And That's Why We Drink - Listener Stories: Vol. 73

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Happy two days after our Atlanta costume contest live show (we mean November)! Christine has her celebratory headband on today and Em's costume hasn't even been mailed to them as we record this but we're just happy to be back reading your spooky stories. This month we've got trucker, road trip and vehicle related stories that give us quite the goosecam. And all of a sudden Em might have to learn how to cook a turkey... stay tuned to find out how that goes! And that's why we drink!Don't miss our very last few Here for the Boos live shows! andthatswhywedrink.com/live

happy november everybody um it's me michael scott yeah i cannot believe you got did you down how did what did you do i just found a picture of the office and i just and i just put it as my background see creed and stanley back there it's pretty yeah they're working they're working i told them to keep it down because we're doing a confessional so yeah yeah yeah we're doing a talking head here um hard to believe that this is our second to last of the year. This is where I start throwing out those scary facts. Like in two months is 2023. But we're not making any predictions because every time we've done that, a horrible thing has happened.

No more. Remember that time you said it's the year of sandwiches and then there was a bread shortage? Okay. Like, you know. Just stop it. Stop it. That's fair. Honestly, now me just saying there's gonna be a 2023 is kind of up in the air i don't even know i was gonna say maybe don't even say

that we don't want to promise anything meteor comes shooting towards us exactly exactly um but anyway hi uh it is a day after halloween we just had our at Atlanta show last night, as far as we know. Two nights ago. Two nights ago. How did it go, do you think? I think it went fine. I think it went great. Your costume was ridiculous.

Thank you. Even though it actually in real time has not even been mailed to me yet. But I think it will go pretty smoothly. There's one last piece to it that if I could find some way to get that handled then I think the whole ensemble will be complete. Until then, I appreciate in the future

you saying that my costume looked great. I can't wait. Any Thanksgiving plans since this is the turkey season listeners episode? Gobble, gobble. The turkey season listeners episode. Gobble, gobble. I'm going to Connecticut. Where are you going?

I still think Seattle. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you have to feed everyone. It's owed at this point. They've been feeding me for years and now they need me to cook. So they haven't asked me to cook, but I will certainly be offering more help than usual.

Yeah, when Thanksgiving's at my house, I cook. And so it's kind of nice to just travel and be like, I'm just going to show up and eat whatever's there. You know, it's so nice. And it really is the perfect situation for me because I, first of all, love the town of Seattle. I think it's just like it's the one city that I've never lived in that I regret not living in. Really? I love Seattle. ever lived in that i regret not living in really i love i love seattle um and uh i have one of my favorite family members lives there my aunt andrea she's truly top of the top uh and they know how to

cook and they don't expect me to cook and i just get and it's a quick fly from la instead of across the country so it's just it's all always worked in my favor. And now it's time to pay the piper, I think. But now you got to make the food, huh? I got it. All of a sudden I got to learn how to make a turkey. So good luck to me. Good luck to you too, if you're cooking.

I know you're going to Connecticut, but if you get thrown in to like make some green bean casserole, you know. I hate green bean casserole. I hate it. Is that your least favorite Thanksgiving staple? Yes. What's your favorite and what's your least?

Stuffing. Is your favorite? Is my favorite. Interesting. I don't really like stuffing. I know. Neither does Blaze. I don't get it.

You guys are freaks. It falls in the middle of the spectrum. I'll always get a scoop to try it, but then I don't really go back for seconds. Oh, it's the best. I love it. i love it i love it my family does the uh the the sandwich of leftovers the next day oh my god it knocks me the fuck out anyway now i'm hungry what the hell sorry as everyone's driving to work and like hasn't even had breakfast yet i I know, I know. They're like, it's literally weeks away, people. Well, Eva has selected some wonderful stories.

We have no idea what they are. And she's done the hard part. And now we just read them out loud. Christine has volunteered to go first this time. Yeah, I don't know. I asked Eva if there was an order. She said no. So I just said, okay, I'll do it.

What's the situation with your head? Do you have a little trashy classy headband on i do i um i just told you this uh earlier but leona has covid as we record this and so i have not had the time to watch my hair or you know look presentable so uh trashy classy headband it is nice i didn't mean to it wasn't an insult i just saw a pattern in your hair and I was like, what is the situation? Surprise. I almost wore the lemon one, but I felt like today is not the day.

Not for such a celebratory headband. I understand. Well, with your headband, I hope you enjoy reading the first story. I'm just going to sit back and relax. Alright. I hope you enjoy reading the first story and I'm just going to sit back and relax. All right. So this, oh my God, I already remember. Trucker Tales.

