“Screaming Bridge”

Jessica Lewis is currently a student at the University of Southern California where she studies Psychology and Classics. She was born and raised in the small city of Newnan, Georgia. Her family lives in a rural area of Newnan, where agriculture is the people’s main source of profit and professional life.

Jessica heard the legend first from her older brother at the age of seven. The legend goes that apparently there was a horrific car accident on the Cedar Creek Bridge over Roscoe Road in Newnan, Georgia in the 1930s wherein a mother and her child died. The legend goes that the woman and her child haunt the bridge at night. People are said to have seen ghost images of the car, the mother and the child. In particular, the woman is often heard to be wailing over the death of her child.

Jessica says that as teenagers it was always a big deal to go to this bridge at night. She says that she has visited the haunted site on various occasions but has not personally seen the ghosts nor heard the strange noises. At her high school, there are many people who do believe they have actually encountered apparitions that are inexplicable and heard noises that are unnatural to the area.

There is evidence online given that there truly was a horrific accident on this bridge in the 1930s. However, there is no scientific proof that the haunting truly is real. It seems interesting that these haunted stories do not seem to develop from nothing, but usually develop around horrific scenes of sudden and painful death. Society seems to be preoccupied with the idea of justice. By this, I intend to say that whenever a horrendous crime or death occurs, people want to believe that there is a haunting because that would justify that things cannot end on an uneven score. For example, the ghosts of the woman and her child in the car accident on Screaming Bridge may have been created by locals who simply felt that the tragic death of these two should not be the end of their presence. The haunting legend allows for them to still exist within this world, it is a sort of ever-present reminder that what happens was not natural. The creation of legends about haunting ghosts may be an important way in which people cope with the horror that happens in life.

“There is an Ancient Hawaiian Goddess named Pele, who’s the Goddess of Volcanoes. She is a very jealous, emotional and bitter type of Goddess. Some say she got chased away from Tahiti and ended up in Hawaii because she seduced her sister’s husband. She can also control lava of any volcano at will and if you upset her she can bring you bad fortune in many different forms.

The way you can tell that it’s her is because she’s clad in all white and her eyes are red. Some people say they have seen her by the side of the road. It’s been rumored that if you don’t pick her up when you see her, she can do horrible things to you. I’ve also heard of this one guy who picked her up once out of fear and when he tried to light a cigarette, she snapped her fingers and the cigarette lit. She won’t talk on the ride and you can’t kick her out because that’ll upset her, she’ll get out when she wants to. With this particular guy, I heard that she eventually got off at a gas station after hours of driving around. I’ve also heard of many guys picking her up at night because she can also take on a very beautiful, seductive form.”

The Informant, a Hawaiian resident of Chinese ethnicity, heard this story when she was in High School. Since Pele is one of the most well known Goddesses in Hawaii, there are many urban legends, myths and ghost stories about her. She is also very deep-rooted in Hawaii’s history because some natives claim that she created Hawaii because she controls the volcanoes. The informant grew up in Hawaii and first learned about Pele in elementary school as a mythical figure. She learned other stories about her later on. These legends and tales are especially popular among campers and at parties.

I think this story is very interesting and has several parallels to the folklore of La Llorona. Just like La Llorona, Pele’s story is one of dangerous feminine power and mystique. It is also centered on betrayal, seduction and taking of different forms. Whereas La lorona is often seen with water, fire and volcano is Pele’s trademark. Similar to the Mexican Goddess, the informant also mentioned that Pele has other gentler forms.  Both figures are very multi-dimensional, popular and invite lots of discussion resulting in tons and tons of variations of the same figure.

Citation:

Ray, Sondra. Pele’s Wish: Secrets of Hawaiian Masters and Eternal Life. Makawao,

Hawaii: Inner Ocean Publishing, 2005.

