January 30, 2026 • 50 mins
Join The Wizard Of Weird to find out who the surprise is and Texas too!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM paranormal
podcast network. Now get ready for us Strange Things with
Joshua P. Warren.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
to Coast AM, employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
(00:34):
your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ready to be amazed by the wizard of Weird. This
is Strange Thing is Women's Joshua Warren. I am Joshua B. Warren,
and each week on this show, I'll be bringing a
brand new mind blowing content, news, exercises, and weird experiments
(01:17):
you can do at home, and a lot more. On
this edition of the show, my surprise guest, I call
this seventy eight years in Texas. I met my wife
Lauren almost thirty years ago, and we became romantic because
(01:41):
I was well, I don't know, maybe a little bit unprofessional.
I'm not sure. You see, I was hired by a
group to guide a special Haunted bus tour. Only time
this particular tour ever happened, by the way, and she
was a customer. She was a guest on my Haunted
(02:03):
bus tour, and the fact of the matter is she
just could not resist the charismatic, muscular tour guide, and
so I ended up giving her a VIP experience. She
told me that she was from Texas. She was mainly
raised in Katie, Texas, near Houston, and I didn't know
(02:28):
anything about Texas, but I was always interested in Texas,
and so it became clear that, you know, obviously, as
our relationship was developing, I started spending more and more
time in Texas, you know, visiting her folks, and I
was fascinated by some of the conversations with Lauren's father,
(02:50):
now my father in law, a man named Charlie Munson.
He was born in rural Texas the same month and
year as the raw Well crash in New Mexico. Most
people say it was around July of nineteen forty seven,
and Charlie he was in the military, the Air Force.
(03:11):
In fact, Lauren was born in Seoul, South Korea because
of his work there at the time, and then he
worked in the oil business and traveled the world, and
I've just always been interested in his life. And so
I said to Lauren the other day, I said, you know,
your dad is getting close to eighty years old, his
(03:32):
mind as sharp as a tack. I should interview him
and ask him what the heck it was like growing
up in rural Texas back in the nineteen forties and fifties.
So again, his name is Charlie Munson. He lives alone now,
and he said, yeah, I'll be happy to do an interview.
(03:54):
And you know, celebrities contact me every day wanting to
be interviewed to remote a book or a show or
a movie or an event. But I don't usually do
interviews on this show. It's just not my main format
for this show. If you actually listen to this show
on a regular basis, you know that. So I turned
(04:17):
down celebrities every single day. And so when I do
decide to interview someone, I want it to be a
real person. Thus, what you are about to hear is
an interview with a real person. My father in law.
He was born in Texas almost eighty years ago, and
(04:39):
he's going to tell us what that was like. And then,
of course I'm gonna ask him if he knows anything
about oh stuff like maybe the assassination of John F.
Kennedy in Dallas, Texas and the Texas good old boy system.
But look, there's nothing sensation. Well here you're about to
(05:01):
hear the phone call that I had with my father
in law a couple of days ago. And yes, he's
lived all over the place, but he was born in Texas.
He's in Texas now, So I call this seventy eight
years in Texas. Here we go, enjoy. Charlie Munson, Welcome
(05:23):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know, Charlie, your daughter Lauren and I started dating
about thirty years ago, so I have known you for
a long time. So where were you born and where
are you now?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
All right?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
I was born in a little town called Mercedes, Texas,
which is Hidalgo County. It's right on the border between
Texas and Mexico. And I'm currently living in a suburb
of Houston called Katie and been here since about two
thousand and nine.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I think it here, Mercedes, Texas. I'm looking it up
right now. I've never heard of it. So you're saying
it was right on the border, Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
On the border. I looked it up just before.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And I think there's about sixteen thousand people there. You know,
I haven't been down there. We left there when I
was probably a year older, a little bit less.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Okay, So now, what is your birthday?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's July twenty first, nineteen forty seven.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
So that makes you about seventy eight, is that right?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's correct now.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
As you probably know, that is the same month and
year when the Roswell crash happened in New Mexico. So
come on, Charlie, what do you know about it?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, not much. I guess maybe they dropped you off
or something. Maybe I bounced sober from New Mexico. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Well that's interesting, all right. Well we'll get back to
to where you are shortly. But you know, as you know,
I was born in North Carolina on the East coast,
and my whole life I grew up hearing about like
like watching westerns with my parents, shows like gun Smoke
and Bonanza and Have Gun Will Travel and the Riflemen,
(07:19):
and so I always considered anything out west to be
out west to me. But when I met Lauren, she said, oh,
Texas is not the old West. It's the South. Well,
I mean, do you consider Texas to be part of
the Old West?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He is part of it.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think, you know, the Central Park is probably more western.
If you go to the East Park, Texas, it's more southern.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I grew up in San Antonio, and.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
When we spoke over there, we didn't at that time
have a really much of a Texas accent because we
had a lot of military bases there. There's like thirty
thousand military people there, so we didn't we didn't develop
an accent. I have it now more so than before.
Until I came to Houston, and it was like coming
down south. You know, everybody had a had a down
(08:14):
South accent. So you have to kind of flit Texas
into the central part of Texas is more western and
that's where the ranchers and stuff were. On the east
side is more farming communities.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So seventy eight years ago you were born, and I
guess it's safe to say rural Texas, right, So describe
for us what was it like as a child growing
up in that part of Texas.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It was a lot of fun. Really.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's it's like the old thing they say nowadays. You
know that our kids. We could we left it. You know,
we got up in the morning and then we we left
the house and we came back after dark, you know,
and a dinner.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And that's much the way I was raised. It was
we could.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
We'd be out in the far and you know, we
had wooded woods around the area where we lived in
San Antonio and the park that I remember. Anyway, before
that we kind of lived in the downtown area. But
we just we were We had a creek, we had woods,
we had hills, We had a big gravel pit not
too far from the house, and we could play down
(09:26):
in there that it had been abandoned.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It was like a kid paradise, man. I mean it
was great.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Uh we didn't we of course we we We're pretty
much cowboys, yes, I mean as far as what we
watched on the movies and stuff like that. So we
carried our guns when we were like six and seven
years old, you know, played played cowboys and Indians and
that kind of thing. So it was you know, but
(09:54):
it was a good like It was was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So when you were uh child back then, what would
a treat be like, for example, you know, a birthday
or like a really special day. How how would someone
celebrate you.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Our family didn't really celebrate. I mean we got a cake.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
That was about it. You know, we might get one
gift or something like that. I don't remember off the
top of my head. If nothing stands out in my
mind about it. It was just, you know, kind of
another day for everybody. My family was pretty much hard working.
My dad was anyway, and my mom later on when
she kind of got us into school we started, she
(10:38):
went to work. So it was it was pretty quiet really,
I mean birthdays were Christmas was a little bit more celebration,
you know, and but you know it was not anything
sect tactic or anything.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
At what point did you decide that you wanted to
do so something particular with your life, you know, like
I don't want to be a cowboy or whatever the
cliche is.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Well, yeah, I went with my uncles just uh we
were I was about twelve years old. I think my
uncles decided or they needed to bring in some spring
cab so they had they had least some land. I
think there was about a thousand acres up near a
little town called Goldie at Texas, and myself.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And my cousin.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And the two uncles. We left about five point thirty
in the morning and we got to the neil. They
got the horses and we saddled up the horses. They
saddled They saddled up to horses. I did, but they
saddled up to horses. And we went out into the
pasture to bring in the cows because they were having
their little cabs they wanted to. They had to do
(11:52):
some doctoring on them and they had to do some
I think they put some ear tags on them or
something like that. So we brought them in and I
took about all morning and it's real brushy down there,
with a lot of a lot of mesquite trees and
that kind of thing. They're a low mesquite but you
can't see very much. But anyway, we got them all
in and that's when I decided I did not want
(12:14):
to be a cowboy. Yeah, I'm telling you man. I
got run over about fourteen times by the cave. You know,
even the small caves they don't look like much, but
they can they can knock you down pretty good. And
my cousin got drug across the rope one and got
drug across the corral and stuff, you know, So it was.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's when I decided that that wasn't something I wanted
to do. Maybe I ought to use my head.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Time for a break. When we come back, Yes, what
we're getting into. I'm Joshua P. Warren. You're listening to
Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Toast to Toast AM
Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be right back. Welcome
(13:28):
back to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast a m paranormal podcast network. I have your host,
the Wizard of Weird, Joshua P. Warren, beaming into your
worm whole brain from my studio in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada,
where every day is golden and every night is Silver's
(13:51):
yet do zume and if you like this show and
you want me to keep doing it, support It doesn't
cost you any Go to joshuap Warren dot com. Right
there on the homepage you'll see where you can enter
your email address to subscribe to my free and spam
free emails letter. When you do that, you will instantly
(14:14):
receive an automated email from me with some links to
some amazing free online goodies that will help you start
making your life magical. Immediately, and while you're there, check
out the Curiosity Shop. You will find things there that
you won't find anywhere else in the world, I promise you.
