Author Archives: Benjamin Ma

KKK Ghost Bridge

Main Piece

CD told me about a haunted bridge in his hometown of Zionsville, ID. The rumors would swirl around at his middle school, and a little bit at his high school:

“Back in the day, the KKK was pretty big in Indiana. Like, a town in southern Indiana is where the 2nd chapter started. There’s this bridge in town that doesn’t exist anymore because it got destroyed by a tractor a few years ago. It was a 30-40 yard long bridge; a backroad nobody really drives on.

Supposedly it’s haunted: If you drive your car there at night, and turn off all the lights, you’ll see things or hear voices. It’s haunted because the KKK would lynch people there. One of my friends said when they’d go there at night, they’d sit in their car, roll down their windows, and hear voices, indistinct whispering in the woods.

Someone who went, they were there long enough that there was fog on the windows, and there were handprints on the windows.”

Informant background

CD is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Zionsville, ID.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

The “haunted place” rumors often involve some kind of action that you must do while at the place in order to bring out the haunting: in this case, turning off all your lights or rolling down your windows. This activity seems to legitimize the “legend quest” of going out and trying to see if the rumors are true or not, because it is more complicated than simply going there – you have to actively participate in the ritual once you arrive. CD’s haunted bridge seems like a typical example of a legend quest where the primary participants are teenagers (middle and high-school aged children.)

There’s No Right Answer

Main Piece

“There’s No Right Answer” is a long-drive car game that CD learned from his friends. It is typically played when on a road trip with a group of friends, ideally with an even number of people in the car. You are partnered with one other person in the car. The goal is for you and your partner to say the same word at the same time (there is a countdown so you say the words in sync.) However, no communication is allowed between you and your partner besides just saying the words. The partner pairs all alternate saying words until one of the pairs says the same word at the same time.

CD says “the only strategy is to try and be on the same page as the other person based on what you’ve said in the previous turns.”

Informant background

CD is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Zionsville, ID.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

Road trip games seem like a typically American tradition – the idea of the car and the open road, even the road trip itself, are tied to American youth and freedom-loving culture. I wonder if non-American cultures have popular road trip games?

Cabin with Paintings

Main Piece

CT heard this was a true story about a log cabin in the woods in Maine, before it became a popular vacation spot:

“This woman was camping in the area with her boyfriend. One day she wakes up early and decides, ‘I’m gonna explore before he wakes up. Get some solitude.’ She’s walking through the woods (around dawn) and she stumbles upon an uncharted cabin, didn’t appear on any maps or anything.

‘Ok, maybe I’ll see if anyone’s home.’

On the exterior it’s well maintained, not scary. Opens up the front door, walks in, it’s pretty nice on the inside too. Got some nice paintings on the inside.

She thinks, ‘This is a nice place.’

There’s one painting on the wall that catches her eye. She goes up to it and it depicts a family portrait. But something’s a little off about the family in the painting. It’s a hyper-realistic painting. The family is standing outside, and they all have exaggerated facial features — a bit surreal – their eyes are wide, unblinking. Their mouths are wide in an eerie grin.

She feels alone in the cabin. She wants to check the kitchen to see if they have any extra food, thinking she might just borrow something. There’s not much in the kitchen. She thinks, “I better leave before anyone comes back.”

She goes back to main room. Right before she leaves, she looks at the painting and the strange thing is… that in the painting the family is no longer there. It’s just a blank backdrop of the woods. She puts her face right up the painting and she realizes it was never a painting… it was a window.”

After hearing this story, CD mentioned that he had heard a version of the story where it’s “dudes camping, they can’t find a shelter, they find a cabin, go lay down for bed, and are disconcerted by paintings and in the morning they’re all windows.”

Informant background

CT is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from New York City.

CD is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Zionsville, ID.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

For a popular internet rendition of this story (a “CreepyPasta”), see: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-portraits/

911 Scary Story

Main Piece

JJ was on a trip with some friends his senior year of high school, and they stayed in a cabin in the woods in Maine. He says this is a true story:

“It was from one of my friend’s friends who lives in Boston. This is why she says she’s never gonna live alone again.

She was living alone and she heard her front door open in the middle of the night. She goes to check it out, the doors are shut and she thinks she must be imagining things. She goes back to her room and hears noises coming from her living room area. She thinks ‘there has to be someone in my apartment.’

She’s freaked out and goes into the living room and nobody’s there. She calls 911 and they answer and she tells them `somebody broke into my apartment. I’m scared and I think there’s someone in here, I’m gonna hide in my laundry room.’

They ask where the phones in her house are. She has a phone in kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. They tell her they’re gonna send people on their way, but ‘whatever you do, don’t go into your laundry room.’

The police arrive, scan the apartment. She’s been in her room. They go into the laundry room. They find a man hiding behind the laundry room door with a knife.

She’s ecstatic. ‘How did you know there was somebody in the laundry room?’

When she called 911, they heard somebody breathing on the line, not her. The man had picked up the phone in laundry room to listen, and they figured it out.”

Informant background

JJ is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Newburyport, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

JJ’s story, along with every scary story I collected for this project, professes to be a “true story.” While the plausibility of this is in question, the effect of even the plausibility of this story having happened causes an extra layer of fear and fascination for the story—especially since the story is almost always told while the listeners are actually at the site.

The Beagle of Lake Mooselookmeguntic

Main Piece

JJ often visits Lake Mooselookmeguntic, Maine with his friends. One of his friends has a house on the lake. He tells us about an infamous beagle that would bother the beachgoers at the lake:

“We had 2 neighbors on either side. Not too close by, about 200 feet. One neighbor had a tiny little old-ass beagle covered in cancerous warts. It seemed like it was on its way out every year. Every year they’d give it the excuse it was dying. It would act like it. It would come over to you on the beach and piss over everything. Steal shit and trample all over your stuff. Every year we’d go up and say ‘it’s gotta be dead by now.’

If someone is trolling you, you call it a ‘Beagle Troll.’ He was the king of troll. If you had a bottle or a solo cup he would literally pee in it. He was the menace of the beach. He would be loose and enter your house, he would piss on your stuff and shit on the floor. You couldn’t get mad at him because he was covered in cancer warts and old AF. It wasn’t just us – this happened to everyone on the beach and everyone knew the Beagle.”

Informant background

JJ is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Newburyport, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

The Beagle is an interesting example of a living person (or in this case, dog), whose legend has outgrown his probable literal achievements. In the case of the Beagle, it is implausible that the dog would go from beach group to beach group targeting their drinks to urinate into; likewise for him breaking into houses just to defecate on the floor. However, it surely makes a better story and has definitely put Lake Mooselookmeguntic on the map of my consciousness for the first time.