Category Archives: general

Catholic Folkloric Warning to a Child: “The devil will pinch your toes off”

Text: “If you lie the devil is gonna come and pinch your toes off”

Context: 

The informant’s mother would tell her this in order to get her to tell the truth. The informant said that it worked because she was raised Catholic and while she was younger, believed it. Once she was a little older and noticed that her mom would lie and still had her toes, she realized it wouldn’t actually happen. The mother had heard it from her own mother first.

Analysis:

In the institutional Catholic faith, the devil doesn’t personally physically attack children for their sins. However, the empty threat of that happening is dissuasive enough that it was used by a mother who had been fooled by it as a child. The devil in this threat could be substituted for a troll, or a witch, but for a Catholic in America, those creatures aren’t as convincing or as relevant.

Never Cross Over Train Tracks Into The Desert

Text: You should never cross over train tracks into the desert, especially at night.

Context: My roommate X, a current USC student, grew up in Arizona and recounted to me that when they were 12 they first learned this saying from other kids. They were playing with friends one night and a Nerf bullet was shot too far, landing on the other side of the nearby train tracks. X went to get the bullet and the other kids stopped them with the warning that they should never cross over the tracks into the desert. The kids said “it’s gone now” and explained that X would be “gone” too if they crossed. X heard the saying multiple times while living in Arizona, highlighting first hand accounts of others hearing the voices of loved ones who aren’t present or seeing glowing eyes in the dark. Each account of what was or could be on the other side was different but the message was consistently that you should not cross train tracks into the wilderness.

Interpretation: Upon hearing this, I immediately thought that this saying seems like a warning for children about the dangers of the Arizona wilderness or potentially just train safety. X’s story supported this because they mentioned it was common for children in the area to play near train tracks and the desert so it would make sense for parents to make up a reason as to why their children shouldn’t be near the train tracks. However, as we continued discussing, X made it clear that they heard the accounts of voices and glowing eyes at a much older age from adults who wholeheartedly believed what they saw. As seemingly a memorate, I think this saying could stem from the Native communities of Arizona because the reports of voices reminds me of Skinwalkers or spirits. The train tracks could represent the barrier between the danger/supernatural and safety/civilization.

HAGS

Text:

LP reports that “HAGS”, meaning “Have a great summer,” was a popular thing to write in yearbooks while in school.

Context:

LP is an adult, male college graduate who was raised in Beverly Hills, CA, attending the public schools in the area.

When asked which things were popular to write inside a yearbook while growing up, LP said that “HAGS” was the typical go-to for most students. He states that his relationship with this practice is that he would only use this for those he wasn’t particularly close with or didn’t have any shared anecdotes. To “fill out the space of the yearbook,” he said that he and others would write “HAGS” in big letters. LP says that he first learned of the usage of “HAGS” around the first time he was of age to receive a yearbook, roughly around first grade.

Analysis:

LP’s mention that “HAGS” is typically used for those classmates that one is not particularly close with hints at its usage as a relaltionship signifier. The choice of language in yearbook messages can be a subtle way to convey the level of closeness and familarity between two individuals. By employing “HAGS,” a student has the ability to maintain warm, but distant relations with a fellow classmate. The yearbook itself is a sort of folk object, one that may be distrubuted by an official authority, the school and yearbook staff, but malleable in the hands of students. LP’s view on the usage of “HAGS,” particularly that one might write it in bigger letters to fill out the blank space of a yearbook, demonstrates the function of yearbooks as a means of affirming the social standing of others with more “filled out” space representing a greater social position among peers.

My Uncle’s Military Ghost Story

Nationality: Mexican
Primary Language: English
Other language(s): Spanish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 11/25/2023

Tags: military, war, ptsd

He was a United States Marine Corps veteran in the 1960s, serving his second tour in Vietnam. He was performing recon after a gunfight, making sure that the dead were actually dead. While searching through the piles of bodies, he noticed one of them twitch. They had been awake for days, he thought he might have been hallucinating. Then, He looked closer. The twitching man on the ground was staring right at him. Then he screamed. He screamed and startled all of the Marines and everyone in the area. He startled everyone so bad that nobody knew what to do. In his fear and confusion, my uncle shot him in the head. Silence reclaimed the air.

My uncle lived for more than fifty years after he returned from that deployment. Randomly, with no pattern and no warning, he would hear that scream in his head as if it were happening right in front of him. And he would see the screaming face in his sleep, the terrifying look of a man who knows that he is about to die. He was haunted by this memory for the rest of his life. Even into old age and through horrible sickness, he remembered it until the day he died.

This story was told to me multiple times during my life, most recently in fall of 2019. It was told to myself and my brothers, and to my father before that. I find the story disturbing, knowing that something like that can live with somebody forever. It is very scary to think about, and it makes me feel sorry for my uncle because of how traumatized he was.

Virginia Woods Ghost Story

Nationality: Mexican
Primary Language: English
Other language(s): Spanish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 06/03/2023

Tags: wilderness, haunted house, mystery

We were dirtbiking on our usual trails for what must have been the hundredth time that Summer. I was with my usual group of four friends, and after biking for a while, we were bored of the same trails. My friend had the bright idea to try and find the haunted house that they had discovered when they were younger. We were already out in the woods, but this house was very, very far out into the wilderness, past where we knew there were bears and all sorts of other things that we should not mess with. So obviously, we agreed and started to bike there slowly, through the thick brush and trees.

The unexplainable things started on the way there. We were all used to getting thorns from bushes and mosquito bites, but when we got them on that day they hurt extremely bad. The thorns were unbearably painful and we had to walk very slow and plan our routes, almost giving up. In addition to that, the bug bites and stings were so frequent that they were also unbearable, as if they were trying to get us to turn back and go home. And on top of all of this, I have never had seasonal pollen allergies in my whole life, but I got them on that day. My eyes were so swollen that they were almost completely shut, and I felt disgusting. We were all experiencing these things, and we were able to push through them and still find the house despite our impaired vision.

When we got to the house, we understood what the unexplainable warnings were about. We were standing on the outside of the house, looking at the disgusting, run-down walls and caved ceiling. One of my friends said that someone should go to the door and look inside. My other friend, the known daredevil, said that he would do it. He walked about seven steps, and came to a sudden halt. He walked backwards towards us, never taking his eyes off of the house. When he got back to us, he said that he felt an unnaturally cold wind coming directly from the door. This house was uninhabited, there was no air conditioning, and it was 98 degrees outside. We assumed it was a prank, and someone else tried and reported the same thing. Both of the people that tried were wide-eyed and quiet for the rest of the day, as if they had seen a ghost.

Once we got out of the woods, they just wanted to go back home, and the day was over. I will never be able to explain what happened on that day, but I do not want to go back there to look for answers.

This story was experienced and told in June of 2023. It was told by my friend that I was with and myself. It took place in Centreville, Virginia, deep in the woods near Fairfax. The teller of the story and I both think of the story as surreal and unexplainable, and we both have agreed that we will never truly know or understand what happened on that day.