Author Archives: Wesley Smith

Legend – Mississippi

“There is this legend that Robert Johnson desired to be the greatest blues player of all time on the guitar.  So one night he went down to the crossroads in Mississippi at midnight and made a deal with the devil that if he gave the devil his soul he would be able to play anything he wanted on the guitar.”

Riley told me that he heard this legend a long time ago before he can really remember.  He said that his family is very musically oriented being of Irish descent and that his father was probably the one who told him this story.  His father plays guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin and a variety of other stringed instruments that are all associated with blues and the bluegrass of the South.  He said that his family is also very centered on telling legends such as these and that he knew many other music related legends as well.  Typically a legend such as this would be told in a manner that is as if to make the person believe that Robert Johnson gained his great guitar playing abilities from the devil himself and that the devil is the reason that he is such a talented player.  Robert Johnson was indeed a legendary guitar player who lived from the 1910s to the 1930s and unfortunately died at a young age.

Notwithstanding, the devil is often referenced to in other legends and myths.  The devil is regularly viewed as a supernatural being that has the power to make sinful deals with people and hence give them powers in exchange for something, quite often their soul.  Examples of this can be seen in such modern films as “Little Nicky” in which Nicky’s (Adam Sandler) father is the devil and he gives Nicky the power to capture people’s soul in a flask.  Also the well-known song “Crossroads” performed by Eric Clapton and Cream actually came from Robert Johnson in reference to this legend.

Regardless of the truth behind the proverb, I believe that it shows religious power that the south held at this time in history.  It is also possible that the reference of the devil and Robert Johnson making a deal could have been impacted by the amount of racism that existed during the 1930s in the southern United States.  Robert Johnson was a black man who was clearly successful at something, and in the 1930s a black man in the south was typically seen as inferior by white folk in general.  Due to this reason I believe a possible conclusion of Robert Johnson’s ordeal with the devil could have been a rumor that was spread by a jealous white person in order to show that even though he was successful, it was because he had made a deal with the devil.

Ghost Story/Joke – Maryland

“Ok, so this really happened to me one night when I was babysitting for these children.  It was the middle of winter and I was sitting in the family’s house, and in Maryland in winter it’s pretty cold, and it had snowed heavily the night before.  I was sitting on the couch and I was watching TV with the kids but their parents had told me that they should be put to bed by ten o’clock so I helped them into their beds and continued watching TV.  The TV room was positioned as such so that the couch I was sitting on was facing the TV and there was this glass sliding door to my left.  So I was in the middle of watching a movie and I look outside and I see this really old looking man standing in the snow outside and he appeared to be holding what looked like a sickle, like for cutting grain.  So immediately I start freaking out, I’m thinking where are the kids and I hide under my blanket and call 911.  The police answer and I tell them that there is this old man standing outside my door with a sickle and they say that they’ll be right over.  About 5 minutes or so later they arrive but there are no footprints outside or any whereabouts to the location of the man.  Then the police show me a trail of muddy footprints leading through the house and right behind the couch and they told me, ‘Sir you are very lucky.  The man you saw standing outside was a reflection in the door.  He was actually standing right behind you’.”

After Zach tells this story he then says that he actually made it all up and that it isn’t true.  That is how he said it is supposed to be told.  Zach says that he does not remember where he learned the tale but that he has been telling it for probably a little under five years now.  He said that the best time to tell the story is typically late at night when there is a group gathering of less than ten people and he said he likes to tell it with the lights off.  This all adds to the spooky suspense of the story.  He said to tell the story, one can add specifics to make it sound even more believable, and perhaps change the hometown depending on where the person is from.  He also said it is good to tell it in a living room, especially if there is a glass door and it is night time.

The whole point of telling the story is to lead the audience on long enough to make them think that you are actually telling a scary story, when the whole time you are just leading up to a trick ending.  I am not sure where or what category this fits into folklore, however, it seems to be a mix between a joke, ghost story, and legend.  The reason that it is so believable is the amount of detail that the teller puts into the story itself.  I also believe that popular culture has had an effect on the degree of how frightening the story is.  Movies such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Scream” depict characters with hooks killing people in their own homes.  Although I don’t know the origin of the story I would venture to say that it was inspired by ideas from movies such as these.

Rhyme – Connecticut

“Salt, pepper, mustard, cider

How many legs has a spider?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight (speed of rope is increased)

Gypsy, gypsy

Please tell me.

What’s my sweetheart going to be?

Doctor, lawyer, banker, thief,

Sailor, soldier, Indian Chief?  (Repeat all at even faster speed)”

My mother told me that she used to sing this jump rope rhyme when she was a young girl at Hindley Elementary School in Darien, CT.  She told me that there were always two girls at the end of the jump ropes and that boys never sang this song or participated in the jump roping.  My mom told me that typically this rhyme was sung during recess with classmates or even in her street back home with her sister and neighbors.  They would repeat this until the person jumping rope either tripped or just decided to stop.  My mom said that the goal of the jumping was to get faster and faster and see how fast you could go.  She also said that often another person would join in the jumping or would replace the person jumping without the ropes being stopped or the song being sung.

