Campfire Tales: Hot Wheels

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment's 'Campfire Tales: Hot Wheels' episode features two supernatural stories from the podcast's Evil Twin, Spooked. The first tale, 'Joyride,' recounts a teenager's eerie experience with his

Key takeaways

• Cars can act as guardians or vessels of spirits, especially when they repeatedly save their owners from danger.

Main topics

• Supernatural experiences
• Urban legends

Notable quotes

"My car didn't just break down that night before she saved me. And I feel like she knew, the old Mustang knew that somebody had to be sacrificed there."

Conclusion

The episode underscores how ordinary moments—driving, dancing, drinking—can become

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:02) Snap Studios. The Speaker 4 (0:17) very day, on the morning of the day, I turn 16 years old. I get my driver's license, right? And immediately, jump into my rust bucket Mustang, hit the gas, freedom, joy. Until a few minutes later, I'm on the side of the road with my hood popped open, cursing at my car, come on, come on. I live on one side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a lot of my friends, they live on the other side. Almost every day I roar off, hoping, praying that my car will get me there without breaking down. Not speeding crazy, but not Mr. Safety Driver either. And there's one spot, a sudden bend in the road where if you aren't careful, if you aren't super careful, 10 miles an hour careful. You can't make the bend. You'll find yourself in the other lane, facing oncoming traffic. And I know this curve well. Driving countless times, and every single time, I end up in that other lane. But every single time, I get lucky. Knowing they're coming the other way. One night, right before the bend, my jalopy loses power. Dang Speaker 1 (1:41) it! Speaker 4 (1:42) Forced me to slow down when I see the lights of a pickup truck. barreling through the lane where I would have been. I laugh. Mustang on her steering wheel. Thanks. Tell myself not to be so stupid. Then speed through the same way the next day. The next week, the week after that. Every single time, like a ridiculous game of Russian roulette. And one night, tunes blast and gas pedal press to the floor. I'm speeding through the bend and I see flashing police lights. Speaker 4 (2:26) The whole road closed both directions and I'm trembling. Cold waves of what if I can sense, can feel that someone else, someone else ran my odds only they didn't get so lucky. My car didn't just break down that night before she saved me. And I feel like she knew, the old Mustang knew that somebody had to be sacrificed there. Did everything she could to make sure that somebody Speaker 4 (3:20) judgment summertime tradition campfire tales my name is Glenn Washington get your graham crackers and your marshmallows ready the fire's already started because you're listening to snap judgment we're going to take a totally different type of ride it's Greg's 23rd birthday he's flying on a one-way ticket to paradise the beautiful island of St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands meaning escape from back home. He jumps on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a friend only to discover that island life is not all palm trees and coconuts. Speaker 3 (5:18) When I arrived in St. Thomas, I was, well, you walk out on that tarmac off the plane for the first time and you just get smacked with the heat and the humidity. But I was also smacked with the beauty. Speaker 3 (5:36) It was a lot more mountainous than I expected for an island. So green, too, and so much open space. Some of the most beautiful water and white sand beaches that I've ever seen, never experienced in my entire life. So after I got off the plane, I got in a cab and I went to the bar where my buddy was working. I was immediately just bombarded by mosquitoes and no-see-ums and was getting eaten alive. Speaker 3 (6:07) The bartender put some gin on a bar towel. He's like, here. I'm like, what am I supposed to do with that? He's like, just rub it all over yourself. It's basically bug spray. And so I did, and the bugs generally went away. