Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Yankees Eating Contest

Nationality: American

Occupation: Corporate Event Planner

Residence: New York, NY

Language: English

Text:

In 1919, during Yankees spring training in Florida, a Yankees player boasted that he could eat more spaghetti than anyone else on the team. His teammates did not argue with him, because they had seen how much spaghetti he could eat. Eventually, his teammates got tired of him talking about how much he could eat, so they arranged for a spectacle of a competition they were sure he would lose; they would have him compete in an eating contest against an ostrich. Somehow they set up this eating contest between a ballplayer and an ostrich, and in the end the ballplayer won. He passed out after eating eleven plates of spaghetti, and the ostrich ran away after eating seven, making him the winner.

Context:

My aunt told me this story, and she first heard it from her great-uncle Pete Sheehy, who is famous for being the equipment manager and clubhouse attendant of the New York Yankees for 50 years. Sheehy had not yet joined the Yankees in 1919, so he would have heard this story from other players or employees that he worked with. When I asked her if she had any folk stories to share, she said that there were tons of stories involving the Yankees that were famous and well known, and she listed some like Babe Ruth calling his shot and Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech, but then she remembered and shared this story as a more niche Yankee moment.

Analysis:

There are tons of stories about the New York Yankees in the early 20th century that have become legends, but almost all of those stories are about how dominant the team was and how great all of the players were. This story is not about a great player, nor is it even about baseball. It is just a bizarre story. However, the detail that the food being eaten in the contest was spaghetti jumped out at me. The Yankees fan base has always had a large Italian American population, and at the time of this story Italian Americans were a marginalized group. The fact that a member of the “Murderer’s Row” Yankees, which is often still regarded as the best baseball team ever, was Italian and ate a lot of spaghetti would be incredibly significant to the Italian American fans who were underrepresented at that point in time. Given how my aunt repeated numerous times that the food was spaghetti, it was clearly an important part of the story.

A Man in a Hospital Trying to Learn More

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Horse Race Track Manager

Residence: Waterford, Ireland

Language: English

Text:

A few months ago, in a local country hospital, in County Cork a ways outside the city, a nurse picked up the phone and a voice said “I’d like to know how Aidan Sexton is doing, he just had a very serious operation and I’d like to know how his recovery is coming along. Was the operation successful, and if it was, how much longer will it be until he gets to go home again?” The nurse said “hold on please” and disappeared for ten minutes to find his file. When she got back she said “well, looking here he had his operation and it was very successful, he’s recuperating very well, and if it all keeps going well he will be home in about two weeks time.” The nurse then asked “by the way, who am I speaking to?” and the voice said “this is Aidan Sexton, nobody tells me anything in this place.”

Context:
I had to ask my aunt if this really happened, or if it was made up. At first I thought it was real because she chose to use a real sounding name, and the story isn’t clearly fake, but she confirmed that it was made up at some point and she wasn’t aware of anyone actually doing this. She added that Aidan Sexton is a real person she knows, and his name was the first to come to mind as she was telling the story, but he has no specific connection to the story. She also said that she first heard the story told at a pub, after a man complained about needing to drive for an hour to be able to see a doctor.

Analysis:

The story reflects an overall frustration with medical care, which is often even more significant in rural areas where hospitals are often understaffed, far away, and don’t offer the same quality of care as hospitals in cities. The fact that my aunt chose to say the fictional hospital was in County Cork, close to where she lives, and the fact that the name she used was the name of a person she lives across the street from, all point towards the story reflecting her own personal frustration with medical care. The fact that she first heard this story in a pub reflects a lot about it as a form of storytelling; it has just two characters, making it easy to recite, and it is a very quick story which means that it can be told by a less experienced storyteller (or a more experienced one who had a lot to drink), and it does not need to hold an audience’s attention for a long time.

The Snarly Yow

Age: 57

Date of Performance: 04/03/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Overseer of Data Centers

Primary Language: English

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Another [legend] that was pretty popular as a kid was the Snarly Yow. Yeah, it was this phantom black dog that was kind of an omen. And guess what, it also has red eyes! Apparently, it’s been around for a while, since the Civil War, actually, and it’s typically harmless. A lot of the sightings were around the South Mountain, but I heard most of them in passing. Most people who have seen it had elected to shoot it, only to find that their bullets phased right through, ha! When I grew up, the most I heard it ever did was chase random cars of unsuspecting hunters or teenagers. Someone’s even claimed to have ran over it, too! Poor thing, really. They say it’s aggressive, but of course it’s aggressive when you shoot at it or throw rocks at it or run it over! So, that’s the Snarly Yow.

