Tag Archives: American folklore

The Blind Woman and Her Dog

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: lawyer
Residence: Burlington, MA
Performance Date: 3/13/17
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s comments are denoted through initials JK, while the interviewee’s responses are denoted through initials SC.

 

 

SC:  There was this blind woman, this is an old horror story that I betch everybody.. your teacher’s probably heard it.  Ok so, there was this woman, this blind woman, she was blind.  And she lived alone and she had a dog, a german shepard, and the dog protected her and kept her safe, but the police came by and said, “There’s a serial killer out and you need to lock your doors and be very careful tonight.  You’re sure you don’t want us to stay with you?”  And she said, “No, no I have my dog.  He’s big, he would scare off anybody.  She says, “Watch this.  Everytime I call the dog, he comes and licks my hand and I know I’m safe.”  So she calls Fido, the dog’s name, and the dog comes and licks her hand right in front of the police officer.  “I really feel safe with him, I think I’m gonna be fine.”  So she says goodnight and you know, throughout the night she calls Fido and he comes and licks her hand and she goes to sleep… and Fido licks her hand.  And all through the night, she wakes up and Fido licks her hand.  She calls for her dog and Fido licks her hand.  And then, so the next day, the police officer comes by to check on her and he knocks and knocks on the door, no answer, no answer.  What is it?  You know, no answer, and nobody’s seen her or anything.  They go into the house, they break in and the woman is….. completely  dead.  You know she’s all dead, like cut up, slashed.  And the dog is slashed too, like the dog is hanging.. um from a lightbulb thing, like from a string or something is the way I remember it was told to me.  And in blood written on the wall, it said, “People can lick too.”

 

JK: Oh my gosh.

 

SC: Isn’t that awful!?!?  I learned that one when I was young and the reason why it was so scary for us is that we had a blind school nearby.  It hit close to home.  My friend Mitzy Freemyer, we would always have slumber parties at her house and she lived like just a block from the blind school, so it just felt more real to us.

 

 

Conclusion:

 

I heard this story from my Aunt Susan.  I liked how it’s dark and gruesome story, but it ends with a comedic twist– I was expecting something more clever, not something I would laugh at.  Similar to the Ant Face Girl story, this tale really freaked out my Aunt because she could relate to it: she grew up close to the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA.  It’s interesting to see how small kids can scare themselves by finding any little connection to a story they’ve heard.  

The Ant Face Girl

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Occupation: interior decorator
Residence: Chatham, MA
Performance Date: 3/11/17
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s comments are denoted through initials JK, while the interviewee’s responses are denoted through initials MB.

 

 

MB:  This one scared me, oh my gosh.  Part of what scared me is what my grandmother said after.  You can add that to the folklore I guess.  So Ann, it was so funny, said “I don’t know if I want to tell you his story because it’s so scary, it’s been bothering me”.  And I said “Cmon cmon just tell me.”  This is when we were kids keep in mind.  And she says “Ok fine.  It’s this story about girlfriend and boyfriend and the girlfriend goes to the beach and she falls asleep there.  And when she woke up there were ants all over her face, all over her face.  Like red ants, stingy red ants all over her face.  So her face ballooned up, she got them all off.  And her face ballooned up, I mean have you ever been stung by a red ant?

 

JK:  Yea I think I have.

 

MB:  They can sting you and she got stung all over the place.  So she goes to the hospital and they bandage up her face.

 

JK:  Did this take place anywhere specifically?

 

MB:  My sister told me Galveston, Texas, right on the water.  So they bandage up her face and they’re like, “Whatever you do, DON’T itch.  DO NOT ITCH YOUR FACE.”  But when you’re healing like that, oh my gosh, it’s just indescribable, just irresistible to itch.  I mean it’s just like ahhh, all you can do.  But they had her face bandaged up, they even tied her hands, they’re like “DON’T ITCH YOU FACE.”  They tied her hands.  And um, but she had a boyfriend and she begged her boyfriend, going nuts, just going nuts that she’s not able to get at her skin and it itched so badly, because it was healing we think right?  But she convinces her boyfriend to undo her bandages and undo her hands and she started itching her face….. and ants…. crawled out.  And they had made all these tunnels and everything in her face….. like an ant farm.  Isn’t that awful!?!?”

 

JK:  Wow yea, that is nasty.

 

MB: Ohhh yea, it always bothered me.  So Ann told me cause she was so disturbed by it and then once she told me she felt better about it, and I was so disturbed by it then– I was like carrying it.  So I told my grandmother– Granny, who i called Granny– and um, the funny thing, what does my Granny say but, “Well, I suppose that could happen.”  Haha.  Which totally freaked me out.  There were so many red ants in Arkansas and you would get stung and it would itch, it would really itch a lot.  It hurt.  And the recovery itched.  But the itching she was feeling was the ants crawling around in her skin.  My imagination would think there are all these channels and tunnels in her skin.”

 

Conclusion:

This story comes from my mother’s childhood friend, Mary.  She was originally told it by her older sister.  It was crazy to hear her tell the story in person and watch her face contort when she talks about the ants crawling out of the girl’s face.  It’s been almost 50 years since she first heard this, and it still fully geeks her out.  This story has the one aspect found in any great horror story: it is believable.  What’s more, Mary could relate to it because she grew up around red ants.  The cherry on top is her grandmother telling her, “Well, I suppose that could happen.”– Just the worst thing to tell a scared little kid who is looking for some kind of comfort/adult wisdom.

 

Mothman

Nationality: Italian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 30, 2014
Primary Language: Italian
Language: English

Mothman is a large creature that’s a cross between a man and a giant moth, and he supposedly lives somewhere on the East Coast. He has glowing red eyes and likes to fly at people’s car windshields when they’re driving. People claim that he was the cause of a collapsed bridge. Some news reports attribute Mothman sightings to large flying birds, however.

Informant is not American but knows a lot about contemporary American culture. He frequents Reddit, a “social network” very concerned with current events and urban legends. Mothman is an interesting piece of folklore because many have claimed to have seen it, like sightings of UFOs or Nessie, and the legends surrounding this creature are abound.