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to like living here. This is going to be a very different experience. So when I wasn't working some random job, I was hanging out a lot at Duffy's Love Shack. I knew at one point that they were looking for help, and I got a job being a server at Duffy's. Speaker 3 (6:40) It was this tiki bar built in a parking lot. It's literally a shack, completely open air with an indoor space and a whole bunch of outdoor space. And then from there, it's a plaza with a whole bunch of different businesses, including a bar, a surf Speaker 4 (6:55) shop, and a pharmacy. Speaker 3 (6:56) They had a ladies' night on Wednesday nights that was absolutely wild. There was, like, tattoos, fake tattoos being given behind the bar by the bartenders. Speaker 3 (7:07) They got songs that go with certain drinks. Everything comes in like a shark cup or a mermaid cup or a whale. And they're little souvenir cups that people can take with them. It was just a wacky, island-y environment that was a good place to spend time. It had been a few weeks and I was really getting the hang of being a server. Then there was this one night. Speaker 3 (7:35) I was out having a quick smoke break in between service. I'm just kind of keeping an eye on the general comings and goings of the parking lot of the plaza of the bar, watching the night turn into the night. And that's when I see this car pull up. Speaker 3 (7:54) It was an older, you know, four-door sedan, black, a little rusty, a little beat up. It just kind of looked like another old used island car. The driver of the car, he was a relatively older gentleman. He was dressed in what looked like kitchen garb. Like he was a chef or like a dishwasher or a porter of some kind. And he parked the car. turned it off, and casually walked off to wherever he was going. I saw the bar and restaurant, the tables starting to fill up, and I went back to my section, started bringing people volcanoes and shark tanks and all the other goofy drinks they had. We were right Speaker 4 (8:45) in the Speaker 3 (8:45) heart Speaker 4 (8:45) of Speaker 3 (8:46) our busy time of the night. I'm at a table going through drinks, serving a guy a burger. Then I start hearing murmurings going through all these tables in the parking lot. And somebody pulls me aside and points at this car and says, hey, there's smoke coming out of that thing. I turn my head and I start walking a little bit closer to the cars. And I see there is definitely smoke coming out of the hood of this car. Speaker 3 (9:17) I was like, wait a minute, I know that car. I saw that car park earlier when I was out by the dumpster. I look back at the bartenders. Some of them start walking out from behind the bar. And slowly but surely, we all just kind of turn our focus on this smoking car. Speaker 3 (9:36) I had a car that when I parked it, smoke would just come out of the hood for a while after and people would always be like, oh, your car's on fire. I'd be like, no, it's just missing the converter. It's fine. Just give it a little while. It'll be fine. So to be honest, it wasn't super surprising to me that this was going on until the smoke turned into fire. And it was small flames from the hood and then bigger flames from the hood until they're about a foot or so coming out of the hood, this car, all the way around. And I'm thinking, Speaker 3 (10:09) We really have a problem because that is not supposed to be happening. The head bartender is the first one to act. He grabs the fire extinguisher and starts walking towards the car slowly because we're not exactly sure what's going to happen next. While the whole scene's going on, it didn't even occur to me that we had this 80s playlist that we tend to run at the bar until a customer pulled me aside and said, just so you know, when that car caught on fire, you guys are playing the Ghostbusters theme song at the exact same time. I was like, that is such a weird coincidence. Speaker 4 (10:50) The fire continues after the break. Stay tuned. Speaker 1 (11:02) Comprehensive. Witty. Speculative. Critical. Insightful. Profound. Wide-ranging. Speaker 2 (11:07) Hopefully doesn't take itself too, too seriously. Speaker 1 (11:10) I'm David Remnick, and each week on The New Yorker Radio Hour, my colleagues and I try to make sense of what's happening in this chaotic world. I hope you'll join us for The New Yorker Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts. Speaker 2 (11:23) Thoughtful. Exquisite. Speaker 1 (11:25) Just, you know, real. Speaker 4 (11:37) Welcome back to the Snap Judgment Campfire Tales special. We're calling it Hot Wheels. Featuring stories from our Evil Twin podcast, Spooked As We Left. The Ghostbusters theme song blasted through the speakers at Greg's bar as a car with a mind of its own burst into flames on the island of St. Thomas. Snap Judgment. Speaker 4 (12:15) The Speaker 3 (12:16) closer we get to the car, we are for certain that there's nobody inside this thing. We're looking through the windows. The door happens to be unlocked, and we're able to open it. And we start looking in the car. There's no keys in the ignition. One of the staff members takes the risk and very, very cautiously clicks the little switch and gets the hood open of the car. The flames just burst out. Speaker 3 (12:40) It just felt like a giant fireball was going off in front of me. The bartender that had the fire extinguisher turns it on and starts trying to spray the fire down as fast as possible. They're actually starting to go down slowly. And I'm thinking, this actually might be over pretty soon. And