Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Afraid of Needles

Nationality: American, Asian-American, American
Age: 18, 22, 18
Occupation: Student, Student, Student
Residence: USA, USA, USA
Primary Language: English

Informant:

This urban legend came up at a dinner for the Marathon Team, about three weeks before the L.A. marathon.  Jordan Hoese, 18, is a freshman at the University of Southern California and considers herself “white.”  Jordan heard this legend from her hall mate. Jackie Wu, 22, is a senior at USC and is a self-identified Asian-American.  Ellie Mustion, 18, is also a freshman at USC and considers herself “Caucasian.”

Text:

Jordan Hoese: Yeah, so I don’t know if this is true or not, but I heard that at this rave there were these people with AIDS and they would go around and stick people with a needle and be like, “You have AIDS now.”

Jackie Wu: I’ve totally heard that before!

Ellie Mustion: That’s scary.

Jackie Wu: Yeah, and then they don’t know if they actually have AIDS, so they got to go get tested and all that.  That would be so scary.

Analysis:

This story is relatively common, though unproven.  Notably, it was shared amongst a group of individuals who are all health conscious and preparing for a major physical challenge.  It reflects both a fear of an unknown entity jeopardizing their health, and thus making the months of hard work preparing for the marathon a vain effort, and a reaffirmation of group behavior.  Since attending raves is not constructive to running, this legend reinforces the taboo against hard-core partying in the Marathon Team.  The location, namely raves, of this crime is one of many common variations on the tale (Rayner 1998).  Some others include movie theaters (Associate Press 2005), doors (Bradshaw 2009), vending machines (Ellis 1990), buses (de Vos 1996), etc.  However, raves were the venues that seemed most compelling in the context of this group.

Sources:

Bradshaw, Nick.  “Hidden Syringe Needles Taped to Doorknobs and Phone Injure Three.” KGW News Channel 8 [Portland, Oregon].  20 February 2009.

de Vos, Gail.  Tales, Rumors and Gossip.  Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1996.  58-59.

Rowe, Peter.  “Finding Truth in Needle Tale is Hit or Myth.”  The San Diego Union-Tribune.  26 March 1998.

The [India] Statesman. “AIDS Rumours Don’t Stand the Test of Skepticism.”  30 July 1998.

Milliken, Robert.  “Sydney Warders Strike Over HIV Needle Attacks.”  The [London] Independent.  17 September 1990.

Ellis, Bill.  “Mystery Assailants.”  FOAFTale News.  October 1990.

Rayner, Ben.  “Clubs Suffer AS Needle Rumour Persists.” The Toronto Star.  17 August 1998.

Associate Press.  “Woman Pricked By Needle at Athens Theater.”  5 October 2005.

Haunted Hollydale Mental Hospital

Nationality: self-declared "cholo"
Age: 22
Occupation: unknown
Residence: Compton, CA
Performance Date: February 26
Language: spanish

My friends and I were hunting for haunted houses and after googling haunted places in los angeles, we decided to go check out the abandoned Hollydale Mental Hospital in Downey, CA.

We drove around the hospital campus for a bit, and then decided we should probably leave considering all of the buildings were fenced in and we really didn’t know what we were doing. Then we pulled in to a nearby parking lot and saw a group of people get out of their car who looked about our age, in their early twenties. We asked them if they were there to check out the hospital and they said yes, so we asked if we could join. They were very welcoming (the four guys were drunk, and the one girl was clearly  their sober driver) and explained that they were there to “initiate” Cherry because it was his first time visiting this haunted place. According to them, it was tradition to run up to the main house, “where they kept the craziest of the crazies”, and touch the front door for your first time visiting Hollydale. We decided this was exciting and tagged along. The girl, Cindy, began to explain how they were from the area and that they heard stories about Hollydale all the time from other kids in school. She also told us the story she knows of why it was abandoned:

Back in the 70’s, there was an outbreak of Tuberculosis at the hospital, and their way of dealing with it was to get all of those who had not yet been infected out and then left the rest of the people there to die. That is why the whole compound looks as if everyone just up and left, because they did. They just closed up shop like it was the end of another business day.

Cindy told us that they had been inside one of the buildings before and they took a whole box of papers from beside a desk and it had a lot of old, interesting papers and files inside.

She also said that about a year ago, the town planned  on tearing the place down because it was costing them money to have policemen constantly patrolling and whatnot, but a group of animal rights activists wouldn’t allow them too because the site has become a breeding ground for stray cats.

 

East L.A. Witch-doctor

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 40
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/20/2012
Primary Language: English
Language: spanish

Rafael, resident of Los Angeles for all his life, has heard stories of a “witch doctor” called “La Cebolla” meaning “the onion” in Spanish because of her big white hair in East LA. People would go to her about their “honey” and she could do some really good or really bad upon them.

Mishaps at Sea

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USA
Primary Language: English

Informant:

I collected this from Amy Gebert, 19, who heard it from her sailing instructor, Captain Lars Harding, during a sailing class here at USC.  Amy is self identified Caucasian and is a Political Science major at USC.

