Come and join us for our **2026 Halloween special podcast**. Hosts Paul and Michelle discuss the history and meaning of the holiday while playfully sharing spooky stories using a random **symbol-spinning game**. Their tales include the **Overtoun Bridge**, a Scottish location where hundreds of dogs have mysteriously leaped to their deaths, and a **zombie plague**, which reveals the historical origins of syphilis. Additionally, they recount a **missing-child incident** involving a mysterious lady on Halloween night, a **haunted laundromat** featuring a ghostly encounter and laundry advice, and the urban legend of **poisoned Halloween candy** intertwined with the **Mandela effect**. The hosts conclude the broadcast by discussing personal paranormal experiences involving **native burial grounds** before wishing their audience a happy and safe holiday.
The episode opens in full Halloween spirit with Paul and Michelle displaying their holiday costumes and studio setup. Paul dresses as a pirate, complete with a joke about his costume hook failing to arrive from Amazon and claiming he bought it at a "second-hand shop," while Michelle appears as a "sandwich" (a playful twist on a witch) utilizing an ethereal camera filter.
Joining the hosts are several studio mascots and props that play reoccurring roles throughout the broadcast:
The hosts establish the episode's interactive rule: whenever the wheel lands on a repeated story symbol, one or both hosts must consume a piece of Halloween candy from their studio bag, featuring sweets like Starburst, Skittles, Reese's Pieces, Peanut M&Ms, and Twix.
Before spinning the wheel for individual stories, Paul delivers a concise historical overview detailing how ancient cultural practices laid the foundation for modern Halloween celebrations.
The traditions of Halloween trace back thousands of years through distinct historical phases:
Today, Halloween has evolved into a playful community celebration centered around creativity, costuming, and light-hearted exploration of fear and mystery.
The core of the show features a spinning wheel containing five distinct symbols—Bigfoot, Chicken, Alien, Dead Body, and Ghost—each corresponding to a specific eerie narrative or historical document prepared by the hosts.
SpookyCoop Halloween Special 10-2026
Paul: [00:00:00] We are gonna go in five, four, three,
Michelle: two,
Paul: and one. And welcome everybody from North America and around the world to our 2026 Halloween special.
Michelle: Hi.
Paul: I'm Paul.
Michelle: And I'm Michelle.
Paul: You're a little bit on the ethereal side, my dear, and-
Michelle: I'm supposed to be spooky.
Paul: Yeah, I think you're, you're, you're unidentifiable, as a matter of fact.
What happened to Dragon? He doesn't look so good. Oh,
Michelle: Dragon's here.
Paul: Yeah.
Michelle: He's in disguise.
Paul: He's in disguise. He's a bit emaciatedly disguised.
Michelle: Oh, no, no. He's just in disguise.
Paul: Anyway, 2026, happy Halloween, everybody.
Michelle: Happy Halloween.
Paul: We got dressed up.
Michelle: Yep.
Paul: You have three guesses as to what I am.
Michelle: Um, Sharknado.
Paul: No.
Ar, I'm a pirate.
Michelle: Ah.
Paul: And my hook didn't arrive from [00:01:00] Amazon, and I was gonna say, "I got it from a second-hand shop."
Michelle: Get
Paul: it? Second-hand shop.
Michelle: Mm. Mm. And I don't know what I am.
Paul: You're ... You were a witch, and what? Are you a shy witch? No.
Michelle: No, I'm a sandwich.
Paul: A sandwich. Let us begin with a- No, no,
Michelle: no.
Paul: What?
Michelle: Oh. No. We're not beginning with anything.
We have to spin the wheel.
Paul: Oh, no. But you've forgotten all
So this leads me to my segue, which we-
Michelle: No, no segue.
Paul: Which ... Yes, there, there- Okay, go ahead. Yeah, that. Remember? While you
Michelle: segue, I'm picking up
Paul: more candy. We're gonna talk about the meaning behind Halloween.
Michelle: Okay.
Paul: And we're gonna do that ever so briefly. So Halloween had Celtic origins, and it happened in- And
Michelle: while he does that, I'm gonna steal a candy.
What did I get? Oh, Starburst. I don't wanna eat that.
Paul: Go ahead. It originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain. That's like Don Tandu.
Michelle: [00:02:00] Skittles.
Paul: Yes.
Michelle: We
Paul: have a bag of candy. And it was celebrated, it was celebrated around November 1st and marked the end of the harvest season, the onset of winter, and the boundary between the living and the dead.
Michelle: And if you like Skittles- Yeah ... subscribe.
Paul: So anyway, the Celts believed that on the night before Samhain, October 31st, the barrier between the physical world and the spirit realm became thin, allowing ghosts, spirits-
Michelle: And if you eat too many Skittles, you're not gonna
Paul: be- ... spirits and ancestors to roam around the Earth So anyway, to ward off spirits, fire and costumes are, were originally used as protection.
God knows what we're protecting ourselves from here, my dear.
Michelle: I, ourselves.
Paul: Ourselves. Protecting your... Yes. So they used, they wore masks and animal skins to disguise themselves from wandering malevolent spirits. You
Michelle: forgot your skin.
Paul: And I'm, I'm glad we don't [00:03:00] have a huge bonfire like they did, though. That would be very, very cool if we could do that after.
So Christianity, of course, had to follow suit, or a pre-suit, I'm not sure which. In the 8th century, the Catholic Church designed November 1st as All Saints' Day, designated, and All Hallows' Day to honor saints and martyrs. On October- Do
Michelle: they do Saint Bernard?
Paul: I don't know. October 31st became All Hallows' Eve, which eventually shortened to Halloween.
And-
Michelle: And if you eat a hot dog, it's Halloween-y ...
