Latest / Echoes of the South / Nest of Singing Birds: The House That Wasn't There

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Nest of Singing Birds: The House That Wasn't There · Echoes of the South

• 1:37
  Welcome to Echoes of the South. I'm Carrie Genzell. Some stories are written down,
• 1:44
  others are passed from one generation to the next, carried in the voices of the
• 1:52
  people who remember them. And in the mountains of Western North Carolina, that
• 1:59
  tradition has been alive for centuries. Nest of Singing Birds is a collective of
• 2:06
  traditional Appalachian ballad singers dedicated to preserving the songs, stories,
• 2:12
  and cultural heritage of their ancestors. Many of these ballads have been passed
• 2:18
  down through families for generations, telling stories of love, loss, betrayal,
• 2:24
  and sometimes murder. But the mountains hold other stories too. Stories of haints,
• 2:31
  unexplained encounters, and the enduring presence of those who came before us.
• 2:38
  Today I'm joined by Donna Ray Norton, Sheila Kay Adams, and William Ritter, three
• 2:45
  members of Nest of Singing Birds whose connection to those traditions goes far
• 2:52
  beyond the music. I first met them after a performance at the legendary Capricorn
• 2:59
  Studios here in Macon, Georgia. And while we were talking, I discovered that their
• 3:07
  visit to Macon had included a few experiences they hadn't anticipated. During
• 3:13
  their stay in a downtown rental house, all three encountered things they couldn't
• 3:20
  easily explain. But their stories don't begin in Macon. They reach back through
• 3:27
  generations of family history, Appalachian folklore, And a landscape where the
• 3:33
  past has never felt very far away. Today we're exploring the connection between
• 3:40
  music, memory, ancestry, and the unexplained, And perhaps discovering that some
• 3:45
  stories are passed down not simply because they're remembered, but because they
• 3:52
  continue to unfold. Let's begin.
• 3:55
  I am so excited to have Nest of Singing Birds on Echoes of the South today. And
• 4:01
  I've been looking forward to this chat for a while. I saw you all play here in
• 4:07
  Macon, Georgia at Capricorn Studios, such an iconic location. And you all did a
• 4:13
  very intimate performance that was just incredible. It was such a fun night to
• 4:18
  experience your music, your stories. And then I got to talk to you all afterwards,
• 4:23
  which was wonderful. and and and you're coming back to Macon, which I'm really
• 4:29
  excited about as well. just to get us rolling, tell us a little bit about
• 4:34
  yourselves, Nest of Singing Birds, where you're from, and and share that with
• 4:39
  everyone in case they're not familiar.
• 4:42
  well, my name's Donna Ray Norton. This is Sheila K. Adams and that's William
• 4:47
  Ritter. and we are part of the Nest of Singing Birds. so I'm an eighth generation
• 4:53
  ballad singer from Madison County here in western North Carolina. Sheila is my
• 4:57
  cousin, aka my mom. and she is seventh generation ballad singer. banjo player,
• 5:02
  author, National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Award went fellow. North Carolina
• 5:07
  Heritage Award fellow. Like she's received all these awards. She just received the
• 5:11
  United States Artist Award in Feb or in January of this year. so this has been a
• 5:18
  really big year for her too. but we've been, you know, sharing these stories and
• 5:23
  songs from our family for a really long time. And William, was Bobby McMillan, who
• 5:29
  was Sheila's best friend, and also a ballad singer, musician, storyteller, was his
• 5:33
  mentor. So, and he's from Mitchell County, which is just right, you know, right a
• 5:39
  right across the road a little bit. right across the mountain. And I have to say
• 5:45
  that Bobby was my mentor too. I might as well just get put him on that list.
• 5:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:52
  That's right.
• 5:53
  Yeah, we all learned a little something from Bobby. We all learned something from
• 5:57
  Bobby. I learned a lot. I had fifty years to do it in. And and Sheila is my
• 6:02
  mentor, so obviously. But so we I'm the leader of the Nest of Singing Birds.
• 6:07
  Sheila's our matriarch and you know, we have several birds in the nest and we're
• 6:11
  sort of a like a collective I say we're a collective of individual musicians. Some
• 6:16
  of the birds in the nest don't like the term collective, but it is what it is. So,
• 6:21
  you know, but that's what we are. So and we just share ballads and stories about
• 6:26
  our people and the people we learn the songs from and And for people who don't
• 6:31
  know what ballads are, you know, we do a ballad one one thing and you know, a
• 6:36
  ballad is a story told in song. And a traditional ballad is often sung
• 6:40
  unaccompanied, but there you know, there are some people who sing the ballads and
• 6:44
  play musical instruments with them. but you know, in a ballad swap is basically
• 6:49
  where we will take turns sharing the songs. Like we don't re we sometimes will do
• 6:53
  stuff together, but Most of the time we all take turns singing, so we seldom do
• 6:58
  the ballads together, but we do the meeting house songs or sacred songs as they
• 7:03
  called them over home. To distinguish
• 7:05
  Right.
• 7:06
  them between the ballads they call love songs and the sacred songs they called
• 7:11
  meetin' house songs. Mm-hmm. And the
• 7:14
  Right, right.
• 7:15
  and a lot of most people will call the ballads murder ballads, but over home we
• 7:20
  call them love songs. Right.
• 7:22
  Why the difference? That's a big difference, murder versus love.
• 7:25
  These people aren't always noted.
• 7:27
  Well if if you see my shirt here, it says Can you see my shirt? A little bit
• 7:33
  Yeah.
• 7:33
  traditional ballads, love and murder acapella. So that's one of our merch items
• 7:39
  that we have.
• 7:41
  I love it. There we go. We're getting it all in.
• 7:41
  I don't know.
• 7:50
  Hey.
• 7:51
  Scaredy Cat Club. That's who I am. And she's the scardy cat. I am. But I'm the one
• 7:54
  who usually has the
• 7:55
  Right.
• 7:56
  experiences.
• 7:57
  I was gonna ask that. It's but you know what I find that a lot of times it is the
• 8:02
  scaredy cat that has the experiences. We in our first episode for Echoes of the
• 8:06
  South, we went to Rose Hill Cemetery. I don't know if you got a chance to visit
• 8:11
  Rose Hill when you guys were here last time. But we had a couple of people come
• 8:16
  out with us who I've known for a while, and one of the people was Not familiar
• 8:21
  with investigating and hasn't really had a lot of experiences. And lo and behold,
• 8:25
  that was the person that the spirit was trying to get to and that had like, you
• 8:30
  know, she was feeling this sharp pain in her head. And Morrighan had to come in
• 8:34
  and like clear the energy. And she's like, it would be me, right? But it's always
• 8:39
  the person that's
• 8:40
  Thank you.
• 8:41
  nervous or unsure that it's like, I always say, like, it's like with cats, like I
• 8:45
  always find that cats always gravitate to the person that's not a cat person.
• 8:48
  Right. It's like I'm gonna make that's right.
• 8:51
  That's just because they want to. They they
• 8:54
  I always
• 8:54
  they they know and they want to do that.
• 8:56
  That's right. And I always feel like spirits are kind of like, I'm gonna make you
• 9:00
  believe today
• 9:01
  Yeah, but you know, I see I'm a believer. Like I'm a believer and I see like I see
• 9:06
  things. Like our f family, you know, we had medicine women in our family and
• 9:09
  things like that. And but I'm you know, Sheila called me like a long time ago, we
• 9:14
  had this whole conversation, because I had seen something in the house that she
• 9:18
  grew up in. Mm-hmm. And I f like freaked me out. Like I saw this man in the
• 9:22
  hallway as I was going into the bathroom and I would not come out of the bathroom
• 9:27
  for the longest time. I was like, my God. You know, so then I finally came out and
• 9:32
  I told my cousin about it and Sheila called on the phone and she was like she's I
• 9:36
  answered and she was like, Well hey Donna Ray, honey. I heard you as a haint
• 9:41
  drawer and I said, A haint drawer and she said, A haint drawer and I'm like,
• 9:45
  What's a haint drawer? 'Cause in my head I'm thinking drawer like a d
• 9:49
  Right.
