Author Archives: Brittaney Robinson

Contemporary Legend

Urban Legend- “Charcoal Man”

Setting: This campfire story was told to me one night my roommates and I decided to tell scary stories we had encountered as a means of sharing various folklore stories with one another. Nichelle Megowan and I who were listening to Emily Intersimone’s camp fire ghost story called Charcoal Man.

Emily asking me: What are you doing for your folklore special? Is it ghost stories or what?

Me: No it’s any type of folklore.

Emily: Any type?

Me: Any type

Emily: Can campfire ghost stories count?

Me: Yes it can!

Emily: I think my dad made one up actually. Do you wanna hear it?

Me: Talk talk

Emily: I can’t do the scariness but um…

Me: Do your version it’s all a part of folklore. That’s a part of folklore.

Emily: Ok so um… My Dad would always tell this story from first person point of view and he’s from rural Northern California. So he was in the Boy Scouts so he would say, “well you know I went Boy Scout camping and there’s this area this highway where the highway curves on this mountain with a bunch or Redwoods in Humboldt County and when we’d drive this to my grandparents house we would go on this one curve in Humboldt and he would always be like, “Charcoal Man”. Charcoal Man. Have you ever heard of Charcoal Man.

Nichelle and I: No

Emily: See I think my Dad actually made it up. And umm… or it’s like a weird Humboldt county Boy Scout. So the legend goes…That in Humboldt county there’s this one curve in the road with a hill, and one night some teenagers were driving, you know, driving late. For whatever reason the car veers off the road into like down the heel through the hill through the redwoods and the car catches on fire

Nichelle interrupts and sings: To Grandmother’s house we go… sorry

Emily laughs and says, “Yeah I know we’re all going to go to grandmas and Charcoal Man… And so the car catches on fire and they all die in the car. Or it might have been just one guy but I think there were teenagers involved. Um so….because of this fiery death there was this monster called Charcoal Man who lives you know or like his ghost who lived in like Humboldt County. And um so Boy Scouts would go camping and they would say that you could hear noises in the night and they would open up their tent and there’d be burning footprints leading up to leading up to a tent that had caught on fire. And they’d be like, “Oh my God!” And they’d like douse the fire out there’d be these burning foot prints. My dad totally made this up. But um… so that was the legend basically and my Dad you know would tell these stories about how they just barely escaped from this man made of burning coal.

Me: Who would he tell?

Emily: He would tell our sisters my sisters and I around the campfire. When we’re camping he’d be like, “You know when I camped, you have to be careful of Charcoal Man and he would always tell us at the end of Charcoal Man that that… and it was really scary at the time but he would always tell us “you think that was scary just wait until you hear about Pancake Man”. And we were always like, “Who’s Pancake Man?” And we never heard about Pancake Man.

Me: I think your dad forgot about Pancake Man.

Emily: Or I think, I think there never was a Pancake man. I think he just made it up. And he would just always add that at the end.

This camp fire, urban legend is definitely derived from the Intersimone family that has mostly been passed down to siblings. This legend can be seen as a way of entertaining adolescent children who are naivety plays a crucial role in believing made up ghost stories. This legend perhaps can also confirm a child’s need to rely on parental security, especially in cases where a child is in a new environment, like the forest mentioned in the legend, and they need their mothers or fathers to feel a sense of security. I found this legend to also be another way of making his daughters laugh, allowing Emily’s dad to share a bonding time with his daughters. I found this legend to be quiet comical and unique. I have not heard any other rendition like the “Charcoal Man”. However, I am sure as this story spreads many versions will start take on various forms as it diffuses across different groups.

Food – Japan

Food ways: Ozoni

Matthew: On New Years my family eats this soup called Ozoni. Each vegetable in the soup is supposed to bring you some type of good luck.

Me: Do you know the ingredients in the soup?

Matthew: Mochi, Carrots, Daikon (pickled Japanese radish), Shitake Mushrooms, Karbu (seaweed), and Watercress

Me: Do you know what each vegetable symbolizes?

Matthew: No, I’m not sure. I believe they symbolize different fields of luck like making money, long life, but I’m not sure what each vegetable symbolizes.

Ozoni can also be found in Japanese Cooking: Contemporary and Traditional. (See Annotation).

