Tag Archives: children

The Ghost in the Mirror

Age: 19

I interviewed my informant, KD, on a story she heard from friend at a sleepover. In the interview below, she shared the story and her personal thoughts on the matter. Q refers to me, the interviewer, and A refers to KD, our interviewee/informant. The Q&A is a direct transcript, which is why some of the sentence structure is very casual. Below is my personal reflection on the ghost story.

Q: Could you first start by clarifying the source of your ghost story? Like where you got it from?

A: I got this story from my friend in middle school.

Q: Was it told just one on one, or a group setting, or, do you remember the context?

A: I remember we were at her house sleeping over, and she wanted to freak us out, so she told us the story. It was like me, her and a group of maybe four other girls.

Q: Okay, cool. That’s interesting because HP had a similar, sleepover situation, since hers was at summer camp. All right, you could just start by telling the story then, please.

A: Okay, so she’s telling us that she goes to this cabin in the mountains every year, and she went with one of her friends, and she went up. Her parents brought her up, but her parents weren’t there when this was happening. They were out at dinner and drinks or something, and they left her and her friend at the house. So they [the girl and her friend] were taking pictures with a flash camera, and when they were looking back through the pictures, there was a mirror behind them, and in this mirror there was a face of a man, [but] there was no man in the house, or allegedly, no man in the house. It was just these two girls, their parents were gone, so they were looking at these pictures, and there was a face in the mirror. So then they started taking pictures somewhere else. And every time they took a picture somewhere with a mirror there was, like, a face. And they checked the mirrors. They checked everything after and they couldn’t see anything. And then later, when I asked her, because I was curious, I was like, “Wait, do you still have these pictures?” She goes, “No. A week later, the SD card was wiped,” and she doesn’t know how

Q: Okay, so obviously, this is something you said happened to your friend, right? So this isn’t like, tied to any folklore or anything like that, but it was told through a peer group. Did you believe it when your friend told you the story? Like, did you get chills? Did you/do you believe in what she was saying, or did she believe in it being a ghost?

A: She acted like she really did believe in it, but I don’t really believe in it, just because I’m not that kind of person. I think she is just making the story to freak us out. But knowing her, she wasn’t really someone who, like, just made stuff up like that, right? And she’s not like a pathological liar. 

Q: Like, do you think there was anything in that story that I guess is a motif that would guide you to believe it’s a ghost, or that kind of thing?

A: Probably just like the face. Like, that’s like, kind of something you see in movies a lot, you see something in the mirror you can’t really in real life.

Q: And do you believe in ghosts ever, in general, is your disbelief applied to every situation? Or is it just like this situation with your friend? 

A: I feel like everything that happens there has to be a logical explanation for it. I don’t really believe in ghosts, but there are some things that I’ve heard of, like stories like, you know, “The Conjuring” or whatever. Like those stories, those real stories that have been made into movies. I find it hard to find the logical reasoning behind it. But personally, in my daily life, or like in this story too, I just find it hard to believe.

Q: If it had happened to you, do you think you would believe?

A: If it had happened to me, and the whole wiping of the SD card thing just would also be confusing. So maybe if something like that did happen to me, I’d believe it right. 

Q: Do you think there’s any chance she just imagined the face there, or, dreamed it all, or something. Do you think there’s, do you think there’s any chance she imagined the face there, or something?

A: There’s a chance, like, we were 12 years old, so, like, maybe just some sort of reflection on the mirror, or some weird camera setting.

Q: In ghost stories we talk a lot about children and ghosts and ghosts appearing to children, because it’s the whole idea of, your life being cut short before, you’ve reached your prime, or before important things happen to you. Do you think there’s any tie between the child seeing it and the parents not being there, versus how she would have reacted if she were older. 

A: Yeah, I feel like, well, like that whole trope of like, ghosts appearing to children was, kind of logical, because children are not mature yet, so they kind of, they won’t really look for like, the logical reasoning behind it. They might just believe it, or like, also, children might be taken advantage of, because if they talk about it, people will be like, oh, like, they’re used to managing it, because children tend to make up their stories. So I feel like that’s why, like, in a lot of literary texts with ghosts and stuff, they never really target the adults, because the adults just wouldn’t believe it. They find a logical explanation. So I feel like it could be possible to get ghost stories by targeting children, mainly because no one will take them seriously.

Personal Reflection: Much like our interviewee, KD, I just find it hard to believe in ghost stories in general, and thinking back to the days when I was little, this sort of feels like one of those small things that I would find and hyperbolize into a huge spooky story for fun. However, I do find this story more easy to believe than the police chief camp story because it aligns a lot more with classic ghost stories. The whole apparition in the mirror and the fact that it was a ghost appearing only to a child really aligns with a lot of traditional ghost stories, so this one is a bit less surprising to me.

Paper ring chains

Text: Pieces of paper cut into long strips – those strips are taped or stapled into interlocking rings, creating a chain. The chain holds as many links as there are days until an event–a holiday, the end of school, etc–and every day, a ring is removed every day until the event occurs and the chain is gone.

Context: AB recalls making these chains with her friends in elementary school as a countdown to Christmas. They would use colored construction paper and hang them up in her friends’ houses as a fun activity to commemorate the season.

Analysis: This is a simple and fun activity to commemorate an upcoming holiday or event. It works well for children, as all that is recquired is cutting paper and either taping or stapling it together–it does not need much supervision or materials, but works well as a festive activity. AB mentions learning this at her friends’ houses, but this is also an easy enough craft to do in school, allowing for lots of decoration and chances for children to express their creativity.

