Author Archives: Thomas Canon

Haunted House in New Orleans

Nationality: Jamaican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27
Primary Language: English

My sister’s friend, she’s in her late thirties, and we call her Sam. She’s from Jamaica too but she lives in LA. She and her best friend, once a year travel to somewhere cool together. And at the end of last year, around November, they travelled to New Orleans together. And there’s this street that’s a well known street in New Orleans, I forget the name of it but I could ask my sister, where really pretty houses are that have been there for a super long time, it’s just one street with really old houses. And so they were just looking around touring the area, it’s near Bourbon Street. And they drove upon one really pretty house, it stood out from the rest of them because it just looked so well kept, well taken care of, it looked like somebody lived there.

 

Do people live in the houses?

 

Some of them. This one there was no car in the driveway, none of the windows were open. And the door was like a wooden double door, and the top of the door had like glass, about three quarters of the door was glass, so you could kinda see through the house, and it was all empty. And so they drove upon the house, and then all of a sudden, both of them started saying they don’t have a good feeling, like the house is beautiful but they just don’t feel like they should be here, like they’re infringing on somebody’s personal life and personal property. And okay, Sam is the most non-believer of all the non-believers. You know, she’s like the atheist of believing in ghosts. And she just kept complaining that she felt down in her emotions, she just felt weird, and she got super antsy and like, I don’t want to be here because I don’t want to get them mad, I don’t want to get them mad. And her friend was like, who are you going to get mad? Like what are you talking about the house is empty, it’s clear that nobody lives there. And Sam was like somebody’s there and I know. Like with conviction she was just like we are not supposed to be here. Somebody’s not happy with us being here. And her friend was like what are you frickin talking about, this isn’t like you to say any of this…and then her friend started being like you know I think you’re right, like I think we shouldn’t be here. And this is while they’re talking in the car, and how my sister described it was like, this is where the car was, and this is where the front door was, so it wasn’t a long driveway. So they looked back, at the house, and they saw a little boy…I hate telling this, don’t you ever think that when you tell these stories it sounds just ridiculous? They saw like a little boy in an army uniform, like a khaki button up with badges and buttons. And they said it was evident it was a boy’s face because he had little blonde hair, he had baby blue eyes, his face was super young, but they both said they saw him perfectly, in the doorway. And they were like…he couldn’t be that tall for us to see him in the doorway, and both of them saw him.

 

So they saw him through the glass in the door?

 

Through the glass, and then they just started freaking out. They weren’t scared, they were just like holy shit, and both of them saw him. And they were like, it wasn’t only me, she’s my witness, it was there. And then they left, and they were like we’re researching this, find out the history of the house, the history of this street, everything. And it turns out that that house was a refugee house for people during World War II, and the little boy was one of the ones who lost his dad. His dad was a soldier. So they think the little boy was wearing his dad’s uniform. And they said that when they looked up the story and everything, multiple people had, when they see that house…like they weren’t the only ones who reported that story, like they read others, and the little boy is there to remind people to never forget them, that there’s a history here and don’t forget this history, it’s alive and well. Okay so the story has a twist, you’re gonna be like what the fuck. After they researched, it blew their mind, they wanted to go inside and look around. They came back and they couldn’t find the house. They could not find the house for the life of them, they drove up and down the street and they were like this is where the house was. The house wasn’t there. I swear to god. They couldn’t find the house. They were on the exact same street, and they couldn’t find it anywhere.

 

And after that, Sam was like I will never doubt anyone’s story ever again. She was like I feel like a dumbass telling this story.

 

ANALYSIS:

This is a third hand account of someone’s personal experience. Clearly the ghost story was compelling enough for the informant’s sister to tell her, and for the subject to tell her friend. An additional aspect that enhances the belief in this legend is because both the friend and the sister know the subject’s reputation as a general non-believer of all things spiritual or having to do with legends. We might also infer that the subject is a good story-teller, or purveyor of folklore, because it seems as though the account is very detailed, specific, and compelling. It could also be the case that all three of the people in the line who have told this story are good storytellers, if indeed the story and its details have remained intact. There is also the possibility that either the second hand account or third hand account was embellished or changed, depending on their memory of the account they heard, how they interpretted the story, and the nature of how they tell stories. The account is also reinforced by similar stories on an internet database, where other people have had similar experiences. Adding to this the fact that the subjects didn’t know this history or the legends surrounding this house until after having had their own experience, so they had nothing to influence or bias their experience, and you get a pretty compelling and chilling account.