Paul: medieval traditions, like souling, involved going door to door offering prayers for the deceased in exchange for small cakes, soul cakes.
Michelle: Huh. Or, or, um-
Paul: Laying the groundwork for modern- ... Reese's
Michelle: Pieces ...
Paul: trick-or-treating.
Michelle: You guys gotta come trick-or-treat at our house.
We got the good stuff.
Paul: And the modern symbolic meaning today-
Michelle: And if, if you say [00:04:00] you saw us on Spooky Kook, you get the full size stuff New mini size for you guys ...
Paul: Halloween serves as a playful exploration of fear, darkness, and mystery transformed into a community-centered celebration of creativity, costume gathering, costuming, not costume gathering.
Costuming and gathering and light-hearted fun.
Michelle: Yay.
Paul: Yay. Wee. Go woo. Woo. So mu- I hand it over to you now that I've done my, my deeply researched part of our Halloween special.
Michelle: Today we have a little wheel, and if you see on our wheel, we have the chicken, of course. We have the alien, of course. We have the ghost, of course.
We have the dead person that they chuck out. It's
Paul: never a mannequin.
Michelle: It's never a mannequin. We have the Big Foot. And we're back to the chicken. Yeah. [00:05:00] Which is five symbols and five stories.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: We'll spin it, and whatever it li- lays on, you see that triangle? We're gonna read you the story with the corresponding symbol on it.
Okay? You ready? And in between or if we get a double, one of us has to eat a candy. Right, Crazy Chicken? You see our
Paul: Crazy- The, the chicken's invisible. You can't ... There. It, oh, no, almost. Almost. Al-
Michelle: Bawk, bawk.
Paul: Can't ...
Michelle: Oh. Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk. Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk. Uh-oh.
Paul: Now you see you've- ... put too much.
Michelle: Oh, the chicken is getting me. Here, you put the chicken back. Ouch.
Paul: He's caught in my dreadlocks.
Michelle: Oh, no. Oh. I went invisible. It's part of my superpowers.
Paul: This, by the way, is Boris the Spider.
Michelle: Boris
Paul: the Spider. Boris was married, was married to Dolores and they had two [00:06:00] children.
Michelle: Two children?
Paul: Yep. What were they? Sdoris.
Michelle: Sdoris?
Paul: And Horus.
Michelle: What a horror sto- story- Yes ... full subject. Ah, we will put the magic wheel right here.
Would you like to spin the magic wheel?
Paul: I think Boris would. Come on, Boris. Fast. There we go. Okay. Spin it the right way. Hey, there we are.
Michelle: And you got Big Foot.
Paul: Big Foot.
Michelle: Okay. All right Dig through the papers and get the Big Foot story.
Paul: Where is Big, where is the Big Foot story?
Michelle: I don't ... Go through the papers.
Find the one with the Big Foot on it.
Paul: Uh, uh, uh.
Michelle: No, no. Find the Big Foot. Oh, the- I didn't tag all those things for nothing.
Paul: We've been playing this game for years, as you can tell.
Michelle: Yeah.
Paul: Okay. There's a ghost, and that's all one. Okay. The chicken, all one. The ali- oh, this is the dead body.
Michelle: Yeah, it's a dead body.
Don't read that one.
Paul: Okay.
Michelle: You pass right by the Bigfoot. Oh, [00:07:00]
Paul: there's the Bigfoot.
Michelle: Bigfoot.
Paul: Aha.
Michelle: What story is the Bigfoot?
Paul: Gee, the Bigfoot.
Michelle: And in Halloween joy, I rip them apart instead of cutting them.
Paul: Uh-huh.
Michelle: And what is the Bigfoot?
Paul: The Overtoun Bridge.
Michelle: The Overtoun Bridge.
Paul: I like the Overtoun Bridge story. I don't.
No, you're right, I don't either. It's too, ooh, ugh. Creepy. It's spooky and creepy.
Michelle: Okay, let's
Paul: find it. Here we go.
Michelle: It's in my script somewhere.
Paul: Yes, it is.
Michelle: The Overtoun Bridge.
Paul: The Overtoun Bridge, right there.
Michelle: Ah. I don't even need a script for this one. Yeah. The state of my mind was so creepy.
Paul: Awesome. You go for it.
Michelle: All right. You want me to tell the whole story?
Paul: Sure.
Michelle: Okay. The Overtoun Bridge is in Scotland, just out ... No, I might need it for the end, just outside of Dumbart- Bri- uh, Dumbart, Scotland. It was named the Overtoun Bridge because it's right outside of the Overtoun Castle. Now, the Overtoun Castle was sort of a place where
Look at that. We're all green. [00:08:00] Um, anyway, this bridge is, like, an old bridge from that time, and, um, the time the castle was built, so it's a historical bridge. They can't ... Would you stop that? I'm mysterious. The Overtoun Bridge is a ... Stop it. The Overtoun Bridge is a bridge where since 1958, somewhere, like, 600 dogs have jumped off the bridge to their death.
About f- Eh ... 60 feet below the Overtoun Bridge-
Paul: Yeah. Now, if
Michelle: you can't laugh- It's all rocks ...
Paul: you cry, so.
Michelle: Yeah, don't laugh or cry.
Paul: Mm.
Michelle: It's all, under the bridge it's all rocks.
Paul: Mm.
Michelle: Now, there's a little cove. The bridge goes like this.
Paul: Cove on-
Michelle: So like a
Paul: cubby, right?
