Author Archives: Stacey Badger

Getting Good Grades at Cal State Fullerton

Getting Good Grades at Cal State Fullerton

Personal Background:

My brother is 22 years old and recently graduated from California State University Fullerton with a major in radio, TV, and film. He is now working for temporary tattoo company and has some small film jobs on the side. He is currently living in Los Angeles.

Tradition:

            While my brother was going to school in Fullerton, there was a tradition during finals week where all of the students would touch the butt of their Statue of David as good luck. During finals week every year, the students will line up to touch the statue that is in pieces in their quad. It is a way to connect with the rest of the student body as they go through a very stressful week. It is something funny that can help relieve some of the tension they might be feeling. It is also something everyone must do to really be considered a Titan.

My brother is not quite sure if doing this actually works, but he still did it the two years he was there. To him, it was better to be safe about it than to risk not doing it and not doing well on finals. He first heard about it when he was on a tour of the school. He said, “It seemed as though everyone knew they were supposed to do this, even without any sort of conversation about it.” It made him want to do it even more since it was a way he was able to get together with his fellow classmates who were going through the same crazy week as him.

Analysis:

This type of tradition is a folk belief. The students who attend this college have a belief that this works, yet it is not something that can be scientifically proven. By touching the butt of the fallen statue of David, it is funny way to get the students together, and it can also be a way for the students to “save their butts” and not fail their finals. It is more of a psychological superstition than ritual that will actually work. They think that the power that the statue of David has will rub off onto them and give them the power to do remember everything they learned that semester. There may even be luck involved when the students get their grades back. To me, it is a way the students try to get control when the only thing they can take control during study days is how much they study for their finals.

The Ghost of Grandma Badger

The Ghost of Grandma Badger

            Personal Background:

            My dad is a long shore man in the port in San Pedro, California. He currently lives in Huntington Beach, California, although he grew up in San Pedro. He has a mother who is Mexican and a father who is European, so he was able to experience two very different side when he was growing up.

            Seeing a Ghost:

When my dad lost his grandmother, he had a moment when he was walking in his house and he passed by her old room, and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw her. It turned out it was just the television on a stand. It was a brown television on a brown stand, and he said, “The stand was about four eleven, and she was about four eleven. She also used to wear clothes that were that exact brown.”

He is someone who does not believe in ghosts, he thinks that it may have actually been his grandmother standing there for a second. They spent a lot of time together, and they even shared a room at one point with her. He says it seemed so real, even though it was just for a second. Now, whenever he goes to his parents’ house, he does not like being there alone. If he ever has to be there for any reason alone, he says he, “gets the hell out of there,” as fast as he can. They have rooms in the house that people do not use, so it makes him uncomfortable to be there.

Analysis:

To me, my dad saw thought he saw his grandma because he missed her. She had just died, and he had been very close to her. In a way I do believe him since he is my dad and he is someone I trust. From the etic view, it may seem strange, but to him it is not strange at all. It also shows how death affects people in America. It is something that is depressing, while in other parts of the world is not seen that way. Death can be something that makes people see and hear things they did not believe in before.

The Haunting of Bakersfield High

The Haunting of Bakersfield

Personal Background:

Ashley is a 19 year old student at the University of Southern California. She grew up in Bakersfield and went to Bakersfield High School. She had a family that had a lot of American culture, as well as Japanese culture since her mother is Japanese. She is able to bring bits of each into her every day.

Local Legend:

Ashley says there have been rumors for as long as she can remember about her old high school being haunted. It is a very old school, built before the city even had a name. She has heard multiple stories from others that there were strange things happening around campus, specifically in the auditorium. Before the high school was a high school, it was a college, and before that it was a hospital, and it has been haunted ever since. Many of the students there are bodies buried underneath the school. Or that certain people who died in the hospital now haunt the school. There are also a lot of different rooms through the school that have not been opened for years. There are  underground tunnels that have not been used since the hospital was there, so people has their suspicions of what could be down there.

With the auditorium being the place with the most haunted things, people try not to go there very often alone. It has been heard that there have been strange noises and doors shutting without other people being there. This was due to an apparent death during a play of Peter Pan. One of the wires broke, killing the person who was attached to it. This person is known to be the one who is haunting the auditorium.

