Jim Harold's Campfire - The Bizarre Smiling Men - Jim Harold's Campfire 747

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

A family gathers after a funeral and a child reacts to someone no one else can see. A frequent flyer keeps running into bizarre strangers who seem to know him across different places and years. A quiet house carries a lullaby in the dark, and it may not be meant for the living. Familiar moments slowly shift into something off balance as comfort and unease sit side by side. You will also hear about a call that arrives long after someone is gone, warnings that come as a simple feeling not to go, and a childhood sighting in the sky that never found an explanation. Some encounters feel protective, others deeply unsettling, but all leave lingering questions about what lies beyond the Campfire. NEWSLETTERGet Jim’s weekly free newsletter and a free Campfire ebook at the same time. Go here: https://jim-harold.kit.com/campfire-ebookVIRTUAL CAMPFIRE GROUPJoin our FREE online community at ⁠https://virtualcampfiregroup.com⁠EVENTSHope to see you soon at one of Jim’s live events: https://jimharold.com/eventsYOUTUBE CHANNELBe sure to subscribe to Jim’s YouTube channel at: ⁠https://youtube.com/jimharold⁠ JOIN JIM’S SPOOKY STUDIO PLUS CLUBYou can get access to Jim’s entire back catalog of Campfire and a TON of exclusive content with the Spooky Studio Plus Club. Go to https://⁠jimharold.com/plus⁠ and signup to support the show and get access to our MASSIVE library of content!MERCHGo to ⁠https://jimharold.com/merch⁠ to get your Jim Harold T’s, sweatshirts, mugs, hats and more! BOOKSGet all SIX of Jim’s Campfire books here: https://jimharold.com/campfirebooks/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Up next. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harold's Campfire. He's a newer listener, but he is all in. Braden is a plus club member and a big fan of the show, and now a storyteller. We're so glad to have him. And I love this story. And I think you'll know why once you hear it.

Braden, welcome to the show. Thank you for all your kind words and support. And tell us what happened. Thank you, Jim. Yeah, I wanted to share this story. Like you said, I'm a newer listener, and this story has stayed with me since I was six years old. And when I was a young kid, the tradition was with my paternal grandmother, my mom, my grandmother, and all my aunts on my dad's side, we would go have lunch every Friday at this. same restaurant. For your Salt Lake City listeners, you might know it. It's higher as big age combined with Leitz's Pizza in West Valley or Taylor'sville. But anyway, we'd go have lunch with my grandma and it was a cool little tradition and we sat in the same booth every week and it was just kind of this consistent thing where we got to spend time. And when I was six years old in 2001,

my grandmother passed away. And the week of her funeral, Her funeral was like on a Wednesday or Tuesday. And so we went to the funeral and then sort of to commemorate her and to continue the tradition, we went to the same restaurant, of course, that following Friday after the funeral. And we sat in the same booth. And I remember this clear as day, I was sitting on the end of the booth as a six-year-old and we were all just sort of chatting and eating. and I remember sitting on the end of the booth,

I look to my left, I turned my head to the left across the aisle, and I can still remember so vividly. I turn my head across the aisle, and I see very clearly a silhouette of my grandma. And I've heard some storytellers describe these experiences as sort of like darker than dark, and it's sort of like this void that is contrasted

with three-dimensional. reality and that is exactly how she appeared and she was sitting with one of her knees crossed over the other how she always sat with her hands in her lap very elegant and i remember her big poofy hair still appeared in the silhouette and so i knew it was grandma but at that eight remember i i i you know i knew sort of about death but i really didn't distinguish like okay grandma's not here now and i i really didn't think much of it but i i really didn't think much of it it. And I just remember thinking, I was like, oh, yeah, grandma's here. And so I turned to her and I'm looking at grandma or her, this silhouette that I'm seeing. And I held my pizza up to her across the

island. I said, look, grandma, I'm eating pizza. And the way my mom just stopped, like everybody just froze. And I was looking across this aisle at something they couldn't see. And I was showing my grandma my slice of pizza that I was eating but I like that image of that silhouette is still engraved in my memory it's always stayed with me and yeah you know I think just at that age I just think we're able to perceive a little bit broader spectrum of reality because we haven't been conditioned or um you know had that conditioned out of us and so yeah I still remember seeing that but uh totally believe my grandma was was in that restaurant with us and it's still with us in some way.

Wow. Wow. What a great story. I love it. And I'll comment on it further. But first I want to ask you, I mean, you see this as a positive, even though she was kind of a silhouette and everything, you still see it as a positive, not a negative, right? Certainly.

Yeah. Yeah. It was just, you know, some sort of presence that was there. Yeah. Well, you kind of hit on the head, but I'll reiterate it. The thing I love about this story, this is coming from somebody who was six years. years old. You're not jaded. You know, you're not listening to Paranormal podcast. You're not watching a lot of paranormal media and those kind of things. You're kind of a fresh slate. And yet, you honestly

experienced this. And only did you experience. Because it'd be one thing if you said, well, Jim, you know, this happened. I saw my grandma and said, hey, I'm eating this pizza. And then nobody said anything. But your mom validated the story and said, we all saw it. We all stopped. It sounds like they were all a little freaked out. And just to have that extra validation, I mean, you know, it's just fantastic. It's just fantastic. And I like to think that your grandma probably knew where you were going and wanted to say goodbye or be with you guys. And that's the way she did it.

And to your point, because you were young and you were close to the veil, it hadn't been, you know, erased from you like it is from all of us. and I really believe young children can see exactly what you said. You hit it on the head. Can see beyond what adults can see. And you've got a glimpse of that. How cool is that? Certainly, yeah. It's a story that'll stay with me forever.

It was really cool. It's awesome. Braden, thank you so much for sharing your story. Thanks for all the support. We love to hear from new listeners who are enjoying the show. And stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you.

Welcome to Jim Harold's Campfire. I'm Jim so glad to be here if you are new. This is the place where real people like Braden tell real stories. And wow, was that a great story? Braden, thank you for sharing it. That was fantastic. And it shows the reality of this stuff. This stuff is real, folks. And that's what we specialize in. And welcome to the program. And I do want to say a couple things. First of all, thank you for everyone who has signed up to tell Campfire stories. I appreciate it. That's at Jimherald.com slash campfire. And that's available right now for you to do. One note I would like to say, though, if you have signed up, Dar will send you an email saying, please pick your time from some available times. And then sometimes we get ghosted, no pun intended, and we never hear back from the person. Now, maybe they get shy or maybe they get busy or whatever. But if you've taken this step to sign up, we do ask you. And I think she said we have something like 10 people right now who have not responded. So please, if you have taken the time, please take this as a reminder to take that next step. It's, we're kind, we're nice, we don't bite, and we'd love to have you on the show. So if you've

signed up, thank you for taking step one. Please take step two and complete that sign up and follow up with Dar and get your time to tell your story on the campfire like the folks you're going to see today. Also, we have some live events coming up. Next week, we have a live event in the Cleveland area, and then later in February, we have a live event in the Cleveland area. Some free talks, absolutely free, but you have to register first. There's some of the local libraries. And you can do that by going to jimherald.com slash events, Jimherald.com slash events. Now, I promised you a super creepy campfire story.

And Gary, you might remember him from a few weeks ago, he delivers with this one. I love when we get repeat callers, especially when they've got tremendous stories. Now, Gary was on a few weeks ago and talked to us about that very strange family that he met. Very weird indeed. Very weird indeed. And now he's going to talk to us about flying. And the experience he's had as a business person over the years flying. He's had some strange ones, and he's going to tell us all about it.

Gary, welcome to the show. Welcome back, I should say, from Canada. And tell us this next series of stories. You've got a lot to follow up on that first story with something else. But go ahead. Thanks for drawing. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, let me start with. I've been a salesman my whole life. I'm no spring chicken anymore. I'm more of a fall turkey, I guess. Me too. Yeah. But being in sales and marketing my whole life for decades and decades and decades, I've traveled a lot.

