And That's Why We Drink - Listener Stories: Vol. 31

Episode Date: August 1, 2019

Speaking of fractions and astrology... happy August! We've got some wild, wild listener stories this month with a theme straight from Christine's wild west demands: Cowboys! Tune in for everything from ghostly spurs to a comforting cowboy hand during a violent mozzarella stick vomiting incident... and that's why we drink!Please consider supporting the companies that support us!Get 50% off your first month of Scentbird when you go to Scentbird.com/DRINK and use code DRINK To see what’s going on in your neighborhood, download the free Neighbors app today. Go to ring.com/DRINK to download from the Apple or Android app stores!

hello and welcome to the uh august it sounds so listeners episode in the year doesn't it it does that means as of this coming out we are about to be like an 8 out of 12, eight twelfths done with this year. Eight out of 12, Lord Almighty. But still, that's like almost two thirds. Okay, I was about to say. I know my fractions. I don't know shapes, but I know my fractions. That is two thirds. Yes. And also, what was I going to say? Oh, next month, we're going touring. So we're coming right up on it. Next month, we're going to be in Salt Lake twice and we'll back to back. And then we're going to be in New Orleans and Atlanta. That's right.

And I'm literally this month of August, I'm gone like the whole month. So I'll be in Germany and Austria and Kansas City. A lot of wild stuff happening. A lot of for us in August. A lot of stuff going on. And it's probably still freaking hot. So also it's about to be Virgo season. So I don't know.

I don't know a Virgo. My dad is a Virgo. Interesting. I don't care for Virgos, really. Not that I don't care about my dad, but any Virgo I've met, I usually don't. They're too hard-headed for me. Everyone yells, okay, I want to be clear. I never said anything about Scorpios. Em has only been the only person to ever make a statement about another star sign. I don't, we get paired together a lot when people hate me for hating Scorpios. I'll take the full blame. Don't blame Christine. I remember you telling me, I was like, yeah, Gio's a Scorpio. And you're like, ugh. And I was like, what does that mean? Like, I had no idea. So, um, I don't stand by this Virgo

thing, especially cause I don't have any friends who are Virgos. I'm not saying I hate Virgos. I'm saying we typically don't get along well. Interesting. Is that a Gemini thing? I don't have any friends who are Virgos. I'm not saying I hate Virgos. I'm saying we typically don't get along well. Interesting. Is that a Gemini thing? I don't know. Maybe. I mean, considering I don't really know anyone. Usually I just stay around the A's and the L's.

Can you imagine if a friend of mine is listening like, fuck you, I'm a Virgo. If you're a Leo Libra Aries Aquarius, I usually hang out with you more than others. I'm also prone to to Pisces which is Eva it's a lot of I have a lot of Pisces so those are my go-to's usually mine are Libra Pisces Aquarius love a good cancer I do spend me too I spend a lot of time with um Capricorns for no reason because we're not a good match but like Blaze is one and some of my best friends are

and it's such a weird match but like like it doesn't seem like it should work but somehow it does yeah capricorns are their own enigma i feel like i don't really have a problem with any uh signs but like i will make a blanket statement oh time to have no babies sorry i typically try not to make blanket statements about star signs however i will make a blanket statement about scorpios and i seem to not get along well with virgo or taurus those seem to be my three that like i just don't know what's so weird i don't know any sagittarius virgo or taurus really um okay anyway sorry that we just like anyway now that i've given you all of my opinions that you don't get to even like jump in on speaking of fractions we just like speaking

of fractions and astrology we insulted a third of you i think so sorry i didn't it was in it was all me i love all of you i i like i want to love the scorpios you you do not you love to hate the scorpios i love to just complain about anything well i know it's not their fault that they fell into the mix of that but oh well sorry moving on here are our listener stories everyone left already you pissed them off that's true um for those listening for those who are not taurus virgo or scorpios um we are doing our listener story if you are brand new to these this is where on the first of every month we tell six different personal stories from our listeners who have submitted them to and that's why we drink at Gmail dot com.

And Eva curates a mix. And then she selects six of them and or sometimes seven this month. I think it's six. Yeah. And we read them out loud for you guys. And you get to hear our responses in real time because we have not read these either. We steal your content and use it for our entertainment purposes. Thank you kindly for your services.

And guess what? Eva, listen to me because I yelled at her a lot why it's cowboy theme is it you know how i feel about cowboy ghosts i like that she even told you the theme this time usually we have to guess every subject line i haven't looked at the email no okay well the email said i i yelled at eva i was like give me cowboy please and she did but she probably had a great theme and then she was like i gotta go find some fucking cowboys no because remember i yelled at Eva. I was like, give me Cowboy, please. And she did. She probably had a great theme. And then she was like, I got to go find some fucking cowboys. No, because remember, I yelled at everyone listening to send cowboys. And they're just like a ton. OK, good.

They all say, listen, this is about cowboys or cowboy story or whatever. Well, I'm ready for my mind to bleed, to be blown. I thought you said to bleed. I was like, no, please. I don't want that. No concussions. So please, I'll go first. Sure.

You have three, correct? Yes. Okay. You guys want to make sure. Okay. So this story is from Donna. And Donna's subject line is listener story. The shadow cowboy per Christine's requests.

Thank you. There you go. So Donna says, Hi, they're all people, animals and fruit items. Oh, my word. I've been listening forever, but I've never written in before. Most of my experiences have been limited to empathetic reactions to people or places, but I did see something once that probably scared a decade off my life. Oh my goodness. Oh no. So since Christine asked for cowboy ghost stories, here you go. Thank you.

When I was about 14 or 15, I traveled with my extended family to visit some cousins at their dairy farm in Oklahoma. Sounds like Oklahoma. That's fun. The house was beyond full, so a bunch of us kids were bunked down on the dining room floor. That sounds so fun as a child. That does. Ultimate summer vacation. It was a long, narrow room. So just imagine us laid out on the floor, side by side like sardines. I love it.

