Category Archives: Protection

No Hitter Superstition

Folklore: Don’t talk about a no hitter game in baseball until the 7th inning or else the game will change.

Context:
The informant was a baseball player and noted how it was bad luck to talk about a no hitter game until it reaches the 7th inning. They noted it may not always be the 7th inning, but “there is a certain inning” in which it becomes okay to talk about it. In fear of “the baseball gods” or the game turning following speaking it into existence. The informant noted how the game is reliant on rhythm and keeping the rhythm of the game.

Analysis:
The folklore is a superstition meant to try and control the affects of a game and not ruin good luck. The event of a no hitter game is a rare one, which tends to create a ritual to help the rare event continue. The community creates these rituals to help take part in the event as a community by trying to help their players or team through performing or preventing certain things for their team for the desired outcome.

Protective Ghost

Age: 49

So we bought the house from my old boss, Kelly, actually, who I worked with at Leo Burnett, and she had told me this story about the house before we bought it. She just basically said the house was kind of haunted, but not in a bad way, and she explained a couple of different situations. One was that in the middle bedroom, in Alistair’s bedroom, when she had her twin boys when they were babies, and they were crying in the middle of the night, it was like 2 AM or something, and she went to put her son Seamus back in the crib, and when she set him in the crib, the crib moved away from the wall by like half a foot. And she picked him up out of the crib, and then she eventually put him back in the crib, and it did it again.

It sounds terrifying, but she wasn’t scared. She had this feeling that it was her grandmother, and that her grandmother was comforting her in this time of need, where she was so exhausted with the babies, because her grandmother also had twins, and she could just, like, feel her presence, and she said it was very comforting.

So that’s kind of the context before we moved into the house. And the other thing about the house is that it was built in, like, the early 1900s, like 1912 or something like that. And, during the Great Depression, it was actually a boarding house, meaning the second floor of the house, there were individual bedrooms that were rented out, and they actually walled off, um, the stairs so that you couldn’t go into the living room on the main floor. That is why they put in a second entrance to the house as well on the side, so you could go in to the side, and you would basically enter on the landing of the stairs and just go straight upstairs. So anyway, um, it was a boarding house during the Great Depression. All of the bedrooms had a little mirror on the inside of the closet. And so it was just a little weird. It had some quirks, and they all had locks on the doors as well.

Okay, so when we first moved into the house. Alistair was sleeping in that middle bedroom, and Dad was out of town. I can’t remember where Dad was, and I was in the basement because we didn’t have a TV on the main floor back then. I was watching something on TV, and I had the baby monitor on, and all of a sudden, there was this, like, this really weird noise coming out of the baby monitor. It was this sort of metallic, just this super weird noise and it didn’t stop. The noise was just this ongoing buzzing, kind of. So I immediately went upstairs to check on Alistair, and when I was opening the door, first of all, the door felt like it was, like, stuck or something, and then it did open. And, um… What I saw was that the light was on full blast. He had this little, like, I don’t know if you remember, but it was, like, a bright green little lamp from IKEA. It has, like, an on-off switch on the cord, and it shines this really weird and bright green color. So it was shining bright green out from underneath the door. Oh, I forgot to mention that. I could see the light was shining bright green out from underneath the door before I opened it, which was totally freaky. 

And the light, I did not leave it on, and there’s no way it was turned on. And he was a baby. It was not… he couldn’t have reached it. There was… it was very strange. And I was, like, totally freaked out. So I immediately unplugged the light, and the craziest thing was that the plug was, like, burning hot, right on the wall where the crib was. I instantly felt like it was a sign.

So my immediate thought was thinking about Kelly and what she had said about her grandma, and I think this person or whoever, um, whatever the spirit was, was, like, trying to warn me, uh, because the electricity… it was all cloth wiring, which can burn a house down. And that was, like, the first time I really became aware of the wiring in that house and how dangerous it could be, and it always freaked me out the entire time we lived there. But anyway, that was my takeaway, was that this ghost was, like, protecting me, and protecting my baby, just like it had sort of done for Kelly in that same room.

