the house with me. What's going on? Yeah We had experience at WDV Yeah, yeah But whether you have withered there are sightings or specific sounds or those kinds of Concrete things Don't you feel that Well, all of us Leave some sort of energy stamp wherever I go And when you go into places, just sense that And this is not really a ghost story and it's not really my story, but um, we our last stop on The road was in southbury, connecticut And it was the home of the southbury training school Which is the place where rain man was filmed And it was our property was adjacent to that and it was a cradle to the grave place to put misfits to put unacceptable embarrassing People who turned up in various families and most of them belonged to celebrities from the new york area And so by the time we lived we came there it was set up for I think it was A dozen people and there were only a few hundred like 400 by the time we were there But they and they let they had these buildings that were in good shape But they were vacant and so they allowed them for various community things and the high school used several of the buildings the cottages to For workspaces for making the stuff for grad night and foods for parades and that kind of business And honestly when you would walk into that building Any of those buildings they would almost hum at you. I mean you you could feel you could feel energy in there and It was the only life that many of these individuals knew and so I can't say that it was negative or positive But it was there for sure and it was in every one of the buildings into her eyes I love exploring old buildings. It's so interesting You wouldn't have anything I said I got more Take over, but I can't fill up our time. I should I do I'll do the train Yeah, I'll do a quick one. Yeah, I'll stand up. Yeah. All right. So this one is definitely a This is not my story. It's a friend's story, but I love this story um So I I was an archivist before I became a librarian. Well, I was a librarian I was an archivist for years And one of my first gigs was I went to uh pulse miss college. Does anyone know where pulse misses? It's in the adirondacks. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's near serenac lake if you know serenac lake so I was um fresh out of library school sent to pulse miss college to live for the summer to um get their archives into shape and So I was given an assistant I was 22 myself and I was given an undergraduate to be my assistant So I get this like super young kid um big fish fan But like just like a very uh, kind of a bro kind of a kid really nice guy though and he helped me out a ton and um He grew up in the adirondacks and knew the area really really well And so he had great stories about about growing up in the adirondacks Um, and one of his best friends was a kennedy So, uh, no a Rockefeller. That's what it was a Rockefeller So the Rockefellers own a ton of property in the adirondacks They which is has been good because they've actually preserved the the property But because he was a Rockefeller He knew his way around all these um pieces of property that were otherwise off limits that were preserved by the family So, uh one weekend he he's talking to my friend and he says hey Uh, do you want to go camping and fishing this weekend on some of my family's property? Like this is a pristine lake in the middle of nowhere Nobody knows where it is. It's miles from anything It's such a great place to camp and fish and so these my friends like yeah, of course we're going to do this It sounds great. So they like pack up all their stuff. They pack up their fishing gear They pack up their camping gear They drive down a million dirt roads in the middle of the woods Then they get out and they have to hike to the lake because there's no road that leads to the lake So I have to haul their like lightweight canoe and and their fishing gear to the the campsite And they're having a great by the time they get there It's like dusk and they're having a great time And of course they're drinking a few beers and like you know young men out in the woods having a good time and um So they're like, oh, okay, like let's do some night fishing because night night fishing is the best fishing We're gonna have but we're gonna catch some really good fish in this lake So they they get in their canoe and they like paddle out to the middle of the lake It is pitch black the middle of the night Um middle of nowhere miles from serenac lake miles from anything They're on the lake and they start to hear this like rumbling noise coming at them And they're like, what is that noise? There's nothing out here It gets closer and closer and then they hear a train whistle So they hear this rumbling they hear like it's now distinctly the sound of a train On the lake with them They hear a train whistle and they start to like get angst They're like what this makes no sense. There's no train tracks here This is the middle of nowhere and they're on a lake So um So they start to like panic and they start to like paddle fast to get off the lake And at that point they feel the whoosh like, you know, if if you're close to a train you can feel it going past you They feel the rumble of it. It shakes their canoe the wind blows They they are like It doesn't add up in any way historically as far as anybody knows there's never been a railroad track there But a train a ghost train went by them that night on this lake in the middle of nowhere in the adirates And he was telling me this like Dead serious like I've never seen this kid this serious is when he told this story He was like this really really happened. I cannot explain it. There's no history that explains it, but it happened So I've always thought that was the best ghost story because an entire train being a ghost feels pretty intensive Yeah, and the adirondacks are full of interesting stories Yeah, but Do you want do something else you want to share? Yeah, I could tell the story of um the scary ghost story I had before I took that trip so I was a single mom And I had a little baby boy and I had been like my whole life. I was like, I'm gonna buy a house before I'm 25 I'm gonna get my shit together. I was an addict when I was young and so I Got clean at 16 and just like I had goals. That's what I was doing And so I did I bought this house in the hood of sacramento because that's where I could afford a house And it had four bedrooms and every single bedroom door used to have a dead bolt Like when I bought the house and I looked at it. It was kind of like obviously I'm just gonna