The dining room was next to and open to the living room, and my position left my head right at the juncture between the two rooms. No. Why would you ever sleep in a doorway? No. into the living room and my position left my head right at the juncture between the two rooms no why would you ever sleep in a doorway no because everyone else bullied you into it probably i would just sleep on top of someone until they moved i think right you're also an only child you didn't get to experience the i don't know what it's like to lose i only know what it's like to i don't either because i'm the oldest right right right uh i have been asleep for a while when something woke me up i don't know

what it was a sound maybe or my younger sister jostling me i'm a stomach sleeper so i lifted my head and saw someone in the living room he was sitting in an antique straight back chair between the fireplace and a big bay window that looked out to the front yard i couldn't see any details but could distinctly make out the outline of a cowboy hat and one leg propped up, ankle resting on the opposite knee. The weirdest thing, though, was the foot still on the floor was slowly, deliberately tapping. Ew! So it's like, just waiting? Like, tick-tock. Startled, I did what any smart kid would do. I put my fucking head back down.

Correct answer. If I wasn't looking at it, I'd be fine, right? Put your head under a blanket and you'll be invisible. You saw nothing. You saw nothing. And it didn't see you. Well, apparently that didn't work because they said. I had to look again just in case.

So I lifted my head and this time the figure was standing in front of the chair. Still only a dark outline. Still tapping one foot. Nope. This time I dragged the covers over my head and i frantically tried to think of an explanation maybe someone had gotten up in the middle of the night to smoke outside and put a cowboy hat on right and decided to be a cowboy and stopped back by to check on us kids my grandfather was the only real possibility since he had a tall slim build

and the rest of the family was frankly kind of short and round uh no shade no shade but it didn't look like my grandfather oh no oh no i peeked again it had only taken a second or two for all of us for all these thoughts to zip through my head but in that time the figure had moved closer silently covering about half the 12 or so feet between us okay so it so it's just like nearing horror movie style. Slowly. Without sound, it seems. This is... I wonder if the foot's still tapping. Ugh. At this point, I was sincerely starting to freak out, as you should. Like, thought I might pee myself freak out.

Oh, poor thing. I wanted to run and get my parents, but I couldn't leave the safety of my blankets, and honestly, I didn't even know which room my parents had ended up in for the night, so... Oh my god, you're trapped. I my eyes shut and the did the best thing i shook my sister awake good she grumbled and immediately went back to sleep she wasn't going to help me this whole ordeal was mine and mine alone to deal with so you're saying donna so i opened my eyes again and the thing was right next to me i thought it would go away come on that close i should have been able to see details like the stitching on his boots or

the wrinkles in his pant leg, but it was just black nothingness. I should have been able to hear something too. Fabric wrestling or that foot tapping on the hardwood. Right, or like walking on the hardwood. But all I could hear was my cousin snoring across the room. This is horrible because it knows they're awake and can see. And it's only one person can see this yeah it it knows that someone is awake and the rest are not going to help i've got your attention

oh god i was crying when i dove back under the covers i must have cried myself to sleep because it was full daylight when i woke up and someone was frying bacon in the kitchen that must be such a jolt of like i know suddenly it's sunshine and i would have thought i jumped into an alternate dimension yeah correct uh i started to wonder if i dreamed at all but my sister was mad at me for He said a jolt of like, suddenly it's sunshine and bacon. I would have thought I jumped into an alternate dimension. Yeah, correct. I started to wonder if I dreamed it all, but my sister was mad at me for waking me up and then hogging all the covers. Oh. I wish I had some sort of explanation. Like I found out the farmhouse had been some cattle rustlers outside back in the day or maybe the site of a poker game.

Gone murderously wrong. Oh, God. But I have no answers for you. Just the silent shadow of an impatient fid i have no answers for you just the silent shadow of an impatient fidgety cowboy thank you for the show and all your hard work team milkshake and team booze though never the twain shall meet oh through never the twain shall meet though never the twain shall meet why can't i read then then donna says that's just gross that's thank you for agreeing we agree with that we like to keep them separate. We're very bipartisan.

Yes, for sure. Only about this milkshakes and wine. Yeah. Everything else is allowed to mix however it wants. That's horrible. It's horrendous. Because it's also as a kid, you're like, oh, there's a grown man watching me. Like, it's horrible no matter what.

If it's see-through, also horrible. If it's like an actual man walking toward you, also horrible. Yikes. Doesn't end well. Unless you wake up with bacon, then it seems to end well. At least there was like a happy ending there, which was bacon. It is weird that it was like in an Oklahoma ranch house where that would have been, you know, a site for cowboys. It seems very on brand to have found a cowboy ghost in a farmhouse.

Yes. Tapping is freaking me out, though. Also, slowly and intentionally. And like just nearing every time you look up. Yeah. Is just, you know, our least favorite thing. Anyway. Well, luckily, I have a story from Laura.

Thank you, Donna, by the way. Thank you, Donna. I have a story from Laura called Cowboy Story. Oh, well, that's I wonder what it's going to be about. I'm so glad you made it easy for eva to find right okay laura says hi i just recently found your podcast and i'm obsessed i wonder if it's gonna take them like a year to catch up to this part and be like wait right that's me wait a minute that sounds a lot like my story cowboys okay oh wait no because they heard the cowboy episode i'm such an idiot okay i'm sorry i've

had several experiences of my own but i'm currently listening your june listener stories well there it is and just had to share this such an idiot i just got back from a trip to western colorado my partner our daughter and i stayed at an airbnb in a guest house on someone's ranch it's all these ranches when we arrived we had been driving all day so we were all exhausted we promptly got ready for bed and passed out that first night we all exhausted, and we promptly got ready for bed and passed out. That first night, we all had nightmares and slept really poorly for being as tired as we were. Our daughter came down to tell us about her dream, and after she went back to sleep, I had one really horrible one of my own. Over the years, I've discovered I am somewhat of a sensitive, and spirits sometimes manifest in my dreams.

Super. Nope. So the next morning, when I realized we had all gotten back nope sorry when i realized we had all had bad dreams i started to question if someone was there the structure we were sleeping in wasn't that old but given the history of the land i thought there was a possibility of a spirit being connected to the land versus the home the next night i mentally tried to put walls up before falling asleep i dreamed or i could have been awake i'm honestly not sure that i was lying in bed in the very room we were staying in the The front door was visible from our bed, and in walks a cowboy in full getup, like leather chaps, vest, and hat, the whole nine.

