Tag Archives: legend

Story of My Father’s Escape from Communist China

Context: “My grandfather and Nai-Nai were in Chiang Kai-shek’s army when the Communists won. [Their escape from the country] was like the Underground Railroad: they could only move between safehouses at night. My dad [at the time] was only 1 year old and had to be quiet so he didn’t jeopardize their lives. One day, [the family] heard that the Communists had found their safehouse and were on their way. They had to just grab whatever they could find and run, but Nai-Nai couldn’t find [my father] and they just left. 3 long days later they met up at a new safehouse where they learned that one of the grandfather’s friends had grabbed and taken care of my father in the scuffle. He is now called “Uncle” because he saved my dad’s life.”

Analysis: This legend is a textbook example of a family legend. Despite there being no concrete proof of it happening, the story is treated as truth by the informant and her family and has been passed down for multiple generations. While the main claim of the story, that being the losing of the informant’s father for 3 whole days, may or may not be true, the story has persisted in the informant’s family because it represents the chaos and pain of the escape from China to Taiwan. The Chinese Civil War’s conclusion in 1949 was an upending of the social order. Following their victory, the CCP ruthlessly hunted down any remnants of the old China, both landowners and soldiers alike. In this mad dash to escape certain death, the informant’s family was thrust into a period of chaos and danger where all they had was each other and the clothes on their backs. While they were able to safely escape into Taiwan, they remember both their struggles and the strength of their community through this story. While the disappearance of the informant’s father in the chaos was a serious crisis, it was resolved by the strength of their family and solidarity.

Roseville Castle

Context: “There’s this house that’s known as the Roseville Castle. People say it’s haunted. Some very eccentric guy bought it and it’s like super creepy on the inside. It’s called the I-80 castle. I’ve never been inside but it [apparently] looks super medieval on the inside and it’s super creepy. It’s a weird mix of 70’s aesthetic and medieval. People are just put off by it. [I’ve heard that] there’s a hot tub in the bedroom that got filled in with concrete and is now a stripper pole.”

He also mentioned that he’s seen many references to the castle on social media platforms like TIkTok. The stories all vary but they appear somewhat frequently on his timeline. 

Analysis: After doing some more research on this local legend, it is even stranger than he described. A local radio station did a piece on it where they detailed the property and did an expose on the owners. The aforementioned “very eccentric guy” was an air force pilot and beauty school tycoon who fell in love with the idea of living in a castle when stationed in the UK. So, he built his own “poor man’s” version of a castle off the I-80 highway with his own hands. Now, after his wife left him, the castle has fallen into disrepair. Despite sources like this detailing the history of the castle, it still remains shrouded in mystery. The article makes many references to a myriad of rumors; some claim that the castle was built by the Shah of Iran and others say it is a maze littered with hidden rooms and passages. While these rumors are categorized as purely fiction, there is still a common sense of confusion and mystery surrounding it

This castle and the surrounding rumors represent a variation on the idea of a local legend. Much like a haunted house, the dubious origins of the castle and its out-of-place aesthetic makes it stick out in the public consciousness. Furthermore, the “eccentric billionaire” character has always captured the imagination. The whole archetype is a representation of what people would choose to do with almost unlimited resources. It is a fantasy not many get to live out, making their antics all the more alien to the rest of the population. In this case, the idea that a man with a ton of money would just build a castle because he liked one in England doesn’t fully satisfy the imagination. Thus, like a sort of memorate to explain his oddities, people draw upon the past and make up stories about mysterious passages and foreign princes to explain how something so out of the ordinary can exist in a small suburban town. 

Neighborhood Vigilante

Nationality: American, Italian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

NM has long heard stories of his father’s escapades as a so-called “vigilante” while in high school. The excerpt below is comprised of one of the NM’s favorite stories from his father’s (apparently many) stories of ethically dubious neighborhood watch. The following is paraphrased for clarity, while trying to maintain the story structure.

Father was a “neighborhood vigilante” back in his high school days. He would see a hooligan carjacking a car for example and would proceed to chase them around (noted he carried around a baseball bat specifically for this purpose) and beat the shit out of them…one time in high school he chased a guy (keep in mind, a fully grown man) carjacking and kneecapped him (almost breaks leg). The guy gets back up (miraculously) and keeps running with the dad still chasing…man runs into street and while looking back in fear of father, runs dead into the bed of a truck going down the street (STILL MOVING) and clocks himself (knocked out cold)… fast forward, police get called, guy is (mostly) fine besides a pretty shattered knee. The father when questioned what happened to the man’s knee says “must have been the truck.”

