Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Willy’s Story

Age: 22

Text:

Interviewee:
The story is kind of a monster-ghost story from my hometown, Thousand Oaks, California. It’s about Willy, the moster.

There is this forest area behind my neighbor’s house, and they always warn their kids “Don’t go in the forest after dark, because there is a monster in the woods named Willy, and he’s gonna grab you.”  Willy was like a old, mean, adult figure that’s kind of a spirit in a sense, and he came with a cane. Then, this story got circulated around my neighborhood, and all the kids know this story.

Essentially, if kids disobeyed, like went into the forest, they would get taken. It’s kind of like the classic, like, be weary of stranger danger story. So yeah, that basically is the gist of the story itself. All the kids in my neighborhood know this story. We always tease each other, “Be careful of Willy, don’t go in the forest.” It kind of has that local legend feel, which is kind of interesting.

I was never brave enough to go in the forest and check on that, like I didn’t want to be the person to see that Willy’s real, you know, so I trusted everyone’s judgement.


Interviewer: This story kind of reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood, like don’t go off the track.
Interviewee: Yeah, yeah. Otherwise you will get into trouble.


Interviewer: Is there a prototype, or, is there someone who was actually taken, that you know of?
Interviewee: Lucky for my neighborhood—no. No one got taken by the monster. It was more of
just a cautionary tale. There is no specific people who got taken, but my parents would joke around and, like, have items being taken from my backyard, when I was like, “Oh where did my ball go?” They’d be like, “Oh, Willy took it,” and they probably just donated it or something.

Context:

When the interviewee was growing up, around 8 to 9 years old, he was told this story by his parents. All the kids in his neighborhood know this story, and some of the parents even brought this up too——according to the interviewee, “I think that’s actually where it originated, a friend’s parent told them this story.”

Analysis:

“Stranger Danger” Cautionary Tale: Willy’s Story is a local cautionary tale. This tale functions to regulate children’s behavior. Willy is an archetype of the stranger danger—an outsider who is dangerous and must be avoided by the children. On an emotional level, this stranger, who is old and carries a cane, contrasts with the safe domestic environment in which children grow up. Children are told this story because parents would like them to be cautious of the outside world, the strangers, and the forest.

Transmission: According to the informant, a parent in the neighborhood started telling this story to their kids, and then “all the kids (in his neighborhood) know this story,” and sometimes parents know too. This represents a vernacular transmission that is local and informal, and it is also one that goes in various directions. For instance, first it was transmitted in a top-down way, but it was later transmitted peer-to-peer by the children.

If you eat the crusts of bread, your hair (or teeth) will curl

Text

“If you eat the crusts of bread, your hair will curl.”

Context

Dad: When I was growing up, uh, I don’t know if my mom would say this or, somehow we got it in our heads that and it could be folklore that she had, but if you eat the crusts of bread, your hair will curl.

Interviewer: Like just the crust? Like if you eat it off of the bread?

Dad: Um, I think it was like to make sure that you ate your crust. It was sort of like encouragement to eat your crusts of bread. So you were supposed to eat the bread, but also. But particularly don’t don’t forget to eat the crusts of bread ’cause it makes your hair curl.

Interviewer: Did you and your siblings want curly hair?

Dad: Uuuuuh… I was ambivalent about, I wasn’t particularly interested in curly hair. I, in fact at some point in my mind… it warped into, ‘if you eat crusts of bread, your teeth will curl.’ *laughs* And I didn’t know what that meant, but I think routinely would get- if ever I brought that up, it got, you know, someone in the family was around to correct me or remind me, ‘no it’s your har will curl.’ *laughs*

Interviewer: But…So did you avoid eating crusts of bread?

Dad: No, cause I think it must have been introduced to me as my mom te– as like, ‘well… they always say…’ you know, one of those things, and so because I- cause it was framed as, ‘well they always say…’ then I kne — then I didn’t take it as something that actually happens. I took it as… you know

Analysis

As my dad mentioned, it is likely the case that this belief was developed to encourage children to eat the crusts of their bread to get the most nutritional value out of the bread (a belief which is itself folklore) and avoid food waste. This would suggest that the folk group that held this belief valued curly hair, and that my dad was unique in his indifference about the possibility.

My dad’s lack of concern around his hair or teeth being curled is interesting because it suggests a certain type of relationship with folklore. When he refers to the belief as, “it was framed as ‘well they always say…’ him and his mother are both acknowledging the folkloric nature of the belief. My dad’s mother claims deniability by attributing the origin of the belief elsewhere, saving herself from having to take responsibility when neither the children’s hair nor their teeth curl after eating the crusts of bread.