“Alright, a wanderer came into a town called Hameln and told the townspeople there that he would rid the town of all the rats in exchange for a bit of money. The townspeople didn’t believe him and would not give him any money and told him to go away, so he pulled out his pipe, of doom, and began playing a little melody on it and all of a sudden all the rats popped out of their little holes, and started running after the little pipe of doom. He then walked out of the city; the rats followed him and promptly followed him into a river where they drowned their little butts off. As people saw that they were free of the rats, they were really happy but still didn’t pay the dude AKA the wanderer, so he left. Then the townspeople thought they were good. One night, he came back dressed in a cloak and a crazy hat and started playing his pipe again, this time, all the children in all the houses got out of bed and ran off like the rats after the wanderer. He led them into a little cave thing where they disappeared, he did too and the townspeople were really sad but they learned their lesson. “

The informant, a third generation Irish-American, spent a couple of years living in Germany with a host family. He heard this story from his host mother who is “about as German as they come.” It was told to kids to make sure that they don’t use and abuse people, much like a fable with a moral lesson. Stories like this would typically be told to children in Kindergarten. The informant finds this story particularly interesting because he’s been to the town where this legend was supposed to have occurred. The legend was so famous that the town has been preserved in its original state though people still live there like the Amish and has become a tourist attraction because of its ‘authentic’ German look.

Like all legends there are multiple versions of this tale, though most end with children being taken away. In America, the story is called The Pied Piper though amazingly the storyline hasn’t changed much. In German however, the title Rattenfänger literally means the Rat Catcher. Much like what we discussed in class, the town Hemln though kept in its original state, is more a tourist attraction than a real ‘folklore’ setting. This is similar to ‘folk’ music produced in studios, or folklorasmus though it is folk music in digital music, is it really ‘folk’?

“When you go to school in Japan, a lot of times each school would have their own ‘seven wonders’ or ‘mysteries’. Every school makes up these ridiculous stories, but the most common one that people always hear about is this ghost story about Hanako-san. Basically it’s about this girl that got trapped in a bathroom at school and died. People using bathrooms after school hours alone usually attribute any abnormal sounds or creaks to Hanako-san, making it the most popular out of the other wonders.”

The informant, who was born in Japan and grew up in Hawaii, learned of these wonders when he took summer classes in Japan. He thinks that these ghost stories are just a way people use to get students to stop loitering around campus after school.

I agree with the informant. However, I also see how most people would easily believe in Hanako-san. With ghost stories especially, context is a huge factor. If I was, say, a middle school or high school student all alone after school at a place I’m not supposed to be, I would be very nervous and my senses would probably be extremely heightened and sensitive. Not to mention bathrooms are scary places if they’re not well lit and empty. The quietness on top of the unfriendly cleanliness of cold hard bathroom utilities is sure to make anyone second-guess themselves regardless of what they might think outside of that context.

“Dr. Pepper is made out of prune juice”

Origins

Kenneth heard this urban legend from high school friends (in Monterrey Park).

Collector’s comments

Since my current home is in Plano, TX (the headquarters of 7up / Dr. Pepper) I was a bit offended to hear this. I immediately told Kenneth (and all the other students who were talking with us) that this was just another stupid urban legend.

I rationalized that a rival soda company such as Coca-Cola most likely started spreading rumors about Dr. Pepper products. I was pretty sure of my conviction because I noticed that nearly all of the restaurants on and near the USC campus were dominated by Coca-Cola products. For example, nearly every restaurant in the area has a drink machine with drinks such as Sprite, Coca-Cola, Powerade, and maybe a few other assorted drinks (all of which are produced by Coca-Cola).

It is nearly the opposite anywhere in the Dallas, TX area. I remember that my high school was heavily funded by Dr. Pepper and all vending machines sold only Dr. Pepper products.

Thus, I had plenty of reasons to not believe that this was a silly rumor spread by rival soda companies to discourage people from drinking Dr. Pepper.

After a bit of research, it turns out that this urban legend is indeed false. I also discovered that people believe drinks made out of prunes are disgusting because prunes are apparently known for causing bowel movements (although I had no idea…).

Annotation: This exact urban legend can be found at:

http://www.snopes.com/business/secret/drpepper.asp

Date of access: April 20, 2007