(14:36):
Joshuapwarren dot com. Now let's get back to my conversation
with my father in law, mister Charlie Munson. Well, of
course this show is called Strange Things. Were there ever
any ghost stories or legends or such that you heard
growing up back then in those days?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Not really. I mean, uh, I can't think of anything
that my my uncles or my aunts or any of
that kind of thing ever ever talked about.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Nobody was superstitious or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Huh No, not too much.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
They were all you know, my dad's family was really
church oriented. My mother's family not so much, but still
was pretty religious and all that kind of stuff. So
it was one to my one to my mother's place.
We'd go down on Christmas sometime, and it was like
in the nineteen fifties, it was like going into it
(15:42):
was like dropping back into the eighteen hundred. At that
time in that area of Texas, they didn't have electricity.
Uh So we had kerosene lamps, we had wood stoves,
we had wood cook stoves, We had we had water.
We had a windmill and a mistern outside, but no
water in the house, no toilets in the house.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
It was it was just like I guarantee, it was
just like going back, you know, fifty one hundred years
and like eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It was.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It was really I think back about it, it was
really was really an interesting time.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Well, you know, speaking of that again, going back to
like these stories we hear about old gunslingers and whatnot.
I mean, I'm sure when you were a kid or
a young man you met some really old guys who
probably went back to the eighteen hundreds. Did you ever
meet a guy who like killed somebody or had some
kind of wild story.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, my grandfather, he was a sheriff in Leavaca County
back in the early nineteen hundreds, like you know five
stuff like that. He shot a guy in the legs,
was trying to escape, and they would He told the
(17:02):
story of our two brothers who had come into town
and they came into the town square and got a
hotel room that overlooked the town square, and this man
walked through the town square the next day and they
shot him, and so they put him on trial for murder,
and they asked him why that they had shocked this
guy and he had gotten their sister pregnant.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So they actually released them.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
They didn't they didn't convict them. I didn't really meet
I met a lot of cowboys. I mean a lot
of old, old timey cowboys. They used to sit on
My uncle had had an old general store there and
panted a little count all Stanton, and they'd all sit
on the they had benches out front. They'd all sit
on the benches and smoke and talk tell stories. So
(17:49):
I used to listen to those, but I can't remember
too many of them.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Back in the day, everybody used to smoke.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Huh oh, Yeah, yeah it was. I mean you look
at it, you know, you look at some of the old.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Old movies and stuff. I mean they were like chimneys,
they were sweep smoking all the time. But yeah, everybody
was smoking. I mean a lot of the guys that
came back from World War Two, I mean that was
one of I guess the only thing that kind of
calmed their nerves during World War two was you know, smoking,
so that became something they did.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Did you ever get into tobacco.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I smoked a little bit off and on, but I
never got into it. I smoked. I smoked one time
I was I was kind of getting it more into it,
and I went in the office. I bought a pack
of cigarettes, went in the office, and I was doing
my normal stuff in the office, and I smoked an
(18:46):
entire pack of cigarettes in the morning.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So I decided at that point I didn't want to
do that anymore because I couldn't taste anything for the
next Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Man, Yeah, it is amazing, isn't it when you look
back at uh just yeah, the guys who would chew
big old balls of tobacco and like all the baseball players,
and it's like it was, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Put the snuff in between you lift and your teeth,
you know, and then you're you know, unfortunately you get
cancers from it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, So so you you found it enjoyable growing up?
Uh in those days, I mean, like, did you ever
use an outhouse?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, yeah, And when mainly when my grandma and my grandparents,
now you know, you had to go, if you had
to go, there was a fits there was a wire
fence around the main yard, and then there was a barnyard, okay.
And in the barnyard there was a cup of cows,
a couple of milk cows, and there was hog ten
(19:49):
and my uncle kept u I think they kept a
couple of horses. But there was one uncle had that
was he was real pretty sorrel colored horse, but he
was real mean and you had to watch for him
because when you went to the out house, which was
about twenty five yards from the house or something out
in the out in the barn yard area, you had
(20:12):
to watch for him because he'd kind of come after
you had Once time you had to, you had to
you had to kind of sprint out to the good toilet.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know. It's kind of kind of spooky sometimes you're your.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Kids well you know, Uh, I'm just obviously thinking of
questions that are coming up as we talk. But I mean, like,
in your seventy eight years, what is what has been
your your scariest animal encounter.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Uh, that's that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Like I'll give you an example. Twice in my life,
I have walked up on a black bear in the wilderness. Yeah,
and uh, there's nothing in my experience quite like me
standing there looking into the eyes of a black bear
and not knowing what's going to happen next. Uh. I've
never felt a more chilling and cold strike of fear
(21:09):
than that. Uh, you ever had such an encounter?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
We were in the creek that was down from my house.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
We used to my.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Friends and I used to go down and we'd we'd
sane along the creek bed to catch minnows. And the
we were walking along and I was I was walking
next to the bank and some and the snake wrapped
around my leg and I jumped about pitting feed up
on the bank so he didn't get a chance to
(21:41):
bite me. I was already out of the water. But
there was water box and all, you know, all around
that creek. And when we used to hunt, h we
used to go fishing down in the little town called
Fan and there's a creek north of the town and
we used to go there and we would take our
fishing poles and we'd also take the twenty two or
(22:02):
four ten shotgun.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
With us and a box of shells.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I mean, we were ten years old, ten twelve years
old and two guys with fish and one guy would
shoot snakes, you know, because the snake is when you
put the corpse in the water.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
When they get the water, the water mockings and start
coming toward it. So we'd shoot and fish at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I was we were walking. At one point, we were
walking toward a low bridge and my cousin yelled snake,
you know, And I said where And I looked down
and he had a shotgun and he shot right in
front of my down in front of my face, and
two pieces of snake went by my head.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So other than that, I don't think I've had too much.
Other than that, don't.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And I said a few words, I said a few
words that I shouldn't have too But anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, yeah, this is family friendly radio. Uh. So, you know,
before we kind of moved move into your adulthood, I mean,
so you said you had a good childhood. Would you
go back and relive that?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah it was good. I mean, I
mean it was we were we weren't very well off.
We were I would say, in the upper lower class.
I guess, I don't know, And you know, it's that
part of it bothered me a little bit when I
was growing up. But just the life that we had
(23:35):
and where we lived, it was just it was like
just a fun deal, man. I mean every day was okay.