• 9:50
  Up chest of drawers. Or we as we called them and saw them dresser drawers. Right.
• 9:53
  So but so that's what I was thinking in my head, and I'm like a haint drawer.
• 9:58
  What's a haint drawer? And she said Somebody draws haints she said a haint drawer,
• 10:01
  somebody that draws the haints and I like, I don't want to be a haint drawer, I
• 10:05
  don't want to do that. So I don't want
• 10:08
  I love it. Well, I had never heard the the term haint until I moved to the south.
• 10:13
  I didn't never it never had come across it. And then I I I was sharing with you
• 10:18
  before we we started recording that I it was only a few months back that I
• 10:23
  realized why, you know, the ceiling outside in front of the house is painted blue,
• 10:28
  because it's haint blue. It's to keep the haints away.
• 10:31
  That's right.
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  And it's funny because I we have a security camera out there and there was an in
• 10:36
  the summer, last summer. I caught like this very weird orb thing that was like
• 10:42
  kind of floating around and it went up towards that blue, you know, ceiling and
• 10:47
  I'm like, it's working. It pulled it in.
• 10:50
  That's funny. I th and a haint's a lot worse than a ghost.
• 10:53
  That's right.
• 10:54
  Right? Yeah.
• 10:55
  Right, there's a difference.
• 10:57
  Yeah, I haint a haint might convince you.
• 10:57
  Th there is a difference, yeah. The haints are the ones you don't want.
• 11:01
  Sheila said a haint. Well, maybe. But over in Sodom they called all haints. It
• 11:05
  didn't matter. Yeah, they they
• 11:07
  interesting. Yeah.
• 11:09
  never used the word ghost. They just anybody that had you know, that was in spirit
• 11:13
  form was haint. It was it was crazy when that happened to me too. Like I I vividly
• 11:18
  saw this man. Like I to and she asked me, you know, what did he look like and so I
• 11:23
  told her what he was wearing and everything and she was like, Yep, that was Asbury
• 11:27
  and I'm like, then Asbury's my great grandfather.
• 11:30
  I was gonna ask you if it was someone you knew because that house has roots, like
• 11:33
  there's family and generational history there.
• 11:35
  Yes. it's it's very haunted up there on the hill where I grew up.
• 11:41
  I I
• 11:41
  Well, he never would have known you, he probably passed away before you
• 11:44
  Yeah, I did not know I
• 11:45
  were born.
• 11:45
  did not know him. That's right. Yeah. No, I did not know him like I knew of him,
• 11:49
  but I d had never seen him before. But his house was built on the same site.
• 11:54
  Interesting.
• 11:54
  that my parents built a house, so
• 11:57
  Now, do you all now going back to the generational, because that certainly can,
• 12:01
  you know, give give that land and that area, you know, more roots to it if if
• 12:07
  you've all been in that same part and region and or the land itself for many
• 12:12
  generations, there's there's
• 12:14
  Yeah.
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  history there. And you know, it's it's not uncommon that that some folks may pop
• 12:19
  in from time to time or wander through. That's been our experience anyway.
• 12:24
  Yeah, you can t Yeah, you can I I feel like Yeah, watchers, I feel like there's a
• 12:30
  you can feel the shift in the energy, in my opinion, when you cross over into what
• 12:36
  we consider Sodom from like just the regular road going into Sodom. In my opinion,
• 12:41
  I feel like you can feel that feeling shift. What
• 12:45
  Well, I would say I feel that too, even when you just took me up there.
• 12:49
  Yeah, to me it's a it's a lighter feeling. The it's almost like the air is lighter
• 12:53
  over there.
• 12:54
  Interesting. interesting.
• 12:57
  I don't know if thin thinner is the word, like a it's just if
• 13:00
  Right.
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  there's a shift in the energy or something, it's weird.
• 13:03
  Right. Well, it's yeah, no, I definitely feel that in certain places. When we
• 13:06
  walked in there, I'm like, it's like we went over a threshold. Like there's like a
• 13:10
  difference. Capricorn Studios for me, when you walk into that back studio, don't
• 13:13
  you feel that? It's like, whoa, we're in another time.
• 13:16
  Yes. I noticed that. Yeah, I noticed it too. That 'cause that's where we went that
• 13:21
  we were wandering around back in the back. Yeah, and I was playing the yeah, I
• 13:26
  felt it too. Yeah.
• 13:28
  I don't know if it's the history there or I don't know what it is, but you
• 13:31
  definitely went from that front where you performed and then you walk into the
• 13:34
  back to the actual studio. It just feels different as soon as you walk through
• 13:38
  Yeah, I got
• 13:39
  that door.
• 13:40
  Yeah, I got lost back in there. I was kinda wandering around and wound up lost.
• 13:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 13:45
  Yeah. Yeah. Did you go in the basement? Did they take you down to see the
• 13:48
  basement? the
• 13:49
  No. I did not go in the basement at the studios, but seems didn't I go down in the
• 13:53
  basement over that house though? Yeah,
• 13:55
  I know, I want to talk about that.
• 13:56
  I want to go down there.
• 13:57
  See if they'll take you down to the basement. First of all, they have these, I
• 14:01
  don't know what you would call them. To me, they look like little wooden igloos.
• 14:05
  They have like these little things that I think the musicians go into because it
• 14:09
  isolates the sound and they like might
• 14:11
  and
• 14:11
  play guitar. You're gonna know William better than I am. I'm not in from the music
• 14:15
  industry. I'm like, they're little wooden igloos and they
• 14:18
  Yeah.
• 14:21
  That's correct.
• 14:19
  or little isolation chamber things.
• 14:22
  And there's different ones for different the like effects and different things.
• 14:25
  But the basement itself is known to have activity. And it's also a lot I'm it's
• 14:30
  been a while since I've been down there. Most of it or all of it, I don't at least
• 14:36
  some of it is not full height. So you have to kind of it it already feels weird
• 14:41
  because you're like kind of feel like you're creeping around. But there's a
• 14:45
  definite vibe down there for sure. And I think that Sheila, you in particular
• 14:49
  probably like, yeah, there's some folks down here.
• 14:52
  Yeah. That's always talking about
• 14:53
  You know, like a lot of things,
• 14:55
  Macon yeah.
• 14:56
  yeah, Macon has so many layers of history and that building too. It's like there's
• 15:01
  just layers and layers and layers that go down right over time. And you definitely
• 15:07
  feel feel it. There's people that have had experiences at Capricorn and people
• 15:12
  that have no idea about any of the history or any of that. They're there producing
• 15:18
  an album or or recording and they'll have an unexplained experience. So I always
• 15:24
  love hearing those stories.
• 15:26
  can't quite remember exactly what 'cause I was also not feeling super well when we
• 15:29
  when we did that show down there. Like but I feel like I had some sort of
• 15:34
  experience in the bathroom in that building. But I can't
• 15:37
  Well
• 15:38
  quite remember I don't know if it was like the lights went on and off or I heard
• 15:43
  something in there while I was by myself.
• 15:46
  Well,
• 15:46
  it
• 15:46
  that's not uncommon because there was when was that that someone told me that
• 15:50
  story? It might have been around the time that you guys were here. Someone told me
• 15:55
  a story about a producer that had been in town and working. Did you hear the story
• 16:01
  about the bathroom?
• 16:02
  I'm remembering that. There's like a,
• 16:04
  And that he had been there.
• 16:06
  I was hearing someone having like a phone conversation that wasn't there or
• 16:09
  something like that.
• 16:10
  Well, the story that I heard, I there's something around that bathroom. So the
• 16:14
  story I heard is that he was the only one in the building. He was in the bathroom
• 16:19
  and somebody knocked on the door and a man's voice, he heard a man's voice say,
• 16:24
  man, I I've been in a in an accident or a wreck and I need a beer.
• 16:29
  Yeah. Yes, I remember that story.
• 16:32
  And so he rushed out thinking, holy smokes, like what happened? And there was
• 16:35
  nobody there, and there was nobody in the building.