And I've traveled a lot on airplanes. And I've probably been on. on between 400 and 450 flights over my lifetime, commercial flights. And there's been odd things that have happened, you know, people on board that are drunk or on drugs once we landed. And there was, you know, the landing gear was stuck halfway down, so we had an emergency landing. That's all fine and dandy.

But what happened here was something far more bizarre. And the first time it happened, there were two flights. The first time it happened was about 20 years ago. I'm up in Canada, so flying from Toronto, Pearson Airport to Atlanta, Georgia. So I drive, I don't live too far away from the airport. So I drive to Toronto Airport. I go in the parking lot. There's a multi-level dark parking lot. I get out, go to the elevator, and go to the departures level. So it starts as I get off the elevator at the departures level. You walk through kind of a dark garage area before you get

into the actual terminal. So as I'm walking through there, pulling my luggage, suddenly I just notice one strange guy leaning up against the wall. You know, he didn't seem strange at first because he was a well-dressed in a beautiful tan-colored suit, pants and top, a thin black tie and leather shoes. I figured looking at him, he was probably 65, maybe 70 years old, gray hair. That's fine. He wasn't looking at me. As I start approaching him, pulling my suitcase, suddenly he swiveles his head around and

looks at me and suddenly produces this very creepy smile, meaning just a huge smile. The rest of his face is emotionless. His eyes are dead, but he's wide open. It's just staring at me. And I'm thinking, okay, either this guy's nuts or maybe I know him or he knows me. So as I look at him as I walk by, his head swivels along. The rest of his body doesn't move.

It just swiveles with that creepy smile. and just follows me as I walk away and over to get into the terminal. And what I found interesting, too, is maybe he had new dentures, but his teeth were pure white. So that's fine. I go into the terminal. I go down. I check my bag and check the bag. And on my way to the gate, just before I get to the gate, there's a little stone-floored walkway with tiles on the wall. And as I'm approaching this, I'm kind of looking and I'm seeing, is that the same guy? There's a guy standing there in the same color pattern tan suit, the thin black tie, leather shoes. And as I approach, he turns around, he looks at me.

And then I realize, oh, how the hell did this guy run ahead of me that quickly? I would have seen him. But then I realized it's not the same guy. It's the same clothing to a T, the same body structure, a thin elderly gentleman, again, 60 to 5 to 7 years old, but he's got a different face. So his cheek structure was different. He had sunken eyes kind of back. So I look at him and as soon as he sees me, he produces that same bizarre, Cheshire cat, creepy smile, just his mouth open as wide as possible, again, displaying these perfect. white teeth. His eyes are kind of dead, but he's staring right at me, glaring at me,

like laser beams into my, as if he knows me. And again, as I walked by, I almost said something as to what's going on here and why you're staring at me. He looks at me, follows me as I walk away and I go sit there. I go to my gate and I just find a seat. I sit down. And so I'm sitting there. And as I'm looking around, trying to forget about that. I suddenly notice two more people in the gate area. One fairly close to me, another guy standing over by the window. Again, in tan suits, same, you know, same suits, same age, same build. And I'm thinking this must be a convention, maybe.

And everybody's dressed the same. I'm just racking my brain saying, how do you make sense of this? Right, but it's a logical explanation. That's a logical explanation because I'm saying, and these two guys, you know, it's fairly crowded. There aren't many seats left,

and there's people, there are people on their iPhones, people on their laptops. Nobody's looking at me. These two guys are both staring at me with that same creepy smile. So I got four people. So I'm thinking that's weird.

So I, anyways, I try to forget about it. I'm saying this, there's got to be a logical explanation. Is it a practical joke? one of my colleagues or someone's playing on me. So I check in, I get on the plane. I'm back around seven rows. I sit down, get settled.

And as I'm sitting there, putting my seatbelt on, getting ready, I noticed one of the guys that was in the terminal, in the gate area, comes on the plane. And he's a few rows ahead of me. So he's in the third or fourth row. So he goes and he sees me, stares at me, sits down and then the second guy comes on the plane he walks by me just staring at me again and he goes i don't know eight or ten rows behind me and he sits down and he's looking at me

just glaring at me through the seats at this point i'm i don't know what to think i don't i'm thinking it's got to be a practical joke someone's playing on me but how would they play a practical joke like that and pay that kind of money to get people on the plane they'd have to have tickets right? Yeah. So that's an expense, expensive practical joke. Yeah.

I'm just trying to think logically. I'm not trying to think anything beyond that. So anyways, these guys are staring at me. I kind of stare back. And I, you know, settle down. We take off and I order a couple of drinks just to relax.

You know, it's a bit of a flight. So I go to sleep and I, you know, kind of look at him a bit, go to sleep and then suddenly I, I wake up, got a booming headache, just like a migraine headache, just throbbing, and I feel really dizzy. I know it's not from the drinks.

I had a couple of drinks. I know what it feels like it's, but I wake up and I look right away. I'm thinking, okay, what are these guys still staring at me? I look over, neither one is in their seat. Interesting. And so that's interesting. And they're saying we're going to land. So I'm thinking, okay, they're both in the bathroom at the same time, or where are they?

So I wait and wait and wait. So we're just getting rid of the land and they're telling, you know, please fasten your seatbelts or getting rid of. Still, there's nobody in those seats. And I don't get it. So we, we, I can't remember whether I asked one of the staff, one of the attendants before we landed or after we landed. But at some point I said, you know, where's the person that was over there? and, you know, ahead of me and over here at the end there, they were both on the aisle seat across from each other.

Like, one was up in the third row, one was that back about the 17th row. Where are those guys? The guys in the tan suits. And she kind of looks and rolls her eyes and says, what are you talking about? Those seats are vacant. We've got pretty much a full plane, but those seats were vacant. So you must be mistaken.

And I say, I'm not mistaken. I saw them clear as day. But later when I thought about it too, I thought, I never saw them talk to anybody. I never saw them interact with anybody. I only saw them staring at me and kind of looking over. I never saw anybody bump into them or make physical contact. So anyways, we land and I'm just, my brain is on fire. I don't know what to make of that, where they could have gone.

And I get off. That's that. So now I've had time to chew on that, and I kind of forget about it. Many years later, again, like I said, I've been on 400, 450 flights. Many, many years later, I'm on a small commuter flight. And I remember it was out of LAX going to Fresno, which is also in California. It's about an hour, hour, and 15 minute flight. Pretty good.

It's a commuter flight, pretty quick. Anyways, I go there. This is out of my mind, haven't thought about it for years. All of a sudden, I get to the gate. and I sit down and there's two guys sitting there, not in tan suits. This time they're in a, it's hard to describe. It was kind of a gray suit, both had the identical gray suits. I can't remember if they were red ties, but again, skinny little ties,

pointy shoes, same build, but looking at their suits is the one thing. I forget little details. The one thing that sticks out is that those suits, when you looked at them, it was kind of like a mother of pearl, luminous, glimmering. It's almost like when you look at, how do I describe it? It's almost like a metallic blue. I don't know if you know there's a mineral called Labradorite, which originally was found up in Labrador, Canada,

but it's also found in other countries around the world. It's a mineral that when you look at it from different angles, there's a metallic sheen that suddenly appears. And they're coming blues, pinks, greens, reds, and it's really quite cool. But if you look at it dead on, you see nothing. You start to change the degree of the angle. And all of a sudden there's a bright metallic glow in your face. And that's what these guys' suits when I looked at them.

Sounds bizarre. But when you looked at their suits, it was kind of a glowing, metallic blue, I don't know, luminescence or glow. So as they kind of turned, it would go away, but as you turned, it would kind of glint a blue glow at you from different angles. Just a bizarre little fact about what that was. So anyways, these guys sat down. Yeah, well, again, they were in the, sat down in the, sorry, in the, at the gate area. So at this point, I'm, I'm pissed because I'm thinking, These guys are somehow related to those ones from years ago. Is it an ongoing practical joke?

And I just said, I'm going to confront these guys. So the guy that's sitting not far from me, I go over to him and I said, do I know you? Do you know me? And the guy just stares him. He says nothing. They said, you know, what's going on? Just tell me what's going on. So finally he talks and there's no emotion on his face.