Michelle: Yeah, like a little cubby on both sides. Mm. Like a little cove, like a lookout spot.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: One of those look out spots, just one The dogs run to. They go into that lookout spot, and they jump [00:09:00] off. Now, it doesn't matter if your dog's on a leash, doesn't matter if the dog's, like, running free. The dogs, and usually bigger dogs, but even smaller dogs, have wrenched out of their, uh, um, hold of their parents, have jumped out, and then jumped over this rise- Yes
out of, out onto the rocks below. Only a couple of them have actually lived through the jump, and when they've went across that bridge again, they jumped again and died. Now, nobody knows why they've done it, though scientists have tried to explain it. And I'm sad. And recently, scientists claim that they explained it by the fact that, uh, minks live under the bridge and dogs can't resist the smell of minks.
But there are other turnouts on both sides of the bridge, the right and the left side of the bridge, and if you're walking from the castle, it's always that one [00:10:00] exact turnout and on the right side of the bridge. Nobody knows really why it happens. And there's big warning signs, "Hold your dog when," or care sha- careful, "Don't cross with dogs or hold your dogs."
People who have dogs have been trying to have that section have a big wall, um, made on that section of the bridge, but since it's a, it's a historic bridge, they won't let them do it.
Paul: Hmm.
Michelle: And they've p- been petitioning to do it for the longest time. Some people walk across the bridge with their dogs and it never happens, but over six, uh, close to 600 dogs have jumped so far.
Now, here's the catch. A, the Overtoun Castle is right next to the bridge, and people have seen the ghost of what they call the white... It's always a white lady, right? The, um, she's [00:11:00] supposedly the ghost of, um, they call her the ghost of the Lady of Overtoun Castle. I'm sorry. Um, her, her husband died 30 years before she did, and when she died, the castle lay empty.
Now, 30 years before she, uh, before she died, 30 years after her husband died, she never married again, and she lived in the castle alone. And when she lived in the castle, the only thing she had were her dogs for pets. And people say now that the only thing she wants is she wants the ghost of dogs, or she's trying to create ghost dogs to replace the dogs she had as beloved pets when she was alive.
And that's why these dogs are jumping off that part of the bridge, which was her favorite place to stand, [00:12:00] because from that part of the bridge, you can see a waterfall in the distance very clearly. And so it was her favorite part to walk and to stand It's her favorite place to walk and to stand. Is that loud enough for you?
Paul: Yeah.
Michelle: Okay. And when she was alive, that's where she liked to stand and look at the waterfall. And so they say that she's there, and she's urging the dogs to jump from there because she wants to replace her dogs. Oddly enough, the dogs that mostly jump there are retrievers, golden retrievers, and, um, Labradors.
And, um, it was said that those were the type of dogs she had when she was alive.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: So, um, that's the legend. And if you have a dog and you live [00:13:00] in that area, or if you're visiting that area, please don't bring them across that bridge. So that's our first spooky story. Is it the smell of mink, or is it the ghost of Lady Orveton?
Paul: Ooh. Your turn to spin.
Michelle: My turn to spin.
Paul: Spin. Ooh. Chicken.
Michelle: Oh, chicken. Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken. You know, if it was the same one, we would've get to eat some candy. Damn it.
Paul: Chicken. Here
Michelle: you go. Chicken, chicken. The chicken says
Oh, I like this one. The Zombie Plague.
Paul: I wanted The Zombie Plague.
Michelle: You get to read The Zombie Plague.
Paul: Do I?
Michelle: Yeah. Oh, good. Yay. Paul gets to read The Zombie Plague.
Paul: Zombie Plague.
Michelle: This is true story.
Paul: The Zombie... Yeah. It's short, but it, it, it- It's short but cool ... this reads, this reads more like a news article than a [00:14:00] story.
Michelle: Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Paul: Let me see if I can do my best, uh, Ed McMahon here. The date
Michelle: was- How many of you remember Ed McMahon bringing checks from, uh, Clearing House, um, to people's... Big, huge checks
Paul: Yeah, Morris does, too.
Michelle: Yeah, Morris- Yeah. And so does he, but it never happened.
Paul: Mm. The date was 1945. The place was Naples, Italy, and a new disease broke out.
It moved to France, then across all of Europe. It was called the great pox. But to many contemporaries, it is the zombie plague. Ah, brains. It starts with a simple- Which is something we don't have ... mark or sore on your skin. Years, sometimes decades, before the true horror hits, this mark will remain on your skin, and you won't even know.
Suddenly, and without warning, your skin swells and [00:15:00] starts to decay, then falls off your body. Oh, God. Ew. Very often, your face first. Oh dear, you've ach- you've obtained the zombie disease, I see, dear. Yeah,
Michelle: there's... Pick up my nose, please.
Paul: Your face has disappeared. Ah. Your face first, leaving you without a nose or eyelids and giving you the appearance of a living corpse.
Ew.
Michelle: That's what we thought of my mother-in-law before she died. Sorry, hon.
Paul: You experience horrible pain, missing skin, huge pus-filled sores that break and take your flesh with them.
Michelle: Flesh.
Paul: Flesh. That's what I said.
Michelle: You said fle- fesh.
Paul: Flesh, fesh. Fish, bish. Flesh with them. Here's where the true zombie comes in.
You can live for many weeks or even months, slowly decaying- Walking around ... becoming a [00:16:00] walking zombie. Isolation from these people didn't work. The infection happened years before the symptoms occurred. Some babies were born and started to begin the zombie transformation they caught from their mothers.
Very sad. Mothers who this happened to were thought to have procreated with the devil- Mm ... and many were executed. Don't confuse the zombie outbreak with the Black Death or leprosy. In fact, it was the first outbreak of a new disease named syphilis. Like many bacterial infections, it mutated over time and is no longer creating zombies.
Michelle: You know, the thing is, is that their brains were affected, too. So they just walked around like they were mad. They just bumped into things, and-
Paul: Mm ...
Michelle: you know, they didn't know what was going on. Oh.
Paul: Ooh, my turn.
Michelle: Oh, that's right.
