The Deer Stand - Classic

Speaker 1 I searched the sky for what to see,

Speaker 3 but caught myself staring back at me.

Speaker 3 You listen to Spooked.

Speaker 4 Stay tuned.

Speaker 6 They said the shadow would not let it happen. They were wrong.

Speaker 4 Join me, Glenn Washington, for spooked live.

Speaker 5 Amazing stories from people who can scarcely believe it themselves. Magical, mystical, mysterious.
Best night out ever.

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Speaker 5 October 25th at the Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland. Get tickets now at kqd.org slash events and don't turn out the lights.

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Speaker 9 in Michigan.

Speaker 3 It's a ritual.

Speaker 1 Late fall, early winter, ride four hours up north.

Speaker 3 Stop the car.

Speaker 10 Put on your orange reflective jacket, your orange knit cap, gloves.

Speaker 3 It's cold boots.

Speaker 1 Maybe even a flask of Kentucky's finest to help you pass the time.

Speaker 2 And you're gone.

Speaker 10 Trek over hill and dale to your secret spot, the special place only you and your boys know about.

Speaker 1 Then you lean right there against your tree,

Speaker 3 still,

Speaker 2 silent.

Speaker 3 Wait.

Speaker 2 Then maybe

Speaker 11 you hear the underbrush crackle before you actually see the creature.

Speaker 4 Wary,

Speaker 12 suspicious, wild, dear, antlers raised, noble.

Speaker 2 I've walked these forests, these Michigan woods, dozens of times, sighted the animal, raised my rifle, braced it against my shoulder, rested my finger on the trigger, checked to be sure all is clear still.

Speaker 1 I've never fired a shot.

Speaker 3 Never.

Speaker 3 I don't know why.

Speaker 3 Don't know why.

Speaker 4 Friends say I'm too scared.

Speaker 1 I don't think so.

Speaker 1 I think instead I like

Speaker 1 the power in these woods, the power to decide

Speaker 1 what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if.

Speaker 1 My name is Glenn Washington.

Speaker 4 Safety first.

Speaker 4 Spook starts

Speaker 3 now.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 today,

Speaker 1 we've got a story from someone who truly loves being outside.

Speaker 5 The hunting season, it's Dan's favorite time of the year.

Speaker 1 He and his family gather at his uncle's farm, over 800 acres of Midwestern wilderness. And Danny loves the ritual.

Speaker 11 He climbs up to the top of a big ancient tree, sits in his tree stand,

Speaker 11 and looks over the world.

Speaker 11 It's bitter cold, freezing, but for Dan, this is where he feels quiet.

Speaker 5 This is where he feels at peace.

Speaker 5 Spooked.

Speaker 10 A quick note. Today's story is about the darkness and the light.
It involves suicide and graphic imagery as such.

Speaker 5 Sensitive listeners, please be advised.

Speaker 13 Deer hunting weekend is the one weekend that's guaranteed to see these uncles and cousins and we all come together.

Speaker 13 Since I was 13 years old, it's always been family only.

Speaker 13 A number of years ago we had one non-blood family member join our group. That was my cousin's husband.
His name is Andy.

Speaker 13 When I was young, I didn't have a lot of opinions. I felt that my opinion really didn't matter a whole lot, but I didn't really like Andy.

Speaker 13 Andy came across as

Speaker 13 really arrogant.

Speaker 13 He was occasionally argumentative. My uncle that owns the land and his son, my cousin, are both doctors.

Speaker 13 And Andy had no medical training. He worked in a completely different profession.
We got into a conversation about prescriptions.

Speaker 13 One family member that had a specific ailment and the two doctors were talking about the best drug to treat them and Andy started arguing with them about that.

Speaker 13 The whole family kind of stopped and looked at him like, are you, are you for real right now?

Speaker 13 These are two doctors. They've, you know, they've been doctors their whole lives.
We can't argue with them on this. And that's a no-brainer.

