Category Archives: general

Old lady Hawaiian legend

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Informant: “So in Hawaii there’s a legend– And it’s basically like an unspoken rule– where basically if you are driving at night and you see an old woman…”

Me: “Where at?”

Informant: “So on the big island, to get from Kona to Hilo, there are two ways. You can either go around the island which takes like 2 hours or you can cut through diagonally on the straight road called Saddle road. It just got renovated so it is really nice, it has lights and it is very safe, but a few years ago it was basically almost like a dirt road. It was barely paved and there was only one painted line in the middle. The unspoken rule that was– that all of the locals know– is that if you are driving, especially at night, and you see an older woman with really long white hair in a white mo’u mo’u, which is just a really long white dress, you are just supposed to stop and pick her up because that is one of pele’s forms. Pele is the goddess of volcanoes, and on the big island there are I think two active volcanoes right now, so the Big Island residents respect her very much especially because at any point their homes can be destroyed by volcanoes. Basically, you just pick her up and you just keep going about your drive. It’s just a sign of respect and it shows that you respect her, you respect the land, and the culture. Usually she is silent, but then she will just disappear. 

Context

Age: 19

From: Oahu, HI

In regards to her relationship to the piece, it is very close to her since she has such a strong bond with Hawaiian culture. Although she lives on Oahu and not the Big Island, she says this is still important for when she visits. She does not really remember when she found out about this legend, but she has heard stories about people picking her up. Weird enough, she says the stories are never in the present tense though. She interprets this as real, but she doubts it will actually ever happen to her.  

Interpretation

I interpret this legend as something that will be close to never happening. I think people could abuse this in order to get a free ride since there are a lot of homeless in Hawaii. Knowing this though, if I were to ever be in this situation, I would still pick up the lady just as a sign of respect even if I don’t necessarily live there. It sounds pretty frightening as a non local, but I am sure it is not something the residents are afraid of–or at least that’s the way I understood it from my interview with the informant.

Bloody Mary Legend

Text: Okay, so in my elementary school in the bathroom, if you went in Bloody Mary was supposedly on the wall, like if you stared at a certain spot. And so people got really scared and didn’t want to go to the bathroom. I guess you stared for a certain, I don’t remember, like a number of seconds and a certain tile. It was like a tiled wall. So then all of a sudden you were supposed to see it.

Context:

Informant is a freshman at USC studying Themed Entertainment. She recounts her experience in the cafeteria while drinking a cup of coffee and snacking on some hash browns. She is slightly fidgeting and scatter-brained during the conversation.

“The elementary school I grew up in was in Redlands, CA. I learned about the Bloody Mary thing from just people talking about it. I feel like I wasn’t really convinced, but I had a friend that was so scared that I guess I got a little scared because she’d never go to the bathroom alone. She’d be like you have to go to the bathroom with me. And I was like, Okay. I felt kind of silly, to be honest, because I didn’t see anything when they made you look. So I was kind of just like this is weird. I’m pretty sure it didn’t start in our elementary school. I haven’t researched it, but it just came from somewhere else.”

Analysis: This folk narrative is an example of legend, a story in our world that might be true. This Bloody Mary Legend confronts people with what they believe. Even if some do not fully believe like the informant, they can still participate in the legend because of the aesthetic to belief. This legend was prevalent with young kids because children are high on the continuum context or more likely to believe than others. There is also a sort of legend quest involved with this legend because a ritual must be practiced in order to discover the legend. However, because the legend quest comes with a risk of being endangered, the legend is still able to be proved or disproved.

Underground Dinosaur Legend

Text: So it’s actually from elementary school, but we had this like Legendish thing where there was supposedly a basement in my elementary school. And like, you could tell because if you like, knocked on the floor, whatever, it sounded hollow. And so there’s like a basement underneath. And like a long, long, long time ago. They trapped this dinosaur down there. And like with the leftover food from the cafeteria, they like fed it to make it happy and like. And then they would say like, oh, and if you dig up the sand like in the playground if you dig far enough, you’ll find like, fossils and other things. But that was like our lore.

