And That's Why We Drink - Listener Stories: Vol. 64

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Every cup has a story, so please compliment our under-recognized mug collections! Especially because it's Christine's first episode back! We're so thrilled to kick off Christine's return with your creepy stories, so tune in for everything from a grandpa who deposits a head in a bucket at a Canadian police station to a non-binary ghost named Em. And don't forget to show us your sloth selfies... and that's why we scream!

hey hello we kind of harmonized in a gross way there pretty grotesque it was a we both have our well i don't know if you do but i have my sleep voice on because I just woke up to record this. Oh, same. And it's three hours later for me, so I shouldn't, but I do. So I blame my child. What does your baby's sleep voice sound like so far? It sounds like, hey, let's just stay awake and stare at the ceiling. How fun is this? Let's just scream as loud as possible, but only during important meetings she right she learned a fun thing which is that her she has one of these fancy snoo uh contraptions which is like a bassinet that like moves when she's awake to like try and rock her to sleep and um it knows when she's awake well like it's like santa claus makes it sees you when you're sleeping um if if she like makes noise or whatever it like kind of

speeds up it's like rocking and it's very it is very expensive people are always like kind of wild it out that i bought that but we did get a 30 discount through places so if you're looking into one if you have any medical background like they'll give you a discount but anyway so she's learned that if she talks like blah blah blah it starts speeding up and so she'll just like she wants to she wants to ride the ride she rides the ride as blaze says yeah she enjoys the ride so it just like starts like going crazy and then we have a little camera and i have the little monitor with me and she'll just be like this in the dark like swinging back and forth and like blah blah blah just talking to the ceiling oh what a little monster that's nice i'm tired but look i made myself a little latte i got a i bought myself for christmas a nespresso machine and is that cup what is the story behind that cup

oh my gosh thank you for asking i knew you would ask everyone every cup has a story and i feel like i feel like it's an under recognized uhognized effort that people put into all of their homes. You don't just buy it. I appreciate that. That's a great point. Because mugs are like, and then when you call the herd, you get rid of them. You keep the ones that matter. So like you end up with, yeah.

If you ever go to a house party and you were lucky enough to open up like a cabinet with permission, you should always address people's mugs. Just like how when you go into someone's house and you go, oh, you have a beautiful home. You should always address people's mugs because they're clearly a sentimental piece of their home. I totally agree. So tell me about this mug, Christine. Oh, thank you. So it's a big old mug. And it came from, I went to New York City with Blaze a few months after we started dating. And it was Christmas time and I was very poor. And so we went into a bunch of stores. I was like, I can't afford anything. We went to this one store and they had this big round mug with little skiers on it.

And it reminded me of going skiing with my family. And I was like, I'm going to buy this mug. And I was like, I'm never going to use this damn mug. But I bought it and I've carried it with me from every home and I have never really used it because it's like such a specific shaped mug and then I bought this Nespresso machine and I was like wait a minute it's perfect size for little lattes and so I've kept it because I spent so I mean it wasn't that expensive it's probably like 30 bucks but at the time I was like that's a lot of money to just spend on a mug um this is one of those tiny This is one of those tiny things where like I justify like in my own version of everything happens for a reason.

I'm like, maybe not everything, but certainly you bought that cup so that one day it would fit its perfect expression. Yeah, I thought so. And it always made me happy. So when it was in a cupboard, I'd always be like, oh, I love that mug. But I like never used it. So now I'm just like finally getting to get some use to it. Thank you for asking. I have a cup.

It was from Hot Topic from like college. You know how they had the like this, the bright colored see-through cups and it always had like some like retro show on it or like. Oh, yes. Like a character on it. And it was just like a plain old pint glass. I have a bright red one that has the power rangers on it oh then it was like in college i don't i now like even though i i went through a massive phase right massive phase where i was a minimalist and then i got an apartment and the permission to like fill it out so then i became this like weird semi

maximalist i'm also that but at the time in college i only had one cup and that was my cup and so when i moved out here to la i brought a cup with me and so now i like can't get rid of it and but it's like all like i know what you mean it fades off like chips off yeah like because i think so it's not even ready anymore ranger mug he has that same fucking Power Ranger mug. We probably have the same one. And it looks a wreck. It looks like I found it on the street.

It looks like it's busted. Maybe we got your old one or vice versa. I don't know. Maybe. Because it sounds like the same mug. But I can't get rid of it. So one day it'll just be a clear mug with like maybe a Power Rangers eyeball just kind of looking at me while I drink. Oh, cute.

How fun is that? And then I can use my cricket machine and redo it. I make a new design. Oh my God. I almost spit my drink out. Okay. So by the way, happy February 1st. We just came in hot on this episode. Happy month of love. Oh, I don't know if that's what they call it, but it's also Black History Month, which is more important. Wait a minute. Hang on. Only that now. Happy Black History Month. It can also be the month of love, you know, combine the two. Yeah, I think so. Are you doing anything for Valentine's Day with old Blazer?