Speaker 13 Pretty early on in the relationship, I learned to just distance myself

Speaker 13 and

Speaker 13 not respond to comments that he might make.

Speaker 13 And he wasn't a bad person, but it changed the feeling when we were sitting down and having dinner after dinner when we were talking about our day. We hunted together for roughly a decade.

Speaker 13 So one summer, I got a call from family saying that Andy had left his home one night and went to his work and decided to shoot himself.

Speaker 13 This was devastating for the family, primarily because my cousin, his wife, you know, was now left with her kids and no husband.

Speaker 13 It was also a revelation for the family that he was depressed, and we never knew that deer hunting.

Speaker 13 But we learned that he had told his wife that he was never happier than when he was deer hunting.

Speaker 13 that he really, really loved that

Speaker 13 experience and that time with us.

Speaker 13 That was a shock to me because I didn't think that I was very nice to him and I didn't think that some of my other relatives were very nice to him,

Speaker 13 not perhaps rude, but not as loving as we could have been.

Speaker 13 And so that was a real surprise to hear.

Speaker 13 So after Andy died, the next deer season came upon us, and we were sitting in the farmhouse talking about who was going to hunt out of which stand.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 Andy Stand, having always been productive, was offered to me by the group that I could hunt out of his stand on the following day.

Speaker 13 You know, tree stands are just very personal.

Speaker 13 It's a very spiritual place. It's kind of like your own altar or your own church,

Speaker 13 in the sense that it's your space. And

Speaker 13 he was happy there.

Speaker 13 Half of his ashes were buried underneath his tree stand.

Speaker 13 It seemed very appropriate to hear that, given how happy he was in his tree stand.

Speaker 13 We go to bed, wake up very early the next morning.

Speaker 13 We have a truck and one person drives and we do a route and drop people off. So I get dropped off.
It's pitch black out.

Speaker 13 I walk through the woods to the stand. I climb up.

Speaker 13 roughly 20 feet up a tree to sit in

Speaker 13 There's not a lot of space. It's about a four foot by four foot

Speaker 13 platform that you sit on and get all my gear situated in the stand and I'm sitting there. And I decided, well, so I felt it would be appropriate for me to speak to him about how I had treated him.

Speaker 13 I started off and I said, Andy, I don't know if you can hear me.

Speaker 13 I don't know what happens after death,

Speaker 13 but I really hope you're in a better place right now.

Speaker 13 I'm really sorry to hear that your life was so full of pain.

Speaker 13 And I'm also sorry that I was kind of a jerk to you when you were alive.

Speaker 13 I'm hunting in your stand. It's opening weekend.
I hope you're okay with the fact that I'm in your stand. And again, I just, I really hope that you're in a better spot right now.

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Dark.

Speaker 16 I know, right?

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Speaker 16 I haven't pressed play yet.

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Speaker 13 As I got done talking to Andy, it was the time of morning. And if you've ever sat out in the woods, there comes a point in the morning when I would say the world is gray.

Speaker 13 And it was that point in the morning, and that only lasts for maybe 10 minutes in my experience, but it was that time of the morning when I felt my entire body was suddenly incredibly cold.

Speaker 13 It felt like a wave had passed through the environment and sucked energy out of it.

Speaker 13 If you've ever broken through ice and fallen into water, you have a better idea of what it's like for your whole body to be cold.

Speaker 13 Every hair on my body was standing up.

Speaker 13 Andy's body

Speaker 13 appeared in front of me

Speaker 13 as though it was a movie that was fading in and all of a sudden was

Speaker 13 there.

Speaker 13 I could see through him.

Speaker 13 I had goosebumps from head to toe.

Speaker 13 He was hovering above the tops of those two pine trees. So

Speaker 13 he wasn't at ground level walking or moving around.

Speaker 13 He was directly in front of me and all of a sudden was

Speaker 13 there,

Speaker 13 you know, 20, 25 feet up in the air.

