Monthly Archives: April 2017

A Vietnamese Proverb: Dark and Light

Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 49
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

This is a Vietnamese proverb that was told to me by my mother when I was very young:

“Gần mực thì đen gần đèn thì sáng.”

 

Literal translation:

“Close to ink then you are dark, close to light then you are bright”

 

This is a proverb often told to children, meaning that you should be careful with who you surround yourself with. People are shaped by others around them, and if one surrounds themselves with bad people (the dark) they will become bad, while if one surround themselves with good people (the light), then they will be a good person. This is a lesson about peer pressure, as well as a warning to young children about how friends, family, and peers can influence them.

 

Collectors Comments:

This is a proverb that has stuck with me for a long time since my mom first told me way back when. It reminds me of sayings such as “hanging with the wrong crowd” or other proverbs that deal with friend groups and peer pressure. This saying was my mom’s way of trying to teach me that I should be selective with my friends, and only hang around people that would make me better. The proverb makes use of the contrasts between black and white and dark and light that are common in so many cultures. While, I have heard similar proverbs in other languages, this is the first one I’ve heard that relates to ink as black and light to white.

 

The Jersey Devil

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Freehold, New Jersey
Performance Date: April 18, 2017
Primary Language: English

Informant is from a suburb in the center of New Jersey, in Monmouth County. She went to a boarding high school in rural Northern New Jersey however, in a very isolated area.

“We had this thing called a Freshman Retreat in my 9th grade year, which was at a campground called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, which was literally the same camp where they filmed Friday the 13th. Because of this, one of the nights we decided to watch Friday the 13th, and began telling each other scary stories to scare each other before bed. One of these stories was the Jersey Devil, which was a local legend. This is a story that basically anybody who is from New Jersey has heard of, and people tell it all the time.

So the Jersey Devil was like, this winged goat-like creature with hooves and horns that lives in the forests of New Jersey. Some lady a long time ago had a bunch of children, and when she had her 13th child, a devil popped out instead and flew away, which is now the Jersey Devil. Some of the campers said that it was near Trenton, but others said that it was near Blairstown, where we were. Either way, that had me really really scared. So the Jersey Devil would steal away young children from their parents. Uhh… It would either eat you, or raise you as its own child, but I can’t really remember. One thing I can remember though is that someone was saying that if it came into our cabins, it would take people who slept on the top bunk. I was also sleeping on the top bunk, right by the window, so I was thinking about it the whole night and was so scared.”

Why do you think people told this story?

“Now looking back at it, probably mostly to scare people, especially little kids. Like, the cabin we were at was a perfect place to tell it because it was so close to the woods. I even told my little brother the story once when he was being a brat, so he would shut up. But yeah, I guess it was mainly just to give people in New Jersey a fright.”

 

Collector’s Comments:

This is a pretty famous story that even I have heard of all the way in California, through a TV program about supernatural creatures. However, the informant, being in the woods in New Jersey, probably got the full experience and the most impact from hearing it. This local legend has become widespread across all of New Jersey, making it a piece of folklore that is shared through state identity, and I would say that it has become a part of New Jersey’s culture. It was very interesting to hear about it from a person who is actually from New Jersey, making the story seem more authentic than it was when I had seen it on television.

 

Lady Idyllwild

Nationality: German American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Anaheim, California
Performance Date: April 11, 2017
Primary Language: English

Informant recalls a story that he heard when he was in 7th grade, during a three-day school camping trip in the Idyllwild Mountains of the San Bernadino forest.

“I was in my cabin with a bunch of other classmates, and my friend’s brother, who was in 8th grade, began telling us a scary story. We were all huddled around when he started. So, it was basically a young married couple driving through the Idyllwild Mountains on a snowy day, when their car got stalled on the road. The husband is sitting in the passenger seat, and he gets out of the car to try and fix it, while his pregnant wife sits inside to wait for him. He opens the hood of the car to look inside, so now the wife can’t see him anymore because her view is blocked by the hood. After 20 minutes, the car has still not been fixed, and the wife realizes that she hasn’t seen or heard her husband at all. She gets out of the car into the snow, and realizes that her husband is nowhere to be found, even though the hood is still wide open. She looks around for a bit, and notices a perfectly straight red line in the snow, and wonders, “How did a straight line like that get there?” Then, she looks up and notices that her husband’s severed head is above her, attached to a tree by a rope, shooting blood and swinging like a pendulum, which is why the red line was there. I don’t really remember how, but the story goes that Lady Idyllwild appears suddenly, looking very pale white with white hair and a white dress, but with blood-red eyes. She kills the the woman somehow, and then after, for some reason, she warns the dead couple that tourists are not allowed on Mt. Idyllwild, although they’re already dead so I guess it’s a little too late. I think maybe Lady Idyllwild took the unborn baby. But yeah.”