I don't remember ever being I mean when it would
even rain, you know, it was not a bad deal.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Just to stay in the house.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And I had little toy soldiers and stuff and I
played with them and that kind of thing when I
was a kid. But as got older, you know, I
went to a good high school. We got a we
had a really good class kids, and.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It was it was you know, it was enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So how did your life proceed from growing up there
to college, to the military to corporate America? I mean, like,
what's the overall rundown?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Well, you know, I transferred schools by freshman year in
high school because the school of country school that I
was going to lost its creditation with the state, which
is kind of bad, and we I transferred to the
school called Sam Houston.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
All right, time for a break. You are listening to
me the Great and Terrible Joshua. People weren't interviewing my
father in law, Charlie Munson, who is close to eighty
years old, talking about what it has been like to
live in Texas for the past eighty years. And you know,
(24:59):
I think you know where this is going. Yes, we're
gonna we're gonna get into the Texas good old boy
system and see, uh see what he has to tell
us about that. I'm Joshua pe Warren. You're listening to
Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM
Paranormal Podcast Network, and I will be back after these
important messages. Welcome back to Strange Things on the iHeart
(25:59):
Radio and Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. I'm your host,
Joshua Pee Warren, and this is the show where the
unusual becomes usual, and it's kind of a special edition
of the show. As you know, I don't generally do
interviews that often period, but in this particular case, I'm
(26:22):
letting you hear a conversation that I recently had with
my father in law, Charlie Munson, who is seventy eight
years old. He was born in rural Texas. He's in
Texas right now, and we're talking about his life and
whatever he can tell us about what he has experienced
(26:44):
going back for the past well let's just say eighty years.
So back to the conversation.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I transferred through the school called Sam Houston, and I
really enjoyed myself there I trans with a good friend
of mine from me Central. He was a guy who
lived down the street from me, and he went back
to the school, gained discreditation, he went back, and I
went ahead and stayed in San Houston, and I really
(27:14):
enjoyed it. I played football there and I ran track
and class president, and you know, that was fairly good academically.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
But then from there I went.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
To Trinity University in San Antonio. I don't I'm not
exactly sure how I got a scholarship there, but I did,
which I managed to lose my freshman year with my
grades and partying.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Too much, and.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So I went for about three years and I kind
of my dropped out and got married and went in
the military. I was stationed at Telly Air Force Base,
which is a B fifty two C five A, which
is seven forty seven cargo playing for the military. They
(28:08):
overhauled them there. They had a hangar, there was one
mile in circumference and they could park thirteen B fifty
two s and that thing by just at one time.
But I worked there for about three years and then
I was since Korea kind of got me. I really
(28:28):
liked the orient that was I really enjoyed that area.
Lauren was born in Korea. She was born in If
you watch any mash movies, she was and they talked
about the one hundred and twenty firsty Back Hospital that's
where she was born. And from there I got out
and I went back back to the US and went
(28:50):
to work for Southwest Research Organization and got my degree finally,
and then I went to Houston and that's kind of
started my career in the and engineering, construction and that
kind of thing where I got my went overseas for
about almost twenty years. I was overseas in Southeast Asia,
at least Australia and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So give me, give me a quick list of just
some of the countries you've visited. Were off the top
of your head.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Okay, Well, I've been to Denmark. I've been I've flown
I've flown through Germany. I've been to England. I've been
to Panama. I've been to Mexico. I've been to Saudi Arabia.
I've been to India. I've been to Thailand. I've been
(29:43):
to Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And what what is the weirdest thing. You've eaten.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Birds in this soup, I guess.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I guess people, if you understand what that is and
what is made from it, what is it? It's basically
a bird regurgitating to make the too. It's like a
glue almost, and they use it to when they these
swallows or something in Philippines and areas like that makes
(30:18):
their nets and they so the people climb up these
deals and pull the nest down and then they boil
them and get this food and then make a soup
out of it. But it's it's the sweet taste in
it's almost like it's the same thing as honey. I mean,
bees regurgitate honey. That's the sounds terrible, but that's what
we eat. But this stuff was sweet. It was It
(30:39):
was really good. But oh, I've eaten curry fish head
that that you have a fish that probably would be
the head would be about six or eight inches in circumference,
and it would be in a big bowl with a
bunch of curry and and okra and there's some other
(30:59):
stuff and you put it over rice. Just it's amazing
how much meat's on the head of a fish that,
at least the big ones anyway, One of.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
The reasons that you've got to travel so much is
because you were working in the oil business.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Right, Yeah, basically all in chemistry bit chemical business. We
were engineering archetra company called the KBR and we were
we built uh engineering. Most of the stuff that idea
was was with offshore platforms and that kind of stuff.
Basically I was I was purchasing manager and that kind
(31:32):
of thing for that kind of stuff, the manager.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
So as a man who worked on the inside, how
would you in general describe the oil business?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I think now it's probably.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
It's very profitable for the oil companies. Uh, they're tough.
They're tough customers, they really are. They're they're they're very
into your business all the time and they're sitting among
you all the time.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Uh. They like I.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Said, they're very they're very profitable. They really go into
places that people you know, sometimes you think that that's
really not a good place to go to, but they
do that and they it's probably one of the one
of the places, one of the kind of businesses that
where you are still in the exploration mode, meaning that
(32:25):
you're going into places like Poppi, New Guinea. You're going
into places that you know, like Sudan, and you're going
into you know, you're going into places that in a
lot of cases, you put yourself in harms way.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So how did you find out that John F. Kennedy
had been assassinated?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I was sitting in.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
It was right before lunch, and I was sitting in
a chemistry class in high school my junior year was
when that happened. We were I don't think we're taking
a tip. We were just doing our normal doing our
I think we were in a lab. We had our
chemistry classes in labs, and I was just you know,
we were all just sitting there and there, all of
(33:07):
a sudden, they made an announcement over the intercom, the
school intercom, saying that he'd been assassinated or that he
had been shot.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
At that time, we only knew that he had been shot.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And did that change the rest of the day.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Yeah, and everything went real quiet. Everybody was really pretty
down about it. You know, it was.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We weren't we weren't.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
We all thought still kind of had our rose tended
glasses on at that time. We didn't realize people could
be so cynical and do that kind of stuff, you know,
And so it was It was kind of depressing for
the whole rest of the day and a couple of
days after that.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
But they still gave you homework, didn't they. Oh yeah,
nothing's going to stop.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
That, that's right. We actually yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
So, I mean, I mean, obviously, you know, you you
have deep roots in Texas. I mean, have you heard
any rumors about what happened to JFK that you can share?
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Well, just I mean, recently, they finally, I think admitted
that there may have been more than one shooter, you know,
I mean, the government I think admitted that. I don't
know if they did or not, but you know, it
was pretty obvious that if you've ever been around guns,
you've seen things being shot. It was pretty obvious that
(34:30):
he was shot from the front, not the back. At
one point where he lost the back of his head,
you know, where his wife climbed across the trunk trying
to get part of.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
His gold or whatever.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
That's awful, But I mean, it's pretty obvious that maybe
it couldn't have been one shooter, you know, even to
people that looked at him even back then. But you know,
the government claimed and did all their do all their investigation.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Which basically was just a cover up.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I think, Yeah, there's still a lot to be revealed
about that.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yeah, I don't know why they worry about it at
this point. I mean, you know, we're so far removed
from that now, and uh, they could come clean and
I don't think there would be a big, any kind
of big situation about it.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Well, so you know, the idea is that, you know,
there was obviously a good old boy system in Texas,
and I mean obviously Johnson, his vice president, was from Texas,
and Johnson was involved in a lot of shady dealings
they say, and then and then you know, the whole
thing went down in Texas where a lot of the
(35:42):
military uh industrial complex is rooted that was trying to
ramp up what was happening in Vietnam and all that.
So I mean, do you do you believe that have
you have you seen evidence of some kind of a shady,
good old boy system in Texas that may have had
something to do with it? Okay, I think that is
(36:04):
a good spot for us to stop for our break.
You know, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up really
knowing very little about Texas firsthand. And then when I
met Lauren, of course that all changed, and I've now
spent quite a bit of time in Texas and I
(36:26):
actually did an episode of this podcast, episode two thirty
nine of this podcast called Strange Things, and episode two
thirty nine is called Here's Who Killed JFK? And this
is my opinion, but I think I do a pretty
good job of substantiating it. I you know what, I
don't even think Charlie has U has listened to that,
(36:50):
and I know he's listening to this show. So Charlie, uh,
maybe you should go listen to episode two thirty nine
of this podcast and we can talk a little bit
afterward about what you think. But anyway, when we come
back from this brig, not only are we going to
sort of like see what he thinks about that concept
(37:11):
of the good old boy system in Texas and how
it may it may or may not have applied to
something like the JFK thing, but also like, what's the
conclusion here? I mean, after eighty almost eighty years of life,
what ultimately has Charlie learned? It's fascinating. I'm Joshua Pee Warren.
