The Creepy Parlour, 25, with Roxie Zwicker

Genevieve welcomes Roxie Zwicker to the Creepy Parlour to chat about ghosts, New England Curiosities and all sorts of spooky things!

Episode Transcript

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Warning. The following video contains stronglanguage which may be offensive to some viewers
and or inappropriate for children. Thecontent within this video is intended for mature
audiences only. Welcome to the CreepyParlor, where we delve into the dark

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side with an undercurrent of lighthearted fun. Our discussions will explore gothic mecca or
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Happy Hour where you can join usfor a group conversation that focus on ghosts,
weird events, urban legends, andmore. Here at the Creepy Parlor

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subject matter Lady spooky, but ourspirits are high. You can catch the
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Good evening, everybody, and welcometo the Creepy Parlor. I'm Genevieve,
and I'm absolutely delighted that you've onceagain decided to spend the evening with
us. Tonight, I have avery special guest. Her name is roxy
Is Wicker and she is known asMain's Mystery Maven. She's been entertaining locals
and visitors from Away and Curious Soulsince nineteen ninety four. Her company is

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New England Curiosities, located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and she's been offering
award winning tours, presentations and specialevents since two thousand and two based New
England's folklore and ghost stories. Andyou guys know I'm all about ghost stories,
so I'm super excited about this tonight. Roxy's TV appearances include The New
Hampshire Chronicle, New England Cable News, the History Channel and the Travel Channel.

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So. Roxy's also a published authorof eight books at Delve into History,
Legends and Lore, and her websitecan be found at New England Curiosities
dot com. So enough of me, let's bring Roxy on. Hello.
Hello from one creepy parlor to theother. Welcome, Thank you so much.

(02:35):
I'm so excited to be here.I am. I'm so happy that
you're here. It's still very brightin my creepy parlor because the sun is
still hasn't fully set here. Itactually hasn't fully set here, but I
have my ways of blocking out thelight. I mean, maybe I need
to take you up on that.I need to take some advice. So

(02:57):
hello to our friends that are watchingJillian, Hi DJ, Hello everybody,
let's get Roxy's information going up alongthe bottom. We got her website here,
excellent. So I just read yourintro, your bio, which is
a lot of information, but I'msure you can summarize it better than I

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can. You know, It's it'sso hard, you know. I stop
in at you know, various eventsor places where people don't know me,
and they're like, so hey,what do you do? And I'm like,
oh, God, Like, howdo I put this into you know,
a ten second speech? Um?If I had to recreate what I
do, I probably could not evenfigure it out. But I am an

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author of many books on only goosestories in folklore, I've read old curiosities,
and I'm based in a beautiful ancientNew England city from sixteen twenty three
called Sportsmith, and it's like livingin a haunted postcard. So I do
as much as I can to sharehistory, folklore, legends and lore.

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I's been a lot of time incemeteries, and I really I love to
sort of bring people to the edgeand have them ponder, you know,
the existence of spirits, what's goingon on the other side. And I
will tell you my absolute favorite thingis when people will share their own spirited
experiences with me, and that's reallyhandling curiosities. Got started back in the

(04:26):
day. This was not my intent. I had a real job a lot
time ago, and this was apart time job. It was actually a
fundraising gig, and it just reallyblossomed to a full time job because everybody,
I'm sure as you know, willpull you aside and say, oh,
hey, you know, have youchecked out this haunted place or my
grandma told me a ghost story aboutthat, and it was like just so

(04:49):
overwhelming. So now it's it's mylife. But I mean, I live
and read this twenty four seven.Oh, that's awesome. That's that you
are living the dream, my friend, You're absolutely living the dream. Try
It's funny too, because you know, a lot of times after a ghost
tour, people will will tip youor something like that. For me,

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it's even cooler if they tell youa ghost story, like I'd rather have
that than anything else. It's thebest tip because then that story lives on.
You're so connected to that person,you know. I was told ghost
stories fifteen sixteen years ago that Iremember like from five minutes ago. Yeah,
it's just it stays with you andyou know. I love when people

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say I'm not crazy, but I'vegot that's your favorite. Yes, I'm
not crazy about it. I'm like, no, let's be crazy together.
Or my favorite is I don't believein this stuff, but let me tell
you a ghost story. Yes,absolutely, I get that a lot.
I don't believe in any of thiscrap, but let me tell you.

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Or they'll like pull you aside fromeverybody else and you're like, oh,
can I talk to you? AndI'm like, you're sure. So you've
been doing this for a really longtime, right, Yeah, it has
been a really long time. WhenI stepped back and look at when I
really first got into sort of doingthis as a as a job, I

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actually, it's gonna sound crazy,but I actually took a part time job
back in the nineties climbing on aHey ride wagon riding through the Cranberry Bogs
just outside of Plymouth, Massachusetts,off into the woods to tell ghost stories.
That commitment, and it was somuch fun. It didn't even feel

(06:40):
like commitment because it was the onlyjob interview I've ever gone on where they
asked me how loud I could screamand ask me to demonstrate, and that
helped me get the job, soI was like, I'm in whatever I
have to do to get this job. So um, I did that for
a few years. Absolutely loved it. The people I worked with or just
as easy as I was. Youknow, we always tried to outscare each

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other. For anybody that came onthe tours, we really tried to freak
them out. And then the propertywas taken by Eminent Domain to build a
highway and that ended that. Soit was it was a great run.
And then when I moved up here, um, just over twenty years ago,
I decided to get involved with somelocal history. It got involved with

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our local lighthouse and I said,you know, this is a wacky idea,
but we need to do a fundraiserin the fall. How about a
couple of ghost walks And they justlike took off. I could not believe
it. And this was this wasa city that really nobody was doing anything
in and had all this great architectureand you know, all these great layers