Do you remember your reaction to the story?

“I literally could not sleep. I remember that the guy in the bunk above me couldn’t sleep either, so we sorta talked the whole night about how scared we were. My friend’s older brother, the guy telling the story, was sort of an asshole, so it totally made sense that he would try and scare us so bad right before bed. Also, it didn’t help that it was actually snowing outside of our cabin, and I had the bed right next to the window, so I couldn’t sleep at all.”

 

Collector’s Conclusions:

This sounds like a classic campfire/cabin story to scare younger children, especially in the informant’s situation at a sleepaway camp. Like many other ghost stories, this is one involving a ghostly woman, who is tied to a specific location, in this case, Mt. Idyllwild. The contrast between the white snow and the red blood is significant, perhaps indicating some symbolism related to females or motherhood, and the fact that Lady Idyllwild takes the woman’s baby hints towards some connection to motherhood. Parallels can be drawn between this story and the La Llorona legend, and others like it. For the informant, this folklore was probably more impactful because he was actually in he was in the location in which the story allegedly occurred, which is an example of context affecting belief.

The Weeping River Lady

Nationality: Laotian/Cambodian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: April 9th, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Cambodian, Laotian

Informant was told of the legend by her mother, who was born in Laos, whose parents had passed it down to her when she was a young child. Informant’s grandparents were a poor family living in the capitol of Laos (Pakse).

Okay, tell me what you remember.

“I think I was like a freshman in high school when I heard this one. My mom told it to me and my sisters when we were camping once. She, uh, spoke of a very small village in Laos that all of the farmers had to pass through in order to reach the market to sell their crops. According to the story, if anyone tries through the village between midnight to 3 AM, a crying woman wearing rags will walk out of a nearby river and stand to block the path. The woman chants something… like gibberish or some random language maybe?  If the person passing through doesn’t run away and still tries to pass, they become possessed and lose consciousness, and once they wake up, they find themselves in a spirit realm, and are gone from the real world forever. My mom said this is why people said never to pass through the village at this time.”

How did you react to the story?

“I was really scared. I think my mom was just telling it to us to scare us, but I had a really hard time sleeping afterward. So my sisters and I just stayed up together.”

Conclusion of Collector:

Laos, a country in Southeast Asia, is primarily a rural economy, and many rice farmers live and work in the countryside. This legend was passed mostly through the farming communities, explaining why it is related to the market path. This story seems very similar to legends such as La Llorona, which also involve crying, ghostly women, which makes me wonder if the tales are related, or if they formed through polygenesis. However, the legend also seems like a warning to those who would try to make the journey at night, perhaps to prevent people from getting robbed or passing through the village so late. One could say that this legend might even have been used to warn children from staying out too late or leaving the house at night.

Golf Joke

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 64
Occupation: Mom
Primary Language: English

Folklore Piece 17:

 

Main Piece: Joke

 

My mom is a big golfer, and finds golf humor hilarious:

 

“George was just returning home from his weekly game of golf. When he stepped inside, his wife asked him how the round went.

‘It wasn’t great today,’ George said, ‘On the first tee, Frank dropped dead from a heart attack.’

‘OH MY GOD!’ cried his wife, ‘That’s horrible!’

George replied, ‘Yeah, you’re telling me! The rest of the round it was; hit, Drag Frank, hit, Drag Frank…”

 

Background:

 

My mom Laurie loves to golf, and she actually has a group of friends she goes and plays a round with once a week. They are a more so laid back group of golfers and do it for the fun of the game, and never really stress over the score, they just go out to have fun with friends. Golfing is like this in my family as well, because we are all about the same skill level, but it doesn’t get to be fun anymore once there is competition.

My mom’s friend told her this joke when they were out golfing one day, and my mom still uses it to this day when we get out to golf. Because golf is such a big part in my mom’s life, she tends to find humor in those things that not most people would necessarily get.

 

Context:

 

Like I had said earlier, my mom’s friend told her this joke when they were out golfing one very hot day when they were out golfing, and they decided to play at a course that does not allow golf carts, so they had to walk the round. Walking the round is much more tiring compared to using carts, and after the first hole my mom’s friend tells her this joke as a kind of way to say “Hey, things could be worse.”

My mom has only used this joke once or twice with me while we were golfing, and that is generally the only context it would come up in, as it doesn’t really apply to any other situations.

 

My thoughts:

 

I had heard this joke before my mom retold it to me, and the only times were on the golf course as I said. I remember it being pretty funny the first time because we were all laughing at how sweaty and out of shape we were on the course. She used it a while later the next time we golfed and it just wasn’t that funny this time so it is more of a joke you use once.

I enjoy golfing so I like this joke as long as it’s not over used. I think it is rather crude, but I like sports jokes that you need an understanding of the game to understand.