Main Piece:

Participant – “Well, you see, there’s this home in my neighborhood, and… a hoarder lived there so basically…there was like always like all this stuff just like lined up outside of the house and like, so they couldn’t even get in the doorway… and the superstition was…once you go into the home, you never come out.”

Context:

My friends and I were discussing the different legends and ghost stories from our hometowns, the participant offered up this popular story from her old neighborhood.

Background:

The participant is a freshman accounting major at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She grew up in Seattle, Washington where her family still currently lives. This legend was shared with the participant at a young age by the other kids in her neighborhood. This was a common belief and story shared by them all.      

Analysis: 

Almost every neighborhood has its own unique stories. Most often they relate to a house which looks uncared for or abandoned and the kids start making up a variety of stories. In some cases, a witch lives in the house, in others its haunted, but in almost all cases it stems from children’s imaginations. Most often, the house is nothing more than ordinary, but the legend serves as a shared bond and connection between the kids of the community.

Main Piece:

This is a conversation recorded from a participant and a friend. The participant is marked NH, the friend is marked ED.

NH: “Um so I live next to a mountain called Mount Tam, and there’s like this…I guess it might be classified as a legend…um, where the mountain was actually a woman sleeping”

ED: “That’s from Hawaii”

NH: “No, it wasn’t it was…”

ED: “Yeah”

NH: “I mean yeah that is from Moana, but like, it was also in our town and if you look at it you can kind of see… um, like the shape, like people like say like it’s because she’s like a woman, like a princess sleeping.”

ED: “Wow”

Context:

My friends and I were discussing the different legends from our hometowns while eating dinner one night, the participant shared this with us.

Background:

The participant was born and raised in Mill Valley, California and is currently a second semester freshman engineering student at the University of Southern California. This was a common legend in her hometown told to her by her family.

Analysis:

Many legends exist which refer to nature and the creation of it. In this case the mountain is formed by a sleeping lady, this is a common legend as many cases of this same story can be seen all across the world. Claiming the mountain to be a lady, adds a sacred value to the land and gives a more interesting history to the area.

Main Piece:

Participant – “K well I live kind of by a lake, and there was this like myth or like belief that there was a giant shark that was like super big and was like swimming underneath the lake… and there was even like, someone made like a fake news website about it.”

Context:

Told to me while walking with the participant to class discussing various myths and legends.

Background: 

The participant is a freshman accounting major at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She grew up in Seattle, Washington where her family still currently lives. This legend was common amongst the kids in her town and common knowledge to most people. As the participant mentioned, it even gained enough popularity as to be turned into a news story.    

Analysis:

There are a surprisingly high number of different legends relating to lakes and the different monsters that lurk within them. Almost all substantial lakes have at least one legend about them, most famously the loch ness monster. Typically, you would believe legends like this to be mostly propelled by kids and their beliefs but in this situation even adults got involved with forming a news story about it.

Main Piece:

Participant – “So, my cousins were staying in New Orleans, which is like known for ghosts and everything and they were looking up there um… like they were in their house and they hear like a knocking outside and a lady being like ‘hey, like…this is my house, let me in’ and like the door handle kept turning so it was shaking. So, the people, people came, like my cousins and stuff came downstairs cause thought someone was trying to break in and they thought it was like a drunk woman or something like knocking on the door and everything, and they’re like ‘this isn’t your house’ and the door knob is shaking and they can hear it perfectly, like completely perfect. Then it was quiet for like… a short time and then it was gone…like it was actually moving! The door knob and the handle and they could perfectly hear someone and they open the door and there was nothing on either side like nothing was there and so they were like ‘what the fuck’ and so they look it up and the house is haunted and they’re like ‘oh my god’ and then it happened again the next night. The same exact thing, and like no one was there when they opened the door again and the neighbor says that it like happens a lot and it’s like a ghost it’s not anyone which is really freaky.”

Context: 

My friends and I were discussing the different ghost stories that we have encountered over our lives or any personal encounters with the supernatural. The participant shared this ghost story with us. 

Background:

The participant was born in and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana and is currently a second semester freshman at the University of Southern California. She is a Law, History, and Culture major with a minor in Art History. This was told to the participant by her cousins who experienced it.         

Analysis: 

Ghost stories are much easier to believe when coming from someone you have a personal connection with. In this case the participants link to her cousin made her much more invested in the story.