A listener writes “Hey Wes, just discovered your podcast and felt relieved that I could finally share this story.
I wanted to share an encounter with you that was pretty significant for my family and I. The encounter happened to my father, but he has refused to ever talk about it again, and often times pretends it never happened. Let me give you some background; my dad’s family grew up in the back country of Kentucky, and he was raised in a very blue collar suburb of Cincinnati Ohio. He was raised to have strong work ethic, honesty, integrity, and family values.
He’s been an elder at our church for 30 years. I say this because my dad has never lied or misled any of us, and has strong convictions about his word. When I was a senior in high school we lived on a fairly busy road, however there are patches of woods all around us. It’s a typical suburb of the city of Cincinnati. We were living in a small White House, next to about three acres of thick woods that was owned by the Cincinnati nature society so it was relatively untouched and protected. Our driveway was about 40 yards long and dead end into a small hill about 7 feet high.
The woods ran all the way up the side of our driveway and beyond, and was about three feet off to the right. We always parked our cars next to each other at the end of the driveway, so one car was always about 5 feet from the wood line. Our “back door” was actually on the side of the house facing the woods and our yard was fairly large and very dark, so we had a flood light above the door. Outside the door was a small concrete path that went to a set of concrete stairs that led down the hill and to the driveway where we parked. Now the encounter:
My dad would leave for work every morning at 4:30am. My mom would always get up and walk him to the door to see him off to work. This particular morning he walked out the door and started down the concrete path towards the stairs. He got about 20 feet away from the house near the top of the stairs when he stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there motionless for about 10 seconds. My mom, curious and thinking maybe he forgot something, opened the door and asked him what was wrong. He took a step back and stopped again.
He said to my mom in a low voice “carol, shut the door and go get my gun.” She was confused, and he took another step back and said again, “shut the door and go get my gun.” He had a 12 gauge Remington shotgun he kept in his bedroom. He slowly walked backwards until he got to the side door and lunged inside, locked the door, grabbed his gun, and sat in our living room by our windows (which faced the woods) for the rest of the morning. He didn’t wake us up for school, and he wouldn’t let us go outside all day.
I have never seen my dad scared. I have never seen him show any fear at all, he’s very steady under pressure. This morning was the first time I ever saw my dad truly terrified. He was drained of color, and wouldn’t talk to any of us except to say he saw something outside and didn’t want us going out. My mom kept asking him what happened and he wouldn’t say anything. Finally they went into their bedroom to talk, and naturally I listened outside. He told my mom that as he got to the top of the steps he happened to look at our mini van which was parked by the woods. He saw something through the windows staring at him, watching him as he walked down the walkway. He stopped, thinking it was a man, possibly a burglar.
Suddenly he realized that it wasn’t a man because it was covered with hair, but had a face of a man in a lot of ways. He stopped and stared as this creature watched him. He was terrified, almost too terrified to move until he heard my mom open the door. Suddenly the creature stood up. It was easily 3 feet taller than our van, making it about 8 feet tall and stared him down rolling it’s lips and baring its teeth in anger.
My dad took a step back, and it took a step towards him. Every time he took a step back it took a threatening step towards him. Finally it turned, staring him down, and walked slowly into the woods. As he was telling my mom he could barely get the words out, and he finally said “a Bigfoot.” My mom finally came out of her room and she was clearly shaken up after seeing my dad so afraid.
This was a huge deal because he doesn’t believe in anything like this, and still won’t admit to it. It’s almost like his entire worldview would have to change if he admitted that there are things out there he doesn’t understand. I can remember asking my mom, “did dad see a Bigfoot?” And the look on her face was complete terror and confusion, and she said “your dad saw a Bigfoot.”
We weren’t allowed outside for almost a month except to go to school. To this day he won’t talk about it. Has a Sasquatch ever migrated through or traveled through a more populated area on its way to a more dense and wooded area? There are a number of small patches of woods in our area and it would be possible to travel through to get to a rural empty area. Just wanted to share. Thanks for listening.”