Tag Archives: camp

Pig Bear Legend and Ritual

Nationality: Sri Lankan
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: La Canada Flintridge, CA
Performance Date: 3/14/12
Primary Language: English

The informant is 21 years old. She’s Sri Lankan and now attends the University of San Francisco. She entered seventh grade at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada in 2003 and graduated in 2009. During seventh grade, she (along with the rest of the class) was divided into groups to be mentored by a senior Peer Counselor throughout the year. These Peer Counselors accompanied the informant’s class on the annual class trip to Big Bear at the start of the year.

The informant was home for spring break this week and I took the advantage of interviewing her for this folklore collection project. She came to my house and I asked her to briefly describe the legend of the “Pig Bear” that is well known to every student at Flintridge Prep and has been passed from senior class to seventh graders for years. This is what she told me:

Informant: At night, they (the Peer Counselors) told us that we had to stay in our cabins at night because of the uh legend of the Pig Bear. It was a monster half pig half bear or maybe even just a monster I’m not sure…that came out to eat children or the children would never be seen again…So there were some of us that didn’t believe in the Pig Bear and were joking about it and once we were getting into bed there were these huge BANG BANG BANGs on all the doors and screaming in the distance…so we all ran out to see what happened. We thought it was the Pig Bears, come to get us, but it turns out that the seniors went around doing it, banging on doors and throwing things. But we were ok…ended up laughing about it after, but it was scary at first.

Me: Why do you remember this?

Informant: Because it was part of the tradition of the seventh grade trip and you don’t…it’s something that you remember when someone asks about the trip because it’s been passed down through the grades…I’ve even mentioned it to random college friends.

Me: Why do like it?

Informant: It makes the trip more exciting, more than just a school trip…it’s got a little bit of the scary story feel. The Pig Bear feel made it extra fun.

Me: Why do you think they do this every year?

Informant: It’s a rite of passage kinda…because for the seventh graders it’s a chance to bond over something funny and spooky and for the seniors, they already went through it so they can make it come alive for the baby classes.

As the informant says, the importance of the legend appears to lie in the fact that it’s closely associated with the rite of passage of officially becoming a seventh grader at Flintridge Prep. The legend binds the class together as they experience terror upon it’s supposed re-enactment, and then relief that it ends up being just a trick. Because the Pig Bear legend re-enactment takes place at the beginning of the year, it also serves as a way to initiate the new seventh graders into life at Prep. The seniors pass on this piece of school folklore and eventually, the seventh graders will grow up and have their chance to pass it on, too.

Camp Hayward song

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Massachusetts
Performance Date: March 13, 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant sung me a song that she said is often sung at the sleep-away camp she attends in the summer called Camp Hayward:

“Camp Hayward born and

Camp Hayward bread and

when I die I’ll be (pause) (clap)

Camp Hayward dead!

So, rah-rah, Camp Hayward, Hayward

Rah-Rah Camp Hayward, Hayward

We love Hayward, we love you!”

My informant said that she and the other campers were taught this song from the leader of the camp at their first camp-fire session. After that, the campers would sing it before every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a happy song that gets everyone into the spirit of being at Camp Hayward. To this day it still reminds her of her experiences there. She told me that her younger sister, who also attended the camp, will often subconsciously hum the tune before they eat with their family.

I went to a similar camp when I was younger. We had songs that we sung before eating, but we called them “dinner songs.” They were similar in purpose, and often included the name of the camp in the lyrics. It was meant to keep us happy and our spirits up. Now, my friends and I will often sing the songs together as a way of connecting and remembering the time we spent there together.

Camp Stories

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Edgewater, Maryland
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

My informant told me about some of the camp stories that she used to hear at her summer camp, Camp Letts, in Edgewater, Maryland, which as my informant describes, is an offshoot of the Chesapeake Bay.

She said that the counselors were the ones who typically told these stories to the campers, and that there aws no particular time that they always told the stories. It was sometimes around a campfire, or sometimes just in the cabins or during mealtime.

There were two stories in particular that were mainly used as a means to scare campers away from wandering in the woods or near the pool late at night, thought this intention never occurred to my informant until she was older.

The first story was the girl with the red scarf. My informant doesn’t remember why she had a red scarf, but it was significant to the story. The story is that there were two counselors who were in love and they decide that in the middle of the night that they were going to go into the middle of the woods and meet up at this spot. The boy goes into the woods and he waits and waits for this girl but she never shows up. It’s really dark and the guy doesn’t have anything with him to light the way. He starts walking when suddenly he runs into a body, which turns out to the body of the girl, hanging from a tree by strangled by her red scarf. Her death was blamed on a strangling ghost, meant to scare the children at the camp.