Paul: That's-
Michelle: Lift it up. [00:17:00]
Paul: I got it. Oh, Jesus. You got
Michelle: the zombie plague?
Paul: Okay. Alien face.
Michelle: Alien fa- Oh, he's right here.
Paul: He's right there.
Michelle: Alien face. Alien face. Yeah, you turn- Are you ready for your alien face? Alien face. I can open paper. I'm
Paul: excited. I'm excited. Let's see. What is it?
Michelle: Jacob's Halloween Story.
Paul: Jacob's?
Michelle: Yeah, Jacob's Halloween Story.
Paul: Oh. It's
Michelle: the last one in the pile.
Paul: Ooh. For you. Oh, the laundromat
Michelle: No, no, Jacob's Halloween story.
It's... Oh, here's a zombie. Do you wanna, you wanna tell it or you want me to?
Paul: Oh, this one here?
Michelle: Yeah, Jacob's Halloween story.
Paul: That one there.
Michelle: Yeah. This
Paul: one?
Michelle: Yeah.
Paul: The one I'm pointing to?
Michelle: It says Jacob's Halloween story? No. Uh, it says, uh, just-
Paul: There's no Jacob Halloween story.
Michelle: Oh, oh.
Paul: You remember the inside and not the outside.
Michelle: Oh, okay.
Paul: It says- The title you gave it is different ...
Michelle: oh, brothers. Uh, b- yeah, [00:18:00] there it is, the one that says brother on it.
Paul: Aha.
Michelle: Aha.
Paul: I thought so. Yep. That was the one I originally pointed to, but-
Michelle: This is a... He wrote us.
Paul: He did.
Michelle: Yeah, he wrote us. He says, "I know this sounds crazy."
Paul: As they all- And it does ... as they all do.
Michelle: Yeah.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: The reason why I put it under the ET's face. He says, "But when I was a kid, my two brothers and I were out trick-or-treating." Mm-hmm. And, uh, the city where... They live in a city not too far from Houston. I ga- I gather it was rather, uh, rural and kind of, uh, you know, out there. Uh, Isaac was 10, Elia- Elijah was 13, and Jacob, him, was 14, and they were in this old kind of rundown part of town, and they saw an abandoned trailer.
It was kind of, you know, rundown. And so they went, uh, in to check it out. Um, I think that, uh, they [00:19:00] decided that they were gonna tease their 10-year-old brother, and they told him i- if he could go in it and stay there for, like, 10 minutes or so, then, uh, it'd prove the, that he wasn't a baby. And, um, so a bunch of their friends sa- saw what was going on, and they joined them, and as they did, they shut the old wood door.
You want me to tell the story?
Paul: Yeah.
Michelle: Okay. So they shut the old wood door on it, and they were, like, waiting for him to come out. They're waiting for him to scream, saying, you know, "Let me out," 'cause they were, you know, leaning on the door. It was an old trailer, and there was, like, one door, and it was kind of falling down.
But they didn't hear anything, and after a while they didn't hear anything, and they didn't hear anything. And so they thought, "We better go in there and get him. He probably got so scared he passed out or he's in a corner crying or something." And when they went in to get him, no one was there. No one was in the trailer.
So they decided to look under the [00:20:00] floor and everything, 'cause it was pretty crappy, and some of their friends looked under the trailer. They looked around. They couldn't find him anywhere. So after a while, they decided that they better go get some adults. So just about then, the lady down the road saw these kids all around the trailer, thought they were up to no good.
She called the cops, and the cops pulled up. And instead of, like, running, uh, which some of the kids did, um, Jacob and his brother, his young- h- you know, uh, was it Elijah? He went over, and they ran to them. They said, "We lost our little brother. We lost him. He, we don't know where he is." Mm-hmm. "We sent him in there, and he's gone."
And so the cops, you know, started going all over the field and everything looking for him. They thought maybe, you know, he'd been kidnapped or something. And then they called in people to look for him and brought the other boys home, told his parents. They were all having a fit over it. And, um... Oh, Dragon.
Calm down, Dragon. And [00:21:00] they were all having a fit. And, um, while they were having this fit over him, uh, the boys, you know, they were thinking the worst, but they were sent to bed, and his mother was, you know, freaking out, and his father was out looking for him. And the next, about, you know, around noontime, they got a knock on the door, and his mother started screaming, "They found his body.
They found his body." And, uh, turns out that they said they found him, and they found him about 20 miles away, uh, on a golf course. Uh, and he was s- like, had been sound asleep on this golf course with an old blanket over him. And when they ran over to... The police went over to get him, and they told his mother, "He's okay.
We brought him to the hospital. They're checking him over, but he looks like he's fine." And they asked him what happened to him, and the only thing he said was he saw a nice lady. Uh, he couldn't remember being in the trailer. He just said he just saw a [00:22:00] nice lady who told him that it was cold out and he needed to wrap up in a blanket.
And when she wrapped him up in the blanket, he fell asleep. And then he was woken up by these people who s- told, asked him what he was doing there. And then after that, um, when his mother asked him and everything, he said he didn't remember anything. And it was really, really creepy, and that's what he remem- that's what he said.
And he said it happened on Halloween night, and they never found out what happened. And they never found the lady. They- Mm ... and they don't know how he got so far in one night.
Paul: Aliens.
Michelle: Yeah, could be.
Paul: Aliens.
Michelle: Who knows?
Paul: Okay.
Michelle: It's like one of those missing 411
Paul: stories. Mm. Mm. It is. You,
Michelle: I get to s- I get to spin.
Paul: You get to spin. Oh.
Michelle: I get to spin.
Paul: Let me carefully get our wheel. Hold it at the bottom so it doesn't...
