Author Archives: tokemper

RAF War Story

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Beverly Hills, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/16
Primary Language: English

RAF War Story

 

TK: Do you have any stories that stuck with you from when you were little?

LK: Why don’t you tell the story about my dad flying in the war?

TK: Why don’t you tell it?

LK: My dad was a pilot in the RAF. He flew special missions–

TK: What war was this?

LK:World War Two (hands on head) he would fly planes, mosquito airplanes, American-made planes, to British troops in England… it was a special mission to have the top pilots that were hand picked to fly the polar route… which now most major airlines fly. Back then they had no radar, no heat, and no (shaking head) and no modern plane facilities. The seat was a jumper seat in the plane, there was no second seat for the co pilot. They flew by the stars.

TK: The stars?

LK: They flew by the navigation of the stars and the weather patterns.

TK: Did anything ever really happen where it threatened his life?

LK: Each plane they were successful in bringing to England. Gave them how much (ugh) A thousand dollars a plane, and back in World War Two that was a lot of money, a lot of money. A lot of people didn’t make it. It’s literally flying by the seat of your pants. (Gets up for a second, moves around but then comes back). The British couldn’t build the planes themselves, because they were being bombed from every which end by the Germans, so they would bring at least 5 or 6 planes a week, or at least tried to because they needed as much as they could. (Starts crying).

TK: What?

LK: I think he was the only surviving member… they all died.

TK: How’d they die?

LK: In the ocean. They didn’t make it, the weather, they couldn’t see the sky anymore. At least one died a week or two, because there was always a two man mission. It was terrible.

TK: Did his co-pilot make it?

LK: Yes, always, because he was with him. He broke the record for the quickest flight, but for his last mission he pushed everything out of the plane because he ran out of gas, ran out of fuel, he pushed every single thing he had out of the plane so he could glide in. Oxygen tanks to the extra seat, every single thing that could be pushed out of the plane was. He barely made it, but he did and broke the record for the quickest flight.

TK: How old was he when he did this?

LK: He was in his 30’s, early 20’s wait yeah? I don’t know, I have to look it up. After that he did another mission, who does that? He was sick in the head. Was that feeling of feeling invincible and he did it.

 

THE INFORMANT: The informant was my mother, who learned this story directly from her father, the pilot in question. Facts are backed up in the historical record.

 

ANALYSIS: This is an example of a war story passed down through a family to describe the heroism of one of the family members. The extreme danger and bravery involved, as well as the context of a World War, always creates a setting for a dramatic retelling of a family legend. Further information about this case: he won the 1944 speed record for crossing in 7 hours and 9 min. Overall, he was responsible for delivering 33 planes. Incredibly, statistics show that 1 in 4 planes failed to make it. On the flight where he broke the speed record, he only had 1400 miles of fuel when it took 2200 miles to get there and had to get into the north jet stream to blow them there if they caught it. If they didn’t, they would have died.

Bang Bang Choo Choo Train (Cheer)

Nationality: American
Age: 10
Occupation: Student
Residence: Beverly Hills, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: English

(Acting out the whole thing, had to recall it)

Stop don’t talk to me loser lame-o wannabe
Like oh totally t-totally
Rainfall waterfall girl you think you got it all
But you don’t I do so boom with that attitude
Bang bang choo choo train wind me up
I’ll do that thing bang bang choo choo train
Wind me up I’ll do that thing.
Reeses Pieces butter cups you mess with me I’ll mess you up
Loser whatever get that picture. Word. (that’s what people say)

 

THE INFORMANT: Ruby is ten and says she learned this chant in 3rd grade. Everyone in her grade knows it but only the girls act it out because she says the boys are too embarrassed.


ANALYSIS: Some research on this chant, because I remember the “bang bang choo choo train” part but not the rest, has shown that this rhyme / cheer has been around in some form or another since as far back as 1902, with many variations along the timeline. It is often used as a cheer for young girls to perform as cheerleaders or dancers, and has historically been controversial because some versions of it use more sexualized language than parents think is appropriate for their children to perform to. However, the language used in Ruby’s version shows the large differences between the different versions of this cheer from school to school and over time, where only the “bang bang choo choo train” part is still intact.

Dead Children’s Playground

Dead Children’s Playground

 

The Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama contains a playground which was initially intended to be a place for children to go while their parents visited graves of loved ones, but which has been the locus for many stories of hauntings leading to its being dubbed “Dead Children’s Playground.” Some say it is the spirits of children buried in the playground who are revisiting the games of their youth. Others speculate it may be connected specifically to murders. The stories have been reported since the 20th century, even though the cemetery was established in 1822. Stories include swings moving by themselves, childrens’ laughter when no one is present in the playground, orbs of light captured on camera, and even ghosts sighted. Making the story even weirder, most of these occurrences are reported between 10pm and 3am, notoriously too late for children to be out on a playground by themselves, even if they were visible.

 

INFORMANT: Like many hauntings and ghost stories, the informants who have claimed to see supernatural occurrences at the Maple Hill Cemetery playground are largely anecdotal and anonymous; most sources conveniently omit needing to attribute the stories to anyone, instead using the passive voice or “they say.” However, local folklore has certainly cemented this playground in the imagination of Huntsville’s citizens, and ghost-hunting websites frequently make reference to people visiting it in hope of documenting the children.