Well, that's right when we're in New York, right? Or we're in New York on the 12th or yeah, that weekend, I think. And so 9, 10, 11. Yeah. And so Valentine's Day is Monday after our Friday show, and Sunday is the Super Bowl. And the Bengals won last night. So I'm hoping if they win, I'm flying straight home and, I don't know, doing a big Super Bowl watch party. But if not... Who are they playing against? We don't know yet. it depends on the upcoming games but they're not even in it yet so we just have to wait and see if we make it but um anyway but yeah so i

don't have anything exciting planned what are you doing with your valentine uh my valentine doesn't like valentine's day so we're probably gonna do a hot nothing um but actually i think we are doing a hot nothing because since i'm gonna be in new York, I'll probably stay a couple of days. Right. That's what I was thinking. So yeah, fully nothing now. Actually,

if, if, if we're not going home to watch the Superbowl, we'll probably be in New York too. So maybe we can do a little thruple date. Oh, wait, no quadruple because Blaze and the baby are coming.

So you can be the baby's date. Oh, Leona can be my little Valentine. Baby's first Valentine. Okay. Yes. Oh my God my god i'm gonna wear the pants off your little baby xandy will be there with d so it will be like a i get it i'll be like six wheeling but i'm gonna make the most of it yeah but you get the funnest date of all so yeah the one that throws up on me and i'm not allowed to be mad that's yeah exactly and the one that thinks you're the funniest of everyone so at least you have that going for you. I don't with Blaze.

How about this on Valentine's Day? I'll just show up in New York City dressed as a ceiling and she'll fucking lose her mind. I'll bring the little snoo so that you can stand above it and she can just rock back and forth and stare at you. It'll be so romantic. I've had weirder Valentine's dates, so whatever. Okay, so welcome everyone to February. I hope your first month in 2022 was not entirely fresh hell. Yeah, entirely anyway. And so to celebrate, we are going to do some listener stories. If you are new here, on the first of every month, we put out a listeners episode where we read your stories you submitted to us at our website. And that's why we drink.com. They're your paranormal, true crime, personal stories. And Eva reads through them and curates a perfect little episode for us.

And Eva's not here today, but we are reading her story. So I guess we can have some fun trying to figure out if there is a pattern. Sometimes there is. Sometimes there's not. I always is. Sometimes there's not. I always love. And she's not here to correct or guide us. I love trying to like crack the mind of Eva. Like what was her thought process as she went through these stories?

She was like, oh, I actually won't be available. I'm at a sloth sanctuary that day. And I was like, who are you? I was like, that sounds like the fakest excuse to get out of work, Eva. But like the best one. Like I'll take it. Go for it. I thought it sounded fake, but okay. But like the best one. Like, I'll take it. Go for it. Have fun.

I thought it sounded fake, but then I chose to not question it. I was like, even if you're wrong, you were really ballsy to even try that line. So you deserve to not come. You deserve this. Yeah. I can't wait for the photos. I'm sure there will be photos. There must.

Can you imagine going to a sloth sanctuary and not taking them? Forgetting to take photos. Like, okay. Amateur hour. At that point, then I'll be mad at Eva. I'll be like, hang on. So you told me there was a sloth sanctuary and you in fact did go, but show me nothing? That means it's fake.

Like, if there's no photos. Eva, you better show us a picture. We're waiting. We're going to be in Trubelay. Okay. I'm just kidding. But bring home a sloth if you can. Okay. So here just kidding. But bring home a sloth if you can. Okay.

So here is story number one. This is from Sleepless Avocado. Okay. Same. Who uses she, her, they, them pronouns. I think I love a double pronoun. Love a food for a name also, as well as an adjective, sleepless. Okay.

Precious. Okay. Here's the subject subject the plague doctors are back oh hello and that's why we drink folks humans animals petrified fruit and any of the plentiful ghosties attached to y'all currently hey representation matters i'm glad that they're getting their shout out for once you know know? They deserve it. So for as long as I can remember, I've attracted all sorts of paranormal energies, ghosts, and sometimes the not so friendly spirits that were never human. I have ADHD. Okay, wow. Wait, hang on. Same.