Oh my God. You gave me a stupid little heart attack. Sorry. You can't joke about that. You have heart issues. I know. I need to start changing my words up and be like ah my face exploded or something um oh god that's so much worse I don't know I don't know how to be anything but dramatic so uh you did

ask for trucker stories I totally forgot about that I think we both did uh so trucker tales a family business is the subject of this and this is from Brandy okay brandy hi i'm christine and that's why we drink family my name is brandy she her and i grew up in alaska which is a great source for all things crime and ghost story related i was thrilled to hear your request for trucker stories as my grandpa and his brother were both truckers and always had a good spooky tale to tell us growing up one of my grandpa's favorites was when he was in his 20s and was driving his little pickup truck on a trip. He was making his way over a mountain pass

with narrow winding roads and a sheer cliff face when he started to feel tired. There weren't any safe places to pull over and rest until after the pass, so he continued on, flipping the radio station on to try and stay awake. All of a sudden, my grandpa heard his mom shout, Jerry! His eyes snapped open just in time to swerve out of the way of an oncoming semi-truck

and onto the narrow shoulder. He had fallen asleep and had drifted into the oncoming traffic lane. Oh, shit. There is no way he would have survived if the truck had hit him. It would have pushed him off the road and over the cliff edge. Like a movie jesus he sat on the side of the road until he was able to continue driving into town where he immediately called his mom from a pay phone she answered worried saying she had had a terrible dream about him oh i have goose cam bye my grandpa firmly believes that his mom saved his

life that day even though she was over 2,000 miles away. That's so wild. Oh, ghost cam. Wow. Here's the second story. My grandpa's brother loves to tell a tale of driving alone one dark winter night. The snow was swirling around on the breeze, and the heater was on full blast to keep out the bitter cold when he caught sight of what looked like a woman in a white cotton nightgown standing on the side of the road. Nope.

Her long, dark hair was hanging over her face, and she wasn't wearing any outer layers. No jacket, shoes, hat, or gloves. What? Oh, my God. My great uncle, concerned, pulled over and rolled down his window to wave at her to ask if she needed a lift, but the woman had disappeared. He jumped out of his truck and called out, but there was no answer. What in the world? Holy shit. he called it into emergency services. When he described the woman as well as the road and mile marker he was at

the emergency responder said they had had several calls that night about the same woman but had yet to find her. After hanging up he called out into the night one more time before hopping into his truck and driving off. He doesn't know what he saw that night but he prays it was a spirit because it was too troubling to imagine

a person lost out in those conditions. Yeah. but also if it's a spirit that means that it she probably died from i know like some either way oh thanks for taking the time to read this i love your podcast and it has been really helpful to hear about anxiety excessive sweating and fun heart concerns you already got that well you are welcome All things that I experience on a regular basis between growing up in Alaska and now living in London. I've got some other spooky tales, but I'll save those for another day. Thanks again.

Oh my gosh. Wow. Trucker tales for days. Have you ever had a thing like that where you, you felt like someone in a dream was warning you or uh shouting at you in a dream or like where i was awake i don't know either have you ever felt like someone was thinking about you and it ended up like huh changing your the direction of what you were planning to do so have you i don't know i had definitely not as dangerous of a story but i i remember um hearing someone who wasn't in

the room scream my name until i woke up and i was about to like be late for something if i didn't wake up in that moment which was like such a random act of kindness but like like i don't know about like any actual incidents where i've almost died i don't think anyone's uh stepped in so loudly but um oh man i just i how that happened to my um my grandmother she was driving with the kids in the back and like back then they weren't in she had eight kids and there were no seat belts back there so they were just all kind of in the back they were just a 90 mile an hour bullet yep yep and uh they were driving on the road in bavaria in the middle of the night through a snowstorm and my mom my i'm sorry my grandma suddenly heard her dad scream stop in german

obviously just screaming in her ear stop and he had died and so she slammed on her brakes and um when when this car finally stopped there was one of those like big snow i don't know what you call like a bulldozer thing like a snowplow snowplow yeah yeah um stopped in the middle of the road that they hadn't been able to like move out of the uh out of the road so it was stuck there so she thinks that it was her her dad saving oh my i without being there can't confirm that was her dad that oh my god that's so spooky so that happened to them but yeah not to me yet and that always makes me wonder like if they're like in terms of like do we have a purpose here or are we just like so it's like why do you need why now like why why do you need why now like why

why do you need to stop me like what am i still what do i still have yet to accomplish that's so important for me that you would step in and like or was it to save like the kids in the back like was it yeah exactly because i mean obviously people die every day and it's like what is the difference between somebody who gets saved yeah from a car wreck and someone who doesn't that's yeah really great point very quickly falls into like well we're you know it could get really dark very dark yeah did those people not serve a purpose anymore or something but yeah it's very i don't know makes you think for sure well anyway thank you so much for your stories and i'm glad that everyone is safe uh in your stories at least i hope everyone's still safe um and then our neck that

was brandy right so our next uh writer author of the day is uh morgan who uses she her pronouns thank you for normalizing pronouns and the subject is spooky road trips on 95. love a good 95 did you have did you have 95. Did you have 95? Do you have it? Because you're still over there. I don't know. I think so. Well, no, not in Cincinnati.

But I think, is that the one that goes from Florida? Yeah. Yeah. What's your main highway? We have 71 and 75. Oh, 95 was the only highway in Fredericksburg. Yeah. It was. And so my stop is 126 if anyone ever wants to pull over to Fredericksburg.

So. That's adorable. Yeah. I've driven 95 like down in Florida and stuff, but not up by me. Interesting. Well, I feel close to home with this story. Yeah. Maybe this is something you'll experience someday. Yep.

