Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Woman on the tracks

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Digital animator
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

The story by HM was told to her through a horse camp at White Pines Ranch, located in rural Illinois, and every year would be a campfire classic. HM recently remembered this story after not hearing it for years, but still thinks it’s one of her favorite stories to tell. The following excerpt is transcribed and paraphrased for clarity, while trying to maintain HM’s intent and phrasing throughout.

There is a graveyard at White Pines Ranch, and specifically a gravestone of a woman there who’s first name is Mary. The counselors there would always take the kids to see the graves, as the gravesite is a historically important site. Later at night the counselors would tell stories around the fire to all the kids, one being about Mary. They tell the story of how she was home alone as her husband was away for several months, maybe fighting in a war or something (kinda irrelevant what he was doing, not at home). He was away, she was alone in her home in rural Illinois, taking care of the baby all alone. One dark and stormy night, it was pouring rain but her baby had a horrible fever, and she was worried about him, so she decided to take the baby to the doctor. It was pouring and impossible to see but she took a carriage (I think?) that she is riding, but she is struggling to steer while holding the baby and it being impossible to see in the middle of the night. Suddenly as she continues on she comes across train tracks but she doesn’t notice as she’s racing to try and save her baby. As the crosses the tracks she tries to beat the train across the tracks but then the train hits the carriage and causes a nasty crash, wood flying everywhere, really terrible crash. She wakes up in the morning and she’s at the doctors. The doctor says “you’re so lucky to be alive, your horse was injured, your carriage was destroyed.” Mary asks “where’s my baby?” but the doctor responds “what baby? There was no baby.” The woman explains that she was racing to the doctor’s to save her sick baby but the doctor maintains that they found absolutely no sign of any baby by the crash, not even a cradle. Mary is distraught. The husband gets word of the crash and comes back, but he also has no recollection of ever having a baby. After that Mary goes completely crazy and eventually dies, to be buried at the rural gravesite. Now, on dark and stormy nights like that one, when trains pass by in the night, people say you can still hear a woman screaming in the middle of the night, “WHERE’S MY BABY????” [yelled towards nearest unsuspecting camper by anyone who had heard the story before].

The story above was a ghost story that would be told every year, highlighting a strong tradition that was honored over time. HM mentioned that she didn’t fully remember how the story was told, but a story of this length that had been enjoyed by so many people would have been subjected to the law of self-correction every time it was told over the campfire with so many returning campers and counselors. This would keep the story consistent and effective to allow all of the returning people to be in on the scare factor at the end. The “where’s my baby?” as the last line of the story was done every single year, with someone who had already heard the story turning to a new face, grabbing them and wailing the line in unison with everyone else. This story serves as an initiation into the White Pines Ranch culture, much like in other pieces of workplace folklore. The consistency of the tradition allows everyone who was a part of the ranch to have a piece of shared culture they could take home, marking them as true members of White Pines Ranch. The ranch is steeped in history, with the historic gravesite, and the history of the gravesite is maintained by the legends told of those laid to rest there, as the graves are now too old for descendants to remember them anymore. The utmost respect to the gravesite and its inhabitants is given by allowing it to live on in the memories and traditions of the ranch built right next to it, keeping Mary’s tragic story alive for generations to come.

The 5th Floor McDonalds

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Morris Plains, NJ, USA
Language: English

It was a piece of school lore that was told to them by the upperclassman and that he later passed on to the younger classmen. They use it as an initiation process for high school. You are a real member of the high school if you know this joke.  

“My brother went to high school at [M], and always told us there were plenty of pranks people would play on my sisters and I. When I got there I was told there was a secret McDonalds on the 5th floor. It was funny because it was really hard to find the 4th floor so the idea that there might be a secret 5th floor felt pretty realistic. I remember a senior walking into gym class with McDonalds and telling the freshman he didn’t even leave the building. A lot of kids were really excited. I eventually told it to the freshman at the club fair.”

While it’s not uncommon for seniors to play pranks on freshmen, I think this particular prank developed because of the school structure. Upon asking more questions I found that the over 10 stairwells in the building all lead to different levels and sometimes skipped floors. This made it difficult for students to find the right floor when they first came to the school. Therefore the idea that a secret staircase to the 5th floor was pretty believable. It was a fun initiation for the freshman and a good way to explore the school. 