He's still smiling and don't even see his lips move. He just said, so. nice to see you again. It's been a while. In a monotone voice. Wow. And I'm, yeah, it's kind of, it's one of those stories I want to tell, but I don't want to tell. Because it's like, I haven't told my colleagues.

It's kind of makes me look, I'm like I should be in the loony bit or something. So, so no further contact with him? Well, that was that guy. So after I got nowhere with him, I went over to the guy that. was kind of standing over by the window. And he was kind of standing. So I went over and confronted him. So I went over to him and I said, you know, what's up with you guys?

I think I've seen you guys before. You know, why are you staring at me like that? What's the reason for that? Same thing. Smiling, not saying anything. And finally talking without his mouth moving, he just looks at me. He said, so nice to see you. We'll be seeing you later.

But really in a modetomer. So I say, nice to see you. We'll be seeing you later. What does that mean? We're going to be seeing you later. And so I got on the plane. They get on the plane. And this time I know it's a short flight.

I'm not going to fall asleep. I kept my eyes on these guys. They were on the plane. I watched them. They stared at me. The whole flight, they were just watching me. And then when they announced that we were going to land, he said, okay, get ready, we're going to land.

Suddenly they looked at each other. For the first time, their smiles just went to a resting face. we landed everybody was getting off the plane and they kind of looked at each other and walked off the plane and as I got off I was waiting for them and never never saw them again couldn't explain it and I kept turning you know once I got off the plane I was looking around over my shoulder trying to figure out where are they are they waiting for me they going to so that those two incidences were connected somehow. Yeah.

Many years apart. Same body shapes, same creepy smile to the T. If you had a lineup of creepy smiling faces and from you a hundred different ones, those were all identical, like they came out of the same, you know. Yeah. It's a nagging crazy story

that it has no logical explanation. But there it is. It happened. But it happened. Well, let me tell you this real quick. I do have to go soon because we have another call. But I want to get this in because I think it's important. We had a story that reminded me a little bit of this.

Oh, really? Had to be back in September or October, a young lady in her 20s by the name of Aubrey, who attended a school in Pennsylvania, major school. I can't remember which one. And it was in a downtown area. Maybe it was Pitt. I'm not sure. and she saw this strange-looking woman kind of staring at her

and it was like from across the quad or something and then she walked to where she had to cross the road and then this woman was like right next to her all of a sudden and she had this weird smile on her face and she described it as a Cheshire cat smile Oh no kidding. Then this woman followed her to her car stood in front of her car to try to stop her from going and was looking at her almost demonically

with this almost impossible Cheshire Cat smile. And she said that it appeared that she had too many teeth. And that reminded me of what you said. That is it. But these were pure white, all teeth. And the other thing is that looking at these people, it reminds me, it reminds me, like many years later, of the movie that came out, smile and smile too. Did you ever say that movie, smile? Like creepy horse story.

Yeah. And these people with these smiles that are just a permanent smile. Yeah. And somebody told me, and I need to research us, I need to look back. There's something in Japanese lore about something similar to this with the impossible smile. So maybe you've tapped into something, Gary. Maybe you've tapped into something. Let me know.

Let us know if you see them again. I hope for your sake you don't. But if you do, let us know. Well, for sure. But the side effects are the bad thing of this is that ever since those two flights, especially when the second one ended, I still travel a lot to this day. Whenever I'm at an airport

or I parked my car and I'm walking through the airport or on a plane, I'm now that guy, that guy who's staring around at everybody and people think I'm some creep, but I'm looking to see who's staring at me. A little too much. You see those guys in the tan suits, yeah.

Gary, thank you for sharing the story. A great one, a great bookend to the other story you told us. Thanks so much for having me and listening to me. And thank you and stay spooky. Thank you. You stay supericky as well. Thank you. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed sponsored jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people

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to help build muscle, give you energy, and keep you satisfied longer. So keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California Milk. Well, not only is she a campfire storyteller now. She's also a 15-year listener to the program. Wow. That deserves some kind of award if I had won. Chenaya from Oklahoma is on the line,

and she's going to talk to us about a spirit. Janaya, welcome to the show. Thanks for listening all these years, and tell us what happened. Thanks, Jim. I appreciate you having me. So I want to preface this story by saying that I come from a family of full-blood Cherokee people. So I was raised very traditionally. And by that, I mean all the old ways prior to colonization. So we believe in a lot of things, and we're not really scared of a lot of things when we see it. So there's been a lot that has happened in my life. And I'm cool with it. it. So in 2007, my kids' dad and I bought our first home. And it was built, I think it was 1935. And it was one of the only homes that had survived a big tornado in the town we lived in. Like everything else was leveled and this was one of the only ones. So everything seemed fine in the house. I never had any issues with it. And one night, our baby had spent the night

with the grandparents and we're laying there in bed talking and it was all dark and I said I'm thirsty I'm going to go get me something to drink and the kids his dad said well do you want a flashlight or do you want me to go turn the lights on for you and I said no this is my house I'm not scared to walk through here I'm not scared of the dark and he said you will be when you see her and I said I said what and he said nothing nothing and I said no you can't say something like that and not tell me what you mean. And he said, oh, I'm just playing with you, just trying to scare you. And I'm like, okay. So I turned the lights on when he said that, but it did go give me something to drink. So later, as time went by, I had to get up early in the morning to get ready. So I'd get up at

five, get a shower, and do my hair and makeup and everything. He had to get up later. And so he was able to sleep in. And the baby slept with us. So, I would be in the restroom, which was just off of our bedroom, and sometimes I would hear a woman. And it sounded like singing, like a lullaby. Huh. But I would open the bathroom door and stick my head out and listen, and it would stop. And so I thought, well, maybe I'm just hearing things, you know, maybe it's my imagination. And it did that almost every morning.

And I'm just thinking, well, maybe I'm going death. You know, lots of loud music when I was a kid, you know. maybe that's it. One morning, though, I was, so whenever, I didn't want to turn the lights on and wake them up. So what I would do is I would open the closet door. I would go in and like I said, it was an old house, so it had like the pool stream. And so I would go in, close the door, then search for the string to pull it, and then I would get dressed in the closet. Well, I get in the closet, shut the door.

and I heard plain as day in my left ear, someone, a woman, say, good morning. Whoa. And I froze. Yes, I absolutely just froze. I did know what to do. So all I said was good morning. And then I turned the light on and I looked around. Of course, I'm alone.

And I was like, well, that was really weird. So later that evening, I tell the kids his dad, I'm like, like, oh my gosh, you know, this happened to me this morning. And he said, I told you about her. And I said, no, you did not tell me about her. You said something about a woman, but you didn't tell me anything you refused to. And he was like, well, when we first were viewing the house, he said, I could have swore I heard a woman scream. And he said, I didn't want to say anything because I was afraid you wouldn't want to buy the house. And it was a really good deal. So I said, well, she doesn't. I doesn't seem to be caused in any trouble, so I guess, you know, it's not a big deal. We go about our lives. At the time, our little one was about 18 months old, I want to say. And it was a Sunday. I remember it being Sunday because her dad had gone in to do some work, get some overtime. I was in the living room. She was laying on our bed taking a nap. And I heard her wake up, you know, how you hear the baby rustling on the bed and moving around.

I stood up to go to her because it's really dark in our room. And she was crawling to the foot of the bed toward me. And I saw two arms reaching out like as somebody was going to pick her up. And she was going to whoever that was, because they were standing at the foot of the bed. But from where at the angle I was, all I could see was the arm. So I immediately said Alex. That's my baby's name. And Alex stopped and she looked in front of her and then she looked to me and then she looked in front of her again like she didn't know what to do.

And so I went in and I reached in, flipped the light on real fast. But when I said Alex's name, those arms pulled back real fast because I guess I startled both of them. So I grab Alex up and we go in the living room and just sat on the couch. because that did kind of unnerve me a little bit. Well, yeah. So I still thought, well, maybe everything's okay. But come Monday, I told a friend of mine at work about it. And she said, you need to get rid of whoever that is.