All right. Well, I'm like, I don't even know what it is. So hopefully not. But all right, here it is. Hello, Eva. Thank you for putting Eva first, because she definitely is the one who reads these stories. Hello, Eva, Em, Christine, and all the lovely fur babies. Christine requested Trekker road trip stories.

And I have been dying for an audience to hear me out about my unexplainable experiences while traveling along 95 so let's crack into it while i was still living in pennsylvania back in 2019 i thought i took my first road trip down to south carolina my boyfriend at the time was moving down to join the family business and i wanted to check it out before i made the decision to make the move with him i like that i like you too got a good head on your shoulders you're like i'm not moving for a man i just better i better have something waiting for me over here unless it's unless the offer is really good yeah uh i left after dark because i knew there would be less traffic on the roads and i wanted to make the 10-hour trip as quickly

as possible to accompany me on this journey i chose a brand new podcast I've never listened to before called And That's Why We Drink. How cute. And now I want to go cry. Everything was going great until I hit 95 south heading into North Carolina. At about 3 30 a.m., I am startled by a loud bang on the back passenger side of the car. That sounds like that story we all heard about the guy with the hook. No? Is that Spongebob? That's the hash slinging slasher. No.

And it was a spatula. No, the story of like two people on a date and they like they hear some they like hear on the news in the car at lover's lookout or whatever that like there's a guy on the run and he has a hook for a hand yo you've never heard of but what happens i i do know it but i don't remember how they're like they're like all scared because the the news on the radio is saying like oh he's he's out and about and then all of a sudden, oh, and he's like, he likes to look for teenagers at Lover's Lookout. And so they freak out because they're at Lover's Lookout. And all of a sudden they hear a sound on the back passenger side of the door.

And they freak out and they drive home. And when they get out of the car once they're home, they see a hook hanging on the door handle. He'd almost open the door. He's like, you took my hand. I know. Like now he's really going to come after you. That's expensive. Good luck. That's expensive. Okay. So anyway, maybe this is the hash slinging slasher. Actually, we'll see. At about 3.30 AM, I am startled by a loud bang on the back passenger side of the car. I immediately scanned the road around me to find not a single car anywhere on the road

my first thought was oh shit maybe i hit a deer or something then that thought was interrupted by three more consecutive loud bangs on the same spot as the first one oh no now my heart's racing and my hands are shaking on the wheel did someone latch themselves to my car and now they were trying to get me to stop? I turn all the lights on in my car in an attempt to see anything that would answer the whirlwind of questions buzzing through my head. I decided to take the next exit and stop in the first heavily lit parking lot I could find, which happened to be a McDonald's. After the car was in park, I warily opened the door with my hands still shaking and hopped out. I walked around to the passenger side, not sure what i was expecting to find but there was nothing not a dent scratch or mark that

indicated my car had been hit by anything at all i turned on the flashlight on my phone and peeked under the car and again saw nothing i still have no explanation as to what caused those violent loud bangs on my car that night fast forward about a a year later, and I'm now living in South Carolina. Okay. I like that. We made the move. Love to know what, what the growth looked like there.

Me too. About twice a year, I would drive back home to Pennsylvania to visit my family and catch up with childhood friends. As always, I left after dark and without a travel buddy about four hours into my trip. I found myself back on the north carolina strip of 95 northbound with no others car with no other cars around me in the distance i see two

red circles side by side on the right side of the road about four feet off the ground what i wasn't alarmed at first and i assumed them to be those reflectors that sit on posts at the end of driveways and such but as i drove closer the first saw the fist-sized red circles vanished and they didn't just disappear in an instant either describing the experience the best i can i literally look it literally looked like two eyelids coming down at the same time the red circles disappearing behind them i slowed my car down as i got closer to where i saw the red circles, but I saw nothing. I still think about what cryptid was lurking on the side of 95 that night.

No one can convince me that it wasn't one. Maybe the Jersey Devil, a young Bigfoot, but your guess is as good as mine. And it bangs on the car. I know. It just all of a sudden makes you really uncomfortable about operating a vehicle. Wow. Fist size. That's very large.

Fist size. Oh, my gosh. That's a massive eyeball. I don't like that one bit. I'm going to throw Mothman in the ringer. I think Mothman. That was my first thought. Red eyes.

I mean. I mean, red eyes. That's all you need. That's all you need for me to be convinced. Yeah. I'm a very easy believer so yeah yeah it sounds and oh i don't know a mothman shows up to warn you about impending doom so kind of spooky good luck i hope you're doing okay anyway good luck with that morgan oh lord okay so the next one I have here is from Jennifer. She, her. And it's called Creepy Road Trip Story.

Hello, Em and Christine and all the rest of you spooky lovelies. I know you are looking for trucker stories. And although I am not a trucker, sadly, I did want to share a creepy occurrence that happened to me and my family with taking a family road trip. did want to share a creepy occurrence that happened to me and my family with taking a family road trip. I was about six years old and my family and I were making our yearly road trip from Illinois to Florida to visit my grandparents down there. My dad used to like to make that 14 hour drive all in one day. That's such a dad move, isn't it? Like to just not stop, to just drive 14 hours straight.