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of history. So from there itjust sort of spun into a couple of
tours, then eventually a book,then a TV appearances. Then my daytime
job started to whittle itself down tomatch the tours. Like I conscious.
He was like, you know,if I can make this work, if
I can make exactly what I wasmaking in the cubicle, then I'm gonna
I'm gonna make the jump. AndI did. Um And he bowls a

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reminual later of you know, manygrill cheese sandwiches. Now I make exactly
that I was making in the cubicle, and I'm so much happier. Oh
that's wonderful. You give me hope. Yes, you can too do it?
So um, back when you firststarted, what was your Do you
have a favorite? You have aum like a story that like really sticks

(08:33):
stuck with you from then or well, you know it was it was really
funny because you know, we weredoing tours for the lighthouse and it's one
of the oldest light stations in thecountry. It goes back to the seventeen
hundreds, and I was like,wow, you know, there's there's gonna
be some great ghost stories here.So we, you know, go buy
the lighthouse and look out to theaisles of shoals and told all sorts of

(08:54):
ghost stories. But who knew thelighthouse I was standing at was actually haunted
like, I had no idea,and it's on an active Coastguard base.
So the Coastguard we're like, areyou telling ghost stories? And I'm like
yeah, They're like, we actuallyhave a few for you. Are you
serious? And I was thinking tomyself, all right, you know they're
working long hours. Are they makingthis up for Then I'm like, no,

(09:16):
they can't be making this up.So we started to really notice that
there was a lot going on atthe lighthouse. Honestly, who knew.
And one of the best stories thatI can share with you is one that's
actually going to stay with me therest of my life. It's one of
those turning points where you're like,Okay, there is no way you can

(09:37):
convince me that there are not spirits. I met a lovely woman, and
I'm going to try to give youthe reader's die, just condensed version,
tell us everything. I met anabsolutely lovely woman. Her name was Connie
Small. She was the last civilianlighthouse keeper's wife, and I met her
when she was one hundred years old. Wow. And she had kept stations

(10:00):
all up and down the main coast, rough desolate stations where really it was
just her and her husband, andit was a hard life, but she
didn't seem to think, so sheabsolutely loved it. So she kind of
Portsmouth in nineteen thirty. She wasvery excited. It was the first station
that had electricity. She bought everyelectric amply and she could find. She
plugged them all at once, turnedthem all at once, and when on
an electricity binge. She always hadamazing stories like ones you were like,

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oh my god, how did yousurvive that? So um She lived at
a seniors is in a home inPortsmouth, which, by the way,
is meg crazy haunted. I actuallyhave an entire file on this building from
the building itself, not yet shewas living in was also haunted. Like
you you can't throw a stone andnot hit a haunted building on the sea

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coast. So it was really funnyshe's in this, you know, this
fabulous building. And I used togo and visit her as often as I
could, just to hear her tellstories just so inspiring. So she passed
at the age of one hundred andthree. I think there's like some preservative
to that main salt air, likeshe didn't look a day over Eighty's absolutely
said she didn't have to deal withpeople, maybe who knows who could be.

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So when she passed away, activityreally seemed to happen a lot more
at the lighthouse, and we alreadyhad a lot going on there. So
we decided that we were going todo an overnight investigation with the Coastguard.
And we're there and you know,we were in the tower and everything was
great. We're picking up on allsorts of stuff. It was a beautiful

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August night. However, we decidedbefore we were going to leave to actually
go inside the keeper's house, whichis not open to the public, and
the Coastguard gave a special which youto go in, so we go in.
We're in this little tiny Hong Way. It's gonna be two thirty in
the morning. There's just a fewof us, and there's a psychic medium
that's with us, and she says, I'm channeling this spirit. She's very

(11:58):
friendly. It feels like she justpassed and I'm like, wow, that's
it's kind of cool. You know, Connie passed like four months ago.
I'm like nah. And then she'slike no, when you're here, it
feels like, you know, you'retelling her story and I'm like hmm.
And then she's like, well,she's oh wait, wait, goosebumps,

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hold on, and she's like she'sreaching out her hand as if she wants
to say thank you, and I'mlike, oh, well, you know,
you know, I'm up in thelantern room and I tell the story
of Connie Small all the time duringthe open houses, and I'm like,
I wonder. But then the mediumsays she's holding something in her other hand.

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Of course, curiosity killed the cat, and I'm like, what is
she holding and she says, well, because they look like flowers, and
I'm like, hmmm, because shedescribed those a little bit. She's well,
I don't know what the ashes,but I think they have large pink
buds. At that moment, Ihave more than goosebumps, because when I

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went to Connie's funeral, and itwas really weird, like I was not
related to this woman, but Ifelt such a connection that I went to
her funeral. I bought her abunch of pink tulips and the minister asked
me what I wanted to do withthem, and I was really awkward.
I was like crying. It wasridiculous, and I was the last one
standing there and he says, whydon't you put those in the coffin with

(13:22):
her. And when the medium hadsaid she was holding pink tulips, that's
exactly what I had bought her.It was April. And at that moment,
sort of as that light bulb wenton in my head, the medium
fainted. The chair that she wasstanding next to flipped over. There was
a picture taken on the floor,and there was a face in the floor.

