A simple question to my future wife elicits an unexpected ghost story.
Happy Halloween!
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story produced by: Aaron Calafato
Featuring: Cori Birce
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Transcript
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Hey everyone, it's Aaron. So as we're heading towards Halloween, I've been thinking a lot about spirits and ghosts and energies and all that stuff. I'm always thinking about that stuff, but right around Halloween, it really piques my interest. In fact, I was just thinking about the ghost adventure that Cori and I had not too long ago. If you haven't heard the Bed and Breakfast Part 1 and 2, that was back in Season 1, Episode 121 and 122, take a listen to it.
We get so much great feedback from that story. It was a great story, but it was also a real story that we're still dealing with to this day. As you'll hear without giving anything away, it's still up in the air. What happened? So thinking about that with spirits and ghosts, it's always like that where it's like something seems or feels very real but then you have to keep asking yourself, "Was it real?"
So we had a night without the kids, Cori and I, and I just decided to turn on the microphones and we started talking about Halloween. Then we started talking about ghosts and stuff, and I don't think I really realized that I hadn't ever asked Cori explicitly after all these adventures we've been on, and throughout her whole life experience, did she believe in ghosts?
What came out of this actually is a very interesting ghost or spirit story, however you want to interpret it, that she's never really shared before with very many people at all, and so we wanted to share that with you. Now, make sure you stay tuned to the end of the segment after the conversation that we have is over because there's a little piece of content that you're going to want to hear about and might be very interested in after hearing what Cori has to say. So stay tuned for that, and I'll talk to you in about seven minutes.
Okay. Now I'm just making sure I'm recording. My mic is from 1976, and your mic is the mic that I use when I tell stories. That's how much I love you. You get that one.
Thank you.
Are you a ghost?
I am.
Okay. So I wanted to do this quick conversation with you because one, you know how much I love Halloween.
Oh, yes.
We love Halloween. The kids love Halloween.
What's not to love?
Some people don't. I love it. But I just want to ask a specific question, because you and I, we go to this event in our town called Spirits of the Past.
It's the best.
It's one of the greatest, and they kind of reenact folks that used to live in the town.
It's amazing. It has really nothing to do with ghosts, but it's just like-
But it's the people. Their spirits come alive that night.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And they do it at night. You walk through the cemetery. It's amazing. But here's the thing. Since it is Halloween, spirits or ghosts... Well, first, I don't know which one is which, but do you believe in ghosts?
I believe in spirits.
So what's the difference?
I don't know. When I think of a ghost, I think of a cartoon like, "I'm Casper the Ghost." Unlike realistically, I think there's spirits that are more like energy.
When I think of ghosts, I think of scary ghosts or mad energies that had a bad life and are just being mean here on Earth. Do you think they exist, too?
No.
Really?
I don't know. I, as you know, have always since I was a kid, felt like I could feel the energy of people that are not here anymore, as insane as that sounds. Although... I don't know.
So maybe the better question would be, do you believe in spirits?
Of course, I do. You know this.
Do you feel like Halloween really is a time similar to how Christmas creates that feeling of just connection and joy and that Christmas spirit? I've talked to you about this. I really believe in that. It's almost like a collective experience. Do you think that same thing happens during Halloween?
I know a lot of cultures celebrate it in a way where it's not just masks, like in Mexico. It's like you're really connecting with Day of the Dead. You're connecting with people on the other side. Do you think Halloween does that? Does it create almost like a space where we feel it stronger, or is it...
I've never had a more powerful experience around Halloween versus-
You're just year-round?
Yes, I'm year-round just hanging out with spirits.
You're year-round with Halloween.
As you know, I'm always spirit Halloween.
With the little time that we have here, here's just one example. There's a few. I know that you feel my grandfather's energy. He has passed.
Yeah, he comes and hangs out sometimes.
I didn't really start feeling it until you started feeling it. But I'm like, am I just making this up?
Well, I'm still not even 99 percent sure that I'm not making it up but-
But you said you believed in it?
I believe it. I've experienced it since I was a kid. Your grandpa was a unique experience and continues to be because I think he's the only person that I didn't know beforehand.
