The Big Red Bat – Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 28
Occupation: Author
Residence: Long Beach
Language: English

Text/Context: “In 5th grade, everyone in Long Beach unified school district went to Camp High Hill, up in the LA mountains. There were a lot of traditional camp stories and all that, but the scariest was the story of the Big Red Bat. We didn’t know exactly what it was, but sometimes the counselors would mention it, saying something about the ‘Big Red Bat that was up in the trees,’ and never elaborate. There was an air of theatrics about it, clearly egging on our panic about the Big Red Bat and the forest itself, but we were 5th graders so we all believed it. One night, the night of a group night walk, we were sitting in the amphitheater before setting out. The head counselor told everyone that while he knows people are worried about the Big Red Bat, he was actually friends with him so there was nothing to worry about, but no one believed him. After a lot of unease, we finally started walking. When we got to where it supposedly was, he told us, “Alright guys, I’ll hold it at bay, but if you wanna take a peek, now’s your chance” We looked up, and nestled in the trees, was a big red baseball bat.”

Analysis: This is quite the funny story, but I think it shows the power a piece of folklore like a bit scary creature hiding out in the woods has. It was clearly used as a means to discourage kids from venturing out when they weren’t supposed to, but the execution is what I find particularly interesting. The Big Red Bat wasn’t a complete fabrication, it was a play on words that doubled as a deterrent for troublemakers. It makes me wonder if its origin is accidental, like if someone swung the bat but let go at the height of their swing and got it stuck up there for good. Regardless, it definitely worked out because it became both a funny story and a useful warning. 

The Queen Mary’s Haunted Pool – Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 28
Occupation: Author
Residence: Long Beach
Language: English

Text/Context: “When I was in elementary school, probably about 10, I went on a family trip to the Queen Mary with my mother, her best friend, and her daughter, who was my best friend. We were taking a guided tour, not even the ghost specific tour, just the regular one. We go through the hallways, all over the deck, and then we eventually made it down to the pool room. The guide tells us the pool room is the most haunted room in the whole ship, with a lot of alleged deaths happening in there, specifically a little girl drowned in the pool. We enter the room, and it’s very large. There are no windows, which is weird for a pool, because you’d think it would be in a nice bright area, but it’s not. It’s two stories, and at the bottom is the pool. It’s not filled of course, they don’t use it anymore, they just keep it there for posterity. We walk around the bottom, and then we go up to the top floor so we can look out over the pool, and it’s beautiful. There’s gorgeous tilework, stonework on the walls, it’s very 1920s art deco, very Queen Mary. Everyone’s excited looking around, and then the tour starts to move on. But me, being a freak, decide that I want to spook myself by waiting behind a bit to, I don’t know, feel the spooky energy. And so by the time everyone has trickled out, I start to make my way back to the exit, when I look out over the pool one last time. I see this very vivid flare of light coming from the corner of the pool, and it was green. Again, there were no windows, no light sources other than small lamps on the walls, but the lamps weren’t green. There was nothing I could see that could possibly be causing such a strange light. After seeing the light, I got an overwhelming feeling of dread and for a moment, thought I could hear the sound of someone splashing around and drowning, and booked it out the door. To this day I am completely convinced it was supernatural activity.”

Analysis: While this story isn’t necessarily from a folk group, I think it illustrates the importance of memorates within the broader scope of folklore and more specifically, folk narrative. This is the type of experience that through telling and retelling, eventually becomes something that can be considered authentic folklore. My informant spoke with a certainty in her voice that led me to understand how important this experience was for her, and how she fully believes it to be of supernatural origin. I myself have witnessed things I could only describe as supernatural so I understand the belief, especially after re-reading her story several times. While she may have been a kid when it happened, I don’t think it discredits how real the experience was to her, nor does it make it any less spooky to hear now.

The Beef Lady – Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Physician
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “When I was in church champ as a kid, there was the legend of the beef lady. The story went that there was an old lady living in the hills, and every once in a while someone would find the carcass of a dead cow that she killed and ate. I never saw any dead cows and neither did my friends, but sometimes someone would run over and say ‘I saw the beef lady I saw the beef lady! She’s right over there!’ and we would all go look. I went to this camp for 3, maybe 4 years, and every year, the beef lady was still a thing because the kids who were there the year before would tell the story to the first years. Even though there probably never was a beef lady, it was still fun to believe in. And you never know, maybe the beef lady was real all along and just really good at hiding her tracks.”