And it often messes with my sleep. It's 3.55 a.m. and have been awake since 12.30 a.m. as I write this. a.m. and have been awake since 1230 a.m. as I write this. My insomnia is pretty crazy, but I also have episodes of sleep paralysis that occur pretty frequently, especially when I'm waking up, but occasionally as I'm going to sleep. I don't like that. So when I'm already tired, stressed, hungry, or otherwise upset, the sleep paralysis is worse. Just before the pandemic started to worsen in February 2020, the sleep paralysis was occurring every night to the point where I didn't even want to sleep. The reason you may ask, during every single episode, I would see plague doctors walking by my bed. Not the super cute steampunk romanticized ones that the mainstream media makes them out to be, but the freaky ones that look like they have a leather penis hanging off their face oh a lot of visuals going on here a lot of visuals

but so freaky those plague doctors with the big beaks yeah freaky stuff and so i've in case people don't know the story i know about the beaks and why those masks exist is because they found that if you you would put some like sort of like grass or herbs in the tip of the basically like dried herbs and the idea was if you were breathing that in through the beak it was almost like filtering out any disease you could be inhaling in case anyone also i know that zach bagel bites wore that playing mask in one of his episodes and he like wouldn't take it off and i was like okay oh he wore it i remember that he wore it to like i think it wasn't the island of dolls yeah it was the island in italy though it was yeah was it yes he it was it was somewhere where people died from

the plague so he ran around with that thing being like do i look familiar and i was like will you stop oh i hate it you're gonna fall off that boat in a minute that you're standing on no nope nope nope nope as tiktok would say think is it thoughtful is it helpful is it inspiring is it no check marks uh okay so just walking by isn't too scary but but they started hovering around my bed. Bye. Just watching me as I lay there unable to move, scream, or anything. Absolutely not.

The worst part with sleep paralysis is you can't even close your eyes sometimes. Like, you just have to stare at them. That's what I always wondered because I had sleep paralysis once and I immediately shut my eyes and I was like, I don't want to see anything scary. But I wonder, because then I thought, well, what if you feel it instead? Because I know you can feel things instead of seeing them. i don't want to see anything scary but i wonder because then i thought well what if you feel it instead because i know you can feel things instead of seeing them i don't know what's worse oh thank you for inserting that into my psyche because i didn't know that they could touch you i just thought they could stand really fucking close to you okay well we'll see what happens next time uh after a couple months, things started to get better.

And I would still see our plague doctor friends, but usually when I... Oh, wait, what? I would still see our plague doctor friends, but usually when I was fully awakened out for a walk in my neighborhood. No! Oh, no. I guess I got used to them and it wasn't so bad because it wasn't night when I was trying to sleep. What? So, wait. wait so now it's

not sleep paralysis yeah right like they're no longer just a sleep paralysis thing they're like so now it's like is it a sleep paralysis demon or are you seeing like something like something otherworldly yeah oh or was it just like our actual plague and you saw people in masks i don't know no right well my friends the plague doctors are back. It's now been about two weeks, and I've only been sleeping three to four hours a day broken up. Oh, they're back now? Yeah. Oh, shit.

I have no clue what's up with them, but wanted to share since there aren't a lot of people in my life that I can share that with that won't panic and think the world is ending. I'm sorry that was so long, and I really hope everyone's having a good week and that Leona is getting a ton of loving. Don't forget to keep being amazing. Your podcast has helped me through many sleepless nights from Sleepless Avocado. What a quaint name for such a horrific experience, Sleepless Avocado. The name feels so warm. Preci so warm precious yeah and then you give us a story like that and i'm like i don't i don't i don't know sent because that means they're back

like whenever they sent the email it was sent like a week ago homie oh shit so this is a current problem oh this is a big old issue i don't like that i don't like that they're because that if it's sleep paralysis you can write it off as like your mind is racing and whatever. But if they're out and about while you're on a walk, go home. This isn't your time. I'd be like, I beg to differ. You, I don't want to be here anymore. That's this is all you, you know, just one of you. Yeah. Keep walking. If you're already one of us, the exit to this neighborhood is that away. And I'm gonna go this away, you know. See you in my 4 a.m when i'm having sleep paralysis that's right like are you also taking a walk because you need a breather from me like what's happening right like are you yeah

oh that's gross that's gross anyway thank you little avocado thank you avocado i'm sorry that that's happening to you and i hope that us reading this isn't just gonna like re-trigger it all so oops if they can hear us talking please please leave please leave avocado away yeah please leave them alone so this is from jacqueline she her and the title is the time grandpa brought a human skull in a bucket to a police station a story it's still going the title continues oh hyphen a story from m's favorite place dot dot canada okay okay so a timeless classic we all know grandpa and we all know what he's up to or not up to. Grandpa. Yeah. I feel like if you, it's always a dad or a grandpa.

It's just a dad graduated into another, a dad's dad. A new echelon of dad. Yeah. Yeah. But they've always got a bucket. They're always putting weird shit in it. What are you doing with that bucket? Sometimes there's mice in the bucket.

