Text: “When I was younger, I would play with the kids my age in the neighborhood …”

“How old?”

“This was in middle school, I think I was like 5th or 6th grade, and the neighbor kids were around that age too. But yeah we would always go to my one friend’s house who had a trampoline in his backyard that we all loved. I remember it was right up against this section of woods behind my friend’s house. We would hang out there a lot but especially when we were younger, we would never be there after it got dark because one day the older kids in the neighborhood told us that there was a guy that lived in the woods. The story went that he lived there before the neighborhood was put up, and that he was upset that people were like… intruding on his land or something, Im not sure exactly. But anyway they said he would roam around the edges of the woods with a mask and machete, watching people waiting for a moment to like pop out and attack some kid. This had become this kind of known thing among the kids in the neighborhood. I remember one day my friends and I decided we would explore in the woods to see if we could spot him. We found this abandoned house and convinced ourselves that was where the guy lived. We totally believed it after that, and any time we heard a noise from the woods it would always freak us out. 

Context: My informant is a friend of mine who grew up in the suburbs. He tells the story of a masked murder in the woods of his childhood neighborhood, which he heard from the older kids on his street. He says that while he doesn’t believe it now, it was an integral part of growing up in his neighborhood, and that the story still gets told today.

Analysis: While my informant’s story may have been a tactic to scare younger children, I think the legend of the masked man in the woods has some interesting themes. For example, the fact that the story is based on the woods behind a childhood home. While the story may have been originally formed as a way to scare younger children, it also teaches kids to be aware of their surroundings and stay alert for strangers. Additionally, the fact that he and his friends later found a house in the woods, whether or not it was really occupied by a masked murderer, hints to the possibility that the original story tellers had at one point explored the woods themselves and used the same discovery to form the story. This could show a kind of rite of passage for kids in that neighborhood to both confront their fear of exploring the woods while satisfying a childhood curiosity for the unknown. 

“In my freshman dorm there was this kind of ghost story that would float around. It was one of those things where you didn’t really believe in it, but it was still kind of freaky to hear and share it. 

“Did you share it with people?”

“Oh yeah, everyone in the building knew it, and I think most people shared it. The story was that a while back there was a kid who died in the building during finals week, I forget exactly how the story said it happened. But anyways it was said that afterwards, every semester during finals week you would hear these weird noises coming from places that didn’t make sense, like right outside your window on the fourth floor, or students would get intense chills in their rooms. Some would even say they would catch glimpses of the dead kid turning a corner at the end of the hall or stairway.”

“Do you believe it?”

“It depends, it’s possible a kid died, but no I never really believed in the supernatural parts of it. I think the sleep deprivation of finals week and maybe excitement around spreading the story makes people think they see things but I’m not really sure.

Context: This is a legend my friend heard in his dorm while he was a freshman in college. He says that this story was spread around the freshman housing, and the excitement of being in an unfamiliar place added to the vitality of the story his opinion.

Analysis: I agree with my friend that the context around where/when this story was spread added to the impact of the story. As my friend said, the fact that it was a freshman dorm and everyone there is new to the school and in a liminal period of their life transitioning into college added to the believability. Additionally, the timing of finals week adds to the overall stress of students, making them more prone to attribute the supernatural to the natural. Further, this time of stress for the students could be a motivator to take their minds of the stress of school and exams in any way they could, like distracting themselves with the fun of sharing spooky stories with their new friends.