Can confirm. My stepdad called me a while ago because he was, he was obviously bored why was i the phone call but he uh he called me at like 3 a.m because he was like i don't know anyone else who'd be awake right now and he was driving to boston because at like eight o'clock at night he had heard that there was a red sox game and he was like god and he was like i'd like to see that and so he just got in a car just drove through the night to get to boston for the red socks game the next day i was like you're what is going on here you're unhinged sir that's a that's a very bold move i was like that's the most father thing i can imagine is like i mean that panic though of like getting a call at

three in the morning from your parent yeah and he And he was just like, I'm fine. I was just bored. And I went, oh, my God. OK, well, it's 3 a.m. This is like my peak working productivity hour. You're working right now. I'm going to need you to hang up and enjoy your ride. Yeah.

You tell me any cryptids you spot on the way. There'll be a fun game. Right, right. OK, let's see. My dad liked to make the 14-hour drive all in one day. It was late into the night, so everyone had fallen asleep, including myself. Parentheses, except my dad, who was behind the wheel. Yes, I'm glad to get that confirmation. I don't know why, but something woke me up, and I decided I would keep my dad company for a little while. I had my hands and forearms up on the back of the front seats as I talked to him,

watching the road ahead of us as we chatted. The highway was dark without street lamps on this stretch of road, but there was a car ahead of us at around 50 feet. Occasionally, cross traffic would pass us. Suddenly, three red glowing lights appeared in front of our car, parallel to the hood between our car and the car ahead of us and they kept perfect pace with our car at 55 miles per hour two of the lights were large diamond shapes parentheses rhombus

thank you for reminding us how bad we are as people. But I like that you put a question mark to just be like, maybe a rhombus. I don't want to, you know, decide for you. I don't want you to feel stupid if it is a rhombus. Two of the lights were large diamond shapes, rhombus, and the other was a straight bar of light. So all three of them sort of formed a bit of a face shape two eyes and a mouth my dad and i stopped talking and just quietly stared at these lights hovering in front of us finally i broke the silence and asked my dad do you see that and he replied yes what do you think it is and instantly the lights scrambled around each other and flew off up and to the left disappearing into the night

my dad and i were left stunned now just staring at the car's bumper ahead of us What? I had spotted something before realizing it was only another car. The rest of the trip was uneventful, as was the drive back to return home. We made that road trip again for many years, and I've never seen those lights again or figured out what they were. Thank you so much for letting me share my story. I've been an avid listener since the beginning, and you inspired me to create my own podcast where I share my ghost stories and experiences as a spirit medium. Check out I Talk talk to ghosts sometime for some spooky slash spiritual fun thanks again jennifer very damn boy you think it's aliens what do you think it is i think it's aliens it's got to be aliens it couldn't possibly be anything else but i definitely think it has to be aliens for sure. I feel like what else could it be? You know?

I don't know. I don't know, but I really, I, so far I like that we've gotten a cryptid situation. We've gotten an alien situation. We've got a ghost, like talking to you through your dreams situation. I can't believe how much it happens just driving,

you know? I really thought, I really thought all the truck driver stories were gonna be just like something on the side of the road but they all it's so varied there's so much wow so many possibilities it's endless it's endless okay i like the alien i think it's aliens i think it's aliens too let's just let's confirm let's just say that that's what it is let's shake on it yeah let's say okay it's aliens uh okay well we've got another story this is from another brandy oh okay and uh there the subject line is just truck driver story just getting to the point brandy thank you brandy's who have truck

driver stories for days i know it's like okay well here's one i can just toss at you since i have so many since i'm full of them i know so brandy is a she her pronouns thank you for normalizing pronouns brandy and the uh email says i don't know if this is going to be a listener story but i heard em and christine mentioned how they wanted to hear some so here i am yay my name is brandy and you can use my name. Oh, good. Okay. And you may not use my name.

Uh-oh. Because let's face it, I'm going to fangirl hearing you say my name. Cool. Uh-oh. She probably thought it was her earlier, too. Oh, well, we talked about two Brandys. Fake out. Okay.

My husband is a truck driver and so was his father. Wow. They have some crazy stories from transporting... Sorry. They have some crazy stories from transporting illegal drugs. Okay, Brandy. What? Brandy. Brandy, Brandy, Brandy.

Listen to me. I know you want your story right on the show. It's lovely. Listen. But come closer. Listen in. You can't just throw your poor husband under the show it's lovely but but come closer listen in you you can't just throw your poor husband under the bus like that okay i thought you were supposed to like what

happened to like what's it marital privacy yeah well she said she wanted to fangirl hearing her name so what's she gonna do knock if her name if your husband is in the car with you right now listening to this he's giving you such a side eye being like you told them what okay let's say it again just for good measure since you wanted me to say it so badly brandy here we go my husband is a truck driver and so is his father they have some crazy stories from transporting illegal drugs from canada to the u.s for the oh hang on for the united states government oh okay now the government is side eyeing you being like you told them what Canada to the U.S. for the, oh, hang on, for the United States government. Oh. Okay. Now the government is side-eyeing you, being like, you told them what?

Now the government is side-eyeing me. And I'm like, I didn't say it. Brandy said it. If all of a sudden this episode gets deleted halfway through the week, you know the government reached out to us. Sorry, Eva had to delete it on behalf of the United States government. That's true. We've had to delete episodes in the past. We have. Because we have.