And there’s some other weird stuff, too, in that house. Like, for instance, when you were little. You were, like, 18 months old and you said something so weird. I know what it was, because I posted about it on Facebook at the time, and it comes up in my Facebook memories and I still laugh about it. Out of nowhere you said, “Mom, there’s ghosts in here.” And that was in your little bedroom way in the back. And I totally believed you, and you’re a very, very sensitive person. You always have been, and I believe you do have, like, that kind of a gift. But also, you did watch a lot of Scooby Doo with Alistair at the time, so who knows, but I believed you. (laughs) But…yeah, it totally freaked me out that you said that in your teeny tiny voice. Like, what? You were too young to understand the concept of ghosts, I thought, but I just kind of knew you were serious. You and your brother are both this way with your giftedness, in IQ and other things, so, yeah, I believed you, and I still do. You totally have that gift, and many autistics, like, feel things others do not. There’s all this research now about autism and telepathy, and, like, parallel universes they travel to and stuff. It’s so cool, so who knows, but I believe it all.

But anyway, there was nothing scary in that house except for in the basement. Don’t you think? It had a little bit of a weird vibe in the laundry room, especially. But upstairs, I just always felt that we had like a friendly ghost that was looking out for us, or that’s what I told myself. But it definitely felt like there was a presence in that house. Ok, that’s it.

When is this story told? To whom? Where does it take place?

Vanessa told this story to me, Audrey, on April 24, 2025. The story takes place in the house I grew up in from ages 0 to 12 in Oak Park, IL. The house was built in 1912, and it was used as a boarding house during the Great Depression, with the rooms on the 2nd floor rented out to various individuals. 

What does the teller think of the story?

She enjoys telling the story. She gets very animated and excited retelling the story. You can tell it really made an impact on her, and it was a significant event that occurred, which is why the memory has stuck with her all these years. She believes in ghosts and thinks she can sense various energies. Our current house is a large old house built in 1905. Whether the house is haunted comes up in conversation all the time. She can sense and feel things about houses, especially, but she is not a person who likes or gravitates toward anything scary at all. I think she suppresses a lot of the things she can sense to protect herself. But this story is clearly a good/funny memory about a house that she loved. 

My thoughts – what do I think of the story?

The story is entertaining and totally believable, especially for me, because I have my own stories from that house. So basically she thinks the ghost turned the light on so that she would unplug the light and notice the burning hot cord and learn about the sketchy cloth wiring. The way that she associates the ghost with protection is an interesting theme with her that I have noticed comes up in other situations. For instance, she also talks about a bird, a cardinal, that visits a tree outside the window in our family room every day. She thinks the bird is her grandmother, just looking out for her. It brings her comfort. I think it’s sweet. She is a positive person, and she is looking for the positive almost always, even in her own ghost story. I think she believes spirits hang around to look after and protect their people. She isn’t religious, but in this way she is spiritual. 

GRANDPA’S FIRST EXORCISM

Age: 19

For this story, I spoke to my friend. He told me this story that he got from his grandfather. The following is told from his first person perspective about his grandfather.

INTERVIEWEE: “When my grandpa was 25 years old he was a deacon at a church in Riverside, California. During his time, he had some house calls regularly. He was a deacon until he was around 40 so he saw a lot of different stuff at peoples’ houses. They would typically send him to houses to pray over new houses, old people, deceased, etc. However, one time he was asked to come to a home to perform a literal exorcism which was very out of the ordinary for him.

He thought this was unusual because he had never done anything like this before. One day, the church sent him to this house to perform the exorcism on this teenage girl who was spasming out, blaspheming, and acting really funky in general. The parents had no idea what to do so they called up my grandpa who and some other people with then church. My grandpa showed up with a few other priests. The other priests must have brought a bible, a cross, and some holy water.

They went into the house and the parents directed them into the room where the teenage girl was. She couldn’t sit still. They did something and they got the demon out of her; repeating a prayer or splashing holy water on her. She tried to jump away from it, but eventually she hit the ground and started shaking and screaming for a couple minutes. During this, the priests recited the prayer again and again. Then she passes out.

The girl didn’t wake up until the following morning super exhausted. She ended up being totally fine afterwards, with no signs of possession or evil spirits holding inside her anymore yet having no idea what had happened. This actually was the last and only exorcism my grandpa had to perform during his time being a deacon; this being a very different experience for him.”

