Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
- There was a lighthouse on the shore of some really foggy part of the ocean and rocks shooting out all over the place and and a bunch of ships became shipwrecked which prompted the building of the lighthouse and so there were these two men manning the lighthouse and everybody knew the two men didn’t get along. They’d always go to town and seen by hundreds of people fighting, almost fist fights so they were at the lighthouse one day and one day one of them slips on a rock and falls 15 feet, hits his head, cracks it open and dies. So the other man, instead of just being able to have a burial at see because everyone’s going to doubt him, he decides he needs to keep the body and so he has the body and he keeps it outside on a porch thing facing out towards the ocean and he starts dismantling a bunch of cabinets to build a coffin. It’s a real rag tag coffin and so he puts his old companion in the coffin and leaves it out on that front porch area and because during the winter time the waves would get real large and crash onto the balcony area he took a rope and tied it around the guy’s arm and secured it around the coffin and tied it to the railing. One day a wave came and shattered the coffin, and all the wood went out to sea. And the corpse of his old companion was just sitting there, lodged up against the hand railing and he sat there for months staring at the body, didn’t know what to do because it was too rotten to move and there was nowhere to put it so he just stared at it. The body would kind of hang over the railing and kind of wave back and forth in the wind, and it’s as if the body was taunting him, saying fuck you I’m still here after death to make your life miserable. So it was about 5 months before another ship came and brought provisions and when they did they found the body and took the other man back to civilization but that guy was never really the same again. He sat there and stared at a guy decompose and every time he looked out to the ocean that’s all he saw. And when he asked why a ship didn’t come sooner to go get them, he was told that there were ships sent every 2 weeks or so but they saw a guy waving to them so they thought they were fine so they turned around and went home assuming they were fine. Legend has it that the guy’s still sitting there.
- He really enjoys a good ghostly story so it’s just something that stuck with him.
- He doesn’t actually remember where he learned it from, but it’s something that he just happened to think of when we were were discussing cool stories.
- The context of the performance is just that he and I were sitting In my room and exchanging interesting stories/legends/ghost stories we recalled.
- I think stories like this could prove to be very interesting for multiple reasons. It could just be a scary story told in order to scare people, it could be a story meant to teach a lesson about the power of people’s opinions over a situation, like how the living man knew the public was aware of his dislike for his partner, and how that eventually led to the end of the story. At the same time, it could just be one of those “this is the legend of that one guy who is apparently still dead and waving at those who sail near to the lighthouse. I do, however, still find things like this mildly difficult to believe due to the lack of witnesses with whom I could discuss.
Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean
- “In Maine, right before a potential snow day, students, before going to bed, will wear their pajamas inside out, put spoon in the freezer, and put an ice cube A SINGLE ICE CUBE in the toilet. They have no idea why They do this. The only thing we know is that they’re supposed to do whatever they can to increase the possibility of a snow day”
- She knows this because her little sister, at one point, lived in Maine and it just sounded entertaining
- She learned it from her little sister who learned it from fellow students who were trying to introduce her to Maine culture
- It doesn’t really have a meaning. It’s just kind of an accepted procedure
- She and her sister were reminiscing about old times
- I think it’s hilarious. I think students want to feel like they’re doing something to make a difference in improving the odds of a snow day because who doesn’t love snow days. I’m really curious to why any of those rituals would seem to make a difference. I have heard small variations to this, however. I have heard that you’re supposed to merely turn out the pockets of your pajamas, but not all pajamas have pockets so that might not always work. Also, I asked people from other states if they have any similar rituals or if they have heard of this system, and nobody I have talked to has either heard of it or has anything similar to it.
Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean
- “So back home there’s this place called moaning caverns where a lot of tourists can go and see a real cave with rock formations and stuff. But while you’re there, the tour guides tell you a legend of why it got its name Moaning Caverns. So back in the day there was a native American woman whose kid fell into the cave through the hole where the gift shop is built over now. So that kid fell in, and he fell on top of a specific formation which the guide will shine a flashlight at and apparently he broke his back and died there. So his mom, coming down into the cave to the recover the body was stricken with grief and never left. The moaning part of the name of the cave is said to be the sound of her wailing and moaning echoing through the caves. Also, apparently there are cave trolls who go through and kidnap tourists who get lost, but at one point they befriended adventurers in the past and guided them through the caves” (find online text to support)
- She likes this piece because it adds another sense of adventure to what might at first glance just seem like another touristy site.
- She learned it from the tour guides who always start their introduction of the site with this story
- Context of performance: She and I were just discussing cool stories from back home, as this place, Moaning Caverns, is right near where we live.
- I have heard this from the tour guides as well. And to be completely honest, it completely freaked me out because in that gift shop there is a photo of some adventurers with the supposed cave trolls. I find it completely possible that a young Native American mother might have lost a child who died by falling in and that those Native Americans might believe that her moans are still echoing through the crevasses, however I also believe it’s more than incredibly likely that the cave trolls were a created story made by the shop owners in order to make the tour more captivating for the consumers. I find it completely normal that the Native Americans would create such a story in order to explain a phenomenon that they couldn’t understand, in this case that phenomenon would be the strange and likely scary sound coming from these caves. Furthermore, it could have been a scary story told to keep children away from the area in order keep them out of harms way.
For more information on Moaning Caverns and it story, see The Tombstone News article “Moaning Cave- Ageless Death Trap” by Ben T. Traywick. http://thetombstonenews.com/moaning-caveageless-death-trap-p2151-84.htm
Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean
- “There’s a legend that if you try to cross the bridge in Knight’s Ferry in the middle of the night the ghost of the guy who built the thing would come out and try to haunt you. People think it’s impossible to cross it in the middle of the night because of this guy”
- She knows this piece and finds it compelling because Knight’s Ferry is a common daytime hang out place for many locals
- She learned it, however, from her more daring friends who go out and look for thrills nearby, similar to their efforts to go and find haunted places.
- Context of performance: we were just talking about things we should have tried before we graduated from high school and different little things that our fellow students believed in in the area
- I’m not usually inclined to believe in Ghost stories due to the fact that I simply don’t believe in ghosts. However, I do believe people might have experienced something scary enough to keep them from crossing the bridge in full. I also, however, completely believe that some jokester high school student made it up to make life exciting for the town the performer and I are from is small and makes it difficult to entertain yourself. I’d be more inclined to believe it if there were more individuals who could attest to something having happened to them when they tried to cross the bridge as well.
Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
- So I have a friend, who like, told me that Korean babies when they turn 1 are given a golden ring to keep for the rest of their lives. I think she said the ring is supposed to represent consistency and give them good luck. Also, the grandparents are supposed to give you the ring as like their official gift to the baby. It’s like their grandparently duty I guess you could call it.
- She knows it because a friend of hers was helping her out with a project she was completing
- She learned it from the friend in just a regular conversational setting
- It’s just a Korean tradition that happens with babies. Apparently there are many of those
- The context of the performance is we were just exchanging folklore that we had both heard of over the last several weeks.
- I think it’s really interesting that she mentioned this to me because I actually, as a Korean, have heard of this before. My mother has a ring and my sister has a ring, I just can’t remember if I do or not. If I do, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it. But I agree, there are a lot of little traditions that we Koreans have especially centered around infancy that are supposed to promote health and well being for the remainder of the child’s life. And it usually is a family affair, where generations will all try to contribute to the baby.