And I said, well, she doesn't seem to be caused any harm. And she said, yeah, but what if Alex had fallen? Because she obviously can't pick her up if she's a ghost. What if she had fallen and broken her neck? and I got you thinking, well, maybe she's right. So I contacted a psychic medium that I knew out of Oklahoma City and asked her about it. And she said that she felt like the woman meant no harm, but she said it was somebody attracted to our little one. And she said, perhaps your little one reminds her of a child that she once had.

and so that's why, you know, she likes. And I didn't tell her that she was singing to her. I just said, I think there's somebody in my house. But she said, that's why she likes to sing to her and just kind of watches over the baby. And she said the reason that she probably hadn't crossed over is because she said there was some religious trauma that she was afraid. Like maybe she had done some things and she was afraid of where she would go. So she told me. She said you can try yourself to contact her, just kind of talk out loud to her and just tell her like, hey, you know, you don't belong here. You need to move on. And so I tried it. And I basically just made a promise to her. I said, you know, I understand you might be scared, but where you're going, I believe that it's going to be a good place and you don't need to be frightened.

And, you know, after that, we never saw her again. I never heard her voice again. She left. So my, the kids' dad had actually, he had also seen her full body because I guess she was standing in the bedroom as he walked by. And I was looking at him and he stopped and went back and looked and kind of shook his head. But he said she looked like, he said it was like white and filmy. but you could tell it there was a woman there. Wow.

And that's something, that good morning. Oh, man. Yeah, it was clear as day. Oh, man. Yeah. But it seems like I mean, yeah, I jarred you and especially the other part with the arms and everything. That was particularly kind of chilling. But it seems like you're kind of, I don't know that you'd wanted to happen necessarily again,

but you were, you dealt with it. You seem to deal with it very well. Like you didn't totally freak out. No. And like I said, because of the way I was raised, you know, I've always believed in supernatural things. And I just, I didn't feel like anything was wrong. Like, I was taught to kind of follow my gut instinct, like how I feel inside. And I never felt afraid of her.

And like I said, I don't think I would have even contacted. My friend had the lady at work not pointed it out that Alex really could have been hurt if she'd fallen off the bed. Yeah. Good point. Good point. Janaya, thank you so much for listening all these years and for sharing your story. And it sounds like you might have some other stories. I hope you'll share them. Stay spooky. I do. Thank you. Stay spooky, Jim. Next up on the campfire is Sarah from Pennsylvania. And, you know, we've talked about these cases where maybe technology gets involved in the paranormal and that's kind of the direction we're going in with this call and we thank Sarah for sharing her story. Sarah, please tell us what happened.

Thanks, Jim. So this takes place in 2003 and it was my late uncle, we'll call him for all intensive purposes. So he passed away suddenly in April of that year. He had a heart attack in his house. And he was, yeah, he was, he was a man who was, you know, life of the party, um, literal party. I think that's, you know, what led to his heart attack. He didn't really take that greater care of himself, but everybody loved him. Um, and he was really close with his, you know, his mother of his children and, um, you know, his grandchildren, his own children, everything. So he was a man that, you know, was really missed. So he passed in April around Easter time. And fast forward to that summer around July, his family were out at their pool.

You know, this is a bright sunny day. They're out there enjoying themselves. And everybody was accounted for. Everyone's outside. Kids are in the pool. The adults are sitting, you know, on the porch. Everybody's there. And my aunt gets a FaceTime call from him. His name was Ted. So, comes up on her phone, Ted is calling you via FaceTime. And my aunt is a pretty religious person. She thinks that those kind of things are dark. So she did not pick up the phone. Oh, man.

Yes, she did not pick it up. So everybody was shocked at this. And for verification, they had, you know, one of the kids go in the house and find the phone. It's like, okay, where was his phone? Do we still have it? you know, what's going on. They did have his phone, but it was turned off in a kitchen drawer, not on. He had no other, you know, devices, no iPad, no nothing.

And they did check the call history and found nothing. And that's the thing. I mean, again, I'm not a tech expert, but Apple is pretty locked down. Yes. There are IDs and things. And typically even, I don't even know if somebody had somehow, first of all, somebody else that his account could have lapsed, somebody else could have gotten his phone number, but then why would it call her? I mean, there's almost no logical, quote, logical explanation for it, particularly with Apple the way that they're locked down because that identity is tagged to an Apple ID. Yes, that's what we thought of all of that. And we thought, you know, they do reassign phone numbers. I know when someone has passed on, but like you said, they wouldn't have had her number. And they wouldn't have had her number and they wouldn't have had his Apple ID because that's tied to your email address.

Yeah. And no one and he had no other devices that could have came from. So it was just, it was so, so crazy. And I just, I think about it to this day. And I think, you know, I asked my aunt, I'm like, what if you had just answered that? What would, what would have been on that other side? You know? Wow. That is, that is a question. And that's something she'll probably wonder the rest of her life. But it sounds like she's very much like this stuff is evil. Yes. Don't mess with it, those kind of things. She thought it was some kind of demon or devil or something. You know, I think, and I've said this on the shows before, so I'm kind of repeating myself. But I think we have like this mental leap that, you know, maybe ghosts can open drawers and open cabinet doors and make TV remotes fly across the room and do all this incredible stuff. But then when we say, well, it made the technology do this. We have people on who said they got a text from their mom a year after she died.

And then people like, well, that's, you know, well, if they can move physical objects, why can't they move electrons? Yeah, that has to be it, you know? Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Yeah. Now, would it you answered? If that would have been you, would you have answered?

Oh, 100%. Yes. So if we have time real quick, my best friend had passed away actually last year. Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Thank you. She had a similar occurrence. her dad had passed several years ago and she got a missed call from her dad a couple years after

he died and his phone was not you know not in their possession anymore but again this is years later yeah the phone number is probably somebody else's but how do they have her number and this was before iPhones yeah yeah yeah that was unusual too I think it can happen I mean and there's a gentleman out there Dr. Callum Cooper we've been trying to get him back on the shows he was on years ago but he has written a book about telephone calls from the dead. It is a thing. It is. Yeah, it's an interesting subject.

Sarah, thank you so much for taking time and coming on the campfire and sharing this story. Stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. A return caller on the line, Ali, from California. We're so glad to speak with her once again. And she's going to talk to us about something that's been coming up on the shows lately, and it fascinates me. It always has.

the subject of premonitions. Welcome back to the show. Thank you for joining us. Tell us what happened. Thank you, Jim, for having me. I have three premonitions that I have. I don't know if it's a real premonition because I didn't think something bad is going to happen.

It was just a feeling of don't go. Okay. So the first one, I was working in a hot coffee shop with my friends. We used to go out every Friday. We did this for months. We used to close up together and then go to a bar. And for some reason, that day, something just came over me and I said, you know what, I can't go. I shouldn't go. And I'm like, I'm not going to go. And everybody's like, why we all would go trying to convince me? I'm like, no, I'm sorry. Like, I don't know why,

but I feel like I shouldn't go. But it was not a feeling of nobody should go. Something bad is going to happen. It was more off. I shouldn't go. I shouldn't be there. I'm not going to go. They couldn't convince me.

I didn't go. That night, there was a fight in the bar, and they were shots fired, and somebody lost their life. And my friends were like right next to them. And they had, we were in medical school, so they had to basically at attend another person who was wounded. Oh, my heart. So it was pretty traumatic, obviously, for all of them.

And next day, they tell me, like, why you didn't want to go? I mean, did you feel something? And I'm like, honestly, I didn't feel something bad is going to happen. It was just, I shouldn't go. So I don't know if it was my, you know, guardian angel or something, but I shouldn't be there. I was not there. It was good. second time about six months, seven months later from that.

Again, we were out, we were at a party. I was going to stay the night with one of my friends, and her sister was a chef and her shift ended around 2 a.m. in the morning. So she came to pick us up from the party, and again, I thought I shouldn't go with them. and I said, I'm just going to stay here at the house party, and I was just going to spend the night, go to my house next day. And she's like, by Y, and I'm like, I don't know. I just feel like I should stay here.

There's something in me that says, don't go. Again, try to convince me. I said, no, I'm going to stay. I stayed 6 a.m. in the morning. Another friend calls me, where are you? And I'm like, well, I'm here sleeping. And my friend and her sister got in a car accident. and they were in the hospital.

