Author Archives: Owen Nuckols

The Queen Mary’s Haunted Pool – Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 28
Occupation: Author
Residence: Long Beach
Language: English

Text/Context: “When I was in elementary school, probably about 10, I went on a family trip to the Queen Mary with my mother, her best friend, and her daughter, who was my best friend. We were taking a guided tour, not even the ghost specific tour, just the regular one. We go through the hallways, all over the deck, and then we eventually made it down to the pool room. The guide tells us the pool room is the most haunted room in the whole ship, with a lot of alleged deaths happening in there, specifically a little girl drowned in the pool. We enter the room, and it’s very large. There are no windows, which is weird for a pool, because you’d think it would be in a nice bright area, but it’s not. It’s two stories, and at the bottom is the pool. It’s not filled of course, they don’t use it anymore, they just keep it there for posterity. We walk around the bottom, and then we go up to the top floor so we can look out over the pool, and it’s beautiful. There’s gorgeous tilework, stonework on the walls, it’s very 1920s art deco, very Queen Mary. Everyone’s excited looking around, and then the tour starts to move on. But me, being a freak, decide that I want to spook myself by waiting behind a bit to, I don’t know, feel the spooky energy. And so by the time everyone has trickled out, I start to make my way back to the exit, when I look out over the pool one last time. I see this very vivid flare of light coming from the corner of the pool, and it was green. Again, there were no windows, no light sources other than small lamps on the walls, but the lamps weren’t green. There was nothing I could see that could possibly be causing such a strange light. After seeing the light, I got an overwhelming feeling of dread and for a moment, thought I could hear the sound of someone splashing around and drowning, and booked it out the door. To this day I am completely convinced it was supernatural activity.”

Analysis: While this story isn’t necessarily from a folk group, I think it illustrates the importance of memorates within the broader scope of folklore and more specifically, folk narrative. This is the type of experience that through telling and retelling, eventually becomes something that can be considered authentic folklore. My informant spoke with a certainty in her voice that led me to understand how important this experience was for her, and how she fully believes it to be of supernatural origin. I myself have witnessed things I could only describe as supernatural so I understand the belief, especially after re-reading her story several times. While she may have been a kid when it happened, I don’t think it discredits how real the experience was to her, nor does it make it any less spooky to hear now.

The Beef Lady – Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Physician
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “When I was in church champ as a kid, there was the legend of the beef lady. The story went that there was an old lady living in the hills, and every once in a while someone would find the carcass of a dead cow that she killed and ate. I never saw any dead cows and neither did my friends, but sometimes someone would run over and say ‘I saw the beef lady I saw the beef lady! She’s right over there!’ and we would all go look. I went to this camp for 3, maybe 4 years, and every year, the beef lady was still a thing because the kids who were there the year before would tell the story to the first years. Even though there probably never was a beef lady, it was still fun to believe in. And you never know, maybe the beef lady was real all along and just really good at hiding her tracks.”

Analysis: A younger age group is naturally more inclined to believe in an entity as silly sounding as a beef lady who hides out in the woods. Frankly, kids will believe just about anything you tell them if you sound convincing enough. But what’s particularly interesting about the case of the beef lady is how it became so prominent at this church camp. I feel like of all the stories that could define a child’s experience at camp, the beef lady isn’t the one to do it. I think what made it so engaging for my father and his friends was the fact that it was specifically a church camp. These kids were raised very religiously, and the camp itself was so religiously based, that I think they wanted to believe in a story that was dark and scary, completely unlike the clean religious stories they were so used to.

Bucktoothed Buzzards – Ballad

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “This is a girl scout song that we would always do at sleepaway camp, around the campfire, a bunch of sugar-high girls, the whole deal. At least in my unit, it was always reserved for the oldest troop. The eldest girls on their way out of the program are the ones teaching it to the younger girls, they have that privilege. And with girl scout songs, when you’re the one leading them you have to give 300% so that anyone else only has to give 50%. We usually do this starting at 3 or 4 but I’ll start at 2 for the sake of time.

Two buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn. 

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn.

No buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, let us reee-joice. Hallelujah!

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, lett us reee-joice. Hallelujah!”

Analysis: The girl scouts are one of the largest and most well known folk groups, and the scale is reflected in the variety of folklore they have to offer. My sister was a girl scout for a few years, so I thought I was familiar with most of their folklore, but I have never heard this song before. It has a similar structure to other silly folk songs, with the counting and all, but I think it separates itself from others like it in a few unique ways. When performing this song for me, my informant also performed a dance that she said is essential to the song. It was quite the interesting dance with lots of unusual motions, and those combined with the unique delivery and enunciation made it very interesting. I already understood that being a girl scout is an experience that sticks with people forever, but seeing this performance and hearing what my informant had to say about it really reinforced that fact. It goes to show how powerful folk groups really are, and how even something like a silly song can mean so much more.

Luvu – Folk Speech

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text: Luvu

Context: “In my family, we always say ‘luvu’ in texts, the response is ‘luvu2’ now that we don’t have to worry about staying under four characters. It was originally a way for my sister to text my mom that she was okay or had gotten somewhere safe when she had an older phone and was limited in the number of texts she could send. Four characters didn’t count as a text, so ‘luvu’ didn’t count against her minutes. It was basically a measure of safety and has evolved into something my family says a lot, and is just kind of another greeting or goodbye to us now.”

Analysis: It is very common for families to develop unique phrases over time that they use amongst themselves. They are often borne out of circumstance, but become an integral part of a family’s relationship over the years. Even though they no longer need to stay under a character limit, the fact that the informant’s family still regularly uses this phrase is fascinating. It’s obviously a variation of “love you,” but “luvu” seems to be far more meaningful for the informant and their family than the more common, two-word version.
It reminds me of a quote I heard years ago, and while I can’t recall the exact wording, it said something along the lines of, “Love is creating your own language.” In other words, people who love each other, whether it’s a family, a couple, or even just close friends, come up with their own unique combinations of jargon, jokes, and phrases that may sound like complete gibberish to someone else. But to those people, they are familiar and comforting. Anyone who hears “luvu” will likely assume it’s just a shortened way of saying “love you.” And while they may be correct, only the informant and their family will ever truly understand its significance.

I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it – Proverb

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text: I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it

Context: “I’ve always used this instead of ‘I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.’ The original proverb feels way too optimistic. I’m not necessarily trying to be pessimistic, but burning the bridge is more accurate. When I know there’s something challenging coming up, I just want to get through it.”

Analysis: This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of someone twisting a traditional proverb into something original. Some people simply don’t resonate with the borderline toxic positivity that many proverbs carry, and as a result, they come up with a variation that they feel applies to them better. Some issues aren’t a bridge to cross. Sometimes, they need to burn. And while this spin on a very well known proverb might come across as too negative, I appreciate a more realistic take.