{"id":14248,"date":"2026-04-19T10:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14248"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:55:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:55:29","slug":"when-a-blanket-is-as-weird-as-bigfoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14248","title":{"rendered":"When a Blanket Is as Weird as Bigfoot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A traditional Hudson’s Bay blanket in “Queen Anne” colors.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Encounters with the paranormal \u2014 the Other, as some say \u2014 can change people, Some have a “UFO” encounter and are never the same, often psychologically damaged. Some encounter Bigfoot or other cryptids and are sort of afraid of the dark ever after. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, one Bigfoot experiencer whom I interviewed had created a sort of shrine to his encounter in his home: photos, drawings, newspaper clippings, etc. It struck me as a kind of “material religion” thing.

This experience of mine is much less awesome. It involves bedding \u2014 wool blankets. Just fabric, no critters. But it was still weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got this Hudson’s Bay “point blanket” from my mother in the 1990s. The “points,” the thin black lines, identified the blanket’s size when folded on a shelf in the trading post or the Hudson’s Bay Co.’s later department stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It not only spoke of tradition, but it was damn fine blanket that went on the bed every October — until October 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That year I went to the bathroom cupboard where sheets and blankets are stored. There sat a zippered plastic blanket-storage bag. I could see the off-white wool of the folded blanket within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pulled it down, unzipped it, and took out a off-white heavy wool blanket. It was not my Hudson’s Bay blanket though, but another one \u2014 creamy-white with two thin blue stripes up the middle. I had never seen it before, that I could recollect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hudson’s Bay blanket was gone. I have never found it. The replacement blanket is on the bed now, although the time to take it off is rapidly approaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The “other” blanket. Where did it come from?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the second winter with the “replacement” blanket, which is a fine blanket, but not the right one. The house wights, or whoever, have not chosen to switch them back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But do I blame the house wights? They go mainly for shiny objects, although there was that one episode involving a book<\/a>. This feels different. It feels like life was a train running down one track, and someone switched it onto another parallel track. I look around, and it all seems the same: Same wife, same house, same dog, same Jeep, and so on and on.

(Maybe in the Hudson’s Bay blanket timeline, the house burned in a forest fire or some other bad thing happened. But how would I know?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So a little bit like the UFO experiencers, I am shaken at some level. It’s like something told me, “You’re not really in control as much as you think you are.” And what do you do with that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Encounters with the paranormal \u2014 the Other, as some say \u2014 can change people, Some have a “UFO” encounter and are never the same, often psychologically damaged. Some encounter Bigfoot or other cryptids and are sort of afraid of the dark ever after. On the other hand, one Bigfoot experiencer whom I interviewed had created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[477,227,22],"class_list":["post-14248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bigfoot","tag-paranormal","tag-weirdness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3HO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13659,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13659","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":0},"title":"‘Lodge Tales’ Is a Native American Paranormal Podcast","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"My overall favorite paranormal podcast is Timothy Renner's Strange Familiars, which now has logged 465 episodes. Its style is low-key. Usually people discuss their experiences with \"the Other\" in conversation with the host. Sometimes he and a friend or two take a late-night walk on the Appalachian Trail or another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cryptids\"","block_context":{"text":"cryptids","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=cryptids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/lodge-tales.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/lodge-tales.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/lodge-tales.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/lodge-tales.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11767,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11767","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":1},"title":"A Quick Video Introduction to Fairy Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"? Early in the twentieth century, the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871\u20131937), \"the father of nuclear physics,\"\u00a0 is supposed to have remarked snarkily that all science was either physics or \"stamp-collecting.\" ((Variations on the saying include \"That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fairies\"","block_context":{"text":"fairies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=fairies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13414,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13414","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":2},"title":"Bigfoot on the High Wire?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything is paranormal these days. Even Stormy Daniels, the porn actress whom Donald Trump made famous, also bills herself as a paranomal investigator and medium. (\"How to arouse a ghost\"?) Driving past a shopping mall parking lot last week, I saw an assortment of new-looking trailers and motorhomes and circus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"North America\"","block_context":{"text":"North America","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=north-america"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/paranormal-girl-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2026,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2026","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":3},"title":"When You Meet the Buddha in the Road, Bite Him","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We have a best-selling series of romance novels about vampires written by a Mormon. But we also have a popular, if not so huge, series of romance novels about people in Amish communities, by a writer who grew up around Amish people but is not herself Amish. Is this a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13108,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13108","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":4},"title":"Power Couples of the Paranormal","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I know that I have sampled only a few of the many, many paranormal, occult, Pagan, and esoteric podcasts and video channels out there. (Feel free to add your faves in the comments.) But when\u00a0 you look at podcasts done by people who are partners in real life, I can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Appalachia\"","block_context":{"text":"Appalachia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=appalachia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/DANA-GOD-HELMET-HELLIER-KENTUCKY.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/DANA-GOD-HELMET-HELLIER-KENTUCKY.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/DANA-GOD-HELMET-HELLIER-KENTUCKY.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1628,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1628","url_meta":{"origin":14248,"position":5},"title":"Fate Magazine Headed for the Other Side","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I am preparing myself for life without Fate magazine. Since 1948, the\u00a0 digest-sized monthly\u2014later a bi-monthly\u2014has been a reliable (at least in the publishing sense) source for ghost stories, UFO reports, speculative archaeology, Fortean news, and other manifestations of the weird and unexpected. 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