His face was mostly obscured by shadows, but his silhouette was enough to tell me he wasn't of our time. I asked him what he was doing there, to which he just shrugged. Okay. That sounds like Walt. I don't know. I just, looking for gin? I don't know.

I then asked him to leave us be, and without a word, he turned and left. After that, none of us had interrupted sleep or bad dreams for the remainder of our trip. Cheers, Laura. That's a good story. You protected your little daughter from bad dreams. Very nice of you. That is nice.

Also, so I once used to stay in a farmhouse a lot. My mom was dating this guy pretty seriously. Oh, I remember this. I used to stay in a farmhouse a lot. My mom was dating this guy pretty seriously. Oh, I remember this. And I'm just, I'm only piggybacking off that because my mom absolutely did not defend me at all. Oh, no.

In fact, told me to get over it. That's why we're troubled. That's why we do this. That's why we have a podcast where we can just complain. Rehash our issues. It's where we can say the things that we are upset about with our parents without having to face them. Right. We get validation from each other. Mom, are you listening?

Mom? No, that's the point. They gone they've abandoned us uh so we were staying in this farmhouse she was with this guy who was living in or i don't know if living there permanently but like had two houses he lived in he lived in one like closer to dc and then this was like his farmhouse sure and it was originally his mom's place and it was really creepy his mom had died in the house and he never changed anything in the house like her bedroom was off limits i was never allowed to go in there and everything looked as as if she had just walked out that day nope and um and it had been years nightmares and um i remember going like into her room just because i was 12 and

someone said don't go in there and i didn't know the backstory so i went in and i remember like seeing like her hair was still on the hairbrush and everything it was really it was like a shrine like an antique mirror yes no it was i mean it was an old ass probably 100 year old farm i see it in my in my mind's eye and it looked it it didn't it wasn't like kept up well it was like everything was kind of dusty everything was kind of grungy paint was chipping and he just never wanted to get rid of it because it was his mom's. And when we first were at Bates Motel, when we were first staying there, my mom stayed in a room with me and slept separate from him because I think she wanted me to like not feel like, oh, I brought my child like to my boyfriend's house and I'm going to leave you alone in this strange room by yourself. Sure, sure. So she was like, I'll sleep with you. And that was nice yeah that was nice that was the last nice

thing she did like and then it stopped because then i woke up in the middle of the night and i i don't remember what i saw but i know i felt a woman standing over the bed staring at me no no and it was the night after i had just gone into her room when I was told not to. O-M. And nothing ever, like, nothing happened beyond someone standing and staring at me. And I remember trying to wake my mom up and being like, mom, there's a lady standing over our bed right now. And she just, like, just kind of, like, grunted and rolled over and went back to sleep and was like, you're fine. Just go to sleep. Oh, my. There's a literal strange-ass ghost standing standing over us and she did not care

oh yeah they don't care no i'm like that doesn't even scare you i wonder if that's the spirits like i wonder if they control the other people around you so like they but even now my mom's like oh yeah i've seen plenty of ghosts i don't care i'm like what do you mean like that's so frightening to me and they're just so blasé about it yeah i don't know anyway so mom if you're listening i still remember that and i'm still upset she's like i don't know anyway so mom if you're listening i still remember that and i'm still upset she's like i don't i was having a great sleep so my next story is from marley marley's subject line is you asked for a cowboy story it's a happy one oh yes thank you so much this is so sweet and affirming that you guys actually sent me cowboy stories marley says hey

y'all my best friend and i are obsessed with the podcast and created our own similar one at our university it's the last listener in the last listener episode um y'all asked for more cowboy stories and i have many so here's a short snippet okay um i grew up in a small town of 1200 people in colorado in the middle of absolutely nowhere we're on uh we were on the eastern plains. My family and I live on a farm about 15 minutes outside of town. My mom and I are empaths, and every single house we've lived in has had spirits. One of my favorites was the cowboy in the farmhouse, a.k.a. my grandpa.

Aw. Unfortunately, my grandpa passed before I was born, so I never got to meet him. But he was always in the house house and it was normal growing up. Um, my first encounter was at two months old, asleep in my crib. My mom had a dream that my grandpa was in his dress blues as a retired U S Navy officer to come and see me for the first time. I love stories like that. I was born with light hazel eyes, but when I woke up the next morning, they were dark Brown, like my grandfather's, and they've never changed back. That's precious and wild. That's so sweet.

When I was seven, I remember hearing footsteps coming up and down the hall. Also, let's not step away from the fact that, like, someone just asked in our Facebook Live, if you were a ghost, what would you do? I would change someone's eye color to look more like me. I'd be like, that kid doesn't look more like me. Be like, they look better. Be like, that kid doesn't look enough like me. So let's change things up. They look better with glasses. But also that means they can change your eye color.

Like spirits can literally just change your eye color. I guess so, huh? That's wild. Why don't they do things like that more often then? Why don't they fix my hair? It doesn't look great all the time. Maybe they do. Maybe that's what they want you to look like.

Maybe they hate me and hope my hair always looks like a mess. That's true. Maybe we've made some bad friends on the other side or just like they're not fashionable and we just haven't picked fashionable ghosts right right crap i have heard of ghosts like untying your shoelaces and shit so like they do know fashion if they want to like they know how to mess with your clothing they know how to pull your shoelace so you trip on your face uh confuses hell oh when i she's not confused yet when i was seven i remember hearing footsteps coming up and down the hall with clanking metal confused as hell i laid in bed and didn't move and feared that someone was in the house completely irrational because we lived in the middle of nowhere not irrational shit happens shit happens my mom yelled from the other room mike if you're

going to be here, at least take the spurs off. Stop. And the footsteps continued, but the metal clanking sound was gone. In truly cowboy fashion. That is bananas. The next morning, there was a dime on my bedside table, almost like an apology for scaring the hell out of me.

