Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Legend— Illinois

Nationality: American. Self Identified Ethnicity: African-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Champaign, IL
Performance Date: 4/23/11
Primary Language: English

Jordan told me that, in the fall of 2010, a handful of stories began circulating around his hometown of Champaign, IL.  The stories were different each time, but the main theme was the same:  a group of young African-American males attacked an overweight white person in public.  Because the victims of these attacks were all supposedly overweight, the act was dubbed “Polar Bear Hunting.”  It was said that the attack was part of a local gang initiation ritual.

A few incidents of attacks on overweight white people did actually occur, but they were never confirmed to be a part of a specific gang initiation.  Still, the story became somewhat of a media sensation throughout October-December 2010.  There were several newspaper articles about the topic, and the thought that these attacks could occur definitely scared people from walking around town alone late at night.  Different legends about the attacks spread rapidly throughout the town.

Jordan said that he learned of this legend from his friend, who happened to be an overweight white male.  His friend said that he felt slightly threatened walking around the University of Illinois campus late at night because of the threat of Polar Bear Hunting.  Jordan informed me that, as an African-American male, he did not feel threatened… but he thought the legend was somewhat racist and could have caused people to look at him differently.

Jordan also said that he thinks polar bear hunting is little more than a sensational news story.  Even though most people are not aware of a particular occurrence, most inhabitants of the town know about the attacks and/or believe that they exist.   Also, despite the serious nature of the supposed attacks, the title “polar bear hunting” is somewhat humorous.

For the most part, I agree with Jordan.  Because Champaign, IL is a fairly small town, it’s easy for a story like this to spread quickly throughout its citizens.  Also, the story is not as popular as it was a few months ago, demonstrating that it was likely a product of the media.  Even if these attacks  are still occurring, people aren’t hearing or talking about them as much.

Furthermore, I think the concept of “polar bear hunting” has something to do with white citizens’ general fear of black citizens in the town.  Champaign, IL has a large white population and a large black population and problems (usually minor) surrounding this topic occasionally arise.  Although racism is no longer outwardly present in the community, legends like this prove that at least some form of racism or fear of “the other” (even if unconscious and/or perpetuated by the media) still exists.

More information on the Polar Bear Hunting stories can be found in the following news articles:

http://urbangrounds.com/2010/09/the-new-urban-sport-polar-bear-hunting/

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2010-09-28/former-tv-weatherman-victim-unprovoked-attack.html

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2010-09-09/unprovoked-attacks-champaign-may-be-linked.html

Legend of Alfred Packer

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 18, 2011
Primary Language: English

“In the Littleton Colorado cemetery, is buried Alfred Packer, who is a cannibal. Um, as the legend goes.  And they say that, um, above his grave is about a foot of, um, cement.  All the way across his grave, because people would dig him up and take a piece of him.  Not sure why, apparently it was a big problem cause there’s a nice big piece of concrete there. Um, my um, my friend was telling me this when I was, like, I don’t know, twelve or something.  And um, yeah, she was Cuban. She actually had a friend that um, that lived across the, uh, the street from the cemetery. And she actually, um, found, like saw somebody digging up a grave. And um, she called in a tip and the person actually ended up getting arrested, so they got like this huge like, reward for it.”

“Littleton Colorado roughly is where Columbine happened. Columbine was actually in a neighboring city that doesn’t have a name so they called it Littleton. But um, yeah I guess, like, from that experience, um when I heard this was like, probably around that time, or a little bit later, a couple years later.  But um, Littleton just has this kind of, I don’t know, cloud over it.  Sort of thing where, like, Columbine is just always kind of, not always and not so much now, but especially right when it had happened  it was always kind of just, in the back of people’s minds.  Like, if anybody was from out of town its like ‘oh where are you from’ it’s like you almost don’t want to say it because, you know, you’re gonna talk about Columbine. And so, perhaps, um, you know talking about you know a cannibal and like thinking of digging up a cannibal is kind of like a way to get, you know, talk about this school massacre that like nobody can really talk about.”

I agree with L.M. that this legend became a way for the residents of Littleton, Colorado to communicate their anger and sadness after the Columbine massacre in 1999.  In the legend, Alfred Packer’s grave had to be sealed off because so many people stole parts of his dead body.  In the western world especially,  cannibalism is seen as a horrendous act.   It is understandable that people might try to find some sort of retribution or revenge out of taking bits of a man who used to cannibalize people.  Columbine was a massacre, a horrendous event seen on the same level as cannibalism.  In real life, the events at columbine were shocking; there were signs that something bad might happen, but nobody took much notice.  After the massacre, nobody knew what to do or who to blame.  By speaking and continueing to spread the legend about Alfred Packer, the occupants of Littleton manage to get their revenge from the cannibal by slowly taking him apart.  They get a retribution they did not get in real life.