This story, while an intense and very violent story of NM’s father assaulting a grown man while only in high school, still brought about pride in NM about his father’s actions. While NM (hopefully?) doesn’t condone the level of violence he heard while in the legend of his father’s vigilante days, the willingness to step up and defend their morals in the most literal sense is an ideal that NM strives to achieve. An unrelenting pursuit of one’s goals, while physically happening in the story, can represent the metaphorical pursuit of perfection, no matter how daunting the obstacles in the way appear. To a high schooler, being able to step up to a challenge that seems bigger than oneself is nerve-wracking, yet NM’s father was unfazed by any such opponent. Additionally, a story of this caliber instills serious intimidation in a younger NM that commands respect, confirming the father’s role as a hero.

Grandma’s Perfume

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

WP got this story from a friend, who fully believes they have been haunted by the ghost of their grandmother. WP mentions the following excerpt is a selection of occurrences told to him by his friend over the course of several weeks and months. The excerpt below is paraphrased for clarity, but the maximum effort was put in to maintain the styling and story of WP.

WP has a friend who lives in great aunt’s former house (great aunt died, family moved in afterwards). 10-15 years ago, great aunt died (family moved in 7-8 years ago). Aunt wore a very specific perfume, but none had been left in the house anymore for years. The friend claims she’s being haunted by her great aunt. One time, she hears a crash in the basement, when she goes to the basement she smells overwhelming scent of the perfume from seemingly nowhere. At other times, she would get a random whiff without rhyme or reason…on stormy days, she says she can smell the perfume much more than usual. As it has been so long since the aunt died, friend claims it must be a haunting. Apparently, the great aunt isn’t vengeful, just kinda hanging around still.

The story told by WP comes from someone who very strongly believes in ghosts and has interacted with them enough to be fully confident that the experiences she had are due to a haunting. However, the paranormal interactions haven’t led to any harm, even noting that after the crash, there didn’t seem to be anything amiss in the basement. As such, WP claimed that he didn’t believe the friend thought the ghost was vengeful or angry in any way. Instead, the ghost could be the great aunt protecting her former home and her descendants by letting them know she is still present. The perfume smell being the strongest indicator of the great aunt’s presence could be linked to the family’s perception of the most memorable aspect of the great aunt, and shows a close tie to the familial home that had been passed down over a generation. WP’s friend also mentions that while the hauntings happen at their home, it is WP’s friend herself who is haunted, and not the house. The specificity to add that they themselves are haunted indicates that the relationship between WP’s friend and her great aunt was especially close, and the memory of the great aunt holds special significance to the friend. Both the house and the perfume are intrinsically linked with the great aunt, and for as long as WP’s friend continues to honor her aunt’s memory, the haunting will continue, as her aunt will look down on her from the spirit world into the world of the living, as the next generation to lead her memory and all that she meant into the future.

Ice Cream Scholarship

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

This story comes from BT, who was told it by his grandpa. The excerpt below comes as a section of a longer conversation, but has been pieced together for coherence and clarity. Great care was taken to preserve the language and intent of BT during this story, and was paraphrased for greater readability.

BT’s grandpa on his dad’s side was the youngest of 9 children, and the second one closest to him was 5 years older. At the time, they lived in Fort Madison on the river (a small town in Iowa). In high school, he gets a job at an ice cream shop for like 5 years up until he goes to college. The deal he had with the ice cream shop was that he got paid a few cents for the hours of work (he would get up really early and have to clean the entire store before it opened). As additional compensation, the catch was the fact that he got as much ice cream as he could ever want for free while working. While cleaning up, BT’s grandpa would mix ice cream in the machines, making super thick ice cream (going for like 3 hours). He would always put on the whole thing, peanuts, the works (for toppings). Grandpa does this for 5 years, and eventually has so much dairy, etc. that he bloats out, but also working out a lot, cleaning the store for hours, he becomes a super big kid (fat and muscle). Back when college was kinda cheap, he did his interview for the University of Iowa, to hopefully be accepted into university. He goes into the interview for the college, and the interviewer mistakes him for a football recruit. As a result, he gets a full-ride scholarship to go to Iowa without ever playing a down of football for the school, without anyone seemingly bothered to confirm his status for the entire 4 years.

This story about BT’s grandpa highlights the principle of “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” but is instead explained in narrative fashion. While BT’s grandpa didn’t do anything particularly remarkable to receive his full-ride scholarship, he never complained and would routinely brag about his good fortune to both friends and family alike. BT, from the conversation, contained a mix of both pride in his family’s story, defending its values against others listening in, and a twinge of envy for the fortune to have college paid for in full. This story, while perhaps slightly mundane, still teaches a valuable lesson in appreciating the good breaks one gets in life, and to make sure to take every available opportunity, regardless of the pathway it could lead down. As BT’s family hailed from a small rural town in Iowa, the opportunities to expand past their town were somewhat limited, but college was an excellent gateway into a wider world. While the scholarship may have been a fluke, sometimes a bit of good fortune is required to get off the ground. BT has shown growth in himself while interacting with this story over time. At first, it was a funny story about how eating as much ice cream as possible is both cool and effective to further one’s career. As BT grew older, he began to appreciate the nuance in taking rare opportunities and not letting them slip by without at least trying to see the road it leads down.