Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: It's a common fear, one so pervasive that it changed
Speaker 1: the funeral industry hundreds of years ago. It's called tafa phobia,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as the fear of being buried alive. Back
Speaker 1: in the fourteenth century, accidentally burying someone who was still
Speaker 1: living happened more often than you think. John Dunce Scotus,
Speaker 1: a philosopher, was once believed to have been interred prematurely
Speaker 1: in third Tino Wait. When the vault his body was
Speaker 1: residing in was open. He was found laying dead on
Speaker 1: the floor beside his sarcophagus, with his hands all cut up.
Speaker 1: He had tried to fight his way out. It was
Speaker 1: this fear that eventually led to the invention of the
Speaker 1: safety coffin, which involved some kind of mechanism to alert
Speaker 1: the living up above that the person below them had
Speaker 1: been prematurely buried, They often used a bell tied to
Speaker 1: a string that ran underground to the coffin, where it
Speaker 1: could be pulled. S C. Dunbar didn't have a bell
Speaker 1: or a string, but she certainly let everyone know what
Speaker 1: had happened to her. She was born in Barnwell County,
Speaker 1: South Carolina in the late eighteen hundreds. She seemingly lived
Speaker 1: there all her life, becoming a beloved member of her
Speaker 1: community in nineteen fifteen, though her fame would extend far
Speaker 1: beyond the borders of Barnwell County. S c. Was roughly
Speaker 1: thirty when it happened. She had suffered from an epileptic
Speaker 1: seizure that sent her falling to the floor. A local
Speaker 1: doctor by the name of D. K. Briggs was called
Speaker 1: to attend to her, and when he got there, it
Speaker 1: was clear that it was too late. Sie was no
Speaker 1: longer breathing. After checking her pulse and other vital signs,
Speaker 1: Dr Briggs declared her dead. Her family stepped in to
Speaker 1: handle the final arrangements. They dressed her in nice clothing,
Speaker 1: made a wooden coffin for her to be buried in,
Speaker 1: and prepared everything for her funeral. Three ministers were asked
Speaker 1: to officiate the service that day after her death. The
Speaker 1: only person who hadn't been part of the planning was
Speaker 1: her sister, who lived in Allendale, about twenty five miles
Speaker 1: south of where SI lived. She had apparently not been
Speaker 1: told about her sister's sudden passing until well after it
Speaker 1: had happened, and caught a last minute train home, but
Speaker 1: it was scheduled to arrive just before the funeral started. Friends, family,
Speaker 1: and mourners all gathered together at eleven o'clock the next
Speaker 1: day to pay their final respects to Si. Each minister
Speaker 1: gave their remarks, and at the end of the service,
Speaker 1: the coffin was opened so everyone in attendants could say
Speaker 1: goodbye one last time. The only person not there s sister.
Speaker 1: Her train hadn't arrived yet. Not wanting to wait any
Speaker 1: longer to put Si to rest, the other family members
Speaker 1: pushed forward with the burial. They carted her coffin up
Speaker 1: the hill to the cemetery, where a final prayer was said.
Speaker 1: Si was then lowered into her grave. Tearful mourners looked
Speaker 1: out into the distance, hoping to see her sister arriving.
Speaker 1: Before the coffin was covered and she was gone for good.
Speaker 1: But there was no sign. Finally, from a short distance away,
Speaker 1: the sister's voice was heard calling she had finally arrived.
Speaker 1: Workers had already dumped several feet of dirt on top
Speaker 1: of the coffin, but the ministers asked them to dig
Speaker 1: s c out so her sister could say goodbye. They
Speaker 1: did as they were instructed, unearthing SI's casket and raising
Speaker 1: it back out of the ground. Everyone stood around the
Speaker 1: casket as the lid was unfastened and removed, and without warning,
Speaker 1: Si Dunbar, who had been pronounced dead by a doctor
Speaker 1: only a day before, sat straight up and greeted her
Speaker 1: sister with a smile. According to the reports, her recovery
Speaker 1: caused all hell to break loose. The ministers fell into
Speaker 1: the grave. One of them suffered from three broken ribs,
Speaker 1: but not from the fall. The other two men had
Speaker 1: stepped on him trying to get out of the grave.