• 16:38
  Yeah. Yeah, but that I didn't hear any voices or anything, but I j I feel like at
• 16:42
  the the lights went on and off while I was in there and that will freak me slap
• 16:46
  out. Like I do not enjoy that at all when that happens when the lights go out and
• 16:50
  I'm in a place. I do not I don't enjoy that.
• 16:53
  That's it is scary when you're in a bathroom and the lights go out. I sometimes
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  that happens 'cause they're on that motion sensor thing and it's like you're like
• 16:58
  you're like where's the sensor?
• 16:59
  Yes. But I was not in there that long. I was not in there. That's what I was
• 17:03
  doing. That's exactly what happened to me. But I was like, why is this off? 'Cause
• 17:07
  I just walked in and it had just cut on and I was like, Nope, no. Like waving my
• 17:12
  hand around you
• 17:13
  That's right.
• 17:14
  know, and 'cause I was not in there that long. Well and a lot of don't have
• 17:17
  windows in anymore. Mm hmm. Bathroom. It was dark. I mean I was like, no. But by
• 17:20
  myself, absolutely not. I'm out.
• 17:22
  Yeah. Well you'll have to see when you're back there if they'll take you
• 17:27
  downstairs into the basement to see the the the wood igloos.
• 17:31
  be awesome. I love that. The wooden igloos. That's hilarious.
• 17:36
  Tell them Carrie sent you.
• 17:38
  Ha ha ha
• 17:42
  well let's get into Macon, Georgia. you all were here was that the first time that
• 17:46
  you were in Macon was last year?
• 17:49
  Yes. Not for me. I've been there before.
• 17:52
  Okay. And have you ever had any experiences in Macon while you've been here? Yeah.
• 17:56
  Not until this last time.
• 17:58
  And it was it was it was action packed. I mean, I know and it went on like yeah,
• 18:01
  it was busy. Yeah. Yeah.
• 18:02
  It was a doozy. Yeah. We went on the whole time we were there. Yes. I mean it was
• 18:08
  There were lots and lots of people in the room. Yeah, we walked in in whole house
• 18:13
  and I just said, shit, I can't even stand in here.
• 18:17
  It's full.
• 18:18
  It was full. It was full and and William is usually the one that's like, Well, I
• 18:21
  don't know. I mean maybe it could have like William isn't the skeptic. He i he is
• 18:24
  the skeptic. It's not us.
• 18:25
  I like that rather than skeptic. What have I been minded skeptic?
• 18:32
  He i he is very open minded. Like if we you know, Sheila and I will say something
• 18:36
  and he's like, Huh, but could it have been you know, he'll offer us a suge a
• 18:40
  solution and then it's like, Well there's no way to explain that.
• 18:43
  Yeah. Well I've we'll get into the full the full story, but I feel like of of
• 18:49
  everyone that had experiences in that in that property, William, yours were the
• 18:55
  most unexplainable.
• 18:56
  Wow.
• 19:00
  It was just a really unique experience from what you shared with me. You know, it
• 19:04
  was it's really wild. So let's go back to so you you were here for a performance
• 19:09
  and you were staying in a in a rental property downtown Macon. And and and Sheila,
• 19:14
  you were saying you as soon as you walked in, you were like, it's full in here.
• 19:19
  There's a lot going on. What what the and outside of that, what were your initial
• 19:23
  feelings about that house?
• 19:25
  when we walked into the house it was like, you could the the energy in the house
• 19:29
  was just kind of strange. It was like Well that's because there were so many
• 19:33
  people in it. Yeah, it was full. But it was like this is you know, but then so we
• 19:38
  walked upstairs and it was William so Sheila took the bedroom that was downstairs,
• 19:41
  like right off the kitchen, sort of. Like there was a bathroom right behind. I
• 19:45
  mean, I remember the layout vividly. Like it wa the kitchen and
• 19:49
  Yeah, very gatedly, rather delay out of place.
• 19:52
  Yeah. And the layout was even weird. It was like the just All the books were
• 19:56
  turned around too. Well and weird. So we so we walk in and there's the you know,
• 20:00
  Sheila takes the bedroom that's off the kitchen and then we go up the stairs and y
• 20:04
  and it's almost like ooh and you go up the stairs, you're like, no. But so we go
• 20:09
  in and there's this one big master bedroom that has a bathroom inside it. And then
• 20:13
  there's two smaller bedrooms over on the left hand side and the first one is the
• 20:17
  one that William stayed in and and it was like well Well, William, you're a you're
• 20:21
  a dude. Like you should have this big bedroom, like have your own bathroom or
• 20:25
  whatever, 'cause me and Leela can sleep in these and share this bathroom. And
• 20:29
  William was like, Well, Donna, you're sick, like, you know, and you've been doing
• 20:32
  all this stuff. Like you you and Sheila should have the bigger rooms and me and
• 20:36
  Leela can sleep over here.
• 20:38
  And also, I as soon as we walked up there, take a left and look in that little
• 20:42
  room that was completely pink. Like it was clearly weird. I mean, that little
• 20:46
  room. And I was like, hey, I'll sleep, you know, just kind of joke, like I'll
• 20:50
  sleep in here. Like I'll take the little girl's room.
• 20:53
  Well, 'cause I was trying to be like like I can do that. Like it's five but when I
• 20:58
  walked in there I was like, my God. Like I mean there was like a bundle of the
• 21:02
  door opened behind us. Don't Yeah, we do. I should have totally
• 21:06
  Yeah.
• 21:06
  I was just like, Do you have animals in the house? 'Cause the door just opened
• 21:09
  behind you.
• 21:10
  told you no. Did you see that? They were t they didn't like me talking about them.
• 21:14
  Yeah, that was a cat. Yeah, that was the cat. so
• 21:18
  Just check in.
• 21:18
  I'm sorry.
• 21:20
  Magic cat. So
• 21:22
  There's a frame somewhere if you rewind on this where go.
• 21:29
  Yeah, that would I should have totally just been like, my god, did you guys see
• 21:31
  that? Did you see the door open?
• 21:33
  Yeah.
• 21:35
  Right.
• 21:35
  I'd look into this room. Donnery walks behind me and just says, nope, that's out.
• 21:40
  Get the sack out of the room. And it was a really strange little room. There was a
• 21:46
  bundle of sticks over the bed, which is always an interesting
• 21:50
  We know there is that one substance.
• 21:51
  design choice. It was like a weird kind of ropey stick bundle dream, not really a
• 21:56
  dream catcher, but it's like.
• 21:58
  It was not a cream catcher. It was literally a bunch of stick. Big stick. Not
• 22:03
  small. Not big. They these were big big sticks.
• 22:07
  Like, the bookcase at the foot of the bed, I don't know why this disturbed me so
• 22:12
  much, you know, like I work in a bookstore sometimes and I've always been
• 22:17
  surrounded by books. But there were some books on a little bookshelf that was
• 22:21
  facing the best. If you're laying in bed and you're looking down your bed feet,
• 22:26
  you would see a bookcase. And on that bookcase, every single book was turned
• 22:31
  around. So that you could see no spines. It was just the outside of the book
• 22:36
  facing out, which I thought was so strange. I'd never seen that before. Huh? Yeah,
• 22:41
  I think so. I don't know the only
• 22:44
  Weren't they upside down too? Weren't they upside down also? Like upside down
• 22:50
  back.
• 22:51
  one. But it was just really strange. The room was really
• 22:53
  Yeah, the in my room would be fine.
• 22:55
  pink. And then there were all these accesses there too. So like there was an attic
• 23:00
  access just above and like a pull down, know, ladder access.
• 23:05
  Right.
• 23:05
  I definitely did not go up there. And behind the bed, it was like metal bars, kind
• 23:11
  of like those old hospital bed looking kind
• 23:15
  With grass bed.
• 23:16
  of things. And behind that was another attic access with padlocks on it. And
• 23:22
  It was
• 23:23
  it was a little strange. But I was determined that I was going to sleep in that
• 23:27
  room and didn't really think much of it. And when I'm tired, I'm tired. I was
• 23:32
  ready to go to bed. We did probably stay up kind of late and I think we were
• 23:37
  messing around with tarot cards and stuff that night, I think. And there was a lot
• 23:42
  going through my mind emotionally. mean, to be honest, my mother was having some
• 23:46
  very bad health issues at the time.