They were fine. Thankfully, nothing major happened, but the car was a loss. And again, it was not, I didn't feel something bad is going to happen, but I did feel the strong urge you shouldn't go. I stayed. That's the second time. Nothing happened to me. The third time, I was doing my rural service. and medical school in Mexico, you have to go and do a rural service for a year.

So it was this rural community in the central part of Mexico. I was alone there with nurses and, you know, other health professionals. We're going to go to like the party for a little town that they do, you know, like the big, you know, church party and everybody goes out in town. And it was like a big thing in Mexico. So we're going to go. And again, this feeling, I should. didn't go. And trying to convince me, I said no, but at the end, they convinced me. And I'm like,

well, maybe nothing's going to happen. Everything is going to be good. I go with them. We were parking in the side of the road, and this car comes high speed, loses control, tries to gain control. and when it was a pickup truck and we were in a sedan. So when he tries to gain control, he barely brushes against our car. Wow. In the in the back passenger seat, which he was where I was sitting,

brushes the car and the window shatters and all the shatters going to me because I was sitting there. Again, nothing that happens. I just got, you know, all the window that crush in you know on me but thankfully no injury is nothing and my friends were like i can't believe you were the only one who got you know the glass shatter and you were the only one who didn't want to come so i don't know again those are the three things times that that has happened to me so strongly that i felt this really strong don't go um so i don't know now let me let me ask you this

I mean, obviously with your medical background and training, you're a woman of science. So how do you, you know, some people, you know, who are very scientifically based and have a science background, they're like, hey, it's what you can weigh on a scale, measuring a test tube. Science is, you know, basically God. And, you know, this other stuff is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Sounds like you've had personal experiences with the supernatural. How do you feel about, how do you kind of split those two in your mind? I think there's always something that you cannot explain through science. Even in science, there are things that doctors can explain.

Like, this is the treatment. The cancer is one of them, right? You have a treatment line, and then all of the Saturn, somebody gets cured against all odds. So I always thought that, yes, they're science. Yes, there are things that you can measure and repeat and confirm, and there are things you can't. And I think you should always be intuitive and trust what, you know, your God is telling you or whatever. And these are the three times that I think somebody told me not to go. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I love that approach.

Hey, I'm yay science. Science is great. You know, if science wasn't here, many of us wouldn't be here through various health crises. and so forth. And plus, we couldn't do what we're doing right now without science. So I'm pro-science, but yet there is still room for the unknown, the unexplained. I think both can live healthfully side by side. And your story reminds me a little bit of something that happened to me.

And I've told on the shows before, but it's been a while. And I'll just briefly recap it because I do believe there's something to be said about fate. And when my wife and I were dating, this is... almost 32 years ago, to give you an idea, before we were married, we were relatively new dating. I lived in the city. I live in the Cleveland area. I lived in the eastern suburbs. And we were going to go that weekend to an amusement park here, Cedar Point, which is a big roller coaster palace. I mean, it's one of the great roller coaster parks in the world, actually, maybe the best. And it was on the far west side of Cleveland.

And so we drove out there, had a fun day, whatever. And then I was going to basically slingshot past the city and go far, not far east, but, you know, a good bit east of the city and then go back home. And it was like 2.2.30 in the morning. I was exhausted. And my not yet fiancé, we weren't engaged even or anything. She was still living in a home because she was at grad school. and she said, you know what, I'm going to ask my dad if you can sleep on the couch.

You're going to fall asleep. And that may have happened. And so I stayed overnight. I was very reticent to do it. I didn't want to do it. I mean, we just started dating, you know, I'm in my early 20s. I'm scared to death. I'm like, her dad's going to kill me.

But I did it because I thought, you know what, she's probably right. So anyway, next morning, I go back to the scene. city and I lived in a, you know, pretty low-income area. It wasn't that bad at that point. It got much more crime-ridden in the years to come. But at that point, it was still considered a very working-class kind of area. And I walked up to my house and the landlord's son, who lived in the back half, it was an old style A-frame house. If people can picture that probably built around 1900 or something. Anyway, so the neighbor's son is pointing at the house or towards the other side of the street

as I pull up. And I go and I'm like, hey, how are you doing? He's like, we got to talk a minute. I'm like, well, what's the problem? And he said, well, there's been a drive-by shooting. I'm like, oh, my goodness, whose house got hit? My lord. He's like, our house got hit.

Wow. AK-47, armor piercing. I kid you not. I still have a piece of shrapnel. I still have pictures of where it penetrated the glass in the house. And it went through the house. It actually, I had an old, this was my first apartment ever by myself. My uncle had given me one of those avocotta gold refrigerators that many of us, a certain angel remember, a double door.

Bullet went through one side of it, hit a ketchup bottle and went out the other side. I had gotten a microwave, which was my first microwave ever. took a direct hit right to the door. And I may have been okay because I did sleep on the upper level, but maybe I would have gotten thirsty where the kitchen was on the lower level in the middle of the night and come down and got a drink of water. Who knows? Maybe whoever did this was lying in wait,

looking for movement that never happened. So it turns out I lived in a dark blue house, and we live next to a light blue house. And under the amber-colored street lights, Our house looked blue, their house looked white. They hit the wrong house. It turns out some next door, some unsupervised teenagers had crossed a motorcycle gang. Obviously not a good idea.

But the point was is that... For some reason, you were not there. I just could have easily... Very much like your story. And it wasn't a direct premonition that I had, but it was a feeling that Dar had. And there you have it. I'm still here. You're still here.

And that's a good thing. And it's a good thing that you share these stories because premonitions, I believe in him. I certainly do. Thank you so much for joining us once again and stay spooky. Thank you, James. Stay spooky. Bonjour, compadre. It's the Priceline negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals?

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Wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me up. Well, we always love a good Ouija story around these parts, and that's what Brad has for us tonight. He's calling in from his home in Georgia. And I got to tell you, it's early in 2026, but I think Brad has an early lead on best background. So, you know, we'll see what happens through the year. But Brad's going to be hard to beat. I mean, that looks like it's a TV set.

That is awesome. My little panels. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, that's great. That's great. You look at, when we were talking earlier, you credited your wife. So if it was her choice, she did a really good job. She did a really good job.

Well, Brad, I know you've been listening for a few years. Glad you're here. Tell us about this Ouija board story. Tell us what happened. Okay, it starts at a Pentecostal church. We're going to say it's somewhere between 91 and 93, and the preacher started talking about widget boards, which I, back then I was 21, 22, 23 years old.

I didn't know really anything about him. I heard of him. And he piqued my interest. I don't think that was his goal, but... I don't know. Absolutely probably. that was not. Having gone to a church like that, that wasn't his goal. But go ahead. It wasn't. So anyway, I had this friend of mine. He was a drummer. I'm a guitar player.

And we were playing different little bands together and stuff. And he was into that kind of stuff. So we went to a toy store and bought Milton Bradley that made a Ouija board. And so we bought one and took it to his house. So I don't remember, it might have been three or four days later. We decided to do this thing. And we kept it spooky. We set it up in the floor. We had candles and kept it dark and all that.

And him and I sat down. And my wife and his wife were there. My wife is Lutheran, so she was not participating. And I sat down like my buddy and it wouldn't work. We followed directions. You got the fingers like this on the, I think it's a planch it. Planchet, right, that's right. And it wouldn't work.

And I couldn't get my wife to come to do it. So his wife sat down with it. And it took 30 seconds. I had two fingers. She had two fingers. And it started moving. And we were looking at each other. like, you're moving this thing.

She said, no, you're moving it. And we kind of turned her head. They could see our fingers weren't actually touching that thing. And it started just moving around. And so I took from the Pentecostal preacher's thing, he said that he had asked how much money he has in his pocket. So I said, how much money do I have on the pocket? And it just went to a note.

Okay, that's not going to work. And we just asked it a bunch of questions. I mean, this is close to 30 years ago or more. So I don't remember everything. But we did ask you this name and they started spelling out of this name. And we were like, okay, we're done. We're there's totally done. But while we're doing this, this is the crazy thing.

