Halloween Special With Ashley From Ghost Gossip! Ep.151

[00:00:11] Right then guys, welcome back into The Spooky Shed, your go-to place for conversations around all things weird, scary and of course spooky. It is October, it is spooky season and this is the start of my little Halloween specials that I do every year. And for the first one this year we have got Ashley from Ghost Gossip back in the shed. Ashley, how the hell are ya? Hey! I'm doing my own intro music.

[00:00:35] Hey! I'm good, I'm good. I'm surviving three teenagers in sports schedules. It's hell over here, Liam. It's hell. But I'm fine. Everything's fine. But I've got a two-year-old so that's probably just as bad. Yeah. You know, I tell people all the time, teenagers are just taller toddlers. That's all they are. Yeah, but they can talk to you and they can actually tell you what's wrong. Can they? Well, in theory they can.

[00:01:05] In theory they should, but they don't. Yeah, but you can tell them to fuck off and they will understand. They understand, but they don't. I know it doesn't mean they will. My girls are always like this and I'm like, what? I keep being told that you hate me. Why are you right here? Can't wait for all that.

[00:01:31] Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. Toddler and teenagers are probably the two toughest times in being a parent. Hands down. Fantastic. Can't wait. Yep. Have fun. I'm here for you, buddy. And I'm going to be old as shit when he's a teenager as well. How old are you? 34. 34.

[00:02:20] I mean, that's what people keep telling me. They tell me it's the most rewarding experience of their lives. I'm still waiting. But I hear, I hear that it's amazing. Eventually. I wonder when you get the reward. Maybe it's when they move out. I think it's when they turn 25 and their brains fully developed and they realize how much they stressed you out. Because I know at 25, I don't know what happened. I called my mom. I wasn't even a parent then.

[00:02:49] I was paying bills and I called my mom and I was like, I am so sorry. Well, talking about kids and stuff is almost a good way to lean into the Halloween stuff. So, what I do is I get a previous guest back on every time and we talk about Halloween, obviously. And to start things off, we always talk about what was Halloween like for you as a kid, Ashley?

[00:03:16] Madness. It was madness. I mean, I could be a witch or I could be Princess Jasmine. You know what I mean? There was no in between. I was either a witch or a ghoul or a princess. Fair play. Fair play. You should combine the two now then. Oh, I should. I should. But I now have a very willing husband and we do couples costumes every single year now. I dress up more now than when I was younger.

[00:03:45] I've seen, I've seen, and we will definitely come to that because I remember one photo you posted must have been last Halloween, I believe. So, yeah, we will definitely come to that. So, obviously, you're in the US and obviously over there, famously to us anyway, Halloween is a much bigger thing than it is over here. I say this every year. It is getting bigger and bigger over here every year as well.

[00:04:11] But I've also been told that it's becoming a bit of a less of a thing over there for you. Do you agree on that one or not? Like, they lie. Now, I don't know where your information is coming from, but I know that in my neighborhood and where I've, I mean, I've always, I'm in South Carolina. I mean, I'm in South Carolina, born and raised South Carolina, lived in New Orleans for eight years in my childhood where I learned how to walk and talk and all that.

[00:04:37] But mainly South Carolina and our area, like in our stores, Halloween stuff was set out in June. You know what I mean? And so now it's really set out. But now they're starting to sell out of everything because it's spooky season now. And so, yeah, in the area that I am in, it is still very much a big deal. I have octopus tentacles I put on my house. OK, and my windows, I have octopus tentacles.

[00:05:04] OK, and I am patiently waiting for one of these other hoity-toity people in my neighborhood to put the first decoration out so I can decorate my house because I refuse to be the ghoul who puts the first ones out. You know what I mean? I'm already the weird neighbor. Just so you know. Yeah, so you might as well just fully own it then and just put everything up now. I just, I like to, I like to give people the opportunity to be the weird one first. You know what I mean? I am a good person like that. Gracious. Fair enough, fair enough.

[00:05:33] I have a big spider web that goes on the front of my house. Now, is it a real spider web that you just leave all year long and, you know, you just recognize the spider that lives out there? Or is it an actual, like, decoration? Oh, it's like an actual decoration. OK, well, I have a giant spider web in my backyard right now and it's not a decoration. Oh, I've got some giant ones in here that are real ones. I mean, there's literally one above my head now. That is fucking huge. Just act like it's not there. He's just watching you. That's all. Oh, they don't bother me. I like them. I don't mind them either.

[00:06:03] I name them. I give them names. Oh, these have all got names. The ones that I've seen. I did kill one because he got a bit too close. Oh, no. He just was saying hello. No, but I flicked it and I flicked it too hard. It was supposed to just be a piss off back over there and I got carried away. You smushed him. Oh, what a way to go. Poor guy. It could have been worse. I could have, like, set it on fire or something. OK, Pyro. Damn.

[00:06:33] Jeez. OK, well, let me ask you a question. Go for it. Who is this chick behind you staring up at the sky? Is she staring at, like, spiders behind you or she's just like? Oh, no. That's me haunted doll painting. Oh. So my friend Michelle, that is a painting of her haunted doll that spoke to us on an episode that me and her did, oh, God, over a year ago now. And it freaked the living shit out of me.