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And you know, sometimes you walkinto a room, you almost can
feel the walls closing in, yelike, and they're not closing it,
but you can feel that energy justpushing in on you and you can feel
it. It was so thick,like time stopped. So the medium knew
nothing about this lovely woman. Andwe picked her up and you know,

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now it was like three am.We brought her down into the kitchen and
I told her about this lovely woman, Connie Small, and she could not
believe she's like everything that you've described, you know, that's what I was
picking up on. So we weregetting ready to leave. As if that
wasn't enough, we're getting ready toleave or go. Yeah, there's more

(14:26):
story of my life. Like it'snever you know, it's never one quick
story. There's always like all theselayers. So we're going out to the
car. We're packing everything up,and what had been a beautiful, clear
night, absolutely gorgeous. You couldsee all the stars. We're at the
base of the lighthouse where our carsare parked, and all of a sudden

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you see this fog and it comesin across the Atlantic. We're right at
the right at the edge of theAtlantic Ocean, at the mouth of the
river, and this fog goes uparound the lighthouse tow It almost is like
in this corkscrew of a spiral.So we drop everything. We opened up
the lighthouse, we run up thespiral staircase, we go out onto the
gallery, which is the walkway aroundthe lantern room, and you're looking down

(15:13):
and the light of the lighthouse isgreen. So it's this beautiful green lens
around the lamp, and you couldsee it was almost like this green,
swirling vapor was enveloping the lighthouse.It wasn't out to see, it wasn't
on the river. It was allaround us. And some pop that said,
that is how the spirits are sayinggoodbye. As soon as they said

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that the fog was gone, itwas clear it didn't move out to the
river. It did move out overthe ocean, and again that close feeling
was there. So we went backdown, got in the cars. I
couldn't sleep at all. That wasand then it was probably two thousand and

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six when that had happened. AndI tell that story from from time to
time, and there's something about it, and it's gonna sound really weird,
probably not to you, but it'sgonna sound really weird. Like, you
know, every time I talk aboutConnie, I feel like she's she's close.
Um. I feel like in thatmoment when I'm describing the lighthouse and

(16:22):
her life, which there's just somuch you could talk about, that she's
alive in that moment, like it'slike she's right here, um. And
I feel that when I talk aboutit, so it's um. It's really
just one of the most incredible experiencesthat I've ever had, and I had
it very early on here on theseacoast, you know, all I've been
doing tours for about four or fiveyears, and it was it Still it

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still stays with me. If I'mon site out of the lighthouse or the
four or um at the local parkwhere you can see the lighthouse. Sometimes
I just start crying, like,and I drive when you were talking about
it, it's crazy. And she'sshe's buried up in Machias, Maine,
which is very far from where Iam. I am gonna go up and

(17:08):
visit her grave over the next year. And she was just the absolutely most
sweetest, kindest woman. She hadno children, and her life was one
of the most amazing. Like sometimesyou meet somebody and you're like, oh
my god, I'm never gonna meetanybody like that again. And you know,

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she she had this great motto andI always sort of end her story
with the very first time she wasgoing out to a lighthouse. It was
a lighthouse in the middle of ariver. The river's rushing by, it's
way up in Maine, and she'sin this little tiny boat and it's rocking
and she's gonna climb on this ladderand she's very afraid. She was with
her future husband to be and he'slike, yeah, come on, we

(17:51):
gotta get in this lighthouse. Andit's me literally surrounded by rushing water,
and she's like, I don't thinkI can do it, and he's like,
you gotta grab on in that ladder. You're gonna do it, and
she said, she grabbed onto thatladder and she looked up and she never
looked down. And she said thatbecame her motto for life, like no
matter what happened, she'd always lookup and never looked down. And I
was like, that's it, youknow, it's just simple business from an

(18:15):
absolutely brilliant woman. So she hadsuch an impact on me, and I
know, um, we still havethis very strange connection. I can't explain,
but that's probably one of the Imean, one of the most amazing
things that have ever happened to mein doing what I do. That is
an incredible story. And I I'mguessing that you now believe that you believe

(18:37):
in ghosts, but I always,I always have. I had some experiences
when, you know, when Iwas a kid, and a few times
when I was a teenager, andobviously I have them from time to time
now being in all of these hauntedplaces and you know, experiencing you know,
all sorts of different things. Butthat was one where, you know,

(18:57):
again, it was just so overwhelming. I mean, it was you
could totally you knew it was her. You could not see her, and
everything about her was just so vibrantin that moment, it's like you expect
just to turn over and see herright behind you, like you knew she

(19:18):
was there. It's crazy to explainwhat a gift, what an incredible gift
she gave you. Yeah, Iam. I'm always It's been such a
long time now, but I'm alwaysjust so humbled by knowing this woman.
Like I just I feel so luckyto have met her. Wow, that's
that's just such an amazing story.And I think people underestimate just how much

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how much story you can get youjust just with talking with people, just
randomly talking with people, especially peoplethat have gone through so much. She
was what one hundred and three,you said, hundred and three when she
passed. It's amazing, absolutely amazing, and she actured all over the country
in her eighties. She climbed outa plane by herself and talk about her
a lighthouse life. Wow. LikeI you know, I hope I can

(20:08):
at least tell a story when I'mmade, like I put together words and
string together some from coherent sentence whenI'm eighty. But she was incredible,
and uh, you know, justin the past few minutes she was just
alive with us here. I couldfeel, Yeah, I mean I was
getting goosebumps. My eyes were gettinga little bit teared up, which is
like you know that that feeling thatyou get when there's a when there's a

(20:33):
spirit around. Wow, that's that'sjust unbelievable. Yeah, incredible, incredible
story. Absolutely um so that Iwould that be your your favorite story?
Do you think? Oh god,there's so many favorite stories. So um

(20:53):
so. We have in Portsmouth wehave a very old barrel ground. It's
from about the sixteen seventies or so. It's called the Point of Graves.
It's it's about an acre big,but it's like chock full of all kinds
of stuff and um you know,it has the great skulls and crossbones and
a lot of the gravestones were carvedin England and shipped over and there's like

(21:14):
all these great layers of history.It's in the old Red Light District.
I mean, honestly, what more? You got everything? Oh my god,
Porson like Porto has everything. LikeI was like, why is no
one doing tours of this fabulous becauseit was waiting for you somehow. You
know. It's it's uncanny, ButI think that may have possibly been at
I don't doubt it. So thePoint of Graves is actually pretty amazing.