Like I said, we had the candles and stuff. When we asked it its name, people aren't going to believe this. But all these little candles we had lit everywhere, the flames just got bare. Oh, man. just lit the room up. And we were like, holy crap, which is why when it started to spend on a name that we were like, okay, we're done. So the next day, I get a call from my buddy.

It was an apartment that they lived in. And he said, man, you got to come by the house and see what happened. Like, what are you telling me? He's like, it's not bad to happen. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Yeah. So I go over to his house. And when he opens the front door, he says, look at that.

And when he opens the front door, I notice his face is all cut up. When he opens the front door, he points to the dining room with the other end of the apartment. I says, look at that. And you could see in the carpet, there was just this black ring where we had the Ouija door. But if you walked over to it, you couldn't see it. Oh, that's weird. You had to stand way off to the side of it.

So I'm like, what's with your face? He said, well, I got up this morning to make a cup of coffee, and when I opened the cabinet, every glass in the cabinet blew up in my face. Oh, Lord. Yeah, he would go ahead and, like, you know, I could be shaved with a really dull razor. Yeah.

That's what his face looks like. That's what it's been able to. Huh. We're like, all right, let's burn this thing. And it wouldn't burn. You had a little burn about that. Yep. Yep.

We had something very similar call. We could burn. We could burn drink boxes, cardboard, all that with that thing sitting in there and just the outer edges would burn. But nothing else. So we ended up just running away. We're like, yeah. I've had similar calls. Early in the days we've had calls.

I think someone had a Ouija board that wouldn't burn. And someone said they have one that kind of, like you remember those old inchworm toys, you know, when we were kids. That one of them walked across the floor like one of those. And I'm like, okay, that's when I'm leaving. That's when I'm like. Exactly. I'm done.

I think, you know, I don't want to get in trouble with the Ouija folks. But I think it can, you know, weird things can happen. I definitely think that's the case. Stories like you are as I've heard too many of them. I do really think that weird things can happen. Now, let me ask, go ahead. Go ahead. I just, I don't know, I don't, you know, because I was at a Pentecostal church, but I don't know that it's evil or not.

It might be a portal. Yeah. Maybe just, but the whole ring in the carpet and the glasses blowing up in his face. Yeah. You know, it's really interesting you say that because I went to a church like that when I was in high school. And you wouldn't think so, but people, I'm just going by my experience. people that I went to that church with, they were very interested in supernatural stuff. You wouldn't think that would be the case if you were from the outside.

But in my experience, people of that faith are very interested in supernatural stuff, which, I mean, makes sense because the whole religion is supernatural, right? Well, if you think about it, they're the ones that do the snake cattle and thing is the Pentecostals. Some of them, yeah, some of them. Now, that wasn't the one I went to. But the one I went to, they did the talking in tongues and the whole. whole thing. Absolutely.

And the slain and the spirit and the whole thing. Yeah, I've seen it all. I've seen it because somebody was showing me something on Instagram or something is like, that's nothing new to me. I've been in the church when it happened. So. People falling out in the spirit was falling out in the freaking floor. Yeah, yeah.

I've seen it. You have been there. Yeah, I have been there. I have been there. That's for sure. Well, Brad, it was nice to meet you. Very interesting story. Very interesting story.

Tell your wife, A. double plus on the background. And I thank you. I thank you for being on the show and stay spooky. Well, keep it spooky, man. Well, thanks for tuning into the show. And we're going to get right back to it, but I got to talk to you about two things are very important.

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That is jimherald.com. And we thank you for your consideration. Back to the show and stay spooky. A relatively new listener, been listening, I think, for a couple months or so. Anne is on the line from the great state of Nebraska. I was telling her, and she's too young to remember this, I'm sure, but the birth state of the great Johnny Carson, weird, wild stuff. Anne is here to tell us about something that happened to her.

when she was the young age of six years old, but she remembers it to this day, and she's going to tell us all about it. And welcome to the show and tell us what happened. Thank you so much, Jim. I really appreciate it. Yeah, so basically, I was about six years old, and I can remember this super vividly.

At the time, my family and I were living in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we were living actually kind of a little bit on the outskirts in Henderson. So we weren't like really close to the city. It was visible, but not super close. Anyway, so I was about six years old and I was sitting in the car with my dad. We were waiting for my mom. She had to go to the store.

And so, you know, the typical you wait in the car for mom to come out kind of thing. And so I'm pretty sure my dad was on the phone, probably talking to somebody. And I was, you know, just looking out the window as you do when you're six. And you have, you know, just like looking out, looking at the sky, you know, in Vegas, you can see a few stars, but, you know, there's so many lights. Yeah, light pollution. Yeah, you don't see too many of them. But, like, but they're still somewhat visible. But anyway, so I was just kind of looking out into the sky.

And out of nowhere, this orange fireball, almost like what I can describe as a flame appeared in the sky. and started kind of almost doing like a little dance. And when I say like appeared, I know it's not like it had come from another part of the sky or like it was in my peripheral or like it wasn't in my peripheral and now it was. It was like an instantaneous appearing, which I think was like, I thought, what the heck?

You know, I'm like, but I was sick, so I don't know. Anyway, and so it starts kind of doing this dance around the sky And it was close enough that it looked like a flame, like a flame or an orb. Like it wasn't like a, it was really interesting, but it started doing like circles and then kind of making a triangle movement. And I was just kind of looking at this thing in awe, you know. And then from that one fireball, it like split into two others. and it was like now they're all kind of like dancing around each other, but they were making like geometrical shapes in the sky.

Yeah, it's really interesting. And so I was just kind of looking at this thing, you know, it starts kind of, they start kind of making a triangle shape and like moving one where the other one was and kind of doing that and then making like, triangles, kind of like square, well, not square, there weren't four of them, but like, kind of like following one after the other and then they kind of get into that like triangle formation. And I thought, what the heck? This is so weird. But I was six, you know, so as much as a six-year-old knows, I was like, that's so interesting. Anyway, but yeah, and so that's kind of

started happening. I told my dad, I was like, dad, what is that in the sky? And he saw it too. So it wasn't just me who saw this in the sky. And he was like, oh, I don't know. Like, I'm not sure. And I thought maybe my dad would know. So when he said he didn't know, I was like, oh, it kind of like, not freaked me out, but I was like, okay. So, so nobody knows what that is. Yeah, it's six years old. Dad and mom are supposed to know everything. Yeah, exactly. And so I was like, oh. But so, yeah, we both just saw it. And to this day, like, I remember, I remember seeing it. And I was like, You know, it's so vivid to me, and I've looked it up so many times since then.

Like, every now and then I get online and try to find something because surely I'm not the only one who saw that. But I can never find anything on that. And, you know, it's just really interesting how that works. I don't believe that this is the case. I'm just going to throw this out there because I figure somebody is going to ask this question, so I'll ask it for them. No chance you think that it was like one of the casinos or hotels doing some kind of weird light show. or anything like that. It was totally unlike something like that. Yeah. Oh, it was definitely unlike that. And you know what? That had also crossed my mind. So, so we weren't like living close enough to the, like, what is known as the strip. We weren't living close enough where like that was like not even within our radius. Gotcha. So we were kind of in like suburbia like in the Walmart parking lot. There are and I know there's casinos scattered here and there, but like we weren't close to anything. And I, the thought had crossed my mind. mind, you know, later on, like, maybe it was a drone, possibly, like, could it have been a drone

show, but, but they were close enough that, like, they looked like plasma balls almost or like, and I don't, like, I mean, I don't know how old you are, but even now you're certainly not six years old. So, I mean, even if it were, you know, 12, 14, 16 years ago or 18, or whatever it was, still drones weren't as common back then. They were around, I think, but, but not as common. Right, yeah. And I think this was around. 2007 or eight. So it was a while ago. And I've been, I've been looking for answers, so, but I haven't found any. Do you think it, it sounded like it almost had intelligence. Yeah. Honestly, and you know what? I've actually heard that before. Like, I've heard of similar stories, you know, since, well, listening to your

podcast and a couple others, like, there seems to be a pattern with, like, the geometric shapes and that, like, following one after another. It's, yeah, it's really interesting to think about like, like, what that could have been. And I know people when I tell the story to the few that I have, they always bring up, well, you know, like you're in Vegas, like area 51's around there, especially because I was in Henderson too. So that's not necessarily like the middle of Vegas. It's a little bit kind of further out. I mean, not by too much, but, you know, I, I do think like Was it possible that that was some kind of like Area 51 government experiment or something? I have no idea.