Also, why aren't ghosts paying me for scaring me? You know? I mean, they're paying you to do this podcast. Okay, sure. Like we're literally using them for entertainment you're right thanks mike and many others there are uh our muses if you will he would leave us little signs like leaving dimes to let us know that he was there i had emergency surgery when i was 10 and the doctor said that he had only noticed there was a dime in my hand during surgery after they had began and a dime appeared on the tool tray after making

the first incision they're like they're like which nurse but this is so unhygienic get this dirty money out of here so uh so uh it's even following them to the to the hospital sweet to make sure you're okay but have you heard that about dimes because i've heard that i've heard that about dimes and i've heard that about bobby pins oh interesting i've heard about dimes and butterflies like as ain't as um and ladybugs oh but dimes i think is a common one they say like associated with angels interesting yeah sounds like an angel he's following you to the hospital just to make sure you're okay i love that he's just standing with the doctors and like yeah you're doing well you're doing well let me put this dime in her hand real quick hold on uh the freakiest and my favorite story happened on july 29th and 2009 the 10-year anniversary of his death wow having just turned nine three days

earlier i just uh learned about the gift of being empathetic this shook me to my core oh boy we were moving out of the farmhouse and we were grabbing the last of our things and decided to do one final walkthrough of the house every single clock in the house was at 1 37 p.m even though it was 3 15 p.m I just got chills. front porch he tips his hat winked at me and was gone so this figure is literally on their swing tips his hat winks and goes away no matter where i am on july 29th at 137 i find a dime and i wake up with one on my bedside table on my birthday every year that's really sweet that's i think the nicest ghost story i've ever heard my grandpa doesn't do that grandpa what the fuck is going on give me money also like let me know you're around my birthday was last month you're already late yeah mine didn't didn't leave me any time you know my

grandpa likes to do he likes to like pinch me on my arm that's a birthday pinch oh thank you grandpa well my grandpa shows up in my dreams that's about it he's probably knows i'm too scared otherwise my grandpa showed up in two dreams and i've been asking since he died when i was really so this this grandpa's giving you a run for your money if you're listening uh love your podcast and all the fur babies uh and from colorado marley p.s sorry it's so long have other stories, so maybe I'll submit more. Please. That was precious.

That one was so heartwarming. And the clocks all turn as they're moving out of the house. And then there was a dime waiting for them on the front porch. And a figure. That's the most intelligent spirit I've ever experienced. Yeah, he's got a hang at this thing. Yeah. Changing eye colors.

Doing a lot. But knowing they're going to be on the front porch and just sitting there waiting for you just like planning it all out just to say goodbye like a little scavenger hunt no matter where she is and on her birthday every year the thing about the birthday like really pushed me over the edge into into crying territory i have goosebumps i yeah agreed that's wild about the middle way through that story i started developing them wow job well done marley look at my arms i know it's it's crazy it's still going wow okay well props to your gramps if he ever needs another uh what's best grandpa alive or dead he needs another

granddaughter to uh to wish a happy birthday every now and then if he's got extra dimes if you got if he has some quarters maybe he's trying to get rid of. Some dollar dollar bills. He has a couple Benjamins he's trying to get rid of. Maybe a new credit card. I don't know. Let's see how far we can push this thing. Okay.

This one is from Zoe. The subject is, listen, it's about a cowboy, I swear. Okay. Which makes me think it's not about a cowboy. Why are you saying it like that? Something tells me Zoe is not going to tell us about a cowboy until the last sentence right technically hey i'm christine even gang yes including lemon thank you lemon says hi this story is more like a few bite-sized stories we love that love a good bite-sized story that you can munch on we love

anything we can munch on that compound to one bigger picture so So buckle up. Okay. When I was very young, probably five or six, I often told my mom about my friend, Jerry. Absolutely not. Nope. Jerry was a boy the same age as me who had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was the sweetest caring boy. Okay.

So far, so good. So far, so good. He was always happy and smiling. He didn't have a mean bone in his body. So far. Too good. Let's just put so far at the end of every sentence. Allegedly so far. Too good. Let's just put so far at the end of every sentence. Allegedly so far.

However, my mom didn't seem to quite understand and would call him imaginary. It was confusing because he was right there next to me and my mom just couldn't see him. But I always... I know. This is... Okay. But I always shrugged it off because Jerry was super nice. We played with toys together.

He comforted me when I was sad and was a friend I could turn to. I started calling him what my mom called him, my imaginary friend. Oh, shit. Eventually, my mom telling me he wasn't real made it so I stopped seeing Jerry as often. Aww. Our kids are not going to have that. It's very much like Santa Claus. Like, if you say you believe in him, he's there.

Yeah, then the magic is real. Right. I do feel like we're going to do the opposite where our kids are going to be like, oh, I have an imaginary friend. We're like, he's not imaginary. Ghost, go to the light tell him to go to the light they're like no he is i invented him no it's like i literally created him today at lunch when i was i drew a picture you mean he manifested from his grave that's what he wants you to think he's actually a demon all right our poor children um i started calling him my brother and slowly he

slipped away once i was a bit older i chalked it up to being entirely made up as i always have had a very grand imagination when i was about 11 or 12 i started really getting into the paranormal you see my house was haunted like voices and footsteps every night and things being thrown at me from across the room absolutely not my room was of course the hot spot now i could fill an entire separate length email about this house as i've been meaning to do for some time, but after this most recent listener episode where Christine asked for cowboys, I just had to deliver.

The squeaky wheel. Okay. Just the oil. That's Christine. The shrieky wheel. That's me. The squeaky wheel squeaking about cowboys. And just shrieking. Shrieking all over. My two cousins and I, all between the ages of 10 and 13, got really interested in speaking with the paranormal and medium work.

We avoided Ouija boards mostly because my mom didn't want my sister or I to use one, and we would have been grounded for even bringing one into the house. Nice. Smart. And mostly communicated through pendulums or occasionally doing a seance with a candle. Oh, okay. In the middle of our circle. 10-year-olds, I don't know. I don't know if you followed every rule.

I don't know. I swear to God, Jerry comes back at the end of this. I'm not loving this. I'm not going to like where it's going. I'm afraid. We focused heavily on good spirits, specifically on guardians. Okay, well, you probably do better than I would at a seance. Pay for effort.