Confidential information. And just, I'm not saying that, like, you know, we know the blind items to everything. But we certainly have some interesting factoids we have in the back of our pocket. We have a couple little secret intel. Hee hee hee. Okay. From transporting drugs for the government to transporting large rockets that's interesting but not for the government for other people that one did not end with for

the u.s government so one of the many scary stories i have been told is about the ghost girl that happens in the mountains what the fuck they i thought this was i heard u.s government rockets and i assumed this was an alien i thought aliens uh they have both experienced this ghost on both the west and east coast oh she is just trotting along jet setter backpacking um as they're going through the tight mountains and really trying to focus on not driving off the sides they see this woman standing in the middle of the road often get it forget it again because she's often screaming like she's in pain oh no they slam on their brakes trying to stop often almost driving off the side of the road when when they get to the point where they think

they're going to hit her she's gone what a fucking mean prank yeah like yeah least funny prank of all time like i know you probably only get a few cars driving past you but you could interact with them in very different ways yeah you're like i've got a truck full of rockets back here you be careful standing in the middle of the road do you know how many illegal drugs are in this car right now? Cocaine would just spill off this cliff, lady. And the government would have my head for it? Yeah, exactly. Yikes.

I'm doing this for them. Also, I do wonder, though, like, does that mean that that's how this woman died? Maybe she was in the middle of a road. That's scary and sad to think about. Let's go. Okay, let's move on then. Okay. Often. Oh oh never mind well maybe let's keep going when they get to the point where they think they're gonna hit her she's gone

but often reappears behind the truck oh my god you just drove through her or she goes blink out blinkin oh my god when you go to the next truck stop, they all have stories from other drivers having experienced the same thing. Oh, shit. There's nothing creepier, but also more relieving than confirmation from others. The validation, yeah. The only thing is everyone describes her differently.

Sometimes she looks like she's Native American. Sometimes she looks white. Sometimes she's been described being in clothing as early as Tudor times. Whoa. And it's like she changes depending on how she's feeling. Both my father-in-law and my husband experiencing the same woman on opposite sides of the country almost six years apart.

And to them, she looks like my late grandmother-in-law. Whoa. Or maybe there's just like an army of these women spirits all doing this to people. All pranking, pranking everybody. Or she's got an infinite like closet of costumes and she just has, she needs everyone to see. Could be. I hope this makes sense. Thank you.

It did. It also did not. It did not also. Also, we really glossed over that the U.S. government. Okay. Anyway. Did we gloss over it? Because I felt like we lingered on it for a long time. Also, we really glossed over that the U.S. government. OK, anyway. Did we gloss over it? Because I felt like we lingered on it for a long time.

Thank you for keeping me company as I work in records at a local police department. Whoa. One day I will have to write about some of the crazy stories we have in this small town, like a murder over KFC chicken or how we found a guy dead in the trunk of his own car on a random day oh my god and then just ends with a thank you for reading this wow okay brandy okay brandy brandy really came in hot yeah for real i i wow the ghost it makes me sad because it seems like if she's in pain everybody sees her in pain that makes me sad you know yeah to be you know even also to be traveling from place to place

and people to people in clothing to clothing like the only constant is that she's screaming in pain yeah that like in eternity for eternity it's just yeah that's awful it makes you wonder if she's like looking for help or if that's how she died or i don't know i would imagine that's awful it makes you wonder if she's like looking for help or if that's how she died or i don't know i would imagine that's how she died like maybe i don't know and then it's like is it worse or better if the pain like the screaming wasn't from getting hit by a truck but the realization a truck was about to hit her like i mean oh yeah like which is worse. It's just the last piece of energy she had was the fear. The screaming. Oh, God.

Yikes. Yikes, yikes, yikes. All right. Well, I have one here. This is from Renata. Are you kidding me? Oh, mom. Mom.

Spelled slightly differently, but still. Renata Sheher. And the subject is my uncle's late night truck ride. I'm sorry, but I thought you said Renata She-fer and I was like, what? We do that sometimes on Beachy Sandy. She, her, she, fer pronouns. I love it. She, her, she, fer.

Thank you. Somebody yelled at us about it. So we had to stop. I said it was offensive, but. Okay. Well, maybe to them, but not to me. So. Okay.

I'm glad it's not to you at least. The joke, the joke the joke can sit well here thank you i appreciate that yeah so this says hello eva christine m the creepiest way to say is fur slash skin babies what a what a way to be remembered you did it and lemon first off i love your show you guys always make me laugh with your personal stories this podcast has got me through a lot of boring closing shifts and long road trips so thank you i've been wanting to submit this story for a while but i was always too nervous until christine

mentioned the truck driver topic and i saw it as a sign i love that like things i say can be seen by people as a sign it makes me feel so important you, you know. I'm glad. I'm glad. So she says, here it goes. When I was young, my uncle used to be a late night truck driver for a big retail company in Mexico. One day during a family gathering, he told us about his scariest night. It was late sometime past 12 a.m. He and his coworker were driving down a highway in the mountains. As they drove, the engine started to act up until the truck completely stopped in the middle of the road. My uncle decided to step out and inspect the hood. It was extremely dark as the trees overhead almost covered the moonlight completely, so their main source of light was from the truck.

