Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Contemporary Legend – Monterray Park, California

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Monterrey Park, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Brown food coloring is made out of bugs”

Origins

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

Collector’s comments

This is one of the many legends I heard about food coloring. There always seems to be a disgusting legend about particular colors of food coloring. In this case, Kenneth heard that brown food coloring was made of some type of bugs.

I thought the legend was simply fabricated because many bugs have a dark outer shell. However, I found out that brown (or a dark red / maroon food coloring, as my source states) is often made out of beetles because synthetic brown food coloring was found to be harmful to people. My source also claims that using beetles has no adverse health effects.

Annotation: This legend, along with facts and sources that prove this legend is true, can be found at: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp

Date of access: April 20, 2007

Contemporary Legend

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Monterrey Park, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Eating turkey makes you sleepy”

Origins

Kenneth heard this from friends and family and heard it for the first time when he was about 7 years old.

Collector’s comments

This legend is quite intriguing since I seem to hear it nearly every Thanksgiving or whenever a turkey dinner is about to be eaten. I assumed the legend to be true since I was always sleepy after a large Thanksgiving meal. But then again, I often fall asleep at Leavey Library after just eating a big meal at EVK.

Although Americans hardly debate over the veracity of this legend (practically everyone seems to accept it as fact), I chose to research the legend and found out that turkey itself will most likely not cause sleepiness. My source asserts that this legend is only a half-truth. It is true that tryptophan is a natural sedative. However, it only acts in the brain if the person consuming turkey is eating on an empty stomach (which does not have any protein). Thus, the old legend that so many readily accept as fact is disproved by modern science.

Annotation: The legend and facts to disprove it can be found at http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp

Date of access: April 20, 2007

Contemporary Legend – Monterrey Park, California

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Monterrey Park, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Jello contains meat”

Origins

Kenneth heard the legend from friends during middle school (in Monterrey Park).

Collector’s comments

I recall having heard this legend myself. Often, I noticed that vegetarians would speak of this legend and actually avoid consuming JELL-O brand gelatin.

Personally, it seemed a bit ridiculous that people would claim such a thing. Why would something that is traditionally made with a small packet of powder and water contain any “meat”?

After researching this legend, it turns out that JELL-O brand gelatin is indeed made from the boiled bones and hides of cows and pigs. This is processed heavily until it turns into the familiar colorful powder in a packet. But due to the amount of processing done, JELL-O is not officially labeled a meat or animal product by the government.

It seems that the majority of Americans (including myself) dismiss this legend and continue to enjoy their JELL-O.

Contemporary Legend – Monterray Park, California

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Monterrey Park, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“I heard several times that if there’s a star somewhere on the Tootsie Pop wrapper, you can redeem it for a free Tootsie Pop”

Origins

Kenneth heard the legend from friends during elementary school (in Monterrey Park).

Collector’s comments

Having heard the legend myself, I assume it is fairly widespread (at least in the United States). Similar to Kenneth, I heard the legend during elementary school from my peers. Some kids even claimed to have actually received free Tootsie Pops after sending in their wrapper with a shooting star.

Even as a young child, I was very questioning and skeptical. I thought it was a bit odd that a company use their time and effort to send a Tootsie Pop which then retailed for about 15 cents each (the postage was worth more than the Tootsie Pop essentially). But I still believed the legend and carefully checked my wrappers but never found one with a shooting star (as did Kenneth).

According to David Emery of about.com, the legend is completely false, although some small retail stores did honor this legend by giving free Tootsie Pops for the wrapper. What seems odd about Emery’s article is that he claims approximately 1 out of 3 Tootsie Pop wrappers had an Indian shooting a star “just for variety”. Of all the Tootsie Pops I had during my childhood, I do not remember even one that had this special wrapper. Perhaps it was my rotten luck or perhaps Tootsie Pops with the special wrapper were not being sold by retailers in the Dallas area.

Annotated: The legend can be found at http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/business/a/tootsie_pop.htm

Date of access: April 24, 2007

Contemporary Legend – Los Angeles, California

Nationality: Irish, Scottish
Occupation: Reverend
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Tennis Shoes”

Origins

My informant had a story about tennis shoes hanging from telephone wires and what they mean. When she was in junior high, she was told those shoes have a specific significance. She believes she heard it from a friend’s older brother who was in high school.

Quoted from Reverend Kenney:

“If you walk through many different sections of LA and communities around LA, occasionally there is a pair of tennis shoes hanging from telephone line. “You should be somewhat frightened when you saw them” some kids would say.”

“I grew up in Los Angeles and was told tennis shoes were put on telephone poles to show which territory belonged to a specific street gang. If you’re in a particular gang, you’re supposed to read the signs / symbols of a gang and stay out, or you will be threatened.”

“When I came back to Los Angeles 20 years ago, the urban legend was changed a bit. Now, it signals that the house facing those tennis shoes was a crack house. If you were looking for crack, that was the place to get it. This is a story that may have some truth to it. But if you look carefully, the shoes are all different sizes. Most are not very expensive tennis shoes. In reality, what they show is that some kid was mad at another kid, took their shoes, and threw them over the telephone line. Or, it means one kid was challenging another kid to see if he had the strength to get the tennis shoes up there.”

Collector’s comments:

Although I was born in Chicago and never came to Los Angeles until I began at USC, I too vaguely remember seeing tennis shoes on telephone pole wires. However, I never really heard any of these legends about the significant of the shoes. I simply saw them and assumed one kid had stolen another kid’s shoes and tossed them over the telephone pole wires. It seems like the most logical explanation since as a child, my friends and I would always push ourselves to the limit. We would try to pop “wheelies” on our bikes over unstable terrain, constantly run around train tracks, and perform other actions that we used to try assert our bravery. Repeatedly throwing a pair of shoes over telephone pole wires sounds like a lot like the challenges we would make amongst ourselves.