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Like we go in for our Shadowsand Stones tour, which is like,
you know, an hour and ahalf, and it seems like how could
you even spend an hour and ahalf in here, Like it's just this
little divvy place, but um,it's the realm of Elizabeth Pearce and she
is one of the resident spirits that'sthere. And it's so interesting because when

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I first discovered her story, Icouldn't believe that it was so far reaching.
It's interesting because when she died inseventeen seventeen, she died from consumption
which like tuberculosis. She was fortytwo, she had nine kids. Yeah,
I'm like, whoa, but familieswere big back then, like I

(22:23):
couldn't even imagine, like one isa handful, thank you very much.
And when she passed away, shewas buried at the Point of Graves,
but about fifteen or twenty years lateranother burial ground was established, which now
is hidden in talents behind a wholebunch of at sort of nineteen sixties hour

(22:44):
houses. Really can't see it unlessyou're looking for it, and that's the
Pierce Family Burying Ground. So it'sa lot of the descendants. And when
I was in there on a beautifulAugust afternoon and I'm just you know,
walking around taking pictures of gravestones aregorgeous. And I walked away from Elizabeth
Stone as very pronounced death sead onit. It's actually the logo that we
have for oil and Curiosities. AndI'm walking away and it's, you know,

(23:08):
sunny, it's beautiful, and allof a sudden, I feel someone
reach out and grabbed my shoulder.Wasn't a tap, it was like one
of those hayk mire So I turnedaround and I'm like, okay, trees
are tall. I'm sure it's nota tree. My husband was at the
cemetery gate, who was the onlyone there, and he's way over and

(23:32):
I said, honey, hike,I think something just touched me. It's
scary when that happens. Yes,yes it is. And my husband,
you know, looks down, looksat me. It says, roxy,
you're the only one down there.Now you're not, so you're brave to

(23:55):
our guy who's written all these booksand does all this stuff, ran out
of the cemetery across the street.It happens to me one time on my
tour and it shook me up.I mean, like, you know,
you know there's ghosts in there,like you just know it. Yeah,
but then when something happens to you'relike, wait a minute, hold on
here, that's not in the rulebook. You're not all I can touch

(24:18):
me. Nobody told me that wasgonna happen. Yeah, so, um,
you know, I'm on the sidewalkof my house. Was like,
well, you know, roxy youknow it's haunted, and I'm like yeah,
but like but there's rules, likeyou like, what are you talking
about? So I'm like I'm like, okay, you know, phantom footsteps,
all that stuff, like I knewh So we're in there and that's

(24:44):
like a couple of weeks later,and there's a girl, she's probably like
maybe eight, maybe nine, andwe're walking around. The first thing I
said, I'm like, you know, to her mom, like listen,
it's kind of spooky in there.It's dark, you know, there's these
creepy gravestones. I'm like, she'sgonna be okay, I swear to god.
Her mom's like she looks old cemeteriesand I'm like, where were you

(25:07):
when I was eight? And weeks. I know, I know, I
get those kids too, and I'mlike, oh man, we would have
been great friends, Like this wouldhave been a thing. So we're we're
in there, and we're a fewgrave stones over from Elizabeth. You know,
he's really fabulous. You know,skulls and crossbones are absolutely I'm giving
the history and like why they lookso spooky. So this girl makes a

(25:33):
beeline over to Elizabeth's grave and Ihadn't said anything about her. She looks
down stone, she looks back atall of us, and she says,
you know, she's very lonely andsad. Oh. I'm like, oh,

(25:53):
okay, um, well, andof course, you know, at
first, I'm like, okay,you know, does Bruce Willis know he's
dead? Like icy dead? Peoplelike that all Like I'm going like,
hopefully you've all seen that movie spoileralert if you haven't seen it by now,
like you're late on the bust.And then of course I realized,

(26:15):
and you know, I had someexperiences when I was young as well.
Um, kids, imagine our friendsmany times there goes like we hear it
all the time. You know,kids are very easily dismissed by people because
they don't always understand, or theydon't want to believe it, or they
don't want to stear the kid.Ye, So I said, you know,
wow, there's you know, there'sjust so much going on here.

(26:37):
So we started to make a pointto visit Elizabeth to do some dowsing things
like that. And now I canlike walk down the street in Portsmouth and
like some random person will come upto me and say, you know,
I just visited Elizabeth's grave and thishappened, and I'm like, who are
you? Like they just it's weird. It's so weird. I get emails

(26:57):
from people who sat and had lunchat her grave. Oh, it's it's
amazing because people feel very connected toher. It's very strange. So,
um, last last Friday was mylast cemetery tour and I'm here and I'm
walking across the burial ground and I'mlike, look at that and we walk

(27:18):
over and um, I actually posteda picture of it. You can see
it. It's probably a few postsdown on my page. There was a
note on Elizabeths grave, which isreally not all that uncommon. Um,
and it said, uh, youknow, Elizabeth had had the date had
some little hearts drawn on it fromso and so and so and so,
and it was placed on the grave. This little letter is all folded up,

(27:41):
a little piece of wood on it, and you know, I'm gonna
leave it out with somebody's message toElizabeth, you know whatever it is.
Um And I was like her story, it just it doesn't stop. I
could give you fifty examples of howmany people who have had experiences with her
that we're even on a tour withus, let alone all the ones that

(28:02):
have been. It's so interesting.I wonder if like that energy, like
the attention that gets paid to hergrave, to her now sort of gives
that gives her more energy or morelife. You are correct, because she
feels that when you stop at hergrave, whether you're on a tour or

(28:22):
you're just looking at the beautiful carving. Again, she's got that Death's head
with the with the hour glass andit's just so amazing. So if you're
stopping, she kind of feels likeyou're visiting with her. Yeah, and
she's also the go to spirit that'sin there, so if we have an
issue in another grave in there,you know, sometimes people will pick up

(28:45):
on something, or they'll hear somethingor they're drawn to a grave and I
have my dowsing rose. I'll askElizabeth, you know what else we need
to know about that, or wherewe need to go, or sort of
more information about that. And she'salways the one you know when something comes
up. She always seems to bethat connection. So I very much think
you know that she's some sort ofbridge. I don't think she's stuck here.