Analysis: A younger age group is naturally more inclined to believe in an entity as silly sounding as a beef lady who hides out in the woods. Frankly, kids will believe just about anything you tell them if you sound convincing enough. But what’s particularly interesting about the case of the beef lady is how it became so prominent at this church camp. I feel like of all the stories that could define a child’s experience at camp, the beef lady isn’t the one to do it. I think what made it so engaging for my father and his friends was the fact that it was specifically a church camp. These kids were raised very religiously, and the camp itself was so religiously based, that I think they wanted to believe in a story that was dark and scary, completely unlike the clean religious stories they were so used to.

Bucktoothed Buzzards – Ballad

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “This is a girl scout song that we would always do at sleepaway camp, around the campfire, a bunch of sugar-high girls, the whole deal. At least in my unit, it was always reserved for the oldest troop. The eldest girls on their way out of the program are the ones teaching it to the younger girls, they have that privilege. And with girl scout songs, when you’re the one leading them you have to give 300% so that anyone else only has to give 50%. We usually do this starting at 3 or 4 but I’ll start at 2 for the sake of time.

Two buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn. 

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn.

No buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, let us reee-joice. Hallelujah!

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, lett us reee-joice. Hallelujah!”

Analysis: The girl scouts are one of the largest and most well known folk groups, and the scale is reflected in the variety of folklore they have to offer. My sister was a girl scout for a few years, so I thought I was familiar with most of their folklore, but I have never heard this song before. It has a similar structure to other silly folk songs, with the counting and all, but I think it separates itself from others like it in a few unique ways. When performing this song for me, my informant also performed a dance that she said is essential to the song. It was quite the interesting dance with lots of unusual motions, and those combined with the unique delivery and enunciation made it very interesting. I already understood that being a girl scout is an experience that sticks with people forever, but seeing this performance and hearing what my informant had to say about it really reinforced that fact. It goes to show how powerful folk groups really are, and how even something like a silly song can mean so much more.

The Myth of Dangun

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 27
Occupation: PHD Student, Electrical Engineering
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Language: English

Informant: “This is a myth about how our nation was created. Our nation was first called Chosun. There was a god (Hwanin) and his son (Hwanung). Hwanung loved the people, humans, so he wanted to live with people in the city instead of the sky world with the gods. So, he brings some sky people to the earth and rules over the people. He then saw there was a bear and tiger who were friends and wanted to be human. So, he gave them garlic and herbs and told them: If you eat these things for 100 days and live in a cave without seeing the sun, then I will let you become human. The tiger gives up, but the bear does not. So, the bear becomes a human woman. However, there is no one to marry her, and she really wants to marry someone. She prays to god: Please let me marry someone. The son of the god hears that voice and takes her as his wife, and they marry.”

Me: So how did this result in the creation of Korea?

Informant: “Ah, not Korea, but the dynasty. We think they are the first dynasty in this myth. The bear turned to a woman, and the son of god were the leaders of this first dynasty, which led to our nation.”

Context: The informant is from South Korea and heard this myth from his parents. He had to look some things up to refresh his memory, but says that it is a very well-known myth in Korea. He says that he, “of course”, does not believe that any of that really happened, but still finds it to be an interesting and important part of his nation’s story.

Analysis: I think that this story is meant to make the people of Korea feel some kind of importance and significance towards the origins of their nation. The story seems to paint the origins of Korea, or at least this specific dynasty, as being divine. A long time ago, I imagine the story served to prop up that dynasty, like propaganda of sorts. However, as time moved on and the dynasty dissipated, the story became integrated with the birth of subsequent nations, giving the citizens a hopeful story that their nation could trace its lineage back to the son of god. As for the bear turning into a woman, I think there may be some symbolism of these gods coming down and civilizing people. As if to say that Korea, as a nation, turned animals into people, metaphorically.