[00:07:02] But then weirdly, like I said, as you can see, I've got quite a few things on the wall behind me and I've got things on the wall that you can't see as well. And I always use the joke that one day I'm going to come in and that fucker's eyes are going to be pointing the opposite way or something. You know, just to freak me out a little bit more. But I did come in one day and it fell off the wall and the nail had come out of the wall as well. And that's, like, nailed into wood, right? Yeah. OK. OK. So it's not like it's just in sheetrock.

[00:07:31] Nope. Hmm. Interesting. Well, I got my haunted doll. She's been active lately. Oops. Hello. Sorry about that. Yeah, she's been quite active lately. I had interviews the other day and her cat balls just kept going off. The flashlight went off. So I have the flashlight on. I mean, it's not on. You know what I mean? I have it ready for her to use if she wants to. She's got her little necklace light and she's got her cat ball there. So she wants to show off today.

[00:08:02] Yeah, well, they can stay the hell away from me. That's the closest I'm getting to having one is that painting. You know, I said that, too. And here I am. Nope. Don't like them. Yeah. No, I said that, too. Horrible things. Eh, you know, I think it is. I think they can be. I think they can be really creepy. For sure. Especially when they have the eyes that seem to watch you wherever you go. You know, it's like. Exactly. Are the ones that don't have eyes? OK. Or those. Those are real creepy. Exactly. Mm.

[00:08:31] Yeah. Berta here. Berta, she doesn't look creepy. You know, to me, I've seen much scarier dolls. And I'm just like, oh, she's all right. Mm. Fair enough. Fair enough. Right then. So back to Halloween stuff. Oh, yeah. Halloween for you as a kid then. So what was a typical Halloween for you as a kid? Like, what walked me through it? Well, you know, usually it was a homemade costume. You know, it wasn't going out and spending a bunch of money. Especially when, you know, my parents were in their 30s.

[00:09:02] They, you know, they weren't well off. It was more like when mom would sew the costume. I remember her making my Jasmine costume. I remember that. Maybe it's a false memory. I'll have to ask her. But I'm pretty sure she sewed my little costume. And it was the best thing ever. It was so exciting. If it wasn't that, then it was pretty much going into our closets or my mom's closet and putting things together to make it into like one year I was a boy. And so I wore boys clothes.

[00:09:32] And, you know, I guess it was my dad's old stuff. And I, you know, I looked foolish, you know. But it was that. And when growing up in New Orleans, we did trick or treat. But it was really just on like the one road because New Orleans is very, the crime rate is horrible. So you really didn't want to like venture out of the one road that we lived on. But then in South Carolina, it was we lived out in the middle of nowhere and there was nobody around us. So we didn't trick or treat.

[00:10:01] So we would have to go to friends' houses and trick or treat. So I did that. And I only had a few friends. And like I said, I'm weird. I was weird then. I'm weird now. Whatever. It is fine. I'm fine. I'm not hurt about it at all. But so the few friends that I did have, I would go to their neighborhoods and they had like the big houses that gave the big candy bars, you know, like, ooh. And so, yeah. And now the neighborhood we live in now is really great because it's really family friendly.

[00:10:29] Our kids are some of the older kids in the neighborhood. We still get dressed up. My sister throws a party. My sister lives across the street. So she does a party every year. And then they have a fire truck that comes through. So, I mean, it really is. People love Halloween here. It's it is one of my favorite holidays. Even before I was a podcaster, it was it was some of my favorite things to do because you can dress up and you can look foolish. And I was never one of those girls like I want to be a slut. You know what I mean? I want to dress scantily clad. I want to be a hot nurse or a hot.

[00:10:59] No, I was like, I want to be a goblin. You know, I want to. I was a school crossing guard once. You know, I was I was pumped. I wanted to be all those things. And so I do. I have more fun now. You're like, what the hell did I get myself into? Why did I ask her? I don't even know where to start with that. Jesus Christ. Yeah.

[00:11:25] You know, even when I went to college, these college students, my classmates, they were all like skimpy. You know, you know what I mean. You know what I mean. Yeah. There's always someone who has to go as a sexy cat. Yeah. I'm like, I was not a sexy cat. OK. I just had all the face paint and ears. I don't have a meow. I look like a creepy cat. It's fine. That's more realistic then, because cats are fucking weird. I love them, though. I have two.

[00:11:55] And none of them are in here right now. But I love my cats. They're wonderful. I have two and they're both dicks. You know, they say they take on the the personality of their owner. Well, it must be the missus then who keeps bringing dead people home then, because all one of them does is bring fucking dead animals home. No, that's a gift. Well, I don't want them. Well, you don't. You know, beggars can't be choosers. You got a cat. You get gifts. Just say thank you.

[00:12:24] One of them literally brought a rabbit home about a week or two ago. Maybe. OK, so maybe they think that you're the worst hunter ever. And they're like, this poor flesh sack human. I have got to feed him. I got the wife's pregnant and the human, the male human's not bringing home food. I need to go hunt for them. It's just providing some comfort. Fair enough. Fair enough.