Onion Sugar for a Cold

Text

Dad: You take an onion, uh, usually I put it– I cut it in half and I put it inside a cup and then I sprinkle sugar on it and then I let it sit, um… At some point someone told me that this is called sweating an onion

Context

Dad: You give it to somebody who has a cold or, you know, where there’s just congestion or respiratory stuff going on or whatever. I mean, not pneumonia obviously, and this became, in our family, uh, what we called magic juice and so, then I would feed the magic juice to, especially my son when he would get a cold, which were quite, um, productive, lets just say. Um… I would feed him a spoonful. Now, is it just a spoonful of sugar with a little bit of onion flavoring? Who’s to say. But I’d give him a spoonful of, of, what we called magic juice, um, whenever he had a cold. And it was something he kinda looked forward to. And I don’t know if it made him feel better, but certainly the ritual was something that made, I think us both feel better in some degree– to some extent.

My dad learned of this home remedy from his good friend RL. RL is of Chilean descent, who grew up in the bay area of California.

Analysis

I remember taking this cold cure when I was younger, but it was never as important for me as it was for my younger brother. He used to have the worst colds when he was growing up that were violently contagious, so it was important that he felt cared for during those difficult periods.

As my dad points out himself, he is not certain of the benefits of this home remedy. That is not what is important to him. In the case of the ‘magic juice,’ the most important component is the fact that it is a remedy that takes time and care to make. It served much of the same purpose as a chicken soup in that it makes you feel cared for. In fact, my dad never made this home remedy for himself, and he stopped making it when we grew up.

Sana, Sana, Colita de Rana

Context

A: My dad is from Mexico, my mom is from Guatemala and we speak Spanish in — er — mostly Spanish. I speak… uh, I speak to my parents in English, but for most of my life, they’ve spoken to me in Spanish. And I remember my family, like my mom, my aunts, or even my grandma, when we would get hurt, uh… there would be this saying.

Text

A: I’m going to say it in Spanish and then I’ll try to translate it. It was Sa–uh sanita sanita, colita de rana, si no a menesa bien hoy, a manaces bien mañana, which is like… Frog butt, frog butt something — er tail, if you don’t wake up better today, you’ll wake up better tomorrow. Or something like that. I probably butchered that but, um… yeah. And so… whenever we like got hurt, uh, they would like rub like wherever it hurt and say that.

Interviewer: Did it have, um… Do you recognize a convention of frogs or something to do with frogs?

A: You know what, wait. Sana — oh, it’s sana sana, colita de rana… yeah, sana sana colita de rana… yeah, si no a manasas bien hoy, a manáse — a ma-manasás bien mañana. I think that’s the saying. I don’t know what the connection is. I actually didn’t think much about it… like the translation of it… um, but yeah.

Analysis

The process of recalling this saying is interesting here because it is an example of the ways in which folklore can change over time. The informant remembers a slightly different version of the saying at first that involves a diminutive suffix “ita.” The informant also remembers the spell slightly differently from how it has been recorded in the past. In this case, they use the verb “manar,” which means to get better, but the more well-known version uses the verb “sanar,” which means to heal. By including these slight variations, it is easy to see how folklore changes over time. It might even be the case that it is more common to use the term “manar” for this spell in Guatemala.

The verb also “sanar” helps identify the significance of the “sana” (or frog) in this spell. Initially, when I asked about why the spell might involve frogs in case there was a cultural significance I was missing, the informant said he didn’t know about any such connection. Now that I have seen the more typical version of the spell, it is much easier to recognize that a frog is likely mentioned because of it’s similarity to the word for heal.

“The cold will go straight to your uterus.”

Text: “Put some socks on–the cold will go straight to your uterus!”

Context: RF is in her 50s. This is a sentiment her mother (a half-Mexican woman) would say to her when she would walk around the house barefoot. RF theorizes that this is an “old wives’ tale” passed down from her Mexican great-grandmother, who would say the same thing to her own children and grandchildren. The idea being that walking around barefoot is harmful, and that the cold from the floor could cause a woman’s uterus to “catch a chill”–the meaning of which RF’s mother has never explained to her.

Analysis: I think this is probably an old belief that has cycled down through RF’s family–what might’ve been a belief about preserving fertility or maintaining a pregnancy has since become a way for the women of this family to express care towards their daughters or granddaughters. RF doesn’t believe her mother actually believes this, but keeps the saying alive as a form of connection to her grandmother, as well as caring for her own daughter.