Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Bloody Mary School Bathroom

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: April 25, 2017
Primary Language: English

Bloody Mary

 

Subject: Ritual/Game

 

Informant: Lauren Herring

 

Background Information: Bloody Mary is a common legend in childhood that involves a sort of game of going into a bathroom, standing in front of a mirror, and saying “Bloody Mary.” As the legend goes, if you do this, some figure will appear in the mirror. I asked Lauren about her take on it, and the following was her response.

 

Lauren: That game was so scary. I was always way too scared to do it alone. But everyone said the upstairs girls’ bathroom in Elementary school was haunted by [Bloody Mary].

 

Me: Did you ever see her?

 

Lauren: No, not really, but I did have one really scary experience with it.

 

Me: What was that?

 

Lauren: Ok, so it was around the third grade, and the story was, like, huge. Like, everyone was talking about Bloody Mary in the girls’ restroom. I think it started because there was some story about a girl a year ahead of us who actually conjured Bloody Mary in that bathroom, and then everyone said she haunted it ever since then.

 

So, I raise my hand and ask to go to the bathroom one day in class, and I go, and as soon as I wash my hands, the power goes out and the paper towel machine starts ejecting the paper towels. Like, not as in they were crazy-possessed, but they were those automatic ones, and they just all started rolling out the whole rolls of paper towels.

 

And so obviously I’m freaked out, I’m like in third grade. And I run to the door, but it’s locked. And then I start really freaking out, and all I can think about is Bloody Mary.

 

It turns out that the school was having a lockdown, so that’s why the lights went out and the doors automatically locked. But it was so scary. Like I really thought I was going to die. Also why would the school have it so that the bathroom doors locked? Oh, and it didn’t explain the paper towel thing.

 

Conclusion: I went to school with Lauren, so I knew about the Bloody Mary in the girls’ restroom story, but I had never actually heard her whole story about her experience with it. It is interesting to note that, if taken in the context of a ghost story, Lauren’s experience didn’t fit exactly right with the Bloody Mary ritual. The way I’ve heard it, in the ritual, one is supposed to stand in front of the mirror and say “Bloody Mary” three times while spinning in a circle three times with your eyes closed. When you open your eyes, you are supposed to see Bloody Mary in the mirror where your body is supposed to be. But in Lauren’s story, she never actually summoned Bloody Mary. Rather, it came to her when she did not expect it.

 

For more versions of this legend and different beliefs about Bloody Mary herself and how she is summoned, see: (Dundes, Alan. Bloody Mary in the mirror: essays in psychoanalytic folkloristics. Jackson: U Press of Mississippi, 2002. Print.)

Bailey’s Prairie

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: March 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Subject: Legend, Ghost Story

 

Informant: Tye Griffith

 

Background/Context:

 

Tye: Well, Colonel Bailey was a colonel in the Civil War, and he got his head chopped off while in battle from his horse. Like, he was riding his horse in battle, and his horse ran him into someone’s bayonet.

 

Now around the ranch, which is on a big piece of land called Bailey’s prairie, in the fog you can hear the noise of the hooves of his horse with Bailey on it looking for his head.

 

Me: Is your ranch where the battle took place?

 

Tye: Yeah, it’s where Bailey died in battle. On what’s now the prairie.

 

Me: Have you heard the hooves before?

 

Tye: Yeah, I totally have. I was with my brother and his girlfriend a few years ago, and we were driving out by the prairie late at night, and we stopped somewhere to have a beer or something—I actually forgot what we were doing—but we thought we heard a horse running around. And then we started exploring and trying to see where the noise was coming from, because we don’t have any horses or anything. And the noise was like really distinctively a horse running around. My brother was trying to look macho in front of his girlfriend and started walking into the woods area and shouting like, ‘Hey! Is anybody there?’ but obviously we didn’t find anybody. It was just scary because we all knew the story.

 

Toys-R-Us Haunting

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 26, 2016
Primary Language: English

Subject: Ghost Story, Legend

 

Informant: Megan Andersen

 

Background Information/Context: The following dialogue is from Megan, telling me about a Toys-R-Us store in her hometown that is supposedly haunted. Although Megan has never had a personal ghost encounter at the store, this is her knowledge about the ghost legend:

 

“There’s a supposed haunting in my hometown. It’s at our Toys-R-Us. I’m not completely positive about the backstory, but if you mention my city, which is called Sunnyville, to any ghost enthusiast they’ll know about the Toys-R-Us thing.

 

So, there was a plantation owner, and one of the workers was an African American man, and he got in a relationship with the owner’s daughter, and the owner got mad and killed the guy, and the daughter killed herself after. And then a Toys-R-Us was built on the land.