Speaker 13 I was creeped out.

Speaker 13 He was a little bit rough around the edges, like his hands and lower legs weren't entirely visible, but definitely the core of his body was right there.

Speaker 13 He was in the air and his back was turned towards me.

Speaker 13 One of the things that I noticed that was different about Andy was how he was dressed.

Speaker 13 When we get up to go out deer hunting and come down for breakfast, most of us are wearing our long underwear. And then we put on, you know, after breakfast, put on our winter clothes and go out.

Speaker 13 Andy was wearing a pair of khaki pants

Speaker 13 and a short sleeve, three-button polo shirt that was

Speaker 13 bluish-green in color. And so to see him appear in this outfit was different.
It was unique.

Speaker 13 I could see his shoulders shrugging as though he was laughing. I couldn't see anybody else, but I could kind of hear that there was chatter in the background.

Speaker 13 Somehow he communicated to me that he was at like a cocktail party, you know, standing around having some hors d'oeuvres and you're laughing and talking with people.

Speaker 13 And I don't know how to verbalize what

Speaker 13 telepathy would be like to experience, but it was very, very clear to me that there were other people around him.

Speaker 13 While Andy was at this cocktail party, and

Speaker 13 he sent some very clear messages. One, he was with loved ones, he was in a good place.

Speaker 13 It was very clear from him

Speaker 13 that he was okay now.

Speaker 13 He then went on to say that it was, that he and I were okay. And he didn't elaborate on that a whole lot.

Speaker 13 After he communicated those two messages, the other people that I couldn't see, but I could hear,

Speaker 13 it was as though they left the room.

Speaker 13 And it was just Andy and myself at that point.

Speaker 13 Andy turned around very quickly

Speaker 13 and faced me and looked straight at me.

Speaker 13 When he did that, I felt that I had been punched in the chest. Like the wind was knocked out of me.

Speaker 13 Now, Andy had shot himself in the head, and

Speaker 13 looking at Andy, part of his head was gone.

Speaker 13 And I won't get into the details, but it was clear when he turned and faced me that he had had trauma to his head.

Speaker 13 And at that moment, as I felt that full body punch, he

Speaker 13 expressed, What have I done?

Speaker 13 as well as a message of this didn't fix anything.

Speaker 13 I didn't have anything to say back to him. My eyes were wide open, and I was just trying to process an experience that I had never experienced before.

Speaker 13 Andy was in front of me for maybe two minutes.

Speaker 13 He fades away and he's gone. And there's nothing.

Speaker 13 There's no communication. There's nothing visual in front of me.

Speaker 13 Being logical, I was trying to process what had just happened.

Speaker 13 And I really struggled with that

Speaker 13 because I had no explanation that was scientific or

Speaker 13 I had no explanation that I could really believe.

Speaker 13 I spent the day sitting in the tree stand. I don't know if I even was looking for deer after that point.

Speaker 13 I spent the next 12 hours reflecting on what had happened,

Speaker 13 what I saw, what I heard,

Speaker 13 and I'm using air quotes, what Andy communicated to me.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 12 hours later, I saw the headlights. It was dark again.

Speaker 13 It was evening. And when I saw the pickup truck, I packed up my gear, climbed down the ladder out of the tree stand.

Speaker 13 Walked a hundred yards through the woods and made it to the pickup truck.

Speaker 13 When I got there, my dad was driving, and I got in the truck and I didn't say anything.

Speaker 13 And he looked at me and he said,

Speaker 13 What's wrong? What's wrong with you?

Speaker 13 And I turned to him and I said,

Speaker 13 you wouldn't believe me.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 he said,

Speaker 13 Tell me, tell me what happened.

Speaker 13 So I told him the story.

Speaker 13 And he said, oof.

Speaker 13 So my dad says, well, it's up to you if you want to share the story with the rest of the family when we get back to the house.

Speaker 13 Keep in mind that my uncle is the patriarch of the family.