Context:

Informant is a freshman at USC studying Aerospace Engineering, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are sitting in a USC dining hall as she shares between bites of her pancake. She is excited and enthusiastic as she remembers her stories, using frequent hand gestures to emphasize her points.

“I learned it from the other kids at summer school in Oklahoma. A lot of people knew about it. But, like, we really only talked about it in summer school. I don’t know, like outside of summer school, we didn’t really. And when I was like, fifth grade and stuff, we didn’t really talk about it anymore. But it’s still in the back of my mind. It made it feel kind of interesting because I was like, oh, what if it’s true? Like that would be so cool and interesting. Like, I don’t know, because I kind of like mysteries. And I like not knowing something, you know, like something’s possible. Even though that definitely was not. I was like still kind of hoping that there was something there. I think I believed it at first. At first I was like maybe not a dinosaur was down there, but like the fact that for some reason I thought it was proven that it was hollow underneath. So I was like, what is down there?”

Analysis: This legend is an example of socially negotiated belief. The purpose was to confront individuals with what they actually believe, and present evidence like the floor sounding hollow in order to make one question what they believe to be possible. And even if one It’s evident that beliefs are crafted as a social process, especially within this specific demographic of children who are high on the continuum context, meaning they are more likely to believe this legend. This type of legend might be more plausible in this society of elementary school children as this is the time they are new to learning about dinosaurs and fossils and such items.

USC Nazi Tree

Text: Okay, so I heard from other people that the tree in front of that restaurant on campus, they say was donated by a Nazi.

Context:

Informant is a freshman at USC studying Aerospace Engineering, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are sitting in a USC dining hall as she shares between bites of her pancake. She is excited and enthusiastic as she remembers her stories, using frequent hand gestures to emphasize her points.

“I heard about this from other students at USC, and I think I did kinda believe them, even though I never researched it myself. The tree they’re talking about is pretty big and noticeable. It kind of makes me feel skeptical, like I don’t really know if I belief this. It doesn’t really make sense though the more I think about it.”

Analysis: This folk narrative about there being a tree donated by a Nazi at USC is an example of a legend. This legend proves how beliefs are crafted as a social process, because of how this legend was spread through word-of-mouth, even if some like the informant are not convinced of its truth. There is definitely an aesthetic to this belief, especially since said tree is quite eye-catching and unique, so it is exciting to have this sort of legend about it. People might find this type of legend more enticing because it is more of a “friend-of-a-friend” legend as the source cited is just by fellow peers.

Nazi Origins of EVK Dining Hall at USC

Text: They say, like, EVK stands for, the name of this person who was a Nazi, but they like re-did the name to where it now says Everybody’s Kitchen.

Context:

Informant is a freshman at USC studying Aerospace Engineering, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are sitting in a USC dining hall as she shares between bites of her pancake. She is excited and enthusiastic as she remembers her stories, using frequent hand gestures to emphasize her points.

“But people are like, it doesn’t make sense because like everybody’s kitchen. Why is the V in there? You know, like EVK, I don’t know. So like, yeah. I heard this from other people at USC, I never actually looked it up myself. I did believe it. I don’t know because they gave me like an actual name for the supposed namesake of EVK. So I was like, oh, I don’t know. It made me feel kind of funny. I was kind of like, oh, that’s so interesting. But then again, I was like, why would they keep it there if it was actually donated by a Nazi? I feel like people would find out and it would be a whole scandal because they have like that whole Jewish section of USC, you know?”

Analysis: This folk narrative is an example of a legend. It is meant to socially negotiate your beliefs, especially since there is little evidence presented to promote the belief, but just enough to make one question if this is true. There is a sort of aesthetic to this belief because it makes the day-to-day life of these college students visiting EVK dining hall a bit more interesting if they believe in this scandalous legend. It meets the requirements of legends of being plausible within this society because most USC students are aware of factual scandals and questionable history of the institution and therefore a Nazi namesake fits into the belief of this society.