(29:10):
I think that she chooses to behere. And I've actually used my
dowsing rods far away from the pointof graves and still been able to talk
to her. So I'm going toput up your your logo real quick.
St everyone can see that you're referringto. So that's her. That's her
gravestone skull with the hourglass perched ontop of the skull, and in person

(29:34):
you can actually see the little chipsat the bottom of the hourglass to show
you that time has run out forElizabeth. So um I. After I
had that initial experience with Elizabeth andthings really started to progress, I changed
our logo from gravestone in Ipswich,Massachusetts to Elizabeth's to sort of honor her

(29:55):
in her story. And I talkabout her all the time. U he's
on the other side, but shejust feels like a friend that I haven't
seen. We have lots of ghostfriends, don't we. Um, I'm
gonna we have to have to takea quick break, so we'll get back
to ghost friends in one in afew minutes. M ward h M.

(32:54):
So we have a lot to talkabout. We only have another half an
hour left before we get back intoit. I just want to mention to
everybody, please check out the othercontent artist here on WLFE dashdv dot com.
You can also check us out onstream TV and also on checkout Psychomantium
thirteen, Psycho Bunny DC, PsychoBunny Death Cult and PBDCTV. Lots of

(33:16):
great content on both networks. UM, something for everybody literally all over these
these networks. So please check usout, like, follow, share and
do all that good stuff. Soand also check out Roxy. She's also
got a Facebook page as well.Right, excellent. UM, so let's

(33:36):
get back into it because we hadto do such a quick stop. UM.
I hear you talking about dowsing rods. Do you use them often?
So? Um on our cemetery tour, I like to use them. Um,
I really like sort of surprise peoplewith that, because people over the
years have always asked, you know, well, I watch all those ghost

(33:57):
shows and I know I'm gonna pictures, am I'm gonna get tonight, and
I'm like, you know, Idon't know if it goes through, we're
gonna, like you I don't knowhow the planets are lined up. You
know, I do check astrology,but I'm not sure where we're at right
now. So with the constant,you know, people wanting to really experience

(34:19):
a spirit and sort of my experiencesthat I've had with Elizabeth, I said,
you know, let's do something reallydifferent. So Um, my friend
Um susan schooler is president of theMassachusetts Housing Society. She's absolutely amazing.
She doesn't even need rods, Likeshe's her own rod. People will hire
her and she'll walk a property andshe'll be like, all right, so

(34:40):
you're gonna dig fifty feet right here, and you're gonna eighty pounds of water
pressure. Here's my bill, andlike she's right every time, Like she's
she's an enigma. She's absolutely amazing. I'm not that good. So she
made me um rods and she lecturesall over the world. She's absolutely amazing.
She knows the story of Elizabeth,and I said, you know what,
here's what we're going to do onthe cemetery tour. So we bring

(35:02):
people in, obviously there's a lotto talk about. We get over to
Elizabeth. I do the dowsing withElizabeth. You know, I like to
ask a lot of questions to givepeople an opportunity to really sort of just
see how the rods work. I'mlike, you know, it's not me,
like, it's truly the rods.However, this is where I sort

(35:22):
of throw a twist in it.So on the cemetery tour, people are
thinking they're going to come in hereabout ghosts. However, I will then
turn around and ask Elizabeth who onour tour walked in with a spirit?
And I am a firm believer thatwe all have spirits, we all have
people around us for a whole varietyof reasons. So then you can see

(35:44):
the tension hit the crowd, likepeople are like, wait a minute,
I came here and here about ghostLike what I don't want to talk about
my ghosts? They're like, waita minute. And then, you know,
I always give people an option,like you know, if you're if
you don't want to, you know, obviously you don't have to, but
I do have you know these typesof spirits that are here. So once

(36:04):
we sort of established that, thenI'll ask people, you know, well,
do you want to know more aboutthe spirit that's with you? So
again using Elizabeth as the bridge,and I always try to ask Elizabeth too,
like who really wants to know aboutthe spirit that's with them? And
I let the rods indicate, youknow, in the group who really is
interested, and then it's always funnywho comes forward. So from that point,

(36:25):
what we'll do is I'll have themask a couple of questions out loud.
But then I'll be like, youknow what, you don't even have
to say anything. You just thinkyour questions and I'll tell you what the
rods say. So now you've gota sense of someone who is standing in
a group of people. They probablydon't know a lot of folks, but

(36:47):
now you have a sense that youcan actually communicate with the spirit in whatever
manner you want, and you canask whatever questions you want, be them
personal that maybe you don't want somebodyto hear. But it also gives me
an opportunity to just say Hey,you know, I know you've just asked
a question because this is what therods are saying. So I really like

(37:07):
to show the rods in a wholeother way. And if they want to
hold the rods, be my guest. That's all you got to use them.
You hold the rods. But I'dreally like to sort of turn that
expectation on. It's here where peoplewant to come in. Of course,
you don't have to just go toa burial ground to find spirits. We
get them all over the place inPortsmo. They're everywhere. But also contemplate

(37:29):
you might have a spirit with you, and there could be a very important
reason why they're with you, andif you want to delve into that,
absolutely let's do that. And that'sanother reason why people feel so strongly connected
to Elizabeth, because she's our conduitin that sense as well. So it's
almost like they get a small littlereading when they go on your tour nice

(37:52):
and they don't see it come in. They don't know what's going to happen.
Do you do other other types ofreadings? I do. So I've
been reading tarot cards for like thirtyyears. I've been reading them professionally for
twenty. I teach people how toread, so I do some mediumship as

(38:13):
well, so a little bit ofall of that. I really enjoy teaching
people how to read for themselves becauseI think we all have intuition that sometimes
just needs to be brought forward.And then that gives people an opportunity can
we keep with spirits or understand signsand messages that are coming to them as
well. So it's funny though,to be one percent transparent with you.

