Tag Archives: children

Wishing in Tunnels

Children in America often believe that tunnels that cars go through can grant wishes. The practice and ritual differs among children but many can agree that tunnels can be magical.

“All the ways you can make a wish in a tunnel according to all the kids I was friends with at summer camps:

  • Hold your breath the whole tunnel, if you don’t make it your wish won’t come true
  • Close your eyes the whole tunnel, if you don’t the wish won’t come true
  • Touch the ceiling of the vehicle the whole tunnel, if you don’t the wish won’t come true
  • Lick your finger and if it’s still wet when the tunnel ends then your wish will come true and if it’s dry it won’t

*and obviously you cannot tell anyone you what you wished for cause if you do it won’t not come true*

My personal take away and practice: When I am a passenger I close my eyes and hold my breath, and when I’m driving I just hold my breath.“

The informant described this wish magic to me during a discussion of childhood folklore. We originally were talking about wishes in general and their prevalence in childhood. I asked them to write down what they remembered about wishing in car tunnels. This stuck out to me because they noted how they still do this little ritual whenever they encounter a tunnel on the road.

La Llorona

  1. Details
    1. Collected on 03/23/2024 
    2. Genre: Legend
    3. Language: English 
    4. Nationality: Mexican
    5. Relationship to Informant: Friend’s Father 
  2. Text
    1. Summary
      1. The informant’s mother told him a version of the La Llorona legend where there was a woman who lived her life in torment after her children fell into the river and died. 
    2. Direct transcription of folklore:
      1. “You are going into my memory banks here, but my mother used to tell us about this woman who was very afflicted because her children had drowned in the river. And you could hear her wailing ‘ah mis hijos’ – oh, my children. So, it was almost a tale my mom would tell us so not to do dangerous things because she would be forever depressed. It wasn’t so much that this was an evil person that did something bad because I think La Llorona – the original one – drowned her children. In the version my mom would tell us, the children fell into the river and drowned. So, she would wail forever for her children.”
  3. Context 
      1. The informant is the father of my friend. He grew up in a small town in Mexico. This story was told to the informant by his mother when he was a child. 
  4. Analysis 
      1. This oikotype of the La Llorona legend portrays the woman as a grieving mother who lost her children. This legend was told by a mother to her children to prevent them from risking their lives by doing dangerous things. This legend tells the children that if they aren’t careful, they can cause their mother to mourn for the rest of her life. 

“The Water Fountain Ghost”

Genre: Folk Narrative – Ghost Story

Text:

“At the summer camp I went to as a child, we were told a ghost story about a woman who roamed the grounds at night. The director of the camp sat down all the campers on the evening of the first day and told us that long ago, back in the earliest days of the camp, there was a camper who decided to leave their cabin in the middle of the night to explore. They decided to go to the water fountain by the pool, but because it was so dark outside, the camper couldn’t see where they were going and they tripped and fell into the water and drowned. The ghost of this camper, now a grown woman, is seen haunting the camp grounds at night, particularly in the area near the old water fountain. If she sees any campers wandering around outside where they are not allowed after dark, she will drag them into the pool so they can join her as a ghost.”

Context:

“I first heard this story when I was six or seven years old, and I was terrified! I totally believed it, and every night, I would look out my cabin window and look for the ghost lady. It took a few years for me to stop believing it, and it was really only when I had to go to the nurse’s office during the night and I was too scared to go because of the ghost, and the counselor told me that it wasn’t a true story and just something they told to scare the campers into staying inside the cabins. Later on, when the directors of the camp changed, they stopped telling the story which made me kind of sad, because I felt like it was part of the camp lore and kind of another rite of passage in growing up there as a camper.”

Analysis:

I agree with the informant’s realization that the story was something made up in order to scare the campers into staying inside their cabins during the night. In such a rural location, it would be likely that campers leaving their cabins during the night would get them hurt, either by their own actions or by a wild animal. It also discourages campers from engaging in misbehavior that wouldn’t be appropriate in a children’s camp setting, like meeting up with other campers during the night. I think, as the informant experienced, that this is probably a fairly successful method for the younger campers who believe the story, as scaring them into obedience probably has a higher success rate than telling them a seemingly arbitrary rule.

This ghost story reminded me of the story of La Llorona, who is a character from Mexican folklore who also takes the form of a wandering woman. La Llorona is found near bodies of water (just as this ghost is found near the water fountain/pool area) and is said to drown unfaithful men (while this ghost drowns disobedient children).

Hobo’s Castle

Text: 

In the suburbs of Chicago, there is a long-deserted building by a railroad that stands about ten stories tall. It has holes, its windows are broken, and its doors remain open. This building is called Hobo’s castle. There are hobos that live inside, and if you go in there and get caught by them, they’ll eat you!

Context: 

It’s probably called Hobo’s castle because its size makes it look like a castle from the outside and hobos would stay there in between hitching rides on trains back when it was first abandoned. There have been hobos living there since then. Parents would tell their children not to go there. So, obviously, the kids would all bike there and explore. Only the first floor was accessible, but the kids would explore it, all while poking each other to scare their friends and daring them to do things. The people living there would chase them out sometimes, which is likely what spurred the children to begin telling each other that if they got caught, they would be eaten. 

Analysis: 

A recently popularized phrase found online is “fuck around and find out”, which is to engage in an action that is usually risky, and usually results in an unpleasant consequence. The desire to fuck around and find out is unquenchable in children, and this legend came about because of this. Children always want to feel more like full humans when they can, as in many areas of life they are limited by rules even when they feel that they have the physical and mental capabilities to be on par with everyone else, even if this feeling is erroneous. Thus, when there is no one around holding them to rules, they like to break the rules that they don’t think are necessary. They also embellish stories of their lives to make them seem more interesting and with higher risks, like how they view those of adults. Thus, the hobos in the castle will eat them if they are caught, not merely tell them off.

Saying Told to Children

“If Ifs and buts were candy and nuts oh what a Christmas we’d have!”

The informant says she heard the saying from her parents when she grew up in the 70’s-80’s. The informant grew up in Virginia outside of Washington D.C. It was primarily said to her and her siblings when she was in elementary school after she did something wrong and tried to make an excuse or justify it. It was a common saying according to her that was regularly said by teachers and other parents too

“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, oh what a Christmas we’d have!” is a quaint retort to a child’s excuse-making but it can tell us a lot about the goals and culture of parents in America at this time. It is a blend of personal accountability, practical wisdom, and the use of humor in teaching, that parents use while trying to instill important values in their children. This saying is meant to teach kids not to be someone who makes excuses and to instead just act the right way. It is said in a fun and memorable way that a kid would remember. This highlights the American spirit of “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” or not making excuses and just working hard to be successful. This way of thinking was especially prevalent during the 70’s-80’s and this children’s saying highlights that parents goals at the time were to make sure their kids also thought this way too.