Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Boulder Woman (as told by an active barer)

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 50-60
Occupation: Camp Nature Director
Residence: San Gabriel Valley, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/2014
Primary Language: English

Boulder Woman (as told by an active barer)

Informant: I learned it my first year, and then took it on as nature director at camp. Boulder woman is an exclusive legend of YMCA camp Ta Ta Pochon because it had happened up there. A friend of mine and I were taking a group of campers on a trail, a nature trail which crosses the stream about half a mile up from camp and that’s were Boulder Man, or Boulder Woman, actually lives, or lived. And back in the 60’s she was living up that area which we call Bible Point. We took the kids up there on our Wednesday hikes. I do like to do the hike at dusk because it is more fun. We got the whole area  . . . it’s dark, not too dark, enough where you’re hearing from all the animals and once and a while you hear (imitates wolf cry) “ooooooooh” or you hear some twigs breaking which I love the best. It really helps. Anyways . . . so my friends and I were going up that way to see what the trail was like and we someone running away from us, about a half a mile, and we found out that it was Boulder Woman

Interviewer: So Boulder Woman was a real person?

Informant: Boulder Woman. We saw her running.

Interviewer: And that’s where this story started?

Informant: I was told a previous story, but this is with my own eyes, what I saw. Somebody running up a half a mile, so we took off after her, just the two of us, no kids with us at the time, and we said “hey, what’s going on, this is camp and why are you here?” Face to face and umm, so she said well, “Her name was Boulder, and her family lived just above camp where two streams cross”. That’s true, there are two streams that cross at camp. So she went on to tell us that there was a flood in the 60’s, that wiped out her family’s place. Some people just call that [the chair] the chimney, but it actually is Boulder Woman’s throne. And so people will say that’s Boulder Man’s chair, just the chimney, no! Maryann and I know the truth of Boulder Woman.

So we were running along beside her, trying to catch up with her so she said, “okay, you got me”. We said, “we don’t want to hurt, you we just want to figure out what’s going on . . . if we could help you”.  So, she said, “No, I’ve been here since the 60’s and I lost my husband and son in the flood of 1960”. Which actually is true because a couple of buildings from camp were destroyed by a flood as well. You could just see parts of buildings hanging around. Everything she said was true, correct, so we kind of believed her. We started following her around, she told us the whole story where she lost her husband and her son and her whole house, she just wanted to stay up there, I mean where else did she have to go? So she didn’t want the kids to know that she was up there, she didn’t want them running up there. And so umm . . . what she would do, she didn’t care for littering, and we were thinking we don’t either. So what she wanted to do then was that she wanted to remind people not to throw their candy and junk and to take care of nature. So she would come out at night, when the kids were in their beds and after devotions, and so Boulder Woman would come by and throw stones or what we would call “boulders” at the cabins to make certain that they would know that she meant business so that they would know that you were not to throw candy wrappers and that you were to take better care of nature. So that was the main story of Boulder Women, but all the people have told it different ways, I don’t like to tell it really scary because then kids are scared out of their minds. Some other boy counselors decided that no, its really Boulder Man, it’s not Boulder Woman. And so they wanted to make sure that they showed us women that they did not know what we were talking about, but we said “Oh no. Ingrid and I have spoken to Boulder Woman” so . . . we know better. And so what did they do? They went and they took big huge boulders and they threw them at Cabin 8 and one went right through the roof.

Interviewer: What year was this?

Informant: that was in 1979. And another boulder went flying and knocked a 2-foot piece off of Cabin 8, which is probably still visible today. And so we had to stop telling Boulder Man because it was freaking kids out, it was really getting scary. But to this day, I know that there is a Boulder Woman and we don’t know if she is still there or what, but there are remnants of her plates and forks and stuff we have taken kids up there to see Boulder Woman, because that’s where she is, that’s where she lived and that’s what she did for a long time. I haven seen her for many years, but I do know her and I do believe that she was real, because I saw her.

Interviewer’s notes:

The length and detail of the tale are very indicative that the informant is anactive barer of the story. She takes the legend beyond camp lore by asserting that Boulder Woman is in fact true because she has “met” her, which leaves the authenticity entirely up to the audience to decide. This is further complicated by the fact that the informant claims the be the origin of the story. This creates a plausibility which keeps the story alive and well.

Additionally, with a female active barer, who also happens to be the nature director, the tale begins to reflect these aspects. The Boulder Figure now decidedly becomes a Boulder Woman and her presence becomes a cautionary one, warning the campers to respect nature.

To a Sweet Performance

Nationality: Caucasian/Hispanic
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: Alhambra, Ca
Performance Date: 4/28/2014
Primary Language: English

To a Sweet Performance

Informant: Every time before a performance, our band teacher will pass out licorice or some form of candy, usually licorice, then raises up the licorice and says, “this goes to a sweet performance”. Then we all raise up our licorice and then we eat it.

Interviewer: And why does he do it?

Informant: Because that’s what his college band director did.

Interviewer: and what college did he go to?

Informant: I’m not sure if it was his high school or college, but I’m pretty sure its his college . . . U Mass? It’s U Mass.