fix that but like What? So that's uncomfortable. Yeah, that's weird the layout of the house. It was very like Functional like very boxy and very square and The way it laid out like there was a big hallway right past the front door when you walk in and at the very end on the Right was my bedroom. And so that's where we slept and I Probably was like maybe two weeks of living there. It wasn't that long We had an unpacked like it was just chaos. Nothing felt like we were at home You know and I've been apartment hopping before that so I didn't even really know what that felt like, but it wasn't comfortable, you know and My son at the time was like four and he had been with friends who I had recently been living with who like wanted to spend the night with him They missed him and so he wasn't there and the person that I was with at the time we were at the house laying in the bed back right bedroom and Something just fell off like things were just like in the house the energy like so much energy So we go out into the front living room area and the way the house is set up like you walk up to the front door And it's kind of in an alcove. So there's like walls that are 10 feet long behind you And that's the living room right there and that's the kitchen right there and you walk down this to the front door So like there's the hallway and there's that living room area So we're in the living room at this point and our friends knock on the door There's nowhere to get out of the door besides in the door or like you'd have to I'd see you out the window so I Not even one second it opened the door and there's nobody there Like my husband was peeking out the window the doors open and we're like you heard that You didn't I heard that that was real like weird So then a few minutes later they actually show up and we're like no way this didn't happen Just things are weird like we don't really know what's going on and it's kind of hard to process that And I'd never had such a visceral experience that was so like Happened and I could just not pretend it hadn't happened and That night as we're laying in bed I can't see the doorway to my son's room and we always shared a bedroom before this house And so I can't see his doorway and I'm just like this isn't right Something's not right the doors closed this deadbolt that it's weird and I Feel the spirit this like evil negative Very bad energy I don't know what it was spirit literally go through my body like through my heart Like right the center of my chest, you know and I it was I couldn't breathe. It was like a physical Feeling and I just hopped up and ran right into my son's room and he was fine perfectly sleeping like None the wiser and basically that night. I just continued to have experiences where I could feel this I don't know still what to call them But this this thing that was happening and it was very physical and we had just closed on the house We had this big vacation plan that we had spent a bunch of money on and we're like We don't like this house. We don't want to live here. Like this is so bad My best friend had just had a baby and she had heart complications and all this thing These things were happening in life. And so we're just like let's go on vacation and just like Do that and when we get back we'll kind of figure out what we want to do and what's happening here And so when we got back I had that brooch and nothing ever Ever happened again at the house We completely remodeled it and when we sold it it was like not even the same house And we did it all ourselves and it was just this like I don't know what it was but something happened And it was I think that's so cool Maybe find this brooch and your heart was so honest you wanted to find who dropped it and the guy Like probably because he'd been doing this ghost walk and You know had seen and heard and experienced so many things he knew Whatever it was that there was a connection between you and that woman and and I'm not how how do I know? I wasn't there, but I just think it's so cool. Whether it's a guardian spirit or just I don't know. I just even when you told the story. I felt like this woman and you Maybe she saw something in you that reminded her of herself at that age or maybe whatever Who knows? Yeah, but it's you know, the guy did mention too He said like I can take it and turn it into the town hall kind of thing It's going to sit there forever and just sit on the shelf So that conversation happened. Yeah, and I was like I hate and my husband was very he's always been very encouraging Like he doesn't have many of these experiences on his own But in that time it was like this is telling you like take that and then to have that horrible such a like you said that visceral feeling about this Spirit that isn't good and then the brooch whether it was the brooch or the woman's energy or whatever But to have that Just dissipate and you told us the story in two different segments. Yeah It's crazy to talk about because like, you know, sometimes people don't believe stuff Right And like sometimes you just don't even want to bring it up because you're just like what are they going to think or What's the point or this person Doesn't even deserve to learn about this like special Be that I this that's why this we had so much fun doing this last year It's fun to have a room full of people who whether their believers are not are very open and very willing to share and are curious Which I think is really critical. So Anybody else we've got We haven't spoken. I don't know if you wanted if you want an opportunity to speak or a few well, I I wanted to I started writing a story for this event, but I didn't get it done But uh, uh, my goal will be to Have it done before next oh next year's event, but um, so it's basically um about This girl that um her dog goes missing from her front lawn, um and as she's searching for the dog and posting to The front porch forums in every town and this has taken on like for five years She's been searching for her dog, but as she's doing that she's noticing a pattern of other missing dogs Disappearing out of thin air In all the towns in vermont and so she starts tracking This information and it's kind of like an obsession for her. Um, because she's been doing it for five years and so You know, she's got the the wallboard with the vermont maps and she's using You know, red colored colored um push pins to keep track of The missing dogs and where they are and she's she's collecting all this information about the last five years and like has determined that there's something