• 23:48
  Right.
• 23:48
  so, you know, it was like navigating a lot. But yeah, I mean, sometime in the
• 23:53
  night, something got in the bed with me, right, right where that hole was. to the
• 23:59
  little attic, like behind the bed. was just like, and it was one of those old
• 24:05
  beds, you know, that would like, when you got in it. it compress next to me.
• 24:11
  Racket. Like it was so loud. If he moved at all you could hear him.
• 24:15
  Right.
• 24:16
  And of course that was the, you know, the moment that I, I grew up in an old house
• 24:22
  and I've seen weird shit in that old house all the time. I just, just kind of
• 24:27
  like, well here we go.
• 24:29
  Right.
• 24:29
  but the follow-up weird thing to me with that was when I was able to go back to
• 24:35
  sleep was that I, or might have even been from that moment, I don't quite
• 24:41
  remember, that I had a dream. It didn't feel like a dream where I woke up, got out
• 24:47
  of bed and walked downstairs and realized I was in a different house. and the
• 24:53
  feeling that I had, which was really disturbing was that I was going to be in that
• 24:59
  house forever. like I had, I had crossed over into some different place. and there
• 25:05
  were all these people, there were tons of people in this house, like just a lot of
• 25:11
  people, a lot of them were young. They're all pretty much like my age. And they
• 25:17
  took note of me were like, you know, but not like, welcome or anything. It was
• 25:23
  just like, yeah, here's another one. It was kind of the vibe.
• 25:28
  I got them.
• 25:30
  And
• 25:29
  Right.
• 25:30
  it was just really weird. I remember going down the same steps and everything, but
• 25:33
  it was like the same house, but it was not the same house. was like a similar
• 25:38
  layout. The colors were different. It was all red. The whole house was kind of
• 25:42
  like in your background there. The whole thing was red, whereas
• 25:45
  Right.
• 25:45
  this house was all white. that we were actually staying in, but this was all red
• 25:49
  in the interior. And I remember at some point walking downstairs and being like,
• 25:53
  man, I guess I'm stuck here forever. That's just awkward. And I remember looking
• 25:58
  out the window and like looking across the street and looking at the house that I
• 26:02
  was asleep in. It was like up on the hill. And so that was strange. And eventually
• 26:07
  wake up from that and I'm like, whew, well, I'm sure that everyone's gonna love to
• 26:12
  hear all about all of this. And everyone had had some weird shit happen that
• 26:17
  night. But what was strange is I went downstairs and when I came down to the foot
• 26:22
  of the steps, and that porch was freaky. The porch was freaky. Every time I was
• 26:27
  sitting on the steps that night, it looked like someone had stepped up like where
• 26:31
  the doorstep is. Constantly, I would be just talking to Donna Ray and I'd go like,
• 26:36
  because it behind her looked like someone had just like walked on the porch. And
• 26:40
  it was really disturbing.
• 26:42
  And remember, I don't do that. Stop doing that. Don't it scare the hell out of me.
• 26:44
  And she kept saying, stop, stop it. No, no, no. And
• 26:49
  Well,
• 26:50
  I looked at the little windows that were either on the side of the doors or like
• 26:54
  you could look through the door, had a little window on it and across the street,
• 26:59
  which would have been the view that I was looking from that dream house. And there
• 27:03
  was no house. It was like there had been, but it clearly had burned down or been
• 27:08
  torn down. There was a hole in that little suburb kind of street where it was.
• 27:13
  Like house chasm, like the absence of a house with a little sidewalk going up do
• 27:17
  it
• 27:18
  I feel like we read something about the house across the street burning down or
• 27:23
  Okay.
• 27:23
  something. There
• 27:23
  Bye.
• 27:24
  was something that happened to like obviously something happened to the house, but
• 27:27
  I feel like we looked it up because all of us did have so many weird experiences.
• 27:31
  But then William having that specif like such a
• 27:34
  That's really Yeah.
• 27:34
  specific weird
• 27:36
  Like William, it almost feels like you became whatever spirit got in that bed and
• 27:40
  you were just kind of bopping around down the street, like, you know, where it was
• 27:46
  like you and because you know
• 27:48
  It was like I woke up in a different body. mean, that would be a good explanation.
• 27:53
  And so weird to be in a house that felt kind of warm in a way, in terms of it
• 27:59
  didn't feel like people were cold necessarily, just like they knew me. Like, you
• 28:03
  know, hey, I'm like.
• 28:05
  Yeah. I'd that room that he was in, no, I w no thank you. And also like I felt
• 28:09
  like in the room that I was in there was a chair. It was this humongous room. The
• 28:14
  room was so big. I mean, it was the biggest room of all times ever, I feel like.
• 28:18
  And like I mean, you could turn cartwheels and stuff around in there if you wanted
• 28:22
  to. But there was like one single chair that was over in the corner and I was
• 28:26
  like, No, I'm I'm out You know, like I was like this I don't And so I would sleep
• 28:31
  with my door open because I was like freaked out to be like shut in that room by
• 28:35
  myself. But that room that he was in, absolutely hell no, I wouldn't have stayed
• 28:39
  in there. No, thank you. I was gonna
• 28:41
  Yeah, there's there's
• 28:42
  I try I was like, no, no, I can sleep in there. And when he was like, Donna Ray,
• 28:45
  you're not gonna sleep in this room and I was like, no, no, I and he was like, No,
• 28:48
  just go on over to that other room.
• 28:50
  Yeah, you walked in there and you weren't volunteering anymore to sleep in there.
• 28:53
  Yeah,
• 28:53
  That's
• 28:53
  I was like no no
• 28:53
  right. The sticks would have been it for me. I'd be like, what's with the sticks
• 28:55
  over the bed? This is feeling very Blair Witch project. I don't know. Maybe. There
• 28:57
  The sticks I mean I yeah.
• 29:00
  Maybe it's a good thing the sticks were there. Maybe it would have been lot worse
• 29:04
  without the bed sticks.
• 29:05
  That's what I thought. That's kind of that was what my feelings were a little bit.
• 29:09
  But also like I feel like there was something weird about the closet too. Also, I
• 29:13
  could hear w that bed that he was in was so squeaky. Like you could hear it down
• 29:18
  the hall. Like that's how squeaky it was. And I was like, Did you keep getting up
• 29:22
  and down out of the bed last night? 'Cause your bed was like moving or like were
• 29:27
  you rolling around and he was like, No. You know, and he's like, I feel like I was
• 29:31
  in the same position that I was in when I laid down. Like that's how tired I was.
• 29:36
  And I was like, Man, I heard your bed just squeak, squeak, squeak. it was like
• 29:40
  just I kept hearing it over and over. It would wake me up. But I also, me and
• 29:45
  Leela both kept hearing people walking in the hallway too.
• 29:48
  It's so crazy 'cause it's a it's I I don't know if it's still a rental property,
• 29:52
  but like I think about all the people that have come through those doors and like
• 29:57
  different experiences that they've had. Like
• 29:59
  Yeah.
• 29:59
  Yeah.
• 30:00
  That was really strange. but Sheila had some s crazy crazy experiences in that.
• 30:08
  Well, I know Sheila you spent some time down in the basement and there was quite a
• 30:11
  lot going on down there.
• 30:13
  Yeah. th it was just a lot of people and I felt like it was family members folks
• 30:20
  that were there, the four of us. me, Leela, Donna Ray and William. I I felt like
• 30:26
  it was family people to them somehow. Mm-hmm
• 30:30
  Right.
• 30:31
  but and there was talk of some kind of f flood which I think is interesting
• 30:38
  because Helene had not happened at that point. wait. Yes, Helene had happened. But
• 30:45
  they were talking about some flood. That all these people were talking about some
• 30:51
  flood. Mhm. But they were also wanting to talk to William Donna Ray and Leela And
• 30:59
  she was talking
• 31:01
  Interesting.