Michelle: So it doesn't do that. Oh my God, Bigfoot
Paul: Bigfoot. Oh, candy time. [00:23:00]
Michelle: Candy time. I
Paul: get a candy.
Michelle: I get a candy, too.
Paul: Okay.
Michelle: Oh, I want ... I'm just gonna dig.
Paul: Okay.
Michelle: Oh, M&Ms with peanuts. So I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you about the M&Ms with peanuts, okay?
When I was a kid, my mother told me I was allergic to peanuts. I wasn't. So my whole life I wasn't able to eat M&Ms with peanuts. Finally, one day... Mm. Shouldn't talk when I'm eating. Finally, one day, I was out
Paul: with a- You didn't accommodate for this part, did you?
Michelle: Mm-mm. I was out with a boyfriend, and he said, "F your mother.
You gotta try these." And I thought, "Eh, I'll just end up in the hospital. F my mother." And I tried them.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Man, I loved them. And my mother was wrong, wasn't allergic to peanuts.
Paul: Hmm.
Michelle: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Thank goodness.
Michelle: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Okay. Spin the wheel.
Michelle: You ate a Reese's Cup in one bite. [00:24:00]
Paul: Shh. I didn't, I didn't eat it. I inhaled it.
Don't be silly. Mm. I learned from the dogs.
Michelle: Mm. Okay, hang on. I'll put these
Paul: away. Why do you think I run through the house to find you when every time I hear a whistle? Here, spin.
Michelle: Mm. I'm holding a Reese's Cup. Sit, Paul.
Paul: Watch out. Boris, wait for it.
Michelle: What do we got?
Paul: Oh, what do we got? What do we got? It-
Michelle: Dead body
Paul: dead body. Never a mannequin.
Michelle: Never a mannequin. I have a T-shirt that says that. It's never a mannequin.
Paul: Excuse me. Sorry, folks.
Michelle: Haunted laundromat.
Paul: Ah.
Michelle: Oh, I love this story.
Paul: The laundromat story.
Michelle: I love this story Haunt- haunted laundromat. See, it's so good- Here ... it
Paul: disappeared. May I start while you hunt for your thing?
Michelle: Sure.
Paul: Is that okay?
Michelle: You wanna tell the whole story?
Paul: No.
Michelle: Oh.
Paul: No, we'll switch it off. [00:25:00] Okay. So-
Michelle: Friend of mine sent this
you should, she-
Paul: Well, not a friend of mine Okay, so this is-
Michelle: Friend of mine told me about this,
Paul: told me to contact you ... read from the perspective of a woman, obviously, because my husband and I came into a little money some years back, and we invested, they invested it in a business, and they got a little laundromat in s- Stained Island?
You mean Staten Island.
Michelle: Staten Island. Some would call it Stained Island.
Paul: These are, these are as, as, uh, just... I won't say it. It's a name I'm not telling. Uh, it, that'd be bad for business, she claims. So anyway, she swore-
Michelle: Yeah, but by the time you finish this-
Paul: She writes here, "I swear by- I think
Michelle: I
Paul: figured out who it is
on my mother's grave and the heads of my grandchildren," of course you'd wanna do that, that's what's, that's what you're going to read is, is not my imagination, "And though I'm not adver- uh, adverse to a good drink now and again, no liquor had passed my lips this night." So if my if my husband knew I was telling this [00:26:00] to the internet, he'd be mortified.
He thinks this happened, uh, I- if he, if... What is this? One shoe in the, in the loony bin- Yeah, he thinks- ... and the other shoe on a slippery ice, but here goes nothing. Take it away.
Michelle: Yep. When we bought this place, it was almost five years ago.
Paul: You're completely disappeared from the screen. Ooh, I'm
Michelle: a ghost.
Paul: You can't do that.
You are a ghost.
Michelle: Yeah, they bought the place five years ago, and it had the most disgusting wallpaper. It, the only way she could describe it, it was gaudy and loud.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Um, and she doesn't wanna say what it was, 'cause she said anybody who sh- she tells it to would remember
Paul: it. That, that hap- I, I got a house, I bought a house like that before we were married, and I stripped a wall, and behind was this huge desert motif, all in wallpaper, 3D.
Michelle: 3D?
Paul: Yeah, it was horrifying.
Michelle: Ooh. Did it have camels in it?
Paul: I think it did. As a matter of fact, and a palm tree, and [00:27:00] a sand dune.
Michelle: Yeah. She said over the first ruma- fumont, blah, blah, blah, blah. Over the first few months, they removed the wallpaper and started to upgrade the machines. Uh, and they did, and when they removed it, they could only remove it a few months at a time if they wanted the money to do the machines.
Mm-hmm. Um, and when the washers were put in and two folding tables were pulled out, and they took down the wallpaper behind that, there wa- was a really realistic painting of an old washing machine, like, from the '20s, that had one of those hand rollers, you know, those roller things that squeezed your clothes.
And, um, and the machine, uh, looked really, really 3D, and it looked really cool.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: So they decided to leave it there, like, a-
Paul: Mm-hmm ...
Michelle: you know, like something cool to look at.
Paul: Kind of retro.
Michelle: Yeah, they were really impressed.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: And so they left it there, and they didn't wanna cover it at all, and it became the mascot of [00:28:00] the place.
Mm-hmm. Now, she didn't wanna tell us the name of the place, but now anybody walked in there and saw this thing probably knows- Right ... exactly where it is.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: And so she said it was really impressive.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: They started calling it The Old Tub.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: It took the name
Paul: away from her husband anyway. You, you used to call me that.
You used, you used to call me that, The Old Tub. Go see The Old Tub.
Michelle: I used to call you Stick Man.
Paul: Stick, Twig Man.
Michelle: Twig Man.