In examining the words of the rhyme it is clear that only girls should be the ones who sing it.  By asking the gypsy which one of the following male professions would be their sweetheart, it is quite clear that no boys would want to jump in on the game.  Also, the fact that most lines rhyme with the one before give it the unique rhyming quality that also makes it fun for young girls to sing.

This jump rope rhyme enables young girls to start thinking about their future and start getting used to the idea of having a man sometime at a later point in life.  It is a good way to subconsciously allow girls to start talking about the subject and make it more comfortable while gossiping with their friends about who their husband may be someday.  I am not sure of the usage of this rhyme today, but I would argue that it has probably decreased mainly due to the fact that the idea of the American family has changed a lot over the last 40 to 50 years.  The odds of a couple staying together are much less than they were a few decades ago, and because girls may have seen their own mothers and fathers part they may feel less secure about searching for the right man to marry someday, making this rhyme more obsolete in today’s world.

Riddle – Philippines

“Kung gusto mong tumagal pa ang aking buhay, kailangang ako ay mamatay.”

“If like expect endure to cause the suffer life, must me die.”

“If you want my life to be longer, I need to die.”

Answer: kandila (candle)

Matt heard this riddle from his mother when he was about 12 years old growing up in Mystic Connecticut.  His mother is 100% Filipino and his father is mostly English.  His mother learned this riddle when she lived in the Philippines about 40 years ago.  The riddle is something that the entire family knows and is one that they share during dinners with other families or when they want to try to stump friends.  The riddle is traditionally of Philippine origin and according to Matt the Philippine culture loves riddles.  Matt’s mother was able to give the Tagalog writing of the riddle that is the top line of the riddle.  Tagalog is one of the major languages of the Philippines.  According to Matt, his mother told him that the word for riddle in Tagalog was bugtong.  To tell the riddle, the person is supposed to ask the question and wait until the person who is trying to guess cannot formulate any ideas, and then you give them the answer.

Riddles date back far into the past with examples such as Oedipus and the Sphinx.  References to riddles are also seen in more recent movies such as “The Neverending Story” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.  In some cases there may be a series of riddles that a person may have to answer in order to get past a gate or guard on their way to a goal or treasure.  Although riddles are widespread throughout the world, they are quite popular in the Philippines because they have been trading them for so long.

I think that this riddle for the most part is hard to guess straight off the bat without any clues.  After knowing the answer it is easy to look back on the riddle itself and see how it fits in.  This general principle of being able to trick the person being deceived into thinking that the riddle is talking about something else is very common in riddles.  Often, solving riddle requires very outside the box thinking and enough knowledge and intuition to be able to solve the puzzles using a creative mind.  I believe this riddle to be a true riddle because it gives the potential guesser all of the information necessary to guess the answer.

Joke – Connecticut

“So this duck walks into a drug store and wants to buy a box of condoms.  So he asks the clerk, ‘Do you guys sell condoms?’ and the clerk says, ‘Sorry we’re out, come back and try tomorrow.’  So the duck walks out and goes home.  The next day the duck comes in to the pharmacy again and asks the clerk, ‘Do you guys have condoms today?’ and the clerk goes, ‘Sorry come back again tomorrow.”  So finally the duck comes back to the pharmacy the third day in a row and asks the clerk, ‘Do you guys have condoms yet?’  and the clerk goes, ‘Yes would you like me to put them on your bill?’ and the duck says, ‘Hell no!  What kind of duck do you think I am?!’”

I’ve heard my dad tell me this story about ten or so times to me ever since I was probably around the age of 14.  I asked him where he heard the story and he told me that a few guys from work told it to him about ten years ago.  My dad is a carpenter and quite often he gets the chance to swap stories and jokes with his fellow workers throughout the day.  He likes to tell the joke most often at dinner parties, family gatherings, or when I have friends over.  Usually he starts it off with, “You know the one about the duck in the drugstore?” or something along those lines.  I would probably give this joke a terminus post quem of the year the condom was sold in stores, due to the fact that it could only be after that point in time.  The reason my father most likely tells the story is to either make people feel comfortable around him and understand that he has a sense of humor.

I would consider this type of joke to be a narrative joke due to the fact that it tells the entire joke in story form and relies on a punch line to get the humor across.  Also, it is important to note that the duck comes into the store three times.  In American culture most things happen in threes as opposed to some other cultures such as the Native Americans in which everything comes in fours.  This holds true for most jokes, narratives, legends, and other forms of folklore as well.

This joke in particular plays off of the pun that the duck thinks that the clerk is trying to put the condoms on his actual nose and mouth or his bill.  It may take people time to understand the connection, but once the connection is made that’s when the joke becomes humorous.  The greatest part about narrative jokes is it really lets the inner storyteller in a person come out.  Using gestures and facial expressions truly gets the idea across to the listener and makes it more exciting to be hearing the joke.  Not just the words get passed on either.  If the active bearer is good enough at paying attention, some of these actions and gestures get passed on as well as the story, therefore giving the joke a whole new depth to those who will listen to it in the future.