Okay. But a lot of the other folks you did know.
Yeah, like the light thing.
Okay. You've never talked about this before, at least on the podcast. Can you just share that story?
So a really good friend of mine passed away very unexpectedly. The day that it happened... I'm like the mom of my friend group, so of course, I had no idea. Then all of a sudden, my phone was just blowing up, a million text messages and phone calls. And I was doing laundry, so I didn't answer it. Also, I was just like, "What is happening?"
So I finally picked up my phone. I called my friend back, and I was walking up the basement stairs while I was on the phone. My friend was like, "Hey, our friend died." And I dropped the laundry basket and the light on the basement stairs went out and then never came back on after that, we changed the light bulb.
Then on his birthday that first year, I think that I didn't even realize it was his birthday, Facebook gave me a reminder that it was his birthday-
We were seeing each other at the time, on that first birthday, because I remember. I was there [crosstalk 00:06:54]
Oh, yeah. Yes, you were. Yeah.
So I went into the basement. The switch controlled the light at the top of the stairs and the light at the bottom of the stairs. So I would still flip the switch but the light at the top of the stairs wouldn't turn on and the bottom one still worked. So I, of course, flipped the switch on his birthday and the light turned on for the first time. I was like, "Oh, my God." And I think I freaked out a little bit.
Then I told you and I think that we both thought that maybe it was a weird coincidence that all of a sudden it was just working again. I was like, "Oh, man, this is super weird."
It's so weird because it went out the day he died when you got that phone call.
It literally was when I got the phone call.
And then the next year, and then the year... Each time it says birthday, celebrating...
Our lights do something weird every year on his birthday, and he was mischievous. Sometimes I think he knew that out of all of our friend group, I have the biggest mouth. I have the most inability to keep my mouth shut about stuff. So I would think like, "Oh, maybe he's targeting me." Targeting sounds mean, messing with me because he knows that I'll tell everyone-
Look at what you're doing right now.
I know. it's true.
Now, there's thousands of people listening to you.
Yeah. Remember this year, too? I had a dream right before his birthday.
Yeah. I remember that.
Super weird. And then-
And what's weird, not to cut you off, is that this has continued in different houses.
Oh, yeah. And it's always something different, too. It's not like all of a sudden a light will work. This year, the kitchen light flickered off and on really bizarrely. I got a video of it and sent it to my friends.
We never have electrical problems by the way.
Never.
And then it only happens on this day. We can't manifest that.
I don't think so.
You can't make electricity stuff in your house on that one day. It would be different if it was one year. This has been going on two, three, four... Every single year.
Yeah. Every year on his birthday, the lights do something weird.
When you do feel that energy, what do you do? You, personally.
Sometimes I ignore it. Sometimes I just look at it. I don't know.
Look at it?
Well, I don't know. I don't see the person. It's really hard to explain. It's extra hard to explain because I'm not fully convinced that I'm not just slightly insane.
I don't think you are.
You know what I mean?
I don't think you are.
I don't know. Do you know about the first time that I remember this happening to me in my life? That I was three. We lived in this really old house and I remember sitting on the floor in the bathroom talking to people above me. Did you know that?
And they weren't there?
No, they were not there.
Well, Happy Halloween. Love you.
I love you.
Thank you, Cori, for sharing your story with us and everything you do for this podcast. I really appreciate you. Now for everyone listening. Remember how I told you at the beginning, there's something you might be interested in? If you go to 7minutestories.com and you click the 7MSBLOG tab, you'll see we just posted something and it's cell phone footage that Cori took.
I think it's from this past year, but it's video of one of our light fixtures doing this weird electrical dance. And again, this was just this past year, on the day that we had talked about that happens every single year. We haven't missed a year yet, and it might be that light fixture or maybe it's something upstairs. But something on that day always goes down with our electricity.
Think what you will, but we figured we wanted to share that video with you so you know we're not just talking about this stuff, it's actually happening. So we haven't missed a year yet. It's continuing to happen. If anything changes, we'll let you know. But for now, have a Happy Halloween.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com.
Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and Lennon Janovyak is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.
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