Paul: Twig Man was my moniker up in Algonquin, Algonquin Park.
Michelle: Go ahead.
Paul: Oh. So they have two employees, and all four of them were amazed at how few people ever mention the painting of The Old Tub.
She says, "I know it's in the darkest corner of the room, but still, maybe someday we'll run a light over it."
Michelle: Yeah, so that the highlight it. Was the idea
Paul: at the
Michelle: time. You stapled these, so I can't throw them. That's
Paul: right.
Michelle: Ha. Uh, one of the things that they offered customer was a wash and fold. A lot of places do that, you know?
Mm. You charge extra, and you wash their clothes for them- Mm-hmm ... and you fold [00:29:00] it.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: And, um, and, uh, they were leaving their dr- laundry with them, and they would wash it and dry it and fold it for them. We, she said, "We charge by the pound."
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: And a lot of businesses and people had, uh, it was a great alternative than sitting around waiting for- Right
their clothes to get done. She said one night it happened that she was really late, and they had a lot of clothes to fold and wash-
Paul: Mm-hmm ...
Michelle: and to be ready, and on top of that, her, both her employees called in sick.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: One of them left early, one of them left in the morning, so she was folding clothes late into the night.
And then she heard what started like a trickling of water, then started like a rushing of water. Mm. And she thought maybe a pipe burst somewhere.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: So she started looking all around to see if the pipe had burst, and there was nothing. She opened up a door to the basement, turned on the lights. There was nothing that was leaking down there.
Anyway, and being in Staten Island, she didn't want to go down there, 'cause she [00:30:00] said sometimes there are rats down there. So she decided to stay up. So she shut the
Paul: door. They're the, they're the size of, of basset hounds. Yeah.
Michelle: They can drag pizza up the stairs. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And- So she decided not to go down there Can be a dead body And then she heard a squeaking that wasn't a mouse or a rat.
Mm-hmm. It was like a reek, reek. Yeah. And, um, she thought to her- herself, it was like, like it was coming from the corner of the room where the tub was. Mm. And it kind of freaked her out a bit.
Paul: Yeah.
Michelle: Yeah. And she said she was a New Yorker and not afraid of anything, so she picked up her .22 out of the drawer, and she walked over there.
Yeah. Um-
Paul: That rat would've been...
Michelle: Yeah. But, uh, when she got there, she started to freeze. Mm-hmm. She said the room was, like, zero degrees. It was like walking-
Paul: Mm ...
Michelle: into a freezer.
Paul: Not a ghost. Oh, no. No. No,
Michelle: no. No, no, yeah. No. Go ahead.
Paul: Okay. And there was nobody [00:31:00] there, but the old tub painting on the wall had a white cloth in between the ringers, uh, which she couldn't understand.
Uh, then she heard a voice. It was quiet, and it was coming from behind her left ear, and it said, "I hate laundry."
Michelle: It was me. "
Paul: I try and try, but lye doesn't get out the sweat stains in Jerry's shirts. If I don't figure it out soon, he's going to sure as fire kill me, and how." And how I have no idea what drove me to reply to the voice rather than scream and run, but I said, "Wet it good with white vinegar.
Let it sit for half an hour. Rinse it good in cold water. After it dries, if there's anything left, do it again. If you can, let it sit in the sun to dry."
Michelle: I gotta try that. The voice whispered, uh, "You're the darb." Now, I had to look that up. You're the darb is 1920s [00:32:00] for, like, you're a be- you're the best person I know.
Like, you're an honest
Paul: person.
Michelle: It's a British word,
Paul: from derby.
Michelle: Yeah. It, it's a shortened
Paul: version
Michelle: And then it got picked up in, then it got picked up in the United States, and it- Yeah ... you're the derby meant you're an honest person, you're not a cheater. Mm. Yep. Then she says, "I'll give it a try." The g- cold feeling was gone, and I s- and I said scr- ah, I said, "Screw the following.
I'll do it in the morn- screw the fold- folding. I'm gonna-
Paul: To heck with the laundry. Yeah I'll do it in the morning
Michelle: I'll do it in the morning when there are others here.
Paul: And darb, but it, but the British meaning, it, um, precisely meant real money, not counterfeit.
Michelle: Yeah. Mm. And then I go h- I get, I go home to my husband.
He was, uh... And the following day, I told him to paint over old tub to match the rest of the wall, and the next night after, that next night after closing, he did that. I told him, "Put on [00:33:00] another coat and put on another coat."
Paul: I did that to the garage door.
Michelle: Yeah.
Paul: Seven coats of primer- Yeah ... to get rid of the old color.
Michelle: Anyway, it never happened again. Hmm. I don't know if the woman got the white out, the, the sweat out. We'll never know.
Paul: The white out. Hmm. We might need another candy here. Oh, oh, oh, we're right on the line. Do it again. I say it's-
Michelle: No, no, no. Spin
Paul: again. Oh, go- oh, fine. Come on. Ghost, twice.
Michelle: That was on the line between ghost and alien.
Paul: No, it wasn't. It, no, no, it was more in.
Michelle: Nope.
Paul: It was more, it was- Spin
Michelle: it again ...
Paul: oh, it was right in there.
Michelle: I want candy.
Paul: Three times. Ghost, ghost. See?
Michelle: All right.
Paul: Oh, no, it's Bigfoot.
Michelle: Bigfoot.
Paul: Okay, candy.
Michelle: Ah, we get candy.
Paul: One candy.
Michelle: We get candy.
Paul: I'm not eating again. The chocolate makes me cough.
Michelle: Then eat something else.
That's-
Paul: I'm spinning it again. Dead body, another piece of candy. Bigfoot and mannequin. I got- Another piece of... You should've gone with the first two, I'm telling you.