(37:33):
You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast
to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be
right back. Welcome back to the final segment of this
(38:21):
edition of Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast a m paranormal podcast Network. I am your host,
Joshua P. Warren, And here is the conclusion of my
recent conversation with my father in law, Charlie Munson seventy
(38:43):
eight years in Texas. I call it here we go.
Have you have you seen evidence of some kind of
a shady, good old boy system in Texas that may
have had something to do with that?
Speaker 4 (38:58):
It's possible, think I mean, I know Johnson was tied
in the two guys that formed a company called Brown
and Ruthe. There was there was a lot of rumors
about Johnson. They basically bought Johnson, you know, I think
that you know, there's there were several areas where I
don't know if it was a combination of different people,
(39:21):
but I mean, there was there was speculation about the
mafia being involved because he because his brother Attorney General,
was going after the mafia, which basically had helped him
get elected. You know that's rumor I heard or one
roomor you know, Cuban, some Cuban involvement, some mafia involvement.
(39:42):
I don't know, some CIA involvement. I mean, we just
don't know. I don't know why they won't just tell
us what happened.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Was But but you don't have any You've not seen
personally any evidence of such a thing.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
No, no, no, What.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Are your thoughts on the concept of God?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Good question. I was raised.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
I was raised in a very religious family. I kind
of stepped away. I stepped away from I was in
a church probably two times a week or three times
a week, sometimes almost every week of my life until
I was in my late teens. When I was in
my late teens, I kind of stepped away from that,
and I stayed away from it every since. I believe
(40:24):
there is some I mean, it's it's hard for your
mind to think about that. I am sitting here and
I can see my hand, and I can talk to
you on the phone, and your mind can only go
so far and then it stops.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
We can't we.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Can't get past the bail. I guess I think there's
something up, you know, something somewhere that's more powerful than
what we are. And I do pray, but I don't
I don't go to church.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Uh, I don't. I don't need that institution to believe
what I believe.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
And I yeah, I just, I just I feel like
if there is a God, and then it's between he
and I and and nothing else. I don't need anybody
in between. I don't need I don't need to go
to church.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
To have it, have that.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Communicational I guess the best way to put it, I
don't need anybody in the intervening for me.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
So you don't. You don't really try to define what
it is. It's just a sense that you have.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Huh, it's a sense that I have.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I mean, you know, I we had to come from somewhere.
I mean, but then but then your mind goes to
the fact that if we did, if something, if something
is there that is more powerful than a then what
created that? You know, I mean, somebody had to create God.
(42:08):
I guess I don't know. I mean, I don't I'm
not sure. I don't know if we all flowed away
and become part of the ether and you know, just
kind of float around or what, you know. I'm not
afraid of death or anything. I'm you know, I'm afraid
of how I died.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't. I'm just not afraid of death. I don't.
I don't believe in hell. I'm sorry, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
I can't imagine a god that would do that to
someone or anybody, no matter how bad they are.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
So I believe that if there's.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
I think they whatever it was that that created us
or created this world or created this universe, he put
it in motion and that's it. He doesn't put his
finger in there and stopped this and move that and
change this, and you know, stop stop this from happening.
That doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
It's our choice. You know. We we make our own misery.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
If we are our our happiness, we do that ourselves.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Charlie Munson, what a great father in law. I agree,
Thank you sir for being on the program. And uh,
I agree with your conclusion that you've reached there. And
you know, it's like we can all overthink things, but
(43:30):
I mean, it's it's kind of interesting to just stop
and pause and accept the simplicity of of what's true
and what's not. So I just you know, I'm glad
that I was able to bring that conversation to all
of you so that we could learn from from this
man's experience. M I still have some time left though,
(43:57):
I still have some time left to feel. I don't
know what to do. I was kind of thinking maybe
that conversation was going to take up the show, but no, no,
there's still I have an idea. All right, all right,
get ready, I haven't done this in a while. See
(44:19):
if you can guess what is about to happen. Okay,
you're ready. I'm taking off my microphone, headset and stuff,
and I'm going to put it down. All right, here
we go. How horrible is that? That is the Aztec
(44:53):
death whistle? And sometimes I get the funniest emails from
people when I, uh, when I play that or when
or when I blow that, because they say I was
dozing off. I like people like to go to sleep
to talk radio, and that that kind of wakes him
(45:16):
up out of it. Your ASTech death was I've never
blown it like right into the microphone. Let's see how
this sounds. It's actually not nearly as bad when it's close.
It's worse when you stand back. Oh well, I got
(45:44):
an email from a guy in Texas and he listened
to one of my shows, Episode two sixty two of
this podcast called strange things ghost Writers in the Sky,
and also it's kind of interesting because it's it's called
ghost Writers in the Sky and the strange case of
Audrey Munson. As far as we know, there's no relationship
(46:07):
between Charlie Munson and my in laws and Audrey Munson.
But if you don't know who Audrey Munson is, go
back and listen to episode two sixty two of this podcast. Anyway,
I was talking about ghost Writers in the Sky and
this fella he emailed me and he is in Corpus Christie.
(46:29):
His name is Martin, he said, mister Warren, my name
is Martin Blah. I don't want to give his last name.
He says. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. I'm a
cross country truck driver and I took the attached photos
back in twenty eighteen. I have never let anyone see
these photos for fear of being labeled a nutjob and
(46:49):
losing respect from family and friends. Well join the clubs here,
he says. I found your podcast several weeks ago and
have been binge listening from episode one. I am currently
on episode seventy five listening to your fans sending emails
about their experiences and the respect you give these folks
(47:10):
is phenomenal and inspiring. I decided to send these pics
to you to get your response. I don't know if
you'll be able to see what I see, so here goes.
If your opinion deems these photos worthy of speaking about
or showing them to a broader audience, please use them
as you wish. Sincerely, Martin, and he gives his phone
(47:31):
number as well. He says, these photos were taken just
southeast of Amarillo, Texas, on US two eighty seven. I
took them with an iPhone. I don't remember the model number.
I remember holding the phone out of the window of
my truck. If you need to contact me, blah blah blah,
thank you and have a blessed day. And then a
nice email, and he sent me some pretty crazy looking
(47:52):
pictures of the sky, you know, of like just but
see the thing is like I can't even really you
photo analysis anymore because that everything is just it's too
complicated now, you know, with drones and AI. So I
(48:14):
took his images and I sent them to Mobius, and
Mobius he's up on the latest and the greatest and
the cutting edge of all that. So We'll let you
know if we come up with anything that's noteworthy, but
thank you for sending those to me. All right, guess
what I've killed enough time. It is now time for
(48:36):
us all to take a deep breath. If you can
close your eyes, let us meditate together on making the
next week the best week ever for all of us. Here,
my friends, is the good Fortune tone. That's it for
(49:15):
this edition of the show. Follow me at Joshua P. Warren, Plus,
visit Joshuapwarren dot com to sign up for my free
e newsletter to receive a free instant gift, and check
out the cool stuff in the Curiosity Shop. All at
Joshuapwarren dot com. I have a fun one lined up
for you next time, I promise. So please tell all
(49:38):
your friends to subscribe to this show and to always
remember the Golden Rule. Thank you for listening, Thank you
for your interest and support. Thank you for staying curious,
and I will talk to you again soon. You've been
listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
(50:01):
Coast AM Paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Well, if you like this episode of Strange Things, wait
till you hear the next one. Thank you for listening
to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast network.
