Tag Archives: blackout

Tombstone Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Waitress
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“So me and my friend right. We took this trip to Tombstone and we did one of those ghost tours in I think it was a funeral home I’m pretty sure. It used to be an old funeral home in Tombstone. And she busted out this um what do they call it? A spirit box where they are just really loud. She had me and my friend stand up facing away from the audience, and there were these purple lights on us too, so you could kind of see if there was any shadows or movement or whatever from the ghost. And um apparently like people had told me afterwards that they had seen the ghost moving my hair cuz it was down and really long at the time. Anyways, with the spirit box, it just saying a lot of random stuff and all of a sudden all you could hear was it really clearly say BITCH! And then my friend just falls to the ground and grabs me and everybody fell.”

Context: The informant was about 14/15 and went on a birthday trip with her friend to Tombstone on Labor Day weekend. Tombstone is a well-known western town in Arizona, known for their ghost tours and mock shootouts. The ghost tour was in the basement of one of the stores which had been somewhat preserved from the time it was a funeral home. The host used a spirit box on her laptop, grid lights, and a barrel of offering which she had audience members stand in front of to invite spirits to touch them. The friend who collapsed claimed that she didn’t know what happened, similar to a short blackout, and she avoided any supernatural experiences for a long time afterward. The host ended the ghost tour after this incident.

Analysis: Although this ghost experience was somewhat institutionalized, the suggestibility of the experience and the host lead the informant into having a true ghost experience. Ghost boxes are devices that skip through radio channels, and the ghosts are supposed to highlight words in response to questions people asked. Initially, the experience had been fun for the informant, being told her hair was being moved by the ghost. This validated and strengthened the belief in the phenomenon in the moment. However, the experience took a turn when the ghost insulted them and her friend collapsed, suggesting that the ghost had pulled her down. With the ghost tour occurring in a wild west funeral home with many violent deaths, the host herself acknowledged the danger by concluding the tour after this hostile incident. Ghosts have been suggested to be especially tied to property and being hostile towards unwanted visitors, which could be a factor for the incident. 

Venezuelan Power Outage Meme

Nationality: Venezuelan
Age: 50
Occupation: Executive Director of an Educational Organization
Residence: Lincoln, MA
Performance Date: April 18, 2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Context: This meme was sent to me after we discussed the usage of Whatsapp in by Venezuelans to spread jokes, especially concerning the current Venezuelan humanitarian crisis and recent power outage that swept the nation in March 2019.

Piece:

venezuela meme

Exact Translation: What is the sensation of living in Venezuela? Something like this but without light.

Holistic Translation: What does it feel like to live in Venezuela? Something like this but without power.

Background: The informant is a middle aged Venezuelan woman who lives in Boston. She sent this meme via Whatsapp to me as a part of a meme chain. She initially received it from a family member who also sent it through Whatsapp.

Analysis:This meme is part of the new wave of folklore being spread through the Internet. In particular, Whatsapp, a communication app, has become a way for people to communicate globally without the restriction of being in different nations. Whatsapp usage is widely used by Venezuelans, and in recent years has become the mode of communication for families who have migrated due to the dictatorial regime. Whatsapp is not only used for regular communication, but also to share jokes and memes among the Venezuelan community. The informant stated that they receive new jokes or memes daily from family members and continue the pattern by sharing to more contacts.

This meme in particular is a great example of a Disaster Joke. This form of joke is used as a coping mechanism surrounding a traumatic disaster or situation in order to release stress or tension. This joke insinuates that living in Venezuela– which is currently dealing with massive food shortages, high crime rates, lack of medicine and massive power outages– is like being stuck on the edge of a cliff, which is bad enough, and then not having any power. This meme is humorous because of its extreme imagery relating to the already horrifying situation and then the addition of the power outage on top of the bad crisis, showing a form of ironic humor. It is remarkable that a community undergoing such horrific circumstances has the ability to deal with it in such a lighthearted way, most likely because it is the only true way to cope.