[00:12:53] Oh, Christ. You asked for this. True, true. I did. You messaged me. I should have expected this. Oh, it's a good time. It is paranormal. Oh, for God's sake. No, no. You know, you know, you know, I'm not allowing that one. No, that's not happening. Jesus Christ. Fucking hell. All right then. So I think we've already covered what your favorite costume was, I think, haven't we?

[00:13:22] Oh, gosh, I had so many. I have so many. Do you want to know what my favorite one ever was? Yes. I went as the grammar police to serve and correct. Again, there's no answers to that. When you sent me the message asking me, talking about my Halloweens, I was like, oh, boy. He's not expecting this.

[00:13:49] No, I've done a few of these now over the years and this is different. I'm never going to hear from you again. No, you will. Just not to do one of these again. That's fine. That's fine. I mean, I'm good. I just moved around my day for you. It's fine. Whatever. It's fine. It's fine. So I want to know as well then. So when you were a kid and you were out trick-or-treating, what was the one bit of candy you were hoping for?

[00:14:19] Snickers. Snickers? Really? I love little Snickers. Or Milk Duds. What the hell are Milk Duds? You can't ask a question and then judge. You know what I mean? It's candy. But like Milk Duds, they come in this little yellow box, okay? The Halloween ones. They come in this little yellow cube. And there's three, but if you're lucky, sometimes four little milk candies in there. Little chocolate candies. And they all stick together. And they're like chocolate-covered caramel.

[00:14:49] And they all stick to your teeth. But they're phenomenal. But they're all squished together. So they're belted. I guess so. I don't know. But yeah, I liked Milk Duds. I also like sweet tarts. I love candy. Okay? So I'm a candy person. So I was just happy with just candy. Because I don't remember my parents buying a bunch of candy. It was like we got it on Halloween. And that was every once in a while we'd get something from the store. It wasn't like my kids who just always have candy. I don't even know where they get it from anymore. It just kind of shows up.

[00:15:19] But yeah, it was Halloween. And we, you know, they would go through. We had to. Mom always had to go through and make sure there was no needles or holes in any of the things. Just in case somebody was trying to drug one of us. And then, yeah, Milk Duds and Snickers. Those were my favorite. Fair enough. Fair enough. I mean, the milk would sound good, but I don't know. I don't mind the Snickers, but it wouldn't be top of my list. No, I love them. Especially like Christmas. We're not talking about Christmas, but they have like the Christmas trees.

[00:15:49] Snickers makes like the Christmas trees or like the nutcrackers. Oh, that must be a you thing. Yeah, that must be. That must just be a thing over there. We don't get them. Oh, well, boo. We get Kit Kat reindeers. We don't get Kit Kat reindeers. We get them and then we get Malteser Easter bunnies. Huh? You don't know what Maltesers are? What are Maltesers? This is the thing.

[00:16:19] Nobody really knows. Again, similar to your Milk Duds thing, but they don't have caramel in them. They've got, I don't know what it is. I don't think anybody knows, but they're nice. Hmm. Okay. I mean, a Milk Duds, I know what a Milk Duds is. It is a chocolate covered caramel. I don't know if I would eat something. I didn't know what it was. But then again, maybe I would. If you tried them, you would, trust me. Okay. Okay.

[00:16:46] You wouldn't care that you don't know what it is because they're that good. Hmm. I might have to Google that. I don't know. Yeah, we don't. We definitely don't have that. Fair to do. Fair to do. Well, yeah, they are good. They are. They'd be top five. They won't be top of my list, but we'd be in the top five, I'd say. Ooh. Like, how big are they? Are they like little candies or? No, just little balls and then you get them in a bag. Oh. Okay. I don't know. It'd be easier to do it. It'd just be easier to bloody show you, won't it?

[00:17:17] Yeah. Probably. So this is going to be great for anybody who's watching. So listening, even if anybody's watching, this will be good. But yeah. It's not going to be good for anybody because I've got no fucking signal. Fuck it. Doesn't matter. Oh, there we go. Maltesers. Okay. And they're like a dry candy kind of? Well, yeah. Well, like you said, the chocolate. Yeah. And they're just like little balls. Hmm.

[00:17:46] Yeah. I've never seen those before. Yeah. They are good. They are good. It's crazy how different like the candy is just, I mean, just from there to here. Yeah. Considering a lot of, considering we have ones that are exactly the same. Mm-hmm. Like I said, like Snickers, Mars bars. Yeah. I know you always get Twix's, but they definitely taste different over there because when I got one when I was over there, it was horrible. Yeah. I'm not a big Twix fan either. Milky Ways. Yeah. Not that either.

[00:18:17] I like Milky Ways. Again, what the fuck's in them? Does anybody know what that is? Nugget. It's just like glue. Yeah. I don't like it. I do. Not a fan. Mm-mm. Not a fan. So what, how is Halloween different over there for y'all? It's just not, it's just not as big a thing. Like, I mean, I mean, I say that because we go off what we see on TV and in films and movies and stuff.

