Author Archives: Cameron Steurer

Wasp Sting Remedy

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/15
Primary Language: English

When the informant was in middle school, he was running barefoot in his backyard. He didn’t see the wasp until he stepped on it. He had never been stung by a wasp before and was unused to the level of pain and discomfort he felt up his entire leg. He couldn’t sleep that night because it still hurt so badly, so he asked his mother if there was anything else she could give him for the pain that wouldn’t interact with the painkillers he had already taken.

His mother put unseasoned meat tenderizer on the wasp sting. He said that within an hour, the pain was at a manageable level. His mother learned the remedy from her mother, who in turn had heard it from her own mother. Apparently the remedy has been passed down for several generations.

Harry the Hanukkah Bush (Family Tradition Story)

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

Harry the Hanukkah bush has been in his family for so many generations that his family can’t really remember who it was that started it, but they have a story as to why the tradition was started.

According to his father, someone in their family many generations back thought it was silly that Christians celebrated with Christmas trees. That family member thought that their family should start celebrating Hanukkah with a Hanukkah bush as a joke. His father doesn’t know how the name Harry came along, but he doesn’t think the name was originally included in the Hanukkah Bush tradition. The family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and other relations, each put up their own Hanukkah Bush on the first day of Hanukkah and keep the bush up for the duration of the holiday, giving it Hanukkah gifts along with the rest of the family. Gifts often include alcohol and candy, which is distributed to the family after the holiday comes to a close.

The informant plans to continue the tradition with his own family. “It’d be a shame to let such a long-running family tradition die out on my end,” he said.

UCLA Tunnel Hermit Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

Interestingly enough, the informant heard this same urban legend from two different sources. He heard it from his dad first, but then heard it again from a counselor when he was at summer camp.

There are tunnels that run beneath UCLA, and supposedly someone has been living there for decades. One time, a group of UCLA students decided to go exploring in the tunnels. They became hopelessly lost and stumbled upon his living area, complete with a mattress and dishes, etc. The students freaked out and ran through the pitch-black tunnels where they got separated from each other. One of them turned around and saw the tunnel hermit. He tried to grab her, but she got away and a week later they boarded up the tunnels.

He’s not sure if it’s true or not. He doesn’t think students got lost down in the tunnels, but maybe that there could have been someone living down there at some point. He says the legend is fairly popular with his friends at UCLA, though some of them tell the legend a little differently. In one variation of the informant’s version, the girl who found the hermit is actually caught and killed or, in another, caught and held hostage in the tunnels and remains down there still. These variations typical of oral folklore probably arose from misunderstandings, or perhaps from each subsequent storyteller’s attempt to make the tale scarier for whoever was listening.

The Homeplace (Family Rite of Passage)

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Residence: McKinney, TX
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

The Homeplace is a big parcel of land in Southern Alabama that’s been a part of the Slade family for many, many years. Also called Slade Properties, the land is divided amongst the members of the Slade family, and the land passes down through the family via the Slade side only; those who marry into the family aren’t eligible to have any part of the land passed down to them by an older family member.

His great grandfather Slade, who was the first to own the property, wrote in his will that members of the family who owned pieces of the land would need to convene at the Homeplace twice a year. The purpose of these meetings was not only to discuss financial issues but also to pass down skills like gun handling to the younger members of the family. Parents bring their children to the meetings, and the older kids will take them out to explore the land, tell them stories about the cemeteries on the property (one of which is supposedly haunted by the children who died before they reached adulthood), show them the old Slade schoolhouse, and teach them how to shoot and hunt if they’re old enough.

It’s a rite of passage in his family to attend the meetings and be inducted into the family legends surrounding the property, like the haunted cemetery and the fact that his family has used the property as hunting grounds for decades. Every family member has attended at least once, and every family member knows the family history surrounding the place. The kids who grow up visiting the Homeplace eventually inherit part of the land from their parents or grandparents, and bring their own children back to the Homeplace in turn.

Haunted Letchworth Village Asylum

Nationality: Jewish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student, studying Political Science
Residence: Yorktown Heights, NY and Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/27/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

The informant says she lives in a small town called Yorktown Heights in New York, just an hour outside of New York City itself. Because it’s a small town, urban legends are well known to almost everyone there, and almost anyone who visits the town hears a version of the legend from someone who lives there. One of the town’s more prominent urban legends has to do with the old insane asylum in the area.

Letchworth Village was an insane asylum that was shut down when allegations of malpractice and abuse surfaced. Due to the circumstances of the asylum’s closing, most people in her town believe the abandoned building to be haunted by the ghosts of patients who perished inside. Kids, including the informant’s friends, still trespass onto the property year-round in order to take pictures, especially for class photo projects despite the illegality of their actions. She says they like the creepy vibe, but the photos they bring back really scare her. She says the pictures show chains bolted to the walls where they would restrain patients who were having fits. She said there were smears of blood next to the chains in the pictures.

She believes that if ghosts were to haunt any place near her town, the asylum is the most likely place for the hauntings to occur because the patients would want revenge, or perhaps simply couldn’t sever their ties to the asylum. She’s always believed in ghosts, and says she got this belief from her father. She says her mother believes more in spirits instead of in malevolent entities. She says her parents hold their paranormal beliefs close, and that the beliefs stem from personal beliefs instead of from religion.

Not everyone truly believes that Letchworth Village is haunted, though everyone is familiar with the legend. The informant says that everyone agrees it’s a good story, and that the asylum itself looks like “something straight out of Scooby-Doo.” “People like to be scared,” she said. “They like the thrill of it. Everyone’s curious about the creepy, haunted asylum, and the intrigue and the fear of the unknown really keep the legend going.”