But because I also can't find anything on it, it's almost like it just kind of leaves you wondering, you know, like maybe you had something to do with that. And I don't know. Maybe no one's talked about it. Well, as I often say, some of the most interesting campfire stories end with a question mark, not a period. And that sounds like yours, Ann. And thank you for being a part of the campfire. I hope you find the answers you're looking for. If anyone else has a story like ants, please do sign up and tell it.

And thank you so much and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. Stay spooky. Well, we have another Buckeye on the line, another Ohio, and Ginny is on the line so glad to speak with her today. And she's going to talk about some things that have happened since her dad has passed. And Ginny, thank you. I know that these kind of stories can be,

maybe tougher to share than maybe sharing a ghost story or, you know, just something that happened, somebody you don't know or something. These are very personal stories. So I really appreciate it every time somebody shares one of them. Please tell us what happened. Well, thanks, Jim. So my dad passed away in May of 2023. So a lot of these stories, all of these stories are afterwards. But so shortly after he passed away, I was sitting in my son's room and I was rocking him to sleep. And my dad's goal was to make it to my son's first birthday, which he did, but just barely. And it felt like somebody was pushing the rocker. It was, you know, like you know when somebody's behind you pushing a rocker.

Yeah. So, like, I definitely thought that was him. There was another instance, and my son really didn't take pacifiers, except for when he was teething. One night, he's, like, chomping on pacifier, and he pulls it out, looks over my right shoulder, waves, and then says, good night,

and rolls over in my arms and goes to sleep. Oh, wow. So he saw someone. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. There was one day I was getting him ready for preschool. And where he was facing me, there's a corner of the living room and there's pictures of my family. And I'm trying to get him dressed and he's going, no. no, and he's giggling. And I'm like, who are you talking to?

And he looks at me and goes, grandpa. Whoa. And I just told you that he barely made it past my son's first birthday. My son really couldn't say much at his first birthday. Like, not just not a huge vocabulary there. Right. And so I look at him like, okay. Okay.

I go, does Grandpa tell you to be a good boy? And he goes, he kind of shakes his head. And I was like, sounds about right. Okay. Like, does Grandpa keep you safe? And he goes, yeah.

Wow. Like, okay, dad, I need to get him dressed for school. Wow. That's, and when you said, grandpa, that's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, it was, it was like a

definitely more affirming and why would he say that out of the blue you know what I'm saying? It's like he could say anybody I'm talking to goofy you know I mean you know a cartoon character I mean specifically the fact that he said grandpa I mean that to me that carries a lot of weight

yeah and all of his other grandparents go by different names so there's there's Mimi, there's Papa, there's Alma, there's Grandma, and my dad was Grandpa. But he didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with him because he was sick for the whole year, basically. Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. Now, your son now, I mean, I just saw something that said that children,

basically, and I'm assuming this is true, Neil deGrasse Tyson said it, so it has to be true. But he said that children, their memories are basically erased from years one to, I mean, from birth to three years old. Like, you know, very few people can remember anything that happened when they were two years old, for example. How old is your son now? East three and a half. And he will tell you about going to the Indians game. He'll tell you about going to Monster Dam.

He'll tell you a whole bunch of stuff that we've done. in his short three years. Oh, cool. Well, then maybe he's a, maybe Neil deGrasse Tyson is wrong. But let me ask you, does he still mention grandpa, and does he remember seeing and talking to grandpa?

He doesn't say much unless you ask him, but usually he'll talk to you about our dog. Because our dog also had to go to heaven. Oh, oh my goodness. Well, I'm very sorry for your loss, but it certainly sounds to me like, your dad is still there and he's making his presence known, which I think is so cool.

And, yeah, that's a pretty neat story, Jenny. Thank you for being a part of the campfire today. You have something else you want to add. I forgot about the fire detector story. Oh, yeah. Please tell us. Again, shortly after he passed away, I was getting ready for work. My son had already gone with my mother-in-law for the day.

and the fire detector started going off and it wasn't like the beat, beat, beep, the battery's low. It was like going off. Right. And so I walk over and I press the button and it goes off and I go back to making my coffee or whatever and it starts going off again. I'm like, what is going on?

And so I walk over and I look at the smoke detector and I'm like, fine, fine. I will be extra caution. today and it stopped. Interesting. Very interesting indeed. Ginny, thank you for being a part of the campfire and stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim.

Next up on the campfire is Deanne from New Mexico and she's been listening oh for, well, since about 2013, so a dozen years or so. We're so appreciative. and she's got a very special story to share with us tonight. Deanne, thank you for listening for all these years and tell us what happened. Yeah, thank you, Jim. It's great to be here after being a listener for so long. So, yeah, my story is about my cat named Pepper. He unfortunately passed about two years ago.

he had what's called fatty liver disease and at yeah when I first the first vet I took him to I guess didn't realize how serious an issue it can be if a cat hasn't eaten for even a couple days so I did just want to kind of throw a PSA out there for any cat owners that that is good point something you should be really concerned about if that happens so So, you know, I took him to all the specialists that I could and did everything that tried everything under the sun. But unfortunately, he did end up passing. So this was a cat that I've heard the term heart pet and soul pet. So I really felt that that's what he was for me.

So it was really tough losing him. Sure. Sure. And so I also just felt really guilty because even though I'd done everything I could, once I realized what was happening, I always kind of wondered if things would have gone differently, if I'd have been able to catch things earlier. So there was a day, the same week that he passed, that I remember I was just, I was sitting on my bed just, you know, sobbing. And I had my phone and I asked him if he was able to send me a sign if he could. And then almost immediately after that, this one of those photo memories came up.

I don't know if Android's do that, but I have an iPhone that does that. And it was of a rainbow. and I know I've heard the Rainbow Bridge mentioned a lot on the show Sorry, that was one of my One of my other casts that just jumped on the counter Made a noise So yeah, I really

I really felt that was Well at first I wasn't sure honestly Because I am a bit skeptical But actually over the next month Or over the next couple weeks I kept I just kept getting those rainbow photo memories really frequently, a lot more frequently than I ever have. So I really felt that that was a sign from him.

He was letting me know that he was okay and that he was doing better now that he was free of suffering. And then the other interesting sign, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, no, go ahead. The other interesting sign that I got was I was also just kind of being a lump on the couch a lot afterwards. And I was watching TV one day and there was in the show I was watching, there was a character named Pepper, which was his name, and it was a human character. And I thought that was interesting because I had never, I never have, and I never had before and I never have since seen, met anybody in real life named Pepper or seen anyone fictional named Pepper.

So that kind of stood out to me. And then the last thing was I actually ended up, uh, both out of curiosity and because I wanted, I did want to be able to try to connect with him one last time. I actually hired a pet psychic. Mm-hmm. And she, one thing that stood out to me from that experience was that she mentioned without me really saying anything about his medical history and why he had passed.

she mentioned that she was picking up on issues with his bowels and with a blood clot. And obviously the bowel thing, the fatty liver disease was definitely related to digestive issues. And then the blood clot, he had kind of, they never really figured out what had happened, but he had a sort of stroke. So that was one of the possibilities that were. was suggested. So, yeah, that was a short one, but those were significant events to me after he passed. I believe pets are part of our family. I believe they have souls, so why couldn't they get signs to us? And we've had, you know, whole, as you know, from listening to the show for so long, we've had a whole range of different signs.

And so I believe, you know, this could be Pepper getting in touch with you and trying to comfort you. And I believe they're still around. I mean, I know we're a dog family and we've had dogs the whole time. And it's a special bond. It really is. It really is. And I'm repeating myself, but they are a member of the family. Deanne, thank you so much for joining us and being a part of the campfire tonight.