The Thunderbird

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Morris Plains, NJ, USA
Language: English

“The Thunderbird is a mysterious being, and is said to be the biggest bird alive today. Its wingspan is over 20 feet long and it feeds on small dogs and sometimes even children. While on vacation to Fiji, my 4th grade teacher became aware of such a creature. Reports of pets going missing had aroused suspicion within the neighborhood. There is even a report of seeing that of a shadow in the sky. While out for a walk with his dog, he felt eyes on him. Surrounded by trees, on a path, he couldn’t tell where from. He left as fast as he could, without a second thought. Later that day, a report came in from the path he was on of a woman being picked up by what could only be the Thunderbird. There were huge claw marks on her shoulders and the talons had impaled her. How did she get free? Who knows. She fractured both her ankles from the fall, but was lucky to be alive. Let’s just say, that was my teacher’s first and last time in Fiji.”

This is a story the informant heard from his 4th-grade science teacher once he had finished his work. It was a way the teacher mixed the facts of science with the mystical legends and unexplained aspects of the world. He made science more engaging because he believed in more than just scientific research. It also encourages students to travel and explore the parts of the world that they don’t know.

The Legend of the Sex Couch

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Morris Plains, NJ, USA

The interviewee was a member of the local high school’s theater program and valued the legend as something to pass on, joke about, and even create a taboo of not touching the couch. 

“Ok so when I first joined theater there was like a faint mention of something called the sex couch. But there was like multiple couches so I didn’t really know which one it was. We used a green couch for [her 2nd show] and someone made a comment that was like “that’s the sex couch” but I knew we had just gotten that one from dumpster diving but later someone told me that it was the pink couch that was kept above the lighting aisle which was also used in [the same show] so I definitely just misunderstood whoever told me which one was which. It seemed like most people in the grades above me knew what the sex couch was and it was just like my first introduction to it was [this show]. People would talk about the couch in like passing and we had basically made jokes about it. [J], the head of lighting, even said that he himself had had sex on the couch, although I never knew if that was actually true or just him adding to the lore. One time during I think [her 5th show] [R] brought in a black light and we had like a big crowd gather to see if there was actually anything on the couch, and oh boy yeah there was on both sides of the cushions too. I think the sex couch is something that most people know about in the program and I definitely talked about it to new people and like told them what it was”

Though it may seem childish and silly, the idea of people having sex is a very grown-up idea for a freshman in high school. This legend was used to embarrass kids but also make them feel like a member of the club. An inside joke to share and whisper behind the director’s back. Upon further fieldwork, I discovered that many high school theaters have such couches. Besides passing it down as a story it is also considered an item of taboo or bad luck if you were the person in charge of retrieving or moving the sex couch. Nothing would happen from touching it but the humour and picking fun is relentless anyway. I believe it is important to have these jokes and these histories because it creates a glue that connects past and present as well as all the members to each other no matter where they are in their lives.

Flying doll

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: college student
Language: English

Text:

“I was sitting in front of the couch on the floor and behind me I had my Jessie doll sitting with like some lion stuffed animal, I think, just like above– behind my head. And I was watching television, I didn’t move, I was just sitting there, I was content, and my doll flew across the room. To the other side of the couch. Like, as if it was thrown or something”

Context:

 “It would have been like first grade, or second? More like second grade, so around 8. And I was a latchkey kid, so it was one of those times I was left home alone. I had gotten used to being left home alone, but I couldn’t – I couldn’t stand the silence, I couldn’t stand the sounds because it was creepy and we would, like, I would always hear footsteps in the halls and stuff and it was just creepy. My parents said it was the cats underneath the trailer but you never know. Children are imaginative. 

Analysis:

This memorate of what the interviewee defines as a ghost encounter is interesting first because it happened while she was alone. Many encounters derive validity from multiple accounts of the same or similar events, but this person had strong belief in their encounter even without someone else there to witness it and without recollection of the same happening to other family members. They also did not tie this event to a greater expectation of their home being haunted in this way, although she did mention hearing footsteps. This implies that the movement of the doll was an isolated event, although the general haunting may have been consistent. As she describes being left home alone after school and being scared of the various noises, it seems that this space became a center of belief for the individual. Because of the increased eerieness of the trailer, especially as a child, her belief may have been augmented so she was more willing to correlate her memorate immediately with the existence of a ghost. This also speaks to the fear, not just as a child but as an adult, that one may not truly be alone when one expects to be. Mysterious actions only add to the fear that another person or being might be in the room and able to hide their presence, causing further mysteries to be interpreted more frequently as monstrous or magical.