Welcome to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM paranormal
podcast network. Now get ready for us Strange Things with
Joshua P. Warren.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to our podcast. Please be aware the thoughts and
opinions expressed by the host are their thoughts and opinions
only and do not reflect those of iHeartMedia, iHeartRadio, Coast
to Coast AM, employees of Premiere Networks, or their sponsors
and associates. We would like to encourage you to do
(00:34):
your own research and discover the subject matter for yourself.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ready to be amazed by the wizard of Weird. This
is Strange Thing is Women's Joshua Warren. I am Joshua B. Warren,
and each week on this show, I'll be bringing a
brand new mind blowing content, news, exercises, and weird experiments
(01:17):
you can do at home, and a lot more. On
this edition of the show, my surprise guest, I call
this seventy eight years in Texas. I met my wife
Lauren almost thirty years ago, and we became romantic because
(01:41):
I was well, I don't know, maybe a little bit unprofessional.
I'm not sure. You see, I was hired by a
group to guide a special Haunted bus tour. Only time
this particular tour ever happened, by the way, and she
was a customer. She was a guest on my Haunted
(02:03):
bus tour, and the fact of the matter is she
just could not resist the charismatic, muscular tour guide, and
so I ended up giving her a VIP experience. She
told me that she was from Texas. She was mainly
raised in Katie, Texas, near Houston, and I didn't know
(02:28):
anything about Texas, but I was always interested in Texas,
and so it became clear that, you know, obviously, as
our relationship was developing, I started spending more and more
time in Texas, you know, visiting her folks, and I
was fascinated by some of the conversations with Lauren's father,
(02:50):
now my father in law, a man named Charlie Munson.
He was born in rural Texas the same month and
year as the raw Well crash in New Mexico. Most
people say it was around July of nineteen forty seven,
and Charlie he was in the military, the Air Force.
(03:11):
In fact, Lauren was born in Seoul, South Korea because
of his work there at the time, and then he
worked in the oil business and traveled the world, and
I've just always been interested in his life. And so
I said to Lauren the other day, I said, you know,
your dad is getting close to eighty years old, his
(03:32):
mind as sharp as a tack. I should interview him
and ask him what the heck it was like growing
up in rural Texas back in the nineteen forties and fifties.
So again, his name is Charlie Munson. He lives alone now,
and he said, yeah, I'll be happy to do an interview.
(03:54):
And you know, celebrities contact me every day wanting to
be interviewed to remote a book or a show or
a movie or an event. But I don't usually do
interviews on this show. It's just not my main format
for this show. If you actually listen to this show
on a regular basis, you know that. So I turned
(04:17):
down celebrities every single day. And so when I do
decide to interview someone, I want it to be a
real person. Thus, what you are about to hear is
an interview with a real person. My father in law.
He was born in Texas almost eighty years ago, and
(04:39):
he's going to tell us what that was like. And then,
of course I'm gonna ask him if he knows anything
about oh stuff like maybe the assassination of John F.
Kennedy in Dallas, Texas and the Texas good old boy system.
But look, there's nothing sensation. Well here you're about to
(05:01):
hear the phone call that I had with my father
in law a couple of days ago. And yes, he's
lived all over the place, but he was born in Texas.
He's in Texas now, So I call this seventy eight
years in Texas. Here we go, enjoy. Charlie Munson, Welcome
(05:23):
to the show.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know, Charlie, your daughter Lauren and I started dating
about thirty years ago, so I have known you for
a long time. So where were you born and where
are you now?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
All right?
Speaker 4 (05:45):
I was born in a little town called Mercedes, Texas,
which is Hidalgo County. It's right on the border between
Texas and Mexico. And I'm currently living in a suburb
of Houston called Katie and been here since about two
thousand and nine.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I think it here, Mercedes, Texas. I'm looking it up
right now. I've never heard of it. So you're saying
it was right on the border, Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
On the border. I looked it up just before.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
And I think there's about sixteen thousand people there. You know,
I haven't been down there. We left there when I
was probably a year older, a little bit less.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Okay, So now, what is your birthday?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's July twenty first, nineteen forty seven.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
So that makes you about seventy eight, is that right?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
That's correct now.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
As you probably know, that is the same month and
year when the Roswell crash happened in New Mexico. So
come on, Charlie, what do you know about it?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, not much. I guess maybe they dropped you off
or something. Maybe I bounced sober from New Mexico. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Well that's interesting, all right. Well we'll get back to
to where you are shortly. But you know, as you know,
I was born in North Carolina on the East coast,
and my whole life I grew up hearing about like
like watching westerns with my parents, shows like gun Smoke
and Bonanza and Have Gun Will Travel and the Riflemen,
(07:19):
and so I always considered anything out west to be
out west to me. But when I met Lauren, she said, oh,
Texas is not the old West. It's the South. Well,
I mean, do you consider Texas to be part of
the Old West?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He is part of it.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
I think, you know, the Central Park is probably more western.
If you go to the East Park, Texas, it's more southern.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I grew up in San Antonio, and.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
When we spoke over there, we didn't at that time
have a really much of a Texas accent because we
had a lot of military bases there. There's like thirty
thousand military people there, so we didn't we didn't develop
an accent. I have it now more so than before.
Until I came to Houston, and it was like coming
down south. You know, everybody had a had a down
(08:14):
South accent. So you have to kind of flit Texas
into the central part of Texas is more western and
that's where the ranchers and stuff were. On the east
side is more farming communities.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So seventy eight years ago you were born, and I
guess it's safe to say rural Texas, right, So describe
for us what was it like as a child growing
up in that part of Texas.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It was a lot of fun. Really.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's it's like the old thing they say nowadays. You
know that our kids. We could we left it. You know,
we got up in the morning and then we we left
the house and we came back after dark, you know,
and a dinner.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And that's much the way I was raised. It was
we could.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
We'd be out in the far and you know, we
had wooded woods around the area where we lived in
San Antonio and the park that I remember. Anyway, before
that we kind of lived in the downtown area. But
we just we were We had a creek, we had woods,
we had hills, We had a big gravel pit not
too far from the house, and we could play down
(09:26):
in there that it had been abandoned.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It was like a kid paradise, man. I mean it
was great.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Uh we didn't we of course we we We're pretty
much cowboys, yes, I mean as far as what we
watched on the movies and stuff like that. So we
carried our guns when we were like six and seven
years old, you know, played played cowboys and Indians and
that kind of thing. So it was you know, but
(09:54):
it was a good like It was was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So when you were uh child back then, what would
a treat be like, for example, you know, a birthday
or like a really special day. How how would someone
celebrate you.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Our family didn't really celebrate. I mean we got a cake.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
That was about it. You know, we might get one
gift or something like that. I don't remember off the
top of my head. If nothing stands out in my
mind about it. It was just, you know, kind of
another day for everybody. My family was pretty much hard working.
My dad was anyway, and my mom later on when
she kind of got us into school we started, she
(10:38):
went to work. So it was it was pretty quiet really,
I mean birthdays were Christmas was a little bit more celebration,
you know, and but you know it was not anything
sect tactic or anything.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
At what point did you decide that you wanted to
do so something particular with your life, you know, like
I don't want to be a cowboy or whatever the
cliche is.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
Well, yeah, I went with my uncles just uh we
were I was about twelve years old. I think my
uncles decided or they needed to bring in some spring
cab so they had they had least some land. I
think there was about a thousand acres up near a
little town called Goldie at Texas, and myself.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And my cousin.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
And the two uncles. We left about five point thirty
in the morning and we got to the neil. They
got the horses and we saddled up the horses. They
saddled They saddled up to horses. I did, but they
saddled up to horses. And we went out into the
pasture to bring in the cows because they were having
their little cabs they wanted to. They had to do
(11:52):
some doctoring on them and they had to do some
I think they put some ear tags on them or
something like that. So we brought them in and I
took about all morning and it's real brushy down there,
with a lot of a lot of mesquite trees and
that kind of thing. They're a low mesquite but you
can't see very much. But anyway, we got them all
in and that's when I decided I did not want
(12:14):
to be a cowboy. Yeah, I'm telling you man. I
got run over about fourteen times by the cave. You know,
even the small caves they don't look like much, but
they can they can knock you down pretty good. And
my cousin got drug across the rope one and got
drug across the corral and stuff, you know, So it was.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's when I decided that that wasn't something I wanted
to do. Maybe I ought to use my head.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Time for a break. When we come back, Yes, what
we're getting into. I'm Joshua P. Warren. You're listening to
Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Toast to Toast AM
Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be right back. Welcome
(13:28):
back to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast a m paranormal podcast network. I have your host,
the Wizard of Weird, Joshua P. Warren, beaming into your
worm whole brain from my studio in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada,
where every day is golden and every night is Silver's
(13:51):
yet do zume and if you like this show and
you want me to keep doing it, support It doesn't
cost you any Go to joshuap Warren dot com. Right
there on the homepage you'll see where you can enter
your email address to subscribe to my free and spam
free emails letter. When you do that, you will instantly
(14:14):
receive an automated email from me with some links to
some amazing free online goodies that will help you start
making your life magical. Immediately, and while you're there, check
out the Curiosity Shop. You will find things there that
you won't find anywhere else in the world, I promise you.