Dryer Murderer

Nationality: Irish American
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4-26-2011
Primary Language: English

The Dryer Murderer

“You guys I just heard um the craziest story about some chick in England.   Yea umm she apparently was like babysitting these two kids in some Townhouse or something like that… No wait. An um apartment with a basement.  And she put the kids to bed and was just hanging out upstairs. When she heard the dryer ding bell thing come from the basement. And like at first she didn’t pay attention to it but then she started to get annoyed.  She thought something was a little fishy about it… Wait yea I’m not sure why she thought it was weird…but whatever. Then she called the kids parents and was ‘like do you guys have laundry that needs to be folded or something?’  They said they didn’t have any laundry so the girl called the cops. When the cops came they found a man in the basement just waiting with a huge knife to kill her!  He was trying to lure her down there with the bell!
Sooooo if you ever hear a dryer ding think twice…hahahaha!!”

My friend told this story when we were waiting for our laundry in the back of our apartment complex.  I suppose the dryer ‘ding’ reminded her of this legend.  I asked her to retell me it so that I could record it for this collection.  She told me that she heard of this tale in Canada when at summer camp near Toronto when she was younger and is always reminded to check twice before entering a basement when she is alone.

Overall this story is a great spooky tale.  I do not think this has ever truly happened based on some research on the topic, but the urban legend is a good reminder to be careful as well as an entertaining story for kids entering their first babysitting jobs which can be a terror in themselves.

Bathroom Dog Legend/The Licked Hand

Nationality: Irish American
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4-17-2011
Primary Language: English

The Legend of the Bathroom Dog/The Licked Hand

“This girl who has a dog and every night before the goes to bed the dog is at the foot of the bed and she puts her hand out and he licks it and that’s her sign tha everything is okay  One night she goes to bed and the dog licks her and, but she senses that somethings wrong but um…. the dog keeps licking her hand throughout the night when she puts it out. So she hears something dripping in the bathroom but the dog keeps licking her hand. So she thinks everything is okay.  The dripping gets louder so she gets up and goes to the bathroom.  When she opens the door there the dog is… hanging. (It’s gross I can’t believe I’m telling you this. You never heard this before?)  And like the dripping is the dog’s blood. And like written on the mirror in the dogs blood is ‘HUMANS CAN LICK TOO’.”

My friend relayed this legend about a hanging dog in the bathroom one night to a bunch of my girl friends.  She says she heard the story at boarding school when she was younger.  She says her classmates would sit around and tell scary legends after lights out.  Further research into this story from the internet and I found that this legend has circulated as a email chain letter as well as has appeared in many films.  The story is often referred to as ‘The Licked Hand’ and has variations including one with dead parents in the closet or a hiking scenario. A version of ‘The Licked Hand’ can be found in the book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Swartz a collection of spooky stories geared towards readers 9-12 years of age.

Annotation: Swartz, Alvin. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. HarperCollins. Reprint edition (July 27, 2010).

Too Much Water- Children’s Legend

Nationality: Mexican- American
Age: 22
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: March 14, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

 

“There was a man who was a pioneer. He was very thirsty and when the wagon train came to a river, so he drank a lot of water. Then later he died because he drank too much water.”

The informant grew up in the bay area and recalled hearing this story when she was in elementary school from her classmates. She thinks she was in 3rd or 4th grade at the time. She believes that that if this story really did happen, the man probably died because of whatever microorganisms were living in the water that he drank or something else being related to the fact that pioneers were not known or their good hygiene.

I also heard variations of this story in elementary school. I heard that the man died from drinking too much water, but I also heard that a pioneer/frontier man/gold miner died from eating too many vegetables and another time I heard he died from drinking too much milk. This leads me to believe that children tell this story as a form of rebellion against adults. Children are often told to drink a lot water or milk and eat a lot of vegetables because it is “good for them”. But children often don’t like the taste of vegetables, milk, or water and this story sort of proves that their parents are wrong. If you drink too much water or milk or eat too many vegetables you could die.

But why is the man usually a pioneer/frontiersmen or gold miner? Perhaps it has something to do with the ruggedness associated with those who traveled across America in the mid-19th century.  They survived many unfavorable odds. So even for someone as strong as a pioneer is supposed to be to succumb to an unexpected death from water, milk, or vegetable overdose is daunting.  If a pioneer man died from drinking too much water… it could easily kill the average child.