After a minute or so, my uncle noticed a dark figure slowly walking in his direction. My uncle was confused because there were no houses in the area and they were miles away from any town. He decided to call out to the figure to see if they needed help. The figure remained quiet as it kept getting closer. At this point, my uncle and his co-worker were getting a bit spooked by the silent figure. As it got closer, the truck lights were able to light up the figure. All my uncle was able to see was a man in completely dark clothes.

He had a hood covering most of his face, but my uncle caught a glance at one side, which was completely scarred as if burned from a fire. Oh, my God. Oh, okay. My uncle didn't dare speak to the figure again. He and his coworker just watched the man pass and disappear into the darkness. At that point, the coworker tried to turn the truck on and to their surprise it worked my uncle hopped back into the driver's seat and they drove away to this day whenever my uncle recalls the story he still gets unnerved it was one of the scariest nights he'd ever experienced oh my god anyway thank you for taking the time to read the story even if not on the podcast i'm still glad i decided to finally share it with y'all much love from a leo listener had to put

it out there i wish you all the absolute best and i hope to one day see you at a live show wow i you know i feel like there's a lot of areas like i feel like i've not every small town maybe but a lot of small towns have this thing of like if you go on a certain road at a certain time you know your car will stop working or if even you manually turn your car off all of a sudden it won't be able to turn back on until like a shadow comes up after like the electronics will shut off or whatever yeah i know bunny man bridge which i covered yeah i think it's a lot of bridges it's a lot of bridges it's a lot of things next to barns it's like and also you know what's weird is usually over bridges a lot of times it's a lot of bridges. It's a lot of bridges. It's a lot of things next to barns. It's like, and also, you know, what's weird is usually over bridges, a lot of times it's over water.

So I wonder if there's something with that. But yeah, I feel like there's a lot of stories like that of, you know, your car will stop in the middle of the night and there will be nothing you can do until they decide you're not sharing it anymore. Yeah. I wonder if with this man walking past, if it was like the car was stopped so that you saw him yeah you know like he wanted to be seen and then once you saw him it was like you can go back and then drive away i fingers crossed then that like he got what he needed to and also crossed over and that was the last time that ever happened for anyone so i know i know and the thought that there's no towns or houses nearby this is just like in the middle of nowhere oh always a secluded bridge always a road it's why doesn't this just happen on well maybe i don't want to happen on a busy bridge

either because then the car just stops and a man wanders into the road yeah all right well thank you so much for your story uh the next one is from amber who's a she her pronouns thank you for analyzing pronouns and the subject line is the ghost of my trucker uncle saved my life i love it i love when ghosts save lives like it's too they oh man but we could really get into a tangent on that on on why and what it all means. Okay. But here's Amber's story. Who calls us spooky lemons, by the way? Yeah.

I love it. Hello, spooky lemons. As soon as I heard your call for Trucker Stories, I was immediately covered in goosebumps, a.k.a. goose cam, because I'm 1,000% convinced that a few months ago, the ghost of my uncle saved my life. Because I'm at 1000% convinced that a few months ago, the ghost of my uncle saved my life. So long story short, my father owns a construction company and my uncle Tom was his right hand man and one of the dump truck drivers. 20 years ago, my uncle was killed on the job when they were clearing ground to build a house. And he was standing clear of trees falling.

And ironically, a dead tree behind him fell over. Probably from the ground shaking from the bulldozer.'s so sad and it crushed his neck oh my god geez that's rough oh my god uh i was six years old at the time and happened to be playing with my brother only 300 feet away oh my god okay well i hope you're therapist and you get along very well because that sounds like intense trauma i'm so sorry we actually had um uh similar construction thing my uncle's dad that's the same thing happened to him and my in a tree a tree it was a whole construction problem it was a a bulldozer and a tree and he fell and he got crushed it was oh my god so i've heard i've heard similar fears be being awoken after something like that so i hope you're doing all right uh

also i hope you've unpacked it and you feel healthy and safe and wonderful and warm so whoa i'm very very sorry about that for you thankfully i was spared the gruesome sight but i can still clearly remember being there when it occurred. Oh, I'm so sorry. Fast forward to this past March, and I was staying over at a friend's house because we got dumped on with a ton of snow. And I was sleeping on the recliner in the living room, smack up against the front wall of the house. That night, I felt that there was a presence in the room with me, but it made me feel calm. that night i felt that there was a presence in the room with me but it made me feel calm and which we've talked about before that if something really wants to just be nice it can

manipulate the energy yeah yeah i was sleeping on the recliner oh and uh and something made me feel calm as i was fading in and out of sleep i could see and sense a man standing in the corner of the room sort of looming over me like i said i was not scared at all and somehow managed to fall into a very deep sleep until a car came crashing through the front porch what totally ripping the front of the house off what oh wow that is so fucking crazy fuck i absolutely screamed my head off because it felt like a bomb went off above my head duh yeah i of course when we went outside to see what exactly had happened we found tire tracks that were making a straight line to where i had

been sleeping in on the other side of the wall oh this was also where the presence of a man was standing somehow at the last second the person who was driving turned the wheel avoiding the house i kid you not the tire tracks were only two feet away from my head on the last second, the person who was driving turned the wheel, avoiding the house. I kid you not. The tire tracks were only two feet away from my head on the other side of the wall. Wow. Oh, my God. Wow. So basically they were coming straight for you. And then right where the last minute man. Yep. Wow. That is crazy. Your uncle, your uncle was probably like, this girl has enough trauma. I was like, I had to see me die. And now like, I'm just going to make sure that like no more trauma has to happen for this poor person.

