The Soundside Halloween Extravaganza

Halloween is Monday, and you might still be on the fence:

Will you turn off all your lights and hide inside, or will you spend a chunk of change on full-sized candy bars, then spend a portion of your night handing them out to trick or treaters?

Or, will you be ambitious? You're going to a party, and you're going to make a costume no matter what!

If that's the case, what's your plan? Will you wait until the last minute, get frustrated, and go as Ted Lasso again this year? It's a lot to think about.

While we can't help you figure out what to be for Halloween, we can give you a little inspiration.

Soundside producer Hans Anderson talked to a costume enthusiast about their process, and brings us this audio postcard:

That was Nick Shively talking about his costume for Halloween this year. And we'd like to extend a special thanks to Amanda Pitch who was also interviewed but her costume was so complicated., it was difficult to explain over the radio. You're our hero, Amanda.

Another fantastic Halloween tradition is the sharing of spooky stories. All week, Soundside has been sharing episodes from our sibling podcast K-BOO-O-W Shorts.

Today however, we present delightfully terrifying tales from you, our listeners.

We start with Yvonne, and her memory from the time of antenna television:

Our next shudder-inducing anecdote comes from Julia, who emailed in her story about the teenage desire to spend time out in the dark alone. Here's KUOW's Paige Browning reading Julia's message:

KUOW producer Brandi Fullwood sent in this story about a spectral child named Charlotte:

Another KUOW teammate sent in her 'not-so-scary' story about her great grandfather's watch. Here's KUOW Director of Marketing Michaela Gianotti Boyle:

After Soundside aired, we kept receiving stories! Here's Eric, talking about his encounter with a ghost in he and his partner's old apartment in Chicago:

Priscilla's encounters with the spirit of a girl happen in her dreams:

And finally, an email from Paul about "the man in the mirror":

In the summer of 1992, I found myself booted off of a sailing yacht transiting back to Puget Sound from Canadian waters, having been offered a job opportunity at a marina at which we'd overnighted in the Canadian Gulf Islands. I ended up staying in a spare room in a house that the marina bar and restaurant manager was house-sitting for the next three months. Do you know that feeling as you are coming out of a deep sleep, but not yet fully awake, that there is someone in the room with you? One late night I thought I was waking up to tell the person by the bedroom door, "I'm not going to get up to go partying with you knuckleheads," only to find that there wasn't anybody there. Hmm, that was weird.

The next time was about a week or two later. Same feeling as I woke up, "I'm not getting up to go out with you guys," but this time I felt that the individual was standing at the foot of the bed. Again, nobody was there. Wow, twice?

The next week, I did not wake slowly from sleep: I jolted awake, swinging defensively, knowing that there was someone beside me near the head of the bed! They were pissed-off and had horrible intentions. I was in full flight-or-fight mode – heart racing, sprinter's breathing – the works. But again, I was alone.

Over coffee the next morning, I described all three of the encounters to my housemate. Instead of being surprised or asking for more details, she calmly said, "Oh, that's the man in the mirror." What? She told me that in the past, her father had talked about "the man in the mirror" many times and one morning had marched through their kitchen out the back door with said mirror in hand exclaiming that he would not have it in his house. He put it in a storage shed in the back. She and her family had thought that their father was just losing it.

When she moved out of her parents' home, she thought that there was a beautiful antique mirror sitting in the back shed for no good reason and took it with her. Since she was moving into a home in which she would be house sitting, she didn't want to poke any holes in the walls to hang the mirror, so she'd stored it in the spare room at that house – the one in which I would eventually be staying.

Needless to say, the mirror did not stay in that room with me for the remainder of the time that I was there.

Thank you to everyone who sent in their spooky stories, and happy Halloween from all of us at Soundside!