(38:34):
I actually kept them separate for awhile. For probably the first ten years
of knowing and curiosities. I didn'twant people to know I did readings,
like I kind of like kept itover here, and you know, people
knew I did readings, they'd cometo me. But I soon decided,
you know, they overlap all thetime, like they always there's no way

(38:54):
to keep them separate. So um, yeah, so now it's just all
it's all part and partly curiosities.Oh that's awesome, and it's such a
great thing to do because you canreally help people through that too. That's
the best part. Yeah. Ihave a very dear friend of mine who
is a medium, and she's she'sbeen on the show, but We also

(39:15):
collaborate from time to time with ghostTours, so we do the tour and
she'll do like little readings as theycome up, like kind of gallery style
readings. It's a really fun,really fun collaboration. It's super rewarding.
It is it is, and it'ssomething different, Like you know, people
are always looking for something above andbeyond like the just the regular ghost tour.

(39:37):
Um. It's not that the regularghost tour isn't spectacular, because they
are, absolutely, but people dowant more sometimes, so it's nice to
be able to offer that well.And it's funny I find that, you
know, out of all the differenttours that I do, so I do
nine different tours between. Oh wow, I didn't realize you did that many.

(39:57):
Yeah. Like I said, itis really full time job and it's
only you, right, Oh mygod, it's only me because I'm I'm
megalomaniac. I can't hand my toursoff to anybody yet. UM. I
will one day very soon, um, but not yet so um. It's
out of all the different tours thatI do, which are mostly import Smith
um and York and Kittery and Newcastle, which some of the little towns around

(40:21):
us, Um, I find thatthe right people always book the cemetery tour.
Yeah, like it's always it's alwaysthe right people on the right tour.
Um And maybe that, you know, just an intention that I set,
Like, you know, our waterfronttours, our red Light District tour,
so it's you know, it's alittle bit seedy and you get to

(40:43):
you know, sort of see whatthe neighborhood looked like. Is that the
picture that you sent me the waterfront? Yes? Can they show that real
quick? Because it's absolutely this one. Yeah, our waterfront is amazing.
That is gorgeous. Yeah, it'sabsolutely amazing. I mean it's the houses,
go back, you know to theseventeen hundreds, the meeting house in
the background there, which I oftendo ghost tours ups we've met crazy haunted.

(41:08):
So the waterfront is just incredible.So I find that even with that
tour, the right people come on. So and then we get people that
take all of them too. Butit's always interesting to see what people are
most interested in. Do you getpeople coming back? I have certain families
that come back a year after yearand it's so cool to be part of,
like part of their Halloween celebrations.You get to see the kids grow

(41:30):
up. It's like I do,and I'm so grateful for people that we
see all the time. Some peopleeven take, you know, the tour
again in the beginning of the seasonand the end of the season. But
probably the strangest thing that happened isI was downtown and a person came up
to me and she says, youknow, she's, oh my god,

(41:51):
you're still doing these tours. AndI said, yeys, you know,
I can't believe that we're still atit. And she says, you know,
I remember, says, when youwere doing the tours in newcas Assle
for the Lighthouse, And I'm like, wow, I says, really,
I says, that was a longtime ago. She's like, yeah,
I was seven when I came onthat tour. I graduated in high school
two years ago. When oh god, oh dare she Oh no, yeah,

(42:15):
So yeah, you do get tosee them grow up. Yeah,
yeah, you do. You findthat people will recognize you as you're kind
of walking through the grocery store andstuff. Oh my god. Almost on
every single tour. I have totell that I do, because I'll be
like in Target or you know,Hannahford and I'm you know, I do

(42:36):
dress spooky quite frequently, but sometimesthey don't. And so I were like,
you're that ghostour lady, and I'mlike, you know, collecting my
I'm like, yeah, that's me. Can I tell you a story?
And I'm like sure, let's godown Aisle three. Oh my god,
it's my daughter. She's like,she's like, mom, everybody know whos

(42:59):
you? And I'm like, honey, I can't. I live in a
small community. Courtsmith is not huge. It's a city, but it's not
a giant city. You know,there's twenty five thousand people here, and
then we get tourists on top ofthat. Oh my god, it's ridiculous.
I've been like even outside of NewHampshire. I've been in other parts
and people are like you do touristsin ports with I'm like, oh my

(43:21):
god, like or they're just lookat you, like really weird. They're
like, I know you from somewhere. Oh god, yes, I know
where do I know you from?Oh my god? It's crazy. Yep.
It's fine though. I love it. I do too. I absolutely
love it um and I love Ilove the There's a very specific type of
personality that gets involved in doing this. Indeed, if the viewers have not

(43:45):
seen what that type of personality is, here, it is in front of
you. Into it. Here itis. So we only have about fifteen
minutes left because I'm telling you thishour goes so fast. So you have
eight books? Is that correct?I do my aut poppies up real quick.
Yeah. So that's my seven books. In My eighth is on its

(44:07):
way. Is that the Book ofthe Dead. So my main book of
the Dead. Yep, that onethere, Yep, that one is coming
out the first week of August,which is next thank you, oh my
god, thank you so much.It's the next in my series of New
England graveyard books. So these areall ghost, ghost related, cemetery related,

(44:30):
so U main the Main Book ofthe Dead is part of the Graveyard
series, which is graveyards, legends, lore and history. And then I
have like Haunted Portsmith, which Iwrote like a million years ago. M
I came out in two thousand andseven. I could write the book five
more times. Um. And someof the books are already haunt specific,