(14:36):
Joshuapwarren dot com. Now let's get back to my conversation
with my father in law, mister Charlie Munson. Well, of
course this show is called Strange Things. Were there ever
any ghost stories or legends or such that you heard
growing up back then in those days?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Not really. I mean, uh, I can't think of anything
that my my uncles or my aunts or any of
that kind of thing ever ever talked about.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Nobody was superstitious or anything.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Huh No, not too much.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
They were all you know, my dad's family was really
church oriented. My mother's family not so much, but still
was pretty religious and all that kind of stuff. So
it was one to my one to my mother's place.
We'd go down on Christmas sometime, and it was like
in the nineteen fifties, it was like going into it
(15:42):
was like dropping back into the eighteen hundred. At that
time in that area of Texas, they didn't have electricity.
Uh So we had kerosene lamps, we had wood stoves,
we had wood cook stoves, We had we had water.
We had a windmill and a mistern outside, but no
water in the house, no toilets in the house.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
It was it was just like I guarantee, it was
just like going back, you know, fifty one hundred years
and like eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It was.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It was really I think back about it, it was
really was really an interesting time.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Well, you know, speaking of that again, going back to
like these stories we hear about old gunslingers and whatnot.
I mean, I'm sure when you were a kid or
a young man you met some really old guys who
probably went back to the eighteen hundreds. Did you ever
meet a guy who like killed somebody or had some
kind of wild story.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, my grandfather, he was a sheriff in Leavaca County
back in the early nineteen hundreds, like you know five
stuff like that. He shot a guy in the legs,
was trying to escape, and they would He told the
(17:02):
story of our two brothers who had come into town
and they came into the town square and got a
hotel room that overlooked the town square, and this man
walked through the town square the next day and they
shot him, and so they put him on trial for murder,
and they asked him why that they had shocked this
guy and he had gotten their sister pregnant.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So they actually released them.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
They didn't they didn't convict them. I didn't really meet
I met a lot of cowboys. I mean a lot
of old, old timey cowboys. They used to sit on
My uncle had had an old general store there and
panted a little count all Stanton, and they'd all sit
on the they had benches out front. They'd all sit
on the benches and smoke and talk tell stories. So
(17:49):
I used to listen to those, but I can't remember
too many of them.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Back in the day, everybody used to smoke.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Huh oh, Yeah, yeah it was. I mean you look
at it, you know, you look at some of the old.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Old movies and stuff. I mean they were like chimneys,
they were sweep smoking all the time. But yeah, everybody
was smoking. I mean a lot of the guys that
came back from World War Two, I mean that was
one of I guess the only thing that kind of
calmed their nerves during World War two was you know, smoking,
so that became something they did.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Did you ever get into tobacco.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I smoked a little bit off and on, but I
never got into it. I smoked. I smoked one time
I was I was kind of getting it more into it,
and I went in the office. I bought a pack
of cigarettes, went in the office, and I was doing
my normal stuff in the office, and I smoked an
(18:46):
entire pack of cigarettes in the morning.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So I decided at that point I didn't want to
do that anymore because I couldn't taste anything for the
next Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Man, Yeah, it is amazing, isn't it when you look
back at uh just yeah, the guys who would chew
big old balls of tobacco and like all the baseball players,
and it's like it was, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Put the snuff in between you lift and your teeth,
you know, and then you're you know, unfortunately you get
cancers from it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, So so you you found it enjoyable growing up?
Uh in those days, I mean, like, did you ever
use an outhouse?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, yeah, And when mainly when my grandma and my grandparents,
now you know, you had to go, if you had
to go, there was a fits there was a wire
fence around the main yard, and then there was a barnyard, okay.
And in the barnyard there was a cup of cows,
a couple of milk cows, and there was hog ten
(19:49):
and my uncle kept u I think they kept a
couple of horses. But there was one uncle had that
was he was real pretty sorrel colored horse, but he
was real mean and you had to watch for him
because when you went to the out house, which was
about twenty five yards from the house or something out
in the out in the barn yard area, you had
(20:12):
to watch for him because he'd kind of come after
you had Once time you had to, you had to
you had to kind of sprint out to the good toilet.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know. It's kind of kind of spooky sometimes you're your.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Kids well you know, Uh, I'm just obviously thinking of
questions that are coming up as we talk. But I mean, like,
in your seventy eight years, what is what has been
your your scariest animal encounter.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Uh, that's that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Like I'll give you an example. Twice in my life,
I have walked up on a black bear in the wilderness. Yeah,
and uh, there's nothing in my experience quite like me
standing there looking into the eyes of a black bear
and not knowing what's going to happen next. Uh. I've
never felt a more chilling and cold strike of fear
(21:09):
than that. Uh, you ever had such an encounter?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (21:15):
We were in the creek that was down from my house.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
We used to my.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Friends and I used to go down and we'd we'd
sane along the creek bed to catch minnows. And the
we were walking along and I was I was walking
next to the bank and some and the snake wrapped
around my leg and I jumped about pitting feed up
on the bank so he didn't get a chance to
(21:41):
bite me. I was already out of the water. But
there was water box and all, you know, all around
that creek. And when we used to hunt, h we
used to go fishing down in the little town called
Fan and there's a creek north of the town and
we used to go there and we would take our
fishing poles and we'd also take the twenty two or
(22:02):
four ten shotgun.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
With us and a box of shells.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I mean, we were ten years old, ten twelve years
old and two guys with fish and one guy would
shoot snakes, you know, because the snake is when you
put the corpse in the water.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
When they get the water, the water mockings and start
coming toward it. So we'd shoot and fish at the
same time.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
I was we were walking. At one point, we were
walking toward a low bridge and my cousin yelled snake,
you know, And I said where And I looked down
and he had a shotgun and he shot right in
front of my down in front of my face, and
two pieces of snake went by my head.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
So other than that, I don't think I've had too much.
Other than that, don't.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And I said a few words, I said a few
words that I shouldn't have too But anyway.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, yeah, this is family friendly radio. Uh. So, you know,
before we kind of moved move into your adulthood, I mean,
so you said you had a good childhood. Would you
go back and relive that?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah it was good. I mean, I
mean it was we were we weren't very well off.
We were I would say, in the upper lower class.
I guess, I don't know, And you know, it's that
part of it bothered me a little bit when I
was growing up. But just the life that we had
(23:35):
and where we lived, it was just it was like
just a fun deal, man. I mean every day was okay.