I do agree with Matthew’s interpretation of this Japanese recipe. It was interesting to hear Matthew say that this dish was only eaten on New Years day.  I would imagine that the purpose of this limited time frame for consumption would be for the purpose of celebrating new beginnings in one’s life. To me, this soup is a symbolization of an optimistic outlook for your future, which should be eaten on a holiday that celebrates novelty, luck, and hope.

Annotation:

Schinner, Miyoko Nishimoto. Japanese Cooking: Contemporary and Traditional. Summertown, TN: Book Publishing Co., 1999. pp. 68-71.

Game

Children’s Game: My Father Owns a Grocery Store

Anne learned this game from her older sister when she was about ten years old. The method of this game goes as follows:

Person #1: My father owns a grocery store and in it he sells __. Person #1 will say the first letter of an item that is found in a grocery store

Person #2 will first say “and in it he sells…” and then they would have to guess what the item is that the person #1 is thinking of based off of the first letter Person #1 gave them. Person #1 is allowed to give hints if person #2 asks for a hint. Person #2 gets five tries to guess the correct grocery item. If they guess correctly they will become the designated person to lead the game. If they lose, person #1 gets another turn to lead the game. This game can be played with 2 or more people. Anne says that the more people that participate in the game, the more fun the game becomes.

Example:

Person #1: My father owns a grocery store and in it he sells “A”.

Person #2: and in it he sells apples?

Person #1: No

Person #2: and in it he sells apricots?

Person #1: Yes

Person #2: My father owns a grocery store and it he sells…

Anne said this children’s game is usually played in cars during long road trips, when an adult needs to keep a bored child busy, or with fellow friends and family at family get-togethers.

Anne, my grandmother, has passed this game down to her children and her grandchildren. This game holds sentimental value to me because I of the memories that go along with playing this game. The long road trip to the Grand Canyon or the nights spent around laughing while playing this game at the dinner table after a Sunday dinner are some of the few memories that I share when I remember playing this game. This shows that the deeper context of this type of folklore lies beneath the superficial framework of the game; it is more so the memories and anecdotes that accompanies childhood games that make them so important to my culture.

Ghost Story

Folk Belief- Ghosts: Penelope

Penelope is the resident ghost at the University Apartments in apartments 3a and 4a. Warnings of encountering this ghost are passed down from apartment to apartment every year. Murphy’s story goes as stated:

“On the first week of school, I went into the bathroom and I proceeded to put my boxers and clothes on top of the toilet. I got out of the shower and found my clothes on the floor with the bathroom toilet seat up. Take in mind that none of my roommates were here and the bathroom door is locked. So then I went to wash my clothes and I put my clothes into the washer. When my clothes were done I started to put them in the dryer and I noticed there was a lacey blue pair of panties in my laundry. Disturbed, I put them in the trash can. When I got my clothes out the dryer, I folded them and noticed another pair of lacey blue panties in my laundry. So I shut the dryer and left my clothes and ran upstairs. That was Penelope.”

I found Murphy’s interpretation of Penelope to be full of comedic relief from a type of folk belief that is usually deemed as scary. I believe this ghost story can be used as a marker of identification. Students on Xavier’s campus may start to know Murphy as “the person who has encountered a ghost or the person who can tell good ghost stories.”  This ghost story can also be used as a right of passage for new roommates who will move into apartments 3a and 4a. Former residents will determine whether the new residence of 3a and 4a can become a part of the Penelope group, by testing to see if they have come in contact with Penelope.

Folk Metaphor

Folk Metaphor: “If Dog Rabbit”

Eric’s interpretation of this saying is, “if the dog hadn’t stopped to take a shit then he would have caught the rabbit.” This term is mostly used when playing card games. Eric’s grandfather passed this saying down to him, and Eric most often uses it with other family members when they are playing card games, like poker. This term is used anytime you use the word “if” and/or engaging in wishful thinking without taking any action.

The word “if” is emphasized in this saying, symbolizing that one needs to take actions in order to produce results. You cannot expect to achieve goals if you are always making excuses for yourself. I could imagine that this phrase may have been commonly used amongst hunters with hounds and may have been later passed down to sons and daughters. I could also see this phrase used in different contexts besides card games. When one is aspiring to try out for an audition but is hesitant to do so and they say “if only I could try out for the ballet, an encouraging person could push them to audition by telling them “If dog rabbit.”