It's like, there's always something in a bucket. I don't know. Okay. Here's, hey, ATWWD podcast. mice in a bucket it's like there's always something in a bucket i don't know okay here's hey atwwd podcast i'm a canadian pet groomer from winnipeg manitoba i started listening listen i put a little spin i started listening to your podcast in early 2021 i had just recently left my corporate job after 10 plus years and finally was able to listen to whatever I wanted. I was very excited and looking for a new podcast Spotify recommended and that's why we drank. Thank

you, Spotify. And I said, okay. And that's good. Yeah, that's what we want. That's all we need. That's all we need. That's all we ask. I've been hooked ever since. Although I do love all my furry clients, they aren't the most talkative. Your stories and banter always make me feel like I'm working with friends. So thanks. Fun fact. The first episode I ever listened to was episode 237, The Ghost with No Pants and a matchmaking serial killer, which just so happens to take place at Falcon Lake, Manitoba, which is about an hour and a half away from Malachi Lake. I forget how you pronounce that in the show.

Ontario, where my story takes place. Is it M-A-L-A-C-H-I? It sure is. I think that's Malachi. Okay. I was going to say Malachi. It sounds fancier when I say it like that, so I'm going to stick with that. It sure does. Malachi Lake is a hidden lake deep in the woods of northwestern Ontario. My family has been spending summers at this lake for as long as I can remember. The road only goes to a landing where you park your car and drive a tin fishing boat 20 minutes to the cabin. This lake was discovered when the railroad around it was being built. The workers settled in the area over a hundred years ago. My cousin and I would spend two weeks a summer at the cabin with our grandparents. One summer, a couple of local

teens were hanging out at an old treehouse beside our cabin when one of the teens pushed a rock over and revealed a human skull. Oh, forget it. Obviously freaked out, they run and got my grandparents for help. Turns out, 11 years prior, a boat was found in the middle of the lake going in circles. The owner, JDd was never seen again oh no no knowing this and with lack of phone service my grandparents decided to put the skull in a bucket the logic is flawless i like to think a bucket was their only option in terms of

containers on hand yeah no no Tupperware available. Yeah. Yeah. I guess a skull's pretty big, so you'd need a big old Tupperware, you know? According to that little kid in Jerry Maguire, a skull's like eight pounds or something. Oh, yeah. And also, a bucket is sort of like big Tupperware, if you really think about it. I mean, you're not wrong.

It's also a really big cereal bowl, if you wanted it to be. It's exactly right. It's kind of, a bucket is whatever you make mean, you're not wrong. It's also a really big cereal bowl if you wanted it to be. It's exactly right. It's kind of a bucket is whatever you make it, you know. It's a surface. And if you can put something in there, that's what it's meant for. Including skulls. Including mice and skulls. I feel like I'm turning into a grandpa at this point. I got to reel it in. So the boat was found empty, basically, on the lake. The owner was never seen again. And then they find a skull many years later. So knowing this and with lack of phone service, my grandparents decided to put the skull in a bucket and drive it to the closest police station 45 minutes away.

So on a sunny afternoon, my grandfather walked into the police station and said, hi, I found JD's skull and it's in this bucket. Oh, my God. I love how he just like already knew who JD was. He's like, oh, there it is. Enough to confidently be like, hey, I found part of that specific corpse. You remember that guy? Yeah. Oh, here he is under this rock.

Oh, my God. He was shocked when they asked him to stay for a bit for some questioning. He was like, wait, why? He's like, I need to use, can I have this bucket back? I got to go home and do some digging. asked him to stay for a bit for some questioning he was like wait why but i think you're i need to use can i have this bucket back i gotta go home and do some digging and some other gardening activities he was like but i just did your job for you here's jd's body no questions needed obviously why would you have any questions for me um he was shocked when they asked him to stay for a bit for some questioning blissfully unaware he just not only disturbed a crime scene, traveled with human remains, and made himself the only suspect to a room of officers.

Oh, my God. Grandpa. Parentheses, he is such a grandpa. Oh, my God. Grandpa. Oh, silly goose. Silly goose, indeed. grandpa oh silly goose silly goose indeed in the weeks to follow they investigated the area and it was determined that jd drowned and his body washed up on shore and animals did the rest

thank thankfully my family was cleared and jd's family got closure you'd think that would be where the story ends but no fast forward to summer 2019 now as a 25 year old me and my friends were around the bonfire when this story came up and i found a new theory of what happened that night the story goes that jd was staying at his friend's cabin when they got to drinking and gambling tensions grew over the night the group of men took jd to the train tracks and shot him and threw his body off the tracks and into the woods the next morning when the boat was found jd's friends had already left home for the weekend sus even a local who was at the lake that weekend claimed to be woken in the night by the sound of a gunshot i'm not sure what

theory is true but the one thing i do know is for years whenever the wind blew a certain way we could always smell something horrible we always assumed it was just animal poop that washes up on the shore. Now I can't help but think maybe it was actually a decaying human. Anyways, sorry this is so long, and if you read it, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading, Jacqueline. And then at the bottom it says, does this submission look like spam? Report it here. I'm going to report it.