[00:18:44] And like when you watch movies and stuff, it's like, you know, the full street is done out. Literally every single kid is running around. And everyone's in a fucking costume. Like I say, you don't like, like I say, it's more like that now. There's a lot more people are into it now. But like I say, when I was a kid, it wasn't, it certainly was not, well, it was nowhere near like it is now. It'd be, you know, like we literally had, it was a case of you, you wouldn't go knock on every single door like, like, like kids do now.

[00:19:13] It'd be, you'd go to where you know people just in case, I don't know, someone happened. But like I say, just, I don't know, you just, growing up for me, I mean, as much, as much as I loved it. And like I say, it was a thing. And like I say, there was all, I mean, like you said there, Halloween stuff, I was out in shops, I've been out in shops here now for fucking months. Yeah. But like I say, when, when I was a kid, it just, it really wasn't a thing. And like I say, it was always, it was always homemade costumes. It was there. Yeah.

[00:19:40] I mean, the worst one was putting obviously a white sheet over here and being a ghost. And that's, that's not a good thing to do nowadays. Well, it wasn't to do back then, but you know, it's a lot worse now. Or using bin liners for a cape if you're going as a vampire. You know, just proper generic shit. Yeah. Like we, we definitely had homemade stuff when we were younger. I know here now because of the crime rate and like where we are is not too bad.

[00:20:09] But there are, you know, there's issues with, there's no easy way to say this, like predators and stuff in the neighborhoods. And some people just don't feel comfortable going house to house. So they do a lot of trunk or treats like at churches and stuff. Right. So that way it's more familiar. You're with people that you actually know and they're going to cars instead of houses, which, you know, all the parents are still at the cars and stuff. So that's really big in this area. But like the neighborhood that I live in now has always been big.

[00:20:37] And my sisters lived here before I moved in. So we always came here to trick or treat. And it's always been so welcoming and everybody's really nice. You know, and there's always those few houses, lights are off, we don't bother them or anything. But I will tell you a funny story. So two years ago for Halloween, my husband was the first year we were here. My husband has this really old like Tupperware, antique Tupperware bowl. And it's big enough for candy. And I was like, that's perfect. So I had that.

[00:21:06] But we had to run to my sister's house. She's directly across the street. So we left the bowl on the porch to go to my sister's house to grab something. While we were gone, just a short time, some punk teenagers came and stole his bowl with the candy in it. Now, we didn't care about the candy. They took the actual bowl? They took the whole damn bowl. I mean, fair play, really. I mean, I guess. And none of my cameras caught it, of course, because I guess they were ghosts. Who knows?

[00:21:35] And my husband was so upset because of this antique Tupperware bowl. Like it's vintage or whatever. And so I go looking and I actually, they found, I found the bowl. They had taken all the candy, dumped it out, but left the bowl at the stop sign. So we got the bowl back, but we don't do that anymore. At least you got the bowl back. We got the bowl back. Yep. Now one of us is always on the porch. You know, somebody always ruins it for everybody.

[00:22:02] To be fair, I did that one year because the football was on and I wanted to watch the football and not Kevin the kid getting up and answering the door. Oh, I thought you meant you stole a bowl of candy once. I was about to say, Leah. Oh, no, no. I did that once as well. Yeah. But that was when I was a kid. It's allowed. It's allowed. Theft is allowed when you're younger and don't know better. It's fine. Yeah, exactly. It's called learning. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's called a learning experience.

[00:22:30] I didn't have to learn that lesson that way. I was just told you don't take what doesn't belong to you. And I was like, okay. Yeah. Well, I was told that as well, but I thought I'm going to, let's try it and let's see if it's true. And it is. You've got to test these things out because people lie. Okay. You learn that very young as well. Yeah. People do lie. People lie. I mean, I do it now. Like I say, if I lie, she's been a dick and he won't come down the stairs. I'll say, come look at this. And he comes running down the stairs and he's out there. Just need to put his shoes on.

[00:22:59] You know, not to circle back to toddlers and teenagers, but the one bad thing about having teenagers is you can't lie to them. Like, sorry, McDonald's is closed today. You know, they know McDonald's is not closed. They have phones. They'll just Google it to find their hours. They're like, yeah, right. Okay. Ha ha. And most of them are 24 hours now. Bastards. Now I'm like, no, we're no, we're just not going.

[00:23:26] So what, did you ever get given fruit or anything then when you were trick or treating? Does that ever happen? Fruit? Yeah. Hmm. No, not fruit. We did get sometimes like, you know, you go to like to the healthy people door and they'd have like granola bars. Yeah. We always just like, hmm. We always knew that house, but no, we never got fruit. Do y'all give fruit?

[00:23:51] So, well, one house where I grew up did one year and well, they only did it once. Put it that way. Oh gosh. Poor things. They learned the hard way. Yeah. I won't tell you what happened and I was not part of it, officer. Okay. Okay. Well, I was about to say, what did you do? Nothing. Promise. Okay. I don't believe you. People lie. Exactly. Exactly. No, we do have people in this neighborhood that give boxes of raisins.