Interviewer: Typically what setting does this take place in?

Informant: It happens before a performance so usually in the band room or on a bus in the parking lot.

Interviewer’s notes:

The eating of food, has come to be a sort of protection ritual for the performance of the band. As a folk metaphor, the actual “sweet” of the candy can be transferred to a metaphorically “sweet” performance, possibly as a type of contagious magic. Additionally, the proliferation of the ritual is evident as it moves from Massachusetts to Southern California, with the band director who has chosen to share this particular tradition with the kids.

 

The Mathematician, The Physicist and the Engineer

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/29/2014
Primary Language: English

The Mathematician, The Physicist and the Engineer

Informant: I’m a math-econ major so I was always highly interested in math, science, and engineering. I heard this from one of my math professors in high school. Weirdly it was one of my math professors or my religion teacher. So basically you have a mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer. And so they are all in separate classrooms and a fire breaks out in their rubbish pails simultaneously. Uh . . . I can’t remember which one was which, but the physicist calculates the exact amount required to put out the fire and then put outs the fire with very little mess. The engineer just dumps water on it to put out the fire and makes a huge mess. The mathematician on the other hand starts writing on the board, fills up one board, goes on to the next, fills up that one, goes on to the next, fills up that one, puts down his chalk and says, “it can be done, it can be put out”. And that’s basically the joke; it plays off of stereotypes of physicists, engineers, and mathematicians

Interviewer: How old were you approximately when you first heard it?

Informant: I was in high school so I was around 16-17 in Washington D.C

Interviewer: Do you tell it to other people?

Informant: Not really anymore, because I don’t remember it properly. I found it hilarious when I first heard it because I found it so true.

Interviewer’s notes:

This joke is a type of Blason Populaire. The humor of the joke plays off of the stereotypes of physicists as precise, engineers as messy, and mathematicians as over -thinkers. It is interesting to note that the informant is in the same field of study of the subjects of the joke which is indicative of why the informant is compelled to proliferate the joke. For the informant, the humor is enhanced by her ability to relate.

La Llorona

Nationality: Hispanic
Age: 20
Occupation: Life Guard/Student
Residence: Alhambra, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/2014
Primary Language: English

La Llorona

Interviewer: where did you hear this story?

Informant: My parents.

Interviewer: How old were you when you first heard it?

Informant: Probably like 6.

Interviewer: Do you know were they heard it from? I think they just kept passing it on, it’s like a Mexican story, where my parents are from. They heard it from their parents, I believe.

It’s like a story that’s supposed to scare us into listening to our parents. Let’s see , La Llorona is about a mother and her two kids. The two kids would never listen to their mother and they would always whine, complain, and cause the mother to keep crying. One day the mother, La Llorona, drowned the kids because they kept whining. They were not listening, so that was their punishment. But then La Llorona realized that was a mistake and she just kept crying, and crying, and crying. That’s what La Llorona means, “the crier”. She kept crying herself to death, so her spirit is of her crying.

Interviewer: So why is that supposed to scare you into behaving?

Informant: Because, if you don’t you get consequences from your parents and also if you misbehaved, La Llorona would come and steal you away or haunt your dreams

Interviewer: Is there a specific time of day that she comes?

Informant: probably when the kids are about to go to sleep, when they’re sleeping.

Interviewer’s notes:

Of all the variations of La Llorona, I believe this one to be the most unusual that I have heard. Instead of the cautionary aspect of the tale lying with the vindictive, ghostly Llorona, it comes from the fact that whiney children run the risk of being drowned by their parents. So instead of behaving because La Llorona might get you, one should behave because your parent’s might drown you just like La Llorona did to her kids.

for a different perspective see:https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lxl01

Los Duendes

Nationality: hispanic
Age: 40
Occupation: Zumba Instructor
Residence: Alhambra, CA
Performance Date: 4/30/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

 Los Duendes

Informant: So my grandma, she used to tell me that when she was little, there used to be belief that these shoe-man, or shoemaker and he had a lot of little helpers and they were like little men, like elves. They were nice to children, but they were mischievous and they were mean to adults and they would destroy and mess up things around the house. When everybody is sleeping, they would go in the houses and they would like make a mess  and  . . .  they wouldn’t like hurt people, but they were just mischievous.

One of my friends told me a story also about a little man but this one was evil. She told it to me when I was little. She claims that she saw a little man sliding on the slide from her closet. The little man was on the top of a sled, and he slid down, and as he was going down he looked evil and he had a knife. A mean face with a knife. So she ran.

She said that at that time, her mom was pregnant and the baby was born dead. So she thinks that it was a sign, like the little man killed the baby. I don’t know, that’s what she told me.

Interviewer: Do a lot of people believe in duendes?

Informant: Yeah, a lot of people believe in like little duendes.

Interviewer’s notes:

I was very surprised to learn that Mexico also has a history of “little men” very similarly to other world cultures. It is interesting to see the dichotomy of the roles between the informants’ own account, and the one she picked up from a friend. In one instance they are seen as the protectors of children (albeit mischievous ones) and in the other they are seen as evil, or as bad omen.