Text:

So, this is pretty much what he said.  Now, it’s not necessarily good to not use technology altogether either though.  See, I knew this one guy, and he was a pretty experienced sailor and all that, but he refused to use any kind of technology in his boat.  No motor, no radio, no GPS, not even flares, no nothing!  So he goes out one day, sailing to Catalina, which is a pretty easy voyage out of L.A.  But as he’s going, his mast breaks.  I mean, just snaps in half.  And now he’s left with no working sails, no motor, and no radio.  So he tries waving to people passing by, to the fairies, but you know what they thought.  They thought he was just waving at them as they were passing by, like to say have a nice day or so.  So no one actually stops to help him.  Well, as this is going on, his boat starts to drift in the cannel, and pretty soon he is pretty darn far from most traffic to and from Catalina.  Turns out, this guy drifts for four months, four months I tell you!  Before someone finally found him.  I mean, his family thought he was dead, and then some container ship spotted him floating along and picked him up.  Course, he was completely haggard and delirious by then, beard out to here [points to stomach] and wild hair and all that.  You know how he survived? Well, he took the sail, what was left of it at least, and used it to catch rain water, although that stuff is still pretty salty.  And then, cause these seagulls would come and land on the deck, he would wait right under the deck with this big old paddle, and wait there until a seagull would hold still and when it was least expecting it, he would jump out and WHAM! [reenacts jumping and slapping paddle] hit the seagull with the paddle and kill it.  But he didn’t have fire, so he was basically living off of salt water and raw seagulls for four months until they found him.  And that stuff really fucks you up.  Anyways, it’s a good idea, even if you don’t have a motor, to at least keep a radio with you and some extra batteries.  You never know when you’ll need it.

Analysis:

This story is a warning to always bring safety equipment when sailing.  The story may or may not be true, though there is some slight possibility that it is real.  Nonetheless, it uses this unfortunate man’s experience as a warning not to follow his example.  The active participation in the tale, through reenactments and hand gestures, helps make the story more memorable and impactful.  To Amy, this story was particularly significant because it gave her motivation to study and learn how to use the instruments needed for sailing. Interestingly, this story is relatively common in several fishing communities around the pacific and variants have appeared in the news several times.  The story always follows the same pattern: a few people(three or less) are on a boat that drifts out to sea and they must survive for several months on rain water and raw sea gulls until they are miraculously rescued by a passing, larger ship with only a few more days to live.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4798243.stm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396761/Men-eat-raw-seagull-month-sea-ordeal.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/teens-rescued-after-50-days-in-the-pacific/story-e6frf7lf-1225961104064

 

To Nelson’s Blood

Nationality: British
Age: 53
Occupation: Corporate Intelligence
Residence: USA
Primary Language: English

Informant:

Janet Kinnen, 53, works in corporate intelligence and is self-identified British.  She learned the following story while she was dating a Navy officer in London.  I collected it from her during a dinner conversation with my family.

Text:

You’ve hear the phrase, “Drink to Nelson’s blood,” haven’t you?  You haven’t? That’s a pity.  There’s a really great story that goes along with it, although I don’t think now is the best time.  Don’t want to spoil your appetite.  Alright.  Nelson was a Navy admiral, probably one of the best of all time, if you ask me.  But he died during the Battle of Trafalgar, hence Trafalgar Square, which is named after that battle.  You know, that place with all the blasted pigeons right in front of the British museum. Although, I dare say, there a few jolly good pubs right around there.  But Nelson hated the sea, which is bloody weird seeing as he was a bloody Admiral in the Royal Navy.  So, his final request, he asked to be buried on land.  And then he died.  This left his officers in an awful mess.  How were they going to preserve the body long enough to get it back to England?  So, they came up with an idea, which was to stuff Nelson’s body into a casket of rum and then they just told the crew not to drink from that barrel of rum.  Of course, they didn’t tell the poor fellows why not, so when they got back to England, they rolled out the barrel with Nelson’s corpse in it, opened it up, and found there was no rum left!  So, ever since then, for good luck, you drink to Nelson’s blood.

Analysis:

This bit of meta-folklore puts a new spin on an old saying of drinking to Nelson’s blood.  It adds a slight horror effect, completely disgusting the audience by implying that the crew drank the rum which had been storing Nelson’s presumably bloody body.  Consequently, it has a somewhat cannibalistic theme to it, dealing with issues of drinking a person’s blood.  The behavior is excused by saying that the crew simply did not know what was in the barrel of rum and so just assumed that it was simply rum that the officers were trying to withhold.  It also begs the question, if they had known, would they have acted differently?  The initial response is yes, reinforcing certain taboos in our western culture.  Nelson’s blood has in many cases also become synonymous with rum, so this story would also have connections to that phrase.  To Janet, this story is meaningful because it shows the effects of a lack of transparency in an organization and because it is associated with a good time at the bar.

http://www.pussers.com/t-nelsons-blood-flagon.aspx

http://www.therumelier.com/id70.html

http://www.nelsonslocal.co.uk/nelsons_blood.htm

http://www.cruisingworld.com/destinations/chartering/a-flotilla-for-sailors-who-drink-nelsonrsquos-blood