Speaker 13 He's your

Speaker 13 quintessential old school doctor, just very stoic.

Speaker 13 Well, we walked into the house, and the first thing my uncle says, Danny, what's wrong?

Speaker 13 And I didn't say anything at first, and my cousin, who was making dinner, kind of chuckled, oh, would you see Andy's ghost or something?

Speaker 13 And his dad immediately tells him to be quiet. And my uncle is looking at me.
He's very serious.

Speaker 13 And he says, Danny, what's wrong?

Speaker 13 And so I tell the rest of the family the story.

Speaker 16 Oh, watch your step. Wow, your attic is so dark.
Dark.

Speaker 16 I know, right?

Speaker 8 It's the perfect place to stream horror movies.

Speaker 6 Play me.

Speaker 18 What movie is that?

Speaker 16 I haven't pressed play yet.

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Speaker 14 Even your really, really creepy attic turned home theater.

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Speaker 13 I was impressed

Speaker 13 with the

Speaker 13 respect that the rest of the family showed me as I was telling this story.

Speaker 13 They were very interested in hearing what had happened.

Speaker 13 When I was done telling my story,

Speaker 13 my uncle said, Well,

Speaker 13 it's up to you if you want to tell Susan. Susan's my cousin, who had been married to Andy, and is also my uncle's daughter.

Speaker 13 And so he gave the choice to me whether or not to share this with Susan. Keep in mind, this is about six months after her husband's died.

Speaker 13 And I decided that it was really important that I do share this with her. And I didn't understand at the time why I felt it was important.

Speaker 13 So I called Susan

Speaker 13 on speakerphone speakerphone in front of the rest of the family. Now, Susan's a stayed away.
She has no idea of any of this.

Speaker 13 And I said, Hey, Susan, it's Danny. I have to talk to you.

Speaker 13 Do you have time to focus on me? You know, did I catch you at an okay time? And she said, Yeah.

Speaker 13 I said, Are you sitting down? Because I think you need to sit down for this. And she said, Yeah, I'm sitting down.

Speaker 13 I said, Okay.

Speaker 13 Before I tell you anything

Speaker 13 what was andy wearing when he died

Speaker 13 susan replied

Speaker 13 you know you think i would know what he was wearing when he died but i i don't i don't remember

Speaker 13 But I'll never forget the outfit I picked for him to be cremated in.

Speaker 13 It was a pair of khaki pants and a bluish-green, short-sleeved, three-button polo shirt.

Speaker 13 Now, there's only a couple people that know what Andy was cremated in.

Speaker 13 Susan, the folks that, you know, at the funeral home, and Andy.

Speaker 13 I proceeded to tell Susan my experience and the story, and she found great comfort in hearing that he was okay.

Speaker 13 She wasn't surprised to hear that he had shown up.

Speaker 13 About eight months after my experience in Andy's Stan,

Speaker 13 I was at a cousin's wedding.

Speaker 13 And Uncle Number two, that

Speaker 13 is a disbeliever and adamant that that never happened and I imagined it,

Speaker 13 brought a guy over to me. This guy's name is Jack, and Jack's a friend of the family, and he occasionally will, you know, bird hunt on our property.

Speaker 13 And

Speaker 13 Uncle Number two said to me, you two need to talk to each other about what happened.

Speaker 13 And turned around and walked away. I mean, he clearly wants nothing to do with what happened to us.

Speaker 13 So I'm like,

Speaker 13 I was a little confused when I turned to Jack and I said, so what happened to you?

Speaker 13 And Jack said, well, I was bird hunting

Speaker 13 at the farm and I got done for the day. I unloaded my shotgun and was getting ready to walk out, and all of a sudden, there was somebody else in the woods with me.

Speaker 13 I said, Okay,

Speaker 13 what do you mean? I mean, we're in the middle of

Speaker 13 maybe somewhat close to the border, but you know, eight to nine hundred acres, it's not normal to run into other people.

