As a young girl I was told one of the most memorable stories, the legendary myth of The New Jersey Devil.  The New Jersey Devil is believed by some to be a mythical creature and by others, a real-life monster of flesh and blood.

When I was a young girl, my parents bought a second home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey.  LBI, short for Long Beach Island as the locals say, is a 16 mile Island and a beach lover’s paradise. The Island was a summer community that came to life on Memorial Day weekend and became quiet and desolate the day after Labor Day. I Spent much time during the summer and winter on the island and made many lasting friendships with other summer commuters and with the locals that lived year round on the island.

I can vividly remember the first time we drove an hour and a half on the Garden State Parkway to get to our new beach house.  The drive felt like a life time.  Driving on the Garden State Parkway was like driving through a forest. The only thing we saw out our windows that day were trees. Thousands of tall green pine trees.

The Garden State Parkway stretches the length of New Jersey and at the southern location cuts through the pine Barrens which is also known as the Pine lands. The Pine lands stretch across more than seven counties of Southern New Jersey and consists of over a  million acres of forest,  sandy roads, swamps and other agriculture.

My brothers and I were in the back seat of our car, fighting, and screaming with excitement while heading on our long drive to the beach. We were  driving our parents crazy.  In a desperate effort for my parents to keep their sanity, my father told us to look out the window and look for the New Jersey Devil.  My brothers and I had no Idea of what our father was talking about.  My father went on to tell us that a half man, half horse with wings lived in the woods that we were driving through.  Being from NY my father really didn’t know much of the legend of the New Jersey Devil but he knew enough to scare the life out of me.  Years went by and I never heard much more about the “Jersey Devil” or the myth of the creature of the pine lands.  It wasn’t until my teen years that the legend of this mythical creature once again came to life. My friends and I would try to escape the crowded island and head over to a local spot called the pit.  If you weren’t a local to the area and didn’t have a truck with extremely large tires you would never find this spot. We would squeeze as many people as possible into trucks, drive off the island, take a turn on a dirt road and head into the woods.  We would drive deep into the woods, through ponds of water, and on small dirt trails until we reached a place you would never think would exist. A beautiful white sandy open pit. On the drive to the pit , one of the voices in the truck mentioned how they hope we don’t meet up with the “Jersey Devil”.   My eyes lit up hearing this name after so many years of trying to forget it.  I couldn’t believe that someone else knew of this creature who was lurking in the woods.  I thought my father was just trying to distract us on that drive to our beach house.  This was the first time since I was a little girl that I heard of this creature.  When we piled out of the car, I asked my friend how he knew about the “Jersey Devil”.  His response was, “ If you live in New Jersey, you know about the Jersey Devil.”  This was the night I learned about the legend.

Looking up information on Google wasn’t an option when I was a teenager. Everything I learned about the “Jersey Devil” was from my peers and the stories that had been passed down to them.

According to the legend, Its origin dates back to when New Jersey was still a British Colony.  A woman named Mrs. Jane Leeds who was very poor headed into the spine of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. There she created a life for herself. She was surrounded by vast forests, sandy soil and patches of swamp. In 1735, Mrs. Leeds discovered that she was pregnant with her 13th child. She complained to her friends and relatives about having another child and said that the “Devil can take her 13th child.” and he did. When the baby was born, it was a monster! the baby was grotesque and grew to more than 20 feet long, it had a reptilian body, a horse’s head, bat wings and a long, forked tail. She would not let him go out of the house until one day he escaped. Some say he escaped by flying up and out through the chimney.  The creature, or what they call today the  “Jersey Devil” never went back to his home and legend says it wanders the woods haunting the Pine Barrens.

Its been said that the beast would hunt the land, killing and eating large dogs, geese, cats, chickens and when it was really hungry, eat children.  As the story spread, people would not venture out into the woods at night. Remains of hundreds of animals were found in the woods but the remains of children who went missing were never found because the devil ate everything including their bones.  There has been many reports from the 1700’ s to present day of sightings of the creature that haunts the pine lands.  There are many conflicting stories of what the creature looks like. Many people do not believe the New Jersey Devil exists and believe it is nothing but a creation of a New Jersey folklore.

Once I had children, I wanted them to experience the life I had at our family beach house. When summer came, I would take my children on the one and a half hour drive down the Garden State Parkway through the pine Lands and heading to LBI, and the beautiful beach.  It wasn’t until my oldest son was 6 or 7 years of age when I told him to look out the window in search of the New Jersey Devil, passing along what I knew of the  creature and keeping alive the legend that was passed down to me.

Informant: The informant of this story was my mom. She said this is one of the most popular folklore that she heard as a kid. Family members and friends told this story to my mom in several different versions and she gave me the version she best remembers. She said that a lot of parents told their children this story to avoid exactly what she was doing in the woods, which was partying without parental supervision. I think this story taught my mom the importance of being safe wherever you are going and be aware of your surroundings.

