Even Numbers

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 21
Occupation: production assistant
Residence: Sante Fe Springs, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Umm.. I have a weird thing about even numbers because my birthday, my full birthday is completely odd numbers so I think… I think that’s why it has every single odd number possible and so I don’t like when the volume on my car is on an even number or I’ll add numbers if something’s like 34 I’ll add it to make it 7. I just can’t… I can’t… I don’t know…there’s something about even numbers that I’m not very comfortable with and also like both my parents’ birthdays are all odd numbers so it’s just not… I don’t do even numbers. They’re like too round, too even, too perfect, like I don’t like that you can divide them by 2. That’s weird.

I quite enjoyed this piece of folklore because I thought I was the only one that did this. This folklore connected us in that way. I too do not like even numbers because of my birthday (7/21). My informant practices this folk belief regularly and it  seemed to be quite important to her.

The LMU Fountain

Nationality: Gonzalez
Age: 56
Occupation: Microbiologist
Residence: West Covina, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I guess when it’s your birthday, you get dunked into the fountain, naked.

My informant learned this tradition from going to orientation at Loyola Marymount University. My informant has never experienced this tradition first hand and heard about it from other college students. This piece of folklore terrifying for me, as I learned it at an orientation myself. This made me not want to go to LMU and had a negative affect on me.

UCLA Steps

Nationality: American
Age: late 30s
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

There’s a big set of steps on campus, these stairs they’re called Jan’s steps and the myth or the legend is that you can’t step on the fourth step from the bottom and that every time you step on that step you’ll be in college for one more year.

My informant learned this piece of folklore through a sorority at the University of California Los Angeles. She told me this along with other superstitions and traditions about college while we and some friends were discussing it. She did not actively participate in this practice, it was just one superstition that she heard.

The Window

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 56
Performance Date: April
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I just remember the window… and you know scared me the most was my grandmother… and she would yell at my mom, “He can get in that window!” and I just remember that window. “He’s little and he’s skinny and he can get in that window Becky, and the doggy door!” She would get on my mom, Grandma Muffin. “He could get through the doggy door Becky, you need to close that every night!” So it was hearing my grandmother say it. My parents were careful not to say it.Victor’s mom was super paranoid, she could not be alone in the house. Well and I remember Victor came to the house because you guys were dating at the time and he put like a lock on the window and I was like “Oh man this is serious, like he’s putting a lock on our window.” Yeah it was scary because he kinda went like to different locations and he would sneak into people’s houses and murder them umm… and they didn’t know I mean it took a while to catch him.

This particular piece of folklore was quite frightening because it referred to a murderer based in my hometown of Los Angeles. My informant discussed the importance of windows:closing them at night, installing locks, or placing bars on them. In her neighborhood where she grew up in Pico Rivera, California, the murderer Richard Ramirez, notoriously nicknamed “The Night Stalker,” would sneak into people’s houses then kidnap and murder them in the 1980’s. She told me while discussing murder stories and urban legends from her city. My informant actually lived through this and recalls the significance that windows had in her neighborhood as a source of protection.

Gravity hill

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 26
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

It was a… it was an urban legend of Gravity Hill somewhere in Pasadena, you would driving to a certain location, I forgot what street it was and you would get off, you would put baby powder on all the windows of the car and you would put the car in reverse and supposedly little kids were pushing you up the hill and then you could see the handprint.

My informant was an active practitioner of this legend. He had heard it from some of his high school friends, however their attempt did not work. He told me this urban legend while we were casually talking about other urban legends. His story reminded me of the same story I had heard about a certain hill in Hacienda Heights, California. The other people that were around us at the time also chimed in, saying that they had seen the same thing in a movie. I have heard several versions of this legend. I heard one version where the heater/air conditioner is supposed to fog up the windows instead of baby powder. I also heard that there is supposed to be a dent on the roof of the car, signaling dangling feet from a hung dead body above.

“For another version of this urban legend, see the movie Fingerprints (2006) based off an urban legend from San Antonio, Texas.