(44:51):
like Haunted Locations Portland, York County, things like that. UM. The
Cemetery series I really like because Iwrote it essentially to be a guidebook so
you can just throw it in yourcar and travel to you know, travel
to a location and find all theseburial grounds and find these interesting stones everything

(45:12):
from our earliest Native American burial sites, which you know, again are sacred
and the sort of should be leftalone, but it's important to know where
they are in the history of thepeople that were here before the explorers came
to the New World. And thenwhy, you know, people ask me
these crazy questions like, roxy,why is there a cemetery in the Taco
Bell parking lot? We have onein New Jersey that it's one grave in

(45:37):
the middle of a Loew's Theater parkinglot. Thank you, And and I
say, you know, I said, well, what do you think gave
birth the cemetery or the Taco Bell? So I try to also explain.
I mean, we have you know, Route ninety five is the true way
through New England, and we havea cemetery right on Route nine five.

(46:00):
And a lot of people didn't understandwhy that cemetery was there. But there
used to be a village there,and in fact, the village was named
for a mill that was there,and the mill was named after a witch,
so like, so like everything justkind of rolls into everything else.
And I really try to be verycomplete with those stories when I'm writing them.

(46:22):
Um, and it's just it's wasagain, something I never intended on
doing, was being an author,but it's kind of happened that way.
That's awesome. How do you howdo you find your stories? Oh?
God, sometimes they find me asyou know, just with people. You
know, Oh have you checked outthis location? Or um, you know,

(46:43):
here's a story that I found.Um, I have, believe it
or not. I have a subscriptionto newspapers dot com, so once I
learn about these places, I cango in and go back and do some
of the documented history. I spenda lot of unglamorous time at the library
and lectures and basements, and Ihave lots of antique books, like,

(47:07):
like, it's ridiculous how much stuffI have because I want to have all
of these different resources. But thenthere's also the spiritual side of how I
find the stories, where sometimes I'lljust arrive at a burial ground. I'll
stand at the gate and I'll setthe intention, all right, what grave
do I need to go to?And I'll sort of just let the energy

(47:28):
lead me there, and I'll tellyou most of the time, when I
take down that name in the datesand learn a little bit about it,
it's a story that should be told. And I know it sounds really weird.
No, actually, I'm going todo that this weekend. Yeah,
thank you. I'll let you knowhow it goes. We've got three two
or three around here that I thinkwould be really good for that. So

(47:51):
it's kind of a I would loveto see it. I would love to
see what happens. So it's kindof a combination of things. I try
to tell the stories of famous andthe infamous, and I think one of
the things that I loved doing withwith the ghost tours is I feel like
we're keeping that history alive, youknow. I feel like we're sort of

(48:13):
like the keepers of that history,because I think that a lot of people
really might not necessarily be interested inhistory, but if there's some kind of
ghost involved, they are absolutely init, a hundred absolutely. And it's
it's really funny how much history youreally have to have these tours. I

(48:37):
mean, and I've been on allsorts of other ghost tours as well.
This is sort of gauge which I'mat engage my style and how I'm doing
it, and you know, youcan't just have the ghost story without a
background, now you can't. Andthen people get very excited and they're like
you must have been a history major. And I'm like, heck no,
I hated history. Like I didnot like history. Dand me on the

(49:00):
doorstep of an old house. Putme in a cemetery, put me next
to, you know, an oldbattleship. Then I'm really interested that I
want to know the history, andI'll routine the history. So um,
yeah, the historical side of thingsis so important. I mean in Portsmouth
we have, you know, somuch crazy history here. You know,
everybody's been through Portsmouth, Paul Revere, George Washington, like, you know,

(49:24):
he attended a Masonic meeting in oneof the buildings, slept in another
one. Like there's so much stuffinto me that part of when I was
growing up in high school and havingto remember the stuff I couldn't remember standing
in front of the building. It'sso easy to just get lost in that
history and to step back into youknow, the seventeen hundreds, and there's
that whole romance of it. Youknow, you put it, you have

(49:45):
that whole the energy and the feelingand the memories of the people who lived
it. It's just there's no otherword but romance. Like that's the only
thing that comes to mind, andI would use the same word it is.
It is a romance. And youknow, we're so lucky important because

(50:05):
we have, you know, somany historic buildings. If you turn a
corner, you don't know if it'stwenty twenty one or seventeen eighty one.
You really don't because there's not alot of aside from you know, the
telephone holes in the cars take thataway, and you don't know when you're
in um and it's just the perfectbackdrop to get romantic about the history.

(50:28):
And imagine, certainly Red Light District, everybody was getting romantic down they are,
Oh yeah, I'm sure when you'restanding there, like, you know,
I could see this is you know, this is right where the dogs
were, this is where the peoplewere getting off the boats. Rainies were
like, I like, I'm backthere, and that is I mean,
it's priceless. It's absolutely priceless,and it's it's you know, you can

(50:51):
tell there's certain towns, certain placesthat have that energy where it's almost like
the stories right themselves. Oh god, yes, you know, I think
that that was one of the reasonswhy I moved to my town on keyboard
was I literally I could almost hearthe stories in the streets. I know
that sounds crazy, but you canfeel it. The energies here, the
the old houses, the architecture.It just it's like a perfect it's just

(51:15):
a perfect environment for it. Itis. And you know, um,
you know, like I said,I've I've been you know, through lots
of other communities and you know,all throughout New England and to be able
to stand there and talk about ahouse from the seventeen hundreds and it's still
there, Yeah, and it looksjust like it did in the seventeen hundreds.

