Monthly Archives: May 2021

Cabin with Paintings

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

CT heard this was a true story about a log cabin in the woods in Maine, before it became a popular vacation spot:

“This woman was camping in the area with her boyfriend. One day she wakes up early and decides, ‘I’m gonna explore before he wakes up. Get some solitude.’ She’s walking through the woods (around dawn) and she stumbles upon an uncharted cabin, didn’t appear on any maps or anything.

‘Ok, maybe I’ll see if anyone’s home.’

On the exterior it’s well maintained, not scary. Opens up the front door, walks in, it’s pretty nice on the inside too. Got some nice paintings on the inside.

She thinks, ‘This is a nice place.’

There’s one painting on the wall that catches her eye. She goes up to it and it depicts a family portrait. But something’s a little off about the family in the painting. It’s a hyper-realistic painting. The family is standing outside, and they all have exaggerated facial features — a bit surreal – their eyes are wide, unblinking. Their mouths are wide in an eerie grin.

She feels alone in the cabin. She wants to check the kitchen to see if they have any extra food, thinking she might just borrow something. There’s not much in the kitchen. She thinks, “I better leave before anyone comes back.”

She goes back to main room. Right before she leaves, she looks at the painting and the strange thing is… that in the painting the family is no longer there. It’s just a blank backdrop of the woods. She puts her face right up the painting and she realizes it was never a painting… it was a window.”

After hearing this story, CD mentioned that he had heard a version of the story where it’s “dudes camping, they can’t find a shelter, they find a cabin, go lay down for bed, and are disconcerted by paintings and in the morning they’re all windows.”

Informant background

CT is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from New York City.

CD is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Zionsville, ID.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

For a popular internet rendition of this story (a “CreepyPasta”), see: https://www.creepypasta.com/the-portraits/

911 Scary Story

Nationality: USA
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

JJ was on a trip with some friends his senior year of high school, and they stayed in a cabin in the woods in Maine. He says this is a true story:

“It was from one of my friend’s friends who lives in Boston. This is why she says she’s never gonna live alone again.

She was living alone and she heard her front door open in the middle of the night. She goes to check it out, the doors are shut and she thinks she must be imagining things. She goes back to her room and hears noises coming from her living room area. She thinks ‘there has to be someone in my apartment.’

She’s freaked out and goes into the living room and nobody’s there. She calls 911 and they answer and she tells them `somebody broke into my apartment. I’m scared and I think there’s someone in here, I’m gonna hide in my laundry room.’

They ask where the phones in her house are. She has a phone in kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. They tell her they’re gonna send people on their way, but ‘whatever you do, don’t go into your laundry room.’

The police arrive, scan the apartment. She’s been in her room. They go into the laundry room. They find a man hiding behind the laundry room door with a knife.

She’s ecstatic. ‘How did you know there was somebody in the laundry room?’

When she called 911, they heard somebody breathing on the line, not her. The man had picked up the phone in laundry room to listen, and they figured it out.”

Informant background

JJ is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Newburyport, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

JJ’s story, along with every scary story I collected for this project, professes to be a “true story.” While the plausibility of this is in question, the effect of even the plausibility of this story having happened causes an extra layer of fear and fascination for the story—especially since the story is almost always told while the listeners are actually at the site.

The Beagle of Lake Mooselookmeguntic

Nationality: USA
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

JJ often visits Lake Mooselookmeguntic, Maine with his friends. One of his friends has a house on the lake. He tells us about an infamous beagle that would bother the beachgoers at the lake:

“We had 2 neighbors on either side. Not too close by, about 200 feet. One neighbor had a tiny little old-ass beagle covered in cancerous warts. It seemed like it was on its way out every year. Every year they’d give it the excuse it was dying. It would act like it. It would come over to you on the beach and piss over everything. Steal shit and trample all over your stuff. Every year we’d go up and say ‘it’s gotta be dead by now.’

If someone is trolling you, you call it a ‘Beagle Troll.’ He was the king of troll. If you had a bottle or a solo cup he would literally pee in it. He was the menace of the beach. He would be loose and enter your house, he would piss on your stuff and shit on the floor. You couldn’t get mad at him because he was covered in cancer warts and old AF. It wasn’t just us – this happened to everyone on the beach and everyone knew the Beagle.”

Informant background

JJ is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Newburyport, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

The Beagle is an interesting example of a living person (or in this case, dog), whose legend has outgrown his probable literal achievements. In the case of the Beagle, it is implausible that the dog would go from beach group to beach group targeting their drinks to urinate into; likewise for him breaking into houses just to defecate on the floor. However, it surely makes a better story and has definitely put Lake Mooselookmeguntic on the map of my consciousness for the first time.

Little Green Door

Nationality: USA
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

DR learned this question-and-answer riddle game from camp. The participants repeatedly ask if arbitrary items can “pass through the Little Green Door” until the participants figure out the pattern of what can and cannot pass through.

Some selections from our rounds:

CT: “Can I pass through the Little Green Door?”

DR: “No.”

BM: “Can my beer pass through the Little Green Door?”

DR: “Yes.”

After about 20 rounds, the answer was deduced: anything with a double letter in it can pass through, anything else cannot.

Informant background

DR is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Sudbury, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

These interactive riddle games are often constructed so that the answer appears more complicated than it actually is. They often involve pointing out concrete objects, people, or places, so that the guesser’s attention is diverted to those specifics, while the real answer is something more abstract about the words used or delivery of the speaker. This paradigm shows up across almost all of the question-and-answer riddle games I have experienced.

Elephant Game

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/15/21
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

JD described a game called Elephant, where the person “in the know” running the game (the Teller) continues saying things following a hidden pattern until the pattern is found out by the guessers. JD learned this game from his friend PJ from Las Vegas, who “knows a bunch of these games.”

Some selections from our rounds:

JD: “There’s two elephants in the fire. There’s one elephant on Cy’s shoulder. How many elephants are there?”

               Answer: “There are 5 elephants.”

JD: “There’s 4 elephants in the big ol thing of IPA. There’s 2 elephants on that tree. How many elephants?”

               Answer: “There are 3 elephants.”

We went through about 10 rounds before we started to figure out the pattern.

The answer is that however many words are in the question asking how many elephants there are, is the number of elephants.

Informant background

JD is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Las Vegas, NV.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

These interactive riddle games are often constructed so that the answer appears more complicated than it actually is. They often involve pointing out concrete objects, people, or places, so that the guesser’s attention is diverted to those specifics, while the real answer is something more abstract about the words used or delivery of the speaker. This paradigm shows up across almost all of the question-and-answer riddle games I have experienced.