The second story scared children away from the pool. There was a camp manager having a secret relationship with a counselor, and they would often meet at a certain spot that would later become a spot for the camp pool. One night, there was an accident and the girl counselor slipped and fell and died. The camp manager, afraid of getting caught in the relationship and blamed for her death, buried her under the spot where the pool was built and the campers were told that if you went to the pool at night, her ghost would try and grab you. They also warned campers of swimming to the bottom of the pool because of her ghost, to keep beginner swimmers from pushing themselves too far.

Contemporary Legend – Hoofbeat Ridge Camp, Mazomanie, Wisconsin

Residence: Mazomanie, WI
Performance Date: 2003

When I was younger I would go to a sleep-away camp called, Hoofbeat Ridge.  The camp was about horses; we rode them, cared for them, and learned about them.  However, within the first day of arriving at camp I learned of Goliath.

On the first day of camp, the counselors and the owners took all the kids up to the barn, which was high on a hill.  They sat us down on the dusty benches.  Behind them were tons of horse bits.  Horse bits are the medal contraptions that are connected to the horse’s bridle in order to control them.  At first, they started by explaining the different types of bits; “this is a Snaffle, this is a D-ring”.  Then they pulled out the largest bit I have ever seen.  It was easily three times the size of all the other bits.  All of us children gasped in surprise.  Even the people who were familiar with horses had never seen anything like it.  Then they told us the story.

“Years ago when the camp first started, there was this young adventurous girl.  She was not scared of anything.  One day she was taking out Goliath to ride him in the fields.  She saddled him up, and put on his huge bridle.  The girl mounted him and rode off into the forests and meadows. Something excited Goliath in the forest.  He bucked the girl of and started running as fast as he could.  The poor girl returned to camp later that day without her horse.  She was all scratched up and crying.  She explained to the owner what had happed.  Then all the counselors got on their horses and began to look for Goliath.  He was no where to be found.  All they found were his bridle under some bushes.  To this day Goliath, the enormous horse, has never been found.  However, it is said that he still roams the forests on the outskirts of the camp.  Many people have claimed to have seen this giant creature in the distance, still wearing his saddle.”

I heard this story was I was in camp and so did my sister many years later when she went to the same camp.  I had forgotten parts of the myth because it has been so many years, but my younger sister did not fail to remember anything. She gave me all the details.  Obviously this story was meant to leave an impression on all the campers.

This myth was probably invented by the owners of the camp to prevent the children from going into the forests that surrounded the camp.  It was very easy to get lost in those forests and extremely dangerous to ride horses in them.   The forests where full of fallen trees, and poison ivy.  Therefore, this story was probably created to scare the children, and from experience it definitely worked!

Song

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2003

When I was in camp many years ago, all of the girls would sing “Miss Suzy had a steamboat”, and do the hand motions along with it.  However, this clapping gave was not just done at camps, it was everywhere.  Girls would do it while standing in line, or in the car on the way to school.

Miss Suzy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell (ding ding)
Miss Suzy went to heaven, the steamboat went to
Hello operator, please give me number nine
If you disconnect me, I’ll cut off your
Behind the ‘frigerator, there was a piece of glass
Miss Suzy fell upon it and it cut her in the
Ask me no more questions and tell me no more lies
The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their
Flies are in the meadow, bees are in the park
Miss Suzy and her boyfriend were kissing in the
D. A. R. K. D. A. R. K. Dark. Dark
Darker than the ocean,
Darker than the sea,
Darker than the underwear
My mommy puts on me!
I know you know my mommy,
I know you know my pa,
I know you know my sister
With the 42 inch bra!

Upon first hearing the song and watching the young girls play the game; the song does not seem bad at all.  However, when you listen closer, there are many “bad” words that young girls should not be using.  However, the girls are not actually using the bad words because the words are cleverly disguised in the phrasing of the song.  For instance, in “the steamboat went to Hello operator”, the word hell is disguised.  However, the word hell is the obvious word that was meant to be placed there.  Other phrases about boys zipping up their flies, or 42inch bras, are all taboo for these young children.  The children are not allowed to use these words in their everyday speech so they have found a clever release through the song.

Freud would say that this song is representative of the young children’s repressed sexuality.  Their sexuality is not allowed to show through in everyday society, but this song allows them a safe outlet to express and experiment with it. Another interesting point is that girls are the main singers of this song.  This could be for many reasons.  First, in our society boys are not “suppose” to sing.  Singing is a female gendered activity according to the gender roles of today’s society.  Also Boys are often allowed to be “bad”, it is expected of them to break the rules and go against the grain.  However, girls are supposed to be refined and appropriate at all times.  This song allows the girls to release their developing sexual energy without being inappropriate.