The Legend of Hooper’s Hollow

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: Dance Studio Owner
Residence: Downers Grove, IL
Language: English

Legend:

“There’s a beautiful park in between where my neighborhood was and the school that I went to, so, a lot of kids would like to cut through the park. Well, in 1979, there was a boy coming home from hanging out with friends one night, and he was a nice kid, 15 years old, a happy kid, and nobody to this day knows what happened, but he was murdered by being hung from that bridge over the creek [in the park]. So, he wasn’t found for almost a day, and when he was found, he had a huge, angry look on his face, but obviously, he was dead. So, the legend goes that this boy was so happy [in general] and so upset about being murdered that his spirit stayed in the area and haunted any kids that tried to play in that creek or go over that bridge. So, once in awhile we would go there at night to see if we could feel his spirit or see his ghost; we never did, but we wouldn’t actually go over the bridge because we were too frightened.

Just adding on, I did have friends that used to claim that they would hear his voice or see, like, a hologram of him from time to time, especially at night. But, I’m sure they were making it up. ‘Cause anytime we went–which I only went a couple times [because] I was too scared–I never saw any kind of ghost, or spirit, or hologram of his presence. But people used to claim that they would see him or hear his voice yelling or crying from the bridge.”

Context:

My informant told me that the boy was murdered when she was around 12 years old and it had been an anomaly in her town; children being murdered was not common. She told me that that’s the reason why this legend is so popular; the parents only talked about the boy’s murder, but the children talked about his spirit haunting the creek. Many of the children believed it and steered clear of the bridge. When asked if any adults knew about the legend, my informant said that the only reason her mother found out about the legend was through her and her younger brother.

Analysis:

What I find so interesting about ghost stories/legends is what the circumstances are that causes the ghost/spirit to haunt the specific location it is haunting. In the article we read in class about Estonian legends of ghosts, it was believed that ghosts/spirits haunted ancestral homes as a way of keeping the property in the family while the Soviet Union was trying to force Communism onto Estonians. In this legend, it is believed the boy’s spirit/ghost haunts the bridge and the creek where he was murdered as a way to keep children away from the area. It seems that his ghost is keeping the children of the town away from the creek and bridge as a way of preventing another child from meeting his same fate of being murdered. There is also the element that only children/younger people know and share this legend and not the adults. This acts as a way of frightening other children.

Slender Man

Nationality: Korean- American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Language: English

Text: I watched a youtube video in the fourth grade, with some of my friends, that described the lore behind Slender Man. I didn’t really believe in his existence, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of the possibility of him being real. I used to live in a densely forested area, and walking back from my friend’s home at night, during the peak of the distribution of Slender Man information, I would always run to avoid any possible encounters with this entity. Its not even that I saw him, or a figure resembling it at all, I was just worried at the possibility. When the trend of talking about slender man died down, though, I found myself not being fearful.

Context: Informant first became exposed to the idea of Slender Man in the fourth grade. They describe that it was a sort of “trend” to be knowledgable or discuss the figure at school and amongst friends. The informant believes that The Slender Man’s ability to scare the younger populations is what lead to its prevalence in the community. Informant believes that The Slender Man legend had the ability to create unity within younger populations through a collective fear.

Analysis: I find the contemporary legend of Slender Man to be very critical to understanding the interaction between folklore and the internet. It is undeniable that the propagation of his lore was attributed to social media, and many agree that his origin point was the web. Though he originated on a digital platform, he quickly took on the qualities of traditional folklore. He began to spread by means of oral tradition, and his stable presence proves that, even with technology, folklore continues to prosper.

Black Eyed Children

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

Story:

“I believe they’re called the black eyed children. Its a set of two or three kids or however many. One of them will walk up to you and they’ll as you for like food or to play with them. If you oblige, they’ll be happy, but the second day another set will show up and be really mean to you, super nasty. If you don’t be nice to them still, they’ll mess with you and be angry and stuff” 

Context: The informant heard this legend from high school friends around the age 15-16. He assumed this was a Native American legend because he heard it from his Native friends while travelling to the reservation in New Mexico.

Analysis: The black eyed children are a common urban legend in America. They signify an innocence that has been twisted for evil intentions. They are often described to be children or teenagers with black eyes and an older sounding voice. For my informant, this legend seems to be a warning against the children. A little different from the most popular legend, this one suggests for the informant to always be nice to the black eyed children. The general fear of the children comes from not knowing their intentions. 

In regards to the origins of this legend, the story of the black eyed children stems from an account of them written by a journalist in 1996. As this post spread, more and more stories popped up, claiming to have encountered the children. Because the informant heard this story from his Native American friends on the way to the reservation in New Mexico, he assumed it to be their local folklore. His friends were likely sharing spooky stories on the drive for entertainment purposes, and this story was big at the time since Creepypasta was still very popular. This story had also been big on Creepypasta since that’s where I heard this legend from myself. Notably, Irish changelings and Native American groups around California’s Lake Tahoe and Nevada’s Pyramid Lake with legends of evil water baby spirits are the most similar examples of traditional folklore to the contemporary legend of the black eyed children. All of these legends stay consistent with taking advantage of people’s desire to care for or help someone smaller or younger than themselves, regardless of their intentions.