I don't remember ever being I mean when it would
even rain, you know, it was not a bad deal.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Just to stay in the house.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And I had little toy soldiers and stuff and I
played with them and that kind of thing when I
was a kid. But as got older, you know, I
went to a good high school. We got a we
had a really good class kids, and.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It was it was you know, it was enjoyable.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
So how did your life proceed from growing up there
to college, to the military to corporate America? I mean, like,
what's the overall rundown?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Well, you know, I transferred schools by freshman year in
high school because the school of country school that I
was going to lost its creditation with the state, which
is kind of bad, and we I transferred to the
school called Sam Houston.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
All right, time for a break. You are listening to
me the Great and Terrible Joshua. People weren't interviewing my
father in law, Charlie Munson, who is close to eighty
years old, talking about what it has been like to
live in Texas for the past eighty years. And you know,
(24:59):
I think you know where this is going. Yes, we're
gonna we're gonna get into the Texas good old boy
system and see, uh see what he has to tell
us about that. I'm Joshua pe Warren. You're listening to
Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM
Paranormal Podcast Network, and I will be back after these
important messages. Welcome back to Strange Things on the iHeart
(25:59):
Radio and Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. I'm your host,
Joshua Pee Warren, and this is the show where the
unusual becomes usual, and it's kind of a special edition
of the show. As you know, I don't generally do
interviews that often period, but in this particular case, I'm
(26:22):
letting you hear a conversation that I recently had with
my father in law, Charlie Munson, who is seventy eight
years old. He was born in rural Texas. He's in
Texas right now, and we're talking about his life and
whatever he can tell us about what he has experienced
(26:44):
going back for the past well let's just say eighty years.
So back to the conversation.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
I transferred through the school called Sam Houston, and I
really enjoyed myself there I trans with a good friend
of mine from me Central. He was a guy who
lived down the street from me, and he went back
to the school, gained discreditation, he went back, and I
went ahead and stayed in San Houston, and I really
(27:14):
enjoyed it. I played football there and I ran track
and class president, and you know, that was fairly good academically.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
But then from there I went.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
To Trinity University in San Antonio. I don't I'm not
exactly sure how I got a scholarship there, but I did,
which I managed to lose my freshman year with my
grades and partying.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Too much, and.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So I went for about three years and I kind
of my dropped out and got married and went in
the military. I was stationed at Telly Air Force Base,
which is a B fifty two C five A, which
is seven forty seven cargo playing for the military. They
(28:08):
overhauled them there. They had a hangar, there was one
mile in circumference and they could park thirteen B fifty
two s and that thing by just at one time.
But I worked there for about three years and then
I was since Korea kind of got me. I really
(28:28):
liked the orient that was I really enjoyed that area.
Lauren was born in Korea. She was born in If
you watch any mash movies, she was and they talked
about the one hundred and twenty firsty Back Hospital that's
where she was born. And from there I got out
and I went back back to the US and went
(28:50):
to work for Southwest Research Organization and got my degree finally,
and then I went to Houston and that's kind of
started my career in the and engineering, construction and that
kind of thing where I got my went overseas for
about almost twenty years. I was overseas in Southeast Asia,
at least Australia and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So give me, give me a quick list of just
some of the countries you've visited. Were off the top
of your head.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Okay, Well, I've been to Denmark. I've been I've flown
I've flown through Germany. I've been to England. I've been
to Panama. I've been to Mexico. I've been to Saudi Arabia.
I've been to India. I've been to Thailand. I've been
(29:43):
to Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Australia.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
And what what is the weirdest thing. You've eaten.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Birds in this soup, I guess.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I guess people, if you understand what that is and
what is made from it, what is it? It's basically
a bird regurgitating to make the too. It's like a
glue almost, and they use it to when they these
swallows or something in Philippines and areas like that makes
(30:18):
their nets and they so the people climb up these
deals and pull the nest down and then they boil
them and get this food and then make a soup
out of it. But it's it's the sweet taste in
it's almost like it's the same thing as honey. I mean,
bees regurgitate honey. That's the sounds terrible, but that's what
we eat. But this stuff was sweet. It was It
(30:39):
was really good. But oh, I've eaten curry fish head
that that you have a fish that probably would be
the head would be about six or eight inches in circumference,
and it would be in a big bowl with a
bunch of curry and and okra and there's some other
(30:59):
stuff and you put it over rice. Just it's amazing
how much meat's on the head of a fish that,
at least the big ones anyway, One of.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
The reasons that you've got to travel so much is
because you were working in the oil business.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Right, Yeah, basically all in chemistry bit chemical business. We
were engineering archetra company called the KBR and we were
we built uh engineering. Most of the stuff that idea
was was with offshore platforms and that kind of stuff.
Basically I was I was purchasing manager and that kind
(31:32):
of thing for that kind of stuff, the manager.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
So as a man who worked on the inside, how
would you in general describe the oil business?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I think now it's probably.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
It's very profitable for the oil companies. Uh, they're tough.
They're tough customers, they really are. They're they're they're very
into your business all the time and they're sitting among
you all the time.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Uh. They like I.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Said, they're very they're very profitable. They really go into
places that people you know, sometimes you think that that's
really not a good place to go to, but they
do that and they it's probably one of the one
of the places, one of the kind of businesses that
where you are still in the exploration mode, meaning that
(32:25):
you're going into places like Poppi, New Guinea. You're going
into places that you know, like Sudan, and you're going
into you know, you're going into places that in a
lot of cases, you put yourself in harms way.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So how did you find out that John F. Kennedy
had been assassinated?
Speaker 3 (32:42):
I was sitting in.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
It was right before lunch, and I was sitting in
a chemistry class in high school my junior year was
when that happened. We were I don't think we're taking
a tip. We were just doing our normal doing our
I think we were in a lab. We had our
chemistry classes in labs, and I was just you know,
we were all just sitting there and there, all of
(33:07):
a sudden, they made an announcement over the intercom, the
school intercom, saying that he'd been assassinated or that he
had been shot.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
At that time, we only knew that he had been shot.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And did that change the rest of the day.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Yeah, and everything went real quiet. Everybody was really pretty
down about it. You know, it was.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
We weren't we weren't.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
We all thought still kind of had our rose tended
glasses on at that time. We didn't realize people could
be so cynical and do that kind of stuff, you know,
And so it was It was kind of depressing for
the whole rest of the day and a couple of
days after that.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
But they still gave you homework, didn't they. Oh yeah,
nothing's going to stop.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
That, that's right. We actually yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
So, I mean, I mean, obviously, you know, you you
have deep roots in Texas. I mean, have you heard
any rumors about what happened to JFK that you can share?
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Well, just I mean, recently, they finally, I think admitted
that there may have been more than one shooter, you know,
I mean, the government I think admitted that. I don't
know if they did or not, but you know, it
was pretty obvious that if you've ever been around guns,
you've seen things being shot. It was pretty obvious that
(34:30):
he was shot from the front, not the back. At
one point where he lost the back of his head,
you know, where his wife climbed across the trunk trying
to get part of.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
His gold or whatever.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
That's awful, But I mean, it's pretty obvious that maybe
it couldn't have been one shooter, you know, even to
people that looked at him even back then. But you know,
the government claimed and did all their do all their investigation.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Which basically was just a cover up.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I think, Yeah, there's still a lot to be revealed
about that.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Yeah, I don't know why they worry about it at
this point. I mean, you know, we're so far removed
from that now, and uh, they could come clean and
I don't think there would be a big, any kind
of big situation about it.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Well, so you know, the idea is that, you know,
there was obviously a good old boy system in Texas,
and I mean obviously Johnson, his vice president, was from Texas,
and Johnson was involved in a lot of shady dealings
they say, and then and then you know, the whole
thing went down in Texas where a lot of the
(35:42):
military uh industrial complex is rooted that was trying to
ramp up what was happening in Vietnam and all that.
So I mean, do you do you believe that have
you have you seen evidence of some kind of a shady,
good old boy system in Texas that may have had
something to do with it? Okay, I think that is
(36:04):
a good spot for us to stop for our break.
You know, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up really
knowing very little about Texas firsthand. And then when I
met Lauren, of course that all changed, and I've now
spent quite a bit of time in Texas and I
(36:26):
actually did an episode of this podcast, episode two thirty
nine of this podcast called Strange Things, and episode two
thirty nine is called Here's Who Killed JFK? And this
is my opinion, but I think I do a pretty
good job of substantiating it. I you know what, I
don't even think Charlie has U has listened to that,
(36:50):
and I know he's listening to this show. So Charlie, uh,
maybe you should go listen to episode two thirty nine
of this podcast and we can talk a little bit
afterward about what you think. But anyway, when we come
back from this brig, not only are we going to
sort of like see what he thinks about that concept
(37:11):
of the good old boy system in Texas and how
it may it may or may not have applied to
something like the JFK thing, but also like, what's the
conclusion here? I mean, after eighty almost eighty years of life,
what ultimately has Charlie learned? It's fascinating. I'm Joshua Pee Warren.
