Author Archives: Bella Karahalios

Ghost of a Nun

Text: “Okay so, I went to an all-girls Catholic school that was apparently extremely haunted. I went to middle school there as well, and the middle school was on the third floor of this Catholic school and it used to be the old boarding school and the dorms used to be upstairs. The third floor is right next to the belltower. So, there’s this story that there was this nun in the 1900s who got pregnant, and because obviously when you’re a nun you’re not allowed to be pregnant, she jumped off the belltower. People would say they could see her shadow in the belltower at night and there were several girls who also saw another ghost who used to go to the school, and several people reported seeing penny loafers that just disappeared underneath the stall in the girl’s third floor bathroom.”

Context: A school in El Paso, Texas, but both her parents are Mexican and she grew up spending time in both El Paso and Mexico. She was raised Catholic and speaks both Spanish and English.

Analysis: A’s ghost story might be meant to serve as a cautionary tale for the young and impressionable girls that attended A’s school. Catholicism often preaches very strict views on homosexuality and female sexuality, specifically celebrating women who choose to wait until marriage to have sex. Catholic nuns and priests are thought to be in a covenant with God and when they take their vows become celibate. A’s school ghost did not follow her vows and faced the consequences. Moreover, those who commit suicide cannot technically be buried in a Catholic graveyard with their family where the land has been blessed by a priest. Therefore the nun in becoming pregnant set her fate, and in her suicide permanently separated herself from God, so she suffers in the form of a ghost. Ghosts are primarily outside of the canon of Catholicism, although it is common in many churches to light a candle for your ancestors or in the earlier days of the Catholic church to tithe or donate money in order to reduce your ancestors time in purgatory for your sins. 

The Legend of Stoggoty Stu

Text: “This is called the legend of Stoggoty Stu, that’s literally what they call it. Every year my family for like the past three, four generations has gone to New Hampshire. We like to own the cabins on one part of the lake and then people on the houses on the other part of the lake. There was this myth that Charlie and this man named Stoggoty Stu were best friends. Stoggoty Stu lived across the lake and Charlie lived in the cabins where we were. We play volleyball every single night from like 10pm-1am there. Charlie would blow this huge horn and scream volleyball across the lake and then families, including Stoggoty Stu would come to play volleyball. Stoggoty Stu and Charli have passed on now because it’s been so many generations, but we still play volleyball and we don’t call across the lake, but everyone comes like when they know. And so, the myth is that after we all play volleyball and everyone is getting hammered, good vibes all around everyone goes to the lake to jump in. Everyone pretends if they’re drunk enough or if you believe it that you can hear Stoggoty Stu calling back across the lake especially when it’s windy and dark and foggy. Specifically at 12:12 when we all jump in.”

Context: M is nineteen years old and grew up in Seattle, Washington. She’s currently a Business major at USC. She says that she grew up hearing the Legend of Stoggy Stu, and her family and friends still tell it today. 

Analysis: Stoggoty Stu’s location and nature are both interesting in this story. Those who interact with ghosts are typically witnesses or victims, in this case M’s family is witnesses. Ghosts also often appear at a changing of location or ownership, in this case the ownership of the lake house is changing hands from one generation to the next. Stoggoty Stu is stationary, M says her family doesn’t tell or follow the legend when they are at home in Seattle, but rather when they enter the separate space of the lake property. Stoggoty Stu could also be considered an ancestral spirit, connecting M’s family to the property. By continuing to call for his friend to come play volleyball, Stoggoty Stu is expressing a desire for M and her family to stay connected to their community. M’s family’s imitation of his call, having their friend’s for volleyball every night, could be considered quasi-homeopathic ritual magic perhaps to bring back the spirit of the good times Stoggoty Stu represents.

Slenderman

Text: “Well we were all scared of Slenderman. Slenderman is a really really tall slender man, and when we were younger whenever kids were like especially malicious– so not if you were talking back to your dad or something, but like if you were severely bullying a friend. Then there would be an incident where you would be “slendermanned” and everyone knew that he was not real kind of, but like kids would make up other stories to tell kids he was real. Anytime that there’s like a sus murder in the news and no one could figure out what it was most people would just say it was him [slenderman]. It all started in 2014 I think when there was another kid who almost stabbed a 12 year old kid to death. Slenderman like he doesn’t kill you, but he gets someone else to do it for him pretty much. When slenderman is around you have this type of feeling, and you get really paranoid and you can’t get rid of him. We talked about that from a very young age as kids, like we were walking around talking about that. The whole idea was like the original kid that killed the girl was possessed like would do anything for slenderman. Anytime someone does something unexplainable like setting their house on fire or suicides all of that goes back to slenderman. There’s also the idea that he has a daughter and her name is skinny Sally, but I don’t know anything about that really.”

