Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

High School Ghost

Text:
The informant went to high school in Laredo, Texas. At her high school, she always heard stories of this boy with a red backpack in her high school. She heard that it began in the 1990s when janitors would see him really late at night. She says they would try to get his attention, calling out to him, saying, “Mijo, Mijo” but the boy would just walk away. They were always at opposite ends of the hallways and there was never any noise of the doors opening or closing when the boy would disappear. She heard another story of one day when the basketball coach was doing basketball tryouts and while in his office after tryouts, when all of a sudden he heard a ball dribbling. It was already late at night and he went out to check who was dribbling the ball. There was no one there and so he returned to his office. Once again, the coach heard the ball dribble so he went to check. This time the ball is dribbling toward him but there is no one to be seen. Other stories she heard did not involve the kid with the red backpack but were about supernatural instances such as books falling over. There was also this corner in the library that was always really cold. Some say that if you stood in the corner you could feel his presence.

Context:
The informant did not actually believe in the story as she believed that it was just a chance to talk about something in class and thus not do homework. She was told this story by teachers and the librarian so she also believes it was a story used to scare the students.

Interpretation:
This story seems to be very similar to the stereotypical ghost stories that kids are scared of. Thus, because of this, it seems that this story very much grew out of word of mouth and kids trying to make the story scarier every time it was spread around. For example, elements such as the empty school hallways, the basketball dribbling by itself, the books falling over, and the cold spot in the library are all elements commonly seen in fiction and in movies. None of these elements seem to really have any malintent behind them and thus, the ghost doesn’t seem to come from any evil place. It is very convenient that only certain adults would ever see the boy in the red backpack. Nonetheless, the legend stays relevant because it is something that high school kids can look to and claim as their own.

I Saw Two Hooligans Go that Way

Informant’s grandfather loved to blow up flagpoles and porta-potties. On one particular flagpole spree, in most likely the 1950s, he would set fireworks at the base of the flagpole (old fireworks, so essentially bombs). They would go off and explode the flagpole over the park. Before exploding them, he would be wearing a ratty sweatpants type outfit. After exploding them, he would then run into a porta-potty (one that he wouldn’t blow up) or the nearest shop. He would get changed into a crisp blue suit and then walk back out, so that when the police got there, they would see a suave business man dressed in a suit, and when they asked what happened, he would say, “I don’t know, but I saw two hooligans go that way.” Then, two weeks after the incident, there would be an anonymous donation for a new flagpole or porta-potty.

This is a family legend that has been told often within the informant’s family. They apparently tell this story to a lot of people. Informant says they have heard the line, “I saw two hooligans go that way” spoken a lot within their family circles. Informant also notes, regarding the donations, that this man was rich, and is the reason they can go through college, so he was just doing this for the fun of it.

This piece of folklore was very unique to my collection, because it was a family legend. So this was my first time collecting something like this. It was really interesting to hear a narrative that came from a specific family and had recent roots. Since the story is about my informant’s grandfather, it has a terminus post quem of when he was born (and old enough to be doing these sorts of things). I don’t think I’ve heard of a family that I personally know having such a rich legend in their recent family lore, so that was really interesting to me. As well as that, the fact that the family keeps the story alive in their stories and general speech, through the reference of the ‘hooligans’ line, shows how legends can connect people through sharing of the knowing of a certain story, and how it can be enhanced if there are further bonds like familial ones.

The Ax Farmer – Tale

Nationality: Korean American
Age: 18
Occupation: Hotel Clerk/Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 03/06/2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Context: R is a Korean American who was raised in Hawaii. She moved to Los Angeles to attend USC and is currently a freshman studying Computer Science. Her mom told her this story, and R herself has heard from multiple Koreans each with their own variation on what the tale sounds like. According to R, it’s a very popular folktale.

Text:

The story of the ax farmer begins with an axman who had a very poor quality ax. It was wooden and broken. He dropped in this lake one day, and there was a god living in the lake and the god appears with two axes in his hands, one gold and one wooden. The god asks the axman “Which one is your ax, the golden one or the wooden one?” The axman answers honestly with “the wooden one.” The god, impresses by the man’s honesty, gives him the golden ax.

However, there was another man listening to the ax man and god’s conversation. He then purposefully threw an ax into the lake and the god appeared. The god asks the man which ax is his and the man chooses the golden ax. The god knew he was lying, so he punished him. The punishment R never specifies, but she implies that the god severely punished the other man for lying.