French Kiss Cookies

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

Me and my grandma, my Gigi, we would always make cookies together, these like these French cookies, they’re called like, Bisi or something, it’s “kisses,” like bissou, I think the plural is Bisi (Bises?), I can’t remember but you can just look it up. But we would always make them and she invented these cookies which she called them French kisses, and they’re basically like buttery as fuck, even though cause like French people love butter, like even though a lot of the stuff like in their pastries they love butter, in their croissants and stuff. And then we have this meal that we have every Christmas, I’m not good at this cause I don’t speak French, it’s called…oh it’s just Chicken Kiev, but you just change the chicken, whatever chicken is in French. But it’s so good, it has like cheese inside, you stuff the chicken, and there’s asparagus and different vegetables, and then you kinda pair it with like Ratatoui or stuff like that, so it’s kind of weird, but it’s good. And my great grandma has the recipe, she just died. It’s a really old family recipe. We have it every Christmas. Basically a lot of like, for us, how we’ve taken on our French culture is through food, so we have a lot of French food, and all those have come through my great grandma, it just keeps getting passed down. My great grandma lived in France, she was the first one from our family to come to America.

 

If you see my mom, she has black hair, like all my family has really dark brown hair and really tan skin, so they all call me white bread. Cause for some reason I came out like this, really blonde, blue eyed, like a little German kid. They all have green eyes.

 

ANALYSIS:

This is an example of a family tradition that has been kept alive and continued in an effort to preserve their original (French) heritage and nationality, even generations after having moved to America. It is apparent that even so, much of that tradition is being lost, as the informant doesn’t speak French or know what the cookies are called, or much about the French culture surrounding the food that her family makes. It seems that she has a very American view of French culture, but yet has a desire to hold onto and continue her family’s French traditions as best she can. Her family’s ethnic traditions are important to her, and this is one way for her to access this, through food. This ritual of making cookies and other dishes with her grandmother is her way of expressing or trying to get close to her French heritage, and it has become much more of a family ritual and tradition than a national one.

Chinese Funerals (Taiwan)

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Arizona
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

This is a Chinese thing. After someone passes away, like Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, whoever, it’s like a very long two-week, three-week ordeal where there’s a ton of praying, there’s a funeral where you go to a funeral home and then you pray for hours. You have to do like a special thing where you like put your hands together and bow and nod your head, it’s very, just….culture. Culture.

 

Do you say things? Is it silent prayer?

 

Yeah you have to say like, I don’t know, my mom told me I forgot. Sorry. But okay so for the death thing, they’ll…I cant remember exactly but they take the body to like a temple where it gets burned…

 

Is this after the praying?

 

Yeah, there’s praying for like a week, not like a straight week, but like – get up, go pray, get up, go pray, get up, go pray. So yeah you pray for a week while everything’s being prepared, like all the ceremonies are being prepared. So then you go to the temple, and while the body’s actually burning in the furnace you keep praying, a ton of people are there, even the grandchildren. You keep praying while it’s burning, and then afterwards my mom told me that they took out the tray, or whatever he was on… There were still some bones left, because bones don’t burn unless they’re cracked, unless the heat from the fire cracks them open or something. So apparently my grandpa’s femur bone and like tibia or something was still left there, so the grandkids have to go and pick those up…and then I forgot what she said they did with them! Um, I’m pretty sure they burned them or somehow like, crushed them. So they eventually burn all of them. And then they put him in this little box, his ashes. And actually there might be some other traditional things in there, sorry I don’t know. So, I mean this is for my family, I’m sure if you’re richer I’m sure you get like a special temple somewhere like really nice, but he was actually a veteran, so he was buried in the veteran cemetery. And it’s way different than our cemeteries, it’s like green grass, it’s taken care of by caretakers every single day, it’s beautiful, it’s up in the hills kind of, it’s really nice. So the whole family was there, my cousin, uncle, aunt, grandma, and other family members, and one of my cousins put the box on his back, they strap it on so they actually carry it up the mountain, all the way up to where his gravesite is. And then you bury the box in the ground. Also I don’t think you wanna like, take pictures of this because it’s kinda like, you’re capturing the soul, and you don’t wanna do that cause then the soul wont be able to go up to heaven. Or like the Chinese heaven. So I mean they didn’t take pictures of the box directly, but they took pictures of like the hills and stuff. And then they just pray some more, like say their goodbyes at the grave.

 

ANALYSIS:

This is a funeral ritual which involves a very lengthy and specific process for proper mourning, treatment and burial of the body and ashes, and symbolic acts. There is a specific time period of mourning, and even poses and physical actions in mourning; there are specific roles that different family member play in the ritual according to their ages; there are superstitions and beliefs regarding how the deceased’s spirit or soul gets to heaven, and how to do everything correctly so as not to interfere with that transition. The whole process seems to be both in support of the dead family member’s transition to the after life, as well as the family members remembering, honoring, and making sacred that person and their life.