• 31:03
  she kept talking about this invisible string. That's what you kept talking about.
• 31:07
  You were like they're telling me there's an invisible string and it's all we have
• 31:11
  to do is reach up. Right, and then put our finger on it and we can all talk. I
• 31:17
  mean we can all be together like we were before. Basically.
• 31:21
  Interesting, wow.
• 31:23
  Mm-hmm. Right.
• 31:24
  I have grabbed the strings on that bundle of up there.
• 31:28
  Yeah, grabbing them. But you're pulling them string the string off of them steel.
• 31:30
  I was so overwhelmed with with people trying to talk to me that it would blew me
• 31:34
  away. They were like at the door waiting on me when I opened the door. Mhm.
• 31:38
  Well, we definitely feel that when we go and investigate. So Macon Georgia isn't
• 31:42
  overly investigated at all. And many times when we go in to investigate, no one's
• 31:48
  ever investigated there. So, you know, Morrighan Lynne who is our spiritual medium
• 31:52
  who investigates with us Often we'll get like there'll be a line of people because
• 31:58
  they know that she can communicate. Like it sometimes she's like, You all have to
• 32:03
  stand in a line one at a time because they're they all just start talking.
• 32:09
  It was that's what happened to me. I walked through the door and that's exactly
• 32:11
  what happened. Mm-hmm. It was just I
• 32:13
  Yeah.
• 32:14
  was met with this big flood of people. I couldn't really tell what anybody was
• 32:18
  saying 'cause they were all talking at the same time. Mm-hmm.
• 32:22
  Yeah, it's it can be very overwhelming, I think, because they all just want to,
• 32:26
  they all, you know, they may just want to tell their story or say, say something,
• 32:31
  or some of them may be stuck or need something. And that's why, you know, you get
• 32:37
  people that don't understand, you know, spirits and communication and and and all
• 32:41
  of it. And they'll say, Well, you, you know, you can't be doing that, or you
• 32:46
  shouldn't be doing that, or you're not really talking to who you think you are.
• 32:51
  And it's like, You know, I I know what we know, you know, what we do when we go in
• 32:57
  and and we do what we do to be of service, because there are a lot of spirits we
• 33:03
  encounter who are lost or confused or they want to, you know, us to share a
• 33:08
  message. but they do congregate because there aren't people actively trying to
• 33:12
  communicate with them, right? And so when you go in with the intent to be of
• 33:17
  service and to communicate, they they come forward.
• 33:20
  well I was slightly overwhelmed.
• 33:24
  That's that
• 33:24
  I remember we
• 33:25
  I was a lot over my own actually, so
• 33:28
  went out to get breakfast and Sheila for whatever reason didn't want to come with
• 33:31
  us or we were
• 33:32
  I was at the
• 33:33
  going to do something. I don't remember what it was, but she sent us a text saying
• 33:37
  they're here and
• 33:38
  They're all there.
• 33:39
  he said, who is there? She said all of them.
• 33:43
  Yes, I literally just found the text that she sent me. That's what I was doing. I
• 33:49
  was just looking and she said she said, I have Donna Ray. I have more news. We are
• 33:56
  being given so much. I love you. And then she t I said I love you too. And she
• 34:03
  texts me again and says, They know all of us. They're all our people. This is
• 34:09
  fucking amazing. That's what she said in the text message. And and so then I
• 34:14
  called her and we talked to her and she just totally we were at H & H H & Him
• 34:22
  H & H.
• 34:23
  out to H & H I'm about to get up in there
• 34:25
  I'm too close to lunchtime, Donna Ray. Don't, don't.
• 34:29
  sorry, I I'm gonna we're I like I don't care
• 34:31
  of imagining.
• 34:32
  if we eat anywhere else while we're down there. Right. So but we were at H and
• 34:34
  You'll be here soon, you'll be here soon. We'll get your table ready.
• 34:38
  Yes, yes. I we were at H & H with Lisa Love and w she's like totally blown away by
• 34:43
  this whole thing and so we call Sheila and she's like, nah Sheila was just she it
• 34:48
  was almost like she was euphoric. She was so happy about this feeling that she was
• 34:53
  having it wasn't like a bad thing and she's like they're all our people and Leela
• 34:58
  your people were here. And William, I mean it was just like this really crazy,
• 35:02
  amazing thing. It was so neat. And I think one of the other things that happened
• 35:07
  to Sheila while we were there was again, you heard William say that we had tarot
• 35:11
  cards and we were, you know, doing tarot readings and stuff while we were down
• 35:16
  there. But Sheila was in her room and th her tarot cards just got like tossed all
• 35:20
  over. I mean, they were everywhere in that room. It was the craziest thing.
• 35:25
  Wow. They're like, You don't need the cards, we're right here. Just ask us.
• 35:29
  Yeah, well. Well, I couldn't hear what they were saying. There were too many of
• 35:32
  Too many of talking all at the same time. Mm-hmm.
• 35:34
  Well that's it. Morrighan. That's right. Morrighan, like I said, will often say,
• 35:37
  you have to stand in line. Someone you need to stand in line and one at a time.
• 35:42
  Like she'll get it's very funny. It's almost like kids. Like everyone needs to
• 35:46
  stand in a single file and take your turn.
• 35:49
  You should try that. I'll try that. You should try that. Yeah, I'll try that.
• 35:52
  That's right. Well, you'll meet Morrighan. You'll love her. She's so so fun. but
• 35:55
  yeah, she'll she gets she gets very school teacher all of a sudden of like, you're
• 35:59
  all talking at the same time. I can't I can't hear you.
• 36:03
  Yeah, that's that's generally what happens to me too. It's just like a a roar, you
• 36:08
  know, like there's a big roar of things that are happening and it's like it's
• 36:13
  kinda overwhelm it's overwhelming like, you know, or or you just feel like the
• 36:17
  room is full. Well they and they will say the dumbest things like, Did you find or
• 36:23
  Did you find what?
• 36:26
  Did you find work? Like work. It's just you'd like work. It's just a
• 36:29
  Right.
• 36:30
  s yeah, it's just did you find work while you were gone? Well, I haven't been
• 36:35
  anywhere.
• 36:36
  Right.
• 36:37
  Yeah, it's almost like talking to someone with dementia.
• 36:40
  Right. Right.
• 36:41
  Well, you know, it's just you don't know what timeline they're in and and what the
• 36:46
  concerns were of that time and that household, you know, when you think about
• 36:51
  houses going and and just sort of what's happened through different generations.
• 36:55
  I got a real strong I got a real strong sense of the depression era.
• 36:59
  I was just gonna say depression. Yeah. You think about the depression and so many
• 37:04
  people were struggling and lost their homes. And there's, you know, we
• 37:08
  investigated a home on College Street downtown. and there was an orphanage next
• 37:12
  door. And so during that time, a lot of people gave up their girls in particular,
• 37:18
  and also after the Civil War, like there was an orphanage for girls. And so that
• 37:23
  affected the energy. in the spirit that was in that particular home who was very
• 37:28
  concerned about the girls and saving the girls and you know, so you think about
• 37:34
  just the trauma and different things that have happened, right? And it just isn't
• 37:38
  doesn't go away when people pass. You know, there's an imprint that happens. And
• 37:43
  some
• 37:44
  Yeah. Right.
• 37:46
  of those people d don't cross over and are just lingering, right? For whatever
• 37:49
  reason.
• 37:50
  You know, it was interesting because I kept thinking that maybe it would be civil
• 37:55
  war stuff. But it was not civil war stuff. I really got a stronger indication of
• 38:00
  around the time of the Roaring Twenties, Great Depression.
• 38:04
  Yeah, it was like industrial.
• 38:05
  Right. so I
• 38:07
  Which is a millhouse, I mean, clearly seemed like a millhouse to me,
• 38:11
  God, I want to investigate it so bad.
• 38:16
  I mean you know
• 38:18
  I gotta find out who owned I gotta find out who owns it.
• 38:21
  All all you gotta do is all you gotta do is just Yeah, book a book a book a boom.
• 38:23
  I'm bringing I'm bringing William and his bait.