But that's so cool. Like just, I mean, scary and horrible also. But so cool that at least you got a sense that he maybe knew it was coming and was watching over you. Yeah, it's fascinating that you like you had sensed the presence before like as you fell asleep and he was like you go to sleep i'll take care of it yeah like to have that overwhelming sense of calm when something so insane was about to happen it's almost like he was saying like you can be calm because you don't have anything to worry about oh my god that's so lovely wow that's so, I have for sure goose cam right now. After all that happened, I knew it was the presence that had been protecting me from

the drunk driver that was going over 80 miles an hour. Jesus Christ. At least that's how fast the police estimated. I was totally stumped on who it could be. And I had asked the higher powers for a sign of who it might be. I currently work for my dad's company and was going through an old filing cabinet when I stumbled upon the OSHA accident report from when my uncle was killed. I was immediately overcome with tears because the accident happened the day before the 20th year anniversary of his death. Oh, shit.

And if you're sleeping, it was probably midnight. It probably hit his 20th anniversary. Oh, shit. And if you're sleeping, it was probably midnight. It probably hit his 20th anniversary. I had no clue that it was the anniversary, but I knew immediately that it was my Uncle Tom that had been with me. I've got like insane goose camp. That's wild.

Wow. I believe everyone has a spirit guide watching out for them. And I truly think my uncle is one of mine. After this whole incident, I went to the graveyard to thank him and spend time with him only to realize that his birthday is only three days after mine and that it was also my original due date oh this is very heart-wrenching um this i i have to keep it together this was a another thing that was a total surprise to me and something that connects us thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I saw your live show in Pittsburgh this past March, which was two days after the anniversary of his death. What is going on?

You two are truly amazing and make such a difference in the lives of your fans. Thank you for being awesome. Can't wait to see your next live show. Yours truly, Amber. P.S. If you ever decide to make personal connections to the mafia as a theme, I have a great tale for you about my family's connection with the mob and how my great aunt was killed by her husband who happened to be the head in our area. Oh my God.

Jesus, Amber, go home and take a nap. And also call that therapist we talked about earlier. Yeah, remember that therapist we talked about? Wow. All the way from the beginning to the end. That was like felt weirdly personal for me it was so weird roller coaster man that was a crazy one i i do hope you're doing okay it sounds like you've been through it girl i do the ringer i really hope you're okay um but wow and also for there to be so many connections to your uncle that that always blows my mind because when i think of like some people say guardian angels or, you know, just someone looking out for you up there, whatever it is, I always wonder, does that have to they have to be assigned to you after you've died?

Like, like, do they like do they have to die before you're born to be assigned to you or can you have lived life with them and then they pass on and they get like added to the ranks like i've heard definitely people who knew of somebody that had passed and then felt like they came back to to be with them i wonder if they're just like like the new employee up there or like someone else had to be watching you before they got there right so so it's like how many is is does the limit not exist on how many you can have? Or like, like I've always wanted to know the logistics of that, which I never will. The logistics. I don't know if there are, but yeah, I agree.

Cause like you wonder, oh, does like if, if your uncle helps watch out for you, is there anyone else he also watches out for? Or is it like just you one-on-one? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I have no, like, do people take shifts? Like, was he just really like doing a good job at work that day you know or like was it or is there just a whole

little squad of people that are just like okay i got it that's so wild wow talk about a good story amber yeah i love that very much um thank you for sharing and i'm glad you're okay that has to be one of the scariest ways to wake up a car plowing into the house that you're sleeping in. To be this far away from the wall of your head. Are you kidding me? No, no, no, no. Also, don't drink and drive, folks. Yeah, great PSA.

Stupid, don't do that. Okay, we have a bonus story here, and this is from Sarah, sheah she her and the subject is haunted ice cream truck see ya this is for em hello eva and whoever else may read this good call okay sarah says i'm not a trucker but i do have a story involving the most relevant type of truck to the podcast an ice cream truck thank you for knowing me when i was 14 or 15 my parents went out for the night and i was home alone around 11 p.m i was upstairs in my room when i heard the familiar tune of the ice cream truck that occasionally drove through my neighborhood i thought it was odd for it to come by at this time of night um just a reminder we're at 11 p.m she said okay but shrugged it off at first

the truck song grew louder as it got closer to my house until it was so loud it filled the entire room and i put my hands over my ears oh my bedroom window faced the street and i finally decided to peer through the blinds i figured the truck must have been directly in front of my house to be so loud, but there was nothing there. The street was empty, and there were no other roads behind my house. My city has light pollution ordinances, so there were no streetlights, and the housing development was brand new with no trees or bushes that would block my view of the street.

