Hey listener, did you know you could get paid to podcast? With ACAST Plus you can launch paid

subscriptions and one-time payments to turn listeners into paying fans. You can offer exclusive

content, early access, add free streams and much more. Accessible for listeners across multiple

podcasts apps too. And we have all the tools you need to promote them. If you're interested in

ACAST Plus, sign up to ACAST now for free at acast.com to get access.

Hello and welcome to mini episode 197 of Real Life Gold Stories. And I have two spooky stories

for you today and the last story comes from September the 4th 2022 and story number one comes from Randa.

He had heard gold stories all his life. But as a teenager my father's knowledge of the supernatural

exceeded his first-hand experience. When his scots, Irish ancestors settled into the mountains

of southwest Virginia. They brought with them centuries old stories of haunts and knuck and spirits,

of witches and druids. From his maternal grandma, granny to me in my cousins. My dad learned the legends

of the Cherokee, her people who had first lived on this land. Dad's mama told tears of bears and

panthers, copperheads and coyotes, and of strange creatures in the dark, unsettled woods beyond their

farm. Like other mothers, she used these stories to keep the children close by, safe and out of trouble.

You see these mountain people lived and breathed superstition. It permeated their lives from

birth to the grave and probably beyond. As the 4th eldest of seven sons, my dad was cautious,

but not overly. He was helpful and quick to behave within the sight of his elders,

and just as quick to get into mischief when there weren't grownups around.

But Daddy's childhood was cut short, the summer he turned 13. His father came down with

tuberculosis, they called it consumption in them days, and was shipped off to Katobasanatorium,

plumb up near Roanoke, where he spent months recovering. With her two eldest already married and

caring for their own homes and families, my mom still had five mouths to feed, six including hers.

...