• 38:26
  do I get to do an H &H?
• 38:29
  That's right. That that's it. And then we get to go to H & H
• 38:33
  Only if me and Sheila can come. Well now the one thing in my bedroom that happened
• 38:37
  was my bed came away from the wall. In that house?
• 38:41
  When you were in it?
• 38:43
  Yeah. I thought it was an earthquake. yeah. Didn't you say you felt like somebody
• 38:47
  pulled your feet? Yeah, somebody pulled they pulled what they did was it was like
• 38:51
  they were tugging at the bottom of the covers but then the whole bed slid down.
• 38:55
  Dude, I'm y'all, I would have passed I mean, I wouldn't have been I would have
• 38:59
  passed away. I would have passed away. It was just it was just I mean
• 39:04
  First of all, have have you A, did you leave a review for this?
• 39:09
  No. No. No, because everybody just thinks you're crazy, you know, and that's why I
• 39:12
  don't talk about it all that much.
• 39:14
  What a night. I wonder
• 39:16
  you
• 39:17
  I wonder if anyone else has written about experiences there and if maybe they've
• 39:21
  been taken down.
• 39:22
  look actually I sent you the link for the Airbnb
• 39:27
  mean that's a pretty that's a pretty wild experience. That's a little bit more
• 39:29
  than, you know, what what?
• 39:31
  No way, you guys. No way. Okay. Well, I don't know if she's having the same
• 39:36
  feelings, but she not sure how this Airbnb has any good reviews that make me feel
• 39:41
  uncomfortable and unsafe from the minute I set foot in it.
• 39:45
  AHAHAHAHA
• 39:48
  I think she slept in the stick bedroom.
• 39:51
  I don't I didn't have any bad feelings. It was they were just all so excited. They
• 39:55
  you know, they were all so excited about talking and and they kept chasing me
• 40:00
  around. The only place they didn't chase me into was the bathroom. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 40:04
  And so I
• 40:05
  Well that's good.
• 40:08
  would stand in the bathroom and yell, Go away from the door, get away from the
• 40:13
  door, move away from the door.
• 40:16
  You know, I think that certainly if you're not familiar with spirits and that type
• 40:21
  of communication and you just feel like something is there that can make you feel
• 40:26
  uneasy and unsafe, you know, because you're not expecting
• 40:29
  Me, it it was just
• 40:30
  it.
• 40:31
  Jesus, they're all here and I don't know if we're even gonna talk to or not. And
• 40:34
  we wound up not really talking to any of them.
• 40:37
  Right. Right.
• 40:39
  just because number one, we didn't have time and it's something that takes a lot
• 40:44
  of sap out of you if you try. Mm too. Yeah, you kept
• 40:49
  Yeah. Yeah, 'cause
• 40:50
  saying she kept I I remember now, she kept saying no. She would she would tell
• 40:55
  them no. Yep, no stop. You know, it was like she was like, No. Not you. You stay
• 41:01
  over there. Right. You go over there. Do you remember that, William?
• 41:06
  I remember going, pfft, a lot.
• 41:08
  Yeah, she would tell No, you go on. Yep. Like it was like no, no. It's 'cause she
• 41:12
  would feel the ones that were negative and she would tell them to go away. Yeah.
• 41:17
  And always, you know, you say, unless you dance in the light of God then that's
• 41:21
  the only way that you get to talk to me. If you dance in the light
• 41:26
  I like that.
• 41:27
  of God. And they can't they can't really lie. because it sticks out all over
• 41:32
  because you invite to dance with you because you dance in the light of God. And so
• 41:38
  you say, Come dance with me and they won't. We had me and Sheila had this other
• 41:43
  experience when we were we were in Sodom, which is the little community that we're
• 41:49
  from. That's what it's called. And We had decided that we were we were staying out
• 41:54
  there one night and we decided 'cause we're about to have a ballad thing out
• 41:59
  there. And so we decided that we were gonna go to the graveyard where Sheila's
• 42:05
  parents are buried, where my mom is buried, my you know, our a bunch of our
• 42:10
  ancestors are buried there. And we were just gonna go there for the night and like
• 42:16
  just spend some time with them. And so we took a blanket up there and everything.
• 42:21
  And this is the cemetery that is like not the haunted cemetery in our in our
• 42:27
  community. There's another one that's like, do not go there at nighttime. That one
• 42:31
  has haints. Yeah, you don't want to go. You do not want to go there. So we went to
• 42:38
  the cemetery, took a blanket for all and one of Sheila's friends went with us. And
• 42:44
  so we go up there and, you know, we're just sitting there talking and, you know
• 42:49
  and all of a sudden, I got the most I was like, no. The woods got silent. And I
• 42:56
  was like, every hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was like on I got on my
• 43:03
  knees, like I was ready to run. I don't know what I thought was gonna come. I was
• 43:09
  gonna see something, but I was like, you know, like took my breath and I was like
• 43:15
  silent and I like perched myself up and Sheila was saying something, and then all
• 43:20
  of a sudden she I didn't even say a word, y'all. Like I didn't say anything at
• 43:26
  all. And all of a sudden Sheila was like, There's something here. There's
• 43:31
  something bad here. And I was like, No, no, I stood up immediately. And her friend
• 43:36
  like immediately got to her feet and I was like ready to run. I'm like, where are
• 43:42
  we? And she was like, sit down, sit down. You need to sit down. And I was like,
• 43:48
  you know, because I felt it before I even saw or any, you know, it was like I just
• 43:55
  knew it was there. And she was like, sit down. And then she was like, We need to
• 44:01
  pray. And we were, you know, she was doing the thing that she was just saying,
• 44:06
  like calling and telling it to that we walk in the light of God. And we're
• 44:12
  surrounded by light on all four corners and all this stuff. And I was like, I'm
• 44:18
  Well, I know that the woods up in those parts, you don't mess with the woods.
• 44:22
  Yes. And we weren't you know, like we weren't messing with the wood dear. We were
• 44:24
  just guarding. But
• 44:25
  No, I know.
• 44:27
  there was something and it was terrifying. I've never been more I've never been
• 44:29
  more scared at the moment.
• 44:31
  Well, tell her about the other graveyard and the snake.
• 44:37
  my god, yes. So so I was at it was our family decoration day. So decoration day is
• 44:41
  like the one time of the year where the families will get together and go put
• 44:45
  flowers on their loved ones' graves and we'll sort of like maybe we'll sing and
• 44:49
  we'll talk about our people and like sometimes we'll have a we do have a family
• 44:53
  reunion that year or that that day every year and like have food.
• 44:57
  And this was the great cleaning time too.
• 45:01
  Yeah. Yeah, well so there was grave cleaning that happened. So I'm at the other so
• 45:05
  my the cemetery where all the haint and stuff happens is my dad's family cemetery.
• 45:09
  Okay, and so it's called the Union Union Valley Cemetery. And so, I was up there
• 45:14
  at decoration day and I I was walked up there with my older cousin Glenda and sh
• 45:19
  th there's two chairs and I'm there with my six year old who's probably five at
• 45:24
  the time. And I go sit in this chair and Glenda I'm like, You wanna sit in this
• 45:29
  chair beside me? And she's like, No, it's fine, like I'll sit back here. And so
• 45:34
  she sits on one of the headstones. Okay, so she's sitting behind me on one of the
• 45:39
  graves stones. And in our family it's like okay for the people to walk on the
• 45:43
  graves and you know, the like our people would be like, Well let that baby play.