It doesn't look like spam, but it does look disturbing. It does look like it's worth reporting to some authorities. Enough for the robots through our computer to be like, we should flag this. Skull? Skull? Eight times in one email? Decaying body, yeah. Decaying body? Police? I don't know. So this one is obviously meant for me because it is titled, I don't know if it's a prophecy, M the Nonbinary ghost oh what i hope it's not a prophecy i mean at least not for like another 80 years yeah it's for sure a prophecy but like i hope it's not a

close one a close one right no okay so this is from i don't want to say okay this is grace uh i don't i don't know about grace's pronouns we're gonna go with the the my personal favorite are they them are they them until further notice we just don't know so hi first of all i love the podcast no it's quick to the point punchy i love it love it love and then we just fucking interrupt and start making it like long and long winded grace is like this is what we were trying to avoid yep hi first of all i love the podcast and appreciate something that's cool to listen to on my long drives and as the subject reads my best friend just made friends with a non-binary ghost that lives in her basement oh okay so maybe it's not you it's not because I would never haunt a basement. I would haunt a mansion. Let's be clear.

You would haunt a very active mansion where there was like stuff going on, gossip to listen to. Gossip. And maybe it's the basement of a mansion, but it would have to be like at least 10,000 square feet and full of like secret passageways and like some arcade games. Yeah, a lot of luxurious throws, some recliners. It would have to be cozy for sure. i you get it you get me you get me so if you die i'm going to create like the man cave mansion of your dreams just so you stay with me and hang out you know this is how i know we're friends because i was about to say that sentence and then you jumped in where i was like christine if i go first i need you to move into a mansion just so i have something to do yeah i gotta move out of this creepy old house

you're not going to want to be involved in this you know this one's already like there's already ghosts that claim that one that's true i gotta i want to be the star hello gemini absolutely okay uh okay so living in the basement after taking all of the necessary precautions, she was using her pendulum and was trying to figure out how to address the spirit that she had been asking random questions. She asked if the spirit was human and the spirit said yes. She asked if the spirit preferred she, her, no, he, him, soft yes, they, them, and got very excited. Wait a minute. I think that's me that is me because i for you i i definitely have a soft yes to he him but then like uh very excited about they them and a fervent no with she her yeah like a vomitous reaction it's like don't even get near

me if you think you're gonna pull that one sunny i'm gonna like throw your pendulum on the floor sunny so she asked if she could try to find a nickname to call them so that they could better communicate this friend doesn't listen to the podcast but was listing off about five names for them to choose from and the name m got a solid yes oh i like that m for someone who doesn't listen to the show and thus probably doesn't know my name i like that m for someone who doesn't listen to the show and thus probably doesn't know my name i like that m made it into the top five non-binary names on this random person's head that's nice how fun usually it's it there's like a joke in like the trans community that if you are transitioning to a more male uh experience that you pick a name that rhymes somehow with Aiden. It's like Jaden, Brayden, Caden.

It's like so – It's also the same thing that you do when you have a baby in 2021, I think. You just name your baby something that rhymes. Wait. Every baby is a trans male? Wait a minute. Hang on. All right.

There's some overlap here. Not complete overlap. The Venn diagram is a circle. Okay. So I figured it might be cool to find out that there is a non-binary non-binary ghost friend that shares your name from grace yes that is very cool i love that that's very fun does did it say like what town they're in like i wonder grace was to the point grace didn't need doesn't do the flowery stuff no exposition just yeah straight to the

point it's like there's a ghost in the basement it has your name goodbye that's what's happening here the end is this this is all you wanted and this is all you're getting and honestly i respect it thank you they're not wrong um okay so this is from arrow they them stop it is this is the theme like just a bunch of non-binary babies badasses yeahasses? Yeah, I love it. The subject is the man with no face. Oh, God. A paranormal or true crime tale, comma, you decide. So this is a choose your own adventure, basically. I rescind the invitation. Thank you. Like, I refuse to decide one way or the other. I'm not coming. I'm sick. Sorry. I didn't ask for this. Okay, here we go. Hello, and that's why we drink family.

I figured I'd share an experience that I had way back when I was 07 or 08. I had my only friend over for a sleepover. My friends had gone to bed, but I was up reading a book next to my bedroom window sneaky style so I wouldn't get in trouble for being up past bedtime. Aw. I have no idea why, but I happened to look up from my book and out my window. That's when I saw it. Movies always portray fear as screaming and running, but the fear I felt kept me frozen.

I swear I even stopped breathing as I looked at this thing's face with quotes around it. Gross. What I saw. Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no. Can you actually, you don't have to read it. I'm just going to go.

Bye. No, but I had to read it. So everyone else has to hear it. What I saw was a burlap bag over its head with impressions of facial features where they should have been. Yo, you know what else that is? That's the guy from The Strangers. Oh, that's I hate that fucking movie. Oh, well, I wonder when this came out, when that came out versus when this email happened.