Oh, yeah, I did mention that it was an omen. I guess when I mean omen, I mean it’s ambiguous. It’s not good, but not necessarily bad. Just a sign of things to come, maybe. Forces beyond our understanding. The sort. With the cultural significance, it’s like the Mothman. I’m not sure the Snarly Yow even exists, but that doesn’t matter to me. It’s tied to my childhood and upbringing, and it’s something I love to share.

…

Analysis:

It appears the Snarly Yow is another type of cryptid, a legend that people share. I have heard of stories of animal spirits before, a liminality between the living and the dead. It serves as a reminder that not all fears come from what is seen, but what is believed. And greater, it is a distinct symbol of Appalachian identity and a warning to travelers who venture on its isolating roads.

The Rake

Age: 19

Date of Performance: 04/04/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Irvine, California

Do you know what the Rake is? … Yeah, it’s like that. It’s like the Wendigo. I first saw it on a Youtube video and read about it on an online forum when I was like 9. The Rake is a Creepypasta and there was this awful photo of it hunched on the edge of a bed, and it terrified me.

It was like white, naked, hairless, long limbs, pale skin, hunched over, and huge eyes. It looks human, but it’s not. Really uncanny. Apparently, if you keep thinking about, it will target you next, which is a really bad intrusive thought to have when you’re in 3rd grade, haha.

Nowadays, it doesn’t really scare me anymore. Like, I’ve seen other similar Rake-like creatures and stories on the internet that have similar designs and the idea of being next. My theory is that the Rake is based on sleep paralysis. Like having sleep paralysis demons. I’ve had a few episodes, and sometimes you do see things you can’t really explain.

…

Analysis:

So, I have heard of the Rake. It fits an archetype of a pale, slender, unstoppable creature of the night, similar to the Wendigo and SCP-096. These are also adjacent to what are known as skin-walkers, creatures and entities that shape-shift and disguise themselves as animals and humans, often possessing uncanny and not quite human-like features. It often appears in bedrooms or forests, liminal spaces associated with fear and vulnerability.

Unlike many traditional monsters, the Rake doesn’t chase or stalk; instead, it watches, waits, and evokes a dread through pure silence. Its presence is unsettling not because it attacks outright, but because it signifies something more intimate, a kind of personal invasion. It sits at the foot of your bed, or stares by the edge of a forest, it whispers in the dark, it knows you. It reflects a deeper anxiety about what we consider safe and private.

The Mothman

Age: 57

Date of Performance: 04/03/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Overseer of Data Centers

Primary Language: English

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Well, growing up in the woods [West Virginia], we always had fun stories to tell. When I was a kid, we always spooked each other with legends and monsters and the like. The big one we always heard about was the Mothman. It had like this stranglehold over us kids, man. Like you just couldn’t escape it. And someone was always claiming to have seen it, too. I even had some friends whose parents set curfews because of the Mothman. What’s interesting about it is that I grew up 20 minutes north of Point Pleasant, which is where the first sightings were. He was huge during the 70s.

He was big and tall. He had these beaming red eyes. That’s his defining feature. His eyes. You can look up photos of him and it’s the first thing you’ll notice about him. I know I’m using these ‘he’s and ‘him’s in reference to him, but I can’t help myself, haha.

Cultural significance? Umm, well, there’s something almost nostalgic and personally meaningful when I talk about these kinds of legends. It’s attached to the place I grew up in, you know? I know it’s probably not real, but that doesn’t really matter to me, at least.

…

Analysis:

I’ve heard of the Mothman before, a harbinger of doom and future disaster. He is like a regional spirit, a symbol of Appalachian weirdness, the gaping unknown that swallows the forest. It’s funny hearing that the informant has a personal attachment to the creature while all known canon and descriptions of the Mothman offer a more unsettling picture. Maybe to the informant, it’s a symbol of his childhood, when the world seemed much bigger, more fantastic, more exciting, than the monotony and reality of adulthood. When growing up with cryptids, they take on a more personal attachment and stick with the listener throughout their life.