Context: M is a twenty one year old student who grew up in Chicago and went to school on the Southside. She currently attends USC, and says she doesn’t as frequently hear references to the story above anymore, but believes that’s more due to age than location. 
Analysis: I had heard of Slenderman before talking to M, but never any of the background on him or why he was considered so terrifying. Before researching, both M and myself were unaware that the story of Slenderman originated on the internet. He’s usually represented as M and his name describes: a tall, skinny man, but also as a faceless shadowy figure. Slenderman first surfaced in 2009 when he was posted under a photoshop contest thread. Since his inception countless threads and communities online surfaced building upon the original narrative into several different horror stories. Transferred from site to site there is no canon, or singular correct version of Slenderman instead there’s multiplicity and variation. Slenderman’s evolution continues today, and was adapted into a 2018 film. The folkloric quality of Slenderman is well documented and has been researched by Andrew Peck who considers its popularity to be due to its “collaborative nature.” Still in spite of this “collaborative nature” Slenderman has been copyrighted by Eric Knudsen the 2009 poster of the images that inspired the narrative.

The Ballad of Squirmy the Worm

Text: 

*singing

“I was sittin’ on a fencepost mmmmm

Chewin’ my bubblegum mmmm

When along came Squirmy the Worm he was this big

*S holds up a distance between forefinger and thumb

and I said ‘hey charli what’s happening?’

and he said ‘I’m hungry!’

and I said ‘Squirmy you should eat some food!’

“I was sittin’ on a fencepost mmmmm

Chewin’ my bubblegum mmmm

When along came Squirmy the Worm and I said ‘hey squirmy what’s happening?’

And he was thiiiis big

*S holds up a further distance between her hands

and he said ‘I ate five flies!’

and I said ‘No way Squirmy!’

“I was sittin’ on a fencepost mmmmm

Chewin’ my bubblegum mmmm

When along came Squirmy the Worm and I said ‘hey squirmy what’s happening?’

And he was THIS big

*S holds her arms out wide

and he said ‘I ate ten flies!’

and I said ‘Wow Squirmy!’’

“I was sittin’ on a fencepost mmmmm

Chewin’ my bubblegum mmmm

When along came Squirmy the Worm 

He was this big

*S holds up a distance between forefinger and thumb

and I said “Squirmy! What happened?’

and he said ‘I ate one-hundred flies!’

and I said ‘Wow Squirmy!’’

“Basically it keeps going until Squirmy throws up at the end. We used to do it at summer camp and the camp counselors would just make it more and more ridiculous and make up different things for what he eats. I think they would add more when we were waiting around for stuff to take more time.”

Context: S grew up in Southern California, and explained that she went to different day camps each Summer, until she was about twelve. She says that at most camps they would sing a variation of “Squirmy the Worm.” S says the song was usually led by a camp counselor, but sung by everyone who knew the words. 

Analysis: The tune that S sings is different from the one in the video attached below, entitled “Herman the Worm,”  but much of the structure and lyrics of the songs are similar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-rg7EIt1x4. “Herman” or “Hermie the Worm” seems to be a semi-popular song at children’s summer camps. S’ version of Squirmy the Worm is at times spoken with animation more than sung by her, and is humorous in nature both with the aspect of the ridiculousness of the amount that Squirmy eats “one-hundred flies” and the punch line being that he “threw up.” As a result it could potentially be considered dually a ballad and a narrative joke. There’s also a lesson for children in Squirmy’s story: don’t be greedy and eat too much or there will be consequences. Camp songs and campfire songs for children gained popularity in the late 18th and early 19th century with the rise of the wilderness movement in which the Puritans believed it was their God-given responsibility to shape the American wilderness into “earthly paradise.” However, this song doesn’t include many mentions of nature, but it does have the singer interacting with a personified worm, giving the worm human characteristics of speech and feeling. This gives sympathy to one of nature’s smallest creatures and allows the children to feel a kinship with them, perhaps having once done something similar to Squirmy the Worm.

Double-Double Handshake

Text: “Well on the playground, we used to play a lot of hand shakes and we would clap and then sing them like :

‘double double this this”

and we would bump fists on the ‘double double’, and then clap each other’s hands on the ‘this this’.

double double that that

double this double that

double double this that’

We would do it over and over faster until we couldn’t go anymore. And we would use words with like two syllables sometimes like:

‘double double rain rain

double double bow bow

double rain double bow

double double rainbow.’”

Context: S said she can’t remember exactly when first heard the rhyme/handshake above, but that she and her friends frequently learned new ones and taught them to each other at school. S attended a Catholic school in Southern California for most of her education.

Analysis: S watched the following video and confirmed it’s the same as the handshake she also used to perform on the playground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNm52EdG3cg&t=28s. Some sources categorize the song as a nursery rhyme, however S has never heard it without the handshake portion included or seen it written down. The British Library (https://www.bl.uk/playtimes/articles/an-introduction-to-clapping-games#:~:text=The%20earliest%20clapping%20game%20in,they%20were%20noted%20in%20France.) states that hand clapping games rose in popularity around the 1960s in the US and England. They began to be associated as a game between children in early 19th century France, but were recorded in relation to children by folklorist Peter Opie in 1698. The impressiveness of the coordination required by children to both sing and clap is what’s thought to have made clapping games popular. In this particular case, it may not be the lyrics of the rhyme used above that made it popular, but rather the rhythm and the versatility of the lyrics to be switched out for different two syllable words. However, the phrase “double double” is a phrase used frequently in slang and media. The repetition of the word double, implies urgency, “we need to leave on the double double.” There’s the popular In-n-Out cheeseburger which is popular in California (S’s native state), known as “the double double,” and movies like the 1993 Double Double Toil and Trouble.