Guardian spirits and spirit guides. During all of this, I spoke with my spirit guide. Now I was very nervous because I knew about darker spirits being able to disguise themselves as good ones. This is a smart 11 year old. Wow. I was not this. I was not this on top of it. I was like, ooh, like oh send me a sign throw something at me throw a knife my way yeah

something horrible hurt me okay um during all this i was very nervous yeah yeah yeah but still i proceeded with communicating the spirit guide seemed super nice despite his sass and sarcasm was it m it might have been might have been me you yeah so when i finally not me so when i finally felt brave enough one day while camping oh okay interesting place to suddenly feel very brave i asked my spirit guide to make some sign they were there oh god oh lord not in the woods in the woods alone by campfire i'm sweating i glanced around and out of the corner of my eye i saw a cowboy leaning against the railing of the stairs that led to the cabin absolutely he was more of a modern

day cowboy like one you might find on a ranch farm nowadays he seemed to be around 15 or 16 years old he was wearing cowboy boots blue jeans a light blue flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a cowboy hat it was only a glimpse of the figure but i remember it so clearly in my mind because it gave me chills and still does to this day when i tell the story you see this cowboy he had blonde hair and blue eyes and was smiling all through my time communicating with my spirit guide they'd been telling me their name was jared and it wasn't until i saw that cowboy with his blonde hair and smile that i remembered about they grew up together old friend jerry i'm they were originally the same age when she was younger and now they're both older.

Which means even though she couldn't see him, he was always there. Or the spirit guide just presented as something she could relate to as a kid. I don't know. That's where my mind went. No matter what, it's creepy. Because I think spirit guides are... Whatever. We can get into that another time.

My old friend Jerry. I have no doubt in my mind now that Jerry, the sweet little boy I used to play with, wasn't imaginary and he has been my guide all through my life. Aww. I'm 23 now and have been helping friends and spirits in hauntings since I was 16. It's kind of like a side hobby. I typically keep on the down low and don't talk about much. But I help my friends cleanse their homes and help spirits to move on every now and then casual nbd nbd i may not communicate to

random spirits as willy-nilly as i once did but anytime i talk about or think about jared i always feel his warm and protecting presence next to me so he may not be a scary cowboy but he is a cowboy nonetheless thanks so much for everything you do i often listen a lot i work on my artwork and it reminds me that i'm not the only one in the world who is obsessed with true crime and the paranormal zoe wow that you the the affirmation that your friend who was so good to you as a kid was with you this whole time and he's taking care of you that's so touching and i was like i mean we were both like uh yeah so far so far he's gonna be a demon we've stereotyped spirits i know at this point jerry i'm sorry we just used our jerry if

you're listening we we apologize we didn't mean to put you in a box oh wow that's adorable that's really sweet all right all right let's try to top it so far we've got two really like warm warm cowboy stories see i told you this was a good idea to request a cowboy story all right well this one because remember in our last one we couldn't figure out if the theme was like states or cheese or something or the 90s but then it went to the 80s but then it went to cheese yeah eva the whole time was like it's none of that oh there were there were cats in there and then she goes oh i actually didn't pick a theme and we were like god damn it we're such idiots uh eva has picked another one for us okay from kelly with the caption speaking of cowboys and cheese holy god it's the perfect defect i think bifecta i like that is that a

real word it is now cool kelly says hello eva eva goes first of course always m i go next obviously obviously and christine geo juniper blaze allison and most important lemon my name is kelly i am a 26 year old so most importantly lemon i'm just gonna throw that out in all caps by the way oh good my name is kelly i'm a 26 year old socal girl living in san jose and attempting to adult at my adult job aren't't we all? Rough times. I just listened to the latest listener episode and as soon as a story about cowboys and cheese was asked for, I knew that I had to send my man. Which was immediately and very loud.

I like to at least one person on earth heard cowboys and cheese and it triggered a story for them. And they said, oh, my moment has arrived. They were like, I was always wondering when this would fit. Found it. oh my moment has arrived they're like i was always wondering when this would fit found it uh my mom has always loved the whole cowboy southwest desert theme and that's really shown in her rather eclectic choice of home decor love it i kid you not the living room family room kitchen and master bedroom of my parents house looks like some sort of saloon or themed themed bar restaurant i love it that sounds great i know this is like exactly my aesthetic i love it love

saloon doors right into the bar part of my house with some bullet holes in them just for wait a minute effect i think we're on to something come on i think kelly's mom is on to something i was gonna say yeah we're stealing this idea from your mom kelly sorry the walls are filled with various buffalo and cow skulls oh framed wanted posters and pictures of wild mustang herds i'm not done with the skulls no but i'm down with everything i mean i guess if you find the skulls yeah as long as you're not like killing i just don't like touching skulls and someone had to touch them to hang them up oh i wouldn't mind that part i mean you know that i i touch weird shit i'd be like christine touch the skull i even

touch haunted shit that you're like please don't touch that i just make poor decisions but the wanted posters are dope yeah for sure for sure. That is so cool. They even have the leather couches to match. And on top of the couches are those woven blankets that are way too scratchy and hot for SoCal weather. But I love them, though. I'm such basic Southwest trash. No, but that's right. Like, it's so nice.

But it's so just such a specific aesthetic. Job well done. She sounds like an interior designer at heart. aesthetic job well done she sounds like an interior designer yeah at heart one of my mom's favorite pastimes when i was growing up was to spend saturday mornings dragging me and my brother to garage and yard sales all around our hometown looking for the best pieces of who knows what to add to her collection this is me as a future person but ours is like our theme is halloween 365 days a year and then i'm like oh look at this cool skull i yeah, I don't know. Touch it. Touch it. One faithful day when I was about 10 years old, she found the mirror. Yeah.

Hold off. Actually, Kelly's mom stopped everything. I was going to hire you. I take it back. To redesign my home. I think maybe. I'm going to have to step out. It's not me.

It's you. It's not me. It's you. It was a small, only about the size of a piece of paper mirror, and it had a brown wooden frame that was painted to look like an old timey wanted poster. I see. I would have bought that, though. Let's be real.