Or like when this person was eight. Interesting. Oh, yeah. With impressions of facial features. No wonder you hate that movie. I hate that. I hate the concept of that. That's terrible.

Then it vanished. Once it was gone, I ran out crying to tell my stepdad what I had seen. Probably just to calm me down, he went out and checked for anyone that might be around. He assured me that no one was around and sent me back to bed. Obviously, sleep was not an option with that thing existing, so I stayed up keeping a close eye on my window. But nothing came back to my window. Instead, I heard running footsteps in the hallway and outside my door. I was absolutely terrified.

This thing was now in my house. Once the footsteps stopped, I ran back out to the living room where my stepdad was and told him what happened. He told me it wasn't possible since he had been up and would have seen someone come into the house. I have no idea who or what I saw that night, but it still freaks me out when I happen to think about it. When I talk to my stepdad about it, he dismisses it as some creep looking into my window.

Maybe it was, but that doesn't explain the missing facial features or the footsteps in the hall. Anyway, I'm still not sure what it was that I encountered, and I probably never will. I absolutely love listening to both of your stories, but I especially enjoy your banter. Good, because there's a lot of that in this episode. You both make getting through my work day so much easier. I constantly talk about you both and the show to my poor but supportive wife.

Also, before I let y'all move on, I feel like I need to thank Em for being confident in their identity, especially while having such a large presence on the internet. It's helping me gain confidence in my identity on a much smaller scale. Parentheses work isn't great with my pronouns and my family still dead names me on the reg and been there, been there, my friend, don't worry.

And thank you, Christine. I like the little, thank you for including me. That's very kind. Um, but it says, thank you for being so open about your physical and mental health.

It's always nice to not feel alone with those issues. Oh, and of course, thank you, Eva, for being so open about your physical and mental health. It's always nice to not feel alone with those issues. Oh, and of course, thank you, Eva, for keeping the show together. I'd love to see you all in Sacramento sometime. And that's why we drink. Wow. So all I heard was thank you, Eva, because that woman deserves it for everything she does. Because nothing else would exist otherwise. No, no, no, no.

Wow. Well, thank you. And also so sorry about this like burlap bag, man. Did you decide if it was paranormal true crime? Are you still just rescinding the invitation? Oh, yeah. I didn't even come to a conclusion. I barely came to a process where I can think about it.

So I came to a middle point of the plot. Yeah, I'm freaked out. I think I would say paranormal, but I don't know. I hope it's paranormal. So like some act. So it wasn't really the strangers, you know? Yeah, because if you want, you don't want an actual man with a burlap bag coming into your home. Good point.

Yikes. Imagine like if that were a ghost. That was and that was like just like a it was some residual haunting of a guy when he, like, lived in the house and was, like, pulling a prank on his friend. But, like, now he's, like, he's looked at as the most craziest, scariest fucking ghost in the house. Like, the ultimate prank. It, like, changed their life forever. Yeah. The ultimate prank.

Totally changed their, like, memories and everything. Oh. I hate it. I did not like the footsteps. I didn't either. And I don't I don't want to put this on this person. But like if this happened to me, I'd be scared of windows probably for the rest. Like I'm already scared of windows.

But if this happened, I probably would never look out a window at night ever again. All my windows would be tinted, have quadruple locks and have the thickest blackout curtains you've ever seen. And they would never open. I would staple so many curtains. I would bolt stainless steel against the glass so no one could ever break in. This is from Braley. Who uses she, her pronouns. Thank you for normalizing pronouns.

Braley's subject is how snooping oh absolutely this is a christine story here how snooping led to the discovery of a serial killer story in my own family like this is the shit that you hear about and you're like wow this is this is like the stuff hbo films are made of you really should eventually do a like a master, Christine, on like how to find anything about a person in 30 seconds or less, because it's honestly, Braylee could have used you, I think, like, just to expedite the process. I am very proud of Braylee for figuring it out on her own. But any opportunity I get to brag about your investigation skills. Aw, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Thank you.

Oh, good. Well, I can just stop here now i can just i've hit my quota yeah don't even continue recently eva was like can you help me find this person and i was like eva why are you asking me we both know if you gave like this information to christine she would know like their christmas wish list by the end of the hour okay so that's funny so here's what brayley has to say dear Eva thank you for putting Eva first because she probably needs it uh Christine M and company uh growing up we had an extra room in my house that my parents called the study okay so your parents were those parents

got it oh la la I was like my mom also tried to have a study and very quickly realized that everyone rolled their eyes because everyone was me. I was an only child and she was a single parent. And also like you didn't study. So it was like, what? I'm not studying. She's like, go into the study. And I'd be like, okay.

And do what? It's like the word is not in the name. Watch Pokemon? Like what? This is where I would set up our gargantuan camcorder on a tripod, as one does in the late 90s, and record embarrassing videos of myself dancing and singing and hosting a fake version of TRL. Oh, we all did that. That's okay. Really? Oh, my gosh.

