Collection: two figures – Legend (ghost)

A: “Have you had anything weird happen to you in your house?”

B: “In the same house as the oven story which was down the road from the cemetery, my bedroom was on the third floor and looked over the driveway. And so two of my windows looked out over the entire driveway. And my best friend, Lloyd, would always tell me that he saw a white figure walking up and down the driveway, but I would never look. I would just say “Shut up. Go to hell.” *laughs* And he would always say one white figure. He always said one, but this one night, he said that he could see two figures. And he didn’t say it as jokingly as he had before, but I still just said “Shut up.” But he was really persistent, so we just closed the curtains.”

A: “But you didn’t look?”

B: “No I never looked. And the next morning, I was like talking to my mom about what happened because we always talked about it, and she told me that there was a funeral for two stillborn twins on the day that Lloyd saw the two figures. The funeral was at the cemetery down the road from my house, and the people who had the twins were our family friends. And they had just buried their stillborn twins on that very day.”

Context/Interpretation:  This cemetery background information adds to the narrative’s performance aspect. Also, the informant’ friend is vernacular authority because the story appears more credible when others can support the main claim.

Collection: USC dorm ghost – Legend (ghost)

After asking about any unusual experiences, the informant recounted a peculiar situation that took place at USC.

“So one morning, I was just laying in the bed, facing the wall. After a little bit, I heard the sound of my roommate, Andrew’s, covers move, like the sound of his comforter moving… But I didn’t think anything of it because I figured that he had just moved his blanket. But when I turned over to look, Andrew wasn’t even in the room…”

Context/Interpretation: The informant lives with one roommate in a residence hall style dorm at USC. While the performer did not explicitly state that he saw a “ghost,” he described the occurrence as being paranormal as in out of the ordinary. The belief in ghosts in America is so vast, yet it strays from religion and government. However, it is very common for informants to refer to these types of stories as unusual, rather than ghostly.

Collection: oven ghost – Legend (ghost)

A: “Have you had anything weird happen to you in your house?”

B: “Well, the oven in my old house could or could not have been haunted. So, my old house…at random times, the oven would make a beeping sound like “beep beep beep” when you would press the buttons. And throughout the night, my mom would hear these beeping noises as if someone was using the oven, but nobody was. And this would happen almost every night, and it would wake her up. Also, the weird thing is that I lived down the street from a cemetery. So that can be a preface for whatever you want to believe. So eventually, my dad opened the face of the oven to see all of the wires, and he physically took out the wire and device that made the sound. But the beeping would still happen. Like my mom would wake up and stand near the oven, and it would be beeping, but if it she touched it, it wouldn’t work. But nothing really came of it. We just got another oven.”

Context/Interpretation: The informant described his home as being located near a cemetery. This background information adds to the narrative’s performance aspect, and the family’s involvement adds a sense of vernacular authority. Further, the cemetery’s proximity to his home provides preface to possible legend quests. Also, the investigation of the oven could be interpreted as a legend quest.