WEBVTT
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I work in customer service. Being Friday, things were busier
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than usual for us. Our manager, Dell, is the superstitious type,
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and he was adamant that we keep our eyes peeled
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for trouble since it's also the thirteen. While hectic, nothing
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out of the ordinary happened, that is until we got
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one particular customer.
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I've been a loyal shopper at Walmart for over thirty years.
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Things used to be great there untill your generation decided
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to screw things up.
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Hi, Cassie, Hi, Caitlin, Hi, creepy people.
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Oh hellou Helle.
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This is PNW Haunts and Homicides where we chat about
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true crime, the very normal, and Friday the thirteenth.
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Ooh, I'm very excited for this spooky sounds. I love
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Friday the thirteenth, not just the movie.
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Yeah, I'm not gonna lie to you. It was actually
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for some of what I wanted to do for this episode.
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It was a little bit hard not to just keep
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coming across stuff related to the movie, and it was
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not a little frustrating. So this is not about the movie. Correct, No,
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it is not. No, but we will still do a
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che reading at the end of the episode for a
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little bit of deeper insight into our topic. Okay, So
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here's the part where I have to say both of
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these incredibly long terms that are not easy to say.
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I'm looking at the script here and dear Baby Jesus,
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after I get through this, I don't have to say
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them again. I don't think so peresca dive decca triphobia
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or for good trisca decaphobia. I think that one's easier.
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Are both specific long form terms for the fear of
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Friday the thirteenth, distinct from trisca decaphobia the fear of
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the number thirteen itself. It involves heightened anxiety, avoidance, or
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ritualistic behaviors often linked to superstitions about bad luck.
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So I think we talked about it in I think
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I did a Friday the thirteenth episode or something I did,
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like a episode about thirteen.
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Fear of the number thirteen did come up, but not.
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Specifically the fear of Friday the thirteenth, which I'm glad
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I didn't go into.
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Yes, I'm glad you have to say it that way,
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I know.
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So if you were a member of the Knights Templar
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in medieval France, Friday the thirteenth was a date worth fearing.
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It turned out it wasn't just unlucky, it was a
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death sentence.
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Oh shit.
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On October thirteenth, thirteen oh seven, King Philip the Fourth
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ordered the mass arrest of the Templars, an immensely powerful
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and extremely wealthy religious military order. Philip known as Philip
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the Fair for his good looks, certainly not his character.
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So they weren't saying, oh, what a fair king like, Oh,
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he's really equal and balanced and ethical. They were saying, oh,
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look at his pretty pretty face. He had a problem.
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He got nine to nine problems with the face a one.
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He owed them a fortune. So he did what many
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powerful men have done throughout history to solve their problems.
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He made up crimes.
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Oh boy.
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Rather than repay his debts, he turned to accusations of
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heresy and devil worship to justify wiping them out. More
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than six hundred Templars were arrested, tortured into false confessions,
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and ultimately executed.
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God blake.
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Did he think he was just going to rely on
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his pretty face to like pay his debt?
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No, I'm pretty sure he thought he could just rely
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on murder to take care of it what a dickle, So,
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I know, really terribly rude. They're riches absorbed by the crown,
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their order erased, proof that sometimes the real evil isn't superstition,
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but greed wearing a crown. That is one very bad Friday.
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Uh yeah, I thought you're saying one very freaky Friday,
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and I was gonna be like, oh.
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Friday the thirteenth isn't always about mass arrests, torture, and executions.
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Sometimes it just wipes out your retirement account. While medieval
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power plays gave the date its blood soaked reputation, modern
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Friday the thirteenth have found new ways to inspire fear
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enter financial fiasco. It's a little bit less terrifying, I
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will say, than you know, a gruesome death.
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But still yeah, but I mean a lot of people
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think money is real, so like this is like.
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Right, Yeah, I mean I think it's very real for
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all of us that have to use money, whether it's
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real or not, to pay for things to keep us alive.
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You know. Yeah, it's kind of a complicated system. It
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really is complicated feelings all around.
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Yep. Even the markets aren't entirely immune to superstition. Same
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cursed calendar date, fewer swords, much more screaming about money.
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Friday the thirteenth has a way of reinventing itself. On Friday,
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October thirteenth, nineteen eighty nine, the stock market took a
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sharp dive in what's known as the Friday the thirteenth
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Mini crash, what.
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They call it mini. So like that makes it feel
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kind of cute.
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Yeah, I don't think it ended up being that cute.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly seven percent in
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a single session, rattling investors already wary after the nineteen
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eighty seven collapse. So it was like kind of preceded
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by something a little bit less mini.
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Okay, it's seven percent, Like that sounds really small to me,
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but that's like really big for the investors.
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Yeah, yeah, that's that's a pretty big that's a pretty
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big deal for like you're talking about the entirety of
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the stock market, basically Dow Jones Industrial Average. I'm certain
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I'm not a day trader, I you know, not a
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broker or anything, but that that affects like a huge
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swath of publicly traded companies. It's a it's a lot money.
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Oh sheh.
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It.
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The trigger wasn't superstition, but computers automated trading programs reacting
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to news about a failed leveraged buyout of United Airlines
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helped accelerate the fall. The panic was short lived, but
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the damage was real and the message was clear. Friday
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the thirteenth didn't need ghosts or curses to cause fear.
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Sometimes all it took was an algorithm, no executions, no
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dungeon cells, just flashing red numbers and investors realizing that
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even modern systems can unravel spectacularly. The timing alone ensured
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the date's place in history. Another Friday the thirteenth tied
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to CAS, this time measured in dollars instead of lives.