My thoughts: I find it super interesting that his grandfather never did another exorcism after this, nor having done one prior. Around this time, which was maybe the 1970’s, the first Exorcist film came out, which made exorcisms more believed in during this time perchance, which may be why he got this house call in particular. With this, the details such as the girl forgetting everything that had happened, as well as the possession itself, it makes this story very unique; especially in the perspective of someone who has never experienced something like this.

Good Luck in Ballet

Age: 21

Context:

My informant is in his twenties and has done ballet since he was young both professionally and competitively.

Text:

“So before going on stage, you say “Merde” to the other people, which means shit in French, and it’s kind of like… break a leg is like negative so you imply a positive. It’s the same thing. It’s meant to be good luck so that everyone has a great performance. 

And even though I don’t speak French, the word merde has a special place in my heart.”

Analysis:

This is an example of performative superstition within a specific folk group, in this case ballet stage performers. It functions like the phrase “break a leg” in theatre among actors, where a negative phrase is used to produce a positive outcome. This reflects a broader belief in the power of language to influence events. While participants may not literally believe that it guarantees success, as my informant seems aware of the fact it is a “superstition,” it also creates a shared understanding of the correct thing to do before a performance and creates a ritual.

This is a sort of verbal folklore where a customary phrase takes on new meaning depending on the specific context. Saying merde to someone on the street will illicit a much different reaction and hold different weight. This phrase is socially reinforced through repetition and performance. This demonstrates how folklore also relies on shared context and specific people rather than “textbook definition.”

It reinforces group identity and belonging as well, I know as a theatre student how I do feel better when someone tells me “break a leg” before a performance. It becomes more of a common courtesy and when someone outside of theatre says it I know that they are somewhat in the group as well. Saying the phrase correctly like “merde” signals membership within the ballet community and years of experience. Additionally it helps create the performance space, it may be the last thing and only thing heard before going onstage and helps signal the start of something more serious that just a rehearsal.

Keys that Connect

Age: 20

Context:

The informant is not a college student who describes a family tradition that began in childhood. Each family member selected an old key and wore it as a necklace. Later, when the informant left for college, the key symbol was reintroduced in a more meaningful way, with the parents framing it as a representation of “home” and ongoing connection.

Text:

“When I was little, me, my dad, my brother, and my mom went to, like, an old home wall store. They had like a bucket full of like old keys. And we each got a key and tied it to like a string as a necklace. 

We were little. We were like young, so it was cute, silly then, but we would say, “Our keys unlock each other’s hearts.” And we all wore our keys. 

Then when I got when I left for college, I got a necklace with a key on it, and my parents told me this is the key to your forever home now. because you can always come home. So I like symbol of keys for me.”

Analysis:

This is an example of material culture, centered around the symbolic use of a physical object, in this case, keys. While the keys themselves are ordinary objects, their meaning is created through shared family interpretation making them a part of her family folklore.

In a broader context the keys work as a type of sympathetic magic where a physical object represents or influences an emotional connection. This connects to a broader cultural tradition, such as love locks places on bridges, where keys and locks are used as symbols of lasting bonds and a connection across distance and difficult waters. In both cases, the object becomes a way of materializing a relationship.

The practice also plays a role in creating group identity. By wearing the keys that share the same symbolic meaning the family establishes a sense of belonging that is somewhat exclusive. We see this often in gang culture with tattoos or friend groups with bracelets they get together. They key marks membership within a group and reinforces their ties materially.

Additionally, the meaning of the keys evolves over time. What began as a cute, playful childhood activity becomes something more serious as the informant grows older and leaves home. This is similar to promise rings, where a couple may be too young to make a formal commitment, so the ring stands in place of an engagement ring. In both cases, the object gains significance over time. It also reinforces the idea that objects in childhood may feel temporary or playful, but as a person gets older, those same symbols can take on deeper emotional weight and meaning.

Overall, this example shows how folklore can transform ordinary objects into meaningful symbols that help people navigate changes in relationships and distance. The key takes on a symbolic, almost magical quality as it maintains connection during moments of separation.