Analysis:

Like any tale, the god and man interaction and the golden ax is clearly not real. There is no real lake that this story was at nor would there be a god living it who can give golden axes to passersby. But, due to the context in which these motifs are placed, the audience is able to learn a very real and applicable lesson about honesty and punishment. From Oring’s definition of a tale, the inherent falsehood of the narrative makes it easier to digest; the linear path the plot takes and the extreme contrast of the characters allow the logical and real-world solution to the story, the man’s punishment, to be impactful and relatable. From there, the two-dimensional and predictable story can be adapted into metaphor, and then motif and then life lesson. A god living in a lake and the existence of a golden ax are metaphors for a high power or authority in life and rewards. By pleasing the authority figures with honesty and good morals, rewards will be given. Lie to power or manipulate selfishly, the punishment will be severe and no such rewards will be yielded. Tales like these are usually told during childhood, so this tale gives a young and innocent audience a hard truth about living in society without it being overwhelming or stressful. The tale is blaring entertainment, yet perfectly subtle in the delivery of morality and ethics.

Swamp 18

There’s an arboretum called the Bartlett Arboretum. There’s a bunch of trails through it, and there’s one trail that has a boardwalk that goes over a swamp. Years ago, there used to be a plaque on it that had “18.” Most likely a former trail marker, that one plaque stayed up for some reason. The local kids in the area started calling the area “Swamp 18.” Once you go down the boardwalk of Swamp 18, there are tall swamp trees, so you can’t see the person once they go more than ten feet down. The legend is once you go into Swamp 18, you don’t leave. Once you step into the water, it’s like quicksand, and it grabs you and pulls you under. Newer lore suggests that if you disappear into Swamp 18, you become a plank of wood on the boardwalk. And also that planks that fall into the swamp represent someone that has died.

Informant lives next to Bartlett Arboretum, so they find that they live in the prime area for these types of supernatural legends. Informant found the boardwalk really pretty during the day, but creepy at night, and the name made the area sound a lot creepier to them than it actually is. The newer lore was added by informant’s age group when they were in elementary school. Since the legends have come about, the Bartlett Arboretum has had a lovely renovation, but the informant says they don’t think the creepy legends ever left the public consciousness.

Bloody Mary in the Bathroom – Legend

Nationality: Canadian/White
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 27 2023
Primary Language: English

Context:

J is a screenwriting second-year at USC, raised in Canada but moved to American when J was 10 years old. The below text is a story told among the female students at J’s elementary school.

Text:

When J was in elementary school, there was a bathroom where people said that a girl had died in while she was a student in school who continued to haunt the bathroom because of how gruesome her death was without finding peace. Her spirit believed to be lingering there resulted in the creation of their own version of Bloody Mary. Students would say that “Bloody Mary lives in that bathroom.” They could tell because it was the very last stall and one of the pipes on the toilet had a splash of red paint on it, which students thought was blood. J themselves would go to the stall at the end of the day, and never got haunted by Bloody Mary. But, J was always on edge in the bathroom, where every little noise or motion may “summon” Bloody Mary, so J never did the “summoning” (saying Bloody Mary) to not chance the possibility of the ghost.

Analysis:

This narrative takes advantage of two legend themes: ghosts and Bloody Mary. Ghosts are an entity that lives on liminal boundaries: the line between life and death, human and non-human, and science and will power. The legend of a ghost forces the audience to question if one’s will truly is strong enough to overrule death, if a death with regret strong enough truly can provide haunting, or if there really is a line between life and death that is invisible to the living. Death itself is enigmatic and frightening for the living, so ghosts are a way people cope with it. For an audience as young as elementary students, ghosts not only become a way to deal with the permanence of death, but also a way to refuse grieving or accepting death, tying ghost narrative back to anti-hegemonic childhood folklore. So, the ghost itself as a literary object in a story subtly questions much of the real world’s ideas of death, maybe even denying them outright. Furthermore, because the legend is also about Bloody Mary, the story also becomes a coming-of-age for young girls. Bloody Mary serves the mark women’s menstrual cycle, a point at which blood comes out of the body, the girl is no longer chained to childhood and has to face harsh reality. Avoiding the bathroom stall avoids Bloody Mary, avoiding growing up as a young woman. An acknowledgement that Bloody Mary is not real (this childhood rumor is not real) marks a turning point in the young female world, that they have “risen above” childhood, gotten their period (marked by blood..Bloody Mary) and became women.