Speaker 13 And Jack said, Yeah, I never saw another person, but there was somebody else in the woods with me.

Speaker 13 And he said,

Speaker 13 I was walking out of the woods and I was right underneath Andy's stand when this happened.

Speaker 3 And I went, Wow.

Speaker 13 Jack had never heard of the experience that I had.

Speaker 13 You know, I think one reason that perhaps he chose me and that time and location to show up is because

Speaker 13 we both found nature, we find it to be a very spiritual place.

Speaker 13 There's absolute beauty in sitting in the woods. And it's almost like a sound deprivation chamber

Speaker 13 because you don't hear any man-made sounds. All you hear is the wind if it's blowing, silence if it's not, the annoying squirrel that you think is a deer approaching, but it's really just a squirrel.

Speaker 13 You know, you might see a wolf, but you never hear them because they're absolutely silent. I mean, it's really just a powerful place to be, and it's my version of a church.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 13 it clearly was for Andy as well.

Speaker 13 To this day, I still hunt out of his tree stand. Honestly, he built his a lot better than I built mine.
So

Speaker 13 it's a lot nicer place to hunt out of.

Speaker 13 the other thing that I appreciate is that

Speaker 13 my cousin's kid

Speaker 13 started hunting with me when he was real young. Before he was old enough to hunt, he would just sit in the stand with me.

Speaker 13 Every opening morning, he and I speak to Andy.

Speaker 13 You know, we wish that Andy is doing well.

Speaker 13 We ask for a successful hunt because if you have a connection to the divine, why not, you know, ask for a little help?

Speaker 13 But more so, thank him for being in a stand and the fact that he built it.

Speaker 13 And it's really,

Speaker 13 I think, a beautiful practice that has come from Andy's death and the subsequent experiences.

Speaker 13 And that I have a teenager that wants to hang with an old fart like me, you know, for 12 hours sitting in the stand. We provide thanks to the world.

Speaker 13 I think that it's just a really good practice for both of us to express our thanks and wish Andy well.

Speaker 13 Thank you, Dan, for sharing your story with the spook.

Speaker 4 Now, you gotta know, Dan is a listener.

Speaker 10 He shared this story with us, and we knew we had to share it with you. And if you have your own terrifying tale to tell us, best believe you want to hear it.
Email us, spook at snapjudgment.org.

Speaker 10 That's spooked at snapjudgment.org.

Speaker 10 Yes, it is that time, but not to fear.

Speaker 1 We have just set foot on this road.

Speaker 10 We've not even begun. Let somebody know if you dare, spoot.

Speaker 10 If you like your storytelling under the heat of the noonday sun, check out our sister podcast, Snap Judgment. Storytelling with the beat, Snap Judgment Studios.

Speaker 17 Spook was created by the team that refuses to climb any tree in any forest.

Speaker 1 I don't know why.

Speaker 10 What's to be afraid of, especially when the Forest Ranger is none other than Mr.

Speaker 1 Mark Ristich.

Speaker 10 Anna Sussman, our chief spookster is Eliza Smith, Chris Hambrick, Annie Nguyen, Aaliyah Yates, Zoy Frigno, Lauren Newsom, Jacob Winnick, Leon Roy Moto, Renzo Gorio, Teo DeCot, Missa Dodge, Greta Weber,

Speaker 10 Sonic Han, Tiffany DeLisa, Ann Ford, and Fernando Hernandez refuses to wear the proper Forest Ranger uniform.

Speaker 2 Some say

Speaker 2 the animals of the dark wood have not been granted the power of speech. People who know this program may have discovered otherwise still.

Speaker 2 I beg you,

Speaker 1 no matter what those strange voices request, no matter how desperately they plea, no matter what they promise,

Speaker 1 never,

Speaker 1 ever,

Speaker 1 never, ever, never, ever

Speaker 1 turn out

Speaker 1 the lights.