ANALYSIS: Due to the location of this playground within the limits of a cemetery, it’s not particularly unusual that a legend of dead children has developed around it. Stories of the swings moving on their own are the most frequently referenced, but this could easily be dismissed as the wind moving the swings or some type of imbalance with the equipment which has been picked up and embellished by storytellers. Similarly, as most of the sightings occur between 10pm and 3am, which is an unnatural time to be in a cemetery anyway (and emphasized by the constant cultural admonition against entering cemeteries at night) it is likely that these sightings of lights and/or hearing what sounds like children playing are the tricks of the mind common to anyone entering a cemetery at night and expecting to be spooked.

Charlie No-Face (The Green Man) urban legend

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: Law professor
Residence: Malibu, CA
Performance Date: 4/27/16
Primary Language: English

The Green Man (Charlie No-Face)

RP: When I was growing up near Philly there was a story about a guy named Charlie No-Face. He lived in a tunnel in Western Pennsylvania, and people called him the Green Man, or Charlie No-Face, because he had a green cast to his skin and the fact that his facial features seemed melted together. Nobody I knew ever saw him but the most common theories were that he had been an electrician who had had an accident, or had been struck by lightning, or had acid splashed onto his skin.

TK: Where was the tunnel?

RP: It was supposedly in South Park Township, near Pittsburgh. I never went but I think I saw pictures of him at some point. Really creepy.

INFORMANT: The informant is a man who grew up in Pennsylvania and had a childhood full of ghost stories and legends, due partially to the rich amount of folklore in that area of the East Coast and also growing up with several siblings who entertained each other by reading and passing on stories.

ANALYSIS: Charlie No-Face actually has a basis in reality. Ray Robinson was eight years old in 1919, living in Morado, Pennsylvania. On a dare, he climbed a power line near the Harmony Line trolley to see if there were any eggs in a bird’s nest his friends had spotted. He was electrocuted and disfigured, made blind by the accident, but survived. He spent the rest of his life living in the same area and would go out at night for exercise so he could avoid people, but once his story became legend, people began driving out to the road just to meet with him. He originally would hide when these people showed up, but sometimes would come out and share cigarettes and beer with them in exchange for pictures or a story. As the years passed and the story spread, it became more and more exaggerated, and though Ray died in 1985, the legend of the Green Man still lives on in Western Pennsylvania. This intriguing story shows the nature of how an urban legend can develop from the seed of reality, how an injured man looking for solitude and quiet can become the center of a speculative frenzy.

 

Before the devil knows you’re dead (Irish saying)

Nationality: American / Irish
Age: 56
Occupation: Artist
Residence: Malibu, CA
Performance Date: 4/27/16
Primary Language: English

PP: The Irish have so many sayings, proverbs, stories, myths, stuff like that. A lot of them are about death. It’s a very death centered culture, but they don’t look at it as necessarily a bad thing, it’s more about a celebration of the person’s life. That’s why they have parties at wakes instead of all mourning, and they sometimes give the body a cigar or whiskey. So a lot of the sayings they have are about the afterlife. It’s also because they’re mostly Catholic, or at least used to be and that sticks in the culture too.

TK: What’s an example of a saying about death?

PP: It’s something like, “May you be in heaven an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.” If you think about that one it seems to be referencing the Catholic belief that heaven and hell are both outcomes after you die and that even if you were destined to go to heaven there’s a possibility the devil could grab you anyway. So if you get to heaven safely and then he finds out then it won’t matter.

TK: Did you hear this a lot growing up in Ireland?

PP: I think actually I heard it more in America. We [Ireland] had a big tourism industry, it was called the Celtic Tiger, and people would come over and learn about our folklore, our myths and stuff like that and it became really popular in America for a while. So a lot of the “Irish blessings” along with the stereotypes about Irish people that we have here in America are kind of exaggerated, it was a way for Irish people to sell their way of life to tourists, and part of that was exaggerating their interest in death, or their interest in alcohol, or any of those stereotypes.

TK: But there is some truth to the death ones.

PP: I think so. When I was growing up we were a very religious family. It was sad when someone would die but we also celebrated the good times we had with that person and we knew we were going to see them again in heaven so it was never like a final thing.

 

THE INFORMANT: The informant is a middle-aged woman who spent most of her adolescence and college career in Ireland and has since emigrated to America. She is very fond of the old Irish traditions and proud of the rich cultural heritage of her home country. She does admit that Ireland can be an overly tight-knit place and is unwelcoming to outsiders, and the main reason she left for America was a sense of feeling restless and slightly unwelcome due to the fact that she was not born in Ireland (even though her whole family is from there, she was born in South Africa).

ANALYSIS: This is a very well-known saying whose origins are not readily apparent. As the informant noted, much of Irish culture has been appropriated or exaggerated for an American audience, who generally associate Ireland with leprechauns, fairies, beer, potatoes…cultural touchstones that do not truly represent the full extent of Ireland’s history or contemporary present. Research suggests that this blessing does indeed have very strong ties to the Catholic religion. Traditionally, it was said that (especially for those who did not get a chance to make a confession before their death) the devil would make a last-minute attempt to have a dying person renounce their belief in God and join him instead in Hell. This blessing was meant to be a way of protecting someone from the devil’s preying on them in this way. The “hour” is usually a “half-hour,” which shows the traditional Irish wit: technically, if such a thing were necessary it could happen in an instant but the “half-hour” is unnecessarily long just to make fully sure that the dead soul makes it up to heaven long before the devil is even aware they could possibly be turned to his side.