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It kind of reminded me of Y two k.
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Oh that, yeah, that makes sense.
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You know everybody kind of panicked. Yeah, when it was like, okay,
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something happened and like this isn't good, but it kind
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of snowballed because of people's reaction of fear.
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What are the computers gonna do? We don't know. We
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built them, but we have no control.
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Right. Well, the thing is is that, like, for the
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most part, my recollection is with Y two k In particular,
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there were a lot of computer experts that were like,
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I guess we can't rule anything out, But there were
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a lot of a lot of them that were like
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pretty outspoken about like Y two K being like a
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non event. They're like, listen, we built these and this
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is just like everybody's freaking out. But the reality is that,
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like we're pretty sure none of that's gonna happen.
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But it's seems like, you know, the toilet paper shortage,
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like the same con.
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Like all of all the normies are freaking out and
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all of the calmed down. We're not out of toilet paper.
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It's just just ay the day.
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Yeah, No, I mean, the to be fair, the toilet
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paper situation during COVID, like that was a lot more
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real because people were going to the grocery store and
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not able to like buy toilet paper.
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But like we were making the shortage though, like because
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we're stalking people were freaking out. No for sure actual
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toilet paper.
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Again, just a situation where like it's worsened by people
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reacting in fear. Yeah, almost like there's some sort of
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a message in.
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That and no one wants to listen to the smart
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kid in the class going actually it's gonna be okay.
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Because actually, yeah, Friday the thirteenth has warned a lot
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of masks over the centuries. Sometimes it looks like political betrayal,
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sometimes financial collapse. But not every Friday the Thirteenth ends
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in executions or economic free fall.
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God, I hope not.
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Sometimes, whether spooky or sinister, it sneaks up where you
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least expect it, not in castles or stock exchanges, but
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under fluorescent lights, between clearanciles and customer service counters. And
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let's face it, fluorescent lighting is the scariest of all
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of those scenarios.
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Seriously, Yeah, especially right now, I'm fighting a migraine.
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So like, yeah, oh god, there's nothing worse. Yeah, I know.
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It's deeply humbling for legal and spiritual reasons. The following
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story is fictional. Allegedly. It comes from Reddit's r slash
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no Sleep community and was posted under the title it's
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Friday the thirteenth and I Met a Witch at my
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retail job by Rose Black. We'll link to more of
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their work and socials in the show notes, because holy shit,
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they have actually quite a few stories that I came across,
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and this one. Boy, Once I start going on a theme,
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I felt like it just had to be here. It
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reads like a familiar retail nightmare, well sort of, just
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a customer who takes a complaint way too far. Whether
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you believe Friday the thirteenth invites chaos or just reveals
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what was already waiting, this is what happened next allegedly. Okay,
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so starting our story. It's September, which means it's nearly
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my favorite season fall. Yes, the scorching heat is at
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least cooling down to a nice middling temperature until the
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winter chills set in. All the back to school supplies
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have given way to autumn decor such as fake pumpkins,
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rubber masks, lawn inflatables, and monster animatronics.
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Oh can we skip summer?
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No?
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Speaking of back to school, a bonus is seeing fewer
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children during the week. Look, I don't have anything against
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kids provided they are a minimal distance of fifty feet
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from me. But when they are running around screaming while
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their parents have this vacant look in their eyes, that's
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when I have a problem. Dude.
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This literally happened to me the other day walking into
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the store. Two kids came running at me, and I
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was like freshly broken. I was picking up prescriptions. You're
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in my boot for me, like I can't dodge you,
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and they just like ran at it was and the
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mom was just like strolling.
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In way behind them, and I'm like, fine, judgment.
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R No, definitely judgment. Fuck you get your fucking brats
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on a leash or something. Can you imagine like if
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like people just let their pets do that, there like
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would be riots, but like you're allowed to just let
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your kid be a fucking asshole. No.
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Sorry.
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If you happen to disagree, spend a few years working
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retail at Walmart like I have, and see if you
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don't change your tune. In fairness, that's only scratching the
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surface of the problems going on in those stores. As
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bad as that can be, it's harmless most of the time.
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Only ever going into the make me want to rip
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my hair out in frustration territory. I can't say the
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same about what happened today. I work in customer service.
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Being Friday, things were busier than usual for us. Our manager, Dell,
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is the superstitious type, and he was adamant that we
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keep our eyes peeled for trouble since it's also the
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thirteen While hectic. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, that is,
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until we got one particular customer. My coworker Steve and
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I were holding down the fort trying to help customers
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as best we could. I was currently having my ear
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talked off on the phone.
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I've been a loyal shopper at Walmart for over thirty years.
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He's already mentioned this several times. I understand sir, things
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used to.
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Be great there until your generation decided to screw things up.
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I'm sorry you feel that way. Is there anything we
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can do to make it up to you? He went
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on a tirade that I wasn't even paying much attention to,
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since I had nothing to do with the conversation. From
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what I remem it was about those damn democrats running
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this country into the ground, several bigoted statements against minorities,
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how prayer should be back in schools, and that certain
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people need to go back where they came from. I
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should mention he was insistent about how not racist he was.
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I think there may have also been something in there
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about how communists have infiltrated the government. The call dropped,
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making me momentarily grateful Upper management hadn't sent anyone out
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to fix the phones? Thank christ, I breathed, putting the
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phone down. Tough call, Steve asked, unwrapping a piece of gum.
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Yep, I feel you on that. Any plans afterwork?
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I'm going to be watching a horror movie.
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Which one?
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It's called ta ka ta kay?
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Is that Japanese?
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Yeah? It's an urban legend about a girl who became