There is also a rumor of a couple who broke up and committed suicide on campus. They are also haunting different areas of the school at night. Ashley says that this is way to keep all the “stupid people” off campus at night. All of these stories come from people Ashley know and trust, and this is why she believes the what she has heard.

To Ashley, these stories are a fun way for people to spread rumors in school. It is a way to bring the community together, and a way to scare the young kids from going to the high school at night. It is a way to keep a story going through the high school, even after the people she know and who know her have gone off to college.

Analysis:

To me, these stories are way to keep the past and present connected. It is a way to connect the students and give them a common legend to follow. They can talk about it with the students from the past, as well as the current students. It can be a way of initiation to the newer students coming into the school. They may need to know the stories in order to be part of the theater groups or other groups that spend a lot of time within the auditorium. This is a type of urban legend that has the town keeping up with the things that are happening in the high school. It has a lot to do with the belief of the people in town, and nobody has been able to disprove any of it. The rumors that are very specific are what make it a legend. They have to do with historical events that may or may not have actually happened. It has created a belief within the school that seems to connect the student body.

Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary

Personal Background:

Heidi is a freshman at the University of Southern California and is studying psychology. She has grown up in Los Angeles with a lot of Mexican/American influence. She really enjoyed being able to have part of the two different cultures come together.

Legend:

Heidi heard a lot of the legendary people who tend to haunt a lot of Mexican culture, but the one about Bloody Mary is the one she liked the most.

“When you are looking in the bathroom mirror, you say her name three times and she appears. The room has to be dark, and it has to be at night. She then comes out and kills you.”

This was all Heidi was able to remember. She did say she heard something about Bloody Mary being related to the Queen Mary. She thinks Mary might have been killed in a dark room while looking in a mirror, which is why she comes out of mirrors. She said she heard about this when she was watching TV when she was younger, and it just happened that everyone knew what she was while she was at school. It scared her terribly when she was younger, and still scares her today. She has never tried it, and says she will never try because she thinks it might be the one time Bloody Mary will appear.

Analysis:

This legend has been a big part of a lot of children horror. Bloody Mary could have been someone who existed at one time, but she has become a legend. She is a story told to young children as a way to scare them.

To me, this story has been told so many times I do not believe it anymore. My older brother used to try to scare me with in when I was younger by trying it. It did not work, so there was no need to believe it. Even if I think of if that way, it is something that keeps getting revised, and will keep changing for the new generations.

There are more versions at “Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary.” VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever. Ed. Jim Craddock. 2012 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2011. 602. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014.

La Llorona

La Llorona

Personal Background:

Stephanie is a junior at the University of Southern California studying biology. She has grown up with a lot of Mexican influence, and has even spent some time in Mexico with her parents and grandparents. She is living in Los Angeles at the moment and is very happy with some of the Mexican influence L.A. has.

Legend

When Stephanie was growing up, she heard a lot of stories about La Llorona from her grandparents and friends. The story her grandparents told her is the one that is heard the most.

It begins with a woman whose husband has died. She ends up going crazy and drowns her children in a river. She ended up killing herself as well. Every night she wanders the streets looking for her children, and children in general.

In some other versions Stephanie has heard, La Llorona drowns her children in a bathtub for no reason. The ending is still the same with La Lloorna wandering the streets at night looking for children.
These stories were originally told to Stephanie when she was little as a way to keep her from staying out late at night. It was a scare tactic used by her parents, older siblings, as well as grandparents. She said they would say, “You better come inside or La Llorona is going to get you!” She would then come inside when she heard this. She has other friends who grew up in a very Hispanic culture who went through very similar events when they were younger. Stephanie is not sure if she still believes in La Llorona, but just in case there is possibility she does exist, she tries not to wander places alone at night.

Analysis:

This is a legend because of the possibility that it may or may not be true. Women have killed their children in the past. It is a legend that has become a ghost story. Parents use it as a way to scare their young kids into not staying out late.

To me, this is this is the type of story that people will continue to tell their kids in the future. It seems to work on little kids now, and if it was something that would have worked for me, I would want to use it in the future.

See other versions “La Llorona.” La Estrella de PanamáAug 10 2011. ProQuest. Web. 2 May 2014 .