• 45:48
  Don't you fuss that baby for doing that you know, like let him so but anyway, so
• 45:53
  she's sitting back there and there's this man who starts like he sets into
• 45:57
  preaching. Like he starts preaching and he was not the preacher that I had like I
• 46:01
  knew who the preacher was that was there, but th this man I don't know. who he was
• 46:07
  or where he was from. but he sets into preaching and I mean he's doing that
• 46:11
  hellfire and brimstone preaching. Like he's hollering, carrying on and and he's
• 46:15
  and then he puts one hand down on the ground and the other hand up to the sky and
• 46:20
  he has and he's like, just go into town, just go into town, go into town. And all
• 46:26
  of a sudden I hear Glenda gasp she's like Snake Snake And I'm like and I turn
• 46:30
  around and I look down and I have my five year old in my lap and this damn the
• 46:36
  biggest snake I've ever seen crawls in between my th between my legs out from
• 46:40
  under my chair and crawls out into the middle of where this man it's like we're in
• 46:45
  like a semicircle or something and there's this huge oak tree and he's like just
• 46:50
  going to town this This snake comes out from between my legs under my chair,
• 46:54
  crawls into the middle of the cirr semicircle, raises up and is like this, opens
• 46:58
  its mouth at this man, sits there for a minute, closes its mouth, and then gets
• 47:03
  down and slathers off. And I was like, I was I was like, nope. Uh-uh. leaving. I
• 47:08
  don't know what that was about and why did that come out from under my chair, but
• 47:13
  it was like, did that man just call that thing out of the ground? Did I do where'd
• 47:18
  that come from? Why am I here? Because a lot of times in those services where they
• 47:23
  holler and scream like that, I'm like, Am I the devil? I'm you know, like I don't
• 47:28
  understand like why what's happening here, you know, like
• 47:31
  Ha ha ha.
• 47:33
  and so but I was like, nope, I'm out. I'm out. I don't I'm not leaving. Like I got
• 47:37
  arrow and we left. So I could I was like that can't but I had never seen anything
• 47:41
  like that happen before.
• 47:42
  That's weird.
• 47:43
  It was the cra I mean, and that snake was humon I mean, it was the longest thing
• 47:47
  and and it raised half of its body up and like literally looked at him and then
• 47:52
  opened its mouth big and wide, closed its mouth and went down and I was like my It
• 47:57
  was terrifying.
• 47:58
  Wow. Well now why do you think that cemetery in particular has ac like negative
• 48:04
  activity?
• 48:05
  Sheila, do you have thoughts on why that's Yeah,
• 48:07
  Good night, everyone.
• 48:09
  because it's on the old road for one thing and the old road was haunted as hell.
• 48:12
  The old it's on the old road on it's on the old road and the old road was haunted
• 48:17
  as hell, she said, and w people got killed on that road.
• 48:20
  I was gonna ask you if there had been tragedy.
• 48:23
  Yeah. and the the what's the is it un it's Union Valley, right? That's the name of
• 48:29
  the road is Union Valley. So They used to call it Presbyterian graveyard. A long
• 48:34
  time ago. But all of us, like Sheila has had experiences in that graveyard. I have
• 48:40
  had experiences in that graveyard, not just with the snake, but other things. Like
• 48:45
  the kids in Sodom would see things in that graveyard. just all sorts of different
• 48:51
  things, like that e you know, even my cousins could tell you about, like that we
• 48:57
  saw. yeah.
• 48:58
  Yeah.
• 48:59
  Is it newspaper sort of looking thing?
• 49:04
  yeah, Sheila has a Sheila wrote a book called Come Go Home With Me. And there are
• 49:09
  stories, there's a book of short stories about Sodom.
• 49:13
  Okay.
• 49:13
  And Sheila as a being a little girl growing up over there. And there's a story in
• 49:18
  that book called George Foster and the Haint. Yeah. And you can tell it was it was
• 49:24
  told to me by my great uncle Derb and he said that one night they were all up
• 49:30
  there playing poker and that this guy that he and his wife had taken in as being
• 49:36
  supported by the state, they called it back then. 'Cause he was sort of didn't
• 49:41
  have a home and nobody wanted to let William Gentry s stay with him. And so his
• 49:46
  name in the book was Jim Foster. But his real name was was William Gentry. And so
• 49:52
  Aunt my Aunt Fanny and Uncle Derb took him in and and he worked around the house
• 49:58
  for him and was real good to him. But but he was kind of simple in a way. You
• 50:04
  know, just the way he looked at life and the way that his brain worked. And so he
• 50:10
  didn't have much schooling, but he did like to go and he never had money to play
• 50:16
  poker, but he liked to watch play and they would gather up at the graveyard and
• 50:21
  play poker because their wives wouldn't let play on their property, they said. And
• 50:26
  so they would play in the graveyard. And one night Derb said they were sitting
• 50:31
  there, everybody had a big hand, the cards and the money on the quilt that they
• 50:36
  had laid out and everything and the bed was going on and William Gentry said,
• 50:41
  Well, I'm gonna step up here and out of sight around the the path and go to the
• 50:47
  bathroom. So he went up there and then Derb said in just a minute they heard him s
• 50:53
  start screaming. And he ran through there without his britches and was with
• 50:57
  running down the road screaming, It's after me, it's after me And Derb said about
• 51:02
  that time it looked like a piece of newspaper that had been unfolded and was now
• 51:08
  flat and he said it just rose up about four or five inches off the ground and then
• 51:14
  was just flying after it came down through there. And then it rose all the way up
• 51:19
  to the back of his neck and it bumped him like three three times on the back of
• 51:25
  his neck. And Derb said it just split that the skin wide open around his neck,
• 51:31
  right below his skull. Like burned it. Burned him. Yeah, it looked like a burn is
• 51:36
  what Aunt Fanny said. And then three weeks later he died in a car accident caught
• 51:41
  fire. And And she said in that story she said that the men all saw it so everybody
• 51:47
  started running and you know, somebody threw like a lantern at it or something and
• 51:52
  it went right through it. It just
• 51:55
  my goodness. Wow. I d listen, I know you you all have endless stories in that area
• 52:04
  of of different different things that come
• 52:08
  Yep.
• 52:08
  and there's a lot of folklore, a lot of superstition, traditions, and all of it.
• 52:12
  And I I love I love all of that. I've spent a little time in and around the area
• 52:18
  and and I have a healthy respect for those. For the forest, for those for those
• 52:22
  trees and the woods. I know you do not mess around
• 52:26
  Yeah. Yeah. That's a bit
• 52:28
  in there.
• 52:29
  No, you don't. Like no whistling outside at nighttime, William.
• 52:36
  Why do I feel like William whistles sometimes?
• 52:38
  Williams of Whistler. Williams of Whistler. But I fuss on No, don't do that. Don't
• 52:42
  And don't do that.
• 52:45
  do that. See, she knows you're not supposed
• 52:45
  You can really see it.
• 52:47
  to do that, William.
• 52:50
  I've also heard yeah, I that's that's
• 52:50
  If you can have some woods tonight and whistle along your way.
• 52:50
  All right, thank you.
• 52:55
  right. I've also heard if you hear your name, you do not answer.
• 52:59
  Do not answer. That's what that's what my mama told me one time. Me and her both
• 53:03
  were standing at the kitchen sink and I heard somebody call my name as clear as
• 53:08
  day and mama said, You didn't hear that Yeah. If you think you heard it, no you
• 53:12
  didn't. And she said, If that's what she said, if you think you heard it, you
• 53:17
  didn't. And do not answer. But you didn't hear that. And you know, my mama so we
• 53:22
  used to do a we do a ballad swap at the Lunsford Festival every year, but there
• 53:26
  used to be a story swap that we would do. And we would always do scary stories
• 53:31
  there because it was close to Halloween or in October. And so, my mama told this
• 53:35
  story one time about the others or the watchers is what she called the others or
• 53:40
  the watchers. And she said, And you don't want to go outside at night by yourself.
• 53:44
  And if you hear something that sounds like a lot like there's a lot of commotion
• 53:49
  in the woods, like you hear like this big loud sound and then all of a sudden it
• 53:54
  gets quiet. You need to go inside. And so when that happened to me and Sheila in
• 53:59
  the graveyard, that is the thing that stuck out. I heard that and I was like, my
• 54:03
  God, something bad. There's something bad. You know.
• 54:06
  Yeah.
• 54:07
  She's like, You need to get inside as soon as you that's what my mom said, you
• 54:10
  need to get inside as soon as you can.
• 54:12
  So what does she say that that is, like when you hear all that commotion then it's
• 54:16
  silent?
• 54:17
  It's just bad spirits. 'Cause
• 54:19
  you
• 54:20
  it gets really hot. It sucks the energy out of every living thing around.