[00:24:21] Well, technically that's fruit, isn't it? So yeah, they're dicks. Yeah. To me, that is like the same level of giving a banana. Like, I mean, I appreciate it. Now, one of my children loves raisins, so she would take them all. She'd be like, yes. She's weird though. She's our weird one. She's our youngest. She's strange. To be fair, that'd be like Elijah if they were handing out bananas. That kid's like, he'd just live on bananas. He's like, yes. Yes.

[00:24:49] Literally, he'd come downstairs every morning and he's just like, no, no. I'm just like, you've been awake for five minutes and you need a fucking banana. Well, yeah, apparently he does. Hey, enjoy this time because once they get 15, they're like, I want Chick-fil-A. I want 7 brew. I want Starbucks. Even our son. Can we go get Starbucks? I'm like, no. I mean, oh my gosh. Mom, can we get 7 brew? No.

[00:25:20] What the hell is 7 brew? It is a bougie coffee place that's always really busy. And in my experience, they like to find the most inconvenient location to put these things. And because it's something that you can't go and sit in, it's just two drive-thrus and it's outside. And so the line wraps around the building. It blocks everything else at the Walmart because they have put it right at the entrance of the Walmart, the one here. And yet it is ridiculous.

[00:25:48] And they're all overpriced and they're fruity and colorful and God knows what's in them. My kids love them. And I'm like, no. No, it's just bougie, overpriced coffee that's inconvenient to buy. I'm in my 40s. I've gotten, I'm old and persnickety. No. Let me dress up as the grammar police. Let's go. Get my costume down. Let's go. Fair enough. Fair enough.

[00:26:18] Oh, God. Right then. So do you have, what's your favorite movies to watch around Halloween? I know this is pretty much, everyone's answer is usually pretty similar with this, but I still like to ask it anyway because I'm hoping one day someone's going to throw out a rogue shout. Well, I like Hocus Pocus. I don't do horror movies. So I have never been into horror, even though as a paranormal podcaster, it always throws people for a loop. I don't do any kind of horror or jump scare or anything like that.

[00:26:48] But I do like Hocus Pocus. I watch that with the kids. But that's really about it. Like they, if they want to watch scary movies with my husband, that's fine. But I will check out and go upstairs. Like being a sensitive and being intuitive and being somebody who sees and feels very deeply. Horror movies, I can't unsee once I see. And so once I go to sleep, I have very vivid dreams, vivid nightmares. I will relive it. So I'm just like, I opt out. Y'all have fun. Enjoy it.

[00:27:16] Like my daughter just went to Mad World, which is one of like this large mile long haunted house type deals. And she, first time she's ever been, she loved it. But like I couldn't do something like that. I would end up having a heart attack. Yeah. We have one of them here. It's called Scream Factory. Yeah. Yeah. Do you like stuff like that? Love it. Oh, I hate it. That doesn't surprise me. I was going to say, I bet you love that stuff. Yeah.

[00:27:46] Always have done. Always will do. Yeah. Apparently they're making the Hocus Pocus free. Are they? Apparently. Don't know how I feel about that. You know, the second one wasn't bad, but it wasn't the first one. You know what I mean? It's never the first one. Yeah. It wasn't bad. But the third one, I don't. Exactly. In fact, just leave it. You had an attempt at redoing it. It was okay. Now just leave it alone. Right. Leave it alone.

[00:28:15] They blew up or did whatever. They went into the light or you banished them or whatever. You sent them to be together. Leave them be. Yeah. How can you bring them back again? Exactly. I always think with something like that, if you didn't ruin it, then there you go. You've won. Yes. You've succeeded. Exactly. I love the witches, and I'm not trying to be like ageist or anything, but they're older as it is. Yeah.

[00:28:44] It took, what, 30 years to make the second one. Like, leave it alone. Leave Bette Midler be. Let her rest. Okay? Let her rest. She is a national treasure. Let her be. That's how I feel. Fair enough. Fair enough. Very strong opinion on that, but fair enough. Well, we just lost Dolly. Okay? And then we lost Tim Curry. You know, it's been one after the other.

[00:29:10] We need to allow these other elderly national treasures to rest. We can't. We're very, very vulnerable right now. We cannot lose them too. Just saying. Are you okay? No. I'm not okay. I cried all day after Dolly passed. I'm a huge Dolly Parton fan. It was, I was not, I'm not okay. I still can't believe it. I mean, she was 80, wasn't she? Yeah, she was 80. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough.

[00:29:39] I mean, that's not, I mean, I'll be happy if I get to 80. Be a miracle if I do. So, I'd take that. Damn. I'm like, my grandmother's lived to like 100. My grandmother now that's still alive, she's in her mid-90s and still as mean as shit. So, yeah, I'm 80. If something happened to me at 80, I'd be like, what the hell? I've been gypped. Fair enough. Fair enough. But no, I'd take that. I'd say that's a good answer. Right.

[00:30:06] Anyway, so, and you're probably going to remember to ask me something about this next part. So, I want to know if you've got any funny Halloween stories. Apart from the stolen bowl. Oh, little funny Halloween stories. Well, I will say I was in eighth grade and I can't remember what I was dressed as. I think this was the year I dressed as a boy. This would make sense. And we were in one of these bougie neighborhoods where they give the big candy bars away.