I get it. Same. The whole generation should just make a compilation of all of our horrid videos. Can you imagine? Just watch until you find your own video and then turn it off and cry. Yeah. just watch until you find your own video and then cut it off and cry. This is also where we kept our desktop computer on one of those huge computer hutches with many drawers and cabinets. Yep. When I was around eight or nine, I was doing my usual video setup

when I decided to snoop through the drawers in my computer hutch. In one of the drawers, I found several family obituaries along with tons of newspaper clippings regarding several local murders okay so whoever put that there i'm sorry but like they weren't hiding it well i was about to say parents sometimes don't they underestimate like if you're a parent and you have a young kid like don't underestimate how fucking nosy and sneaky your child is like we will look through everything i feel like sometimes parents forget that like object permanence ends at like two like yeah yeah exactly just because it's in a drawer away from my eyes doesn't mean i don't know i can't open

the drawer that makes me want to open it more and yeah more you know especially if it's locked like don't put the key in the drawer next to it like i'm gonna fucking open it it's almost like you know what this is this sounds like a dad move of like he wanted someone else to be in on the mystery solving with him but he couldn't say anything so he's like if i just leave it in plain sight once brayley gets to the right age she'll come to me about it yeah exactly and then we can form our own mystery gang um that's my goal with my kid i don't know about you absolutely i'm already like shit leon i gotta put some stuff in her nursery just like scattered like tape something under her crib and when she

starts crawling she'll find it and it'll be like the mystery of colors you know the mystery of funkle m nobody knows the answers in one of the drawers i found several family obituaries along with tons of newspaper clippings regarding several local murders as i started reading through my clippings about the murders i recognized the name of one of the victims was my grandfather shit i took the articles to my mom just stupid stupid stupid did you take photos of them first so exactly she's gonna rip them away i'm photocopy it i don't know maybe she's gonna be a homie maybe she's gonna be like i was twas i who left them for you um welcome to the mystery gang my dear child i don't know why she talks we've been waiting for you. Welcome to the mystery gang. My dear child.

I don't know why she talks like that. We've been waiting for you. Wait, of course she does. She's a study. Of course she talks like that. Oh, you're right. Yes, yes. What did I say before we started recording? Like a murderess cape.

Like she's got like this like long flowy cape. Billowing cape for sure. For sure. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm on team mom so far. I took the articles to my mom and asked her about them. And to my surprise, she told me everything. You were right, Christine.

Fuck yeah. My grandfather had married a woman named Betty Jo, which was his second marriage. And both my grandfather and his sister began getting sick. Oh, no. Uh-oh. We both know what this means. My grandfather and his sister both ended up dying of unknown conditions oh my god betty joe moved on to another man and became engaged but slowly he started becoming sicker and sicker and was finally hospitalized the doctors finally figured out what

was causing the illness you want to take a stab at the thing they might have been eating that starts with an A? Was it a little bitty dose of arsenic? Mm-hmm. They were able to save his life and arrest Betty Jo, but everyone began suspecting that my grandfather and great aunt's deaths might have also been foul play. Yeah. So their bodies were exhumed and, in fact, tested positive for arsenic poisoning. Holy shit. That is, wow.

Uh-oh. That's bad. They also linked her to the death of her former employer, to whom she was a caregiver. Oh my God, what is wrong with this woman? Jeez. She had put the arsenic into their coffee. There's no telling how many people she's actually poisoned

as she was a waitress at a diner. Ugh! That's so bad. Her first husband also died, but I don't think they ever went back to investigate that case. I don't know why, because it sounds like a major red flag. Sounds like a lot of people are dying around this woman. I feel like if anyone died, I don't even care if it was diagnosed as like something very obvious.

I'd double check, you know? Just to see. In 1986, Betty Jo green was convicted of two murders my grandfather and great aunt and was found guilty of attempted murder for poisoning her fiance during her trial she claimed that there was another woman living in the left side of her body oh no was responsible for the crimes okay oh no okay the jury didn't buy it and she was sentenced to three life terms to be served consecutively she's been eligible for parole a few times but my dad has been has made sure to

be at every hearing i even got to go to one to give a statement regarding the murder of his father and aunt and today betty joe is 90 years old and is still locked up in tutwiler prison which i think is uh on the haunted prison list really i think um tutwiler prison for women in alabama she will more than likely die in prison and i ain't mad about it thanks for taking the time to read the story and for keeping my work days interesting and the words of paul harvey now you know the rest of the story good day okay yes below is the link to a story about betty joe if you wanted to see her mugshot i just looked her up there's an article from on medium.com from september of 2021 actually and then here's another one alabama murderer claimed she had two women inside her body oh i hate it is so spooky here she is i don't like that she's like smirking in the photo

i don't want to say she looks like a serial killer because like i think if you showed me that picture after framing her as a sweetheart i'd be like she looks like an angel so like 100 she just looks like a person like which is the creepiest part is that you it's unassuming yes exactly um and it's so scary that like you're just living your life and then you're like oh yeah grandpa and your great aunt were both murdered yeah what uh that can happen to anybody that's scary wow wow wow wow thank you braylee um let's see is this the last one i think so i think so this star story the subject this is from laura she her hers thank you laura and the subject is christine exclamation point my husband heard a ghostly daddy oh oh sorry i just had a what what did you have? Because what did I have just now?