Possibly more sinister happening in vermont um because she's fine. She's like tracking that You know over five years There's been like 9 000 dogs that have gone missing And so I so I'm developing that story to share for next year um But I do want to I I did want to share this other um Real life story that happened to me that like because you all were sharing your stories. I Uh, I it resonated with me and and so I was thinking about like if something had ever happened to me and I mean, I guess Things have happened to me over the years, but I just kind of passed it off as like Not really anything But when I was um 21 I I moved um to high gate vermont. I don't know if you know where that is, but it's It's up north and I remember um, so I Uh I had my own car but I hadn't been driving for very long because I didn't get my first car until I was 20 and so um, I remember going to berlington and going out with friends And I didn't really know the area of high gate and sand albans, but so I was traveling back from berlington back home to high gate and um, it was late It was like one in the morning So it's pitch dark and I again I didn't I wasn't familiar with the roads and high gate because I'm not you know Not only had I never lived up there or really traveled that much out of my hometown Because I had a new You know, I was a new driver um, but um, you know, so I'm kind of an inexperienced driver at that point and so um, I'm driving home and then Um, and there's no other cars on on the road because it's one in the morning and and all of a sudden like I'm not really paying attention because I'm tired, but um, I hear this voice To the right of me and coming from the passenger side of my car and and it said and it was a man's voice A deep voice and he said slow down I just kind of like I wasn't really paying attention and And then I am like driving driving driving and and he's like You're gonna need to slow down and I again, I'm young. I didn't really Think much of it and then He yelled I'm a intersection um With stop signs, but like my I didn't see the stop sign and just as that happened this truck just like Flew by me He must have been going like 80 miles an hour and that was the first vehicle I had seen for like Probably 30 minutes because I'm like traveling home and I just and like I mean I literally swam on the brakes and it was like somebody was there and they were like Shouting at me, but it was so real because it kind of startled me Um, to the point of like I'm like, okay And I slammed on the brakes and like I jolted front You know, I like came to a really quick Hard stop and that's when the truck like came in front of me and just was like Going, you know 80 miles an hour and it scared me and I was like, oh my gosh and then after that Of course, I was like, why don't we capture that? And then I proceeded to go home Wow That isn't has anyone heard of mysterious ways It's a five monthly publication by guideposts What she just reported Is what the stories are guideposts? Hearing the voice next to you In some say it's your guardian angel Maybe it's jesus christ. I don't know but your story is what I read many times in mysterious ways And that was so well told Like the energy I'm so glad you chose to share it. I still remember it because it was so Real and like as if I was like a human person was like physically in my car. Wow Has anybody else ever been in the car that you've heard anyone else in the car with them? You know that kind of happens to me a lot Like in the car and I mean I have um Like things hanging from my my rear view mirror You know st. Christopher like The is the symbol the catholic symbol for like protection travel protection So I have that and it was weird how I came across that necklace like out of the blue kind of like I'd never seen it before but it was in my things So I thought it was cool. So I hung it in my car And um, I didn't know the symbol because I'm not catholic Um, I just thought it was a cool pendant. Um Or yeah pendant and so I After a while like stuff started happening in While I was driving it's like somebody's in my car like giving me That's yeah, yeah, absolutely listen, um, whether it's like I'm lost Um, I get that information like even when I have a GPS and I'm like I I just have somebody except it's a woman and not a man. Um Letting me know like What to do and so I 99 of the time like I I do follow that instead like my GPS even though like, you know You're kind of trained to be like trusting of your Electronics, but but you know when they fail But yeah, that's happened to me quite a bit in the car No, uh, actually yes, I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. Um, because it was a It was like a dodge shadow It was the first car I'd ever purchased by myself and it was pre-owned Yet the shadow Wow, this is this well, thank you for sharing And I'm so excited that you're writing something and that's another thing I did want to say is that I'm very open to fictional stories and if we do this again next year and I hope we will Um, please bring your writing as well. Um, I know that judy runs the the writer's very free group And then Denise has been a part of that as well. Yeah, it's margaret. Yes. Yeah Any any last stories to kind of wrap up on? This has been such a blast. I'm so glad that with a smaller group than last year, but Really good stories and a really good Um, that's a good sharing I feel like it's been a very warm group and I really appreciate sharing and I'm gonna make this an annual event So look for it next year. Um always in december because I think you have to do this at the darkest time of the year We're reflecting on the the year past And yeah, thank you for coming. If you didn't get a cookie make sure you get a cookie Did you say that traditionally ghost stories were filmed at this time? Yeah It's a victorian british tradition to tell ghost stories at christmas Especially on christmas eve is families gather together sit around the fire and tell ghost stories And that's interesting because Obviously, we all know halloween all and all halloween and then the month of november all the saints are recognized and so forth and so maybe by december the spirits have Just gotten tired sitting around it and not being able to do anything And so they're back at action again And it's it's such a dark time and you you come inside and you you gather with people and you and you tell stories And uh, and I just I think that I'm trying to revive that traditions. I think it's so great. Um, and yeah, I just I just love it So yeah, so thank you all