[00:30:36] And I was, we were running because I don't know why we just have to run from house to house, you know, because the houses are moving. They might disappear. Maybe they'll run out of candy. I don't know. So, we're running from house to house. I tripped because I am the epitome of grace. And I flew forward and scraped both my hands. Now, my hands have healed, but both my knees, I still have scars on from where I hit the road and like slid on my knees. Nice.

[00:31:06] And so, I still have scars from that eighth grade Halloween trick or treating that I skinned my knees very badly because I was running to get the candy. That's impressive though, to be fair. Yeah. That was 13. Let's see, I was 13 years old and I'm almost 42. So, I mean, that was quite some time ago and I have matching scars on each knee. Yeah. Now, that's impressive. Fair play. I like that. That is good. A little bit of trauma, you know?

[00:31:35] You just never forget. No, seriously though, as an adult, we've had more fun. So, you know, my husband and I do couples costumes every single year. And for a time, my ex-husband, who is my daughter's father, he would come and trick-or-treat with us. So, like one year, a couple years ago, he was, my husband was Gru and I was Lucy. And my ex-husband showed up as a minion. Fair enough.

[00:32:04] And then my ex-husband one year showed up as a pimp. And my daughter was maybe five. And he shows up in this big, you know, hat that's like fur-lined or whatever. And he's walking around with his cane. And my daughter was like, Daddy, what are you? And he's like, a pimp. Mommy, what's a pimp? I'm like, you didn't plan that one out, did you, Earl? I got to explain to your five-year-old what a pimp is, Earl. It's good times, Earl. Thanks.

[00:32:33] Way to think that through. We have a good time. We do enjoy. We have a good time. One year, he showed up as a Tasmanian devil. And he couldn't see. So, my husband had to walk him around the neighborhood. So, that way, he didn't run into any children. So, my ex-husband is in this big, inflatable Tasmanian devil costume. And my current husband is walking him around. There's not many people can say that.

[00:33:02] No, we get along really well. So, we have a really good relationship. It's always, people are like, that's weird. It is what it is. You know, that's how we've always been. We split up when Daisy was three and she's 15 now. So, you know what I mean? This is just our normal. Yeah. It's a good way to be, really. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's better than wasting your time just fucking. Fighting. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think we've gotten in maybe two fights in all these years. And it's like, they're over nothing.

[00:33:29] So, it's like, it is, it's so, it's way easier to do that. We do, you know, we've done holidays together. But Halloween, we do together every single year still to this day. He comes, he trick-or-treats. He always dresses up, always surprises us. We never know what he's going to be. Last year, what was he last year? He showed, oh, my God. He showed up dressed. Do you know Kiss, the hair? Yeah. Yeah. He showed up as one of the Kiss members. Fair play, fair play.

[00:33:58] Well, I'd ask you if it was Jane Simmons and did he have the tongue and everything as well? No. It was the one that passed away last year. Ah, right. Can't remember. He had heels on. He showed up and he walked in in heels. And then he asked me a question about parent, something going on with our daughter. So we all of a sudden went from like Halloween to all of a sudden we're talking about parenting. And I looked dead at him. I was like, I can't take you seriously. You have makeup on and you're in heels and a leotard. I can't talk to you about this right now.

[00:34:28] Fair play. Fair play. No, I like that. I have pictures and everything. It is. We always have a good time. Fair enough. Fair enough. I would tell you what my husband and I are being this year, but it's going to be a surprise. No, fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Do you want me to tell you then? Huh? I said I might tell you a story. Tell me a story. About a slut dropping zombie. The sl... Okay.

[00:34:57] What the hell is a slut dropping zombie? I'll show you. Oh boy. Is this, is this like... It's not a video. It's just a photo. Slut dropping zombie. So why the slut dropping? Something? So I was very drunk. So this was... Good few years ago now. Statue of limitations have expired and everything. You're not going to get in trouble for anything you are about to disclose. No, I was of age. Okay.

[00:35:28] I was like... I was about 27 years old. I know. I don't think you're following. Did you break any laws? Oh, not that I know of. Okay. Well, slut dropping zombie sounds bad. Okay. No. So where I used to work, we had a big Halloween party. And like I said, I got dressed up as a zombie. Like I just showed you. And got very, very, very, very, very, very, very drunk. And for some reason decided to do a slut drop. Still don't know why to this day.

[00:35:57] That's how fucking drunk I was. Slut drop? Yeah. You don't know what a slut drop is? No. Right. How the hell is... Oh, for fuck's sake. Yeah. Explain it to me, Liam. Right. Hang on. Jesus, how the fuck do you explain this? I don't know. But that's why I'm asking. Was this illegal? Because it sounds illegal. No. No. It's... It's... Oh. Right. How the fuck do I explain this?