The moment she hung it in our living room, I had a weird feeling about it. Uh oh. I didn't feel bad or anything, just off. She had hung it right next to the entrance to the kitchen, and it faced the living room window, so every time you walked into the kitchen, you could see out the window behind you fuck here we go wait like in the reflection like you could see oh because it was a mirror it faced the living room window so if you were looking in the mirror you could see the window okay it's almost like you were looking out a window in front of you but you're looking outside got it don't love where this is going we already know we're gonna

see something in this fucking mirror nope one day i went to get a snack that's probably the last good thing to happen in this we're like we could get on board with that part we were so you had us in the first half you had us so good you'd reeled us in went to get a snack and as i glanced into the mirror i saw a literal actual cowboy standing in our backyard staring right at me through the window to be fair if you are going from thrift store to thrift store to yard sale the yard sale to gather other people's old remnants of antique southwest stuff there's got to be a spirit of a cowboy so cool that's why i want to do it just like get all that cool energy in there like of course you probably literally do have a haunted alternate

realm saloon that you don't know about why to go to pier one and get some like shitty non-spirit filled when you know cowboys are right there when you could get a mirror with a soul attached to it all you have to i don't need yeah i don't know i don't know this is me this is my new show where i just make everyone's house really haunted but can you imagine if we had like a tlc like trading spaces and then they came back and everything and their place was haunted fuck your shit up put a bunch of dolls in it and then make you live there how cruel would that be he had on a faded brown leather cowboy hat a dark shirt of some sort and a brown leather vest with tassels and knots um and some blue beads on it and his face looked kind of dirty the fact that they were beat like all the detail they saw that that's right like the i wonder if that means they have

more or less energy probably more energy than like a shadow figure right right to present the whole to just not yeah to have so much detail you hear about spirits that you only see like the top half or the bottom half if you're seeing their fucking beadwork that they want they want you to see that embroidery they came dressed to the nines for the saloon they heard from all the other ghosts haunting all the other southwest stuff this was the saloon to be at they heard is it kelly yeah they heard kelly's mom put on quite a rager with her saloon doors what it must be like to like look into your bar and think that nobody's there but like if you had to put on like 3d glasses or something where you can now see

like dimensions yeah like now you see like the place is packed with cowboys because you've just been throwing a rager your whole life. But what a cool... That's why... This is why. I'm on board fully. I'm back on board. And that's why he drinks. That's why I'm here.

At the saloon. And, uh, so his face looked dirty. I screamed and turned around to look at him, and there was no one there, of course. I immediately ran to the back door and let my two very large and protective dogs outside, telling them to go get them. Smart. Which apparently put them on high alert, but they didn't bark at all when they got outside. I carefully went into the backyard and could see that no one was there. I told my mom what happened, and she said I was just imagining things and that I watched too many scary movies.

Flash forward to high school. I was home alone for the weekend because my parents had taken my brother on some fun Vegas birthday vacation and I had to stay with the dogs. Sounds right. Great. I had heated up about 60 frozen fried mozzarella sticks in the oven. I was like, what frozen food are we getting? And had spent the afternoon watching TV and consuming all of them. Good choice.

I suddenly felt sick. I wonder if it was the 59th or 60th mozzarella stick. So I stood up to run to the bathroom which was past the kitchen and as my eyes glanced in the mirror i saw him again i froze from fear suddenly forgetting that i was about to up chuck all these mozzarella sticks but my stomach unfortunately did not forget and i fell to the ground vomiting and boy was i vomiting it was the kind where your stomach what where your stomach either won't or just can't stop. Yeah.

I somehow happened to make most of it hit the conveniently located dog bed that was at my feet. I knelt there bawling my eyes out and absolutely hating my life. Honey. And suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a comforting touch, one that immediately made me feel better. Oh my god. Finally, after what felt like 30 minutes of non-stop vomiting but was probably only about three minutes my stomach uh my stomach had emptied its contents and i was able to stand up i immediately turned around to

look for who or what had put their hand on my shoulder and there was no one there and all that was left was the memory of the touch and the stranger smelled the tobacco that quickly went away oh my god i can still remember exactly how the hand felt the tobacco that quickly went away i can still remember exactly how the hand felt and i know it was there i like to think it was the cowboy offering a comforting hand when i needed it my mom has since thrown the mirror away it fell off the wind it fell off the wall during one of the bigger earthquakes a while ago and the entire thing broke what do you think that did to the soul i don't know does that mean it releases it like traps i think it traps it for eternity oh what no i don't think you can can you release soul i don't know does that mean it releases it like traps i think it traps it for

eternity oh what no i don't think you can can you release it i don't know anything about energy the mirrors except that mirrors usually guys bring energy can you send in some mirror stories god damn it christine has a lot of it's just gonna be a train of christine requests there's a train theme that i'm coming up with next yes i, I think mirrors are great creepy ass. I feel like it either totally released him or totally trapped him. Exactly. I don't know. It's either really good or really bad.

I'm still waiting on, by the way, my doppelganger stories. Mm. You heard it here first and second and third. Mirrors and doppelgangers. So no one else in my family ever experienced the cowboy or saw him. Anywho, sorry for the gross

description of my horrible incident with fried cheese sticks i hope this didn't creep y'all out or gross y'all out too much oh my gosh i hope you come to san jose again next year cheesily kelly and yes i do still eat fried mozzarella sticks what was my next question just not so many of them at once oh my gosh kelly i mean i was just showing Em pictures of my colon, so I think we are not the people. I have officially been one of the select premium guests into Christine's butt. Yes. I mean, there are probably more than, like, the average human has viewing their butt inside. I have intimately seen directly into your colon. Em has seen my polyps.

Not many people get to see that. It was an interesting quest. It's been Dr. Wang, Em m and blaze yay yay one of the three but um yeah so we won't get grossed out but i well my thought was when they jumped up like they suddenly got overwhelmingly sick jumped up and saw it's like he could sense yeah i was wondering if it was either he could sense or like he there was some nausea element that caused her to get up and see it. I don't know. Like hallucinating because you feel so ill.