The road in front of my house was straight, and the music wouldn't have been so loud if the truck had driven past and turned into the cul-de-sac crossway. The song maintained its deafening volume for a few more seconds and finally began to fade. I kept looking out my window expecting to at least see headlights, but the street remained dark and still until the music was gone. I spent the rest of the night downstairs on the couch under a blanket until my parents came home and it never happened again stay spooky sarah of all things too like i know we talk about this a lot but like when things are so innocent and then they happen out of context it makes them so much scarier and more sinister like like the ice cream music the tingle tinkling like bells it's like the

black-eyed kids of a situation yeah exactly it's like hang on something is not right something feels off in me it should be a happy occasion to hear the ice cream truck and now it's just so sinister yeah well and no you totally just nailed it with like things that are innocent or childlike or whimsical too like ghost kids are the scariest and like nursery rhymes become so scary. Yeah, yeah. Like hearing a giggling next to your bed is like somehow creepier than anything else I can think of. Yeah. Oh, man.

That's so weird. I wonder if every time you hear like ice cream song music, it's... Not the ice cream truck. Although I will say, did you know that the ice cream truck... Have I told you the update on ice cream truck have have i told you the update on ice cream truck politics with their music okay no okay so this happened during i think it was two years ago i think it was during covid um good humor they decide i don't want to fuck this up but um ice cream truck music they have redone their ice cream truck song

because the usual um ice cream truck music that you usually hear is actually has incredibly racist ties okay and the song that people usually hear when an ice cream truck is going by is from minstrel shows oh dear and so uh when did this happen i think this was like around like it had to have been uh it's 2020 so i think it was during black lives i think it was during black lives matter that people were starting to unpack a lot of stuff and look into the history of their own corporations finally yeah and good humor was like oh fuck we like didn't even click for us that like this ice cream song is like super racist and so they ended up teaming up with a rapper and they came out with a new good humor ice cream truck song um i'm gonna send it to you in geo's trio the link to the new song and if we

can if we can play a little sample of it that'd be cool i don't know what copyright situations are but if we could if you if we can't everyone just go look up good humor and rza collab and it's the new ice cream truck jingle collab oh so that's the original at the beginning of this video so that's the one we don't like that's the one you don't like but then they play the new the new one i'm the ice cream just watching christine are you having fun i'm having the best time sorry just so you folks know i was just like bopping over here um wow that is wild i had no idea um by the way sorry for that complete tangent but fun trip fun fact about ice cream trucks and since people think since people think i'm like the lead on

on ice cream yeah no i'm so happy you told us that i i had no idea apparently chicago or chicago apparently good humor is from uh ohio oh fun hey Well, shout out. They are trying to unpack their racism. I'm so glad. I'm glad that they, I love that it's called a collab. I know. Well, they wanted to reach out to someone I think that like, you know, was probably more fit and well deserving of getting a chance to redo it. Absolutely. That's so kick-ass. I'm so happy to hear that. So what I'm saying to you, dear writer Sarah, is if you need a new ice cream song to listen to that doesn't give you the chills, there's actually one that is incredibly less racist

you can now enjoy. Great point. We don't even want to listen to the old one anymore. Yeah. You had a great additional reason, Sarah, to not want to listen to it, but really none yeah you you had a great additional reason sarah to not want to listen to it but really none of us should anyway wow yeah so you have just given us all a reason to make sure good humor is following through and still using that music in their

trucks wait hang on it was rza aka from wu-tang clan who did this song god see i don't know anything about about rap world so all i saw was RZA and just ran with it. Yeah, that's so badass. That's so cool. Oh, RZA was also a founding member of the horror core group Gravediggers. Okay, so RZA sounds like a very interesting person. Like what a range though, like from Gra diggers to like ice cream truck jingle i mean wow like hitting every spot well anyway uh i think that was it was that our last that was

our last story yeah i hope that song blasts through all your bedrooms tonight but in the best way not in a scary haunted ghosty way yeah um and thanks everyone for sharing your trucker stories i'm trying to think of what to request. I feel like it's December. We need to request something like holiday or wintry. I'm trying to think. Oh, travel. Travel's good. I'm traveling for the holidays. Yeah, I like that. Ending up back in your childhood room and some bullshits happening like that like visiting old places like family homes yeah revisiting old times yeah yeah eva's just like fucking pulling her hair out right now like what are you even talking about just childhood childhood uh hometown locations or something like that like like yeah traveling

actually that's a good one too just hometown locations because something like that. Ooh, like, yeah, traveling. Actually, that's a good one, too. Just hometown locations because people might have moved away, but I've got a lot to say about Fredericksburg. Yeah, I know. And you do. All right. Travel, childhood, hometown, really the whole gamut. Just enjoy.

Holidays, anything. Figure it out. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you, everyone, for listening. We've only got one more listeners episode for the year and hard to believe that's so bananas and when this comes out by the way i want i want to give us a personal shout out but when this uh by the time the next listeners episode comes out we will

be done with our here for the booze tour and it's we're only actually right now as you're hearing this we're only a few days away from it and it's just that is wild it's really i much more of an emotional journey than i was prepared for but it's really hitting me that it's just like what the end of an era so it feels like it oh well thank you everyone for listening we're excited to uh tell you more stories in december and then boogie on out of 2022 now let's boogie on out boogie onward onward and upward and that's why we drink