Michelle: Oh, that's three pieces of candy. See? Oh, [00:34:00] no. That's Starburst. I don't want Starburst.
Paul: Well, I think by default, because-
Michelle: I got a Twix ...
Paul: it is our last story
Michelle: No, spin.
You gotta spin it
Paul: Is there less, though? What else do we have left?
Michelle: We have-
Paul: I did spin it, see? ...
Michelle: ghosts. We have ghosts left.
Paul: Ghosts, see? It's on ghost.
Michelle: Oh, I... You just did that 'cause I wasn't looking.
Paul: No, I didn't.
Michelle: I want more candy.
Paul: It was already there. You can have all the candy you want, and then you can deal with me feeling the way you do after
Funny that. Look, the next story is about poison Halloween candy.
Michelle: Oh, no. Oh, no.
Paul: Oh. Oh, yes.
Michelle: Oh, no. Oh, no.
Paul: Oh, no. You are up. You stop. Okay.
Michelle: I'm all full of candy.
Paul: Stop banging your [00:35:00] microphone, please. So this story has more than one spooky factor that makes it really spooky. In 1974, there was a time when poison Halloween candy was given to trick-or-treaters.
I'm going to try to make this short because it's a long story that we can go into at a later date. Michelle, that's me.
Michelle: It says Paul.
Paul: Paul. So I Googled that, and it said that no one ever gave out poison Halloween candy. It's only an urban legend, and there's never been a case of candy tampering in the history of the holiday.
Michelle: But Google got it wrong.
Paul: Yep. Yep. Google got it wrong.
Michelle: Google got it wrong. And believe, a- and I believe part of, it's part of the Mandela effect. I'll give you a different response at the end about the Candyman. Now, if you look at Google and just say, "Google, has there ever been a Halloween [00:36:00] poisoning?"
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Google will say no on that top part. But if you go in and say, "Who's the Candyman?" Google will tell you all about the Halloween poisoning.
Paul: Hmm, that's right.
Michelle: Yep.
Paul: In 1974, there was a very popular candy called Pixy Stix. It came in two sizes, small paper tubes and very long plas- and, and a very long plastic tube that contained a sweet powder candy.
Michelle: It was good.
Paul: Yeah. In short, a man wanted to get rid of his children for insurance money. Nice. So he poisoned seven of the large plastic straws of candy called Pixy Stix, and put one in each of his children's trick-or-treat bags, and distributed five more to random kids who came to his house. All the reports say this happened in Texas.
Michelle: Now for the Mandela effect. I remember this happening, and before telling this story to you, I checked with my brother, [00:37:00] and he remembers it happening the way I remember it happening. Both of us are 100% certain, because in 1974, I was 12, and he was 11. Yeah, we're freaking old. Uh, he was 10, actually, and we're freaking old.
We were-
Paul: You were 11.
Michelle: I was 12.
Paul: Okay
Michelle: I was four.
Paul: Go ahead.
Michelle: We had gone trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and we had done a few neighborhoods. We had taken pillowcases, and they were almost full. And we went down this street called Kinsley Street, and we went to this house, and there was a guy who was giving out long Pixy Stix. Now, those were easy to tamper with because at the end they were just stapled.[00:38:00]
And so you could pull out the staple, put anything in it you want, and restaple it. Now, this guy gave out Pixy Stix. Now, I'm not saying we got poisoned ones, 'cause there was no way of telling. Now, we remember very clearly that when we got home, we didn't eat our Pixy Stix. We were too into some of the other stuff.
But the next day, my mother freaked out, took all our candy and threw it away. And she told us that right there in Lowell, where I grew up, that the Pixy Stix were given out by a guy who killed one of his kids, 'cause one of the kids died. And in Massachusetts, where I grew up, one of the kids died. And she was sure of it.
Right in the street where [00:39:00] we trick-or-treated was the address that they gave. When we went to school the next day, there was an announcement saying that if anyone trick-or-treated on that street and got Pixy Stix, throw them away because they had been poisoned. And we went home with papers saying, "If you trick-or-treated and got Pixy Stix-"
Paul: From school, right?
Michelle: From school. Yeah. There was an announcement saying throw them away, that poisoned Pixy Stix had been given out in town. This was in Massachusetts, not in Texas. They were supposedly given out in Massachusetts. That's a Mandela effect. I remember it as clear as day. My brother remembers it, but it didn't happen.
It didn't happen in Massachusetts. There wasn't a warning that somewhere out there someone had tainted a pack of s- Pixy Stix. It was, this happened in Massachusetts on that street. Mm. It [00:40:00] was scary.
Paul: It-
Michelle: And we remember it happening that way.
Paul: You know, I believe in the Mandela effect.
Michelle: Yeah.
Paul: I truly do. I mean, I, I'm one of those, that group of people that clearly remembers Ed McMahon walking up to people's doors with this huge check, you know, for Publisher's Sweepstakes.
Michelle: S- Publisher's Clearing House.
Paul: Clearing House. Cl- yeah, Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, with a big $1 million check. I remember that clear as day, and yet that is... It never happened.
Michelle: Mm-mm.
Paul: Yes, Boris, it never happened.
Michelle: Mm-mm. Right. Dragon says it never happened.
Paul: Right. Mm-mm. Yeah. So what was the scariest you have ever been in your life?
Michelle: Mm, scariest I've ev- been in my life
Paul: I thought about this. I know what mine was.
Michelle: What was it?
Paul: It was when I got hit by lightning. I've never been that scared before or since. That was the most terrifying, scariest [00:41:00] thing that ever happened to me.
Michelle: Really?
Paul: Yep.
Michelle: That would scare me.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Mm-hmm. I'm not sure. A lot of scary things happen to me.
Mm, I can't think of them right now.