 

I haven’t personally experienced anything strange when I’ve been in it, but a lot of people have had weird experiences, and a lot of employees have also reported strange occurrences.

 

They tried to do a séance a few years ago.

 

And then there’s another version I’ve heard of the story: Johnny was the name of the guy who worked on the plantation, and he wanted to marry the daughter. But in this version, he was crazy, so the daughter didn’t want to marry him, and when he was chopping wood one day, he accidentally chopped himself and died. And so now he’s supposed to be roaming around on the land still looking for the daughter, who obviously later died since then.”

El Ojo

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 50
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Bothell, WA
Performance Date: 3/5/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

PP is a teacher who currently resides in Bothell Washington. She is originally from Yakima, WA but her family descends from Guadalajara in Mexico. Much of her family spoke Spanish as their first language and her grandma was the first to immigrate to America. Much of her influences and culture come from that region and her upbringing in a single-mother low income household.

Are there any beliefs you had growing up that many people in your culture shared? Any superstitions?

PP: Well almost anyone you talk to who is Mexican knows about ‘El Ojo’ or ‘The evil eye’.

What is ‘el ojo’?

PP: El ojo translates to the eye but it is a belief that if you stare or look in an envious or spiteful way you can trigger the evil eye on that person. The evil eye can cause bad things to happen like sickness or trouble. Sometimes it is called Mal Ojo because it is evil. This is especially concerning to mothers of young babies because many people will stare at your beautiful child in envy. This is why mothers are more protective of their children.

Is there any way to prevent ‘el ojo’?

PP: There are healers that would say you can get rid of it with holy water or eggs if someone may have brought the evil eye onto you. It is more of a bad energy and can affect surroundings not just a person. I think that to get rid of it you have to do an entire cleanse spiritually of anything that could have been effected. There are many rituals involving an egg to identify the evil eye’s presence. I don’t think I truly believe in it but there are many people who religiously believe in this superstition and are genuinely afraid of the eye. My grandma and mother were especially afraid of it as I was growing up and warned me never to look at someone in an envious way so I didn’t bring it on someone.

Analysis:

I have talked to many people from Spanish backgrounds about ‘el ojo’ and it seems to be one of the most universal superstitions. People do truly believe the eye has powers and an energy that can make terrible things happen to you. The eye is associated with many accidents and illnesses and the ways to get rid of it or detect its presence are very elaborate. You have to get a healer to come and use an egg to detect if the evil eye is present and if it is the yolk will have a shape of the eye in it and then you must cleanse anything the energy could have effected. This could mean, your car, your house, or even your family and friends who could have the evil eye. Although this belief seems to make no sense and most of these things are coincidental, it is interesting how much people truly believe in it and the power of it to affect people’s lives.

A story of La Llorona

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 50
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Bothell, WA
Performance Date: 3/5/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

PP is a teacher who currently resides in Bothell Washington. She is originally from Yakima, WA but her family descends from Guadalajara in Mexico. Much of her family spoke Spanish as their first language and her grandma was the first to immigrate to America. Much of her influences and culture come from that region and her upbringing in a single-mother low income household.

Are there any pieces of folklore or tradition that you felt taught you a lesson you will never forget?

PP: Well I feel like every person of Mexican descent has heard of La Llorona, the ghost woman. She was meant to warn kids not to play near rivers or leave home alone at night.

What is the story and how is it significant to your history?

PP: The story of La Llorona is about a widow who her children are killed by their husband I think? Or maybe the husband dies from being sick and so do the kids, I don’t really remember it as well but, then she kills herself out of grief and is doomed to haunt the river she lived near as a weeping ghost. Many people have had stories of seeing her when next to a river in Mexico, because you can hear her wailing and crying out for her children. I had a cousin who always said he saw her when he was around ten years old. He said he was walking on a road which was next to a river during the day and heard someone yelling and wailing and then saw her ghost. Many other relatives of mine has claimed to have seen her as well so it is common in the culture to actually believe in her ghost.

So what is the lesson that you will never forget?

PP: The main lesson of it all for me was not to walk outside alone when I was younger or anywhere near a river where I could get hurt or drown I think. It was mostly a warning to all younger kids not to wander off alone or be disobedient because then something bad could happen to you and you would be scared.

Analysis:

La Llorona is one of the most universally known ghost stories among Mexican culture. This piece of folklore has been around for a very long time and can vary. Some people say they see her and some people say they just heard her and ran. There is no real documented proof the ghost exists but the legend has existed for so long that many people believe in its truth. Although it is possible this legend was invented to teach kids a lesson it is entirely possible the ghost does exist. Right now, it exists through the belief of the people.