(51:35):
I mean, like you just youcannot get any better than that.
You couldn't ask for anymore. Toyou know, turn the corner and you're
on a cobblestone street, or toturn the corner and you're on you know,
a dirt path that used to bea road. I mean, it's
just it's so incredible, and thestories do write themselves, and people are
so captivated and they leave with suchan appreciation for this city and I think

(52:00):
that's you know, probably about tenyears and she then curiosities. I was
like, I really want to bean ambassador for the Sea Coast, Like
I want people to come in andto eat and to shop and to stay
and just love it here. Imean to be as passionate as I am
about this area. Well how couldthey not. I mean we're just sitting
here talking. I'm like, Okay, let's plan a trip to Portsmith.

(52:22):
Oh my god, you need toseriously long weekend. I will take you
everywhere you love it here, We'vegotten everything. We'll catch Brenda along the
way and then oh my god,are you serious? Brenda? And I,
oh my god, we go waitso for you guys, for you
guys who've watched before, and catchour cemetery streaming. Brenda is the gravestone

(52:45):
girl that has been here in theparlor a few times and uh absolutely one
of the coolest, one of thecoolest people ever, isn't she. She
is one of the hippest chicks youwill ever meet. Are nothing but trouble
together. The last time we wentout, like the restaurant was like we

(53:06):
closed an hour ago. You needto go find yourself as cemetery ladies get
out easy. So unfortunately we onlyhave a few more minutes left. Um,
what do you have coming up?Anything cool? Any? I know
you do a lot of lectures andstuff too, right I do so,
um of course right here on Facebook. Once a month I do a free

(53:29):
ghost storytelling night, which is absolutelyamazing. Um doesn't cost anything. I
actually started doing that weekly during COVIDand I still continue that every month.
So it's our pop up ghost stories. Do you sorry to interrupt you real
quick, but um, with thepop up ghost stories, are they stories
that you generally share on your touror are they different stories? Are they

(53:50):
stories related? Are they random?It depends because we have we have a
theme every month. N um.So I in Dark Hearts, which was
all about um, jilted lovers andlove stories gone bad. I'm lucky,
so I'm lucky stories of New Englanders. So sometimes it may have a story

(54:12):
from one of my tours. Butwe are New England Curiosity, so I
have stories from all over New Englandall the time. So it's really sort
of a mix of what the themeis for that month. So, um,
and do you tell the stories yourself? Do you have guests is it.
No, it's just it's just meand my little candles tasticum and uh,

(54:32):
it's we always have We always havea blast. It's about an hour
long. Sometimes people drop coins inthe Venmo bucket, but whichever, it's
great. And you can also sortof so some of those stories make their
way into my podcast, which isWhere Curious, which you can find on
um buzz sprout iTunes, which isa lot of the stories set to music.

(54:57):
They're a little bit more dynamic fora listening too. So um,
that's sort of another avenue you cancheck out as well. I know we're
coming this month. It's next week, next day, next Wednesday, next
tomorrow, pop up goos story seveno'clock, seven o'clock excellent, seven o'clock
next week. Perfect. And youknow, always check out our website.

(55:21):
There's tours and classes, virtual tours, um all sorts of really fun things
that you can see on there thatmight entrust you. And you just presented
at the Life and Death event,correct, I did. I presented a
couple of sessions. One was oncrystals and gemstones as it relates to death,

(55:43):
dying and the morning process interesting,which was very eye opening. How
you know, mystics of old usedcrystals around death, and then how modern
day mystics used crystals and sort ofyou know, how people were buried with
them and what that meant and sortof what that means to us today as
well. Next month I'll be doingthe Witch City Tarot Gathering, which is

(56:07):
from Salem and this year is virtual. Next year it'll be in person.
So I'm lots of great Tarot teachersfrom Salem and beyond, so I'll be
teaching as part of that as well. So there's gonna be all sorts of
some fun things coming up on thecalendar. Honestly, like I don't even
know, Like if I have fiveminutes to myself, I know, I

(56:28):
know the feeling. And everyone canfind all this stuff on your website,
and I find on my website onmy Facebook page. You can follow me
on Instagram at roxy z W aswell. I have a newsletter you can
subscribe to on my website, butmost everything, most current information is on
my Facebook page. On Sunday,we have a Crystal and Gemstone show,

(56:50):
will be live talking about crystals andgem shows gemstones and you get to buy
them directly from me. I've beenhanging out at the ocean, talking to
my stones, getting them ready toship them off to wherever they're going.
Like, it's like you have noidea what it's like over here. It's
like crazy world. I want toknow what it's like. It's nuts,
like you never know what I'm into. It's awesome. It's all great stuff

(57:13):
than awesome. UM. So everyoneplease go and check out New England Curiosities
dot com, check out Roxy onFacebook. We've got all sorts of great
stuff happening over here. Um anylast words, my friend, you know,
I think I think the last wordsare really in um in the name

(57:34):
New England Curiosities. When I firstcame up with the name for the company,
I wanted it to really evoke howI want people to look at what's
in their backyard, be curious,ask questions, go to your library,
talk to your servers at restaurants.There is so much hidden history in plain
sight, underneath our feet, inour backyards, and when we talk about

(57:59):
that, we honor that we getinvolved with EF. So be curious and
as always be spooky and always lookup. That's my new that's don't look
down, look up and you knowshe just might be there. Looking down
at you. Awesome. Well,thank you so much for this. I'm

(58:21):
so happy that we got to dothis, and thank you guys all for
watching. Next week we do havea special show. We'll have Andy Dean
from the Rain Within. He'll beour special guest next week. Um and
just so everybody does know, um, next week we'll be the last show
that I'll be doing for the summer. Um we'll be taking July off.
So please join me next week herein the parlor. Thank you everybody so

(58:45):
much for joining us tonight. Goodnight, Stay spooky, Stay spooky.
Thank you for chilling meaning us onthe Creepy Barlor. Join us next Tuesday

(59:05):
at seven pm Easter for another fantasticshow