Paul: Oh, what about the dreams of the natives? When you went and you, you took something from a local pl- uh, uh, near a burial ground. Oh,
Michelle: that was really scary.
Paul: Mm.
Michelle: We had gone out to this area where, um, uh, they had just bulldozed a native, um, w- they had just bulldozed- Sacred
Paul: burial ground.
Mm ...
Michelle: a sacred burial ground to put in condos.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: And I wanted to go see for myself. And there was a bone fragment sticking out of where they had, um, bulldozed, and I took it out. I said, "Look, this is a real bone." And I pulled it out and-
Paul: Was that up near the island where... It's now a golf course?
Michelle: No, no. That, um- That was near the Tewksbury Mental Hospital.
Paul: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Michelle: Um, th- where, [00:42:00] um-
Paul: I know it, yeah ...
Michelle: that woman who, uh, who killed her children-
Paul: Yes ...
Michelle: is being kept. Mm. I can't remember her name right now. And I pulled it out, and, uh, that night I had a dream about all these Native Americans angry at me for, for, uh, cons- for, um, uh, what do you call 'em?
Paul: Disturbing the burial site.
D- desecrating.
Michelle: Yeah, desecrating- Yeah ... the burial site, and especially since I'm Native American. Um, and they were really, really angry at me, and so I went and put it back and said prayers and all that stuff, hoping they wouldn't-
Paul: Mm-hmm ... do
Michelle: it again.
Paul: Yeah.
Michelle: They were very angry at me.
Paul: Yeah. A- and th- this happened for a couple of nights, didn't it?
Michelle: Mm-hmm.
Paul: Yeah, and it wasn't stopping. And it was-
Michelle: No, until I was able to put the bone back in the exact- Uh ... same hole. And then I thought, "Oh, my God. I, I don't know what, what would happen to the people digging up the bones,"
Paul: but- Mm-hmm. I, I've, I've heard a s- There was a, a grade eight teacher of mine that had an experience like [00:43:00] that up in Serpent Mounds with, uh, one of his students from the year before, where they found, uh...
Serpent Mounds is a, an ancient, um, Aboriginal site. A great big long winding mound that is, was human-made. Anyway, uh, one of the students found a bone and picked it up, and when s- when they were excavating stuff, and, um, she pulled it up, and they started to hear this woman scream, and it didn't stop. And it went on for like 30 seconds or so, and he, and he said, "Come on, let's bury it."
And so they quickly buried it back down again, and, and when they did, within seconds of the bone being buried, it, the screaming just stopped.
Michelle: Wow.
Paul: Yeah. Very curious thing. Mm-hmm. Yes.
Michelle: I don't know. There's a lot of scary things that happened to me in my life.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So I was just thinking- Remember I got that letter from the IRS?
Paul: Worst Halloween ever.
Michelle: That was not good.
Paul: No.
Michelle: Mm-mm.
Paul: Ah, I'm glad that happened [00:44:00] before we were married.
Michelle: Yeah, that was crazy. I owed them, I underpaid by- This- ... $38. By the time they told me I underpaid by $38, I owed them almost five grand-
Paul: Yeah ...
Michelle: in fees.
Paul: And thank goodness for state reps to fix that thing. Yep. Can you think of anything else you'd like to add to our Halloween special before we sign off?
Michelle: Boo.
Paul: Boo.
Michelle: Yeah. Hey, you know, if you subscribe it does, it doesn't cost you anything, but it does a whole lot for us.
Paul: Yeah, please subscribe.
Michelle: Subscribe and let us know- Like us ... where you live and we'll send you a trick or treat.
Paul: Even if you don't like us, just press the like button anyway.
Michelle: Yeah. Okay? Why not?
Paul: Yeah. Then you can change the channel after. No, don't. Come back. We want you to come back.
Michelle: Yeah, come back.
Paul: Boris wants you back, too.
Michelle: Come back. So does Dragon.
Paul: Look, Boris is going in and out, too.
Michelle: Yeah, Dragon wants you back.
Paul: Anyway, we hope all of you have a wonderful and happy Halloween.
Michelle: Safe Halloween.
Paul: Safe.
And you, and if you have children, [00:45:00] grandchildren, th- they also have a, an absolutely fabulous Halloween this year. And
Michelle: fun.
Paul: Thank you all of those out there, all of you, who have been, come back over and over to watch us and listen to us again, and for your comments. Um, we did receive a comment a while- Woo. A, a while back.
Woo. A while back from, um, a gentleman who said it was nice to s- finally see us on, on, on screen. What, uh, I personally thought it would be such a letdown. But then he said, "Paul, I thought you had a beard," and s- left the hands up emoji.
Michelle: No, it's me with the beard.
Paul: Yeah. I had to change something and I lost, I lost his comment.
So you know who you are. Please continue to comment. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Everybody be safe, be good, take care of one another, love one another. Be good to
Michelle: each other. Oh, it's my time to interrupt him.
Paul: Be good to each other.
Michelle: Don't forget to f- look at our other sites.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: We have, um, I have the, uh...
Paul: Spirit Talk ...
Michelle: Spirit Talk site, [00:46:00] and I'm gonna be updating that really soon.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: Uh-huh. I know it doesn't get updated. We
Paul: have more coming on another channel as well, which is going to be a surprise. Yay. Yay. Trick or treat, everybody. Yep. Have a wonderful Halloween.
Michelle: Have a wonderful Halloween and, um-
Paul: We'll see you soon.
Michelle: Yep.
Paul: Either half a week or a full week.
Michelle: Who knows?
Paul: Who knows? But certainly the next episode is going to be in a few days.
Michelle: And it's gonna be good.
Paul: Yeah. So until next time, when we see you- Boo ... in the spooky coop. Boo. Ah