Speaker 1: Everyone else ran away, including SI's sister. Meanwhile, Sie herself
Speaker 1: didn't understand what the commotion was about, only that all
Speaker 1: of her loved ones were fleeing in terror. Not realizing
Speaker 1: that she was the reason for their fear, she ran
Speaker 1: after them, chasing them down the hill, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: only added to their fright. See lived another forty seven
Speaker 1: years following her premature burial, finally passing away for real
Speaker 1: this time in nineteen sixty two at the age of seventy,
Speaker 1: and she got the last lap as well, outliving the
Speaker 1: doctor who had declared her dead the first time back
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen, and from what I've heard, his funeral
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as exciting. Before the dot com bubble burst
Speaker 1: in two thousand, the nineties saw explosive growth across the
Speaker 1: realm of consumer technology. We saw the proliferation of the
Speaker 1: MP three. Steve Jobs returned to Apple and steered it
Speaker 1: back towards success, and the cell phone was gaining steam
Speaker 1: as a permanent fixture in our hands. And before we
Speaker 1: had text messages, snapchats, Facebook, and even a o LL
Speaker 1: instant messenger, there was email. An electronic letter could be
Speaker 1: sent anywhere in the world from any computer connected to
Speaker 1: the Internet. Email changed the way we communicated literally and
Speaker 1: changed how we wrote, how we spoke, and the words
Speaker 1: we use on a daily basis. But in one company
Speaker 1: wanted to change the way people sent and received email,
Speaker 1: and they did it in a fun and whimsical way
Speaker 1: not seen since it started when Indiana native James Robert
Speaker 1: Davis launched his own syndication company, Pause, Inc. Back in
Speaker 1: nineteen one. Now the time, Pause Inc. Was responsible for
Speaker 1: managing a popular media entity, and in the mid nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: the company built a whole new website around its most
Speaker 1: popular property. This website arrived during an era when several
Speaker 1: platforms offered comprehensive all in one services. They provided email, news, chat, forums,
Speaker 1: and more. America Online was perhaps the most popular, but
Speaker 1: there was also Prodigy, Apple's e World, and compy Sir,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. In the late nineties, however,
Speaker 1: James's fledgling web service became an unexpected competitor to those
Speaker 1: bigger Internet names. Those who navigated to its orange and
Speaker 1: yellow themed website were greeted with ten unique menu options.
Speaker 1: There was a gazette section filled with important news of
Speaker 1: the day, as well as a booknook where users could
Speaker 1: learn more about specific titles related to his intellectual property.
Speaker 1: People could also find comic strips, games, puzzles, and even
Speaker 1: a fan club where they could unlock top secret content
Speaker 1: only for registered members. But perhaps the most important feature
Speaker 1: of all was its email service. Users had the option
Speaker 1: to send and receive email from James's website for free,
Speaker 1: breaking them off the bonds imposed on them by their
Speaker 1: Internet service providers. The name of this breakthrough email service Gmail,
Speaker 1: except this wasn't the Gmail you're probably thinking of. That
Speaker 1: Gmail had been developed under the code name Harribou and
Speaker 1: kept secret for several years until it was finally revealed
Speaker 1: to the public on April Fool's Day of all Days
Speaker 1: in two thousand four by internet search giant Google. James's Gmail,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, started its life at the turn
Speaker 1: of the century and continued on for several more years.
Speaker 1: It was not the product of a giant tech conglomerate,
Speaker 1: but in fact part of the official website of everyone's
Speaker 1: favorite Orange Monday hating lasagna eating Tabbycat Garfield. Users who
Speaker 1: signed up for Garfield Mail, or Gmail, as it was
Speaker 1: referred to on the Garfield website were given address at
Speaker 1: Cat's Rule dot Garfield dot com. You could log in
Speaker 1: and email all your fellow fans from your very own
Speaker 1: Garfield email accounts. Jim Davis's Fat Orange Tabby is still
Speaker 1: popular today, just as he always has been, but that
Speaker 1: old website is long gone, and with it the original Gmail,
Speaker 1: but I'll hope is not lost. Several years ago, it
Speaker 1: was revealed that Garfield's email service might still be alive.
Speaker 1: A technology blog contacted a known address at Cat's Rule
Speaker 1: dot Garfield dot com and did not receive a bounce
Speaker 1: back confirmation in return, which meant that their email went through.
Speaker 1: So it's possible that somewhere out there someone still has
Speaker 1: and uses their Garfield email address for everyone else. Though
Speaker 1: their days of eating digital lasagna are over, they can
Speaker 1: still enjoy Garfield comic strips, watching his cartoons, movies, and
Speaker 1: even a few avant garde alternatives, including one version of
Speaker 1: a comic where Garfield never existed and his owner, John R.
Speaker 1: Buckle simply talks to himself. Garfield the character shows no
Speaker 1: signs of going away anytime soon, but his ill fated
Speaker 1: email service of the nineteen nineties and early two thousand's
Speaker 1: that has sadly ended up in the junk folder. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works, I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.