[00:36:27] I don't even want to Google it. It sounds... It sounds bad. It's basically you're just stood and then you're very, very, very, very quickly going into like a squatting position and like bounce back up. Do you know what I mean? I mean, I have this visual. Oh, for God's sake. So you're just squatting and standing up and squatting and standing up? No, you only do it once. I mean, Christ, I'm not a fucking athlete. I can't do it more than once.

[00:36:59] Fair. But... Yeah. And plus, like I said, I only did it once and managed to rip my jeans from my ass all the way down to my ankle. Yeah. So that was fun. Oh, my God. Yeah, exactly. At a party. Yeah. And then the place... Luckily, it was towards the end of the night, hence why I was so drunk. But then, naturally, because I'm English, we decided, no, no, we're going to carry on drinking, so we'll go somewhere else.

[00:37:27] But I was like, I can't go like this when I'm missing half a trouser leg, basically. So I had to go home, change my trousers, and then we got in a taxi to where we were going next, got to where we were going next, realized I hadn't taken my wallet out of me ripped trousers. So I had to go all the way back, get my wallet, and then go all the way back again. Were you sober by the time you got back the second time? Because I would have been. Like... Eh, no, but that was... Eh, well. You said, did I break any laws?

[00:37:57] Yes. Why am I not surprised? I'm not shocked at all. Let's just say drink wasn't the only thing. Okay. Well, okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Younger dear, foolish, I know, but still. Good times. I can tell you a story about when we dressed up because my friend misinterpreted a sign. And so we dressed up. Intrigued. Okay.

[00:38:24] So last summer, so it wasn't Halloween, but like me and my girlfriends, we're all about a theme. You give us a theme, we're going to show up on theme. You know what I mean? We're going all in. We're going to coordinate. We're going to be adorable, and we're going to be the life of the party. Okay. Plain and simple. We are in our 40s. We don't give a shit what you think of us. We have no shame. Make fun of us. We don't care. We're going to have a good time. You go be a party pooper. It is fine.

[00:38:48] So my best friend Jada, we were going to Vegas, and she saw a flyer for 80s night on Fremont Street. Now, Fremont Street, if you've never been to Vegas, it's old Vegas. It's like what, you know, back in the day, that's where everything was back in the day, downtown Vegas. It's the old section of Vegas. And she was like, awesome. This is right up our alley. Sent it to all of us. We bought neon and tutus, and we teased our hair.

[00:39:17] Like, we were ready for this. Like, we planned for months for our 80s night costume. Okay? Mm-hmm. We're getting on the plane. And my friend Jada is also the lead singer in a cover band, an 80s cover band. So we're sitting on, we're getting on the plane, and she's sitting there. She goes, I have something to tell y'all. And we're like, what? You know? She goes, so remember 80s night? I went, yeah.

[00:39:44] She goes, it's not 80s night. And I went, what do you mean? And she's like, the band is called 80s night. And all three of us looked at her. What do you mean, Jada? And she's like, there's no, it's not 80s themed. And we're like, what do you mean? Like, it was like not computing. You know, we knew what she was saying, but it's like, we don't, we're on, we're getting on the plane.

[00:40:13] Our costumes and our outfits have been planned. We are in North Carolina about to board this plane. There's no time to change our outfit for that night. So we get there, we change. We are in leotards that are very neon in color. We have our hair teased to Jesus. We all look straight out of 1984 like we're about to do some aerobics.

[00:40:40] And we show up on Fremont Street, the only people dressed in 80s wear. And we just lean in. And I will tell you the rest of the trip, we were running into people that saw us on Fremont Street. And they were like, y'all look fantastic. And we're like, thanks. So we had a good time, but we were the only four women in 80s wear. But in Vegas, you know, that could be a normal day. I bet people saw a lot weirder things.

[00:41:11] I know I did that night. My point, exactly. Yeah, I was not the weirdest one out there. So yeah, it was a good time. We had a really good time. We love to dress up. We don't even need Halloween. That would be an achievement, that though. Being like the weirdest thing in Las Vegas. I don't know if it's a good thing, though. No, no, it would be a good thing. But it would definitely be an achievement. It would be something. It would be a good achievement.

[00:41:38] All I know is we had, I'm very, I'm the mama bear of my friend group. Always have been. I was the oldest in this group. So naturally, I'm more protective. And one of the younger ones was pregnant, six months pregnant. And I mean, my head was on a swivel. And I was just like, and then it got to the point the police started coming. And I looked at them and I was like, it's time for us to go. And we did. We got out of there because it was getting rough.

[00:42:07] We had some people who were probably enjoying some illegal substances that were starting to circle us. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I'm sober. Let's go. So. Fair enough. Time to go. Wrap it up. Well, like I said, at least there was a group of you. Oh, yeah. It looks a bit less weird when there's a group of you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm glad it wasn't just me. That would be weird as shit. Yeah.

[00:42:37] Yeah. Then you might have been the weirdest one in Las Vegas. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is just what I wear. It's a Thursday. I'm stuck in 1984. Oh, God. Right then. So without giving away your costumes then, because you just said that it's going to be a surprise. Yeah. What's... Because we've sort of touched on what Halloween is like for you nowadays. So apart from your costumes, what's the plan for Halloween this year? So my sister normally does a party. She hasn't said anything this year.