I appreciate it. Thank you so much and stay spooky. Stay spooky. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th,

the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavatheater.com. Only at Yamava Resort and Casino. celebrating its 40th anniversary. UN must be 21 to enter. Oh, I love to hear from return callers. And Allison from South Carolina is back.

And she's going to talk to us about when she brought her baby home and the strangeness that ensued. And I assume we're talking about more than just diaper changes. Allison, welcome back to the show and tell us what happened. Thanks, Jim. So back in 2007, I had my. my third and my last child, and I lived in a co-op with my new husband and so forth. But the co-op was always a little hinky, and there was always things going on to the point where I had people come in, and even before I moved in permanently, I gutted it, I blessed it, I had

everything done, but there was always a lot of activity. You could pick up things quite easily there. And as this child began to develop, she was picking up a lot. It was ridiculous. But we bring her home in 2007, and my husband at the time, he wasn't a huge believer. Like, you know, he loved me. You know, he's like, a little strange, but I still love you, you know? And I'm like, okay, you don't have to believe me, but this stuff really happens. And I would tell him things in my past and stuff. So we bring the baby home, and we had the bassinet set up.

And that particular day, as we're bringing her home, while in the room, this music box starts going off. Now, I knew the melody, and so I'm like, I know that. And I'm like, but where is it? Like, and it was, it was buried in the drawer and on top of clues. Now, this music box was gifted to me pretty much. Like, my, in my first in-laws, it was something that I got, you know, upon everybody, you know, leaving the earth and so forth. I got a lot of their stuff. But this is from like 1918, 1990, she was. was born. So, and I'm like, oh, my goodness. So I walk over to my dress. I open up and I'm like, not like anybody was playing with it. Like, I really forgot about it there. It was like, okay, just like

under everything. And we're all looking at each other. I'm like, well, that's weird. I'm like, oh, they must be welcoming the baby. My husband looks at me and he's like, don't they realize this is our child? This is not, you know, their son's child. Like, it doesn't matter. They always love the grandchildren. Like, I had two older daughters and so forth. So within the three days. And then he was like, I don't know about that. He was kind of doubting. I'm like, okay. I said, no, they're here. I could feel them. And so within the three days of her being home, this is what made him a believer. So I'm in the kitchen. It was a galley kitchen. And my back was toward him. And my husband, I said, I go, go check on the baby. You know, it's a new

baby, you know, you're very attentive. And it comes into, this is like the next day, he comes into the kitchen and he goes, hon, and I turned on, I go, yeah, and he looked like he saw a ghost. And I'm like, what's the hell with you? And he goes, there's a dopamine pincher sitting next to the bassinet looking at the baby. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's Blackie. That's their dog. Hey, man.

He goes, excuse me? he was so frightened though because he's not he he doesn't like he takes things a little bit slower and I'm like oh they're definitely here now I gotta tell you so that dog when that dog he didn't know about the dog so when blackie had passed like we had him cremated and then when my mother-in-law had passed I kind of slipped the dog's urn with the mother-in like they all loved each other so yeah so he was like from that point on it's seriously the whole afternoon and he was like, he couldn't handle it. He's like, I saw a dumb woman picture.

That is wild. He's a believer, though, now. He is an absolute believer. And that's the story I had written in and told you about. But another thing regarding, like, my husband and believing it's over it. So as Isabella starts getting a little bit older, she starts talking to a lot of people. It was getting ridiculous. Like, she wasn't really sleeping.

And I was told, now she's playing with them. They're playing with her and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, this is not great. And then I would be like, can everybody just leave her alone? But I was told there was like a portal, like a portal of. And there was also a death in that apart. I was just going to say. But the person died of an illness.

It wasn't like a murder or anything of the sort. But it was getting really bad where we, like she was losing sleep and it was just too much activity. And I had to kind of intervene. So another thing. that happened with him that really pushed him over the edge. I hear, we hear her on the baby monitor, and I'm like, oh, can you go in there and see what she's doing, what she's talking about? So he goes in there, and he comes, once again, he comes back into the room, and he has

that look again, like, what, I'm like, what happened? He goes, well, I was standing near the door. Now, her back was to him, so I go, standing near the door, and I open the door very quietly. He's very stealthy, so he opens a quietly. The little girl is sitting, my daughter sitting there, and she's looking, and she says, hey, and then she doesn't know her father's there, and she's like talking in the ear. And she's like, hey, hey, hey, wait, wait, where are you going? And then she turned around.

She goes, oh, hi, daddy. Oh, wow. It was like, yeah. And he, and he, once again. So I would say at this point, my husband would get the 24 years now, he is a very, yeah, he believes, he believes, he believes, The dog is what really set things in motion. We had to been together. Well, yeah, that would do it, seeing a Doberman Pintra ghost dog.

I would think that would do it. I had a white Persian. I mean, I had a little cute little. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, you didn't even, he goes, I didn't know they had a dog. I'm like, oh, yeah, they had Blackie and what you just cried. Wow. And then his daughter. Yeah, well, yeah, and your daughter talking.

And we just had a, I don't know if they were in the same episode, but we had another person who talked about. that her dad passed and the baby said, oh, hi, grandpa, you know, a year later, just in a blue, or I think the baby was three or three and a half child by that point, not a baby. Or who were you talking to? Oh, I was talking to grandpa. You know, and grandpa had been gone for years.

So, and it happens. I believe it happens. I believe these young children have this insight because they're closer to the veil. And, you know, in the early part there when she came home, maybe family wanted to say hi. Oh, yeah. That's the feeling. Like, you could pick up the energy.

Like, what is going on between the music? I mean, it doesn't sound like much like, if you experience it, you're like, oh, my gosh. But like, and then if you opened up the music box, there's a little baby bracelet that was my mother-in-law is once again, 1919 to have her name on it. Wow. So I really think it was, yeah, I really think it was well. welcome in the baby because of her own baby and I forgot about that like I might have looked at years many years ago right but like when I'm like oh her baby bracelets in there no and she was from Germany so they it's a hand-beated one with her name on it oh I totally know they were saying

hello and the dog I'm like whoa how would you even know that you didn't know her I never told you about blackie and a look on this poor man's face god bless him he is he does not know like initially And he's just like, okay. But now he sees the light. Now he's seen the light. He sees the light. He sees the light. He sees the light.

And he sees my daughter like, hey daddy. Oh, hi, daddy. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Allison, thank you for being on the show and stay spooky. Excuse me, Jim. Stay spooky. Thank you for doing all your work.

You and are. All right. Be well, friend. Thanks so much for tuning in to yet another edition of the Campfire. I appreciate it very much. It means so much to us to have our great audience and our great storytellers. We couldn't have a campfire without them. And please, if you want to tell your story, sign up at jimherald.com slash campfire.

And then once you do and you get that email from dark, please follow up and actually schedule the time. And that's a reminder to the folks, as I said at the head end of the show. Please follow through. We'd love it. Another thing we'd love is if you share the show with a friend, that means so much. That's how people find out about the campfire. And they share their stories.

and you get to hear all these great stories because somebody shared the show. So text a link to somebody. It could be if they're a YouTube person, send them a YouTube link. If they're a Spotify person, send them a Spotify link. If they're an Apple podcast person, send them the Apple Podcast link.

Wherever they're at, we are too, and we hope to meet them there and have them among the fold of the great campfire audience. Also, please, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the channel It's absolutely free. Hit the notification bell so you never miss a show.

And we're approaching 20,000 subscribers, which is not a huge number in YouTube terms, but it's a nice little milestone. We want to get to at least 100,000 subscribers. I think YouTube can be a great growth engine for this show, but we need your help because the more people that subscribe and hit that follow button and hit that like button, hit that hype button, the more we get elevated in that YouTube. algorithm. We recently had our number one YouTube video of all time 88,000 views Hospice Nurse Julie. She was fantastic. That was on the paranormal podcast. You may want to check that out. She was great.

But we really want to grow that YouTube following because it is an engine for everything else. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you next time. And as always, stay safe and stay spooky. Bye-bye.