Haunted House

Story: Where I grew up, there is a house on the edge of my block that everyone says is haunted. No one has lived in it for as long as we were there which – we moved there when I was three. Anyways, I don’t even remember who told me it was haunted, it was just a thing everyone knew. The house is super old and looks like it is falling apart, the yard is over grown and sometimes the boys in my neighborhood would throw rocks at it. Anyways, everyone thought it was haunted but I had never seen anything to prove it, until one night when I was around 17 and I was walking home from a friends house late at night. I had to pass the house and I would always glance at it when I walked by because it freaked me out. Anyways, I was walking by and I got the most terrifying feeling ever. I saw the door was open which was so weird because it was always shut, and in the doorway was the shadow of a person just standing there! I nearly screamed and ran all the way home.

Context: The informant is a senior at USC from New York, and told me this story over the phone.

Thoughts: When asked what they think about the story looking back on it now, the informant says that it still terrifies them, and even when they go home to visit they will walk all the way around the block just to avoid walking next to the house.

Analysis: I have never experienced a ghost encounter, however this was definitely creepy. The informant also mentioned that other people had experienced encounters at or around the house as well, and I was wondering if I could find anything that happened at the house in the past, like a death or some sort of tragedy. However, no results came up when I researched it.

Dead Body

Story: There was a story told in my neighborhood about a murderer who lived in the park behind our houses. Our whole neighborhood bordered a woodland park about three or four miles square. The story we told was that a kid was walking along a path through the park at night when they disappeared. Months later, after the police search for them had been called off, a passerby found their body inside of a trash can at the bottom of a hill. As the story went, if you stayed too long in the park after dark, the same thing might happen to you.

Context: The informant told me this story over text, as they were unavailable for FaceTime. The informant is from Seattle, WA.

Thoughts: The informant was told this story by their mother, and it became a well known story within their friend group. When asked how they feel looking back on the story now and if they believe it, they say that they aren’t sure if it’s true anymore, since they think their mom just told it to them so they wouldn’t stay out too late at night.

Analysis: While this legend is intriguing, I was genuinely curious as to whether or not it is true. I searched the park online and found that there was indeed a cold case in the park that dates back to 1984. A body of a 30 year old man had been found, and it wasn’t until 2020 that they identified the body (Staff). It isn’t exactly the same story that his mother told him, but I can see where the inspiration came from.

Staff, Author: KING 5. “1984 Cold Case Death at Seattle’s Carkeek Park Solved through Fingerprints.” king5.Com, 21 Feb. 2020, https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/man-found-dead-in-1984-identified/281-ac988edc-d73a-4552-876f-b98edc6001f8. 

The Floor is Lava

Story: Me and my siblings used to play this game when we were little called The Floor is Lava. We would put all of the couch cushions on the floor in the living room, and run and jump from them to the couch to the ottoman, to the chair, and keep doing that until someone touched the floor. If you touched the floor you died, and someone would usually be chasing us- either fictionally or my dad would and we would run and sometimes trip into the lava. It was really fun!

Context: The informant told me this over Zoom, and I recorded it so I could write it down later.

Thoughts: Looking back on it, the informant says that it was a great way to bond with their siblings and father, and that some of their favorite times were just leaping in small circles in their living room. They also said that they have heard a lot of other people played that game as well, and are surprised since they don’t believe they learned it from anyone.

Analysis: I think this game is a really great example of a study I reference in another entry, about children and imaginative play. It is a big help with boosting social awareness, empathy, and creativity. It makes sense that a lot of children would develop a similar game since it also utilizes motor skills, and plays heavily into the countless imagination possibilities for a toddler/younger kid.

Athanasios Diakos

Story: My great, great grandfather, George, was born in the village Athanasios Diakos – I have no idea how to spell that, you can look it up later. The village, Athanasios Diakos, was named after a very famous Greek war hero in the war against the Ottoman Empire – who had invaded Greece and had been occ- *coughs* – occupying it for almost 400 years by that time. He fought heroic battles against them with a very small group of freedom fighters, until he got captured captured them them. He was impaled and burnt to death on a spit. When he was captured, he was offered a chance to live and be made an officer in the Ottoman army but he had to denounce his Christianity and converting to Islam! Instead he said: “I was born a Greek, I will die a Greek”!*informant yells and lifts fist* His brutal death is said to have been the rallying point for all Greeks who fought tooth and nail against the Ottoman army and, although vastly outnumbered, ended up driving them out of the country.

Format: The informant told these to me in person, and I recorded them to better transcribe them later.

Context: The informant was told these stories by his father, who was handed down these stories from his father, who was told some of these stories by his father. They are stories about the informant’s great great grandfather, George, and the village he is from. When asked about why this story is significant to them, the informant responded saying that this was told to them ‘hundreds of times’ over the course of their childhood. They would always ask for the story to be told before bed, and it was always a little bit different every time.

Analysis: This legend is super intriguing to me as a writer, because it is both a story about tragedy and victory. It has true roots in history, as Athanasios Diakos was in fact a Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence. However, there are details in the story, like the manner in which he died, that I have not been able to find online.

The Nail that Sticks Out Shall Be Hammered Down

Original Script: 出る釘は打たれる

Romanization: Delu kugi wa u-ita relu

Transliteration: To be out the nail hit is to be.

Translation: The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down.

Genre: Japanese proverb. 

Context: My maternal grandmother told me this proverb over the phone the summer before I started college, as I had complained to her that I had been bullied throughout high school. This was true– I had grown up in an environment whose values differed significantly from my own, and as such, I always felt ‘persecuted’ in a way, as I did not mesh well with my classmates. This was her way of giving me advice to make college a little bit easier. 

Analysis: At first, I disregarded this as some sort of victim blaming, as my maternal grandmother did have a way of making all calamities the fault of the victim. I realized later on that this was her way of maintaining agency over a dark, cruel world and the thought that misfortune randomly befell undeserving individuals was too much to bear. Regardless, I knew that this was common in Japan, and I just filed it away as a ‘cultural difference’ without realizing how miserable it made me in school. I was already different enough – being Asian, an immigrant, and so forth – that broadly claiming my opinion that I knew would be at odds with those of my peers would understandably result in bullying. I didn’t compromise my values, but I was being unique just for the sake of visibility.. I knew I was right (according to my own belief system), but I was choosing to make a POINT of being right. I was making my own nail stick out as far as possible, and then was wondering why I was hammered down!