Oh, no, like it. No, no, no. Like it. Like maybe he triggered that. Oh, so that she could get up and she would see him. Yeah. Oh, that's pretty interesting. But also 60 mozzarella sticks.

Maybe we'll do that to you. Yeah. My thought was like, oh, you're overcome with nausea, which i know sometimes happens if you're in like a spiritually charged place i don't know i like to think that he was only super protective from day one because even the protective dogs who would have barked at something true didn't even bark at him because they must have sensed that he was good so he might have always been good and then like just saw her get sick and was like i'm the only one here i gotta take care of her well i hope the earthquake freed him oh i hope so too i hope it rumble rumbled him out yeah me too you know oh boy anyway that was a great story thank you kelly but seeing things in mirrors is like

ultimately i think that's the only good story i've ever heard about a mirror right right like the rest are just like horror tropes no thank you so far these are really like warm wonderful cowboy stories see i told you this was a good idea the gentleman of the afterlife they must be i mean walt is sort of oh he's a vagabond he's a vagabond he must have been a cowboy for a minute i think so he spent some time crossing them like the the plains and stuff i feel like how about walt's been a cowboy i could see it i think maybe on enough gin walt thinks he is a cowboy could be really anything i don't know that's what i'm saying uh love you all so this is uh a story i believe this is the last one yes from sydney and the subject m this is the one that eva said oh yeah apparently eva said don't read the entire subject line

so that we could but then christine read it i haven't read it i don't know it's a surprise okay my uncle uh-huh was db cooper oh that took a turn okay good job eva wow good job to this guy also sydney at least this is what he claimed on his deathbed oh boy hey peeps all right so i was listening to your most recent live show and i legit screamed when christine did a case on db cooper that was one of my favorite stories ever it was in portland and you redid it as a normal episode right uh no we released that one yeah i believe yeah recent live show on his deathbed my great uncle confessed to being this man and his story is one of my favorites oh even if it's not true let's start here even if

it's not true i would love to admit that i'm someone yeah just to cause drama after i'm dead just leave them guessing like by the way i am big bird but i don't know you know how you know i am banksy oh i love that bye uh oh shit i wasn't supposed to tell anyone actually i i'll be like i was in the cia and that's why we drink was just a front oh and then i'm alive and everyone's like christine wait what all right which i guess plays right into it does because you'll be like i don like, I don't know what I'm talking about. And they'll be like, that's exactly what M's partner would say. His CIA operative would say. Okay, sorry, Sydney. We're going back to you now.

I know you won't read this on the podcast. LOL. Hi, Sydney. What an assumption. But that's completely fine. I just wanted you to read this. I'm sure you all know the tale of the famous airplane hijacker in the 70s who was never caught. Well, we're pretty positive, like 99.9% sure sure that he was my great uncle walt walt stop listen walt's listening in on this

and was like i am a cowboy bitches yeah well it's like and i hijacked an airplane so fuck you guys such a vagabond my great uncle walt who was my mother's uncle was a very eccentric man he was funny kind and one of the greatest storytellers I've ever known. My family, my grandma, mother, sister, and I went up to visit him in Shitville, Michigan every summer. Oh, wow, I've been there. I don't know what that is. And lives there, I think.

I think so, yes. I just live in the Virginia version of that, I think. Well, it's super weird. Every time, everywhere you move, it happens to turn into Shitville. It's crazy how that happens. Even this room you entered. It follows me.

Shitville, USA. Christine's studio. In the studio. He lived in one of those towns where there was only one street hanging on a wire and his house was always full of junk, but we loved visiting nonetheless. We wouldn't stop off at Kmart. Nope, sorry. We would stop off at Kmart, buy cleaning supplies, and after that...

Like, every time they went to go visit him, they'd go get cleaning supplies because they knew the place was trash. I love that. I love that, like every time they went to go visit him, they'd go get cleaning supplies because they knew the place was trash. I love that. I love that, too. I feel like everyone's got a family member like that. We're like, oh, let's bring Lysol. Let's go clean it. Let's go bring some hand sanitizer first.

Bring some Glade. And after he insisted that he had cleaned, we would make sure to just double clean the place. God, that's awful. After all, his idea of cleaning was spraying Febreze and Lysol on the bed sheets instead of washing them. Jesus. Okay, Walt. It's worse than I expected.

Never mind. My Uncle Walt was the sort of person who believed that time was not meant to be spent cleaning, I mean, okay, valid, and worrying, but to be spent living and having an adventure. He always said, too, that if you couldn't do something without writing it on a cocktail napkin five minutes beforehand, then it wasn't worth it. What? I love that. Meaning, if you had to take time to plan for beforehand then it wasn't worth it what i love that meaning

if you had to take time to plan for things they weren't worth it you should be adventurous and take risks and do things that you never planned to do before walt is a pistol interesting needless to say he was not like my mother or i i tell you all this or many others or most people on the planet i tell you all this backstory because it's important to know the person my uncle was. When we told him we were taking piano lessons, he bought a broken piano that was long past needing a tuning, just so we could practice when we came to visit. Well, that's nice.

That is really sweet. When I was afraid of spiders, he caught two or three in a jar and made me sit and watch them so I wouldn't be afraid anymore. It didn't work. When we wanted something to do, he was always ready to take us out on some sort of adventure he was a very good man but he was a good man who had done some bad things uh my uncle walt was a little troll when he was younger that's the best way i can put it

he met his best friend in juvie when they were just nine years old and they were friends literally until the day they died my uncle went first and his best friend a month later wow uh he forged his signature so he could join the military before he was 18 because he had dropped out of school at 12 and refused to go back shit my uncle walt became obsessed with para jumping at some point during his time in the military he wound up serving five terms with them i don't know military lingo lol well interesting though because you did say one of the big theories of db cooper's he was a pair jumper yeah yep hmm yeah i'm picking up what you're throwing down and this is where things start to get interesting as m has picked up so uncle walt was again a little fucking troll oh my well i didn't say that we don't mean you

sydney said that when he was in his 20s he told his wife he was going out to get some bread after a fight. Okay. I'm going to go buy some bread. I need to carbo-load. You're pissing me off. I need to cool off and carbo-load. I love that. Then, meeting up with a buddy of his, he wound up robbing Bob's big boy.