That was wild. Oh, something bad happened. Okay. Christine, my husband heard a ghostly daddy while in the trenches of newborn life. Okay. So basically what happened to me? So that's great. Here we go.

Christine, we're just getting out of the newborn fog. Me too. Isn't it fun? But while we were in the trenches, my husband heard a ghostly daddy too. Over coffee one morning, my husband, the biggest skeptic ever, casually told me he had something weird happen when he was up. To set the scene, which I'm sure you're very familiar with, it's two or 3am and he was up with our maybe four to i'm sure you're very familiar with it's two or three a.m and he was up with our maybe four to six week old at the time he's in the living room rocking a baby and out of the hallway here's another one of our kids whisper daddy our youngest is our third child and it wasn't uncommon to have one stumble out needing a middle of the night hug

a drink of water or other toddler things that come up at 2 a.m anyway when he heard what he said was clearly a child saying daddy he said something like hey bud i'm here again he heard daddy he said he heard it maybe three or four times and finally he said it's okay come in here with me i can't hear you that well which i hate that he accidentally invited it into the room. Then silence, nothing. He goes to check on the kids and sure enough, both are fast asleep. We still don't know what it was or if like Christine said, she felt that she was sort of in the way of something. I'd like to think it was him giving off super dad vibes so much so that little

ghost kids are picking up on his energy. Either way, I just wanted to write in and let you know that we had a similar experience here. Congrats on motherhood and making it through the first couple of months of having a newborn. It's both beautiful and excruciating at times, and I appreciate you talking about it on air. Anyway, enjoy that wine and know that you're not alone in both motherhood, but also ghost kids popping up to say hey. Wow. I mean i part of me likes to think there's a theory where it's just one little ghost child who is going from house

to house of newborn parents and just saying daddy and it's just the same ghost everywhere but like why that sounds sad like is he looking for his daddy i don't know maybe you're being like inducted into ghostly parenthood i don't know know. I wonder, okay, I wonder what it sounded like. Because to me, it sounded like a little girl. So and I know that one of the theories was like, oh, maybe it was like a time slip. Yeah, that's my favorite theory. I like that theory. It's it feels safer than ghost child. It's your own kid. And it's like, hey, like fun fact, she's gonna learn how to talk, you know, like, just like a nice confirmation that like you've heard her voice for all you know right technically was that her first word we'll find out i mean technically it wasn't her first word you already heard her say daddy before she could even talk that's true yeah yeah wow so anyway that's pretty wild if

anyone else has the same experience let me know i wonder if we can get to the bottom of it. Yeah. Well, call Braylee in the mystery gang. So they'll be on it. Braylee and her mom, who are apparently the mystery gang. Also, I'm glad that this is your first listener stories back for a long time. I was thinking that, too. It's been months. So shout out to Allison, who really held down the fort with us for the last couple months.

Those were such fun episodes. I loved listening to them. Those were such fun episodes. I loved listening to them. She had a good time. She would get all dolled up and have a drink ready and everything. That is so fun. If it weren't like 1230 here when we started, I would have also done that. I guess I got my little mug, my special mug.

You got your little mug. I got my little G-raid, you know. I mean, Gatorade. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you get it. But no, happy February, everyone. Thank you for sending in your stories. If you'd like to submit future personal true crime and paranormal

stories, you can do that at our website, and that's howydrink.com, and we put out episodes on the first of every month, so we'll see you March 1st for the next episode. I'll be there. I don't know where I'll be, but maybe I'll be there. We'll see. where I'll be, but maybe I'll be there. We'll see. I hope so.

Why? Wait, wait, wait. One last thing. This comes out a couple days before our now official first shows of the tour. Oh, my God. Wow, that's soon. Because in a couple days from now, it'll be Seattle and Portland and and then uh dc philly and new york if you happen to be going to one of those cities if you go to any of our shows by the way but especially these

five we haven't been on a stage in years and what are you doing we're very nervous so please please please just uh encourage us and do a lot of whooping and hollering and applauding because our anxiety is gonna need it a lot of laughing how about that because just laugh so hard please we'll we'll thank you for the rest of time scream cry emote um because we're we're very very nervous but we also want to put on a good show for you so please throw up thanks help us help you i know i don't know what i did okay and that's why we scream bye