Analysis: Listening to my mom tell her story regarding the New Jersey Devil made me realize that this piece of folklore is mostly popular on the east coast. Due to the location of where my mom was living, New York and traveling to New Jersey she heard this folk several times in her life. Someone her same age may never hear this story due to the location of this folk figure being located in the deep woods of New Jersey. This story was a great way for parents to keep their kids from running off into the woods.

My dad was always the coach of my baseball team and knew absolutely everything about the game. When I was younger I was in practice and me and my friends were kicking the white chalked dirt line that ran from third base to home base on a baseball field. We were just scuffing up the straight line and making it look like the chalk was everywhere. My dad came running over from putting away all the chalk and he was so mad. He said you just saw me working on that why would you do that. I told him that I was just bored and didn’t mean it negatively. He told me not only is it wrong to do, but its terrible luck to step on the lines of a baseball diamond. He said you are always supposed to jump over the line in order to not jinx yourself. From that day on I never stepped on the line not because of superstition but the story was engrained in my head. It was also weird after learning about the baseball diamond line I noticed it in MLB games also. I would see the managers of the teams jump over the line when they would meet with the pitcher on the mound.

Informant: My informant was William Winkenhower who played baseball throughout his whole childhood in little leagues and travel teams. William is sixteen years old and is a resident of California. He no longer plays baseball but enjoys watching the game.

Analysis: Baseball folklore is very interesting to think about. I question whether these stories and rules to follow started in superstition or if they were made up two have two meanings. I truly believe the people who started this folk of not messing up the straight line and jumping over it had a purpose of preserving the cleanliness of the field. Chalking lines from home base all the way to outfield can be extremely tedious and if the line gets messed up then the whole area has to be redone. Maybe the starter of this folk really intended to scare baseball players from messing this line up.

The first time I ever used a rally cap was my first year of baseball. We were playing the orioles in the playoffs and were down three runs. My teammates who had played one year more than me told me flip my baseball cap inside out then put it on my head. They called it a rally cap and it helped bring good luck to the team to score more runs. They also have rally monkeys which are long armed skinny stuffed monkey’s usually dressed in your team uniform which hang on the dugout for good luck and help to score more runs.

Informant: Troy Winkenhower was my informant for this piece of folklore regarding baseball. He is eleven years old and is an intense baseball player. He is from the Los Angeles area.

Analysis: Baseball is a sport that is very old and has so much history. For that reason the game shares superstations and folklore for the people who play the sport. The rally cap is a common thing scene in little leagues around the country. Kids reverse their hat for luck to bring in more runs scored for their team. The idea of flipping your hat inside out seems like it may be a way for kids to focus on the game instead of messing around in the dugout. You don’t really see rally caps in the major leagues so I think this folk is more specific to younger generations of baseball.

My kids were always so full of energy when we went anywhere so I would try and think of creative ways to keep them calm. One of the best ways was when we were at Six Flags Great adventure with my son Troy and he was running to far ahead of me. I told him he needs to be careful where he was walking and if you step on a crack when you are walking you break your mothers back. He responded by saying I don’t want to hurt you mommy. From that point on he didn’t step on one crack and it caused him to walk way slower and allow for me to keep up without exerting too much energy.

Informant: The informant in this was once again Heidi. She has two boys and one girl for kids and had a lot of trouble with her youngest son troy having way too much energy on a daily basis.

Analysis: This is one of the most popular folk im writing about. A lot of generations of kids grow up knowing this riddle. Heidi was able to turn a common household game into a way of keeping her son from running too far ahead at an amusement park. Troy was always full of energy when he was young and truly believed if you step on a crack he would hurt his mom. His knowledge of that made him think a little bit more before running or performing any type of actions.

When I was younger and my two sisters and me were bored and had nothing to do we would often be very rowdy and annoying. When my mom would drop us off at my grandmas we would be bored for hours. My grandma would always make these weird riddles and sayings in order to keep my sisters and I occupied. One of the scariest tales she told me was if you looked at a clock with crossed eyes when the clock struck any hour it would cause your eyes to stay that way. My sisters and I never tried this in fear of our eyes getting crossed, but later when we were teens we tried it again and nothing happened.

Informant: The informant for this story is my girlfriend’s mom Heidi Winkenhower. She grew up in an extremely German household as a child and tried to pass down folk she learned to her own kids. She currently lives in Corona Del Mar, California and is in her late forties. I was able to talk on the phone with Heidi so she could relay the story to me.

Analysis: I have heard several versions of stories where if you cross your eyes and something else happens then your eyes will stay crossed. Personally, my mom would say this type of folklore to us when me and my brothers were out of control and making ugly ridiculous faces. I think this folk could have started as a way for parents to scare their kids from making such ugly faces. It worked for me in my childhood and was always so scared to cross my eyes in result of my parents telling me my eyes would stay that way.