Sounds right. Oh, boy. As he was exiting with the money, he was giving money back out to the customer, saying, I'm sorry for your time. I love this. Have a good meal and so on and so forth. So he's just like giving out like Robin Hooding it.

Yeah. It's like, appreciate y'all. Appreciate y'all. Appreciate y'all waiting for me to hold up this. Yeah. Nice establishment. He believed himself to be a modern day Robin Hood. There we go.

He had always been poor growing up and he believed it was time to start giving back to the average Joe. As he left the building, though, some officers were pulling up to have lunch and wound up catching him. So nice one. Okay. My Uncle Walt continued to go jumping out of airplanes for a great deal of his life, which is why it was no surprise to us when we read that he might be D.B. Cooper. We had no clue before he passed, but we honestly weren't surprised he'd do some crazy shit like that. It sounded so like him. His other good friend, Charlie... That's awful to read about, like, one of the most notorious criminals of your time. Be like, that's so Uncle Walt.

FBI's most wanted. It's like, that's crazy how like that he is. Oh, Walt, not again. What did we tell you? There he goes. There he goes at the big boy. His other good friend, Charlie, had always suspected that he was D.B. Cooper, and when my uncle walt had

his first bout in the hospital he finally confessed to having done it charlie caught the entire conversation on tape and it will actually be featured in a documentary coming out on july 14th oh shit but he explains in detail today shut up wow it comes out today well we're recording july 14th this was sent in march so this is like... Wow. Back in the day. This is some karmic shit. Do you think Eva planned for this day? Eva, we know she did.

Also, do you know what today also is? Today is the anniversary of my UTI. With Allison at the campsite. Allison, just good things all around. You know what? Love happened. Crime happened. A lot of emotions on July 14th. A documentary about your grandpa being... Cancer season. Crime happened. Oh. A lot of emotions on July 14th. A documentary about your grandpa being. Cancer season.

Great uncle. Yep. Oh my. July 14th. So that's literally today. Yeah. Okay. Coming out July 14th.

But I mean, it's two weeks ago for all of the rest of you. Yeah. But he explains in detail the entire event from the moment he's on the airplane to the moment he landed. How he wrapped the money in the parachute up in a raincoat and had to hobble along to a bar to call for a friend of his to pick him up. Wow. Yep, he's just got to be like, I'm going to go hijack a plane now. Tomorrow.

He needed money and knew he could jump, so he just said, fuck it. My mother remembers asking my uncle Walt as he was dying if there was anything in life that he regretted and my uncle responded yes all of it oh all of what we didn't know at the time uncle walt told charlie on tape and apparently many times after that when he was doing the hijacking he honestly couldn't comprehend what he was doing the flight attendant was said to have told the man i can't believe you're doing this to which he responded i can't either which sounds so much like Uncle Walt. A lot of people are skeptical and we ourselves often doubt it, but as soon as we begin to doubt, something comes along to prove that he really, really, really could have done it. Things like a man in a cowboy hat remembers meeting my great uncle in the bar that he told Charlie he hobbled into after the jump.

He remembers the man holding his raincoat and has had full conversations with our family about what my uncle looked like and what he thought was up that night. Wow. Okay. Weird, huh? Yeah. Or how the handwriting on the letters matches my uncle's handwriting exactly. Hmm. They even had a forensic a forensic parentheses we love forensics we do linguist come in to listen to my great uncle's interview and determine whether or not it sounded like he was lying he is convinced that my uncle was telling the truth wow whether you believe it or not i find that it's a really interesting story to tell to hear the old man with the pot belly who had nine miniature poodles i grew up with.

Oh, my God. That information should have been released much earlier. That was probably the first sentence we should have gotten. This is the most shocking news of this whole story. That should have been the subject line, actually. To hear that the old man with the pot belly who had nine miniature poodles I grew up with was this sort of criminal mastermind is absolutely wild. A whole documentary has come out about my uncle.

So if you're interested i can send it to you or you can find it on itunes as at the real db cooper i'm gonna watch i'm literally gonna watch that tonight super cool thank you so much i do hope you made it through all that i love you all sydney and then uh they sent the links to uh military.com article and the real db cooper.com so holy crap this is wild that is some groundbreaking information it really is so fascinating and honestly like i'm obsessed with this case i have been for a long time and it might have just been solved just the fact that like when he was on the plane and he was like writing notes and stuff and the fact that that a person who could evade the fbi for so long

right just fucking came up like it would be that person who just came up with it on the fly and did it yeah and then just like retreated back to his nine poodles totally like of course he like so under the radar and then just never did anything again like that's exactly the type of person that could just fucking fly under the radar because they're, you know, the other people they were looking into all had criminal pasts and like. Yeah. That's wild. Solid advice from Uncle Walt. If you can figure out how to do it in 24 hours, go for it.

Write it on a cocktail napkin. And then just stay under the radar. Don't hijack a plane because that is a federal offense and you will go to jail for the rest of your life. Unless you're Uncle Walt. Right. Unless it's 19 whatever before Uncle Walt ruined it it for everyone else created also there's always one that's gonna ruin the party for everyone uncle walt all right that was great good one to end on thank you guys these were so wild i love that there was i think eva searched cowboy because

probably the word cowboy in here um that was crazy i love this eva great job and listeners thank you for listening to me now i would like to request uh doppelgangers yes mirrors and mirrors uh-huh and twins twins is a good twins twins doppelganger mirror twins what's the other one ideally twins is its own episode correct and doppelgangers is its own episode and mirrors are its own episode yes so we have a lot of poor eva's like oh no yeah uh but if you put in the subject line eva can find it easier yay um there's one more shit i don't remember i'll come up with it next month okay that sounds right all right well thank you guys so much if you have any of your own personal stories you would like to submit to us either true crime or paranormal you can do that and

that's why we drink at gmail.com usually uh if if christine requests a topic put it in the subject line so it's easier to find um i love these cowboy stories guys thank you other than that i think that's it thanks guys happy august happy august we'll be back soon with our weekly episode and next month with our monthly and that's why we drink