[00:43:07] So I'm not sure if she's doing that. But the kids will probably invite a friend over. Since the kids are older, it used to be just all the nephews and my children, we'd all get together and they would go. But because now they are range from ages 11 to 18. Mm-hmm. So now they have, you know, girlfriends, boyfriends, stuff like that. So they'll invite their best friends or whomever over. We'll do something small at the house. The parade will come through.

[00:43:33] We'll wave at the kids like, hey, my kids won't walk in the parade because this is little elementary school kids, you know? And then they'll walk around the neighborhood. My husband and I will sit on the porch. Last year we were 6'7". And we sat on the porch. Yes, I said, nice. Mm-hmm. And we were the most popular costume in the neighborhood. All the kids. 6'7". It was a good time. It was, you know, nice to be popular for once. And then, yeah, we just sit there and we hand out candy and then we go inside.

[00:44:03] I mean, the kids don't need us to walk around with them anymore. So we just stay at home and pass out candy and guard our Halloween bowl. Fair play, fair play. You and your husband are the reason that I knew what the fucking 6'7 was. Because I seen the picture and I was like, I don't get it. We don't either. No, but I didn't even know it was a thing.

[00:44:32] I didn't even know it was a thing. And when I saw it, I was like Googling what the 6'7 mean. Nobody really knows. We did it really to troll our children. No, that's what I mean. I didn't even know it was a thing that kids do or anything. I'd never seen it before until I seen your picture. And then I was like, why? Nobody really knows. That's the thing. It's like we still don't even know why. We just know they came home saying it. And I was like, you know, it would be so funny.

[00:45:02] To be fair, that is quite good, to be fair. Yeah, because, yeah. We love to rag them. Yeah, you would think it would have stopped them doing it as well, did it? Yes. Yeah, so there you go. Results. Stopped real quick. Like hard break. We walked out of the bedroom and they were like, no! Fair play, fair play. I like it. I like it. Can I tell you my favorite costume of all time that I did with my husband? Go for it. Have you ever heard of the show Married with Children?

[00:45:32] Mm-hmm. Okay. We were Al and Peggy Bundy. Nice. Yep. I think I'm, have you put that one on your Instagram before? Mm-hmm. Yes, I think I've seen it. Last year I shared all of our couples. Yes. Yep. That was a good one. Yeah, I've seen that one. And then one of my favorites, I was very proud of myself. I was at Goodwill. And do y'all have Goodwill there? What is that? It's a consignment. Like you donate your used to hair. Oh, like a charity shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

[00:46:02] And I was at Goodwill one day looking for something and I found this work shirt and it just had the name Todd on it. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to be Todd. And so it was $2. I bought that little shirt, Todd, and I got me a little clipboard. I pulled my hair back. This is when it was long. Pulled my hair back and made it like a bun and wore some khakis. And I walked around and people were like, who are you? I'm like, I'm Todd. And they're like, who's Todd? I'm like, I'm Todd.

[00:46:34] Jesus Christ. I was proud of that one. $2, baby. I'm Todd. Can't you read? I'm Todd. To be fair, that is quite good. I like that. Jesus Christ. Yeah, it was good. It was good. I was really proud of that one because everybody was like, I don't know. Nobody knows. It was Todd. I don't know. Todd donated his work shirt. I don't know. Godspeed, Todd. Todd.

[00:47:03] That's a good result because I guarantee you there will have been somebody trying to figure that out all night. Oh, yeah. Especially because I'm a woman named Todd. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I look completely normal. Surprise. I'm Todd. Well then, Todd, I think that's a good place to end it. He's like, get off my show. Go away. This sucks. Who are you? I am not your typical Halloween guest. Okay. I could have told you that.

[00:47:33] Well, no, I already knew that. And that's why I've waited. I've waited to get you on one of these ones. But you did it to yourself, really. Because I knew this wasn't going to be boring. No. No, it's not. It's ADHD-fueled chaos. Exactly. Love it. Right then. Do you want to let our listeners know where they can find you if they don't already know, Ashley, please? Absolutely.

[00:48:00] Come find me, Ghost Gossip Pod, Ghost Gossip Podcast, or email all your ghost gossip. Guys, I need ghost stories. Send me ghost stories. Ghost Gossip 24-7 at gmail.com. And yeah, I am everywhere. And yeah, talk about spooky stuff. Talk about haunted history. And do collabs with people such as yourself. Happy days. Happy days. Yep. Right then, guys. We shall leave it this. What? Slap drop. Yeah. Fuck off. Zombie slap drop.

[00:48:30] Jesus Christ. Oh, God. Right then, guys. We shall leave it there for this one. So, as always, go and follow our Instagram page at the Spooky Shed Podcast. The link in the bio there for the Facebook and TikTok, which I'm using a lot more now. YouTube channels there, merch store. And anything else that I've probably forgotten about. And I'll speak to you on the next one. Bye. The Spooky Shed Podcast is a Podshed production.

[00:49:03] This podcast is part of Podomity, the UK's podcast comedy network. Why not laugh at what else we've got? Visit Podomity.com.