(37:33):
You're listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast
to Coast AM Paranormal podcast Network, and I will be
right back. Welcome back to the final segment of this
(38:21):
edition of Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
Coast a m paranormal podcast Network. I am your host,
Joshua P. Warren, And here is the conclusion of my
recent conversation with my father in law, Charlie Munson seventy
(38:43):
eight years in Texas. I call it here we go.
Have you have you seen evidence of some kind of
a shady, good old boy system in Texas that may
have had something to do with that?
Speaker 4 (38:58):
It's possible, think I mean, I know Johnson was tied
in the two guys that formed a company called Brown
and Ruthe. There was there was a lot of rumors
about Johnson. They basically bought Johnson, you know, I think
that you know, there's there were several areas where I
don't know if it was a combination of different people,
(39:21):
but I mean, there was there was speculation about the
mafia being involved because he because his brother Attorney General,
was going after the mafia, which basically had helped him
get elected. You know that's rumor I heard or one
roomor you know, Cuban, some Cuban involvement, some mafia involvement.
(39:42):
I don't know, some CIA involvement. I mean, we just
don't know. I don't know why they won't just tell
us what happened.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Was But but you don't have any You've not seen
personally any evidence of such a thing.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
No, no, no, What.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Are your thoughts on the concept of God?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Good question. I was raised.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
I was raised in a very religious family. I kind
of stepped away. I stepped away from I was in
a church probably two times a week or three times
a week, sometimes almost every week of my life until
I was in my late teens. When I was in
my late teens, I kind of stepped away from that,
and I stayed away from it every since. I believe
(40:24):
there is some I mean, it's it's hard for your
mind to think about that. I am sitting here and
I can see my hand, and I can talk to
you on the phone, and your mind can only go
so far and then it stops.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
We can't we.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Can't get past the bail. I guess I think there's
something up, you know, something somewhere that's more powerful than
what we are. And I do pray, but I don't
I don't go to church.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Uh, I don't. I don't need that institution to believe
what I believe.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
And I yeah, I just, I just I feel like
if there is a God, and then it's between he
and I and and nothing else. I don't need anybody
in between. I don't need I don't need to go
to church.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
To have it, have that.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Communicational I guess the best way to put it, I
don't need anybody in the intervening for me.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
So you don't. You don't really try to define what
it is. It's just a sense that you have.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Huh, it's a sense that I have.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I mean, you know, I we had to come from somewhere.
I mean, but then but then your mind goes to
the fact that if we did, if something, if something
is there that is more powerful than a then what
created that? You know, I mean, somebody had to create God.
(42:08):
I guess I don't know. I mean, I don't I'm
not sure. I don't know if we all flowed away
and become part of the ether and you know, just
kind of float around or what, you know. I'm not
afraid of death or anything. I'm you know, I'm afraid
of how I died.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't. I'm just not afraid of death. I don't.
I don't believe in hell. I'm sorry, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
I can't imagine a god that would do that to
someone or anybody, no matter how bad they are.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
So I believe that if there's.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
I think they whatever it was that that created us
or created this world or created this universe, he put
it in motion and that's it. He doesn't put his
finger in there and stopped this and move that and
change this, and you know, stop stop this from happening.
That doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
It's our choice. You know. We we make our own misery.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
If we are our our happiness, we do that ourselves.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Charlie Munson, what a great father in law. I agree,
Thank you sir for being on the program. And uh,
I agree with your conclusion that you've reached there. And
you know, it's like we can all overthink things, but
(43:30):
I mean, it's it's kind of interesting to just stop
and pause and accept the simplicity of of what's true
and what's not. So I just you know, I'm glad
that I was able to bring that conversation to all
of you so that we could learn from from this
man's experience. M I still have some time left though,
(43:57):
I still have some time left to feel. I don't
know what to do. I was kind of thinking maybe
that conversation was going to take up the show, but no, no,
there's still I have an idea. All right, all right,
get ready, I haven't done this in a while. See
(44:19):
if you can guess what is about to happen. Okay,
you're ready. I'm taking off my microphone, headset and stuff,
and I'm going to put it down. All right, here
we go. How horrible is that? That is the Aztec
(44:53):
death whistle? And sometimes I get the funniest emails from
people when I, uh, when I play that or when
or when I blow that, because they say I was
dozing off. I like people like to go to sleep
to talk radio, and that that kind of wakes him
(45:16):
up out of it. Your ASTech death was I've never
blown it like right into the microphone. Let's see how
this sounds. It's actually not nearly as bad when it's close.
It's worse when you stand back. Oh well, I got
(45:44):
an email from a guy in Texas and he listened
to one of my shows, Episode two sixty two of
this podcast called strange things ghost Writers in the Sky,
and also it's kind of interesting because it's it's called
ghost Writers in the Sky and the strange case of
Audrey Munson. As far as we know, there's no relationship
(46:07):
between Charlie Munson and my in laws and Audrey Munson.
But if you don't know who Audrey Munson is, go
back and listen to episode two sixty two of this podcast. Anyway,
I was talking about ghost Writers in the Sky and
this fella he emailed me and he is in Corpus Christie.
(46:29):
His name is Martin, he said, mister Warren, my name
is Martin Blah. I don't want to give his last name.
He says. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. I'm a
cross country truck driver and I took the attached photos
back in twenty eighteen. I have never let anyone see
these photos for fear of being labeled a nutjob and
(46:49):
losing respect from family and friends. Well join the clubs here,
he says. I found your podcast several weeks ago and
have been binge listening from episode one. I am currently
on episode seventy five listening to your fans sending emails
about their experiences and the respect you give these folks
(47:10):
is phenomenal and inspiring. I decided to send these pics
to you to get your response. I don't know if
you'll be able to see what I see, so here goes.
If your opinion deems these photos worthy of speaking about
or showing them to a broader audience, please use them
as you wish. Sincerely, Martin, and he gives his phone
(47:31):
number as well. He says, these photos were taken just
southeast of Amarillo, Texas, on US two eighty seven. I
took them with an iPhone. I don't remember the model number.
I remember holding the phone out of the window of
my truck. If you need to contact me, blah blah blah,
thank you and have a blessed day. And then a
nice email, and he sent me some pretty crazy looking
(47:52):
pictures of the sky, you know, of like just but
see the thing is like I can't even really you
photo analysis anymore because that everything is just it's too
complicated now, you know, with drones and AI. So I
(48:14):
took his images and I sent them to Mobius, and
Mobius he's up on the latest and the greatest and
the cutting edge of all that. So We'll let you
know if we come up with anything that's noteworthy, but
thank you for sending those to me. All right, guess
what I've killed enough time. It is now time for
(48:36):
us all to take a deep breath. If you can
close your eyes, let us meditate together on making the
next week the best week ever for all of us. Here,
my friends, is the good Fortune tone. That's it for
(49:15):
this edition of the show. Follow me at Joshua P. Warren, Plus,
visit Joshuapwarren dot com to sign up for my free
e newsletter to receive a free instant gift, and check
out the cool stuff in the Curiosity Shop. All at
Joshuapwarren dot com. I have a fun one lined up
for you next time, I promise. So please tell all
(49:38):
your friends to subscribe to this show and to always
remember the Golden Rule. Thank you for listening, Thank you
for your interest and support. Thank you for staying curious,
and I will talk to you again soon. You've been
listening to Strange Things on the iHeartRadio and Coast to
(50:01):
Coast AM Paranormal podcast network.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Well, if you like this episode of Strange Things, wait
till you hear the next one. Thank you for listening
to the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal podcast network.
Host
Joshua P. Warren
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com