• 54:25
  Yeah, I mean any time you're in the woods and all of a sudden you don't hear any
• 54:28
  noises from animals or anything, that's a time to get the heck out of there.
• 54:32
  Yeah, nothing. I mean it was like I I have never felt so scared. But it went away.
• 54:37
  Yeah, it did, it did once once we but we all had to start saying things out loud.
• 54:43
  Well, I do want to say that because and and Sheila, you touched on that too in
• 54:47
  terms of if you're, you know, if you're of the light, because there's as much as
• 54:52
  it it is on, you know, something that people don't know, a lot of people, and it
• 54:57
  scares them, there's there's rules, right? And like you said, they can't lie. So,
• 55:01
  you know, they may try to trick you or deceive you, but but we, the living on this
• 55:06
  plane, have a lot more power than a lot of us realize. And when you're of the
• 55:11
  light, you know, you're you you have you know, a lot of power. So it's just it's
• 55:16
  it's is about standing your ground and and standing, you know, firm in what you
• 55:20
  are and who you are and in your beliefs and and setting your boundaries.
• 55:25
  Yeah, the only reason I'm not afraid of them is because I know that works. If you
• 55:29
  dance in the light of God, they cannot dance with you. They can't come close to
• 55:33
  you. I don't want to see them. I don't want to do that.
• 55:37
  I had something get in bed with me last night, or not last night.
• 55:40
  A game?
• 55:43
  And the only thing, I tried a lot of things, make go away. And the only thing that
• 55:49
  did work was it finally said, go on and get. And that was,
• 55:54
  And it left?
• 55:55
  we all like singing the hymns and talking about Jesus didn't do anything. So I
• 55:59
  said, get out of here. Yeah.
• 56:01
  You gotta tell it to get. And that's that's that's what mom another thing my mom
• 56:06
  told me was to say, you know, like she said, you know, you can say get thee behind
• 56:11
  me, Satan or but she's like, if that starts happening to you, you speak loudly and
• 56:16
  firmly and say stop or no. And
• 56:19
  Yeah.
• 56:19
  it'll leave you, you know, like so like it's a stop or no or a get.
• 56:24
  That's right. William, I don't know why things keep getting into bed with you. I
• 56:27
  th that's a seems to be a trend in all these stories.
• 56:31
  Well,
• 56:33
  There's some lonely ghost women out there.
• 56:33
  I'm going to have a sleep study done, so maybe I'll find out something.
• 56:40
  See there's the skeptic, there's
• 56:40
  They're gonna have a wild
• 56:41
  the skeptic. That that's
• 56:41
  time with those results.
• 56:43
  Yeah.
• 56:45
  Actually, I actually had that happen to me one time when I was younger. I was a
• 56:48
  little girl, and I my I was staying with one of my girlfriends, and she had two
• 56:52
  twin beds in her room and she had a little wiener dog named Willie. Lord Lordy.
• 56:56
  And and so he would sleep in the bed with us. And so I felt him get on the bed
• 57:00
  with me. And I'm like, Come on, you know, come up here, Willie. Like I'm calling
• 57:04
  him up there, like, come on, you know, and he's like laying at my feet on top of
• 57:08
  the blankets. And Amy was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, I'm
• 57:12
  telling Willie. Willie to get up here and she's like, Willie's in the bed with me.
• 57:16
  And I was like, No, he ain't. He ain't in the bed with you. He's in the bed with
• 57:20
  me. And she was like, No, he's in the bed with me. And I was like, Please get up
• 57:24
  and turn the light on right now. Like I couldn't move. I was frozen. And she got
• 57:28
  up and turned the light on and that feeling was gone. And sure enough, Willie was
• 57:32
  under her covers in in her bed. And I was like, Man.
• 57:35
  Well, wow, I you know, not so you don't feel too bad, William. I have definitely
• 57:40
  had that experience more than once too, where something I you feel the depression
• 57:45
  in the bed next to you know, you feel like someone just got in. It's very obvious
• 57:51
  when it happens, right? 'Cause you're like, Holy smoke, somebody's laying down
• 57:55
  over there.
• 57:56
  could see it which was really weird just looked like it looked almost like it I
• 58:02
  don't know a chimpanzee or a gorilla that was just the absence of light like I I
• 58:09
  would say it was black but that's the color and this was like complete darkness
• 58:16
  Right.
• 58:17
  and just laid down like hee hee
• 58:21
  Right. You're like Exactly. You ca you
• 58:21
  no. Yeah he he he. Well white. Yeah, that's terrible.
• 58:26
  you can get out of here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different things
• 58:31
  that we don't know and there's a lot of different kinds of things that can be
• 58:36
  around us or in a space. Right. It's not even necessarily a human or what once was
• 58:42
  human spirit. It there's a A lot of things. I mean, you all know that from being
• 58:48
  up in the mountains. There's a lot of a lot of things that are roaming around. and
• 58:53
  so yeah, it is about standing your ground and like, get gone, get out of here.
• 58:59
  It's not okay.
• 59:00
  Right. It's like I don't know, it was just we've had some crazy experiences.
• 59:06
  so here's the here's the question. So when you come back to Macon, are you gonna
• 59:11
  be staying in the same Airbnb?
• 59:13
  No, I don't think so, unfortunately.
• 59:15
  Unfortunately.
• 59:17
  I'm sure we'll find something
• 59:18
  I am so curious about that house. Gosh, I want you guys to stay there again. I
• 59:22
  want to come over.
• 59:24
  But it's just it's a normal l feeling little house until everybody shows up and
• 59:29
  then it's like a nam rodeo.
• 59:31
  It's like we brought the circus to town and they all showed up.
• 59:33
  We felt right. They all showed up. Yes.
• 59:36
  Well, I think I think that they know when you can see them or communicate with
• 59:39
  them and then they
• 59:40
  Thank you.
• 59:41
  all start coming out of the woodwork. And there's also like I think s there's
• 59:46
  certain streets that we've encountered downtown where it's very transient, where
• 59:49
  they seem to flow, right? And they bop into different places to see what's going
• 59:54
  on.
• 59:55
  you
• 59:57
  there's a lot of energy downtown and and a lot of activity. We'll have to we'll
• 1:00:02
  have to meet up at at H & H and and get a rundown of all your experiences while
• 1:00:09
  you're back in Macon.
• 1:00:11
  Yeah, It's gonna be exciting 'cause I know we're gonna see some stuff that's gonna
• 1:00:13
  be awesome.
• 1:00:14
  I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I loved hearing all these
• 1:00:19
  stories and I can't wait to see you soon.
• 1:00:22
  We're so looking forward to it. Thank you so much, Carrie.
• 1:00:24
  All right. Take care.
• 1:00:25
  There's something that stayed with me after this conversation. For generations,
• 1:00:29
  families in Appalachia have passed down their songs and stories, keeping the
• 1:00:34
  memories and the voices of their ancestors alive. And that's an extraordinary
• 1:00:39
  thing in itself. But when we consider the experiences Donna Ray, Sheila, and
• 1:00:44
  William have shared, it raises an interesting question. What if preserving those
• 1:00:49
  connections isn't simply about remembering the people who came before us? What if,
• 1:00:54
  in ways we don't yet understand, those connections are still very much alive?
• 1:01:00
  Perhaps that's something worth considering the next time we hear an old family
• 1:01:05
  story or a song that's been passed down for generations. We may be closer to the
• 1:01:12
  people who came before us than we realize. A special thank you to Donna Ray
• 1:01:18
  Norton, Sheila Kay Adams, and William Ritter for joining me and sharing their
• 1:01:23
  fascinating stories, family history, and Appalachian traditions. You can learn
• 1:01:27
  more about Nest of Singing Birds and their upcoming performances at
• 1:01:32
  NestOfSingingBirds.com If you've had an unexplained experience or would like to
• 1:01:36
  request an investigation, visit EchoesOfTheSouth.com Join us as we continue
• 1:01:40
  uncovering the stories, the history, and the mysteries that echo throughout the
• 1:01:45
  South. Until next time, stay close.